On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

June 20, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

Headquarters, XV Corps begins a two-week long wargame command post exercise at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.

The commander, XO, two battalion commanders, three sergeants major and the personnel officer of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix, New Jersey are relieved, based on the inspector general's preliminary findings released three days ago.

At Camp Lejeune, North Carolina the 5th Marine Division sends the first of its regiments, the 26th Marines, to Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms in California for large-unit pre-deployment exercises.

The USAF uses wartime emergency authority to requisition Boeing's Skyfox subsidiary, which owns over 120 T-33 trainers, several dozen of which have been converted to light strike aircraft as well as the facility in Mojave, California that rebuilds the obsolescent derivatives of the 1945-era P-80 Shooting Star fighter into a counterinsurgency plane.

F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing destroy the bridge at Khasan in the far northeastern corner of North Korea, the sole rail connection between the USSR and North Korea.

Allied forces on the western side of the Korean Peninsula go on the offensive across the DMZ, with massive support from remaining airpower and the big guns of the USS Missouri and USS New Jersey lurking close offshore.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army continues to make progress; the 28th (my 5th) Group Army reaches the North Korean border near its mouth at Dandong on the Yellow Sea.

US Green Berets continue to support pro-NATO guerilla bands in areas still under communist control, but many of the bands have either been wiped out or linked up with regular NATO forces.

XI US Corps advances through Brzesko before hitting resistance at Tarnow.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IOhl7Gf5zWK9w2KOd-x77Hl-hw59UFFS/view?usp=sharing)
The Public Affairs Officer from the HQ, 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) brings a team of local reporters from the division's home state on a tour of areas in Poland the division has recently been operating in, including a bridge destroyed by retreating Russian troops and the replacement bridge that the division's engineers erected to replace it.

The search for Soviet stragglers by KGB troops at the Finnish-Soviet border begins to choke 26th Corps’ supply efforts, as each empty truck driver returning to Soviet territory to reload is subjected to ruthless interrogation, forced to prove that he or she is not fleeing the battlefield.

To speed the advance through Finland, the Northwestern TVD approves the wide-scale use of chemical weapons against Finnish and NATO troops; in one of their first uses the 3rd Battalion of the 36th Brigade collapses when its positions west of Kuusamo are blanketed by BM-21 chemical rockets, immediately followed by tube artillery fire on the brigade chemical defense company’s decontamination site.

42 Commando, Royal Marines are on the line along the coast early in the day while the marines’ helicopters and hovercraft transport the stocks of munitions and fuel aboard the amphibious ships, which to not only their own units but the beleaguered divisions of X Corps.

Turkish forces in Thrace manage to contain the Greek offensive, forcing the Greeks to pause their offensive action to build up supply routes over territory thoroughly devastated by retreating Turks. The pause gives the Turks time to dig in for the anticipated resumption of the Greek attack. To the north, V Corps has withdrawn parallel with XV Corps, both forces holding the city of Yambol. (V Corps on the west and northwest, XV Corps on the east and northeast).

SEEBEEs and Navy salvage crews continue their effort to clear Bandar Abbas harbor of obstructions. The Gurkhas of 27 Brigade reach the center of the city, having driven the Soviet troops out of the overlooking hills and the northern portion of the city. Transcaucasian Front's offensive peters out, without any territorial gains.

In an ironic development, the truckers in Smolensk who were arrested for striking after refusing to carry cargo into Poland are released from captivity and returned to their duties transport food and goods around the city. The city Party committee has received too many complaints that having a significant portion of the city's truckers locked up has been disrupting the production of materiel for the front.

Fighting continues all along the Indo-Pakistani line of control in Kashmir.

[chico20854]

June 21, 1997

Bandar Abbas declared secure; 101 Air Assault Division, 9 ID & 6 ACCB begin drive towards Esfahan; 24 ID begins moving northward towards Ahvaz.

Unofficially,

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

At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Private Randall Cutler discovers a business opportunity while on night-time fire watch with another private. The private agrees to watch for the drill sergeant while Cutler uses his calling card to call his girlfriend on a pay phone in the platoon area; when done with his call, the other private offers to pay Cutler to use his card and they agree on $1 a minute. (Use of the phone is severely limited, and Cutler's performance is poor enough that he is rarely granted permission).

American, Korean, ANZAC and Japanese troops continue to blast their way through North Korean border defenses. Rather than clear the remaining bunker complexes (many have been blasted by airpower and artillery over the preceding months), Allied troops seal the entrances and hope that they don't harbor hidden exits that would provide opportunities for attacks from the rear.

The 24th Grenzjaeger Regiment, a veteran former East German border guard formation that distinguished itself in December's Battle of Berlin, absorbs fresh conscripts and is committed to action in Poland as a specialist urban warfare formation, securing the city center of Bydgoszcz before being committed to the siege of Warsaw.

XI US Corps pauses for resupply before beginning a grinding assault southeast against fierce Polish resistance.

The Finnish 1st Army Corps begins withdrawing south, garrisoning a line from the Swedish border at Pello, through Rovaniemi to Pudasjärvi. (From there the Finnish 5th Army Corps takes over the front line). Some of the Soviet mechanized forces are able to surge forward, limited by their aged trucks and the increasing distances back to the Soviet border.

The NATO convoy in the Mediterranean departs Gibraltar, headed to Turkey with a load of reinforcements and supplies.

Soviet forces in Transylvania surge forward once again. The forest fires west of Deva have diminished enough for unarmored Soviet vehicles to advance, 6th Guards tank Army's lead formations advancing another 10 km. To the northeast, the town of Dej is surrounded, presaging another situation where Soviet forces are insufficient to capture the town but the Romanians are too weak to break the blockade around the city.

Greek forces in Thrace are slowed for a second day as heavy rain turn the area's dusty roads into muddy quagmires that slow supply convoys. The infantry at the front rejoice in the misery and the chance to rest.

In Iran, the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) screens XVIII Airborne Corps' eastern flank, coordinating with the IPA II Corps, while the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) covers the gaps between XVIII Airborne Corps units and the IPA I Corps.

In Colombia, Marxist guerrillas detonate a car bomb in the center of the port city of Buenaventura.

[chico20854]

June 22, 1997

Canon is silent on the day's activities. Unofficially,

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

The court martial of the Fort Lee, Virginia drill sergeant, accused of being a member of the "5th Squad" gang, is concluded with the sergeant's conviction on six counts. He is reduced in rank to buck private and, as a result of his impassioned pleas to be given "long, hard time at Leavenworth" is ordered to the front in Poland as an infantryman.

The torpedo factory in Nestor, England near Liverpool, resumes full production after being attacked by a Spetsnaz team in March.

Allied troops in Korea move north through more of the DMZ fortifications. Many of the emplacements had been used for artillery or anti-aircraft guns rather than being designed for infantry use. In the east, III ROK Corps has completed its linkup with the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade. While the Koreans continue up the coast, the Marines begin a drive inland to further disrupt the North Korean defense.

The Polish 3rd Missile Brigade, assigned to Baltic Front headquarters, fires a salvo of Scud missiles at the NATO crossing point over the Oder River at Kołbaskowo, south of Szczecin. The strike causes significant disruption to the traffic crossing the bridge, inducing panic among the foreign civilian contract drivers, although the missiles miss the bridge.

Outside Warsaw, the NATO effort is dedicated to shoring up the NATO lines around the city to prevent a breakout or relief as well as positioning troops and building supporting supply infrastructure. XI German Korps, composed mostly of territorials and border guards, both East and West German, moves to the northwest sector outside the city. The US commits XXIII US Corps, composed of the 3rd, 35th and 40th Infantry Divisions and the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (now a full regiment, although with two squadrons of improvised vehicles scraped together in Germany), as well as a sizeable contingent of artillery and engineer brigades, mainly from the southwest and west. Much of the east section of the perimeter is held by British troops.

In Finland, the 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division finally clears the Finnish defenders from its path and makes contact with the rear guard of the American 10th Mountain Division, which is trying to make an orderly withdrawal to Norwegian territory.

The damaged USS Enterprise arrives in Belfast, Northern Ireland and enters the drydock at Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic in 1912.

To distract Soviet naval efforts from the convoy headed to Turkey, 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches three separate raids along the eastern Libyan coast under cover from the aircraft of the USS John F Kennedy and USS America. Each strikes a radar or air defense missile installation.

Outside Bandar Abbas, small groups of paratroopers, numbering around 1000 (mostly from the division's , make their way on foot northward. They are the sole survivors of the once-mighty 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. Behind them, in the ruined city of Bandar Abbas, the two Marine divisions, Gurkha brigade and assortment of support units begin the grim task of building a semblance of order.

[chico20854]

I'm finally caught up! Yay! Only took a week and a half...:D

[Homer]

Small groups of paratroopers or Little Groups Of Paratroopers?

[Targan]

I expect we'll see a significant uptick in the use of chemical weapons in the coming weeks of the thread.

[Ewan]

I expect we'll see a significant uptick in the use of chemical weapons in the coming weeks of the thread.

Do the tactical nukes not start to be used in Poland at the end of June?

[chico20854]

Do the tactical nukes not start to be used in Poland at the end of June?

July 9!

[chico20854]

June 23, 1997

Nothing for today in canon. Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Birmingham Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Private Randolph Cutler requests fire guard for the night so he can sell use of his phone card to other privates in his basic training platoon.

The last recorded incident of draft resistance in Canada, a burning of conscription notifications, occurs on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

A USAF contingent arrives in Mojave, California, to begin rapid certification of the Boeing Skyfox and its pilots. The effort is greatly assisted by the team's familiarity with the T-33, small numbers of which remain in USAF and US Navy service in various support and test roles.

1st Australian Brigade's subordinate units begin moving to port facilities as the government and the American Navy scramble to direct shipping to the appropriate ports. American heavy-lift aircraft begin to assemble in Darwin to move the brigade headquarters.

I and IX US Corps both move north into North Korean territory, accompanied by their allies. They have broken through the hard "crust" of North Korean emplacements along the border and are able to restore a measure of mobility to the battlefield. Offshore, support is provided by the carriers Abraham Lincoln (in the Sea of Japan), Stennis and Nimitz (in the Yellow Sea) as well as Harriers from the amphibious fleet.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia is ordered to pass through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean.

The German 23rd Missile Brigade fires its first shots in anger, launching a SCUD-D missile at the Polish border guard training school in northeastern Poland, in retaliation for the prior day's attacks on the Oder crossing.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade overruns the Babie Doły air base north of Gdynia.

British engineers (and contractors) select a woodwork plant on the outskirts of the town of Ciechanów as a supply depot to support the siege of Warsaw. The town has a convienient location at the junction of several highways and rail lines.

In Finland, a confused melee erupts between the US 10th Mountain Division and the Soviet 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division. The American division’s 2nd Brigade has been leapfrogging battalions westward, each tasked to hold its position for 12 hours before falling back through the next two battalions and establishing a new defensive position. The front line battalion is provided cover by artillery and the division’s remaining Cobra attack helicopters, now limited to firing rockets and their 20mm cannon. Ammunition supplies are running low and the American division’s troops are ordered to abandon broken down vehicles, requisitioning civilian vehicles if needed. Finnish troops attack isolated Soviet and American units while Finnish fighters make dashes along both side’s supply routes seeking targets of opportunity. The 16th Guards’ commander pushes his poorly trained and equipped troops to launch repeated human-wave attacks on the American defensive lines. Time after time the American infantry machinegun the green Soviet troops until they run out of ammunition and fall back behind the next defensive line, where another battalion awaits to repeat the exercise.

Soviet irregular forces cut the highway back to Norway in five separate spots, blocking the American division’s supply route back to its rear support base at Koutokeino. The Americans re-direct their retreat to Skibotn in Norway, following the Norwegian 13th Brigade, scavenging food and fuel from the Finnish civilian population, supplemented by limited airdrops of ammunition to support the fight at the front.

The crew of the Sierra II-class attack submarine K-336 are flown back to the remote Gremikha naval base in the far eastern end of the Kola Peninsula following a month's leave.

XVIII Airborne Corps attack in southwestern Iran makes slow progress. Many of the Soviet units are initially in disarray, caught strung out in passes in the Zagros Mountains, but quickly recover. The rough terrain limits the American forces' freedom of manuever.

CENTCOM releases most of the amphibious shipping needed for the Bandar Abbas landing. 5th Fleet retains the Belleau Wood group for use in the region.

In Nikolaev, Ukraine a ceremony is held to commission the Soviet Navy's latest missile cruiser, the Riga. The Slava-class cruiser immediately begins a voyage to Sevastopol, where the crew (a polygot assortment of draftees, retirees and survivors of ships sunk around the world) will begin completing the vessel (the ship was delivered without many items, including the main antiaircraft fire control radar) prior to commencing training voyages to forge the crew into a fighting team. The shipyard workers turrn towards completing construction of the next Slava-class ship, the Sevastopol, which is nearly 75 percent complete.

[Milano]

Thank you again Chico for doing this. It is SO cool. I like the forest fire.

[Homer]

I like the selling the phone card scam. I’ve heard that happens. Can’t wait till they get the ta-50 theft ring that’ll “help you buy it back.” I’ve heard that happens too.

With NBC weapons coming into use I wonder what the supply situation is like for NBC equipment. In light/airborne/air assault units individual NBC gear anecdotally had a tendency to find its way to places like the “top of the ruck, so you can pull it out when you need a pillow”. Also, ICE packs are added weight that may have been pulled back to the trains by now, or even lost due to battlefield accident. For heavy and static units, the situation may be better. I’ll bet there’s a rush to get the Sanators FMC and lay hands on some DS2 and other consumables. The good news for NATO is MOPP can theoretically get ramped up pretty quickly after first use, and at least with regards to chem, WARPAC personal nbc equipment was much more limiting than US/NATO at this time.

[chico20854]

June 24, 1997

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HTrBMWgUpcfsrkp8cG3CqjhFI4JzoSgw/view?usp=sharing)
An amphibious assault by the U.S. 4th (my 3rd) Marine Division and 6th
ROK Marine Brigade south of Nampo unhinges the KPA defensive lines in the west.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Los Angeles Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.

The commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command appears before a joint session of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to explain his actions regarding the "5th Squad" and Fort Dix scandals. He stumbles and attempts to placate and mislead the Members; his disastrous performance before the TV cameras is the lead story for the nightly news, overshadowing the action on the front lines.

SACEUR orders a general advance towards the Soviet border, launched along the entire front. II British Corps (attached to Second German Army) strikes northeast, intending to cut off 4th Guards Tank Army and 22nd Army in the Wisła bend. III US Corps forces its way across the Wisła north of Grudziądz, exploiting the gap between the Polish 1st and 4th Armies on opposite sides of the river. V US Corps and VI German Korps, forming the main effort for First German Army, advance on a broad front towards Lublin and Brest, while Panzergruppe Oberdorf, reinforced by VII US Corps, together Third German Army’s strike force, heads for the Soviet border west of Lvov, leaving the Polish redoubt to XI US Corps. The offensive is generally successful along the line, although rates of advance are slowed by the dreadful supply situation. Soviet units resist as fiercely as ever.

The German 2nd Military Police Command moves into Poland from East Germany, becoming part of the ad hoc multinational effort to secure the NATO rear area. The 2nd’s duties range from securing NATO facilities, escorting convoys, investigating losses of supplies and equipment in the rear area, assisting the Polish Free Congress in its efforts to establish a local police force to maintain order among the local population, managing refugee flows, investigating crimes committed by or against NATO personnel and performing sweeps for deserters and stragglers. The command’s troops, mainly composed of West German police officers in peacetime, take on this daunting list of duties with pride and great diligence, doing the best they can in the circumstances.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dZcKe7Oi4wfmvq1y1wq8Vx2EmAhCgZ9t/view?usp=sharing)
Underscoring the need for additional rear area security troops, a survey party of American engineers inspecting the rail line linking Poznan and Warsaw is attacked by a group of anti-NATO partisans west of Kutno. The group is wiped out and the partisans escape; the engineers are only missed many hours later when they fail to return to their home base.

XI US Corps resumes its attack in southeastern Poland; progress is slow as the cornered Polish troops furiously counterattack and the American artillery is starved of ICM and FASCAM rounds and MLRS rockets; even high explosive rounds are slow to arrive at the front after a journey of over 1100 kilometers from the port in Bremerhaven.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q5kwAollFVXyaeb8ybPYNj2V7Gu8BMIk/view?usp=sharing)
Outside Warsaw, NATO artillery begin days of attacks on the surrounded city, breaking up Pact concentrations and strong points identified by aerial reconniassance.

In Finland, the 16th Guards’ motor-rifle regiments are empty shells and General Kuznetsov (commander of the Northwestern TVD) orders the burned out division to the side of the road, replacing them with the 64th Guards Motor-Rifle Division. The 64th Guards’ officers and sergeants are hardened veterans of the war in China and launch a relentless pursuit of the American 10th Mountain Division, whose troops are exhausted from constant action and low on ammunition after decimating the 16th Guards MRD.

Spetsnaz troops crater the highway to Skibotn just before the Finnish-Norwegian border, blocking the escape route once again. The Soviet irregulars fade away into the wilderness before Norwegian troops can reach the site, relying on persistent chemical agents delivered by Scud missiles of the 6th Guards Missile Brigade to delay repair of the road.

The carrier Eisenhower arrives in Scapa Flow, north of Scotland, where the extensive repair organization (ashore and afloat) can repair the damage wrought in the Barents Sea. (Aircraft on flight deck blew up after an AS-4 missile exploded 50 meters overhead, starting a large fire that destroyed most of the remaining air wing and threatened the ship’s survival).

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/16e4axFDRGEL2s4MBD0fmMq8PPsi05leH/view?usp=sharing)
As the NATO convoy in the Mediterranean makes its way past Malta, Turkish IV Corps on Cyprus launches a series of attacks to tie down Greek troops and divert supplies from Thrace. Simultaneously, it transfers its 14th Armored Brigade (equipped with M48 tanks and M113s) back to the mainland, where it will go to reinforce 1st Turkish Army's efforts in Thrace.

[chico20854]

Thank you again Chico for doing this. It is SO cool. I like the forest fire.

Thanks! Glad folks are enjoying this!

I like the selling the phone car scam. I’ve heard that happens. Can’t wait till they get the ta-50 theft ring that’ll “help you buy it back.” I’ve heard that happens too.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty...

[chico20854]

June 25, 1997

Nothing official for today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Jackson Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Pascagoula Freedom is delivered in its namesake city.

The Army Chief of Staff denies the request of the Commanding General of the Training and Doctrine Command for immediate retirement. He is, however, relieved of command and assigned to the Pentagon.

Private Cutler requests fire guard every night; the private who draws up the duty roster nightly is happy to oblige since it means other soldiers in the platoon don't have to perform the duty.

Chinese troops launch an assault crossing across the Yalu River into North Korea. The troops of the 28th (my 5th) Group Army, supported by F-16s of the American AVG II, overwhelm the border guards of the 33rd Border Security Brigade and people's militia that are all that the North Korean regime can muster to oppose the Chinese force.

The growth of the Free Polish Legions through defections of entire units has largely stopped. Those units whose commanders are inclined to defect have, by this point, had an opportunity, and the Communist Party and their Soviet overseers have tightened political oversight of remaining Polish Army units. Every unit of company size or higher has a political officer and Soviet “coordination officers” are present at regimental and higher headquarters. The SB (secret police) has infiltrated the ranks with informants, and Soviet KGB Border Guard regiments are operating in eastern Poland, with helicopter-borne quick reaction forces available to quickly strike at a defecting headquarters.

East of Warsaw, German and American troops continue their cautious advance towards the Soviet border, wary of their exposed supply lines, hostile local population and potential for Soviet reserves to appear at any moment.

On the Baltic Coast, US Marines of the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade launch an amphibious attack on the Hel Peninsula under cover of darkness across the Bay of Puck in AAVP-7 amphibians. Landing between the front line and the naval base, the appearance of US Marines in the rear finally breaks the resistance of the Polish troops on the front line, and by dusk German soldiers and American Marines enter the town.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eSECPQwDH3EEtSXTntmVS608eS_-wTOo/view?usp=sharing)
The US Air Force resorts to using C-130 transports to sustain the operations of its forward-deployed units based in Poland. The ammunition, fuel and parts brought in sustain the A-10 force that is so valuable in supporting NATO troops' advance.

In Finland, the 64th Guards MRD continues the pressure on the 10th Mountain Division, taking advantage of their superior armor and the American’s shortage of ammunition to steamroller over blocking positions. Once again cut off from retreat to Norwegian territory and in only intermittent radio contact with X Corps Headquarters, the American division commander orders an evacuation of ground forces through Sweden, following the road and rail routes to Narvik. (Surviving helicopters load their ground crews and fly to Norwegian bases.) The American general is relying on Sweden’s continued flexibility regarding its neutrality, where Swedish authorities turn a blind eye to NATO incursions into its territory and airspace. The passage of an entire infantry division, however diminished by losses in the recent offensive, and its purchase of supplies of food, truck parts and fuel to sustain that passage, is, however, of a massively larger scale than a multi-squadron air raid at low level over sparsely populated territory or the transit of special forces troops in civilian clothing in civilian vehicles. Swedish authorities feel the need, partially in response to Soviet objections to previous NATO incursions and partially as a well-justified desire to maintain their armed neutrality and demonstrate their sovereignty, to object. Swedish police and customs officials, backed up by local Home Guards and reservists, meet the American troops at the border. The lead elements agree to allow the Swedes to “safeguard” their weapons in sealed containers (guarded by a joint force of American and Swedish troops) and accept passage to an internment camp (that happens to be located next to a temporary bus station that offers hourly service to Narvik).

Along the Barents coast, 18th Army keeps up the pressure on the NATO forces still on Soviet territory, launching an attack after an eight-day pause to regroup, absorb replacements, resupply and repair damage to the highway launch. While the 76th Guards Airborne and 77th Guards Motor-Rifle Division (both reinforced with tanks and APCs stripped from other 18th Army units) attack down the roads, the 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment and 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup move cross-country towards the center of the NATO line and the 116th MRD and Division Polyarnyy attack the flanks. X Corps troops conduct a textbook fighting withdrawal to the next in a series of fighting positions, many dating from the Second World War. Allied casualties are moderate, but after months of war worldwide replacements are scarce and green recruits rushed through a truncated training course are a poor substitute for a combat-hardened veteran. Part of the Canadian-led force is evacuated overland, the remainder going by sea. The retreat is scorched earth, with roads and buildings dynamited, a ship sunk in the channel leading to Liinakhamari and the mine at Nikel flooded, leaving nothing of value for Northwestern TVD to use against AFNON across the border.

The Gurkhas of 27 Brigade join Marines of the 1st Marine Division in a series of heliborne insertions into the Zagros Mountains, placing patrols along likely egress routes for the remnants of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division which are trying to make their way back to friendly lines.

Further north, remnants of the Iranian 18th Armored Division link up with the 24th Infantry Division as the American heavy force pushes north torwards Ahvaz.

In the USSR, the Party authorities direct the Ministry of Defense to expand the spring conscription wave to deal with the losses the Red Army is suffering around the world. The flow of replacements for soldiers lost in battle had been limited by a Politburo reluctant to remove even more young, fit workers from the labor force. However, the situation called for the usual bi-annual intake of conscripts to be doubled, to include 17 and a half-year olds as well as 18-year olds. Approximately one fourth of this intake is sent to training units in the Soviet interior for service as NCOs, as sailors, in the Air Force or Air Defense Force, in the MVD or KGB Border Guards or as technical specialists. The remainder of the intake is delivered to the rear areas of the fronts, en masse and completely untrained. Some front commanders establish ad-hoc training programs while others distribute the conscripts to motor-rifle platoons irrespective of their knowledge of the Russian language or any skills they might possess. Likewise, the Politburo limits further activation of mobilization-only divisions, many of which consist of stockpiles of worn out T-34s or T-54s, trucks retired after decades of service on collective farms and WW II-era artillery, absent armored personnel carriers, modern radios and anti-tank weapons.

[chico20854]

June 26, 1997

1st Marine Division begins moving into the Zagros Mountains, towards the airfield complex at Yadz.

Unofficially,

At Fort Lee, Virginia, the court martial of seven privates, accused members of "5th Squad", concludes. Five of the privates are found guilty and sentenced to jail, while two others are acquitted but dismissed from the service with bad conduct discharges.

At Fort Benning, Georgia, there is a major reorganization of the training units on the post. The Infantry Training Brigade hives its initial entry training battalions off into a separate brigade (the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Training)), transfers the staff of the airborne school (the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Infantry) to Fort Leonard Wood to serve as the staff of 1st Brigade, 17th Airborne Division and tasking the two training support battalions to plan to support civilian authorities. The airborne school continues operations using a combination of recalled retiree and civilian instructors, turning out replacements for the 82nd Airborne Division as well as jump qualified recruits for the 11th and 17th Airborne Divisions. The Infantry Training Brigade, renamed the 1st Infantry Brigade (Training) also assumes command of the Ranger Training Brigade, taking the top 15 percent of graduates from the post’s basic training brigades as well as the top graduate of each infantry AIT class nationwide.

The Chinese forces reinforce their bridgehead over the Yalu. To the northeast, the 3rd Army crosses into North Korea territory, where its advance is quickly brought to a halt by fierce resistance in the mountainous terrain.

The Allied amphibious force in Nampho completes its sweep of the city, rooting out North Korean stragglers and fanatical armed civilians to ensure a somewhat secure rear area for the advance that is to come.

In northeastern Poland, II British Corps and III US Corps link up, cutting off the Pact forces in the Wisła bend and XII German Korps crosses the Wisła and blocks the retreat of the isolated Pact forces. Further south, V US Corps captures Siedlce, nearly halfway between Warsaw and the Soviet border as German troops approach Lublin from the southwest and west.

The Dutch Red Army detonates a IED under a bus transporting American reinforcements to Germany; 34 soldiers and the civilian driver are killed.

The LSK (former East German Air Force) concentrates its remaining MiG-29s (17 remain flyable) in JG-3 (Jagdgruppe 3, fighter group), disbanding JG-2 and JG-7. Excess personnel are assigned to security duties at bases in Poland, where the Alphajet force is supporting ground troops. Their Soviet counterparts in Frontal Aviaition are operating at about 20 percent of prewar strength.

Allied artillery continues to pound defensive positions in Warsaw. Soviet troops in the city take up residence in the Palac Kultury, sharing the massive structure with the fanatical communists of the East German loyalist VOPO Regiment Mitte, who roam the city looking for "defeatists, spies and collaborators."

The Sierra II-class attack sub K-336 completes post-voyage repairs and restocking and slips away from the dock for some local test dives.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1npRD2SxUKnsH0pPbHDegB0la4HbVWn6E/view?usp=sharing)
The 6th ACCB continues to cover the advance of XVIII Airborne Corps; its attack helicopters are very effective in detecting and breaking up Soviet armored counterattacks that otherwise would cause the light troops of the 101st and 9th Divisions considerable difficulty. To reinforce I MEF, 3rd Army transfers the 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) to Bandar Abbas, where it will quickly be committed to action.

The Politburo directs all efforts to reinforcing the Soviet border in Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Kaliningrad pocket. 1st Shock Army is rushed to the front from garrisons near Moscow and 1st Byelorussian Front's 3rd Guards Tank Army brought to full strength. Some airborne units are also airlifted to the Western TVD, although restricted to Soviet territory. MVD internal troop units in western Ukraine are also released to Western TVD command, their operations again limited to defense of Soviet territory. Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) knows better than to request command of KGB Border Guard brigades in his area.

[chico20854]

I had to go back in and edit Friday and the weekend's posts... poor drafting of my master document excluded the general NATO offensive in Poland and the Politburo's scrambling for more troops! Oops!

[chico20854]

June 27, 1997

The 3rd (I have the 4th) Marine Division departs Bandar Abbas, heading north into the Zagros Mountains towards Shiraz to break the siege of that city.

photo1 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0PdRPFczEJ0x7RpcSl-K39uiTQ6_wGq/view?usp=sharing) photo2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xvn8YtmeXAN9E5qKum7qeP8joLnLzGcv/view?usp=sharing)
(Unofficially, A Soviet RORSAT satellite overflies the Mediterranean and the locates the NATO convoy. Soviet naval authorities relay the convoy's location to Athens.) Light fleet elements of the Greek navy savage the NATO convoy in the night and escape relatively unharmed.

Unofficially,

McDonnell Douglas places a second JDAM production line in St. Charles, Missouri into service, increasing production of the precision-guided munition to 260 kits a day. Ten of those kits are the classified NV (Nuclear Variant), supplied to Strategic Air Command, the Navy and USAF Europe for use with B-61 nuclear bombs.

A New Mexico State Guard patrol locates the remains of a suspected Soviet spetsnaz team in the remote mountains of south-central New Mexico. Temperatures in prior days have exceeded 100 F. The corpses carry silenced AK-74s, demolition gear, encrypted communications gear but the canteens are empty.

The Department of Defense Contract Adjudication Board makes a preliminary recommendation that Boeing be paid $150 million for the requisitioning of its Skyfox subsidiary, $1 million for each of the 120 aircraft, $25 million for the conversion and $5 million for the spare parts and components. The company and the government will continue to discuss a more accurate valuation but the award goes a long way to calming nerves frayed by the Air Force's actions.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qkg1kSz1VF9MC7E5aufkXfJCI_65-ymj/view?usp=sharing)
British forces rush towards the Soviet border, facing weakening Soviet resistance. The US 4th Infantry Division, assigned to V Corps, encounters troops of the 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, an element of 7th Tank Army of the 1st Byelorussian Front, the first element of that Front to see action.

Panzergruppe Oberdorf strikes northeast, preventing 1st Guards Tank Army from reinforcing the defense of Lublin, and the formation’s 6th Panzergrenadier Division takes over occupation duties from VI German Korps.

US Marines and German troops advance further into the town of Hel on the Baltic Coast following the Marine's landing a few days prior. The battleship Iowa is brought forward into the Baltic to lend its big gun's firepower to the effort, despite the misgivings of SACLANT, who has granted OPCON to CINCBALTAP.

The 329th Engineer Group (US Army Reserve)'s battalions have been farmed out to US XXIII Corps and British forces fighting their way into Warsaw, taking heavy casaulties in the urban fight.

map (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CIJQ4eE9_pLlDZBDsOG4jlDfBBw2BxPg/view?usp=sharing)
The Norwegian theatre is relatively quiet, as 18th Army advances through the devastated territory abandoned by NATO and as the US 10th Mountain Division retreats into Swedish territory. The Soviet ambassador to Stockholm lodges a protest, but the Swedish foreign minister points out the presence of Soviet troops in adjacent Finland as an example of combatants not respecting the boundaries of neutral Nordic states.

The Liberian-flag bulk carrier Orient Sunray, carrying a load of grain, strikes a drifting mine as it approaches Port Harcourt, Nigeria and floods. While tugs reach the ship and manage to pull it aground within sight of land, the cargo is ruined by the influx of seawater and the ship is ultimately abandoned.

American and Korean troops leapfrog deeper into North Korea as that despotic regime struggles to maintain order and regain initiative. South Korean mechnanized forces (built around the VII ROK Corps) are committed to exploit the collapse of the North Korean defenses along the DMZ, pushing rapidly but cautiously northward along the main road to Pyongyang as US and ROK Marines drive eastward from the coast.

In Iran, XVIII Airborne Corps makes slow progress through the difficult terrain, while to the south the Marines of I MEF are capturing more ground as Soviet resistance at the end of such extended supply lines fades.

[Matt Wiser]

Now, who on the Soviet side is going to ask the Defense Council for nuclear release? CINC-FAR EAST, CINC-WEST? Defense Minister (on recommendation of Chief of the General Staff)?

[chico20854]

June 28, 1997

NATO naval forces (the air groups of the American carriers USS John F. Kennedy and USS America) launch air strikes against Greek naval bases in retaliation for the prior night's attack on the convoy to Izmir.

What turns out to be the last shipment of AR-18 rifles, known locally as the Type 96, is dispatched from the US to China.

Franciszek Kowalczyk, a very wealthy and powerful man before the war, takes up residence in the Pieskowa Skała Castle in the Ojców National Park 20 km north of Krakow. Styling himself the Baron of Ojców, he takes over the castle as a private retreat and fortress after his wife and family were killed in the fighting in Silesia. It is rumored that large stores of arms, ammunition, and gold lie hidden behind the fortress walls. He has stocked it with food and its own generators and alarm systems. He has a small and fiercely loyal staff who guard his walls and tend the packs of guard dogs which roam the castle area day and night.

Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler, whose platoon has been locked down for many weeks, slips out his barracks' laundry room window and crawls around the building before getting up and walking to the nearby convenience store, where he buys nearly $50 of toiletries that his platoon mates need.

Lublin falls to the VI German Corps, the remnants of 8th Guards Army falling back in disarray, the Polish defenders resisting to the end.

In liberated Poland, the Free Polish Congress has established the bare outlines of a functioning state from their temporary capital in Poznań. The top leadership positions are filled by exiles or their descendants, but they have insufficient numbers and expertise to adequately fill the needs. Some assistance is received from allied civil affairs units. Most positions are filled by defectors or prewar officials who have, to one degree or another, pledged loyalty to the Western-allied government. The economy as moribund and most urban residents are dependent on NATO food aid. The government tries to return refugees to their homes, but in many cases, that is impossible due to the massive damage inflicted by the battles. The unemployed and dislocated who are able bodied are tasked with clearing rubble and restoring housing and utilities. With an eye on gaining and maintaining popular support, the Polish Free Congress does not institute conscription; the various Polish Free Legions and guide detachments (attached to NATO units) are manned by volunteers from Poland and the Polish diaspora, defectors and captured Polish Army soldiers who answer the call of recruiters sent through the POW transit facilities before the POWs are shipped to the UK or North America for captivity. The Free Legions face the same logistical challenges that the former East German units confronted, cut off from resupply of munitions and spare parts. The US and UK provide the Poles with limited quantities of light vehicles (HMMWVs and Land Rovers) and mortars as well as rations, fuel and communications equipment.

As NATO troops approach the northern Polish-Russian border, desperate measures are implemented to beef up the defenses of Kaliningrad. The defenders consist of 3rd Shock Army, pulled out of action a month ago after losses of nearly 75 percent, the 2nd Guards Tank Army (reconstructing for only a few weeks), KGB Border Guards and security units, some under the command of the Baltic Fleet. Baltic Fleet organizes its troops into Division Baltiisk, composed around a cadre of security troops from various installations, augmented by large numbers of shoreside personnel and sailors from inoperable ships in the region, haphazardly equipped with a sprinkling of aged APCs and whatever castoff heavy weapons and small arms the Baltic Fleet could locate in its storerooms and with artillery improvised from naval guns from warships of various ages, hastily mounted on improvised carriages.

Advance patrols of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment begin encountering troops of the 115th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a PVO (Air Defense Corps) unit stationed on the Polish-Soviet border. The missile crews had been deployed forward into Poland, and after their missiles were destroyed by NATO missile strikes they were left in Poland to serve as infantry.

In northern Sweden, the Karasuando Massacre begins when the the commander of the 10th Mountain Division's cavalry battalion (the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry) refuses to permit his officers to surrender their sidearms, especially his pearl-handled Colt revolvers. The matter quickly escalates, and the heavily armed cavalrymen open fire. The subsequent skirmish starts days of violence and chaos as some elements of the American division fight their way out of Sweden, opposed by home guards and some army units rushed in as reinforcements, while other American battalions remain peacefully in their internment camps. To add to the confusion, the forward detachment of the 64th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, in hot pursuit of the American rear guards, crosses the border into Sweden, running into the oncoming Swedish reinforcements. The day of chaotic violence grips northern Swedish Lapland as three armies fight for control of the town of Kiruna, which controls the rail line and road to Narvik. Norwegian troops cross the border into Sweden to cover their American allies’ retreat. In the skies above confusion reigns as well, with Soviet Frontal Aviation, the Swedish Air Force and the disorganized remnants of several American carrier air wings (flying from Bardufoss and Evenes/Narvik) tangling in the airspace over Swedish Lapland.

Elsewhere in the Far North, the RAF contribution to Allied Forces North Norway is consolidated into a single squadron of Harriers and Jaguars, serving alongside a single squadron of Buccaneers and another of Tornados in the naval strike role. The remaining US naval air squadrons from Narvik and Bardufoss are withdrawn, and 12th Air Force consolidates its fighter aircraft in the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, with a squadron of F-15Es, another of F-15A interceptors and a flight of F-16Cs. The 917th Tactical Fighter Wing disbands its 706th Tactical Fighter Squadron, assigning all of the wing’s remaining seven A-10s as well as the three surviving USMC and USAF OV-10s to the 47th Tactical Fighter Squadron. The US Marines combine their F/A-18s into two squadrons and disband most of the temporary air bases they had established along the Norwegian coast. The Luftforsvaret (Norwegian Air Force) assigns its few remaining combat aircraft to 718 Skvadron, at Bodø.

At sea, the remaining Allied surface combatants beyond the minimum needed to escort supply convoys to Liinakhamari are withdrawn, the damaged ones for refit and repair in the United Kingdom and the few battle-worthy ones to further action in the Baltic or Mediterranean. Operational NATO submarines (American, British as well as a Dutch diesel boat) continue their months-long hunt for SSBNs and their support ships.

The USS Iowa, providing naval gunfire support to German and American troops near Gdansk, is struck by two Polish MiG-17s in a kamikaze attack that sets fire to a helicopter refueling on fantail. The fire penetrates deep into the ship, reaching the boiler room, which forces the ship's power plant offline.

The Sierra II-class attack submarine K-336 departs Gremikha on its second combat patrol. As NATO troops retreat from the Murmansk area and the situation deteriorates around the world, the Soviet naval command begins to sortie some of its nuclear missile submarines. The K-336, one of the USSR's quietest and most advanced boats, is assigned to escort one of the newest and most important SSBNs, the Barrikada TK-217.

The remnants of the NATO convoy to Turkey arrive in Izmir. Commanders are stunned to discover that its losses exceed 60 percent.

In Romania, the 38th Army is reinforced with the mobilization-only 58th Tank Division. The division's T-54 and T-62 tanks are split up between the army’s motor-rifle divisions, which are chronically short of tanks and a reasonable reaction to the questionable competence of the division’s overaged reservist command staff.

Following days of heavy fighting against XVIII Airborne Corps in Kuzestan, the 78th Tank Division is rotated out of the front line and allowed to recover in the Tehran area.

For the first time, Det. G, 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron flies two R-5D hypersonic flights over the USSR. The two sorties fly parallel, gathering invaluable imagery of the movement of Soviet troops and supplies.

[chico20854]

Now, who on the Soviet side is going to ask the Defense Council for nuclear release? CINC-FAR EAST, CINC-WEST? Defense Minister (on recommendation of Chief of the General Staff)?

I think it's the accumulation of a number of factors... Allied offensives on the Polish, Iranian, Manchurian and Korean fronts, lack of progress in the Balkans, declining economic/industrial performance, running low on recruits, unrest in the USSR...

[Homer]

I know cannon doesn’t discuss it, but has SACEUR maintained the victor alert force? Those additional aircraft would be tempting to raid for reinforcements. Of course, they’ll be plenty busy soon enough…

[Targan]

[B]In northern Sweden, the Karasuando Massacre begins when the the commander of the 10th Mountain Division's cavalry battalion (the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry) refuses to permit his officers to surrender their sidearms, especially his pearl-handled Colt revolvers. The matter quickly escalates, and the heavily armed cavalrymen open fire. The subsequent skirmish starts days of violence and chaos as some elements of the American division fight their way out of Sweden, opposed by home guards and some army units rushed in as reinforcements, while other American battalions remain peacefully in their internment camps.

Plausible and depressing. What a waste.

[Matt Wiser]

Somebody's going to make the request: it has to come from at least one very high-ranking officer. A theater commander such as CINC-WEST or CINC-FAR EAST could do it (or both make their requests simultaneously or nearly so); or it's the Defense Minister upon recommendation of the Chief of the General Staff (who would get that from the some 100 Generals under him).

Even in Hackett's Third World War books, SACEUR maintained at least 5% of his dual-capable aircraft on alert for possible nuclear strike missions. Having some F-15Es, F-111s, Tornados, etc. locked and cocked for nuclear strike is a no-brainer-and the alert force might be increased if it looks like the Soviets may be getting ready for possible nuclear action.

[Homer]

Even in Hackett's Third World War books, SACEUR maintained at least 5% of his dual-capable aircraft on alert for possible nuclear strike missions. Having some F-15Es, F-111s, Tornados, etc. locked and cocked for nuclear strike is a no-brainer-and the alert force might be increased if it looks like the Soviets may be getting ready for possible nuclear action.

Agree, and there’s plenty of evidence in cannon to support air delivered tactical nukes in addition to some explicitly identified cruise missile strikes. I was more wondering how much risk had been taken with that pool to maintain a mission capable force for the conventional side. With GLCM, Pershing, etc surviving, I could see some “prudent risk” taken with the SACEUR dual capable reserve at key points. I was actually remembering the raid into Poland with F-111s in Hackett’s books which had aircraft released from reserve for the operation.

[stilleto69]

I believe in one of my conversations with Chico, that the 3rd Air Force was retaining the 20th TFW @ RAF Upper Heyford and possibly 366th TFW @ RAF Sculthorpe for nuke strikes.

[chico20854]

Part of my Advent Crown writeup (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zUoLMitN7SXnCQzd2QCa88HV5dougetD/view?usp=sharing) that didn't make it over to this thread (mostly because it didn't have a specific date attached to it) addresses this:

"NATO commanders held back one fourth of their remaining deep strike aircraft as a tactical nuclear reserve. At most NATO airbases, the pair of hardened aircraft shelters closest to the taxiway sat full at all times with quick reaction aircraft, fueled, crewed and loaded with B-61 nuclear bombs, ready to retaliate against any Soviet nuclear strike. An entire F-111 wing in the UK was also on standby, although their targets were gradually overrun by NATO infantry. Strategic reconnaissance assets scrambled to identify where the Western TVD and various Front headquarters displaced to, and USAFEUR and SAC had to update target allocation between theater and strategic targets as the theater area of operations extended into the Soviet Union."

So as attrition wears down the strike aircraft fleet a few aircraft get released, in addition to the Pershing and Ground Launched Cruise Missile fleets and the older SSBNs that are assigned theater missions in the NATO nuclear plan. That force is augmented by the pair of British Resolution-class SSBNs that have their retirement delayed, bringing the Royal Navy up to 6 boomers.

[chico20854]

June 29, 1997

1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) repulses a number of Soviet commando raids across the Bering Straits but is forced to withdraw westward when Soviet arctic mechanized units cross to the US side.

Unofficially,

Responding to word of the probable Spetsnaz team infiltrating New Mexico, self-appointed civilian militias deploy to the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

The ROK Army links up with the amphibious force which had landed in Nampho, cutting off North Korea's South Hwanghae Province from the rest of the nation. Combined Forces Korea directs several South Korean reserve and home defense divisions to seal off the area and make gradual inroads into subduing it; paramount, however, is preventing any disruptions to the supply lines or any breakout of isolated North Korean units.

Chinese forces in northwestern North Korea begin to advance southward, while in Manchuria the People's Liberation Army's daily tally of towns and villages liberated from Soviet occupation continues to grow.

The 332nd Anti-Tank Brigade is released from STAVKA's Artillery Reserve and transported to the Polish-Soviet border. The unit is equipped with three dozen MT-12 anti-tank guns and an equal number of self-propelled AT-6/9 ATGM launchers, mounted on MTLB chassis.

The 44th Guards Airborne Division, the VDV's training division, is ordered to deploy to the Lithuanian-Polish border, setting aside its mission preparing conscripts to be NCOs.

The Polish State Council and Politburo are secretly evacuated from Warsaw by helicopter to the Communist Party’s resort complex at Arlamów in the mountains on the Ukrainian border.

The Polish defenders of the town of Hel are forced back into the ruins of the naval base.

VII US Corps encounters Soviet reinforcements when the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment engages T-86 tanks of the 2nd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, the Red Army’s premier show division, just arriving at the front from Moscow.

The Polish Internal Front counterattacks in the north, with a weak drive southwest from Bialystok with a scratch force of Polish and Soviet border guards, OTK and WOW troops and East German communists. The attempt to relieve the siege of Warsaw and cut II British Corps off from its bridgeheads is stopped outside Ostrów Mazowiecka by a NATO force detached from Operational Group Warsaw, reinforced with the Polish 2nd Free Legion. The battle between former border guard comrades is especially bitter and tragic, and the Polish drive peters out.

American troops of XVIII Corps make slow progress into the southwestern portion of Warsaw, reaching the runway of the international airport at sundown.

Damage control parties on board the battleship USS Iowa struggle to contain the fire started by a Polish kamikaze attack the day before. As the fire spreads in the powerless battlewagon, escorting frigates come alongside to provide additional pumping power and spray down the hull. The commander orders the aft magazine flooded as a preventative measure, lest the hundreds of tons of powder and explosives detonate.

In northern Sweden, 10th Mountain Division’s commander is able to regain full control of his battalions and arrange a ceasefire with the local Swedish commander, which is honored by the reinforcing Swedish units. Both sides turn their attention to the advancing Soviets, which have thrown the battered 16th Motor-Rifle Division back into the line. The Americans provide forward air control parties to guide the US naval aircraft in their strikes, while the rest of the division and the Norwegians continue their movement back to Norway.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i2V0WyR8KdhSqTAcZ9wzIEDHDtO9MyzU/view?usp=sharing)
In the Mediterranean, Operation Carpet Bagger commences - USAF attacks on Greek naval bases by the 140th Tactical Fighter Wing (Colorado Air National Guard)'s A-7s, flying from Turkish bases, covered by F-16As of the 482nd Tactical Fighter Wing (USAF Reserve), who shoot down 12 Greek fighters (2 F-16C, 4 Mirage 2000s and 6 F-4E Phantoms) with the loss of only one F-16A. US carriers continue to attack Greek naval facilities, facilities they are intimately familiar with since they used them for many decades themselves.

Marines of the 4th Division make contact with outer pickets of the Soviet 201st Motor-Rifle Division in the mountains north of Bandar Abbas. The action is the first combat that the troops of the 40th Army, veterans of the war in Afghanistan, have had with American troops.

The lead elements of the Australian 1st Armored Brigade arrive in Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia, to begin making arrangements for reception and deployment of the brigade's troops when they arrive in a few weeks. (The vehicles are being loaded at multiple Australian ports).

Activation of the 84th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Kiev Military District formed from the cadre and student body of the Kiev Higher Tank Engineering School and equipped with T-34s, T-10s and ISU-152 tank destroyers, is halted. Instead, the remaining students are rushed to the front as reinforcements for the battered divisions which have retreated across Poland. Many of the school’s instructors are also taken to replace losses at the front, and the warehouses of equipment are depleted to make up combat losses at the front.

[Homer]

Great chapter!

Lots of indicators that the WARPAC is coming to the end of its (conventional) tether. Laid out as you have it seems like a failure of pol-mil strategic level intelligence to not counsel caution as NATO forces close on the Soviet border and begin engaging units of strategic reserve and re-rolled naval and air defense units. Plus, the Chinese front is falling apart and there’s been internal revolt.

It almost seems like a fit of pique after peace talks broke down to not re-engage after nato’s recent performance. Even the north cape campaign, while costly and failing to seize the terrain objective, did achieve the purpose of neutralizing the red banner fleet and wrecking its bases.

[chico20854]

June 30, 1997

In a major change to command and control arrangements, Coast Guard cutters and personnel are absorbed directly into the Navy. Local maritime defense districts remain under command of their (former) Coast Guard commanders and staff, but they are formally in the Navy chain of command rather than reporting to the Secretary of Transportation.

Unofficially,

Private Cutler makes a return visit to the convenience store, this time with orders from some of his platoon mates. He returns thirty minutes later with shaving cream, disposable razors, bars of soap, three cold sodas and a small bag of pretzels. He makes a small profit from the excursion.

Following a (very busy) week of flight testing, the Boeing Skyfox is granted emergency USAF type classification as the AT-33E. (The ground crew promptly mangle the designation into the type's popular nickname of "Ate 33" rather than the manufacturer's marketing name.)

Patrols of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) in the Aleutians are engaged by unknown enemies; subsequent examinations of the areas reveal shell casings from 5.45mm weapons, only used by the Warsaw Pact.

As a result of the ongoing conflict, control of Hong Kong remains in British hands, following an agreement between the Chinese and British governments to extend the British lease of the colony to such time as Chinese government is prepared to administer the area.

The Echo II-class cruise missile sub K-35 arrives at the naval base at Pavlovsk Bay, pulling into the tunnel dug into the mountainside to protect it from American attack. It is the submarine's first service with the Pacific Fleet and the conclusion of an epic patrol that departed Murmansk in December and took it through the North and South Atlantic and Indian Oceans before traversing the South China Sea and Sea of Japan, sinking Allied shipping and attacking targets ashore along the entire route.

VI German Korps heads northeast towards Brest, reinforcing V US Corps’ right flank, and soon encounters advanced elements of 5th Guards Tank Army.

VII US Corps' progress is halted by resistance from the 1st Shock Army and the effects of extended supply lines.

XI US Corps makes the least progress as the fanatical Polish defenders fight for every yard and launch countless counterattacks. The Poles are short of armored vehicles but their dismounted infantry know every inch of the rugged terrain of the Carpathian foothills and have the support of the local population. The Americans do not have enough infantry to secure their entire front, leaving their rear area vulnerable to infiltration by small Polish units.

In beseiged Warsaw, a 37-year old ZOMO (riot police) captain, Krzysztof Czarny, leads his company in a counterattack to recapture part of the paint shop of the Ursus tractor plant from German troops. Within two hours his command has taken 75 percent casualties from a senseless direct attack.

The last American troops leave Swedish territory. To their north, the Soviet forces facing Norwegian troops in Finland are at the end of long and tenuous supply line, and the fervor of defending the Soviet homeland wanes once the Finnish border is reached. Short of ammunition and fuel and with the Northwestern TVD on a theater-wide counterattack, 26th Corps orders the 115th Motor-Rifle Division to maintain a passive pursuit of the retreating Norwegians. Prince Jungi is happy to oblige, eager to return to his home territory and possible redeployment of his force to defend the border with the USSR.

US carriers (the John F Kennedy and America) turn their attention to the island of Crete, launching numerous airstrikes along the length and breadth of the island; dispatching the destroyer Briscoe to use its 5" guns in shore bombardment. The Greek missile boat Plotarhis Bessas, hiding in a cove on the south side of the island, launches all four of its Exocet missiles at 6 nm range at the destroyer. One is shot down by the destroyer's CIWS, one misses and the other two strike, one amidships and the other on the helipad. The warheads cause significant damage, and, like in the Falklands conflict 15 years prior, their unburned propellant ignites a massive fire. Within 45 minutes the order is given to abandon ship.

Navy salvage teams clear the first deep draft cargo berth at the port of Bandar Abbas as SEEBEEs clear the last unexploded ordnance from Bandar Abbas International Airport. (The Havadarya air base on the west end of the city was the first captured and returned to service.)

The USS Independence and its battle group disembark VMFA-112 and its F/A-18s and head out to sea, responding to rumors of activity by the remnants of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron.

[lordroel]

Just want to say, keep it up.

[chico20854]

July 1, 1997

Greece declares war on NATO in retaliation for the alliance's support of Turkey (which the Greeks interpret as interference in a local conflict unrelated to the larger NATO-Pact conflict) and the American strikes on its naval bases.

Unofficially,

The US 17th Airborne Division is formed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri from new draftees and volunteers from the Army throughout the continental US.

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

The 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing implements its dispersal plan, dispatching maintenance and support teams to dispersal airfields throughout the west coast.

A team of recalled reserve pilots and ground crew from the USAF and USN who have experience with the T-33 (alongside three Canadian pilots, who trained on the type) arrive at Mojave, California to begin a quick familiarization course on the AT-33E Skyfox.

American C-17 military transport arrive at a remote pattch of the Taklamakan Desert in far western China. While they have the blessing of the Chinese authorities, no word has been given to local authorities of the American's arrival in the vast desert. The aircraft land on a dry lakebed, unloading heavy equipment to drill a well, establish refuelling infrastructure (including a tankfarm in fuel bags) and a very bare-bones housing and support package. The secret soon-to-be-airbase will be used to support American aircraft's entry into the USSR through lightly defended Central Asian airspace.

South Korean troops of the WHAT Corps and the US I Corps, advancing in parallel, are less than 50 km from Pyongyang, North Korea. The North Korean Army in front of the Allied force has largely disintegrated, but the advance is slowed by local civilians, who alternately clog the roads, heading south as refugees seeking peace, prosperity and safety in South Korea and attack Allied forces heading north as diehard (and to Western eyes, brainwashed) holdouts seek to prevent their homeland from being overrun by foreign invaders.

map of front lines (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XyXAGQmUEj_EL1TqQX3oC3q4m0gM_8rk&usp=sharing)
The commander of the German III Korps calls on the last defenders of the Hel naval base to surrender; his offer is met by a barrage of mortar fire on his front lines. (Expending the last of the defender's stock of mortar ammunition).

In eastern Poland, V US and VI German Corps' advances grind to a halt while NATO deploys its reserves of strike aircraft and deep strike munitions to break up 1st Byelorussian Front. Confident of the suppression of the Voyska-PVO, the USAF releases the 379th Bomb Wing’s B-52G bombers to carpet bomb the Soviet force with a mixture of cluster and high explosive bombs. The bombing destroys relatively few armored vehicles but succeeds in disrupting the rear areas of both armies, damaging or destroying truck parks, supply dumps and towed artillery batteries.

II British Corps and III US Corps continued their progress, approaching Olsztyn from the south. Overextended and dependent on a handful of bridges and what could be flown into captured and expeditionary airfields, their advance slows while XII German Korps tightens the encirclement of Reserve and Baltic Fronts in the Wisła bend. (The Soviets are withdrawing from the west bank of the river under pressure from I German Korps, concentrating north of Torun for an attempt to break out). Olsztyn is defended by one of the last full strength OTK regiments and the 15th Mechanized Division, reduced to little more than a regiment in strength.

In northern Poland, Second German Army deploys VII German Korps to III US Corps’ left, pressing the remnants of Polish 1st Army back along the coast to the Soviet border.

In Warsaw, Captain Czarny is provided two dozen teenage boys as reinforcements for his company, which suffered losses of over 75 percent in fighting the prior day. They have never fired a military rifle and are not provided with uniforms, helmets, weapons or training before being assigned to his command. German, American and British troops continue to press in on the city, accompanied by constant artillery barrages on defensive positions.

The Karasuando Massacre creates tremendous anti-American sentiment in Sweden, forever condemning any chance of Sweden joining the war on NATO’s side. Few Swedes that see video footage of American troops shooting at Swedish police and middle-aged home guards or pictures of the burned ruins of downtown Kiruna can support joining the war as co-belligerents alongside NATO. The Swedish people and government ralliy around their military and, dismissing the offer of continued American air support from Norwegian bases, undertake the effort to deal with 26th Corps, which is gradually solidifying its positions in Swedish Lapland.

Morale in the NATO force in Norway slumps as a result of the defeat of the long-planned offensive. The air and naval forces have taken tremendous losses and infantry battalions at the front are badly depleted. While the wounded have been evacuated south and west, the Norwegian intelligence service’s informant at the Murmansk train station reports numerous carloads of Allied POWs headed south under heavy guard. The special operations troops that have survived the offensive are exfiltrating and unable to intercept the trains, and Finnish and Russian civilians and militias are rounding up downed airmen nearly every day. It is a dark time to be an Allied fighter in northern Norway. Nonetheless, actual disciplinary problems and desertion are low although black humor and soldier’s griping are rampant

In Iran, the 1st Marine Division passes through scattered Iranian defensive positions in the Zagros Mountains before entering the no-mans'-land that separates Allied and Soviet controlled territories. To their east, the Marines of the 4th Division launch vigorous attacks on the 201st Motor-Rifle Division, driving the Soviet division back to its previously prepared main line of resistance.

[chico20854]

July 2, 1997

Keeping with its treaty obligations, Italy declares war on NATO.

Canadian troops in the Yukon Territory and British Columbia prepare defense lines throughout both provinces.

Warsaw Pact forces withdraw from the front with the Chinese Army quickly following them.

Unofficially,

The 276th ADA Battery (Laser) (Provisional) is relieved of its test and development mission and placed on alert for immediate deployment. One of the battery's four platoons (with three XM-12 systems) will remain at Fort Bliss to develop tactics and train new crew members. One platoon is airlifted to Korea to use its novel system against a variety of ground and air targets, while the battery headquarters and two firing platoons deploy to Europe via priority airlift.

Private Cutler's barracks business grows, now offering candy and Playboys, which Cutler has begun buying without orders being placed in advance.

The American carriers Abraham Lincoln, Stennis and Nimitz launch Operation Left Sweep, another raid on Soviet naval facilities near Vladivostok. The strikes' fighter escort further whittle down the PVO air defense interceptor fleet - the panicked commander of the 23rd PVO Corps reports that if he does not immediately receive a shipment of missiles and replacement aircraft he cannot guarantee round the clock coverage of Vladivostok.

NATO advanced elements close on the Soviet-Polish border, continuing the siege of Warsaw. SACEUR, General Phelps, is most concerned about the threat posed by 1st Byelorussian Front in the center. Intelligence indicates that the front’s third army, 3rd Guards Tank Army, is moving towards the border, ready to exploit any crack in First German Army’s line. The aerial bombardment has disrupted the Soviet force temporarily, but once the offensive resumes there is a serious possibility that the NATO force will not be able to hold, let alone continue to advance. A bold response is needed, and once again it is decided to risk USAF assets to resolve the crisis.

The 487th Tactical Missile Wing (-) is declared operational, with its headquarters at Konya AB, Turkey.

The US Sixth Fleet strikes the Italian naval base at Taranto. The attack submarine USS Scranton is lurking outside the entrance, catching the frigate Aliseo in the flank with a pair of Mk 48 torpedoes and the destroyer Francesco Mimbelli with a pair of Harpoons. The attack stirs up a confused hornets nest as the base responds to the American air attack, and the Italians manage to spot the submerged boat and sink her with helicopter-delivered depth charges.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mLlNbISQcxsu123SRYiF_vWWK1BTyWFG/view?usp=sharing)
As I MEF continues its advance in the Zagros Mountains, rear area troops continue their efforts to sustain the advance as well as establish a base structure in heavily damaged Bandar Abbas. Maintenance teams search the city for materiel that can be salvaged and repaired or reissued.

An Aeroflot I-86 arrives in Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow carrying Italian mechanical and industrial engineers and planners to resume their oversight of the completion of the truck plant on the city's outskirts.

[chico20854]

July 3, 1997

A Canadian battle group raised for service in Korea has its departure cancelled and, renamed Northern Command, is sent to Yukon.

The last USAF troops leave Point Salines Airport in Grenada.

Unofficially,

XV Corps Headquarters completes its command post exercise at Ft Leavenworth, Kansas and is declared ready for deployment.

A militiaman near Nogales, Arizona opens fire on a group of Mexican immigrants fleeing north.

The second regiment from the 5th Marine Division (the 27th Marines) arrives at Twentynine Palms, California to join its sister regiment the 26th in regiment-level pre-deployment exercises. The troops practice working in coordination with artillery, tanks and close-support aircraft from VMFAT-101, the F/A-18 readiness squadron at Air Station El Toro.

Soviet Arctic troops advancing across the Bering Strait consolidate their positions on the coast, establishing Nome as their headquarters and logistical hub, taking advantage of the port and airport facilities.

South Korean troops and American Marines of I MEB close on the North Korean coastal city of Hamhung, North Korea's third largest city and a major industrial center and transportation hub.

The Commander of 2nd Western Front reports that his troops holding the city of Brest have less than one days' supply remaining and that the rail lines leading to his front’s rear area have been cut; reinforcing divisions promised him are gathering near Smolensk but immobile while awaiting trucks to bring forward supplies of fuel for their hodgepodge collection of wheeled vehicles and to move the armored vehicles to the front.

The German III Korps reports that the town and naval base of Hel are finally under control, over a month after the start of the Battle of the Hel Peninsula.

In besieged Warsaw, troops of the American 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) clear the last defenders from the now ruined terminal of Warsaw International Airport. ZOMO Captain Czarny's depleted company is assigned a reserve position 500m behind the front line in the Ursus Tractor Factory; he spends much of the day scavenging weapons and equipment from the dead and wounded to give his teenage recruits.

The last NATO troops (from the Norwegian Vestoppland Infanteri Regiment, part of 6th Brigade that had fought throughout the entire campaign) leave Soviet territory on the Kola Peninsula.

A GRU detachment arrives at Comiso Air Base, Sicily to tour the former USAF Ground Launched Cruise Missile facility. The team will brief Spetsnaz teams on the detailed layout of the facility, which closely resembles similar ones in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

A fire rages through the Kama River Truck Plant's diesel engine manufacturing facility. The plant is the Soviet Union's largest truck plant.

A Soviet raider, a converted Cuban SD-14 type freighter, sinks the Panamanian-flag (but US-owned) tanker Texaco Star as it transits the Caribbean from Venezuela to the US Gulf Coast.

The Egyptian government completes an award of a contract to clear the Suez Canal of mines and sunken ship. The winning bid goes to a company led by a trio of retired generals that has little experience in large projects, has only a dozen employees (nearly all relatives of the generals) and until receiving the first payment under the contract, virtually no money to mobilize men and equipment to do the job.

Low-level skirmishing break out along the entire length of the Indian-Pakistani border as both nations rush troops to the front. Islamist tribal militias in northwestern Pakistan fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of Army troops.

[ToughOmbres]

Excellent reading. By this time in the timeline is the US following the Danish example and setting up the first (or expanding existing) Strategic Reserve Stockpiles like the one in Allegheny Uprising?

[Homer]

A GRU detachment arrives at Comiso Air Base, Sicily to tour the former USAF Ground Launched Cruise Missile facility. The team will brief Spetsnaz teams on the detailed layout of the facility, which closely resembles similar ones in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

Not only will they have the GAMA area at Comiso to learn from, they’ll get a couple of different WSAs and Victor Alert areas at Italian and former US bases to study. The Greeks will have a strategic reconnaissance aircraft Base at Hellenikon and the Souda Bay complex (or what’s left of it) to offer.

There’s a lot of information to be gained, depending on how far the Greeks and Italians are willing to let the Soviets go in exploiting the sites.

[chico20854]

July 4, 1997

The megapunk band Terminal Illness holds a "Release Dain Dangerous" concert on the Boston Common. Band members decide to omit the request for a permit, inviting the police to do something about it. A directive is issued by an emergency meeting of the city council to prohibit the concert and disperse any megapunks that gather at the Common. The success at enforcing the directive is short-lived, and by early evening 80,000 megapunks fill downtown Boston. In the greatest blunder in the history of the Boston Police Department, Chief Elliot Washington orders the arrest of Terminal Illness. Fifty veteran officers, armed with riot shotguns (loaded with rubber bullets and tear gas), approach the bandstand from the rear. As the officers rush the band members, Greasy Fellow (the band's backup guitarist) drops one of them with a roundhouse swing of his guitar. Six shotgun blasts answer his defiance. The crowd, already whipped to a frenzy by the music, charges the bandstand. The officers fire into the crowd trying to disperse it, with no visible effect. In a crazed rush, the megapunks overrun the officers. City riot units cannot regain control of the Common, and the mayor requests aid from the governor.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yLNf_9InSveoctQWT8Wg6cIbiaXUkvHr/view?usp=sharing)
Italian troops of the 4th Alpini Army Corps and 3rd Army Corps cross into Tyrolia, taking the Austrian garrison units by surprise. Italian airmobile and airborne troops capture mountain passes and tunnels, and alpine troops quickly link up with them, overrunning the defenders.

Unofficially,

A-10s of the 343rd Tactical Fighter Wing engage Soviet invasion forces in Alaska. Patrols of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic) clash with Soviet hovercraft of the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade as they screen the Soviet invasion fleet, in the world’s first hovercraft vs. hovercraft battle.

American strike aircraft once again destroy the bridge at Khasan, cutting the sole rail line between the USSR and North Korea.

South Korean troops are now 25 km from central Pyongyang as resistance stiffens, bolstered by the increasingly urban terrain that favors defenders more than the open fields south of the city.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OOL3ia66UTuvTtnungFkFrxmZYkAXyyY/view?usp=sharing)
7th Fleet launches Operation Kickback - the American submarines Chicago, Honolulu, Key West and Columbus strike Soviet Naval Aviation bases in Pacific (from Vladivostok to Petropavlovsk) with submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The strikes are quite successful, overwhelming the air defenses of the region following the recent carrier strikes.

A combined British-American force assaults Olsztyn in northeastern Poland. The US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment skirts the city to the north, then turns south, while the British 6th Armoured Brigade repeats its armored thrust into the heart of the city that had failed in Warsaw weeks ago. This time the result is different, with demoralized Polish defenders slipping away into the forests south of the city.

Overnight into the 5th all the C-130s that NATO can muster in Europe drop airborne troops throughout 1st Byelorussian Front’s rear. The US 4th Ranger Battalion conducts a raid on 1st Byelorussian Front’s rear headquarters, killing or capturing the staff responsible for the front’s logistical support. The 240th Fallschirmjäger Brigade, only partially reformed after the battle of Inowrocław, captures the airbase at Biała Podlaska, with its 10,000-foot runway and adjacent rail line and highways. The 27th Fallschirmjäger Brigade lands from helicopters along 5th Guards Tank Army’s main supply route, establishing a network of company-size ambush positions along roads and travel routes in an attempt to paralyze the Soviet force by cutting off all supply movement. To the north the 26th Fallschirmjäger Brigade does the same to 7th Tank Army’s rear, while the 25th Fallschirmjäger Brigade drops along the Bug River, capturing bridges on the border.

The NATO troops from the Lapland Offensive, once returned to Norwegian territory, are directed to garrison locations to rebuild and rest. 10th Mountain Division has taken over 60 percent casualties overall and many of its infantry battalions are almost empty shells. Prince Jungi’s mechanized force is in desperate need of maintenance, some of its tanks having towed their broken down counterparts out of Finland. Both take in a trickle of replacements while the veterans sleep for days on end and the commander of the 10th Mountain Division's cavalry squadron is evacuated to the US, relieved of command. SACEUR directs that Allied Forces Northern Norway, upon evacuation to Norwegian territory, release X Corps' troops and the marine brigades for service elsewhere in the Alliance area, as well as aircraft not needed for the air defense of northern Norway.

The Victor II-class submarine K-517, a survivor of the Battle of the Norwegian Sea, arrives in the Indian Ocean.

General Suryakin in the Transcaucasian Front requests an additional two regiments of trucks to support his troops fighting in the Zagros Mountains.

A flight of eight Boeing AT-33E Skyfoxes - 1950s-era T-33 trainers converted to counter-insurgency light strike aircraft - departs Mojave, California for NAS Beeville, Texas, the first leg of a ferry flight to Howard Air Force Base, Panama, where they will replace A-7s in the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard), freeing up those aircraft for service in the Balkans, Korea or Middle East.

The fighting along the Indian-Pakistani border intensifies, unlike in the continual skirmishing of the prior months. By sundown Indian troops have crossed the border in strength south of Lahore, cutting off a Pakistani salient.

[chico20854]

Excellent reading. By this time in the timeline is the US following the Danish example and setting up the first (or expanding existing) Strategic Reserve Stockpiles like the one in Allegheny Uprising?

Thanks!

Yes, at this point FEMA is well underway in its strategic stockpile program as well as its hasty evacuation site construction program. I haven't detailed them much as yet; IIRC I made reference to the appropriations being made in a war spending bill. I'll try to slip some news in in coming weeks.

[chico20854]

July 5, 1997

By dawn, National Guard units have secured the downtown area of Boston following the riots that erupted during megapunk band Terminal Illness' unpermitted concert on Boston Common. Thirteen dead police officers are located. Property damage in the downtown area is estimated at $25 million. Twenty-six felony arrest warrants are issued against the members of Terminal Illness, who are arrested and charged.

The Jugoslav 5th Army launches an attack against northeast Italy in a brave effort to uphold its obligations as a NATO member (and recapture disputed territory it lost after World War Two).

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Jackson Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Salinas Freedom in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Headquarters, 141 Air Refueling Wing at Shemya, Alaska is ordered to evacuate all essential personnel due to the Soviet invasion of Alaska; many personnel volunteer to remain and fight to the last man, buying time for subordinate squadrons to evacuate. Two KC-135Es, inoperable, are destroyed by their ground crews. The naval air detachment on the island, VP-48, loads its personnel and much of its ground support equipment aboard six of the squadron's P-3 Orions and evacuates to the mainland while the SOSUS station force destroys its equipment and hitches a ride on another evacuation aircraft. Soviet aircraft from surviving but damaged airfields near Petropavlovsk appear in force overhead with an airborne force to seize the island, prompting the 110th Tactical Fighter Squadron to sortie all 18 aircraft against Soviet invasion force. In the battle that follows, the American F-15s down 40 transports and escorting Su-27 fighters, at the cost of 8 F-15As. Its sister squadron, the 122nd, downs 30 aircraft at the cost of 16.

The 1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division completes Rotation 97-9 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, is declared combat ready, and placed on alert for immediate deployment to Alaska.

The trainees at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, including Private Cutler and his platoon, are entertained by a traveling USO show featuring the eccentric rock star Ted Hendrix.

Chinese partisans cause 15 derailments of Soviet supply trains within a 24-hour period. The People's Liberation Army enters the city of Harbin, which had been occupied by Soviet troops since September, 1995.

ROK and American mechanized forces begin an encirclement of Pyongyang, the Americans advancing to the west of the city, the South Koreans to the east. The ruling regime secretly begins to evacuate the city before becoming trapped in it.

The American submarines that launched Operation Kickback begin to withdraw, heading to the safety of waters east of Japan where they can link up with a submarine tender to replenish their empty missile launchers.

In Poland, II British Corps pursues the fleeing defenders of Olsztyn north towards the Soviet border, while III US Corps moves east into the Masurian Lakes region, where it is rumored that the Polish government is maintaining a secret command post and reforming troop units.

To the west, III German Korps has driven the defenders of Gdynia out, where they reinforce the garrison of Gdańsk. That city is gradually being reduced to rubble by fierce urban fighting and suffering among the civilian population is great.

The Soviets react violently to the Allied airborne assault. MVD troops and KGB Border Guard units clash with the German 25th Fallshirmjaeger Brigade's paratroopers, who grimly hold on to some of the bridges and are forced to retreat and destroy some of the others. The lightly armed troops are no match for the tanks that the tank divisions pull off the line, dispersing into the woods whenever the tanks appear. Soviet artillery barrages rain down on any units that stand and fight, although many batteries are under attack themselves.

While the Soviets are securing their rear area, however, V US Corps and VI German Korps resume their assault from the west. The Soviet force buckles, retreating in disarray as armored vehicles are hastily reassigned to escort truck columns or give rides to retreating soldiers on foot.

HQ, XV Corps loads aboard military and civilian aircraft at McGuire AFB, New Jersey for transit to Germany.

The GRU detachment in Italy travels to Ghedi Tore Air Base to perform a detailed analysis of the tactical nuclear weapons storage vaults there (11 of which are installed in hardened aircraft shelters), which are built to a standard NATO design.

In Iran, XVIII Airborne Corps troops make progress in their advance as the US Marines and supporting soldiers link up with scattered IPA units. The British 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment is transferred from reserve positions in Saudi Arabia to the front in Iran, reinforcing the gurkhas of 27th Infantry Brigade.

I MEF's advance is slow while 4th Marine Division's two tank battalions face superior numbers of Soviet tanks, manned by veterans of Afghanistan. The 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard), with two armor and two mechanized infantry battalions, is rushing north to tip the scales in favor of the Allies.

Soviet experts report that the Kama River truck plant's diesel engine plant will be out of operation for an estimated 12-18 months if sufficient automated machine tools can be obtained from Italy to replace them (halting further progress on the Ivanovo plant). The KGB begins investigating the fire to determine if it was arson or an accident by an exhausted worker.

In the Caribbean, a Soviet raider (a converted freighter with hidden weapons) intercepts the Cypriot ore carrier Angel Pride, loaded with Jamaican bauxite. The raider captures the bulker, evacuating the crew before setting her accommodation block afire and sending her to the bottom.

Pakistani troops counterattack south of Lahore in an attempt to break the blocking force cutting off the Pakistani pocket, but Indian armored units succeed in halting the attack with massed artillery and air attacks.

[chico20854]

July 6, 1997

Canadian troops moving east for transportation to Europe are redirected and sent west to be held as a strategic reserve in Alberta.

Unofficially,

The Soviet Minister of Defense, at the urging of the Chief of the General Staff, the commanders of the Western and Far Eastern TVDs, the chairman of GOSPLAN and the head of the Military-Industrial Commission, requests a meeting of the Presidium of the USSR, the subgroup of the Politburo that oversees STAVKA and provides political direction of the overall war effort. At that meeting he is joined by the chair of the KGB and the Minister of the Interior (who controls the MVD Internal Troops) and summarizes the grave situation the Soviet war effort is facing. The ability of the Red Army to resist is collapsing in the Far East and the situation on the Western Front is likely to be in a similar situation within days as NATO troops cross the Soviet border in multiple sectors. The situation in the Balkans is proceding slowly, and the expansion of the war into Austria is further stressing the war effort. The North Korean Army is on the verge of collapse and Soviet troops are giving ground in Iran. Within the USSR the economy is in dire straits, ethnic tension and resistance to the war is growing while industrial production is slowing while the GRU reports ever increasing Western armaments production. He concludes by stating that the USSR has not been in such peril since the dark days of 1942 and urges an immediate renewal of the peace talks, with an offer of a worldwide immediate ceasefire in place as a sign of good faith.

The US 11th Airborne Division (less 3rd Brigade) is declared combat ready, although awaiting a full unit set of equipment, short of communications gear, helicopters, parachutes, HMMWVs and LAVs due to the needs of units at the front.

The Soviet 130th Air Assault Brigade, which was devastated by American fighters en route to their parachute drop on Shemya Island, Alaska, reduced to scattered and confused elements distributed all over the island (as well as troops on the nearby unihabited Aliad and Nizki Islands), struggles to overrun Eareckson Air Station, fiercely defended by a force of Alaska National Guardsmen, Air Force Security Forces and station personnel, sailors and Coast Guardsmen.

Cadets of the 10th California Cadet Brigade begin first aid, traffic control and disaster relief training at the El Toro Marine Corps airbase in Orange County.

B-52 bombers of the 43rd and 320th Bomb Wings strike Soviet air defense sites, coastal artillery positions, command posts, communications facilities and army garrisons in the Kurile Islands.

More secret convoys evacuate the Kim family from Pyongyang, each member travelling separately in a military convoy to various secret underground command posts and hideaways. A force of determined North Korean Army troops take heavy losses trying to hold open the last road leading out of the capital.

A Dutch Red Army attack on the nuclear weapons depot at Doornspijk is repulsed before breaching the perimeter.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1itCFAzZ010haMBXAv9NGSUD-S3mrbXhI/view?usp=sharing) photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JULVqxHTL_i4yWb86DOROYGL18Pnbb3f/view?usp=sharing)
The Warsaw Pact launches an attack on Austria, with the Czechoslovakian 2nd Army and Soviet 28th Corps driving on Vienna and Lower Austria from the Bratislava area and 2nd Southwestern Front attacking from the East. Simultaneously, the 1st Southwestern Front launches a series of spoiling attacks along the lines in Bavaria to tie down Seventh US Army, I Dutch Corps and the German territorials.

In southeastern Poland, XI US Corps makes progress, entering the city of Rzeszow as the force moves forward along the foothills of the Carpathians. To their north, Panzergruppe Oberdorff reaches the Soviet border, the 46th Engineer Brigade assisting the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)'s Engineer Regiment in breaching the defenses along the Soviet border, one of the first US Army ground units on Soviet soil since the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in 1918-20.

NATO forces assembled for the Kola Campaign begin to disperse. X Corps headquarters is flown back to Alaska to command the units responding to Soviet attacks in the 49th state.

HQ, XV Corps arrives in Germany. 7th Army plans to use the command along the Czechoslovakian border in East Germany, replacing VII Corps which is now on the Ukrainian border.

The front in Romania is largely static as Turkish and Romanian troops enjoy a respite as Soviet units are starved of fuel and ammunition, which has been diverted to other fronts. The American 71st Airborne Brigade continues to hold its positions outside Deva, Romania as its S-4 (logistics officer) frantically tries to establish a secure transport route for supplies to travel along, since the Adriatic Sea is now a war zone with Greek and Italian forces interdicting its entrance.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Bandar Abbas and begins the discharge of its deck cargo of telephone poles, which are immediately used to repair the city's shattered communications system.

Third Army's Provost Marshall reports that 90 percent of the Soviet POWs captured in May's landings in Iran have now been evacuated to the United States, largely aboard transport aircraft that were leaving the region after discharging troops or cargo.

The carrier Lexington and her battle group are dispatched from the southern Gulf of Mexico into the Caribbean to hunt down the Soviet raider. It is supported by the HU-25 surface search aircraft of VOJ-202 composed of USCG personnel and aircraft, operating from the Muniz Air National Guard base in Puerto Rico.

[chico20854]

July 7, 1997

After a frantic 48 hours of legal activity, the members of the megapunk band Terminal Illness are released on astronomical bond. The band's attorney locates the band's leader and frontman Dain Danger in the Waltham County Sanatorium, where he has been admitted under the name of John Doe 23.

The Presidium of the Soviet Union authorizes the use of nuclear weapons.

Unofficially,

The decision to release nuclear weapons causes great consternation in the Soviet high command. The Minister of Defense had argued vigorously against the decision, stating that nuclear weapons are not a panacea and in fact would cause great damage to Moscow's Polish ally as well as opening the very real possibility of escalating rapidly to a general strategic exchange that would end in the destruction of the USSR. He is overruled by General Secretary Sauronski, who has convinced himself that NATO will be shocked by the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945 into abandoning its folly of supporting the Polish traitors' claim of the pre-1939 borders. He is joined by the Politburo's idealogical "voice of wisdom" who argues that the capitalist West is morally weak and that the Soviet victories in the Kola show that NATO troops do not have the will, at the individual soldier's level, to fight to overthrow the Soviet workers' paradise. The Foreign Minister doubts that the peace talks would be fruitful without the USSR having to accept humiliating conditions to secure peace. KGB Chairman Yangel remains largely silent throughout the deliberations, mostly confining his remarks to technical issues such as the release of warheads from KGB custody to military units tasked to deliver them. He, therefore, makes it of the utmost importance that his departure from Moscow immediately after the conclusion of the meeting remain absolutely secret.

Private Cutler's barracks business is faltering as his platoon mates have eaten their fill of candy and he has amassed a sizeable portion of the platoon's available cash. (The privates are required to have their pay deposited in a bank and only allowed to take a small portion of their pay in cash). He decides to expand his market to other platoons in the company, whose needs have been, until now, unmet!

The final regiment of the 5th Marine Division, the 28th, arrives in California to begin advanced combined-arms training as evaluators declare the 26th Regiment ready for action.

The Soviet 130th Air Assault Brigade on Shemya Island, Alaska has overrun the airfield and most of its hangars, destroyed the fuel tanks and has rallied its remaining paratroops into a semi-coherent force that has most of the remaining defenders pinned down in the base's support and barracks buildings.

The US supports Operation Repo, the Japanese occupation of the Kuriles. The 732rd Tactical Fighter Wing provides top cover & SEAD for Japanese aircraft that are supporting the landings, the 27th Tactical Fighter Wings's F-111s help interdict the islands. A RF-16C of the 192nd Tactical Reconniassance Squadron is lost on a dawn mission performing bomb damage assessment of the B-52 strikes. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force escorts civilian transports, US Navy amphibious ships and its own force of 6 LSTs and the LSD Ōsumi from Hokkaido to landing stations off the islands of Iturup and Kunashir, landing troops around mid-day.

The Bundeswehr calls up the security units it had released in May, and Denmark commits two mechanized brigades and a regimental combat team to assist the struggling Austrians.

Additional units of First German Army surge eastwards in Poland to link up with the paratroops that are struggling along the Soviet border.

XI US Corps secures Rzeszow and its airport, while struggling to maintain a secure front to its south against frequent partisan attacks and infiltrators from the Polish 3rd Army.

The 113th Field Artillery Brigade (North Carolina National Guard) is transferred from III Corps in northeastern Poland to the Warsaw area, assigned to XXIII Corps, where the brigade's M-109 howitzer battalion (the 1st Battalion, 113th Field Artillery) is thrown into action supporting infantry battling towards the Siekierki power plant on the city's south side.

2nd Brigade, 6th Infantry Division (Light) embarks on buses and airliners for transfer to Stavanger, Norway, where it will load on ships for transfer to the Netherlands.

The Sierra III-class submarine K-231 is delivered from the shipyard in Gorky. The titanium-hulled boat is the last, and most advanced, nuclear-powered attack submarine built by the USSR. It begins a voyage to the Black Sea via the inland waterways, escorted by a tug boat and armed KGB riverine patrol vessel.

The Victor II-class attack submarine K-517 locates an Allied convoy moving along the East African coast. It attacks, blowing the bow off the escorting American frigate USS Bagley as well as sinking the American freighters Cape Farragut and Richmond Freedom (on her maiden voyage) and Liberian tanker Esko Stokes. It flees the area, pursued by the British frigate Juno and American Coast Guard cutter Jarvis.

The second flight of AT-33E Skyfoxes arrive at Howard Air Force Base, Panama.

[Homer]

Did the 55th SRW get some indicators of heightened risk? It seems interesting they disperse just before escalation to nuclear weapons. Was chemical release a trigger?

[chico20854]

July 8, 1997

Am Dangerous' joy at the reunion with her brother Dain turns to rage when she finally meets her brother. Dain is incoherent and barely able to move because of almost constant palsied convulsions. It later transpires that he had been overdosed with Thorazine, and other antipsychotic drugs to which he is unusually sensitive, during his brief stay in the sanatorium. Am tries to attack the doctor, but John Blackwood manages to restrain her.

Unofficially,

A high-level delegation from STAVKA flies to Byelorussia, delivering the news of nuclear release to Marshall Slepnev, commander of the Western TVD. Another delegation is dispatched to Chita in eastern Siberia, with instructions for Far Eastern TVD to use nuclear weapons to implement a wide-ranging effort to eliminate the Chinese Army in the field and destroy China's ability to resist.

American resistance on Shemya ends, with the Cobra Dane early warning radar going down in a cloud of smoke and dust as the Air Force security force destroys it to prevent the Soviets from gaining anything of intelligence value from it.

The Far Eastern TVD establishes the Aleutian Front to control the disparate military efforts at the eastern end of the USSR. The Front's 25th Corps commands the invasion of Alaska, while the 51st Army is coordinating the defense of the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin Island. 25th Corps establishes a logistical hub in Nome.

The 11th Airborne Division (less 3rd Brigade) is deployed by air to Eileson Air Force Base, Alaska and Ladd Army Airfield, Alaska, filling out the vehicle park with requisitioned civilian vehicles and trucks from the Air Force, and immediately entering action alongside other elements of X Corps, the headquarters newly arrived from Norway.

Private Randall Cutler's barracks candy sale business is busted when he is "ratted out" by a trainee in another platoon as well as by a member of his platoon chewing bubble gum during morning physical training. A search of his platoon's barracks reveals fourteen privates with candy or pornography in their lockers.

The 147th Field Artillery Brigade (South Dakota National Guard) is detached from 8th Army, assigned to reinforce South Korean troops battering their way into Pyongyang.

The austere airfield in the Karakum Desert in western China is complete, with a skeleton staff of 150 US Air Force Personnel. A series of KC-10 tanker aircraft begin flying in to the base, discharging thousands of gallons of aviation fuel in the base's fuel blivets.

In Germany several units, some recently arrived and others reconstructing after losses in Poland, are assigned to the newly arrived US XV Corps.

With nearly 90 percent of Polish territory liberated, the lead elements of the NATO forces reach the borders of the USSR. British and German troops batter back KGB border guards on the southern edge of the Kaliningrad oblast while V US Corps and VI German Korps’ units relieve the last of the fallschirmjäger companies along the Bug.

To the south, Panzergruppe Oberdorf and VII US Corps press 1st Shock Army’s T-90s back over the border into Ukraine west of Lvov. NATO airpower and ATACMS missiles are reaching deeper into Byelorussia and Ukraine, dismantling air defense sites, transportation hubs, airfields and communications facilities.

In the southeast, Soviet radio intelligence units locate the headquarters of the 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard) and direct a battalion of BM-27 rocket launchers to strike it with VX nerve gas. Unfortunately, the strike takes place during the commander’s nightly staff meeting, and the brigade commander, his principal staff officers and both battalion commanders are killed. The unit’s effectiveness and morale immediately deteriorate.

1st Brigade and the Division Support Command of the US 6th Infantry Division (Light) depart northern Norway for the Netherlands. The Norwegian 6th Division disperses its forces across northern Norway, providing a strong blocking force along the Soviet border, repairing damage and undertaking internal security patrols.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, attack an isolated Soviet signal site outside the city. In a predawn raid, they overrun the outpost of the 145th Signal Regiment, capturing several automatic weapons and disrupting communications throughout the 45th (my 32nd) Army.

Helicopters from the Jarvis and Juno sink the Soviet Victor II-class submarine K-514 75 nm off Mombassa, Kenya.

[chico20854]

July 9, 1997

A momentous day...

The Red Army begins to use tactical nuclear weapons to stop German troops from advancing farther onto Soviet territory.

Unofficially,

At dawn a Mi-17 helicopter of the Soviet 65th Independent Transport Helicopter Regiment takes off from a facility outside Rechytsa, Byelorussia and flows at low level to the first battalion of the 231st Cannon Artillery Brigade. After landing, a KGB detachment brings a single 3BV3 152mm round to a 2S5 self-propelled gun. With Lieutenant-General Valeriy Khomenko, commander of the 7th Tank Army, watching, the gun’s crew loads the round and takes cover before pulling the lanyard. The round is fired and lands slightly more than 15 kilometers away, near the headquarters of the 228th Panzergrenadier Regiment. It explodes with the force of 2500 tons of TNT, destroying the regiment’s headquarters, ending the NATO offensive across Poland and taking the war to a new, deadlier, tragic level.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Charlotte Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

Patrols of the Native Canadian Ranger Regiment are authorized to expand their area of operations west into Siberia, and a company-equivalent is ordered to patrol the Alaskan Arctic coast.

Soviet troops engage troops of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry, assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 47th Infantry Division, who are blocking passage up the Yukon River west of Galena, Alaska, site of an Air Force detachment. The Americans quickly call on the support of a flight of A-10s from the 18th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which scatter the Soviet hovercraft from the river. The proximity of Soviet troops forces the evacuation of the F-15s of detachment 1, 54th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

The fifteen members of Private Cutler's platoon caught with contraband are informed that they will be placed on extra duty for the remainder of their training cycle and that their overnight pass following graduation has been revoked. From lights out until 1 am the "dirty fifteen" are put to work scrubbing the walls and floors of their barracks.

In Ohio, the 221st Engineer Group (New York National Guard), assigned to assist civil authorities, completes conversion of the Wood County fairgrounds to a potential evacuation site. The work consisted of converting livestock barns to enclosed buildings with heating, winterizing utility lines and upgrading the restroom and cooking facilities. The group has nearly a dozen such projects underway, intended to rapidly create refugee housing for city dwellers.

F-16s of the 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing join Japanese F-15s in fending off a Soviet counter-attack that was attempting to strike at Misawa Air Base, a facility vital to the support of Operation Repo. The Soviets launched a coordinated air and missile strike, hitting the base with a pair of conventionally-armed SS-12 Scaleboard missiles and a submarine-launched SS-N-21 cruise missile. The air attack was less successful, the Soviets losing nine MiG-29s, 11 Su-24s and three MiG-27s. Three F-16s and two F-15s are lost in the action.

The American attack submarine Olympia enters the Arctic Ocean, having passed through the Bering Strait submerged.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's ZOMO riot police company is sent back on the line, this time defending the Towarowa train station, where a cat-and-mouse hunt for the enemy rages through the burned remains of hundreds of freight cars.

The 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard), its command staff gutted in a chemical strike the prior evening, is pulled from the lines, sent to Germany to rest and recover.

The remainder of the 6th Infantry Division (Light) begins to depart Norway.

In the Mediterranean, the American carriers John F Kennedy and America begin a series of anti-surface sweeps as intelligence indicates that the Greek and Italian navies are sortieing to push the Americans back.

Ashore in Turkey, the remanants of the NATO reinforcements delivered by the ill-fated convoy depart their marshalling areas, headed for the front facing their former Greek allies in Thrace. To the north, the Turkish 1st Army batters back a half-hearted attack by the Bulgarian Second Army.

A convoy containing the Australian 1st Brigade arrives in Bandar Abbas, Iran. The Australian unit will reinforce I MEF as it tries to break out of the Zagros Mountains into terrain more favorable to use of the brigade's tanks and APCs.

The damaged American frigate Bagley arrives in port in Mombassa, Kenya. A tug is dispatched to try to round up barges cast adrift from the sunken barge carrier Cape Farragut.

The Soviet Q-Ship (raider disguised as a freighter) in the Caribbean attacks the Kuwaiti-flag tanker Al-Tahreer, carrying a load of Venezuelan crude to the St. Croix refinery. The raider's guns set the massive ship ablaze and leave the area, with the crew adrift in lifeboats.

[JHart]

In the southeast, Soviet radio intelligence units locate the headquarters of the 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard) and direct a battalion of BM-27 rocket launchers to strike it with VX nerve gas. Unfortunately, the strike takes place during the commander’s nightly staff meeting, and the brigade commander, his principal staff officers and both battalion commanders are killed. The unit’s effectiveness and morale immediately deteriorate.


"F#@K IT, we're slinging nukes tomorrow comrades! What's a little nerve gas today?!"

[chico20854]

July 10, 1997

The Red Army begins to use tactical nukes against the rapidly advancing Chinese troops. The first target in the theatre is Harbin, China, recaptured just days before and a vital transportation hub.

Unofficially,

NATO struggles to respond to the Soviet tactical nuclear strike outside Brest. It takes a number of hours for confirmation of the strike to be received and verified and word passed up the chain of command to the North Atlantic Council and President Tanner. The next 12 hours are spent in consultation, shocked discussions and near-hysteria. The American Joint Chiefs pass word down, requesting SACEUR's proposed response. Existing plans for use of tactical nuclear weapons are largely useless - to the extent they are even up to date. They call for corps-level "packages" of dozens of weapons to be delivered in a "pulse" lasting 12-24 hours, largely on locations where Soviet doctrine, as interpreted by NATO planners, would indicate are likely to harbor Soviet artillery units, logisitcs sites and headquarters. Most of the plans, developed pre-war, contemplate defensive use on West German territory, and in the months of advance across East Germany and Poland, have not been kept up by overworked staffs. Theater-level plans for use of deep strike assets (F-111s, Pershing missiles, Ground Launched Cruise Missiles and theater-tasked submarine launched ballistic missiles) are also out of date, since many of the targets are occupied by NATO troops. Tanner refuses to authorize the execution of any of these plans, requesting instead a "proportionate" response of a single weapon similar in yield to be delivered on a target equivalent to the German brigade headquarters destroyed yesterday. Hours pass while the directive is passed down and Tanner consults with the other NATO heads of state.

The Soviet nuclear strike is highly classified within the Warsaw Pact. Within the Western TVD, front commanders are aware of the development but not most of their staff and subordinate Army commanders. Far Eastern TVD commanders in Manchuria likewise unaware of developments in Europe, and other TVD commanders know about the strikes. The Soviet propaganda machine continues to crank out material about the revanchist German threat and that the warmongering Americans are liable to release nuclear hellfire down on the peace loving USSR, who for decades publicly declared that the USSR had a "no first use" policy.

Upon receipt of the first NUKEFLASH message reporting the Soviet use of nuclear weapons, the commander of Strategic Air Command, at his own initiative and following long-standing plans, orders the immediate launch of the alert bomber force. Within 15 minutes approximately one fifth of America's strategic bomber force is airborne, refuelling from accompanying tankers to enable them to reach their assigned Emergency War Order targets. All leave is cancelled and all SAC personnel are ordered to return to base immediately.

The Minnesota Regiment, a state guard unit, raises a third battalion as a paper formation, composed of state law enforcement officers (state police, game wardens, prison guards and park rangers), so that they could be legally considered to be members of the military.

C Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry at Fort Jackson completes its training cycle at Fort Jackson and the privates clean and turn in their weapons and gear. Private Randolph Cutler and his compatriots spend the evening scrubbing walls.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rW5JRo1Bm5ocpT8bRYyKwVCocHVRiBLy/view?usp=sharing)
Widespread panic accompanies the outbreak of nuclear warfare in Europe and China. Roads leaving cities in the US and Western Europe are jammed with cars fleeing potential targets. Churches are packed with the frightened faithful intent on making their peace with the Lord before the man-made holocaust takes them to meet their maker. Stores are stripped bare of preserved food; civilian guns and ammunition, camping gear and many first aid supplies have been sold out for months.

Patrol Missile Hydrofoil Squadron One, composed of the six Pegasus-class missile patrol boats and the tender President Taft, departs its home station of Key West, Florida and begins its transit to Rota Spain prior to finally (after months of inaction and discussion) be committed to action in the Mediterranean. The deployment is also an admission that America has more serious concerns than containing a possible threat from Cuba.

Following the prior day's Soviet use of nuclear weapons, HM Government fully implements Operation Peripheral, with senior members of the Royal Family and the Government dispersing to a number of secret locations throughout southern England and the 11 Regional Seats of Government fully manned.

Elsewhere along the front in Poland, NATO troops continue to advance as the momentum of operations and "fog of war" keep driving the Allied offensive forward. The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) reaches the Soviet border north of Przemyśl.

The independent brigades that had served under X Corps in Norway (the 103rd and 197th Field Artillery, 111th Air Defense and 111th Engineer) begin movement out of Northern Norway.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q3oE_zw2c76730-wBUlDM8-ScaoNa8z1/view?usp=sharing)
The American carrier USS Saratoga, operating along the GIUK Gap in search of Soviet raiders breaking out into the North Atlantic, is damaged by a SS-N-19 cruise missile fired by the Soviet Oscar II-class SSGN K-410 after its escorts and close-in defenses defeated seven other missiles. It is forced to limp into the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for repairs.

A small convoy of ferries and freighters departs Stavanger, Norway, crossing the North Sea to Eemshaven, Netherlands with the vehicles and heavy equipment of the US 6th Infantry Division (Light). Overhead, five F-15Es of the 21st Tactical Fighter Squadron, the last of the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing's original 48, transit to Eindhoven, Netherlands to join the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing's mixed force of F-111s and F-15E strike aircraft.

Companies of the 71st Airborne Brigade held in reserve in Romania begin familiarization training with Jugoslav and Romanian AK-47 clones and PK and MG-42 light machineguns as the brigade command staff grows increasingly concerned with supply. The training will open the option to convert some units to small arms that America's Romanian and Jugoslav allies can provide support for.

I MEF and XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran make slow progress in Iran. Thanks to a series of small tankers and the benevolence of the Saudi government CENTCOM has no shortage of fuel, but ammunition, spare parts and replacement vehicles and troops are in short supply.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory completes discharge of deck cargo of telephone poles and begins unloading 8000 tons of bagged corn meal to the custody of Iran Nowin government, which dispenses it to local bakeries and 1st Iranian Army's logistics staff.

Eight A-7Ds of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, retracing the flight path of their replacement AT-33Es to Beeville NAS, Texas prior to deploying to Korea.

The Pakistani counter-attack south of Lahore is decisively defeated and the Indian Army crosses the Pakistani border in strength along nearly its entire length. Intense air battles rage overhead as masses of obsolescent fighters on both sides try to defeat each other and avoid the handfuls of modern aircraft (Pakistani F-16s and Indian MiG-29s) that appear from time to time.

[chico20854]

Still working on the NATO response... hope to get caught up tomorrow!

[chico20854]

July 11, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The North Atlantic Council (composed of NATO heads of state) approves a response to the Soviet nuclear strike at the end of a marathon session that concludes in the early morning hours. A single W82 155mm nuclear artillery shell is to be fired at a Soviet regimental headquarters in the Brest area. Intelligence assets (up to and including American photo reconnaissance satellites) are tasked with locating such a target while a heavily escorted C-130 cargo plane is loaded with the round in West Germany and it is flown forward to a firing battery. The effort comes together shortly before dusk when a M109A5 of the German 215th Panzer Artillery Battalion fires the round, hitting the 261st Tank Regiment's headquarters.

President Tanner orders SAC's airborne alert to be halted, fearing that the Soviets will interpret the mass of bombers loitering within minutes of Soviet airspace as an indication that the US intends a massive and immediate attack on the Soviet homeland and respond accordingly.

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

Private Cutler graduates basic training and is allowed four hours on post with his mother and girlfriend.

A wave of panic sweeps across the UK with many people fleeing the cities for the perceived safety of rural areas; throughout the country there is panic buying of food, bottled water, and other essential supplies.

A dozen Chinese H-6 bombers launch from Dingxin Air Base in the Gobi Desert, each loaded with a single 250 kt nuclear gravity bomb, headed for cities in Eastern Siberia and the Soviet Far East. Two bombers, flying independently, each head for Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Chita, Ulan Ude, Irkutsk and Kosmolosk-na-Amure. A GRU informant in the nearby town radios word of the mass takeoff and the 11th and 14th PVO Air Armies respond by placing their forces on the highest alert. Eleven of the Chinese bombers are intercepted and shot down, and one makes it's way to its target, the city of Ulan Ude. The bomber drops its munition on the junction of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railroads on the eastern edge of the city. Set for a ground burst, the fuze on the bomb fails to operate and the Soviets capture the munition intact from the 3-meter deep crater it causes on the edge of the railyard.

To counter the threat of Soviet missile submarines, which have largely dispersed from their home ports, the Joint Chiefs authorize Operation Profligate, the all-out hunt for Soviet boomers. Carrier and surface groups have their allocation of attack submarines cut to one each (if they still had one assigned) and all available attack submarines are tasked with seeking out Soviet boomers. The escort carriers are pulled from convoy duty; the USS Langley lands its remaining Harriers and is sent to the Norwegian Sea while the Franklin and a small escort force begin patrolling northwest of Hawaii, a known operating area for Soviet SSBNs.

The Luftwaffe 2nd Luftjaeger Regiment is relieved of convoy escort duties and ordered into the siege of Warsaw, where the unit’s flak guns with their high elevation are invaluable in striking targets in the seemingly endless rows of concrete high-rise apartment buildings on the city’s outskirts. The airmen perform well, although taking heavy casualties in the urban meat grinder.

West German polizie clear the vicinity of NATO nuclear weapon storage sites of civilians, using some of the recently recalled security troops to secure the areas from refugees from the battle zone, curious hikers and hunters and anyone without a legitimate reason to be in the area.

NATO troops all along the line in Poland, Byelorussia and Ukraine slow their advance as they adapt to a nuclear battlefield. Infantry begin to dig in deeper to take advantage of the protection offered by foxholes, artillery batteries increase their spacing between guns, logistics units harden their stockpiles and disperse their vehicles and gas masks, chemical protective garments and decontamination gear are dug out of rucksacks and readied for use.

STAVKA continues to feed additional units into the Western Front. The MVD's 16th Convoy Brigade in Lvov, which operates labor camps in the region as well as commanding a riot police battalion, is reinforced with more riot troops and prisoners on parole and assigned a sector facing German troops. The Lvov sector is further reinforced by two other MVD internal troop regiments, the 1st from Kiev and the 8th Training Regiment from Donetsk. In Byelorussia, the 1st Shock Army (from the Moscow area) is reinforced with the 65th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit formed from the Ryazan Military Automobile School. The division's antiquated T-10 tanks and ISU-152 assault guns are employed in defensive fighting, mostly fighting from hidden ambush positions.

The Japanese landing force in the Kuriles masses outside the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, the largest settlement on the island of Kunashir, where the surviving defenders from the 484th Machinegun-Artillery Regiment have gathered. Scattered Soviet stragglers are on the loose elsewhere on the island, but do not present a challenge to Japanese control of the island. The first Japanese air force C-130 transport lands at the airport 10 miles southwest of the village.

The Soviet nuclear assault on the Chinese People's Liberation Army continues. Twenty devices are used, hitting infantry columns advancing towards Soviet lines, bridges and river crossings and command posts. Soviet troops, which had been retreating before the masses of Chinese infantry, halt and begin to hold ground in preparation for a counterattack.

South Korean and American mechanized units begin sending probing patrols northward beyond Pyongyang as additional South Korean infantry units arrive to take over the reduction of the North Korean capital. In the east the last defenders of the city of Hamhung are blasted out of the ruins of a block of apartments by a joint force of American marines and South Korean soldiers.

Troops of I MEF's 1st Marine Division link up with soldiers of XVIII Airborne Corps' 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry (9th Infantry Division) in the town of Firuzaba. The link-up is made easier by the Army unit's use of LAV-25s, which the marines recognize as friendly.

Workers in the shipyard in Leningrad finally are able to begin cutting away sections of steel plate from the hulk of the incomplete battlecruiser Rossiya for transfer to Nikolaev, where the plate will be used to repair the helicopter carrier Leningrad. In Nikolaev, while awaiting the plate's arrival, shipyard workers (diverted from working on the USSR's second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Orel) have put Leningrad's turbines back together (one was successfully replaced, the other was reinstalled despite being worn out), replaced one of the ship's diesel generators and reinstalled the SA-N-3 missile launchers. They also closed up the ship's sonar dome following removal of the obsolescent original system, forgoing the planned upgrade to a more modern model.

A salvage tug arrives at the burning Kuwaiti tanker Al-Tahreer in the Caribbean, but is unable to take her under tow. A HU-25 Falcon of squadron VOJ-202 overflies the Soviet Q-ship. When the radioed answers to the Coast Guard aircraft's queries seem overly suspicious the plane calls for a surface ship to conduct a boarding.

[chico20854]

July 12, 1997

The siege of Shiraz is broken (unofficially) when the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines drive back the motor-riflemen of the 406th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, 71st Motor-Rifle Division from its positions closing the road into the city. The Marines are supported by strikes from A-4 Skyhawks of VMA-131.

Unofficially,

The GRU orders all surviving Spetsnaz units in NATO countries to make an all-out effort to attack NATO nuclear weapons storage sites. Likewise, the KGB activates its surviving agent networks and "associated organizations" (such as elements of the Irish IRA, the Dutch Red Army, the Japanese Red Army, the Red Army Faction in Germany, etc.) to disrupt the NATO deployment of nuclear weapons. Largely unprompted, the peace movement in Western Europe and North America leap into action, with protests in cities, on university campuses (although most schools are not in session) and outside military bases. The latter category of protests are broken up by civilian and military police, who will brook no disruption to the war effort.

Lech Walesa, president of the Free Polish Government, makes an urgent request to President Tanner that his government be consulted prior to use of nuclear weapons in the territory it has claimed. He explains that this is to prevent the destruction of locations and items that are of importance to Polish culture, and explains that his representatives are willing to provide locations of such sites so that "no nuke" zones can be established around them. Tanner agrees to consider the idea, but does so more to humor Walesa than to give it serious consideration, assured by CIA analysts that the Free Polish government is riddled with Warsaw Pact spies and any such zones would, if established, be used as safe havens for enemy units.

Soviet propaganda trumpets the news of the prior day's NATO nuclear use to all. Warsaw Pact media goes into overdrive, declaring that the Germans and Americans are brutal barbarians that have, in their desperation to salvage a victory from their inevitable defeat at the hands of the glorious Red Army, once again unleashed nuclear warfare on the peace-loving people of the world. (The fact that the USSR was the first to use a nuclear weapon is conveniently not brought up, and in the former USSR and Warsaw Pact states the population believed that NATO fired the first nuclear shot for many decades after the war.)

Private Randall Cutler and many of the other graduates of his basic training company board school busses for the trip a mile and a half down the road to his advanced individual training course, where they will be trained as light wheeled vehicle mechanics. They spend the afternoon doing paperwork and being introduced to their new drill sergeant.

The last of the SAC airborne bombers lands and begins recovery (post-flight maintenance, refueling, securing the weapons and debriefing the crew) before being turned around to return to alert status. SAC training units (the 329th Combat Crew Training Squadron and the 330th Combat Flight Instructor Squadron) stand down from their alert status and resume training flights, although non-essential flights in other SAC units are still grounded.

Massive protests surround RAF Greenham Common and other military bases in the UK. Demonstrators demand the immediate removal of American nuclear weapons from British territory and withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland in order to avert a nuclear war.

The Chinese retaliation for the Soviet nuclear strikes continues, with a massed launch of IRBMs on a variety of Soviet cities and military facilities. The attacks on population centers are defeated by an active and efficient ABM system (composed of handfuls of upgraded SA-5, SA-10 and SA-12 missile systems), but the naval bases of Vladivostok, Mys Shmidta, and Fokino are very heavily damaged.

Soviet forces continue the savage devastation of the Chinese military, with another 24 strikes on command posts, mechanized formations halted to refuel and masses of Chinese troops. Morale in the Chinese force begins to plummet and desertion becomes rampant; Chinese commanders need to keep their units together where the few experienced NCOs and officers can monitor the masses of near-panicked recruits, but to gather them in such a manner invites a Soviet nuclear strike.

Eight A-7Ds depart Travis AFB, California en route to Korea via Hawaii and Okinawa. They are accompanied by a pair of KC-767 tankers of the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron (Hawaii Air National Guard).

The Soviet response to the NATO nuclear attack on the 37th Guards Tank Division is swift, with another nuclear artillery strike on a NATO unit. This time the target is the American 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), which has advanced to within 30 km of Lvov, Ukraine.

British troops clash with the paratroops of the 44th Guards Air Assault Division along the Polish-Lithuanian border. To the west, the German VII Korps crosses the border into Kaliningrad, facing the partially rebuilt 3rd Shock Army, while III German Korps continues its assault on Gdansk.

The battleship Iowa, set afire and without power after a Polish kamikaze strike, drifts into a minefield in the Danish straits and detonates a US-made Mk 52 mine, with 625 pounds of explosive, further adding to the ship's peril.

The day sees the first use of tactical nuclear weapons in the northern theatre, when a FROG-7 rocket from the 116th Motor-Rifle Division is used to blast a Norwegian defensive position along the Pasvik River, which forms the Soviet-Norwegian border.

In Romania, the Soviet 14th Guards Army resumes its offensive westward along the Danube plain. The lead 59th Guards Motor-Rifle Division advances 10 km in the first 24 hours, closing in on the oil center of Ploesti. The Army's commanders are told that they are to take the utmost care to avoid damage to the petroleum infrastructure, and that they will be held personally responsible for any damage done by their units.

In the Caribbean, the burning Kuwaiti tanker Al-Tahreer sinks under the stress of a hull weakened by days of fire. A Dutch patrol boat, dispatched from St. Maarten to investigate the suspicious freighter, is fired upon when it approaches what is in fact a Soviet raider. It calls for help, and within 30 minutes an aircraft from VOJ-202 has the raider under radar observation. It remains safely out of range of the raider's weapons for the four hours it takes for a strike from the Lexington to be organized, launched and arrive at the scene. The American trainers and light attack aircraft come in on the deck, rocketing, strafing and bombing the Soviet craft. It sinks shortly thereafter.

[chico20854]

July 13, 1997

The deployment of the 46th Infantry Division to Europe, delayed due to shipping shortages until this time, is further delayed by the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

The drug charges against Dain Dangerous are dropped.

Unofficially,

General Secretary Sauronski refuses to take President Tanner's call.

Hyped up over the (almost entirely imaginary) threat from "Marxist infiltrators from Mexico", the Texas civilian militias along the border begin more aggressive patrolling.

A second day of protests outside RAF Greenham Common. Demonstrators block all entrances to the base, hindering the resupply of cruise missile flights that are dispersed throughout the countryside.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team returns to three GLCM launch sites in Berkshire that they had located in February, establishing a hidden observation post monitoring each. To their east, another Spetsnaz team launches an attack on the weapons storage area at RAF Upper Heyford, initiated with a truck bomb to blast through the perimeter fences. The attack is repulsed when the WSA's guard force ties down the Soviet sabateurs long enough for a pair of Peacekeeper Armored Cars from the 620th Security Police Squadron to arrive. One of the armored cars is destroyed by a RPG-18, but the other is able to employ its machineguns to pin down the attackers while more reinforcements arrive. Two commandos surrender, while the rest of the team is wiped out.

Far Eastern TVD retaliates against China for the nuclear attacks on Vladivostok and other naval bases. SS-20 mobile IRBMs from the 53rd Missile Army strike the PLA Navy's sole boomer base at Jianggezhuang, the Jiuquan and Xichang Satellite Launch Centers, the entrance to the Yuquanshan Mountain underground command center and the headquarters of the PLA's ICBM brigades. (There are hundreds of launch sites and dozens of underground missile and warhead storage facilities, too many for the Soviets to hit).

Internally displaced persons (mostly refugees from the fall and winter's fighting in East Germany and along the Czech border) begin moving away from locations that might be targets for Soviet nuclear weapons - air bases, the Mainz Army Depot, fixed military headquarters (even though the commands based there moved to alternative and field sites long ago), munitions plants and air defense sites, joined by some locals who, despite living near such targets for many years, decide that the risk is no longer worth it. The flow of people inhibits military traffic in West Germany, especially the trickle of units into Bavaria to resist the oncoming Italian-Pact force.

Italian troops advancing from the south link up with troops of the Hungarian 25th "Klapka György" Tank Brigade on the outskirts of Graz, Austria. The Austian government, from its wartime command post in St Johann im Pongau, calls for assistance from NATO to halt the Warsaw Pact onslaught.

The battle for Warsaw continues as the British 107th Infantry Brigade pushes south in intense fighting and the American 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) launches an attack out of the ruins of the international airport. Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are still locked in fierce combat in the Towarowa train station - they have captured and been driven out of a signal shed three times over the prior week, losing 40 men in the process.

NATO Air Forces on the Central Front drop the first nuclear bomb of the war, striking a SS-21 missile battery of the 458th Missile Brigade with a .5 kiloton B-61 bomb as it prepared to launch.

NATO forces in Northern Norway respond to the prior day's Soviet nuclear attack on the Norwegian-Soviet border. A F-16 from the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing drops a 60 kt B-61 bomb on the Kola Highway's Litsa River crossing.

The Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine building orders truck manufacturing plants (as well as a wide variety of other factories supporting the war effort) to implement industrial civil defense measures. Some manufacturing is moved to underground facilities and workers and their families are dispersed to a number of associated facilities, including resorts and rest camps, usually located within 100 km of the plant. During peacetime these provided recreation and vacation opportunities for workers; in wartime they serve as housing for employees and their families. The workers commute daily via train to the plant; if the plant is struck the workers on duty will potentially be lost but the off-duty workers and families will be safely outside the blast zone.

US Navy ship repair experts arrive in Mombassa, Kenya to evaluate the condition of the frigate Bagley.

The USS Independence battle group, in the Arabian Sea, resumes attacks on the isolated Soviet airborne force in Chah Bahar.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) shifts north as the 45th (my 32nd) Army begins a rapid retreat from the Shiraz area, pursued by the American 1st Marine Division, reinforced with the Australian 1st Brigade.

The final six A-7s of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, also returning to Texas for redeployment overseas.

[chico20854]

July 14, 1997

photo
The Jugoslav 5th Army launches an attack against northeast Italy in an attempt to support its NATO Allies (and recapture territory lost earlier in the century).

The Native Canadian Ranger Regiment enters combat, providing invaluable aid to the beleaguered American 47th Infantry Divisision. (Unofficially,) Nevertheless, the Soviet 25th Corps continues to make progress as it advances eastward. During the brief twilight, Soviet transports drop the lead regiment of the 13th Guards Airborne Division (the 115th Guards) on the western coast of the Kenai Peninsula, threatening the seaward approaches to Anchorage. The detachments of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic) in the area immediately respond, but they are overwhelmed by the veteran Soviet paratroops.

Unofficially,

Violence breaks out on the edges of protests outside RAF Greenham Common, with fires and scuffles with police. USAF commanders dispatch helicopters and truck convoys from other bases to sustain dispersed missile launch units, while Territorial Army units deploy to the countryside to try to secure GLCM operating areas.

Eight A-7Ds arrive at Kimhae Air Base in Korea, bringing the 127th Tactical Fighter Wing (Michigan Air National Guard) back up to full strength. The aircraft had been serving in Panama before being transferred to Korea.

The Soviet nuclear attacks on China continue, with strategic bombers following up on targets that surived the previous day's attacks as well as artillery and SSM-delivered strikes on troop concentrations.

The Chinese Army high command commits sixteen infantry divisions, many still in the process of forming, to the front and others from the strategic reserve.

The Soviet 28th Army in Vietnam begins an offensive into southern China, blasting Chinese border defenses with a trio of nuclear rounds to allow it to advance northeast along the rail line and road to Nanning.

NATO militaries on the continent scramble to secure their rear areas in the face of increased Soviet special operations and terrorist attacks. The Luftwaffe requests the return of security units serving in Poland, which is refused (some are deeply engaged in the battle for Warsaw while others are fighting the same sort of partisan and special operations battles), being offered territorial security units (many of which are assigned to guard empty depots and assembly areas that have been vacant for months) to help push the security perimeters of air bases farther away from the security fences. Anti-terrorist units (GSG-9 in Germany, the SAS in the UK and the Dutch Royal Marines) intensify their operations, striking suspected hideouts even though the intelligence leading to them may not withstand future legal scrutiny.

NATO troops at the front are forced to adjust to another aspect of tactical nuclear warfare - the near dissapearance of nearly all tactical air support as CENTAF concentrates on the ability to wage a tactical nuclear war. All nuclear-assigned units (over half of the fighter-bombers) cease conventional sorties, instead generating the maximum number of possible nuclear-armed aircraft from their depleted and battered fleets. Non-nuclear fighters are tasked to support tactical nuclear strikes, flying escort missions, suppressing Pact air defenses, flying diversionary sorties or carrying camera pods for post-strike analysis or locating targets. Tanker resources are cut back dramatically, held for support of SAC bombers or nuclear strikes. The nuclear-tasked fighter-bomber and attack fleets are dispersed to other NATO airbases (in the UK, RAF Sculthorpe, Lakenheath, Fairford, Mildenhall, Weathersfeld, St. Mawgan and Machihanish all host nuclear-armed American aircraft), and nuclear depth charges are issued to American P-3 and British Nimrod patrol planes.

Lead elements of the Italian 4th Alpini Army Corps begin the second phase of their offensive, advancing north out of Innsbruk and reaching the German border by nightfall.

The Indo-Pakistani war continues as Indian infantry batter their way through deep Pakistani defense lines. The Pakistani Army has long prepared for another Indian attack, fortifying the banks of the irrigation canals along the border and laying minefields that are over a mile deep along most of the front. Urged on by jingoistic politicians, Indian commanders resort to techniques last seen in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, sending masses of poorly trained infantry under artillery cover to cross the obstacle belt in hopes of reaching the enemy trenches. The casaulties are equally horrendous as those suffered in the 1980s as the Pakistanis' pillboxes offer sufficient protection from artillery for machinegunners to mow down attackers, and the few locations where Indian troops capture Pakistani positions are quickly recaptured by mechanized reaction forces.

[chico20854]

July 15, 1997

The Federal government begins to implement the preliminary steps towards city evacuation plans in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship New Orleans Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

President Tanner authorizes SAC to implement it's command-wide dispersal plan, spreading bombers and tankers to over a dozen other bases (mostly USAF but a handful of Army and Navy installations), making it more difficult for the USSR to destroy a significant portion of America's bomber force on the ground.

In the final major Soviet airborne attack of the war, the 13th Guards' 301st Guards Airborne Regiment is dropped at the base of the Kenai Peninsula, isolating the area and placing Soviet forces only 50 miles from Anchorage. American fighter planes from Elmendorf AFB tear through the Soviet transport fleet (already much depleted from costly landings from Norway to Iran) as it turns for home.

A massive show of police force occurs outside RAF Greenham Common. While civil and MoD police clear protestors from gates onto the base, RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police patrol the perimeter, apprehending a handful of protestors who cross the fence onto the base.

In Operation Wonton, F-111s of 27th Tactical Fighter Wing attack the major railyards near Kimchaek, North Korean, delaying North Korean reinforcements and hitting NKPA positions near Kimchaek, North Korea in preparation for a USMC amphibious landing.

On the Kuriles, Soviet resistance on Kunashir has collapsed, but the remainder of the 18th Machinegun-Artillery Division on the adjacent island of Iturup launch a fierce (non-nuclear) counterattack against the Japanese landing force. US and Japanese aircraft hammer the remaining radar and SAM umbrella emplacements on and near the island, while heavy rainfall prevents close air support.

The leader of the Dutch Red Army, Bert Kroner, is killed in an early morning raid by marines of the Special Assistance Unit.

Along the front, as both armies engage in more nuclear attacks, a struggle of reconnaissance begins. Political leaders on both sides demand useful employment of the relatively low-yield weapons. Due to those weapon's nature, accurate targeting is vital - a 1 kt warhead is lethal against tanks within 90 meters; smaller artillery-fired rounds with yields below .25 kt even shorter distances. Yet both sides' reconnaissance assets have been depleted by the months of combat across East Germany and Poland. Human intelligence - special forces, long-range infiltration teams, friendly partisans - provide invaluable eyes-on location information, but are reliant on secure communications and have to be able to evacuate the target area before the strike. NATO deep-look assets (satellite, JSTARS and TR-1 electronic surveillance aircraft as well as tactical intelligence platforms such as the EH-60) have been worn down by the months of constant operation, but are more numerous than the Soviet ELINT fleet, which has been savaged. The Soviets enjoy an advantage in humint, with millions of loyal communists in Poland and NATO unable to conceal their operations from the local civilian population and with insufficient troops to hunt for hidden radio transmitters. The Soviets are also able to exploit the passive portion of their vast radio-electronic force (their active jammers and spoofing assets having been destroyed months earlier), using radio direction-finding to locate NATO units behind the lines. Both sides, however, face the challenge of identifying targets from the flow of electronic data - is a transmission from an artillery fire direction center or a field hospital? is the unit that set up in the woods a headquarters or a maintenance unit? The challenge of locating and identifying targets, transmitting that information to a headquarters (in an environment with disruptions to electronic communications due to EMP), making a decision to strike it, deploying a weapon to a firing unit and having the round fired before the target has moved to another location is quite formidable, and in the first week of the nuclear exchange it proves nearly insurmountable.

In this environment, conventional operations still prove effective, as demonstrated when the British 4th Armoured Division masses its tanks against the 44th Guards Airborne Division, driving the paratroops back from Kapsukas, Lithuania and cutting the Minsk-Kaliningrad rail line.

Italian troops cross into southern Germany, capturing the German alpine resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, peacetime headquarters of the Bundeswehr 1st Gebirsjaeger Division, fighting for Torun, Poland at this time.

The evacuation of the four German fallschirjaeger brigades, battered in drops along the Soviet border, is halted. The need for infantry is so high, and the threat of infiltrators so high, that the elite paratroops are assigned to augment the jaeger battalions of German panzer and panzergrenadier divisions, one battalion assigned to each heavy brigade, ostensibly assigned to secure rear areas and rough terrain while the 9th Luftlande Artillery Battalion is sent to add to the artillery park outside Warsaw, where its 105mm howitzers add little to the overall effort.

The lead elements of the 10th Mountain Division depart Norway in a priority airlift to Germany as SACEUR demands experienced mountain troops to fight the Italian troops descending from the Alps.

Detachment 1, 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys six of its remaining F-111Fs to Moron Air Base, Spain from RAF Lakenheath.

The Turkish Army activates three armored brigades (the 20th at Burdur, the 95th at Etimesgut, Ankara and the 172nd at Şereflikoçhisar) to try to stop the rapidly evolving Pact offensive in Bulgaria. The brigades combine newly arrived American M-60A4 tanks with a mix of recalled reservists (many in their 30s) and partially trained recruits, led by NCOs and officers recovering from wounds and others culled from training and headquarters establishments.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) in Iran is shifted north and west, following the linkup with US Marines and IPA troops outside Shiraz. The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) Army begins withdrawing from the area around Shiraz as the IPA 3rd Armored Division launches an attack on the Soviet lines outside the city.

[chico20854]

July 16, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day!

Strategic Air Command units begin their dispersals. Among the movements are the 1st ACCS deploys to its dispersal site of Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ; 2nd ACCS deploys to Clinton County Airport, Ohio and detachment of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron moves to McChord AFB, Washington. Each of the detachments include security, support and maintenance teams; whether there are nuclear weapons stored at facilities on those bases is highly classified (although most do not have adequate secure sites for them).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency orders its Special Materials Program to complete stocking and sealing of strategic reserve stockpiles across the nation. Preliminary city evacuation plan implementation is expanded to the Pacific Northwest and the Washington, DC area.

Protests continue at RAF Greenham Common in response to the prior day's police show of force. Additional thousands of people arrive, all demanding withdrawal of American nuclear weapons that are making the UK a target.

A Spetsnaz team attacks the American communications facility at High Wycombe, which plays a key role in maintaining communications with NATO nuclear assets.

The USS Midway battle group, hunting raiders in the South Pacific, is ordered north at flank speed to reinforce the war effort in Alaska.

NATO responds to the dual Soviet strikes on the 14th with two attacks, a W79 "neutron bomb" fired by a M110 eight-inch howitzer of the American 41st Field Artillery Brigade at 5th Guards Tank Army’s 306th Cannon Artillery Brigade and a Lance missiles fired by the Geman ArtillerieKommando 2 at an ammunition dump that is supplying 2nd Guards Tank Army.

Civilian contractors complete the rail line to Gora Kalwaria south of Warsaw and connect it to the bridge across the Wisla. The line is able to support much of the needs of Operational Group Warsaw and the German First Army, but further progress drops off quickly as workers quit and head west lest they become targets for a Soviet warhead.

Soviet air defense troops fire a SA-5 anti-aircraft missile with a 25 kt warhead at an American SR-71 reconnaissance plane approaching the Soviet border at high speed and 75,000 feet, downing the aircraft. It is the first SR-71 combat loss in over 28 years of operations.

Patrol Missile Hydrofoil Squadron One arrives in Gibraltar, completing its transatlantic transit. It requires a few days in port before commencing operations.

The Jugoslav attack into Italy has cut off land access to Trieste as mechanized troops of the 14th Corps reach the outskirts of Udine.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan blow up a car bomb outside local KGB headquarters, killing 13 border guards and disrupting operations for days.

While sailing southwest of Puerto Rico, the aged aircraft carrier Lexington suffers an engineering casualty and lays motionless in the water. She is soon taken under tow by one of her escorts, the destroyer John Hancock.

[chico20854]

July 17, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

The trial of the members of the Boston Megapunk band Terminal Illness related to the July 4 riot begins despite the defense's requests for more time to review the evidence, interview witnesses and otherwise prepare a coherent defense.

A female lieutenant colonel at Fort Monroe, Virginia, comes forward alleging that she was forced into a physical relationship by the (former) commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, who was relieved of command in June after multiple scandals.

Given the deteriorating situation in Europe, the decision is made to immediately deploy the 5th Marine Division, regardless of its training status.

The Army takes a different approach, dispatching individual squads and platoons from the 46th Infantry Division to Europe as replacements, to be "plugged in" to units at the front.

In the early morning hours, three protestors climb the fence onto RAF Greenham Common. They are intercepted by a USAF Peacekeeper armored car of the 501st Security Police Squadron; a jittery young airman opens fire with the turret-mounted twin MAG machineguns, killing two of the three and wounding the last protestor. By noon thousands of protestors are at the base's main gate, firing fireworks and lobbing molotov cocktails. RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police open fire as the crowd is on the verge of overrunning the gate. By sundown over twenty protestors are dead.

Mobile elements of the 18th Machinegun-Artillery Division on Iturup in the Kuriles (the mobile battalion of the 650th Regiment and the T-72s of the 110th Independent Tank Battalion) launch another counterattack on the Japanese troops, who have the garrison town and island's "capital" of Kurilsk surrounded. The T-72s succeed in breaking through the Japanese lines, but do so without their supporting infantry and are soon hunted down individually and defeated in detail.

The Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-33 sinks the small American freighter Sunmar Sky in the Aleutians as it approached the port of Dutch Harbor. The sinking of the ship within sight of the town is sufficient to scare shipping companies from dispatching any further vessels to the islands, forcing the support of the population and the 172nd Infantry Brigade to come by air and military shipping.

The Dutch Red Army announces a new leader, his deputy Jacob Ketelaar.

The first Danish reinforcements (from the 2nd Jutland Regimental Combat Team) arrive at the front in Bavaria; their deployment had been delayed by a shortage of transportation assets. The Danes are thrown into action immediately, clashing with Italian troops of the Tridentina Alpine Brigade 50 km southwest of Munich. To their east, German territorial troops are ejected from the German garrison outside Bad Tolz, but the the Italian troops are halted by fierce resistance a few miles north when they attempt to overrun the peacetime headquarters of 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group. The rear detachment, mostly composed of administrative troops with a handful of Green Berets, manages to hold two battalions of Alpini at bay for 12 hours before being driven out of the flaming ruins of Flint Kaserne.

The Soviets fire two more tactical nuclear rounds at NATO troops in Ukraine, halting the advance towards Lvov.

The 101st Air Assault Division begins a series of air assaults into the Zagros mountains. 1st Brigade captures the town of Lordegan.

US Navy experts declare that the damage to the frigate Bagley is so severe that it cannot be repaired in any shipyard in the region and that there is great risk in towing the ship back to the US for repair.

As the Lexington is under tow to the nearest drydock able to take her (at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico), orders are received to instead take her to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be easier to transport repair parts to a shipyard. The carrier's helicopters and what fixed-wing aircraft that can make it off the deck without catapults and wind over the deck take off, landing at Roosevelt Roads before returning to the East Coast for reassignment pending Lady Lex's return to service.

[chico20854]

July 18, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler learns that AIT is vastly different from basic training when the senior platoon in his company is granted an overnight pass, starting at the end of the training day on Saturday. The lone drill sergeant on duty in the company area is indifferent to whether the junior privates are in uniform or civilian clothes, fornicating or not, let alone drinking sodas and eating candy. Cutler's dream of a barracks business empire collapses without an environment of scarcity to drive demand.

The 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment is formed at Fort Bliss, Texas, taking in some of the rear detachment troops of the 3rd ACR, which deployed from the base in the fall. The regiment begins filling up with graduates of the base's basic training battalions and replacements from throughout the continental US. Equipment is scarce, with a single cavalry troop of Cadillac-Gage Stingray light tanks and two battalions of M113 APCs. The regiment's air defense battery is brought to full strenth nearly instantaneously, however, by raiding the base's Air Defense Center and School for excess soldiers and equipment.

In the predawn hours a force of police and military units overrun the "Peace Camp" outside RAF Greenham Common. Hundreds of protestors are arrested, carried off in busses, as the government declares the area within one kilometer of the base a restricted area. A notable development is that over 75 percent of the civilian police are armed with firearms.

The US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches another amphibious attack on the east coast of North Korea. Alongside South Korean marines of the 6th Marine Brigade, they land outside the industrial and port city of Kimchaek, defended by a mix of Patriotic Red Guards and remnants of several North Korean Army divisions. The heavy cruiser Des Moines provides heavy fire support, and aircraft from the carriers Nimitz and Abraham Lincoln fly overhead, clashing nearly continuously with the remnants of the Soviet 23rd Air Defense Corps from Vladivostok, a little over 200 miles to the northeast.

The American battleship Wisconsin and her surface action group locate a Soviet reinforcement convoy headed to Alaska and promptly engages it. The result is a bloodbath for the Soviets, as the few escorts (mostly aged corvettes and frigates) are quickly dispatched with anti-ship missiles fired by the American ships and their helicopters, leaving the transports at the mercy of the group's guns. The Soviet convoy scatters into the fog and Aleutian islands, but each ship is eventually located by the battlewagon's helicopters or supporting aircraft (from VP-90 near Anchorage and 407 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force from CFB Comox) and dealt with.

Jacob Ketelaar, the new leader of the Dutch Red Army, is killed by Dutch marines in a predawn raid. His term as leader lasted nearly 19 hours.

British troops fire their first tactical nuclear round, hitting a forming mass of Soviet artillery in Lithuania as the NATO forces along the Polish-Lithuanian border struggle to maintain control of the territory they have captured in the past weeks.

In Warsaw, Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are pulled from the front line, assigned to guard a food stockpile in the basement of the Czapski Palace. The light duty allows him and his exhausted and depleted command to rest and absorb new members, staff from the Ministry of Interior staff who have been shanghied into the fight.

Italian troops in Bavaria continue their advance towards Munich, overrunning the BND (West German intelligence agency) ELINT station at Alpina. To their east, Czech and Soviet troops blast their way through the second of Austria's blocking positions between Vienna and the German frontier, west of St. Polten.

The destroyer Coontz, damaged in the second Teriberka withdrawal and by Spetsnaz attack in drydock in Philadelphia, returns to sea. Its place in the drydock is taken by the damaged carrier Saratoga.

The 101st's assaults in Iran continue with a dawn landing at Sharh-e-Kord, on the eastern edge of the Zagros Mountains. By sunset the town's airport is being improved by American combat engineers to enable it to support the division's helicopters. The Soviet 1st (my 9th) Army opposing them splits, with the 147th Motor-Rifle Division falling back to the east to defend Esfahan and the rest of the Army moving north.

[chico20854]

More tomorrow....

[chico20854]

July 19, 1997

Nothing official for today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tucson Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

Jury selection concludes in the Terminal Illness riot trial.

Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-17374-2, located in the Appalachians in Pennsylvania, is sealed up by the contractor and the workers flown back home to Southern California. Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-17374-2, underneath St. Paul, Minnesota, is closed, and the soldiers of the 105th Engineer Group and 30th Engineer Brigade (both North Carolina National Guard) are urged to complete the secret projects they are working on as well.

The Soviet assault on China continues, with a Scud missile striking Songyuan as one of the freshly raised divisions is detraining from its journey to the front. In a further affront, specially modified Tu-16 Badger bombers of the 1339th Heavy Bomber Regiment fly a "ferry mission" to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam (where engineers have repaired the runway after the Allied attack in January). As they overfly southern China, they drop to low level and use spray dispensers to spread fungal spores over rice paddies, infecting the fields with rice blast. The USS Olympia passes under the North Pole and begins hunting for Soviet SSBNs under the polar ice cap. It is transferred from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet.

The Luftwaffe's Flugkörpergeschwader 1 (1st Missile Wing) evacuates its quick reaction alert (QRA) site at Bodelsberg in Bavaria as Italian troops fan out across Bavaria. The heavily escorted convoy moves northwest, occupying an empty Bundeswehr ammunition dump at Riedlingen some 120 km away.

SACEUR orders a halt to the advance into the USSR; units are to engage in local attacks only to straighten the front line.

Italian troops clash again with territorial troops on the outskirts of Munich as the Luftwaffe and BND rush to evacuate assets amid a flood of panicked refugees fleeing the fighting.

In Austria, Hungarian and Italian troops clear the foothills west of Graz of Austrian territorial troops and decide not to continue the advance into the high alpine regions.

The final battalions of the US 10th Mountain Division arrive at the Stuttgart International Airport as the unit's first battalions take up defensive positions west of Munich.

In the first use of nuclear weapons at sea, a SH-60F from the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (the only American carrier operational in the Atlantic Ocean at the time) drops a B-57 depth charge on a Soviet submarine detected approaching the battle group. The 10-kiloton device detonates at a depth of 150 feet, crushing the target (while also disrupting the battle group's sonar picture for hours due to turbulence in the waters, and the destroyer Peterson's sensitive fixed AN/SQS-53 sonar array is damaged by the intensity of the blast). While postwar records do not identify which submarine was hit, there were three boats that were at sea at the time that were not heard from after that time - the Victor III-class K-502, the Alfa-class K-463 and the Kilo-class B-466.

Udine falls to Jugoslav troops as the garrison and civilian population of Trieste are frantically evacuated by sea; Jugoslav commanders are happy to let the evacuation occur, harassed by light naval elements, permitting higher quality JNA units to move west.

As support troops rush to establish secure lines of communications and coordinate with allied IPA troops, 3rd Brigade, 101st Air Assault Division makes another leap north, capturing the town of Chadegan.

The Pakistani line south of Lahore finally begins to crumble after days upon days of Indian human-wave attacks.

[chico20854]

July 20, 1997

Nothing in canon for today! Unofficially,

A civilian militiaman west of Del Rio, Texas shoots two Mexican immigrants, killing one of them, a 17-year old from Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

A KC-135R tanker of the 92nd Aerial Refueling Squadron, call sign "Elephant 11", operating in heavy overcast over the Pacific accidentally collides with a Soviet Tu-16N Badger tanker performing the same mission. Although Elephant 11 is heavily damaged the crew manages to return to Boeing-King County AP, while the Tu-16N crashes attempting to land at Shemya, Alaska; thus making Elephant 11 and her crew the first and only tanker crew with a confirmed air-to-air kill.

Around the Western world the panicked and hurried evacuations of urban areas has largely halted as it becomes apparent that the nuclear exchange, after a week and a half, has not escalated to the strategic level that many had feared. Many people return to their homes and jobs in urban and suburban areas, although with a better idea of what is required to evacuate and what awaits them. Many who are able to remain in rural areas away from likely nuclear targets do so; the summer school break allow smany families to remain at their vacation homes.

The Royal Navy commissions another corvette, HMS Eskimo. Like its sister HMS Ashanti, the ship was under construction for the Malaysian Navy at the outbreak of the war, but the Royal Navy took over the contract and had the ship finished.

The main body of the Soviet force on Iturup in the Kuriles surrenders. The remaining defenders of the island - a platoon of security troops at the remote Vetrovoye air base - flee aboard an An-26 transport to Sakhalin Island.

The secret American airfield in the Karakum Desert - nicknamed Shangri-La by the airmen stationed there - now has nearly a million gallons of fuel and a stock of spare parts and conventional munitions (flares, chaff and the like) and is placed in a semi-caretaker status, with approximately 50 support and security personnel present.

NATO scrambles to assemble a coherent defense of Bavaria as Italian troops reach the city limits of Munich. The US Army Fourth Army, a pre-war Army responsible for mobilization of reserve component units from the Midwest, Rocky Mountain and Northern Plains states that had eployed to Europe in May to control units in the rear area, is assigned overall command of Allied efforts. The US XX Corps takes command of the US 6th and 10th Infantry Divisions as well as a handful of engineer, artillery and MP units, mostly redeployed from Norway, while the Dutch I Corps joins the German 15th Jaeger Division (the former VI Home Defense Command) and the Danes. The German effort adds in the more militarized elements of the Bavarian police - the Bavarian Border Police and the State Police's rapid-response force. More substantial reinforcements come in the way of I British Corps, which begins moving its heavy divisions south from positions further north on the Czech border.

To the east, additional Soviet troops (the 47th Motor-Rifle Brigade from Ufa in the Urals, the 16th Artillery Division from northwest of Moscow and the 96th MRD, a category C division from Kazan) arrive at the front. The tactical nuclear exhange continued with the first use of a nuclear-armed ATACMS missile, aimed at the 1st Guards Tank Army headquarters' communications center, identified by a US Army EH-60 ELINT helicopter.

Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean step up operations against the Italians, Greeks and their Soviet allies. NATO shipping has been cut off in the eastern Mediterranean between the still-closed Suez Canal and Italian domination of the Sicilian Channel. American hydrofoils accompany an amphibious task force eastward from Gibraltar while the USS John F Kennedy and America battle groups, low on munitions, begin a series of aggressive anti-surface sweeps from their operating area off the Egyptian coast.

The first battalions of the 5th Marine Division begin loading aboard ships in the Hampton Roads area. The roads in the area are crowded with military convoys as trucks begin moving the M60A4 tanks, M113s and M109s of the 46th ID's 36th Armored Brigade to piers from their staging areas at Fort Eustis; the vehicles are being shipped to Europe, where they will be parcelled out to replace losses in National Guard divisions.

A massive tank battle breaks out on the plains north of Shiraz, Iran as the advance of the Iranian 3rd Armored Division and the 1st Australian Brigade is countered by the 45th (my 32nd) Army, which commits the 69th and 15th (my 78th) Tank Divisions to hit the Allied force in the flank. The lead Soviet regiments slice behind the lead Iranian brigades, cutting them off, but are in turn attacked in their southern flank by the Iranian division's reserve brigade while the Australian brigade swings to face the lead Soviet regiments. As dusk falls the desert is a vast, confused battle, covererd in smoke from burning vehicles and dust kicked up by tracks, gunfire and artillery.

To the north, lead battalions of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) push beyond the positions siezed by the 101st Air Assault Division, continuing XVIII Airborne Corps' drive northward.

US Navy leaders in Washington place the damaged frigate Bagley as number 3 on a list of damaged vessels to be returned to the US via heavy lift ship, anticipated for mid-October.

[chico20854]

July 21, 1997

On Grenada, a group of Constables, assisted by retired SGM Dan Rojos and a few other retired American NCOs, surround the hideout of the Bunny Woolsey gang, a particularly brutal and ruthless gang. The gang is wiped out in the subsequent firefight, although the group's leader, the notorious criminal psychopath Bunny Woolsey, is not identified among the dead.

2nd Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, detached to V Corps to provide additional screening for the Warsaw perimeter, is struck by a tactical nuclear weapon while at an assembly point for resupply and refit, nearly annihilating the unit.

Unofficially,

The prosecutor in the Terminal Illness-Boston Common riot trial presents hours of footage of rioting; the defense's objection that none of the footage shows the defendants is overruled.

The US Congress repeals the assault weapons ban of 1994, allowing civilians to once again purchase new military-style semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. The actual impact of the repeal is minimal, since nearly all small arms production is devoted to the war effort.

Allied progress in North Korea slows as units run low on supplies. The limited road network is in poor condition and it (like the ports) suffered from months of Allied air attacks. The main road and rail lines in the west run through Pyongyang, which is still the object of intenst fighting as the South Korean IX Corps (composed of four reserve infantry divisions) and XI Corps (with three additional reserve divisions) push back the fanatical defenders, who believe (despite non-stop South Korean psyops broadcasts) that they are defending the Kim family.

Reconaissance units of II British Corps cross the Neman River in Byelorussia, skirting the eastern half of the city of Grodno, seeking a weak point in Soviet lines, which consist almost entirely of KGB Border Guards. As Scimitars and Scorpions of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars move east, they run into the T-80s of the newly arrived 96th MRD and quickly retreat back across the river, where the Chieftains of The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales Own) offer heavier covering fire.

In Warsaw, Panzergruppe Oberdorff intensifies its attacks along the eastern edge of the city. The force, mostly composed of British and German troops (including two former East German NVA divisions), makes progress, with the 5th Panzer Divison's recon battalion slipping a patrol into the Praga neoghborhood, where they can observe the Wisla River and the flow of Pact defenders into the southeastern area of the perimeter.

The fighting in Bavaria continues as the Italian 4th Alpini Corps, facing increasing numbers of NATO troops to its north and west, tries to both sustain its drive into Munich and form a cohesive front line.

In Austria, the combined Czech-Soviet force (the Soviet 21st Army and the Czech 2nd Army) batters against the final Austrian defensive line, east of Linz as Hungarian troops shift west. Hungarian internal troops, poorly trained and equipped (but all that are available), attempt to establish control over the city of Vienna, abandoned by the government on the first day of the Pact invasion and passed through by Pact troops advancing from Slovakia and Hungary.

The Soviet 2nd Guards Artillery Division is withdrawn from the Kola Peninsula to the Leningrad area.

The Jugoslav advance in northeastern Italy is halted when advancing troops reach the fortified banks of the Tagliemento River, fiercely defended by Italian reservists occupying bunkers, dug-in tank turrets and pillboxes covering minefields.

The Battle of the Valley continues in central Iran as the Allied advance is halted by the Soviet 40th and 45th (my 32nd) Armies and tanks run amok in a vast cauldron of tanks, guns, dust and smoke. The clouds over the battle prevent visual identifcation of tanks, neutralizing the Allied airpower advantage. The Allied effort is reinforced by the commitment of the US 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), whose M1A1 tanks possess the theater's best thermal sights. On the other end of the spectrum, the Soviet 69th Tanks Division (a mobilization-only unit) commits two regiments of Second World War-era T-34/85 tanks. The ancient relics perform surprisingly well, able to inflict significant damage on enemy tansk with flank and rear shots, which the confused nature of the battle permits.

Elsewhere in Iran, the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) and Iranian 18th Armored Division finally begin to capture ground from the 7th Army, which is increasingly starved of supplies as the situation elsewhere deteriorates.

[chico20854]

July 22, 1997

The British 6th Division is assigned to the Chinese 31st (my 3rd Group) Army in northwestern North Korea.

Unofficially,

The family of the 17-year old killed on the Mexican border appears on Mexican national TV. The grieving mother cries out "My son only wanted to go to America to work, so we could have money to eat. But this Yanqui shot him like a dog!"

Colonel Tumanski's stakeout of the GLCM deployment locations bears fruit, when an advanced party of C Flight, 11th Tactical Missile Squadron moves into one of the locations he had identified in February. Within an hour a convoy of 22 vehicles arrives, including four of the GLCM launchers, each loaded with four nuclear-tipped missiles. Tumanski's observation team calls for reinforcements, which arrive two hours later, by which time the Air Force Security Police have hardened their perimeter with barbed wire and claymore mines. The commandos attack anyhow, and while losing six of their ten remaining men, the Spetsnaz team succeeds in destroying one of the launchers (and the missiles aboard it) before having to flee the area.

Given the increasing scope of Soviet nuclear warfare, the Japanese War Cabinet decides to postpone the proposed Phase Two and Phase Three of their campaign to regain the Kuriles and southern Sakhalin Island.

The Italian Army diverts troops of 5th Corps - the Pozzuolo di Friuli Armored Brigade and the Gorizia Mechanized Brigade - from the Austrian front to contain the Jugoslav advance in the northeast.

The guns of the 17th Artillery Division, released from STAVKA reserve, fire their first shots from west of Lutsk, Ukraine as 1st Guards Tank Army launches a counterattack against Panzergruppe Oberdorf as that formation pauses inside Soviet borders.

NATO responds to the nuclear attack on the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment with a pair of artillery-fired munitions fired at the elite 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, which was massing to counterattack near Brest. The strikes hit the division's main command post and the control center for its 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, leaving it vulnerable to the next several hours of relentless (conventional) air attacks which savage the division’s gathering masses of armor.

The LSK (former East German Air Force) disbands in JG-3 (Jagdgruppe 3, fighter group), its sole remaining MiG-29 unit, as its stocks of spare parts for the aircraft have been expended and cannibalization has run its course. The remaining pilots are dispersed to other NATO air force training courses as instructors in Warsaw Pact tactics while much of the ground staff are reassigned to other roles; the least qualified (or useful) end up escorting convoys in Poland or defending airfields.

The US Navy releases SEAL Team Four to Sixth Fleet. It is flown to Rota, Spain via priority airlift.

The 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania Air National Guard) in Tuzla, Jugoslavia receives a reinforcement flight of six A-7Ds, formerly from the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) in Panama. They are delivered by a roundabout route that ultimately included a daring low-level night flight over the Adriatic Sea.

The evacuation of Trieste is halted, and Jugoslav commanders discover that the evacuation fleet brought in reinforcements, the elite San Marco Marine Regiment.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory is fully unloaded in Bandar Abbas, departs to Muscat, Oman.

The Battle of the Valley concludes as the exhausted combatants pause to replenish diminshed stocks of fuel and ammunition. Allied forces retain control of the battlefield, while the 32nd Army's tank divisions retreat to the northwest and 40th Army, the main body of which had withdrawn northward during the battle, falls back to the airport complex of Yadz. The mobilization-only 69th Tank Division, reduced to one third strength and largely equipped with T-34s, is forced to rally on the northwest edge of the battlefield, within sight on Allied scouts. As the afternoon turns to evening a mighty artillery and aerial barrage is released on the well dispersed division, covering the hapless division with cluster bomb and ICM bomblets and laying FASCAM minefields throughout the division's area. Behind the cover of the barrage the 1st Marine Division resumes the northward drive that the battle had paused, using superior night-fighting equipment to continue the advance through the night.

The Pakistani Army commits one of its "strike" corps, the Second, (composed of mechanized units with a higher proportion of professional troops and better equipment) to try to halt the Indian advance. The attempt is less than successful, as the attacking Indian infantry (like the Chinese in 1996) simply disperse away from the armor, closing in behind them.

[pmulcahy11b]

July 22, 1997

NATO responds to the nuclear attack on the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment with a pair of artillery-fired munitions fired at the elite 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, which was massing to counterattack near Brest. The strikes hit the division's main command post and the control center for its 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, leaving it vulnerable to the next several hours of relentless (conventional) air attacks which savage the division’s gathering masses of armor.



Just a point of interest: The Artillery gunners call nuclear artillery rounds "golden bullets" due to the color of the fuze sections. They otherwise look like standard shells except for the labeling.

[cawest]

with the battle of the Valley over. i could see first Iranian support units and then Allied supply people looking for parts or to see if they can recover combat units of all types. i could see an INF being okay with a t-34 with a recovered quad 14.7 or 23mm also maybe something like a t-100s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34_variants#/media/File:T-100-latrun-2.jpg

[chico20854]

July 23, 1997

Nothing official for the day! Unofficially,

The former commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, relieved of command in June after multiple scandals, is charged with dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.

The prosecution in the Terminal Illness riot trial rests.

As the Chinese government struggles to retain some semblance of control over its rapidly disintegrating army, it decides to do what it can to throw the Soviet advance off guard. Seeing that the only area that Chinese forces are not in retreat is the force in North Korea, it commits the 15th Airborne Army (consisting of three lightly equipped but well-trained airborne divisions) to action in the growing Chinese bridgehead across the Yalu.

The USS Midway arrives in the Gulf of Alaska, and almost immediately its S-3s detect a submarine contact about 350 miles west of Juneau. The report is relayed to the attack submarine USS Baton Rouge, attached to the battlegroup, and the USS Houston, hunting in the region. Both attack submarines head for the contact area and the Houston intercepts a Soviet Delta III-class nuclear missile boat, and after several hours of a game of cat and mouse, succeeds in putting a torpedo in her. The Baton Rouge, in turn, encounters a suspected Akula-class attack submarine, and also succeeds in at least damaging it with a torpedo. The Baton Rouge is damaged in turn by a torpedo intercepting a towed decoy at close range, forcing her to disengage and head home. Post-war, the Delta III is identified as the K-44, which was severely damaged but made it back to Fokino, and the Akula is identified as the K-322, which was apparently sunk by the Baton Rouge, as it made no further contact.

In western Ukraine, 1st Guards Tank Army's attack makes modest progress as Panzergruppe Oberdorff, deprived of the paratroopers of the 27th FallshirmJaeger Brigade and worn out by months of nearly continuous combat, nearly runs out of momentum. The dispersed frontage and long cable runs between antennas and command posts required to minimize damage from Soviet tactical nuclear weapons require more soldiers to secure. Resupply is problematic at this distance, with ammunition from America traveling across the Atlantic, through German or Dutch ports, onto battered rail lines through war-damaged East Germany and Poland to a field ammunition facility on the east bank of the Wisła before being loaded onto trucks for the journey across eastern Poland and to a corps-level supply dump just over the Ukrainian border. Once there, the anxious ordnance troops are eager to get the rounds forward, afraid that a large stock of munitions will present a juicy target for Soviet attackers of many flavors.

In central Poland, German troops of I Korps (the 1st GebirgsJaeger Division, the 5th Grenzjaeger Division and 3rd Panzer Division) make another attempt to eliminate the Torun Pocket, which holds significant portions of the Polish 4th Army and Soviet 4th Guards TankArmy and 22nd Army.

The Danish 2nd Zeeland Mechanized Brigade enters in action in Bavaria, arriving in the city of Augsburg just moments before troops of the Italian Tridentina Alpine Brigade. The Danes are able to feed companies into the battle piecemeal, keeping the more lightly equipped Italians off-balance.

American troops in the battle for Warsaw continue their slow slogging drive into the city. Troops of the 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry (part of the 40th Infantry Division) drive the Polish defenders of the former Fort Służew, a still heavily protected remnant of the city's 19th century defenses and prewar home of the highest ranking generals in the Polish Army.

As trains arrive in Pushkin, a suburb of Leningrad, carrying elements of the 2nd Guards Artillery Division, those guns that are serviceable and the most experienced troops are diverted to a holding area. Within hours they are loaded back onto railcars and begin the short journey through the Baltic Republics to the Polish border, transferred to the 149th Guards Artillery Division, which has suffered from months in action.

The Jugoslav army's 14th Engineer Regiment supports an assault crossing of the Tagliemento River by infantry of the 228th Motorized Infantry Brigade. The attack, at dusk, is broken up by Italian MLRS rocket fire, which disrupts the marshalling area on the east bank of the river, while Italian light attack aircraft (the G.91s of the 32nd Stormo) suppress the guns of the Jugoslav 14th Artillery Regiment, aiming at the muzzle flashes in the darkness.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Muscat, Oman, empty.

Pasdaran irregulars attack the isolated and immobilized remnants of the 69th Tank Division, seeking out survivors as well as useful intelligence (such as the 32nd Army code book found on the body of a T-34 tank battalion commander the prior day). The Pasdaran, ironically, suffer nearly as many casualties from the unexploded ordnance and artillery-laid minefields laid by friendly forces as they do from the scattered and shell-shocked remnants of the Soviet division.

The Marines of the 1st Marine Division capture the heights to the south and west of Yadz, driving back exhausted soldiers of the Soviet 40th Army (veterans of the mountain fighting in Afghanistan). From their perches they are able to direct accurate artillery fire and airstrikes on the defenders. (Their air support is especially effective as their supporting squadrons make use of recently recaptured airstrips nearby as well as the spacious Shiraz International Airport).

US Navy leaders divide the crew of the damaged frigate Bagley in Mombasa, Kenya to various duties while awaiting the arrival of a heavy lift ship. Some are assigned to provide local security for the ship and adjacent support activities, some to serve as advisors to the Kenyan Navy while others are flown to other war zones to serve as replacements aboard other ships.

[dragoon500ly]

Was chemical release a trigger?

You have to remember that the US considered chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons to all be "weapons of mass destruction."


Officially the U.S. no longer had chemical or biological weapons, so the use of any of these two weapons would trigger a response by nuclear weapons.

[Homer]

You have to remember that the US considered chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons to all be "weapons of mass destruction."


Officially the U.S. no longer had chemical or biological weapons, so the use of any of these two weapons would trigger a response by nuclear weapons.

True, if CWC implementation was followed through, the weapons would be at Johnston Atoll, PB arsenal or elsewhere for destruction. Not sure if the CWC process went down the same way in T2K- could easily see it not happening.

That said, my question was more related to the 55th SRW dispersing earlier than the remainder of the strategic force. Its assets have a pre and post attack C2 and targeting role. I was curious about the the trigger for their dispersal considering it happened in CONUS in advance of the initiation of nuclear warfare and separate of other assets dispersing. Since pact CW use did not trigger a US/NATO nuclear response I wondered if it increased the readiness posture of US strategic forces or if the dispersal was just coincidence.

[chico20854]

July 24, 1997

Following the prior days advances, the US 1st Marine Division captures Yadz and the airfields in the area, driving the 40th Army into the desert to the north.

The Federal Reserve Bank moves 80 tons of gold from its facility in Manhattan to Long Island for safekeeping.

The German 10th Panzer Division is pulled from the Warsaw perimeter, ordered to rapidly redeploy to Bavaria to help stop the Italian invasion.

Unofficially,

A fourth R-5D hypersonic spy plane is delivered from Palmdale, California.

There is another "incident" on the Mexican border where civilians open fire on Mexican immigrants.

Soviet troops in Alaska continue to make slow progress; the American defense line at the base of the Seward Peninsula crumbles away as supplies run low and Soviet hovercraft interdict surface traffic along the Yukon River.
The 11th Airborne Division, which has only a single battalion of Second World War artillery, receives a high-priority airlift of eight M-101 105mm howitzers, part of the contingent of guns retreived from Argentina in the spring.

SACEUR, respecting the North Atlantic Council's guidance to limit use of tactical nuclear weapons to a level directly proportional to that of the USSR, yet needing to augment the ability of his nearly overstretched forces, authorizes widespread deployment of chemical weapons. Heavily escorted convoys soon leave storage sites in western Germany and the Netherlands, mostly heading to nearby air bases where select USAF C-130 squadrons have aircraft waiting.

In the air over Bavaria Allied interceptors continue their battles against the Aeronautica Militare, the Italian Air Force, whose Tornado bombers have wreaked havoc in their dashes over the Alps to strike outnumbered NATO formations. The arrival of the RAF's No. 618 Squadron, with its remaining six Typhoons, American F-22s of the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron and RAF Tornado F.3 fighters from No. 23 Squadron, turned the tide in the air, as the AM's 1960s-era F-104Ss are outmatched by the top-of-the-line NATO fighters.

Austrian resistance in the Danube Valley breaks after sustaining days of concentrated Warsaw Pact attacks. The remnants of the 1st PanzerGrenadier Division retreat west to try to augment the defense of Linz, guarded by reservists, while many of the territorials that survived the Pact attacks begin guerilla fighting or head for the safety of the hills and mountains, where Italian and Pact troops dare not go.

SACEUR orders the evacuation of all remaining tactical nuclear weapons from weapon storage sites in Bavaria; some are (by a series of highly classified airlift flights) transferred to Turkey to augment the several dozen B-61 bombs already at four Turkish air bases.

The Soviets strike the American 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) with a tactical nuclear weapon, a 152mm round that destroys the 28th Signal Battalion's Node Center Switch, one of the links between the tactical radio system and the division- and corps-level Mobile Subscriber Equipment field telephone system. Within two hours the division has activated its backup switch, but the strike leaves the division's troops shaken.

The Italian Army forms a new Corps-level command to oversee the war against Jugoslavia. The command is called Forza Dalmatia and it takes over the units holding the line in the northeast.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran makes striking progress as Soviet resistance falters; 45th (my 32nd) Army is capable only of defending Esfahan from IPA attacks while 7th Army is tied down trying to contain the Allied mechanized attack towards Ahvaz; other Soviet formations are withdrawing as quickly as they can.

[chico20854]

July 25, 1997

In Iran, the 101st Air Assault Division launches another predawn air assault, this one against the city of Qom, less than 90 miles south of Tehran and considerer a holy city by Shia Muslims. The assault catches the Soviets off guard, and by dusk the 9th Infantry Division, displaying its remarkable mobility, has pushed its advanced battalions to link up with the 101st. The entire effort is screened by the attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB, which break up a Soviet counterattack before it is even launched.

The Turkish 33rd Infantry Division is assigned to IV (my VI) Corps for internal administrative duties in the city of Zonguldak on the Black Sea coast east of Istanbul. (Unofficially) The division has taken heavy losses over the past several months in action in Bulgaria. Its place on the front lines is taken by the 39th Infantry Brigade and 5th Armored Brigade, both of which have been held in reserve to respond to any Greek landing along the Aegean coast.

Additionally, and unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Shreveport Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

The aircraft carrier Lexington arrives in Mobile, Alabama, where barge-mounted cranes remove the remaining fixed-wing aircraft.

The judge in the Terminal Illness riot trial orders the defense to wrap up its case, citing the desire of many of the jurors to evacuate the city as rumors swirl of expanding nuclear war.

Outside Anchorage, Soviet troops of the 13th Guards Air Assault Division sink the US Coast Guard patrol boat Roanoke Island, which is operating close to shore, supporting defenders from the 47th Infantry Division with its twin 25mm autocannons.

In North Korea, Allied forces, led by the American 163rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, force their way across the Chongchon River 40 miles north of Pyongyang, entering the rough terrain between that river and the Yalu. The People's Liberation Army is less than 50 miles away, making slow progress while the rest of its units in Manchuria disintegrate under repeated Soviet tactical nuclear attacks. (The Far Eastern TVD is using, on average, eight warheads a day, striking units as small as battalions as well as logistic and communications sites, airfields and headquarters.)

The USS Midway's air wing appears in the skies over the Cook Inlet in Alaska; thanks to local residents' efforts to pass word from behind the lines the attack aircraft are able to accurately hit the 13th Guards Air Assault Division's main supply dump, severely limiting the division's ability to continue its advance on Anchorage.

American troops make the first use of chemical weapons on the central front when a battery of M109 howitzers from VII Corps conduct an "artillery raid" in Ukraine. The battery rushes forward, halting less than a half mile behind the front line positions held by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and fire 32 M110 mustard gas rounds (four rounds per gun) at a railroad siding a little over 18 km away. (The railroad siding is being used by the 1st Shock Army to unload ammunition; the use of a persistent blister agent assures that the site will be rendered unusable for several weeks). The guns "shoot and scoot" - departing the front line immediately after firing to evade Soviet counterbattery fire.

Italian troops reach the center of Munich, pausing to snap photos of themselves with the Glockenspeil on the town hall in the Marienplatz. German territorial troops had been ordered to withdraw rather than have the historic city center be destroyed in urban fighting. The Luftwaffe evacuates the last of its troops, aircraft and supplies from the Erding airbase outside the city, joining those evacuated from the Lechfeld air base a few days before at Baden-Soellingen, a Canadian air base in southwestern Germany that the RCAF has only been using as a support facility, its remaining F/A-18s in action far to the east over Poland and the USSR.

XX US Corps halts the Italian advance to the west along the base of the Alps, holding the line of the Iller River, which forms the western border of Bavaria.

The Austrian defense of Linz collapses and the government evacuates, along with all available Bundesheer forces, to German territory, pursued by Czech and Soviet troops. Along the front in Poland and the western USSR the front remains largely static as both sides try to regroup, resupply their exhausted forces and dig in to protect themselves from a possible tactical nuclear strike.

US Navy and Air Force aircraft (operating from Turkish bases) try to blast clear a corridor through the few Bulgarian air defenses, opening a transit route into Romania and Jugslavia. The route is only useable by military transports flying under escort at medium altitude (out of the range of Bulgarian anti-aircraft guns), but it allows the resumption of regular resupply of the 71st Airborne Brigade and support of embattled Jugoslavia and Romania.

The final elements of the 5th Marine Division complete loading at Little Creek, Virginia and set sail as part of Convoy 158, which also carries the equipment of the 36th Armored Brigade (to be parceled out as loss replacements upon arrival in Germany) and what replacement vehicles and munitions that can be scraped together from around the US.

The first shipment of steel plate from the burned-out battlecruiser Rossiya arrives in Nikolaev for installation aboard the helicopter carrier Leningrad.

[chico20854]

July 26, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship St. Louis Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

3rd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division completes JRTC-2 Rotation 97-9, is declared combat ready and immediately loaded onboard aircraft for transfer to the front in Alaska alongside the remainder of the division.

The commander of Long-Range Aviation and the Minister of Agriculture proudly report to the Politburo that they have now sprayed over 25,000 hectares of Chinese rice fields with rice blast spores, ensuring that any harvest in southern China will be poor.

The Soviet 28th Army's 50th Guards Motor-Rifle Division enters the city of Nanning in southeastern China after a Tu-22M Backfire drops a TN-1000 30kt bomb on the defenders outside the city. The roads in all directions are flooded with refugees fleeing it and other cities nearby.

The German government endorses efforts already underway by the Land (state) governments of Saarland, Rheinland-Pfalz, Burden-Wurttemberg and Nordhein-Westfalen to establish refugee housing facilities west of the Rhine River to host the numerous internally displaced people that are flowing west to avoid the fighting. The move frees some federal facilities - barracks and empty depots, among others - for use to house refugees, as well as providing funding and more support from the German Red Cross.

The Italian Army, facing increasing NATO resistance, begins routing additional mechanized forces into Germany, through the overloaded mountain passes as well as the more circuitous route through Vienna and up the Danube Valley. Hungarian troops of the 1st Corps remain in Austria, securing Pact supply lines and launching raids into areas where Austrian stay-behind units are still active.

The Soviets hit the the airbase at Biała Podlaska, with its 10,000-foot runway and adjacent rail line and highways with a nuclear-tipped SS-21 missile, disrupting the vital logistic hub for the central sector of the NATO front.

The commander of the Soviet 23rd Army, appalled at the materiel condition of the newly-arrived mobilization-only 73rd Tank Division (half the requisite number of tanks (all worn-out T-54s), a third the required number of APCs and heavy mortars instead of howitzers, with only one battalion of D-1 howitzers left over from World War Two) brings it up to full strength by raiding the stockpile of the 233rd Rear Area Protection Division, seizing its T-34s, and stripping the MVD’s 347th Guard Regiment of its best men and APCs so the 73rd will have a nearly full complement of motor-rifle troops. Even so equipped, the army commander keeps the formation in reserve, only using it for the initial exploitation of any breakthroughs lest it encounter counterattacking modern NATO armor.

Danish mine warfare forces clear a path to the burned-out hulk of the USS Iowa. A salvage party is landed on the bow from a helicopter; they quickly establish that the battleship had detonated two mines while adrift. The stern of the ship has been burnt out from the fires that followed Polish kamikaze attack, so it appears that towing the massive ship from the bow will be most feasible. That will, however, require additional mine clearing to create room to turn the ship around.

Convoy 158 is joined by three Freedom ships - the Austin, Birmingham and Oklahoma - which have departed Philadelphia loaded with munitions and vehicles newly produced by American war industries.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory begins loading a cargo of aluminum ingots in Muscat, Oman.

XVIII Airborne Corps and CENTCOM support units scramble to keep up with the combat units which have advanced 350 miles in a month and are fighting on a front line that stretches over 1000 miles through harsh desert and mountains in a war-torn country thousands of miles from home. Meanwhile, the combat units' effectiveness is gradually diminishing, as replacements are slow to arrive and the rapid advance drive the soldiers to exhaustion.

Soviet naval architects in Nikolaev are confounded, trying to figure out how to graft the steel that arrived from Leningrad the prior day onto the hull of a different ship. The battlecruiser's steel is thicker, of a different alloy and already bent to conform to the original ship's hull form. (One complains privately to a peer that "only in the Soviet Union would the leadership make such a ridiculous decision!").

The Boeing Skyfox light attack jets make their combat debut (at least in American employment) in Colombia as yet another town - Ábrego, in the east - is under threat of being overrun by a mixed force of Marxist guerillas, Venezuelan Army troops and Cuban advisors. The aircraft performs admirably, using a mix of gun pods, napalm tanks and cluster bombs to disrupt the attack.

[chico20854]

July 27, 1997

After weeks of battering the Soviet 7th Army, the US 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) captures Ahvaz.

Unofficially,

A patrol of the Canadian Native Ranger Regiment intercepts a Spetsnaz group near the Iqaluit air base on Baffin Island in the northeastern Canadian Arctic. The Soviet group is eliminated in the subsequent firefight, when the native group calls in reinforcements, including a strike by the F-16s stationed at the base.

Despite the setbacks, the 13th Guards Air Assault Division (reinforced with a battalion group of survivors from the 130th Air Assault Brigade) and the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade break through the last substantial defense line outside Anchorage, held by a force of the 172nd Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) and 47th Infantry Division.

The American supply ship USS Sacramento, rushing at 25 knots from the nuclear aircraft carrier strike group to the logistic support fleet orbiting in the eastern Sea of Japan passes over the Soviet submarine Kilo-class B-486 lurking submerged at 250 feet. The Soviet commander takes the opportunity, shooting two wake-homing torpedoes at the speeding oiler. One is distracted by the ship's Nixie decoy but the other one hits, bursting the seals around the propeller shafts. The onrushing water floods the ship's engine room and extinguishes the boilers, and a UH-46 replenishment helicopter, being moved into the ship's hangar, is tossed on its side by the shock and bursts into flame. With the power out, efforts to save the vessel fail and it slips beneath the waves.

The last of the fresh Danish units, the 1st Zeeland Mechanized Brigade, arrives at the front in Bavaria after a hasty transfer from northwestern Poland. It joins its sister Danish formation in the defense of Augsburg.

A R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy plane, aircraft #2, explodes over the Norwegian Sea, likely as a result of a catastrophic fuel system failure.

A major naval action erupts in the eastern Baltic as a force of NATO (East and West German, Norwegian and Danish) patrol boats intercept a Soviet reinforcement convoy headed from Leningrad to beleaguered Kaliningrad. Under jamming cover provided by a pair of American B-52s of the 379th Bomb Wing, the fast attack craft blast past the escorting missile boats and corvettes, launch a volley of missiles at the convoy flagship (the cruiser Admiral Zozulya) and rake the transports with gun, missile and torpedo fire. They escape with the loss of only two boats - the former East German Hans Coppi and the West German Dachs.

In the Mediterranean, the US carrier task force (Task Force 60) turns its attentions to Italy, striking the Lecce-Galatina, Casale and Grattaglie air bases. Meanwhile, the F-111s of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian Decimomannu Air Force Base in Sardinia. The Italian Air Force leadership is forced to pull squadrons from the German theater to defend the south of the country, leaving its forces in Bavaria vulnerable to attack from Allied airpower there.

To further disrupt Allied efforts, the Soviets launch an attack on eastern Turkey, driving on the city of Kars. The 42nd Corps, reinforced by KGB border guard units, cross the border at three points - from Akhaltsikhe in Georgia, across the Armenian border from Leninabad on a broad front, and along the highway from Tabriz, Iran. The Turks are caught off guard, the understrength border guard units fighting fiercely but outgunned by fresh Soviet troops. Nearly all Turkish air support is devoted to the fighting in the west, largely leaving the USAF units (the depleted 149th Tactical Fighter Group, down to 11 F-16As) to oppose the Soviet attack.

Pakistan, desperate to halt the flood of Indian infantry and prevent the breakthrough near Lahore from becoming a massive gap in its front line, commits several battalions of its paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, hastily relocated from the northwestern portion of the country.

[ToughOmbres]

Do you think by now in the conflict Portugal's Mechanized Brigade which was IRL earmarked for NATO would have entered combat or been retained in Portugal?

[chico20854]

July 28, 1997

The Soviet counteroffensive in Poland begins with the Battle of Brest where the 1st German Army is hit by the 3rd Guards and 8th Guards (my 30th Guards) Tank Divisions.

GRU and Spetsnaz teams penetrate American lines in Iran. They locate and attack US 3rd Army Headquarters, killing General Barbaneri, his chief of staff, and the commander of the 3rd Army. The raiders are all captured or killed, but in one stroke, CENTCOM and the 3rd Army are left leaderless as the Soviets begin their counteroffensive.

Unofficially,

Lead elements of the 3rd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division arrive at Ladd Army Airfield, Alaska. Their arrival is too late to halt the retreat of X Corps' northern grouping, which is withdrawing towards Fairbanks under pressure from the Soviet 25th Corps, and in the south the defense of Anchorage collapses. The Air Force evacuates Elmendorf Air Force Base and X Corps orders remaining Army units to evacuate in two directions. The 172nd Infantry Brigade and 47th Infantry Division are ordered to retreat east, defending the approaches to the Canadian border, while the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) withdraws northeast to Fort Greely.

NATO counters the Soviet nuclear attack on the 26th against the logistics hub of Biała Podlaska with a nuclear ATACMS strike against the rail junction of Kovel, where six important rail lines converge (many of which are feeding reinforcements and supplies into the region). The Soviets use a tactical nuclear round to blast a hole in the German defense line outside Brest, but discover that the scientists are right - the 2.5 kt 152mm artillery round destroys only two platoons of tanks, thanks to the hardened nature of the vehicles and the emplacements that combat engineers have dug them in to.

In Warsaw, NATO forces continue to press towards the city center against fierce resistance. British and German troops have reached the Prage neighborhood, and artillery forward observers have visual sighting of the Wisla River, enabling artillery attacks on the fleet of small boats that have supplanted the bridges (which are exposed to random NATO interdiction fire) as the major means of transport across the river. East German VOPO (riot police loyal to Communism) troops begin public executions of those suspected of hoarding food, deserting the city's defense forces, or even expressing views critical of the (absent) Polish or Pact leadership.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian naval base at La Maddalena, Sardinia. The 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade embarks aboard additional amphibious shipping - the assault carriers Iwo Jima, Wasp and Saipan and their groups - in Gibraltar and Rota, Spain.

The Italian Fotza Dalmatia, reinforced with the Mantova Mechanized Brigade, diverted from occupation duty in Austria, launches a major counterattack to drive the Jugoslav forces out of northeastern Italy.

Soviet forces (the 19th Motor-Rifle Division) break through Turkish defenses north of Kars, Turkey but are unable to advance rapidly due to nearly continuous ambushes by small detachments of Turkish mountain troops. To their east, the other Soviet division, the 42nd Motor-Rifle (a training unit hastily committed to action), reinforced with the 39th KGB Border Guard Brigade and generous artillery support, attacks the Turkish 14th Mechanized Brigade’s sector. The line of Turkish defensive outposts along the broder is obliterated by massed heavy artillery fire and the 14th's deployment to the field is disrupted by vehicles that would not start and crews that have not trained together. By the end of the day the 42nd has advanced over 10 miles into Turkey, blessed with more favorable terrain than the division to the north.

[chico20854]

Do you think by now in the conflict Portugal's Mechanized Brigade which was IRL earmarked for NATO would have entered combat or been retained in Portugal?

Canon doesn't mention Portugal at all... I believe that the NATO-committed mechanized brigade was slotted for service in Northeastern Italy. With Italy out of NATO that mission goes away. It should probably be considered for employment in Turkey. I hadn't really concentrated on it, so thank you, I'll see if I can write it in soon!

The Portugese airborne and marines will make an appearance soon, though, I believe! Stay tuned!

[chico20854]

True, if CWC implementation was followed through, the weapons would be at Johnston Atoll, PB arsenal or elsewhere for destruction. Not sure if the CWC process went down the same way in T2K- could easily see it not happening.

That said, my question was more related to the 55th SRW dispersing earlier than the remainder of the strategic force. Its assets have a pre and post attack C2 and targeting role. I was curious about the the trigger for their dispersal considering it happened in CONUS in advance of the initiation of nuclear warfare and separate of other assets dispersing. Since pact CW use did not trigger a US/NATO nuclear response I wondered if it increased the readiness posture of US strategic forces or if the dispersal was just coincidence.

I have the CWC fall to the wayside when the Soviets suppress the liberalization in Eastern Europe in 1989, so the US plows ahead with development and fielding of the Bigeye chemical bombs and binary chemical rounds, as well as retention of older 1950s-era capability. The mustard gas attack mentioned a few days ago was with older chemical weapons, mustard gas from the 1950s, chosen because it is more persistent than the nerve gas in the modern rounds.

The 55th SRW dispersal was just a forward-looking commander "taking initiative".

[Homer]

Cool- thanks.

So, Steel Box/Golden Python didn’t happen. That means there’s a good quantity of air and artillery delivered agent out there. As I recall Clausen and Miesiau kept the bulk of US chemical rounds in USAREUR. Like nuclear, they were available for “sharing” with allied partners as circumstances required.

[bash]

I just started following this thread again. It's so well done!

[ToughOmbres]

I believe that's correct-the mechanized brigade from Portugal was earmarked for Italy RL/our time line. The Brigade's area of assignment/responsibility is a bit fuzzy now-been a long time.

Regardless the 25 Years ago thread is excellent and always look forward to future installments!

[chico20854]

July 29, 1997

The American forces in Iran are quick to recover. The commander of the US I MEF, Lt. General Samuel A. MacLean, assumes command of CENTCOM while the commander of the US XVIII Airborne Corps, Lt. General Edward Carabello, takes over the US 3rd Army. The first step MacLean takes is to order a withdrawal to the Gulf Coast. The 3rd Army begins moving out of their forward positions even as the Soviets attack. Most units withdraw in good order under the protection of the 6th ACCB and elements of the US 9th Air Force.

Unofficially,

The Victory ship Pan American Victory and cargo ship Nancy Lykes are reactivated in Oakland, California and begin loading cargo for the CENTCOM AOR.

In Alaska, the remainder of X Corps, facing 25th Corps along the Yukon River east of Nome, is ordered to undertake a fighting withdrawal eastward, evacuating to the Fort Wainwright-Fairbanks area.

In southern China the Soviet 28th Army consolidates its hold on the city of Nanning. Their Vietnamese allies encourage them to continue their advance, especially as Chinese resistance has faded away, but the Soviet commander is reluctant, concerned about his ability to protect his supply lines, which themselves are fragile, support from home virtually non-existent due to Allied naval activity.

South Korean artillery and tank units in Pyongyang concentrate their fire on the unfinished Ryugyong Hotel, which looms 105 stories over the city and provides innumerable observation points for the fanatical defenders.

To the north, advance patrols of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) link up with the lead elements of the Chinese 45th Airborne Division. I Corps turns its axis of advance eastward to clear the mountainous center of the country and link up with Allied forces operating along the east coast of the peninsula.

The Soviet attack outside Brest is slowed by German artillery fire that drops DPICM, FASCAM and chemical rounds on the lead tank regiments. Behind the Soviet lines, a German Fernspäher long-range reconnaissance patrol frantically searches the Soviet rear area for targets for a tactical nuclear round.

Soviet EW forces jam NATO's JSTARS airborne radar, blinding the vital targeting asset. NATO air forces need over four hours to sortie Dutch F-16s with ARMs to attack the jammers; once they leave the area the jamming resumes. After dark falls NATO ELINT assets locate the jammers and MLRS rockets are fired at them, blanketing the area around them with submunitions.

The fighting in Bavaria slows as the Italian forces consolidate their holdings, reposition units and replenish supplies. Opposite them NATO forces try to reorganize a coherent defense line as additional troops arrive.

A change of government occurs in Portugal. The prior government, which had followed a policy of neutrality despite its NATO obligations, is replaced with a right-wing one that offers Portugal's expeditionary forces (marines, airborne troops and a mechanized brigade which had been tasked to northeastern Italy) for employment in the Mediterranean. The change in government is trumpeted by Soviet propaganda as a military coup in the Iberian nation, highlighting that the new Prime Minister is a former Army captain.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian Trapani Birgi AFB in Sicily. The remainder of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys to Moron AB, Spain from RAF Lakenheath and commences flying strike missions against targets in Sardinia, Sicily and southern Italy.

Commanders of the Jugoslav 5th Army issue desperate calls to Beograd for additional troops, ammunition, armored vehicles and air support to help counter the Italian offensive. The only air support that is forthcoming is a dozen sorties from the Americans of the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania National Guard), who are able to silence the Italian's MLRS force with liberal application of cluster munitions. The Jugoslav Army, facing Pact troops on all sides and exhausted by months of war in Romania, has nothing to spare.

The Soviet drive outside Kars, Turkey is stalled when the Turkish IX Corps command orders the mobile portion of the 14th Mechanized Brigade (a battalion of infantry in M59 APCs, a tank battalion in M-47 tanks and a self-propelled artillery battalion with M52T self-propelled 155mm howitzers) to halt the Soviet attack and drive 42nd Corps back across the border in preparation for a Turkish assault on the border city of Leninkan. The plan is a fantasy, but the loyal Turkish brigade commander faithfully orders his brigade forward. The counterattack is a debacle as the Soviet artillery commander masses over 150 guns and howitzers on the Turkish formation as it advances over open ground in broad daylight. The survivors of the artillery attack then run into the 42nd Motor-Rifle Division’s 392nd Tank Regiment, whose T-62s are superior to the aged American tanks. By sundown the brigade is destroyed, its survivors absorbed by the 9th Infantry Division, which is rushing to the Kars region.

[chico20854]

I believe that's correct-the mechanized brigade from Portugal was earmarked for Italy RL/our time line. The Brigade's area of assignment/responsibility is a bit fuzzy now-been a long time.

Regardless the 25 Years ago thread is excellent and always look forward to future installments!


I just started following this thread again. It's so well done!


Glad folks are enjoying this!!!

[chico20854]

July 30, 1997

The Soviet 1st Tank Division begins redeployment from China to Poland.

Unofficially,

Seeing the potential to destabilize the situation, Carl Hughes, leader of the shadowy New America extremist group, authorizes the infiltration of several of the civilian militias on the Mexican border by members of his organization.

The Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-35 departs the Pavlovsk Bay submarine base outside Vladivostok for its next patrol.

Patrols from IX US Corps, driving northeast through central North Korea, establish direct radio contact with South Korean troops of the II Corps in their positions to the east.

The Soviet 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts have fully committed their reserve formations and are advancing on a broad front from Mongolia to the Yalu. Chinese resistance is met almost immediately with tactical nuclear firepower, and individual regiments and divisions, acting with uncharacteristic initiative, launch themselves southward, advancing headlong regardless of lines of communication to their rear.

On the edge of the Arctic icepack northwest of Spitsbergen, the American attack submarine USS Olympia locates the Soviet Delta II-class SSBN K-92 and sinks her with two Mk. 48 torpedoes.

American logisitcs units in western Germany begin mass issues of the last rounds remaining in the vast ammunition depots that had been built up in prewar years - chemical munitions of a dizzying variety - artillery shells, aerial bombs, even landmines. The chemical weapons are distributed to a wide variety of American and NATO commands.

The German I Korps and XII Korps pause their attack on the large Pact pocket around the city of Torun as supplies of fuel and ammunition are cut to support higher priority units elsewhere.

The Soviet counterattack at Brest continues, with German forces pushed back another 5 km under intense (conventional) artillery attack. The only nuclear weapon use is against the Soviet 325th Tank Regiment, part of the 30th Guards Tank Division, whose regimental commander (an elderly colonel recalled from retirement after the regiment's prior commander was killed by a Romanian partisan as the division was en route to Byelorussia) was tricked by German radio-intelligence units to first transmit in the clear and then to relay his location to the Germans (who were impersonating his lost engineer company commander).

British II Corps makes another attempt to cross the Narew River, this time north of Grodno, against weak Soviet resistance (mostly the mobilization-only 249th Motor-Rifle Division and MVD internal troops), but the lack of adequate bridging equipment dooms the attempt.

Italian forces in Bavaria continue their pause as additional supply convoys wind their way through the Alps. Overhead the air battles diminish in intensity as some of the remaining Italian interceptors are diverted south and east to deal with NATO air attacks on Sicily and Jugoslav air attacks.

The 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron's F-111Fs strike Palermo Air Force Base and Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily.

The Italian assault in Slovenia rolls on as the overextended and poorly trained, equipped and motivated Jugoslav troops of the 5th Army begin to surrender en masse.

In eastern Turkey the 9th Infantry Division arrives in the valley to the east of Kars throughout the day; behind a screen established by the division's armored cavalry battalion the division is able to deploy its first two regiments (the 9th and 28th) in battle positions as the division artillery digs its guns in.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan attack the home of the city's water authority (striking it with three RPG-7 rounds, setting it afire), following his decision to divert scarce resources from the city's population to supporting the Soviet military.

The Soviet 40th Army, driven into the desert east of Yadz, returns with a vengance. While the 5th Guards Motor-Rifle Division attacks the Marine lines (and artillery tries to disrupt the flow of reserves to the threatened sector), the 201st Motor-Rifle Division sweeps south and west in a drive to cut the American supply lines. The 108th Motor-Rifle Division sends a two-regiment operational maneuver group west, into the no mans land between Yadz and Esfahan to block Allied reinforcements from that direction.

Despite the intervention of American Skyfox light attack aircraft earlier in the week, the town of Ábrego, Colombia falls to the communist force that has been attacking it for weeks.

[chico20854]

July 31, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion holds the approaches to Augsburg against a determined assault by the Italian Folgore Airborne Brigade. Although nearly wiped out, the 104th succeeds in preventing the Italian paratroopers from seizing several vital road junctions.

Unofficially,

The 9th Airborne Command and Control Squadron deploys some of its "Blue Eagle" airborne command post aircraft (a mix of EC-135 and E-6s) to its dispersal field at Kona International Airport, Hawaii.

The freighter Galveston Bay and troop ship General Patrick are activated in Oakland, California. Galveston Bay moves to Concord NWS to load ammunition, while the General Patrick moves to Tacoma, Washington to load troops for movement to Alaska.

Two US Army aviation contractors deliver in time to meet the end-of-month goals called for in their contracts. First, the Erickson Air Crane company delivers its first all-new CH-54B Tarhe, the fourth of the type to be accepted by the Army since 1972 (three others have been provided to the Alaska National Guard earlier in the year, assembled from spares the company had on hand at its Oregon facility). Second, two contract flight schools graduate their first classes that have trained on Robinson R44 light helicopters, rather than Army-owned and operated TH-57s.

The attack submarine USS Topeka, lurking off the Soviet coast near Vladivostok, detects the Echo II-class submarine K-35. After two hours of tracking, it attacks the old Soviet boat with three Mk-48 torpedoes and sinks it, ending the Soviet boat's long career attacking NATO targets around the world. (Its tally is two warships, seven tankers and freighters, 150 trucks and several aircraft destroyed in cruise missile attacks on Diego Garcia and Ningbo, China).

The USS Olympia is pursued by a pair of Soviet Tu-142 Bear-F ASW aircraft operating out of northern Russia after it sank a Soviet SSBN the prior day. It is able to escape by going deep and slow.

7th Tank Army's attack at Brest continues to gain steam as the 30th Guards Tank Division's spot in the line is replaced by the 47th (my 37th Guards) Tank Division. In the Army's rear area, survivors of the 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division are transferred to the 30th Guards Tank, making up many of the losses it suffered in yesterday's tactical nuclear attack.

In the Baltic, Danish and American minesweeping forces complete clearing a safe zone around the hulk of the battleship Iowa.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike Comiso AFB, Sicily.

The Italian fleet sorties to drive 6th Fleet back from the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The movement is reported to US Naval Intelligence before the first ship weighs anchor (by a Christian Democrat officer apalled by Italy's socialist and communist-dominated goverment and its war against its longstanding NATO allies). The American carriers America and John F Kennedy are alerted, and the Italian fleet is met by a hail of missiles and bombs when it reaches open water beyond the range of land-based anti-aircraft missiles. The Italian carrier Garibaldi is hit by seven Harpoons and breaks its back, and seven other combatants are sunk or damaged before the fleet turns back to port.

The 42nd Motor-Rifle Division's assault on Kars, Turkey is reinforced by the arrival of the 19th Motor-Rifle Divison from the north, having blasted its way through the mountain passes from Georgia. The 19th faces the Turkish 9th Division's third regiment (the 17th), which offers fierce resistance to the advancing Soviets.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory begins its voyage back to US as part of Convoy 418.

In Iran, I MEF directs the full weight of 1st and 4th Marine Air Wings to disrupt 40th Army's counterattack on the 1st Marine Division at Yadz. Meanwhile, 4th Marine Division consolidates its positions in Kerman, protecting the east flank of the Allied advance and forcing support to the isolated airborne garrison at Chah Bahar onto a remote and lonely road far to the east, nearly touching the Pakistani border. The paras are subjected to harassment attacks by airstrikes from the USS Independence, preventing them from building up stocks to sustain them should the road be blocked.

To the north, the last elements of the 101st Air Assault Division abandon the Shia holy city of Qom as XVIII Airborne Corps withdraws to more defensible positions. The Iranian secret service, however, uses the brief Allied occupation of the city as an opportunity to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents and establish hidden supply caches.

[chico20854]

August 1, 1997

The last overland supply route between Yadz and Bandar Abbas is cut by attacking Soviet troops from the 40th Army, isolating 1st Marine Division.

The US 2nd Infantry Division relieves the surrounded airhead of the 2nd (my 44th) Chinese Parachute Division.

Another tank division, the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards), begins movement from the front as it is ordered to be transferred from the Chinese front to Europe.

(unofficially) The Soviets launch a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Almost immediately after launch it disgorged six Strela-3 secure communications satellites (used by the GRU to keep in touch with their agents and attaches around the world). NORAD, however, on high alert, is initially unable to distinguish between the satellites and Soviet nuclear weapons and sends out a flash nuclear alert. (officially) NATO governments spring into action, with President John Tanner ordering Vice President Julia Pemberton to board the NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) aircraft while he remains in Washington (taking shelter in the facility under the east wing of the White House). President Tanner refuses to leave Washington during this crisis. He says, in an informal remark to an aide, "I can't tell Americans to stand firm and stay calm if I'm hiding in a cave in the Smoky Mountains. If there's an inbound missile, I'll jump on a helicopter, but not one second before." Mrs. Tanner also refuses to leave Washington, but insists that their two children leave school and go to the family ranch in Wyoming.

Unofficially,

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

The American attack submarine Topeka is hounded by Soviet coastal forces and anti-submarine aircraft following its sinking of the Echo II-class boat K-35 the prior day. Defenders detect the breakup of the Soviet boat and send the corvette MPK-64 to investigate. The Soviet boat gets a return on the submarine and calls for more support; a Be-12 amphibian of the 289th Independent Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment is the first to arrive. Soon the sky overhead is a hive of activity, with helicopters, flying boats and an Il-38 patrol plane all joining the hunt. Numerous torpedoes are dropped, all of which the American boat evades, but it is driven towards the corvette, which launches a volley from its anti-submarine mortars. One of the rounds strikes seconds after the American boat fires a volley of Mk 48 torpedoes at the Soviet ship. The 43-pound warhead punches a hole through the sub's conning tower (it struck at an angle), saving the hull from a major penetration, while the corvette turns at high speed to try to outrun the torpedoes. As the ship hits 32 knots it strikes a mine which had broke loose during the explosions and disruptions in the water over the prior hours, sinking MPK-64. The Topeka goes deep and slips away at 5 knots, trying to remain as quiet as possible with the damaged sail.

The front line in Ukraine and Poland is largely static, as both sides try to husband resources in a manner to prevent creation of a suitable nuclear target.

The Soviet high command brings forward the 26th and 28th Railway Brigades to repair the railyard in Kovel, Ukraine that had been struck by an American ATACMS-N missile on July 28th. The railroad troops provide the expertise and heavy equipment to repair the damage (which was relatively light, since the American missile had a W70-3 "nuetron bomb", which was optimized to create a massive blast of man-killing radiation but inflict little physical damage). Raw manpower was provided by a levy of over 1500 NATO POWs which were gathered from MVD prison camps from throughout Ukraine and Minsk, guarded by contingents from the 18th Convoy Brigade and 345th Convoy Regiment.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n88B03S2v055HBYZ0DSw077rF7hjLgdB/view?usp=sharing)
Operation Carthaginian - the Allied invasion of Sicily and Sardinia - begins at dawn. The US 173rd Airborne Brigade and Canadian Parachute Regiment are dropped outside Messina, Sicily while the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade land at Marsala. The Iberian Airborne Brigade Group is dropped on the Caligari airfield, Sardinia and Portuguese marines land at Alghero. Air support is provided by the carriers America and John F Kennedy as well as fighters from the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing and Spanish Escuadron 121 and Escuadron 122 of Ala de Caza 12 at Torrejon de Ardoz, all supported by over a dozen KC-10 and KC-135 tankers.

Back in Portugal, the 1st Independent Composite Brigade begins the process of preparing for deployment. Additional conscripts are transferred in, and units from elsewhere in the Army are stripped of trucks, radios and other equipment needed to bring the brigade up to full strength.

Organized Jugoslav resistance on the Italian front has effectively ceased, with only isolated Army units offering resistance while the mass of the Jugoslav force either flees or surrenders.

In eastern Turkey, Third Army is forced to divide its attention when Soviet forces launch an amphibious attack on the Black Sea coast, cutting the coastal road between the port city (and naval base) of Rize and the border. The landing is bloody but successful as the Turkish defenders pound the invasion force with heavy fire from a wide variety of obsolescent guns and artillery pieces, sinking the escorting corvettes MPK-68 and SKR-30.

42nd Corps pauses for resupply and to allow better preparation for an attack on the Turkish defense around Kars, a defense that has been reinforced by the remnants of the 49th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which has reformed after being driven back from the border by the 19th MRD.

The reclusive Albanian regime begins a full mobilization of its military, which is heavily reliant on reservists. With few foreign diplomats in Tirana, and even fewer foreigners elsewhere in the country, the thinking behind the regime's decision is unknown. High officials refuse to acknowledge the development, let alone offer an explanation.

[chico20854]

August 2, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion is withdrawn to Holland for reconstruction as the defense of the Augsburg area is strengthened with the arrival of additional British units of I British Corps.

Under pressure from the Soviet 7th Army and with Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division active to its rear, the 24th Infantry Division abandons Ahvaz, which it had captured but days before.

The commander of the 10th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, Major General V.B. Dovator, is killed in an American artillery attack while he is inspecting a forward position. His deputy commander, Konstantin P. Yermolayev, assumes command.

Although the Pembertons are divorced, the Vice President arranges for her daughter to take an extended hiking trip in the Cascades with her father. When it becomes obvious that a nuclear attack is not imminent, America's readiness level is downgraded, and conditions return more or less to normal. Vice President Pemberton objects to what she calls the "women and children first mentality" which had put her on the NEACP aircraft, and insists that she and the President trade off each time there is a crisis. The next time Tanner will board NEACP and Pemberton will stay in Washington until the last minute.

The population of patients suffering from PTSD at the Bay Pines, Florida VA hospital peaks at over 9,000.

Unofficially,

Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-27554-9, located at the US Department of Agriculture Sheep Research Center in Dubois, Idaho, is fully stocked with the arrival of the final shipment - ten brand-new M1081 LMTV trucks, loaded with MREs. The trucks are refueled and the entrance to the underground garage facility is concreted over.

The Italians resume their attacks in Bavaria, driving north from the northern suburbs of Munich towards Regensburg to link up with Czech troops and attacking across the Iller River, pushing back the exhausted troops of the US 10th Mountain Division.

On Sicily, the Canadian Airborne seizes the Messina municipal airfield, and a stream of C-130 and C-17 aircraft begins airlifting in the Espana Airmobile Brigade.

The Soviet 42nd Corps launches its attack on the Turkish IX Corps outside of Kars. Taking advantage of its superior training and equipment, the Soviet force masses 250 guns and howitzers, delivering a massive 45-minute barrage that tears great gaps in the Turkish defensive positions. The feeble counterbattery fire from the dug-in Turkish artillery is met with a devastating response (from two entire battalions of self-propelled 152mm howitzers guided by counterbattery radar). The final half dozen rounds fired by each Soviet gun before the assault commences are loaded with Soman nerve gas, blanketing the Turkish positions in deadly clouds. The subsequent Soviet assault is successful, running through the shattered and choking remnants of the 9th Infantry Division; by nightfall the Turkish commanding general is being interrogated by the 42nd Corps GRU detachment. Along the Black Sea Coast, Turkish troops battle the Soviet 156th Motor-Rifle Division for control of the town of Rize. The battle in the town has started innumerable fires and sends much of the civilian population fleeing.

In Cherbakul (in the Urals), the 257th Motor-Rifle Division, which was activated in June from the students and some of the cadre of the 78th Training Motor-Rifle Division, completes its training and embarks on trains for transit to the front in the west. The unit needs less than the normal amount of rail capacity, since it has only four battalions of tanks (old T-55s) and three battalion of APCs (early model, open-top BTR-60s).

[chico20854]

August 3, 1997

As in late 1950, the stunning success of the Allied summer offensive ultimately leads to disaster. The Soviet STAVKA, its armed forces hard pressed in Europe and struggling to maintain control of Manchuria, decides to take drastic countermeasures in order to neutralize this new threat to its conquests in China. As in late 1950, the Allies are taken by surprise by the direct, overwhelming intervention of a third power. Rushed to the Yalu, the newly-formed Soviet Yalu Front (consisting of the 30th and 35th Soviet Armies) crashes into the long, exposed right flank of 8th Army.

Unofficially,

The troop transport General Patrick loads 3000 replacement troops from Fort Lewis for movement to Alaska, sailing unescorted.

The first levy of American athletes - both collegiate and professional - report to basic training sites around the US following the June policy change which eliminated deferments for top-tier athletes. For many, it is shocking development and underscores just how bad the manpower pinch has become.

A disagreement mars the daily Joint Chiefs morning meeting, when the Army Chief of Staff and Commandant of the Marine Corps, reflecting on the latest manpower figures (losses, accessions and the allocation of drafted personnel), note that the Navy and Air Force have lost considerable numbers of weapons systems (ships and aircraft) and are decreasing in combat power yet continue to receive draftees as if they were still a much larger force, as well as retaining tens of thousands of excess personnel to crew and support ships and weapons that no longer exist and that American industry is unable to replace. The ground combat commanders, whose forces are taking heavy losses from Kaliningrad to Korea, see their manpower strength drop while the Navy and Air Force have excess service members. Chairman Cummings is able to tamp down the argument that follows, decreeing that the matter is to be decided by the Secretary of Defense.

Colonel Tumanski, his Spetsnaz team reduced to four men, receives word from Moscow Center that he is to concentrate his efforts on identifying targets that other teams (or systems) can hit.

Czech, Soviet and Italian troops link up north of Munich, cutting off the narrow corridor that was still open between Austria and Germany. Taking advantage of the transfer of NATO troops south to halt the Italians, the Czechoslovakian 2nd Motor-Rifle Division resumes its advance, capturing Nuremburg.

After several days of preparatory work, the hulk of the USS Iowa is taken under tow by a trio of tugs - two civilian oilfield support boats and the US Navy salvage tug Edenton.

All Italian resistance in Sardinia has ended. The San Marco marine regiment, rushed south from the Trieste battlefront, attempts an amphibious crossing of the Straits of Massina at night. The Italian Marines are decimated by the American paratroopers who are prepared for that eventuality.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tCXPo9UIXkloaTixiVXd7wcTRXlVaKdp/view?usp=sharing)
To the north of Sicily, a battle erupts as Patrol Hydrofoil Squadron Two, with the six Pegasus-class missile boats, intercepts a Italian surface squadron dispatched from Naples to interdict the NATO transport fleet. While awaiting support from fighter-bombers from the USS America (operating to the south of the island), the hydrofoils accelerate to 48 knots on their foils and close on the Italian ships, which an orbiting E-3 AWACS aircraft in the area has located on radar and relays their position to the missile boats. The American force launches all 48 Harpoon missiles against the Italian force before turning tail and running west in an attempt to escape the Italian force's SSMs. Ten of the American missiles strike, sinking the destroyer Ardito, the frigates Euro and Perseo and damaging the cruiser Andrea Doria. Italian helicopters pursue the retreating hydrofoils and attack them with wire-guided anti-ship missiles. The missile boats, traveling at speed, are difficult targets, and only one, the USS Taurus, is hit. The strike is on the engine room, leaving the boat dead in the water. The crew abandons ship, leaving the boat adrift and smoking, where it is finished off by a flight of G.91Ys (which, in turn, are intercepted by a flight of F/A-18s from VFA-46, losing two). The Andrea Doria receives fatal damage minutes later when hit by a raid of 22 aircraft from the USS America and USS John F Kennedy.

Italian forces enter Ljubljana, capital of the Jugoslav republic of Slovenia. The commander of the Italian Forza Dalmatia establishes his headquarters in Ljubljana Castle, which rises above the city.

The Soviet 42nd Corps occupies the city of Kars, while to the north Soviet forces gain control of the port of Rize.

Convoy 158 arrives at three north German ports - Hamburg, Bremen and Bremerhaven and begin discharging its cargo - the 5th US Marine Division, a heavy brigade's worth of armored and wheeled vehicles as well as munitions, supplies and new vehicles.

[ToughOmbres]

August 1, 1997

The last overland supply route between Yadz and Bandar Abbas is cut by attacking Soviet troops from the 40th Army, isolating 1st Marine Division.

The US 2nd Infantry Division relieves the surrounded airhead of the 2nd (my 44th) Chinese Parachute Division.

Another tank division, the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards), begins movement from the front as it is ordered to be transferred from the Chinese front to Europe.

(unofficially) The Soviets launch a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Almost immediately after launch it disgorged six Strela-3 secure communications satellites (used by the GRU to keep in touch with their agents and attaches around the world). NORAD, however, on high alert, is initially unable to distinguish between the satellites and Soviet nuclear weapons and sends out a flash nuclear alert. (officially) NATO governments spring into action, with President John Tanner ordering Vice President Julia Pemberton to board the NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) aircraft while he remains in Washington (taking shelter in the facility under the east wing of the White House). President Tanner refuses to leave Washington during this crisis. He says, in an informal remark to an aide, "I can't tell Americans to stand firm and stay calm if I'm hiding in a cave in the Smoky Mountains. If there's an inbound missile, I'll jump on a helicopter, but not one second before." Mrs. Tanner also refuses to leave Washington, but insists that their two children leave school and go to the family ranch in Wyoming.

Unofficially,

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

The American attack submarine Topeka is hounded by Soviet coastal forces and anti-submarine aircraft following its sinking of the Echo II-class boat K-35 the prior day. Defenders detect the breakup of the Soviet boat and send the corvette MPK-64 to investigate. The Soviet boat gets a return on the submarine and calls for more support; a Be-12 amphibian of the 289th Independent Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment is the first to arrive. Soon the sky overhead is a hive of activity, with helicopters, flying boats and an Il-38 patrol plane all joining the hunt. Numerous torpedoes are dropped, all of which the American boat evades, but it is driven towards the corvette, which launches a volley from its anti-submarine mortars. One of the rounds strikes seconds after the American boat fires a volley of Mk 48 torpedoes at the Soviet ship. The 43-pound warhead punches a hole through the sub's conning tower (it struck at an angle), saving the hull from a major penetration, while the corvette turns at high speed to try to outrun the torpedoes. As the ship hits 32 knots it strikes a mine which had broke loose during the explosions and disruptions in the water over the prior hours, sinking MPK-64. The Topeka goes deep and slips away at 5 knots, trying to remain as quiet as possible with the damaged sail.

The front line in Ukraine and Poland is largely static, as both sides try to husband resources in a manner to prevent creation of a suitable nuclear target.

The Soviet high command brings forward the 26th and 28th Railway Brigades to repair the railyard in Kovel, Ukraine that had been struck by an American ATACMS-N missile on July 28th. The railroad troops provide the expertise and heavy equipment to repair the damage (which was relatively light, since the American missile had a W70-3 "nuetron bomb", which was optimized to create a massive blast of man-killing radiation but inflict little physical damage). Raw manpower was provided by a levy of over 1500 NATO POWs which were gathered from MVD prison camps from throughout Ukraine and Minsk, guarded by contingents from the 18th Convoy Brigade and 345th Convoy Regiment.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n88B03S2v055HBYZ0DSw077rF7hjLgdB/view?usp=sharing)
Operation Carthaginian - the Allied invasion of Sicily and Sardinia - begins at dawn. The US 173rd Airborne Brigade and Canadian Parachute Regiment are dropped outside Messina, Sicily while the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade land at Marsala. The Iberian Airborne Brigade Group is dropped on the Caligari airfield, Sardinia and Portuguese marines land at Alghero. Air support is provided by the carriers America and John F Kennedy as well as fighters from the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing and Spanish Escuadron 121 and Escuadron 122 of Ala de Caza 12 at Torrejon de Ardoz, all supported by over a dozen KC-10 and KC-135 tankers.

Back in Portugal, the 1st Independent Composite Brigade begins the process of preparing for deployment. Additional conscripts are transferred in, and units from elsewhere in the Army are stripped of trucks, radios and other equipment needed to bring the brigade up to full strength.

Organized Jugoslav resistance on the Italian front has effectively ceased, with only isolated Army units offering resistance while the mass of the Jugoslav force either flees or surrenders.

In eastern Turkey, Third Army is forced to divide its attention when Soviet forces launch an amphibious attack on the Black Sea coast, cutting the coastal road between the port city (and naval base) of Rize and the border. The landing is bloody but successful as the Turkish defenders pound the invasion force with heavy fire from a wide variety of obsolescent guns and artillery pieces, sinking the escorting corvettes MPK-68 and SKR-30.

42nd Corps pauses for resupply and to allow better preparation for an attack on the Turkish defense around Kars, a defense that has been reinforced by the remnants of the 49th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which has reformed after being driven back from the border by the 19th MRD.

The reclusive Albanian regime begins a full mobilization of its military, which is heavily reliant on reservists. With few foreign diplomats in Tirana, and even fewer foreigners elsewhere in the country, the thinking behind the regime's decision is unknown. High officials refuse to acknowledge the development, let alone offer an explanation.

The Hoxa Regime's innumerable bunkers across Albania aren't going to man themselves now are they......

[pmulcahy11b]

How has the Twilight War impacted the international stock market and banking system?

[bash]

How has the Twilight War impacted the international stock market and banking system?

I would posit that most securities/commodity markets probably shutter as soon as nuclear weapons start being used. No trader is going to want to be in one of the cities that is a potential nuke target and have the resources to leave. They'll all skip town for their cabins and cottages outside of the metro areas.

Banking would probably fall under emergency controls to prevent bank runs and riots and that kinds of thing. We'd also see everyone setting government enforced price controls for essential commodities. Non-essential items would see prices skyrocket but for basics the various governments would likely want to prevent price gouging. The effectiveness of price controls would basically extend only as far as police enforcing such things.

[Targan]

Yes the movement of manufactured goods internationally by sea would be hugely disrupted by mid-'97. And goods manufactured in China would pretty much have ceased to exist. Exports from Japan and Taiwan would massively jump in price with the combined impacts of restricted shipping, huge fuel costs, maritime insurance somewhere between difficult and impossible to obtain, and the manufacturers themselves having having a hard time getting raw materials and paying exorbitant prices for them.

[Rainbow Six]

Although the Pembertons are divorced, the Vice President arranges for her daughter to take an extended hiking trip in the Cascades with her father

Well that gives me inspiration for a PC choice if I play in a campaign using Teg's Pacific Northwest module. Or a plot seed if I ever end up running a campaign in that area myself.

[chico20854]

August 4, 1997

The German 10th Panzer Division, hastily transferred from Poland, enters action in Bavaria. The hardened veterans attack the Italian Ariete Armored Division outside Augsburg.

The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, in central North Korea south of the Yalu, is cut off from the rest of VI (my IX) Corps by the unexpected attack and is temporarily subordinated to the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army.

Unofficially,

Another Soviet Spetsnaz team is intercepted and eliminated by the native troops of the Canadian Native Rangers, this one approaching the massive Nanisivik zinc mine on Baffin Island.

The USS Midway battle group withdraws from the Gulf of Alaska, retiring to Bremerton, Washington as the air wing is badly depleted, the Midway's magazines nearly empty and the aged carrier in dire need of refit despite being in service for only eight months.

X Corps continues to resist the Soviet advance in Alaska, slowly being pushed back in heavy fighting.

HMS Eskimo, commissioned in July, begins its first voyage, escorting a resupply convoy to the Persian Gulf.

HQ, UK Land Forces implements Operation Mornington, the reinforcement of BAOR from the strategic reserve. British forces from Northern Ireland and further personnel from Territorial Army units are moved to Germany to fill in the ranks depleted by casualties, placing the bulk of the counter insurgency work in Ireland with the local Ulster Defense Regiment units (which are heavily biased towards the Protestants due to recruitment).

A joint team from the FDA-run National Center for Toxicological Research in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland is dispatched to China to investigate the Soviet use of biological and anti-crop weapons.

In Poland and western Ukraine the front remains largely static, despite the near-daily use of artillery-fired or short-range missiles armed with tactical nuclear weapons. NATO and Soviet forces trade the weapons in nearly a one-for-one manner.

One of the tow lines on the battleship Iowa parts when the tugs try to speed the tow up to 4 knots. The salvage effort is halted for six hours while a new line is secured.

Another NATO sortie in the eastern Baltic leads to another clash with the Soviet Baltic fleet. This one is less conclusive but succeeds in turning back the Soviet convoy headed for Kaliningrad as well as forcing the Soviet Baltic Fleet to rally more escorts for future missions. (This results in roughly half as many convoys, each stronger, but overloads the damaged recipient ports as well as being delayed while forming).

The Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) begins moving down the coast from Naples to link up with the San Marco regiment.

A convoy carrying supplies up the hill to the Italian Forza Dalmatia headquarters in Ljubljana Castle is attacked by Slovenian Territorial Defense guerrillas. They fade away into the woods before the guard force can respond.

The Sierra-class SSN K-534 returns to the Arabian Sea south of Oman after a long period in the southern Indian Ocean, where it received replacement torpedoes and a handful of SS-N-21 cruise missiles. It announces its return by putting a trio of torpedoes into the side of the supertanker Protea Guardian.

POWs captured when the Soviets captured Shemya in Alaska arrive in MVD-run prison camps in the Soviet Far East, assigned to the custody of the 92nd Convoy Division, which operates camps from Vladivostok to Sakhalin to the Alaskan border.

[chico20854]

August 5, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Salt Lake Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The FEMA Stockpile SRS-35587-3, located underground at the Rickwood Caverns State Park in Alabama, is fully stocked and sealed.

The Irish patrol ship Aoife, operating in the southwest approaches to the island nation, is sunk by a torpedo. Postwar research will fail to identify a Soviet submarine reporting the attack, but surviving records are incomplete and over a dozen Soviet boats are unaccounted for fron this time period. Nationalists in Ireland attribute the sinking to a British submarine, although likewise there is no surviving evidence to support this belief.

In a low-key effort, the American Embassy in London is largely evacuated. The evacuation convoy is attacked by a Soviet Spetsnaz unit but the ambassador escapes. Sixteen troops of B Squadron 22 SAS are sent after the unit.

South Korean forces drive the remaining defenders of Pyongyang to Rungra Island in the Taedong River. The South Korean troops are able to fire down on the island from the heights above, but many of the defenders are sheltering underground in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, home of the famous pre-war mass gymnastics festival.

The 6th Ranger Battalion, rebuilt at Fort Lewis, Washington after the losses it suffered in the January Operation Steel Bandit attack on Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, completes its training and is flown to Korea.

The 74th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Volga Military District, arrives at the front assigned to 3rd Guards Tank Army in the Brest sector. It is organized along 1950s heavy tank division lines, with two tank regiments with T-10M heavy tanks, a breakthrough tank regiment with T-34/85s and a regiment of infantry that relies on the tanks and requisitioned trucks for mobility. The T-10s are hopelessly obsolete - their 122mm guns, while extremely powerful, can only fire two to three rounds a minute, by which time any opposing NATO tank will have fired six or more shots, and ATGMs offer similar anti-tank power in a much lighter package. The aged tanks also move slowly - 50 kmph maximum on roads - and are limited in what bridges they can cross.

The Italians scramble together more forces to reinforce the Ariete Division as the battle around Augsburg grows; Dutch, Danish and German troops have all battled outside the city.

The USS Olympia is ambushed by two Soviet attack submarines, the Akula-class K-480 and the Alfa-class K-463. The detection range is extremely short, and when the Alfa fires its torpedoes at the American sub, Olympia is able to maneuver the Akula in the line of fire. K-480 is hit by the Alfa's torpedoes, and the American boat drives the remaining enemy boat away with a spread of Mk-48 torpedoes, placing in position to be unaware of the Sea Lance-N missile that the American boat drops in front of the fleeing fast Soviet boat. The 200kt W89 warhead on the American missile crushes the Alfa's hull.

At dawn Spanish Marines began landing at Licata, and begin advancing towards Syracuse. Italian COMSUBIN divers succeed in infiltrating the amphibious operations area offshore, attaching explosive charges to the American transports USS Tortuga and USNS Maj. Stephen W. Pless and the helicopter carrier Iwo Jima.

Soviet troops begin to advance westward from the Turkish port of Rize. Their progress is soon halted by the Turkish defenders, who demolish a section of the coast road, leaving a 500-meter gap of sheer cliff leading down to the Black Sea.

The K-534 continues its attack on shipping leaving the Persian Gulf, damaging the supertanker Piper Thrush, which is heavily laden with crude, bound for Spain. The Soviet sub strews a half dozen mines from its torpedo tubes as it withdraws to the south.

CIA operatives inform the Kenyan government of troops massing for what appears to be an impending Tanzanian invasion.

[chico20854]

August 6, 1997

Nothing official today!

Marine Corps squadron VMA-134 at MC Air Station El Toro, California, the A-4 Skyhawk readiness squadron, responsible for training pilots to fly the aged attack aircraft, begins transitioning to the AV-8B Harrier, as the A-4 force in action (exclusively over Iran and from naval shore stations along the Gulf of Mexico) dwindles, largely eliminating the need for new pilots.

1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

The onslaught against the North Korean bastion in Pyongyang continues as South Korean troops bring towed 105mm and 155mm howitzers onto the heights, firing them direct-fire into holdout's identified firing positions. The few tanks remaining to the second- and third-line divisions are withdrawn, transferred to units facing the Soviets and the remnants of the NKPA to the north.

In the mountains of central North Korea, American and South Korean attack helicopters and fighter-bombers try to slow the Soviet advance through the mountains; attack helicotpers try to pick off command vehicles and selectively target vehicles to block narrow mountain roads prior to the fighter-bombers' arrival to blanket the resultant halted column with cluster bombs, napalm and rockets.

SACEUR receives fervent pleas from his subordinate Corps commanders for a relaxation of the political constraints on the employment of tactical nuclear weapons. He is not in favor, knowing that his subordiante commanders, if let off the proverbial leash, would almost immediately launch a major escalation, each desiring to fire dozens of weapons to either thoroughly decimate their opponents or turn the ground in front of their positions into an irradiated wasteland impassible by Soviet troops. SACEUR fears that such a development will result in a proportionate response by his Soviet counterpart, or possibly an escalation, stranding his troops hundreds of miles from "home" territory. He offers additional release of chemical munitions to their control to partially offset his denial of their request.

US Marines enter Palermo while the greatly reduced Aosta Brigade batters itself to pieces against the American and Canadian paratroopers who had been digging in to Messina for days. En route, the Italian brigade is under constant air attack by USMC and Spanish Harrier and USMC Cobra aircraft. The North Coastal Road becomes a highway of death.

The Soviet 42nd Corps moves west out of the city of Kars in eastern Turkey after a pause of several days to resupply. The 42nd MRD heads southwest, overrunning the scattered outpost line thrown up by the Turkish Third Army.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran tries to maintain a coherent, organized withdrawal. Light mechanized units (the 14th ACR and 9th ID) try to maintain a screen for the lighter units and support formations to withdraw behind. In this effort the support of Allied airpower is essential, since the LAVs and TOW missile vehicles of the light forces can be easily overwhelmed by the superior armor of the Soviet tank and motor-rifle divisions; the American ground units become masters of calling in artillery fire and air strikes and guiding attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB on advancing Soviet units.

5th Fleet command institutes local convoying of tankers carrying crude oil to Allied nations. The Salem battlegroup is stripped of escorts (the cruiser is docked in Bandar Abbas), augmented by frigates from the Belleau Wood amphibious group to escort the tankers to a point 350 nm south of the mouth of the Gulf, where the convoys disperse and the laden vessels proceed independently, each on their own seperate course to their destination under the long-range protection of patrol aircraft from shore bases and the carrier Independence.

[chico20854]

August 7, 1997

As the tactical nuclear exchanges continue, people in the US seem relieved - a nuclear holocaust hasn't resulted immediately, and although things are still tense, it seems like one might not break out.

Southern TVD commander Suryakin is granted permission from Stavka to begin the small-scale use of tactical nuclear weapons to reinforce the offensive to drive CENTCOM and its allies back to the shore of the Persian Gulf.

Kenyan forces rush into position to blunt the initial Tanzanian thrusts, spoiling the Tanzanian surprise attack from succeeding.

Soviet electronic warfare units radio-locate the headquarters of the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and within hours the headquarters is struck by a SS-23 missile (fired by the 20th Guards Missile Brigade). The Chinese headquarters is destroyed in the strike.

Unofficially,

The front in North Korea is active in five areas. The reduction of the North Korean defense of Pyongyang continues. Along the Sea of Japan on the east coast a combined USMC-South Korean force, supported by the cruiser Des Moines, is slowly being pushed south from the approaches to Vladivostok. There is a more or less contiguous defense line along the Chongchon River from the Yellow Sea deep into the center of the country, maintained by American and Commonwealth troops and mechanized elements of the South Korean Army. Finally, along the Yalu there are two salients where Allied forces have linked up with Chinese units - the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and 2nd US Infantry Division, operating south from the Yalu to the city of Kanggye, and the 31st (my 3rd) and 15th Airborne Armies, with the US 25th ID and the British 6th Division, at the mouth of the Yalu.

The commander of the newly raised NATO SOUTHAG tries to rationalize his front line, creating pure national formations rather than the jumble of allied forces that has, by necessity, emerged.

The Italian Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) is hit by a US 100 kt tactical nuclear strike in Villa San Giovanni, making it very clear to the Italian Government that no reinforcement from the mainland will be possible and marking the end of active combat operations in Sicily.

The Soviet 42nd MRD continues its advance in eastern Turkey, climbing into rougher terrain as the highway climbs into the mountains on the way to the next sizeable town, Erzurum. The 19th MRD remains largely immobile in Kars, releasing many of its trucks to carry supplies to sustain the 42nd's advance. Along the coast, the 156th MRD remains isolated in the port town of Rize; a detachment of its 550th Motor-Rifle Regiment has opened an overland route back to Batumi, Georgia, largely clearing the coast road of Turkish troops. (to be safe, however, the divisional commander orders each supply convoy to receive a robust escort, aware of the threat posed by highly motivated Turkish troops).

At the front in Pakistan, the defenders continue to give up ground, although the prior weeks' armored counterattack has managed to buy time to seal the breakthrough. The war descends into a slow, slogging war of infantry, trenches and artillery; cursed to continue as a war of attrition until one side runs out of ammunition or men. Given the vast populations of both nations, analysts predict that the supply of munitions will determine the outcome of the war, if a nuclear holocaust can be avoided.

[chico20854]

August 8, 1997

The forces of the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army begin to disintegrate. The US 2nd Infantry Division, which had fallen under the Chinese headquarters' command after being cut off by Soviet forces, begins to withdraw south.

The Great War of Africa expands as Tanzania, reinforced by large numbers of Zambian and Mozambique volunteers, invades Kenya to capture the port of Mombasa and its refinery and thus cut off fuel and supplies to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

Unofficially,

The Italian Aosta Brigade surrenders to the NATO forces on the island of Sicily.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's depleted ZOMO company is once again thrown into action, this time aiding the defense of Fort Bema on the northwestern portion of the perimeter. His mortar team (equipped with a pair of 82mm mortars) distinguishes itself by striking at a German logistic operation at the nearby Warsaw-Babice Airport.

The commander of the British II Corps in northwestern Byelorussia informs his subordinates that, unofficially at least, he sees no way to continue the offensive and that he strives to have the Corps hold the line along the Narew as long as possible.

The Tu-22M2DP interceptor resumes its operations over the North Atlantic, taking advantage of the weakening of US naval and USAF aircraft defending the airlanes. A pair of the converted bombers infiltrate the air tracks south of Iceland, one eastbound and the other westbound, and over the next 45 minutes shoot down 18 Allied transports (both civil and military, all but one carrying troops, wounded or supplies).

The Sierra-class submarine K-534 torpedoes the American transport ship Cape Texas as it crossed the Indian Ocean with a cargo of badly-needed vehicles for CENTCOM. The Independence battle group sails southwest, deploying its squadron of S-3 ASW planes, escorting SSN and surface ships and helicopters in an effort to locate the marauding sub.

Argentina tries to divert attention from the poor situation at home and considers launching an invasion of the Falklands. A naval task force is prepared and even sets sail. It's departure is noted by MI6 agents, who have kept a careful watch on Argentine naval bases since 1982.

[Matt Wiser]

I'm surprised the Soviets haven't gone full strategic on China yet: SS-20s, Backfire strikes, etc.to knock them out of the war NOW. Their strategic forces should have been hit, and they should have some Tactical Nuclear capability via SRBMs and Fantan and JH-7 strike aircraft.

[chico20854]

I'm surprised the Soviets haven't gone full strategic on China yet: SS-20s, Backfire strikes, etc.to knock them out of the war NOW. Their strategic forces should have been hit, and they should have some Tactical Nuclear capability via SRBMs and Fantan and JH-7 strike aircraft.

I agree! From the timeline in the referees manual the Chinese should be well on their way to the Stone Age by this point. What I'm trying to balance is that the USAVG and SGUK have the 25th US and 6th British divisions fighting under Chinese command well into September and October! I'm still trying to figure out how to balance these...

[chico20854]

How has the Twilight War impacted the international stock market and banking system?

I could write a book on this, but it would be a long and boring book!

A few thoughts...

The effect would not be uniform. Germany's economy would be among the hardest hit... mobilization, absorbing the east, war damage, the cut off of energy from the USSR and the closure of the Italian, French and Belgian borders would each individually be severe hits. On the other hand, the US, Australia and Canada would initially be less severely affected, immune from physical damage but burdened by the massive government spending and mobilization adjustments. In this environment I could see a reversion to fixed exchange rates to lowering the damage to Germany from international investors fleeing to more attractive markets. Within non-front line economies the winning sectors would be defense (obviously), transportation equipment (trucks, shipbuilding, aircraft) and construction (for the facilities needed for mobilization). Others might be parts of hospitality (as people flee the cities) and food processing. Sectors that would be suffering could be insurance, ship operators and airlines (balancing losses of assets with sky-high demand and premium rates by government buyers), entertainment (although we know that TV sitcom production continues up to and past the TDM!) and international travel and trade. Commodity markets would be volatile as the war at sea disrupts normal trade patterns, another area where there might be government intervention and price controls. In the US we might see an increase in government deposit insurance for individuals and small businesses to shore up the banks.

All these combine to create a really volatile stock market. Rest assured, traders are going to be active trying to make a profit from each up and down!

[Louied]

Chico,

Pedant hat on.....
1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

It would more likely be that the HSF Coy, IRL, E (HSF) Coy 7 LI (1 Pl @ Bishop Auckland), would become a Bn of the Light Infantry. There was discussion of using the HSF Coys as command cadres for Reservists who would be mobilized for MHD. The initial role for the HSF was KP Defence, however it was quickly realized that the Old & Bold in some units could outwit & outmaneuver even THEM in exercises. They wanted to utilize this wealth of military knowledge and, as one ex-squaddie put it, trickery!

Equipment wise, there was definitely enough Pigs & Saracens, I do have documents from the mid/late 80's that indicate some MHD Coys being formed from reservists would have to be issued '37 or '44 Pattern web gear and SMLE No.4 Rifles!!!

[chico20854]

August 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars are deployed to the continent to reinforce I British Corps in Bavaria. The Chieftain tank battalion comes from UK Land Forces' strategic reserve.

The Foreign Minister calls the Argentine ambassador to confront him about the departure of the Argentine naval task force (its movement confirmed by American satellites). The ambassador (truthfully) reports that he is unaware of the development and relays the message to Buenos Aires. Nonetheless, HM Government orders reinforcement of the garrison infantry company on the islands.

As the lead American battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division bash their way through Soviet lines, the division's support command tries to impose some order among the thousands of panicked Chinese troops that want to accompany the American force south. Working with the division's MP company, many of the Chinese troops are disarmed and assigned duties as porters. The most experienced (and especially, those that can speak English or Korean) are assigned as squad leaders for ad-hoc CATUSA (Chinese Augmentees to the US Army, modeled on the long-standing KATUSA program that bulked up US Army units with South Korean conscripts) squads, assigned to round-up American infantry platoons. In Pyongyang, South Korean troops close in on the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, last holdout of the fanatical defenders o Pyongyang.

The 60th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing disperses some of its B-52s to Guam International Airport, out of the blast zone of nuclear weapons that might be targeted at Anderson Air Force Base or Guam Naval Station.

The 257th Motor-Rifle Division arrives at the front, where it is assigned to reinforce the battered 3rd Guards Tank Army.

II MEF (the US Marine's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force), previously located in Denmark and previously mostly concerned with coordinating support for three widely spread Marine Expeditionary Brigades, takes an active role as a front-line corps with 5th Marine Division, the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the German 18th Coast Defense Regiment under command. It also secures the release of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Norway along with its associated Marine Aircraft Group 14. The headquarters moves into northeastern Poland, assaulting Kaliningrad along the coast.

XXIII US Corps rotates the battered 40th Infantry Division from the lines in southern Warsaw to the front in the east, where its AFVs and tanks will be more fruitfully employed. The 40th's positions are assumed by the former West German border guards of the 2nd GrenzJaeger Division.

As rough weather approaches the Baltic, and given the poor condition of the ship, the commander of the USS Iowa salvage effort makes the decision to beach the battleship on a gentle section of the German Baltic Coast. Within a few hours the view from the pretty resort town of Boltenhagen is drastically changed, with 58,000 tons of steel lurking offshore.

Catania is the last major town in Sicily to fall under NATO control when Spanish Marines arrive. American and Canadian troops begin a sweep of the island to round up any surviving defenders.

It being a week after the mobilization order was given, the dictatorial Albanian ruler Kiço Bedaj and the Politburo demand a status report. The defense minister reports that the Army and the Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense militia have manned the 175,000 bunkers scattered around the country and are ready to repulse a combined NATO-Pact-Jugoslav invasion. If a combined air and amphibious assault is launched, like the one just unleashed on Sicily, it would fail as the landing force would be brought under immediate fire from the nearest bunkers while one of the nation's tank brigades would soon arrive to overrun the landing site. Bedaj asks about the Army's ability to intervene to protect the oppressed Albanian minorities in nearby Kosovo and Macedonia. The defense minister explains that the Army is not deployed to carry that mission out, with the tank brigades spread around the nation to counter an enemy invasion, and a repositioning will take weeks since the Army only possesses a dozen tank transporters.

The USAF 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and the 465th Tactical Fighter Squadron in Keflavik, Iceland scramble all available aircraft to prevent a repeat of the prior day's massacre in the air lanes across the North Atlantic, while NATO airlift planners route more aircraft across the mid-Atlantic, flooding the Azores with as many aircraft as it can land and refuel. Anticipating such a response, the Soviets ground the Tu-22M2DPs temporarily.

Allied logistics teams in Iran complete their cleanup of the battlefield from the Battle of the Valley some weeks prior. Australian fitters are able to recover all of the damaged Leopard tanks that had been lost in the battle and restore over 80 percent of them to service, while Iranian teams (many composed of grizzled veterans of the superhuman efforts needed to sustain the war effort against Iraq in the 80s) have amazingly been able to recover over 100 T-34/85s lost by the Soviet 69th Tank Division. Forty are restored to running condition and issued to lower-quality infantry divisions while the rest are hauled off to be emplaced as pillboxes around Shiraz and guarding choke points in the Zagros Mountains.

At the Kapustin Yar test site in south-central Russia, scientists and engineers from the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau launch the first of a series of six SS-23 missiles fitted with an experimental new guidance package that, using technology developed from salvage from downed and crashed American Tomahawk cruise missiles, is nearly 7 times more accurate than the seeker currently fitted. The test is a success, hitting 12 m from the aim point when fired 500 km.

[chico20854]

August 10, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

1st Brigade, 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready, redeeming the brigade and its new commander after a disastrous NTC rotation in late 1996 that led to new leadership, re-equipment with M1/M2-series vehicles and widescale retraining and replacement of personnel.

A high-priority airlift carries the headquarters and first company of the 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment to Ascension Island, en route to the Falklands.

Heavy fighting continues in central Pyongyang as gangs of POWs and engineers clear rubble from roads through the capital, creating a main supply route to the front to the north. The MSR speeds the flow of reinforcements and supplies to the beleagured troops of the US I and IX Corps and their Korean and Commonwealth allies to the north, who had previously been relying on a patchwork of secondary roads, marginal in the best of times, for the bulk of their support.

The Dutch Marine Corps, in order to exploit the vast pool of Marine reservists, (over 1500 of them under the age of 35) who have not been called up for service in the three Amphibious Combat Groups or four Security Groups, forms the 9th Marine Amphibious Combat Group. The Dutch government intends to use the unit to support NATO operations in the Mediterranean, potentially in operations in Sicily, Jugoslavia or Turkey. Due to the situation the formation is equipped with obsolescent weapons from war stockpiles (FAL rifles, Uzi SMGs, 106mm recoilless rifles instead of Dragon or Tank Breaker missiles, .50 caliber machineguns instead of Stinger missiles for air defense) and requisitioned civilian vehicles for mobility ashore.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and troops of the 27th Marines launch a predawn transit of the Vistula Lagoon in AAVP-9 amphibians, assaulting the Soviet naval base at Baltiysk. The remnants of the base (it was first attacked by Marineflieger Tornadoes in November and has been struck numerous times since then) are defended by the sailors and shoreside staff, formed into the ad-hoc Division Baltiysk. Fierce fighting rages throughout the town, and the coming of the dawn makes any further crossings of the lagoon perilous at best. Allied naval forces are active offshore, and the American destroyer Coontz, returned to action following multiple repairs, provides naval gunfire support with its 5-inch gun.

Remaining British and Canadian units in Norway are pulled out, staging in England in preparation for deployment to Iran, where the situation continues to look bleak.

The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) and 4th Armies are maintaining pressure on XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran. They have pushed 9th ID's screen back to the town of Ardakan high in the Zagros Mountains. To their east 40th Army has surrounded the 1st Marine Division at Yadz, although their cordon is leaky enough that small caravans of Iranian civilians (some contracted by the Americans or Iranian intelligence) are able to slip through, bringing small quantities of ammunition, food and fuel to the Marines. To the west, 7th Army is slowly driving the 24th Infantry Division south, back towards the defense lines it had maintained throughout May and June.

Two more SS-23 missiles are fired at Kapustin Yar. They reflect similar increases in accuracy.

[chico20854]

August 11, 1997

The 106th Guards Air Assault Division, a high command reserve unit, is brought forward into Poland from its home station of Tula.

The 1st Tank Division enters action on the Polish-Ukrainian border; the veterans of the war in China, assigned to 1st Guards tank Army, face off against the German 2nd PanzerGrenadier Division.

Unofficially,

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

A Soviet spetsnaz team locates the rear headquarters of the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group; following its doctrine it immediately attacks and temporarily overruns it, capturing a number of documents before being driven off by a counterattack by a scratch force of Dutch mechanics, truck drivers and clerks. The remnants of the US Army Berlin Brigade (consolidated into two weak battalions) is alerted for deployment to the Warsaw perimeter, where its urban combat expertise could be best used.

The Battle of Baltiysk continues, with the 28th Marine Regiment ferried into the city overnight and a flight of A-7Es of VA-66, operating off the USS Coral Sea, stopping a Soviet reinforcement column with an attack with three B-57 nuclear bombs as they approached the city.

Convoy 161 forms in the North Sea for a voyage to North America. It contains many of the ships from Convoy 158 that brought the 5th Marine Division to Europe, the Freedom ships Austin, Birmingham, Michigan and Oklahoma Freedom and over 40 other assorted merchantmen. The escort consists of two American frigates (the Brooke and Kauffman), the former Coast Guard cutters Munro and Tahoma, the Canadian destroyer Maragee, all led by the American destroyer Harry W Hill.

At the next Albanian Politburo session, the minister of the economy reports that the mobilization has stripped approximately one third of the labor force and that as a consequence the goals of the latest Five-Year plan are unlikely to be achieved. Oil production has been halved from the nation's oil fields and four refineries, the copper smelters are operating at half capacity. The wholesale callup of the nation's educated men (who form the officer corps) will soon cripple the major industrial enterprises. The minister of agriculture reports that the fall harvest, which usually requires the deployment of over half the peacetime Army, will be catastrophic unless the units currently on alert are allocated to assist in the harvest. The minister of transport reports that the nation will soon have all recalled reservists en route to their mobilization stations, the national fleet of nearly 5000 buses able to reach most of the remote mountain towns along the Jugoslav and Greek borders.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MsM79inUf5jqKAJFed2AQWy7a8kzWcdT/view?usp=sharing)
The carrier USS Independence, operating in the Arabian Sea, is struck by a Type-65 torpedo from the Sierra-class SSN K-534, and is lucky to stay afloat after receiving extensive damage. It loses two of its four propellers and a rudder is hopelessly jammed, along with a prop shaft blown out by the torpedo (the ship's Nixie torpedo decoy worked-barely). There is some internal flooding and shock damage as well.

The SS-23 test firing series is disrupted when the first of two missiles to be fired for the day explodes shortly after launch.

[chico20854]

August 12, 1997

Canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

The Canadian Navy recommissions the last of the St. Laurent-class destroyers, the Assinboine, which had been paid off in 1988 but used as a training and accommodation ship since then. The ship required extensive refit, but emerges with a modern 76mm gun, electronics and sonar. It is put into service on the convoy lanes.

The Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is, at its commander's request, thrown into action in the final battle for Pyongyang. His troops seem less than eager, although his officers are enthusiastic about being there for the end of the North Korean regime. (Allied intelligence has not ruled out the possibility that the Kim dynasty is lurking in the tunnels under the 1st of May Stadium.)

Exploiting the documents captured from the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group headquarters, the GRU directs several other Spetsnaz teams into the area behind the Dutch front lines in Bavaria. Over a four-hour predawn period three of the Dutch 8-inch howitzer batteries are overrun, although an attack on the unit's tactical nuclear weapons storage site is driven off with heavy losses on both sides.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s5X2GL43nAGH-dhOKMGGtKYZUUdhDf5I/view?usp=sharing)
As US Marines gain control of the town of Baltiysk, the Soviet command orders its surviving defenders out. Shortly after 10 pm the city is struck by a SSC-3 Styx coast defense missile fitted with a 15kt warhead, destroying much of what had survived. Casaulties among the marines were relatively light, as most were in fighting positions or inside buildings that provided protection from the worst blast effects.

The US Navy returns the carrier Eisenhower to service in the Atlantic after over six weeks of repairs at Scapa Flow. The damage has only been partially repaired, with the two waist catapults out of operation; fabrication of replacement machinery is expected to take another nine months.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/13oMNxW2N2bfkd4B613M1DeRjr5Rk9t2R/view?usp=sharing)
In Iran, Frontal Aviation makes another mass raid against Persian Gulf ports, with a fighter-bomber regiment tasked to neutralize the pipeline terminals. American and Saudi early warning aircraft detect the Soviet force as it forms up over northern Iran, and the raid is met with swarms of American, Iranian, Qatari and Saudi fighters.

The SS-23 test series is paused for additional inspections of the two remaining test missiles.

The 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment, a TA regiment from Lancaster, closes on RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. One ex-regular sergeant had even been in the Falklands as a Lance-Corporal in 2 Para in 1982. A unit of Argentine commandos lands on West Falkland and moves into hiding.

[chico20854]

August 13, 1997

The 26th Infantry Division (Light) (Massachusetts and Connecticut National Guard) is withdrawn into reserve behind I Corps' front line following heavy action (unofficially) against the Soviet 30th Army. The fighting along the I Corps front is the first combat between American and Bulgarian troops when the Bulgarian 11th Tank Brigade's T-62s are thrust forward to try to take advantage of the withdrawal of the 26th.

The 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized), en route to a blocking position in eastern Poland, is struck by seven Soviet tactical nuclear weapons in the space of 15 minutes. The attacks inflict heavy casaulties and leave the division combat ineffective.

Unofficially,

The 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is withdrawn from the ruins of Baltiysk; it has seen months of action, culminating in the Battle of Baltiysk and the Soviet nuclear strike on the city that served as the final act of that engagement. To the east, the 23rd Army, attached to 2nd Western Front and commanding a miscellaneous assortment of units from around the USSR, launches a counterattack in the Suwałki corridor, the short section of Lithuanian-Polish border between Kaliningrad and Byelorussia. The attack comes at the junction between the US III Corps and II British Corps and, supported by a trio of nuclear strikes, makes 10 km of progress in its initial 12 hours.

The Sierra-III class sub K-231 begins its sole combat patrol from the Balaclava naval base in the Crimea; the boat's voyage transits the Bosporus (submerged) and Mediterranean.

The 487th Tactical Missile Wing(-) in Turkey fires its first missiles, targeting the Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Varna and Burgas through which the Soviets are ferrying troops and supplies to the Turkish and Romanian fronts, with eight missiles.

In eastern Turkey the Turkish Third Army is able to hold the Soviet 42nd Corps' assaults at bay. The highly motivated Turkish troops are still somewhat well supplied and the units contain a sizeable proportion of experienced troops that have managed to avoid being redirected to the fronts in the Balkans and Cyprus.

In central Iran the 26th (my 295th) Motor-Rifle Division, advancing quickly through the Zagros in pursuit of XVIII Airborne Corps, is caught in a series of airmobile ambushes by the 101st Air Assault Division and the 6th AACB. The Soviet division pauses as nightfall approaches, each regiment and battalion establishing laagers along the narrow mountain road, with mutually reinforcing fields of fire. The inexperienced NCOs, however, fail to post observation posts on the nearby mountain peaks, judging the effort to climb them too taxing on their already exhauseted men. Taking advantage of the terrain and the enemy's lack of night vision equipment, the Americans land a series of ambush parties along the route the Soviet division will take during the next day's advance; these parties are well equipped with TOW-equipped FAVs and HMMWs and engineer squads, which lay mines and prepare to create obstacles. When the Soviet battalions begin moving in the morning, they are engaged from the heights above and trapped strung out along the roads. After nearly two hours of withering American fire the division's artillery and anti-aircraft weapons, coupled with air support from reinforcing Hinds of the 381st Helicopter Regiment, are able to suppress the American attackers, who slip back over the ridges into adjoining valleys, where their own helicopters quickly arrive to extract them. In total, the Soviet division loses nearly all of its tanks and 60 percent of its infantry and artillery in the attack and is rendered combat ineffective. The Americans lose fourteen TOW launch vehicles, six attack helicopters and two companies of infantry.

The SS-23 test series is concluded at Kapustin Yar. The overall improvement in accuracy is impressive.

The arrival of the Territorial Army battalion in the Falklands, just as the Argentine task force is in a position to launch, throws the Argentine plan awry. The Argentines back down with the Argentine government planning to let the islands gradually suffer with reduced support from the U.K. as the war in Europe and ongoing nuclear exchange drain resources, eventually, it is hoped, forcing the local population to come begging to establish closer links with Argentina on their own (and in years to come gradually become Argentinian).

[chico20854]

August 14, 1997

As nuclear attacks continue to strike Polish targets, a second wave of refugees arrive in the Wieliczka Salt Mine. They join others, mostly locals, who have been sheltering underground since June. The original residents have erected crude huts and tents, but these latest arrivals are forced to stay in vast common barracks in some of the mine's larger vaults and chambers.

Unofficially,

Naval fighter-attack squadron VFA-174, disbanded in June aboard the USS Independence after being reduced to 3 aircraft, is reactivated at NAS Leemore, California and assigned eight F/A-18s (three new production, three from the readiness squadron VFA-125 and two culled from test and evaluation duties). The "new" squadron's personnel are a mix of veteran VFA-174 personnel evacauted from the Middle East, new recruits and staff "borrowed" from the station's staff. It is assigned to the USS Ranger, which is in the midst of trying to reactivate an air wing after the heavy losses it suffered in Vietnam in January.

As the fighting in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium in central Pyongyang has gone almost entirely underground, the commander of the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade suddenly orders all Allied forces aboveground. Within an hour the order has been carried out, and one of the war's great atrocities unfolds when trucks arrive and begin dumping bags of dry chemicals on the ground by the entrances to the subterranean network. Right-wing officers soon pour liquid chemicals onto the bags and clouds of choking green chlorine gas, heavier than air, begin to form and sink into the tunnels below. Panicked North Korean troops, badly burned, are shot as they desperately try to escape the choking gas. The defense of Pyongyang has ended.

The headquarters, 2nd Marine Division prepares for the division to be reunited for the first time since the outbreak of war as each of its three subordinate MEBs are en-route to its location.

3rd Guards Tank Army launches another series of attacks westward, including with its relatively fresh 74th Tank Division, in an attempt to break through to Warsaw. To the north, 23rd Army continues its advance, with two divisions of elite paratroops (the 44th Guards Training and 106th Guards) in the lead.

The US 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade re-embarks aboard amphibious shipping in the damaged port of Syracuse; they are being transferred to the Baltic.

The Albanian minister of defense reports that all the Army's 22 divisions have been fully formed and are in the process of issuing weapons and equipment and beginning training. At this news, the Albanian leader flies into a rage, demanding to know why it took so long, accusing the defense minister of wasting the vast sums dedicated to defense. As the startled communist leader stumbles to explain the diversion of resources to building bunkers, the lack of spare parts for the Chinese tanks, the inadequate numbers of officers, the constant diversion of men to support the economy and low education levels among the ranks he is instead arrested for treason.

The cat-and-mouse game over the North Atlantic resumes when a single Tu-22M2DP slips unnoticed over eastern Greenland and into the air lanes. The picking is slimmer than in the prior week, with a Canadian Air Force CC-137 (Boeing 707) of No. 437 Squadron falling victim to a missile, while the countermeasures aboard a USAF C-5B of the 436th Military Airlift Wing decoy the missile targeted at it. The tables are turned on the Soviets, however, when a USAF F-15 of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron locates the Tu-16 tanker orbiting southwest of Spitsbergen that is waiting to refuel the Soviet interceptor on its return flight. The tanker is downed and the raider is quite surprised when it discovers that the aircraft it is rendezvousing with is an American fighter, which downs it with a long burst from its 20mm cannon.

The 9th Infantry Divison (Motorized), serving as the rear guard of XVIII Airborne Corps as it retreats back towards the Persian Gulf, has been pushed back to the town of Kazerun, in the western Zagros Mountains. The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment, operating largely independently of other American units but supporting the Iranian II Corps, hangs on to the town of Behbehan as it is pressured by the 9th (my 1st) Army, and the joint American-Iranian armored force north of Bandar-Khomeyni has fought the 7th Army to a halt, taking advantage of the salt ponds of the area to channel the Soviets into a narrower front.

[chico20854]

August 15, 1997

The scattered remains of the US 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (California National Guard) are withdrawn to Germany to reform.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Boise Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Portland and Abilene Freedoms in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

After a month of dispersal, Strategic Air Command settles into a routine. The majority of airborne alert sorties are flown by aircraft launched from a squadron's main operating base, but the dispersed aircraft have begun to require more advanced maintenance than the mobile support teams that have moved to the dispersal locations. Accordingly, a schedule is implemented to rotate aircraft and crews (both air and ground), with aircraft completing alert sorties landing at a dispersal base, being replaced in the air by an aircraft from the dispersal base, which in turn will return to the main operating base at the end of its flight. Rotation of ground crews is more basic, involving non-tactical buses and trucks; many dispersal bases are within commuting distance of the main operating base and crews don't need to move into temporary alternative housing when permitted off base.

The 173rd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (Nevada Air National Guard), down to four RF-16s, is placed in reserve at Chitose Air Base, Japan.

The top South Korean Air Force ace, Soryeong (Major) Rhee Song Jii of the 153rd Fighter Squadron, is listed as missing in action when his F-4E is brought down by ground fire whilst escorting a pair of F-4Es attacking a Soviet armored column in Russia near the Korean border. He is seen to eject by his wingman, but no contact can be made with him despite extensive searches by U.S. and Chinese ground troops in the area, though his WSO is rescued. Soryeong Rhee has 26 kills to his credit when he is shot down.

The commander of the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is arrested by US MPs of the 8th Military Police Brigade on charges of violating the laws of war with the prior day's gassing in Pyongyang.

The Dutch Red Army blows up a rail line east of Enschede; a train evacuating NATO wounded from Germany is derailed. This is the Dutch Red Army's last successful attack.

The 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrives in Denmark, where it is united with the 2nd MEB, recently arrived from Norway.

The Polish Army in the small enclave in the southeast remaining under Communist control launches a fresh series of attacks as well. The Polish attack is initiated with a blast from a nuclear-tipped FROG-7 rocket against the headquarters of the German 29th Panzer Division. The unguided rocket misses, landing nearly 3 km away, but the blast disrupts the unit's operations, allowing the subsequent attack (its massed infantry advancing supported by T-34s in a scene reminiscent of the 1940s) to overrun the outer German picket line before being halted at the main line of resistance.

In northern Poland the 23rd Army continues its advance, gaining another one or two kilometers of ground from its American and British foes.

In Bavaria the front is relatively quiet as the Soviet 21st Army organizes its forces for action after the disruption and losses incurred in the conquest of Austria. On the opposite side of the lines the Austrian 1st PanzerGrenadier Division, its ranks swelled back above its original strength by stragglers and escapees from other Bundesheer units, is assigned to the German IV Korps.

The New York Air National Guard's 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron arrives at Trapani Birgi Air Base in Sicily, following the success of Operation Carthaginian. From this location it is better able to provide combat search and rescue over the Mediterranean and even Balkan theaters than from its prior base in Gibraltar.

The carriers John F. Kennedy and America, after a brief pause to resupply and refuel, return to action in the Mediterranean with a return to the air over the Taranto naval base. The days' raid expends nearly all of the groups' remaining stock of stand-off munitions, yet the commander of the Sixth Fleet is, at yet, reluctant to use another tactical nuclear strike on Italy, even though that would help ensure a resumption of NATO ships' transit of the Adriatic.

The head of the SS-23 project at the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau delivers his preliminary findings to the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. The Colonel-General in charge orders that the new guidance package is to be fitted to all future SS-23 production.

The newly arrived TA battalion in the Falklands uncovers a recently abandoned Argentine observation post on West Falkland; the battalion is put on alert and redoubles its patrolling.

[Targan]

August 13, 1997The Sierra-III class sub K-231 begins its sole combat patrol from the Balaclava naval base in the Crimea; the boat's voyage transits the Bosporus (submerged) and Mediterranean.
That must be one of the most hazardous transit routes in the war at that time.

August 14, 1997As the fighting in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium in central Pyongyang has gone almost entirely underground, the commander of the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade suddenly orders all Allied forces aboveground. Within an hour the order has been carried out, and one of the war's great atrocities unfolds when trucks arrive and begin dumping bags of dry chemicals on the ground by the entrances to the subterranean network.
There would be quite a lot of competition for that title by that stage of the war, I'm sure.

[chico20854]

August 16, 1997

Twenty kilometers short of Nairobi the Tanzanians run into an ambush, hit from the sky by MD 500 TOW carrying helicopters and from the ground by Vickers tanks. Tanzanian SAMs take a heavy toll of the attacking helicopters but not before they cause significant damage to the tank formations. Kenya’s Vickers tanks prove themselves equal to the T-54, Chinese Type 59 & 62 and Scorpion tanks of Tanzania, bringing the attack to a standstill.

Unofficially,

Alarmed at the losses among the carrier fleet, the US Navy's Sea Systems Command urges a rapid completion of the refurbishment of the former Spanish light carrier Cabot, in drydock in New Orleans, and allocates additional sailors (from what is rapidly becoming an embarrassing excess) to the carrier's "pre-commissioning unit". There is less enthusiasm for the reactivation at NAVAIR, which has to find aircraft to operate off the ship, which is a challenge given that American industry is working full tilt to produce a total of six Harrier jump jets a month, well below the loss rate experienced by USMC squadrons.

Unbeknownst to Allied forces, Sooryeong Rhee, the top South Korean ace, is captured by KGB Border Guards while trying to reach the coast to escape Soviet territory. He is brought to Border Guard regional headquarters in Vladivostok while the regional KGB director contemplates what benefit he can gain by trading him to the North Koreans, PVO air defense troops and Army versus sending him to Moscow.

The consequences for the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade continue, with the unit pulled back to South Korean territory and the officers involved with the gas attack in Pyongyang arrested as well.

Along the front, Soviet forces launch another attack on I Corps, which is turned back with heavy losses.

Desertion begins to be a serious problem for Soviet commanders in the Torun pocket in Poland, where the Baltic Front (with the remnants of two Soviet and one Polish army) is surrounded by the German I and XII Korps. Supplies in the pocket are running low, as the front is sustained only by a trickle of low-level nighttime helicopter flights, and STAVKA has refused multiple requests from the Western TVD to have the command break out and rejoin friendly lines. STAVKA considers the diversion of two German corps and the continued occupation of Polish territory as more valuable than having the forces available to strengthen the defenses of the Soviet border. The Germans, in turn, have stepped up their psychological warfare against the surrounded Pact force, exploiting the "abandonment" of the command, encouraging ethnic tension between the various Soviet nationalities and stoking resentment among the Polish troops about purported slights inflicted on them by the Soviets.

The 23rd Army's attack in northeast Poland, slowed down in the wooded terrain laden with swamps, woods and lakes, is checked by an American counterattack. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, reinforced with the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, breaks through the Soviet flank, driving forward over 20 km, cutting two of the Army's three supply routes. The cavalry disperses into the woods on either side of the supply route, while the artillery batteries seek shelter in small clearings and meadows in the area. The regiment's remaining attack helicopters scour the roads for Soviet vehicles and scouts (on foot, in M3 Cavalry vehicles and airborne in Kiowa Warrior helicotpers) call in strikes; depending on the importance of the target the munitions may be conventional or nuclear (FASCAM, DPICM and SADARM for armor units, tactical nuclear for nuclear strike systems, headquarters and logistics sites and chemical for infantry).

US Navy SEALs and Marine Force Recon commandos attack the Greek naval base at Salamis, near Athens. they sink the destroyer Kanaris, missile boats Plotarhis Blessas and Ipoploiarhos Konidis, landing ship Kriti and tanker Yliki as well as damaging the fleet headquarters and setting two repair shops ablaze.

Task Force 60, Sixth Fleet's carrier strike force, hits the Italian air force base at Lecce-Galatina to prevent it from being used by Italy's rapidly shrinking force of F-104S air defense fighters.

The 29th Infantry Division (Light)(Maryland and Virginia National Guard) is released from Strategic Reserve and embarks aboard a mix of commercial vessels and naval amphibious shipping for transit to the CENTCOM area of operations. Due to losses in the amphibious fleet, the division's aviation brigade loads many of its helicopters aboard the roll-on/roll-off cargo ship Lurline, which is fitted out with makeshift flight facilities.

The damaged carrier USS Independence is towed into the port of Muscat, Oman.

Following orders from Moscow, production of SS-23 missiles at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant is halted, allowing all future missiles to be fitted with the new guidance package.

[chico20854]

August 17, 1997

Kenya’s six F-5E and two F-5F’s prove themselves superior to the Tanzanian Air Force, destroying fifteen Tanzanian aircraft in fierce air battles over Nairobi and Mombasa while losing three F-5E and one F-5F in the process.

Unofficially,

An international incident occurs outside Wichita Falls, Texas when a when a platoon of the 4th Texas Brigade (a state guard unit) stops a convoy of Soviet POWs being escorted by US Air Force security police to a work site, overpowers the guards and beats a dozen of the prisoners in retaliation for the outbreak of nuclear warfare in Europe.

As the Des Moines battlegroup in the Sea of Japan uses its guns to support the Marines of the 1st MEB and their Korean allies as they slowly withdraw along the North Korean coast it is attacked by an enemy submarine group. A helicopter from the frigate George Philip detects a sub contact and chases it down, assisted by a SH-60 helicopter from the destroyer Fletcher. After nearly 45 minutes, three torpedoes are dropped and the submarine, a North Korean Romeo-class boat, is sunk. Unfortunately, while the battlegroup command was concentrating on the North Korean boat a second sub, the Soviet Kilo-class boat B-175, slipped closer to the battle group, taking advantage of the shallow water and difficult coastal currents. The Soviet sub fires a spread of straight-running Type 53-66 torpedoes at the Des Moines; luckily (for the Americans) all of them miss after the cruiser makes a (pre-ordered) turn. A lookout aboard the ship sights the torpedoes and sounds the alarm, sending the whole battlegroup on alert. Despite hours of frantic searching, B-175 is able to escape, its commander intent on striking Des Moines in a future encounter.

A task force of Dutch marines assault a farmhouse where members of the Dutch Red Army have taken hostages. The terrorists and their hostages are killed. This is that last combat action against the Dutch Red Army, which has been broken by months of aggressive counterterror operations on the part of Dutch intelligence, police and special forces.

In Bavaria, the Soviet 21st Army assumes responsibility for the sector between the Italians and the Czechs, facing NATO forces from Regensburg to Ingolstadt. That permits the Italians to shift forces west to attempt to outflank the dug-in defenders of Augsburg and reinforce the westernmost drive into Baden-Wurttemberg, which is bogged down by the US XX Corps west of the Iller River.

Convoy 418 from Oman to US arrives off Capetown, South Africa. The Victory ship Wayne Victory is one of 38 cargo ships and tankers, escorted by but two escorts, the British frigate Juno and the destroyer USS Kincaid, in the convoy.

The US Navy's Patrol Hydrofoil Missile Squadron Two begins operations along the west coast of Italy, seeking to keep the Italian fleet off balance and prevent it from breaking south into the Mediterranean shipping routes.

In Sicily, six F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron arrive at Comiso airbase, which it had attacked just weeks before, and begins using the base to fly strike missions against targets on the Italian mainland and in western Greece.

The Albanian secret police, the Sigurimi, hold a hasty trial for the former minister of defense. He is quickly convicted of being a quadruple agent, working for the USSR, China and NATO to cripple the valiant Albanian people's efforts to defend themselves in a world bent on destroying its only true Marxist state.

[chico20854]

August 18, 1997

The Zambian volunteer brigade in Kenya manages to cut the railroad between the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa but they are then stopped cold by Kenyan Army forces redeploying from positions near the Somali border, leaving its defense to Kenyan Police Reserve forces alone.

Unofficially,

Ten of the Soviet POWs beaten by members of the Texas State Guard are released from the base hospital at Sheppard AFB, Texas; two others remain in the critical care ward. The guardsmen are taken into custody by Texas Rangers and transporter to jail, while Red Cross monitors travel to the area to conduct an investigation.

The BBC announces that over 50 percent of those that fled British cities for the countryside have returned home.

Following frenzied military-political-diplomatic discussions, the arrested Japanese officers are released to their national authorities and flown home on a JASDF C-130.

STAVKA orders Far Eastern TVD, as a result of the changing strategic situation, to release 13th Army for service in the West. As Chinese resistance in central China wanes, 1st Far Eastern Front is gaining more ground every day, recapturing all the territory lost in the Chinese summer offensive and taking tens of thousands of prisoners. Soviet troops have a hard time distinguishing between PLA soldiers who have discarded their uniforms for civilian clothes, Chinese partisans and anti-Soviet guerrillas and genuine civilians; in such an environment all are treated as POWs. Like the Allied coalition in Iraq in 1991, however, the numbers of prisoners swamp the ability of the Army to handle them, and long lines of dejected men are simply directed to walk north.

Fierce battles rage in the forests of northeastern Poland and Lithuania as the commander of the 23rd Army turns the elite paratroops of the 106th Guards Air Assault Division loose on the troopers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Over the next 36 hours countless small firefights erupt as platoons and companies clash in the rough terrain; the veteran cavalrymen have armored vehicles and superior firepower to call upon, while the dismounted desantniki are able to take advantage of terrain that the American vehicles cannot traverse.

To the south, 3rd Guards Tank Army's grinding advance continues, incurring shockingly high casaulties. Western TVD is receiving multiple train-loads of replacement troops each day - some are recalled reservists with varying levels of retained skills, others are teenagers or Central Asians who have little experience and add little to unit's combat capability. Nonetheless, the end result at the end of the day is the same - massive casaulties and little to show for it.

In the Kaliningrad sector, the 3rd Shock Army, which has been in fierce combat nearly nonstop since October, is awarded the Guards title in recognition of its valaint service. Each of the army's divisions started the war as Guards divisions, but various Army-level units are also awarded the title.

As operations in Sicily wind down (internal security duties are being split between the Iberian airborne troops and a NATO-supported Italian police force/militia), the 173rd Airborne Brigade is assigned to act as a raiding force in the eastern Mediterrranean. The headquarters and support elements are transferred to Cairo West Air Base in Egypt, with the 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery securing the base alongside US and Egyptian air force security personnel. The 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 325th Infantry is based at the facility but is tasked with raiding isolated Greek outposts; the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry remains in Sicily at the Comiso Air Base to strike Italian targets while the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry is flown to Akhisar Air Base, Turkey to assist in that nation's defense.

Sigurimi (Secret Police) agents take the former Albanian defense minister out of the secret prison cell in Tirana and drive him to a remote abandoned farmhouse south of the capital. Over 12 hours they beat him nearly to death before loading him once again into a car. They drive him to an out of the way mountain road, then pull over and shoot him 14 times. His body is buried in an unmarked grave.

Another strike occurs in the Soviet war economy, when workers at the Kommunarsk Steel Plant in Ukraine put down their tools and march in protest at raised output demands, long hours, growing shortages and falling wages.
A firefight breaks out between a section from the 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment and Argentine commandos 5 miles west of Fitzroy settlement on East Falkland.

[chico20854]

dealing with COVID. Not too bad, just time consuming/distracting! I'll get caught up when I can!

[The Zappster]

Get well soon.

[Targan]

That darned 'Rona! Glad to hear you're weathering it okay.

[micromachine]

Get well soon sir. I look these up and read them as soon as I see your post.

[Raellus]

Dude, that sucks. I hope your immune system kicks the crap out of it tout suite, and you're back in battery soon.

-

[pmulcahy11b]

I hope you're OK Chico! I'm doing the COVID thing myself right now, and I know how crummy it can feel.

[cawest]

hope you get to feeling better soon

[Homer]

Hope you’re feeling better. Get well soon!

[stilleto69]

Get well Chico. I know the feeling, 'Rona hit my family hard earlier this year.

[pmulcahy11b]

Chico is basically writing a short story every day. That's a lot of work under normal circumstances. I don't know how he does it.

[Louied]

Chico and Paul,
Get well soon guys. I’m just getting over it too

[chico20854]

Thanks for the well wishes guys! This is a mild case, thankfully, and hopefully I will be back to 100 percent soon!

[chico20854]

August 19, 1997

The 5th and 7th Kenyan Rifles Battalion and the 76th Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, supported by Kenyan light attack aircraft, bring the attack on Mombasa to a halt just outside artillery range of the city. A small force of Tanzanian tanks and APCs manages to penetrate inside the city but is surrounded and then destroyed as it runs out of ammunition.

Unofficially,

The Air Force staff authorizes the formation of a second and third Midgetman missile squadron headquarters. Personnel are assigned from the training system as well as some airmen from the already existing squadron.

The KGB regional director in Vladivostok decides to send Soryeong Rhee, the top ROKAF ace, to Moscow, figuring his troop's actions in capturing him is likely to lead him to a more important position than being stuck as far as possible from Moscow.

With 23rd Army's momentum broken, losses mounting and supplies in the dispersed detachments running low, the commander of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment orders a staged withdrawal back to the its start lines. The retreat is relentlessly pursued by the aggressive Soviet paratroops, who push the cavalry back to the Polish border before running low on supplies themselves.

In southeastern Poland, Polish troops are making steady progress in forcing NATO forces north, away from the slopes of the Carpathians. NATO troops hold the vital rail line that runs east from Krakow, over which much of the German Third Army's supplies travel.

The Sierra-class attack submarine K-534 sinks another tanker in the Arabian Sea, the Sunco Charger bound for refineries in the Far East, with a trio of torpedos.

[ToughOmbres]

Hope you are feeling better and on the mend. Updates, per usual, are great. Feel better fast!

[chico20854]

August 20, 1997

Nothing official for today...

The Greek government collapses after a military coup. The junta of generals is actually initially quite popular as they promise a renewed effort at the front in Thrace and a more effective naval defense in the Agean; their appeal to nationalism in the conflict against the Turks and Americans is well received, and their authoritarian methods are presented as necessary steps to mobilize the nation's war effort after months of disorganzed and half-hearted efforts by an ineffective civilian government.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tsSQCEXLxCCm3VI8aVLUG-HYpatvaU1W/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet troops enter Anchorage, Alaska for the first time, led by the 130th Motor-Rifle Division's 108th Motor-Rifle Regiment, equipped with rare 1940s-vintage T-44 tanks. To the north, the fresh (but mobilization-only) 147th (my 261st) Motor-Rifle Division is committed to the drive on Fairbanks, opposed by the 11th Airborne Division and various state and national guard troops.

The British command dispatches a 12-man SAS team from Guards Squadron, 22 SAS to the Falklands to pursue the Argentine commandos that seem to be active in the islands.

The Japanese officers arrested for the chlorine attack on the North Korean defenders of Pyongyang are quietly released on parole, ostensibly to give them and their lawyers time to work on their defense. They remain on an active-duty status, with full pay, although not assigned any duties beyond preparing for the as-yet unscheduled court martial trial.

The divisions of 13th Army (the 17th, 57th, 70th, 128th Guards and 161st Motor-Rifle Divisions) are all ordered to cease offensive operations and assemble in defensive positions. The Hungarian 31st Tank Brigade, assigned to the army, establishes a security screen along the southern flank.

Engineers assigned to the 5th Marine Division complete the scuttling of the last craft that they could drag into the Baltiysk channel, which links the Soviet Baltic Fleet base at Kaliningrad with the Baltic. The second-to-last vessel sunk is the dredge SM-671, which Seebees pay special attention to to ensure that it would not be recoverable. Many of the craft are booby trapped or at least partially loaded with ordnance salvaged from the town's battlefields to ensure that reopening the channel will be a long and costly effort.

The Polish 120th Artillery Regiment, assigned to the third-line Third Polish Army in southeastern Poland, begins sporadic harrassment fire on the NATO supply lines to its north, disrupting the stream of trucks supporting the southern contingents of Third German Army.

A German countermortar radar locates Captain Czarny's skilled mortarmen in northwestern Warsaw and directs a battery of LARS rockets from the 52nd Rocket Artillery Battalion onto its location. The resulting hail of rockets wipes out Czarny's mortar team and his company headquarters. The ZOMO captain is evacuated to an underground hospital, where the dedicated medical staff saves his life, although the wounds leave his face horribly scarred.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, attack their own leader's house. While the guerrillas are unaware of the significance of the target (they think they are targeting another collaborator), it reinforces Khorrasani's cover as a loyal subject of the Tudeh regime.

The lead naval architech on the project to return the helicopter carrier Leningrad to service is arrested after many weeks of failing to find a way to graft the steel plate salvaged from the burned-out battlecruiser Rossiya onto the carrier. He is accused of sabotaging the effort after many years of secretly harboring pro-Chinese sentiment.

A second engagement occurs in the Falklands between Argentine naval commandos and TA troops. An Argentine marine is killed in the firefight, and his compatriots, under threat of being surrounded and captured, are forced to leave his body.

[chico20854]

It might be a while until I get another update up, have a lot going on trying to get caught up! Thanks for your patience!!! :)

[Milano]

Take your time and get healthy. I had it a few months ago and a by product is that you may loose your hair. It grows back though. Unfortunately, as a near bald middle aged man, the hair you lost in your 30s does not grow back.

[chico20854]

I'm back... between Covid (mild), work (don't get me started) and tech issues (ditto) I'm now almost threwe weeks behind. Hopefully I'll be able to get caught up next week. Here is one day...

[chico20854]

August 21, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day.

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

Fighting rages in the streets of Anchorage. Further east, outnumbered by the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade and the 13th Guards Airborne Division, the 172nd Infantry (Arctic), with nearly half of the unit’s remaining hovercraft out of service requiring maintenance or spare parts, abandons Valdez aboard its own amphibious craft and a requisitioned ferry.

FEMA assumes responsibility for operation of the Defense Logistics Agency underground storage facility in Quinlan, Texas and begins restocking it as a strategic stockpile. At the outset of the war the facility had housed millions of MREs as well as machine tools, medical supplies, cots, blankets, tents, sleeping bags and sand bags. Those supplies have been distributed around the world, leaving the facility available to other users.

The deputy division commander of the 40th Infantry Division, the senior unwounded officer, after consulting with USAEUR staff, orders the survivors concentrated in the division's 1st Brigade to bring it up to strength. Excess command and support personnel are to be returned to the US to form a new division.

On the Bavarian front, the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, protecting XX Corps from Italian air attack, finds that the Italian Air Force, familiar with both the Hawk and the Patriot missile systems, is able to minimize the units’ effectiveness against its most advanced aircraft. The brigade is, however, still able to successfully engage Italian helicopters, transports and close air support aircraft. Polish and Soviet forces coordinate another series of attacks against Third German Army on the southern end of the front, further depleting the Allied force of supplies and reserves.

The press officer for the NATO occupation force in Sicily rushes in to the commander, distraught that the local militia that NATO is sponsoring to maintain order on the island is in fact nothing other than the Cosa Nostra, the infamous Italian organized criminal groups. He has a talk with the commander, who explains the reality of the war to the press officer, who is on a plane back to the US early the next morning.

CVW-10 (Carrier Air Wing 10) aboard the USS Independence disembarks from the damaged carrier. They join with the Seebees of the 1st Naval Construction Regiment in establishing semi-permanent housing, administrative and support facilities at the massive Al Qatif air base in eastern Saudi Arabia. The Independence battle group commander brings the support ship USS Wabash alongside the carrier to speed the unloading of the damaged flattop's ammunition, spares, aviation fuel and other materiel for transportation to the air wing's new operations base.

The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Soviet Ministry of Defense inquires as to why no SS-23 missiles have been delivered; the production plant in Votinsk replies that it is awaiting receipt of the new guidance packages.

British Military Intelligence officers on the Falklands identify the equipment carried by the dead Argentine commando from the prior day's battle as definitely Argentine of 1990s manufacture (not a relic of the 1982 war) and transmit a report to London that Argentine forces are active on the islands.

[chico20854]

Oh, there should be an article in the upcoming issue of the fanzine on the Freedom-class ships for all you folks who are wondering what they are and why they keep showing up in here!

[chico20854]

Take your time and get healthy. I had it a few months ago and a by product is that you may loose your hair. It grows back though. Unfortunately, as a near bald middle aged man, the hair you lost in your 30s does not grow back.

The hair is mainly ancient history at this stage... started losing it in my early 20s! Thanks though!!

[Matt Wiser]

A nit that nobody in Canon picked up: there is no Al Qatif AB. The closest field to that town is King Fahd IAP to the west (about 15 miles). Either that, or Dhahran RSAFB/IAP. I have a set of TPC charts for the Gulf region and Iran, and I'm surprised GDW's writers didn't notice there was no base (King Fahd IAP was under construction when RDF Sourcebook was published-it hosted A-10s in 1990-91 during ODS but was a bare base). CVW-10 could go to either King Fahd or to Dhahran if in Saudi, or to Sheikh Isa in Bahrain.

[ToughOmbres]

Hope you are feeling better and on the mend. Enjoyed seeing an update on the 25 years ago thread-very well done, per usual. Be well!

[chico20854]

A nit that nobody in Canon picked up: there is no Al Qatif AB. The closest field to that town is King Fahd IAP to the west (about 15 miles). Either that, or Dhahran RSAFB/IAP. I have a set of TPC charts for the Gulf region and Iran, and I'm surprised GDW's writers didn't notice there was no base (King Fahd IAP was under construction when RDF Sourcebook was published-it hosted A-10s in 1990-91 during ODS but was a bare base). CVW-10 could go to either King Fahd or to Dhahran if in Saudi, or to Sheikh Isa in Bahrain.

I did actually look at that, sorry I didn't explain. Supposedly the (unfinished in 1996) King Fahd IAP is technically located in the "city limits" of Al Qatif. I took the liberty of re-styling that into GDW's Al Qatif Air Base. My concept is that the pair of 13,000 runways were complete (as at least a portion of them had been used in ODS, as you noted, and with several more years that is, I believe, reasonable) and the other infrastructure (tower, power, water, fuel pipelines) had been largely completed by 1996 when things started looking hairy across the way in Iran. The US and Saudis secretly agreed to shift the construction of the civil airport into an alternate headquarters for 9th Air Force. The terminal building construction was halted, the materials, equipment and workforce being redirected into a number of dispersed, hardened facilites, the partially completed terminal building re-puposed to housing administrative and support functions as well as housing. As 1996 wears on some of these facilities are filled with prepositioned equipment, as mentioned more generally in RDF SB.

My master map of airfields is here (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1-aQvMUJZq1K08VlBLU8xZeuILxk&usp=sharing)!

[Homer]

There were always some head scratchers in cannon. Like the absence of the 29th ID(L), 2 ID stationed at Cam Ranh Bay in the 2E American CVG, and the presence of a TX NG (3-143 IN) battalion in 5 ID(M).

I’ve chalked part of it up to the increased difficulty of getting information pre-internet, and partly to trying to project a plausible scenario without getting to a situation approximating “The Road”.

[chico20854]

August 22, 1997

In North Korea, the US 2nd Infantry Division links up with the lead battalions of IX Corps, concluding its two-week long march south through enemy-held territory.

Unofficially,

The Native Canadian Ranger Regiment intercepts and eliminates a third Spetsnaz team in the northeastern Canadian Arctic, this one near the Pelly Bay air defense radar site.

The British Ministry of Defense evaluates the report received from the Falklands. After consultations with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary once again calls the Argentine ambassodor in and demands the immediate withdrawal of Argentine forces. Once again, the ambassador professes ignorance but transmits word to Buenos Aires.

Heavy trucks arrive in the 13th Army area to load tanks and armored vehicles for transit to the nearest railheads, over 250 km to the north in Mongolia.

In the isolated Torun Pocket, cut off behind NATO lines since June, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Army reorganizes his remaining units, disbanding the 41st Independent Tank Regiment and 510th Independent Guards Tank Regiment and assigning those units' surviving tanks and crews to the 20th and 25th Tank Divisions, respectively.

The Warsaw Pact offensives, supported by tactical nuclear strikes on NATO supply dumps and static artillery positions, continue to make slow progress. East of Bialystok, Poland, lead regiments of the 7th Tank Army attempt to force a breakthrough along the boundary between II British Corps and the American V Corps. The British, under pressure from the 23rd Army on its northern flank and spoiling attacks from a mixed force of KGB, MVD and Army troops to its front, have little to commit to their southern flank. The American corps tries to cover the area with its 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and attack helicopters from the 12th Aviation Brigade, but the long frontage and need to remain dispersed to avoid a nuclear strike mean that there is more a screen than a front line in the area and the Soviet troops gain several additional kilometers of ground.

The American freighter Santa Isabel, which dropped away from Convoy 418 after experiencing engine problems (the ship was built in 1967) is attacked and sunk by a Soviet raider, the destroyer Ostorozhnyy. The destroyer, even older than its quarry, was recently reactivated and sailed from the Kola after the conclusion of the Allied offensive and slipped through the GIUK Gap in ice flows near the Greenland coast.

After a rushed three weeks, the Portugese 15th Infantry Regiment's operational battalion arrives at the Lisbon Naval Station, where three American transport ships (the Cape Domingo, Pioneer Crusader and Cleveland Freedom) are awaiting to transport the 1st Mechanized Brigade to Turkey.

The American carriers John F Kennedy and America continue their attacks on Italian naval targets.

The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense discovers that the electronics plant in Tblisi, Georgia that is supposed to be manufacturing the new guidance packages for the SS-23 missiles is still awaiting the production drawings, which due to an administrative error, were never sent from Moscow. They predict that they can have a prototype together in 10-12 weeks. The Colonel-General is quite upset, to say the least. The Tblisi plant has reallocated its production line to producing radars for Su-27 interceptors in the interim.

[chico20854]

I have a bunch more teed up, but no time to post them! And I want to get the Balkans and CENTCOM filled out a little more. More tomorrow!

[chico20854]

There were always some head scratchers in cannon. Like the absence of the 29th ID(L), 2 ID stationed at Cam Ranh Bay in the 2E American CVG, and the presence of a TX NG (3-143 IN) battalion in 5 ID(M).

I’ve chalked part of it up to the increased difficulty of getting information pre-internet, and partly to trying to project a plausible scenario without getting to a situation approximating “The Road”.

The 29th wasn't formed at the time they were publishing. Two of the brigades are in the 46th ID... one of the head-scratchers of forming new divisions out of independent National Guard brigades! There a bunch of others, like the timing of the TDM, were SAC bases targeted or not, a lot of the backstory in RDF Sourcebook re:Israel and Syria and more...

Given what they had to work with, however, I applaud what they got out. The amount of material that has appeared online since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, machine translation and the passage of time have given us the luxury of being able to see what they got right and got wrong!

[Targan]

I've been wondering about various radiological issues that would have arisen for other countries after China got plastered with nukes. I assume that due to the prevailing winds, plenty of radioactive fallout would have precipitated onto North and South Korea and Japan, and to a lesser extent eventually the US and Canada. The Soviets certainly didn't hold back once they started nuking China. Plenty of dirty ground bursts I'm sure.

[Homer]

Given what they had to work with, however, I applaud what they got out. The amount of material that has appeared online since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, machine translation and the passage of time have given us the luxury of being able to see what they got right and got wrong!

Agree. Sources of information were not as abundant or accessible (How many libraries had a full and current set of Jane’s, or the “Army Green Book”?). In addition, some information was much more controlled. Pretty impressive, considering.

[chico20854]

August 23, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day.

The 47th Infantry Division retreats east from the Anchorage area, with its cavalry squadron (the 1st Squadron, 194th Cavalry (Minnesota National Guard)) and 682nd Engineer Battalion detached to man a blocking position to prevent Soviet forces advancing north from Valdez from cutting the division's evacuation route east into the Yukon. The 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) is retreating under heavy Soviet pressure northward along the Mat-Su Valley, hoping to delay the linkup of Soviet forces advancing out of Anchorage with those that came across the Bering Strait.

1st Byelorussian Front, opposite the US V Corps, with the 3rd, 5th and 7th Tank Armies, continues its pressure on the US V Corps. While the front's tanks are mostly less modern T-64s, T-80s and T-74s, the collapse of the Chinese front has allowed additional reinforcements and supplies to flow to the front, allowing it to push back the exhausted American (and Canadian) troops, strung out at the end of a long supply line from Dutch and German ports far to the west. To the south, 1st Western and Reserve Fronts, with two Polish and three Soviet armies under command, push back Third German Army.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pcJi0fhLRLWe8Fh87xwsyFL_PohPZ2Hy/view?usp=sharing)
In beseiged Warsaw, rations for civilians are cut again, to 1200 calories per day for adults and 600 calories for children under 15.

The ferry Beauport, carrying a cargo of replacement vehicles for British troops, is struck by a mine in the North Sea and sinks.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade has completed its redeployment from Sicily and launches the first of its raids, with two companies from 3-325 AIR raiding Tympaki Air Force Base in Crete. The paratroops land before dawn and are supported by gunfire from the battleship Wisconsin, which not only seals off the area but inflicts major damage on Greek infrastructure all along the southern Cretan coast. The airborne force evacuates after four hours; the final C-130 to depart does not carry troops but instead drops a modified BLU-82 7.5-ton bomb on the runway to crater it and render it useless to the Greeks.

In Iran, the isolated troops of the 1st Marine Division continue to hold the airfield complex at Yadz, supported by vigorous counterattacks on the surrounding 40th Army by the isolated troops as well as the 3rd (my 4th) Marine Division operating north of Bandar Abbas. Heavy air support keeps the Soviet forces from massing to overwhelm any particular sector, and the surrounded division's centrally stationed mobile reserve (built around the two tank battalions, light armored recon and amtrack battalions) is able to respond quickly to enemy attacks. Nightfall begins a parade of transport aircraft into the pocket, bringing in food and ammunition and evacuating the wounded, while KC-130 tankers drain their tanks into the airfields' to support the division's operations.

The Soviet Minister of Agriculture reports that the amount of food grown will be adequate to support the nation but warns that completing the harvest and distributing it is going to be a severe challenge given the lack of trucks and manpower.

The Argentine submarine Salta is dispatched from the Mar del Plata naval base to the Falkland Islands to retreive the naval commando force that has been operating on the islands for several weeks. Orders are radioed to the team to cease patrolling and remain in place until the submarine arrives to retrieve them. A SAS team arrivies in the islands and begins to search for them.

[chico20854]

August 24, 1997

Another day that canon is silent on... Unofficially,

Soviet troops in Alaska begin a reshuffle, with fresh units being committed in central Alaska and others shifted south.

The Prime Minister and Cabinet return to Downing Street. Despite the return of the Government to London, the 11 regional command centers remain fully manned and operational.

In the Japanese-occupied Kurile Islands of Iturup and Kunashir a population transfer is occurring. Along with the evacuation of Soviet POWs, recently arrived Japanese government officials begin evacuating civilians who do not have family ties to the area (defined as at least one family member living in the islands in July 1945 prior to the Soviet seizure). The same flights and voyages that are carrying evacuees off the islands are also carrying "tourists", Japanese citizens that were evicted by (or fled) the Soviets and their descendants. To the dismay of the Soviet citizens, many of the "tourists" begin assessing various homes and businesses, apparently with the intention of settling in the newly reconquered territory. The government officials have no comment on the plan.

Along the northern end of the front line of the Polish-Soviet border 2nd Western Front goes over on the offensive from the Kaliningrad enclave. A Polish-led task force cuts off the US Marine garrison of Baltiysk while the rest of 1st Polish Army (reinforced with Soviet and Polish border guards and the Baltic Fleet's Division Baltiysk) drives the Danish Jutland Division out of Soviet territory. The 3rd Guards Shock Army and 2nd Guards Tank Army also attack southward against the US III Corps and VII German Korps, who use their massive mobility and firepower (both conventional and nuclear) to blunt the attacks and hold their ground.

In southern Germany, the Italian Army has run out of steam as the last of the nation's prewar stocks of fuel, ammunition and spare parts has been largely depleted. Italian industry is still in the process of mobilizing, and the industrial mobilization process (which would be chaotic in the best of circumstances given the state of Italian government and industry) is slowed by the country's isolation from its former NATO partners, who are NOT going to assist it with transport, raw materials or critical components. The Soviets offer to step in, but their assistance is a far cry from what NATO provided.

A helicopter from the escort carrier USS Langley, operating in the Norwegian Sea, detects the Soviet Delta I-class SSBN K-171 moving southbound at 5 knots. Within 10 minutes a swarm of five SH-3 Sea King helicopters are overhead; the boomer is located and sunk by four Mk-46 air-dropped torpedo hits. It is the third Soviet boomer sunk in August.

In Egypt, the commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade receives word that his request for air-droppable armor has been approved; L Company, 73rd Armor is being activated at Fort Bragg. Unfortunately, due to the widespread losses in the LAV-75 force the unit will be equipped with obsolescent M551 Sheridan light tanks.

XVIII Airborne Corps continues its slow withdrawal through the Zagros Mountains, with the 101st Air Assault Division launching a string of airmobile assaults on the advancing 4th Army as it crawls through the Zagros Mountains, pushing back the highly mobile 9th Infantry Division (Motorized). Allied Pasdaran guerrillas harrass the Soviet transport and supply troops with repeated pinprick attacks on the Soviet rear, slowing their progress.

[chico20854]

August 25, 1997

Following months of intense action in the unforgiving desert environment, the helicopters of the 6th ACCB are suffering from lack of maintenance and attrition while the pilots and ground crews are beyond exhausted. As XVIII Airborne Corps is pushed out of the Zagros onto the coastal plains, fixed-wing attack aircraft are able to provide more effective support and the corps command orders the 6th to Saudi Arabia for rest and refit.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Louisville Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Phoenix and Sacramento Freedoms in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

2nd Brigade, 49th Armored Division, Texas National Guard, completes Rotation 97-11 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. It loads its equipment on railcars for the Chicago Port of Embarkation, where shipping is being massed in relative safety.

As students return to their schools, they resume an in-class drill that had fallen by the wayside for many years - "duck and cover" drills to respond to nuclear attacks. It is a sad reflection of the reality of the world.

IX and I US Corps continue to give up ground in Korea as supplies grow scarce and the Soviet Yalu Front incorporates more and more North Korean stragglers (and even civilians, who are almost all either NKPA reservists or members of the Patriotic Red Guard) into its ranks. Behind the front lines, however, massive flows of civilian refugees flee south, having enjoyed just a few weeks of exposure to South Korean propaganda and fearing the deprivation of life in war-ravaged North Korea.

The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment is driven out of Bialystok by the 7th Tank Army's 3rd Guards Tank Division. The regiment's 58th Engineer Company leaves a farewell gift behind in the city: a 15-kiloton W45 Atomic Demolition Munition, which reduces the city center to rubble. Two hours later V Corps' 142nd Field Artillery Brigade (Arkansas National Guard) strikes the airport on the city's southern outskirts with a 12-kiloton W33 8-inch tactical nuclear shell, preventing the Soviets from using it.

The remaining aircraft of the Marineflieger, CVW-19 aboard the USS Coral Sea in the Baltic and the USMC's 2nd Marine Air Wing line up to provide an umbrella of attack aircraft over the evacuation of the embattled 5th Marine Division (reinforced by the German 18th Coast Defense Regiment and the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade) from the city of Baltiysk, where they have been cut off by Polish troops who hold the shore of the lagoon and a strong blocking position along the narrow barrier island between their enclave and Poland. Under the air cover a flotilla of Allied shipping, of all sizes and nationalities, loads troops and what heavy equipment can be loaded aboard, transporting them to the ruined docks of Gdynia 55 miles across the Gulf of Gdansk. The defense of the city's perimeter is bolstered by naval gunfire support, with a task force built around the heavy cruiser Newport News and the American destroyers Coontz and Nicholson.

On the southern end of the Polish front, the highly motivated but poorly equipped troops of the Polish 3rd Army advance down (west along) the valley of the Wisłok River, reaffirming control of the southeastern Polish oilfields (the area had been lightly patrolled by German troops, who in recent weeks have been reluctant to venture into the hills to the north).

The USS John F Kennedy and USS America move closer to the Ionian Sea, launching a series of sorties under EMCOM (emissions control - all radars, radios and other electronic emmitters turn off) and low level into the Adriatic Sea to judge the level of Greek, Italian and Albanian air defense activity over the sea; if there is minimal resistance the route will be exploited for transit of transport aircraft into Jugoslavia and Romania.

Helicopters of the 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade roam out over the Arabian Sea, sinking several dhows (small coastal sailing craft) and a bigger prize, the Pakistani freighter Kaghan carrying a cargo of supplies and replacements for the Pakistani mercenary detachments in Saudi Arabia and the Iranian Gulf Coast.

[chico20854]

August 26, 1997

Canon is silent on the day. Unofficially,

The Joint Chiefs are presented the results of the worldwide military personnel study initiated three weeks ago. It notes that to date the Navy has taken casaulties equal to 15.5% of its prewar strength, the Air Force 17.8%, the Army 38.2%, the Marine Corps 39.7% and the Coast Guard 17.4%. Losses in July were spread more or less proportionally across the branches, between the naval battles off Kamchakta and the Kola, the initiation of nuclear warfare and offensives in Iran, Korea, Norway and the Central Front. Each branch's training establishment is operating at full capacity. Looking forward, industrial production is insufficient to keep up with equipment losses, resulting in an excess of trained personnel in all branches. The Army and Marine Corps have the greatest ability to absorb recruits in the absence of newly produced equipment, serving in light infantry roles, while excess Naval, Coast Guard and Air Force inductees are more likely to be used in security and support roles. The report reingites the debate that had been placed on hold earlier, with the Army Chief of Staff and General Green, Commandant of the Marine Corps once again arguing for a greater allocation of recruits and authority to expand their training establishments. After nearly an hour General Cummings intervenes, declaring that resolution will have to come from the Department of Defense's political leadership.

King Charles returns to Buckingham Palace.

At Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany the 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron turns over the last of its surviving F-16C fighters to its sister squadron the 480th in anticipation of the imminent receipt of AT-38 jets. The armed trainers are familiar to the pilots (who uniformly did their initial fast jet training on the type) and deemed fast and agile enough to survive in the air over Germany and Poland. While much less capable than the F-16s, they allow the 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing to resume flying close air support missions while its remaining F-16s are committed to air defense and nuclear strike missions.

The Polish 3rd Army turns north, attacking up the Wisłoka Valley towards the rail and road junction at Tarnow.

V US Corps is under heavy pressure from the Soviet 3rd Guards Tank Army to its front as 7th Tank Army advances to its north (in the widening gap between it and the British II Corps) and 5th Guards Tank Army pushes along the south, trying to drive a wedge between the Americans and VI German Korps defending Lublin.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia locates the Foxtrot-class B-34 snorkeling near the surface west of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic and sinks her with a pair of Mk 48 torpedoes.

The Sierra-III class sub K-231 slips into the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar by transiting under a NATO merchantman.

The John F Kennedy and America air wings follow up on the prior day's sorties, striking air defense radars and missile sites on the Greek island of Corfu and in southwestern Albania.

The Argentine submarine Slata arrives off West Falkland to retrieve the naval commando team. There is dissent within the team, with two of the senior NCOs, who had been captured by the British in 1982 as young Marine conscripts, disobeying the commanding officer's orders to withdraw. The senior NCOs want to strike at least a symbolic blow at the British to avenge the loss of their peer and salve their battered sense of machismo about having to "slink away in the darkness". The issue is violently resolved when the commander shoots one of the rebellious sailors in the head, then orders the other and the junior troops to drag the body to the boat. By dawn the second Argentine landing in the Falklands has ended.

[chico20854]

August 27, 1997

As a result of the third interception of Spetsnaz teams in northeastern Canada, the decision is made to leave one battalion-equivalent (10 teams) of the Native Canadian Ranger Regiment in the east.

Unofficially,

With its supply lines under threat, Third German Army orders a general withdrawal, ordering V German Korps to defend Tarnow from the Poles, XI US Corps to hold Rzeszow, VII US Corps to stage a fighting withdrawal to the Wisla at Sandomierz and Tarnobrzeg and Panzergruppe Oberdorff to maintain a screen to the north between it and the southern extent of First German Army's VI German Korps, which is holding Lublin against 1st Guards Tank Army.

The last US Marines and German troops are evacuated from Baltiysk, and as the naval task force retreats over the horizon the USS Newport News levels what remains intact in the city (it had been nuked by the Soviets on August 12) with an 8-inch tactical nuclear round.

III US Corps withdraws from the Soviet border into far northeastern Poland; the broken terrain of the Masurian Lakes region is used to the American's advantage, as the many chokepoints created by the topography are easily defended by small detachments, and present lucrative targets for tactical nuclear weapons once abandoned.

The 41st Army is brought west from reserve positions near Vienna to reinforce the Pact effort in Bavaria, leaving the 2nd Czech Army on occupation duty.

The 197th Field Artillery Brigade, which has remained in Norway rebuilding following the collapse of the Murmansk offensive, has received enough guns to field six howitzers per battery. (A full-strength battery fields eight howitzers).

The first of two convoys carrying the Portugese 1st Mechanzied Brigade departs Lisbon, bound for Turkey. Six other ships are in the Lisbon area loading the remainder of the brigade and 30 days of supplies.

American carrier aircraft and the F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron continue to clear an air corridor over the Adriatic, striking Italian mobile radars and returning to several air bases to impede repair efforts.

The Jugoslav Army has managed to move additional troops to its exposed and vulnerable border sectors, leaving the mountainous center of the country largely bereft of regular troops (but swarming with motivated Territorial Defense part-time troops, under control of the republican governments). The 4th Corps is moved from Sarejevo to the Croatian-Hungarian border and the 17th Corps is moved to the west bank of teh Danube at the Hungarian border. The 9th Corps is moved to the northwest to reinforce the battered 5th Army and further delay the slowing Italian advance from Slovenia. The move leaves the Adriatic coast lightly defended, a risk that the Jugoslav command deems acceptable given the battering the Greek and Italian navies have recevied from the 6th Fleet.

Soviet troops arrive in the outskirts of Dakali, Iran, on the western edge of the Zagros Mountains, having pushed the 9th Infantry Divison and 101st Air Assault Division nearly 750 km south in four short weeks. (American commanders maintain that much of that distance was territory abandoned by overextended American troops, but acknowledge the great distance covered). The exhausted combatants on both sides pause before a battle for the town erupts.

Indian troops in Pakistan launch an offensive in the south, committing nearly 50,000 troops. The Indian command abandons sophisticated plans for an armored thrust that can be exploited, instead planning on using its masses of troops to overwhelm the Pakistani defense. Losses on the first day exceed 5,000 men.

[chico20854]

August 28, 1997

With the border stripped of soldiers, Somali Islamist troops push down into northern Kenya to establish their leader’s goal of establishing Greater Somalia. Sudanese Muslim militias and Ethiopian marauders invade as well to grab their share of the spoils. The Kenyans try to slow them down but continue to lose more and more territory each day. A Tanzanian infantry regiment attacks across Lake Victoria and succeeds in seizing Kisumu, overwhelming the small garrison there and forcing the Kenyans to even further stretch their defensive lines around Nairobi.

Unofficially,

Calling into question the prior day's decision, a major Soviet force lands on the coast of British Columbia. The 14th (my 99th) Motor-Rifle Division lands a task force in the Alexander Archipelago, cutting off traffic in the Inside Passage and isolating Juneau from surface traffic. The task force's artillery (a battery of 85mm D-44 guns) catches the Alaska state highway ferry Matanuska passing by, sinking her with several well-aimed volleys. To its south, the 71st Tank Division lands at Prince Rupert, British Columbia and begins moving inland.

The situation in China is unclear, even to Soviet commanders. After over a month of nuclear attacks the Chinese Communist government has collapsed, its few remaining nuclear forces under the control of local commanders out of touch with higher headquarters. Following Soviet attacks on major production, transportation and command centers refugees flee the remaining cities lest they be caught in the next attack. Isolated PLA units are standing and fighting, most notably those remaining in North Korea, which are receiving limited logistical and air support from American and British naval and air forces that still control the Yellow Sea. In Manchuria Soviet forces are cautiously advancing, limited by the flow of POWs and refugees headed for the relative safety of Soviet lines and slowed by the rapid reallocation of fuel, ammunition and supplies to the European theater. In Inner Mongolia, numerous units flung themselves headlong south, outrunning their supply lines and, in some cases, their radio communications with higher headquarters. In central and southern China, where national government authority has collapsed but enemy forces are hundreds of miles away (at least) local Party officials, military commanders and traditional leaders struggle amongst themselves for control of their areas. Life for all Chinese citizens in this situation is disastrous, with the breakdown of transportation networks to move people, fuel and food, dangerous levels of radioactivity from Soviet strikes and rapid emergence of disease on a biblical scale.

At sunrise, the first flight of AT-33B armed trainers lands at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. The six aircraft are assigned to the 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron; the squadron's maintenance crews begin working the aircraft over after their long transatlantic flights.

Shortly after midnight a Soviet coast defense missile battery, down to two 4K51 Rubezh (SSC-3) launchers after months of playing cat-and-mouse with Allied aircraft and special forces, launches a volley at the retreating Allied naval task force. One of the missiles is shot down by a missile fired by the USS Coontz, one misses, and two strike - one hitting the Newport News and the other obliterating the Danish corvette Olfert Fischer. The crew of the Newport News gets the fires under control by dawn, but the ship needs to be repaired, so it begins the long voyage back to the US.

VII German Korps, the last NATO unit on the border with the Russian Kaliningrad enclave, evacuates to a more defensible line to the south, maintaining a tight linkage with the American III Corps to its east. The close terrain is of equal advantage to the Germans as the neighboring Americans, giving time for the German corps support troops to make a final salvage sweep through the region to secure spare parts, salvagable replacement vehicles and munitions to sustain the former East German Army 3rd Army, which the corps is the remnant of.

The Soviet 50th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Carpathian Military District, is attached to the Polish 3rd Army as a stiffener. The 50th is badly understrength, with only two battalions of tanks in each tank regiment and its motor-rifle regiment relying on requisitioned trucks from farms, factories and mines of Ukraine. Its artillery is of Second World War vintage, but the division is graced with a capable and charismatic commanding general, K.V. Beregovoi, whose honesty and sense of duty had exiled him in prewar days to command of a reserve division.

As SOSUS reports the transit of a Soviet submarine westbound leaving the Mediterranean (which American P-3s are unable to localize and attack), CINCIBERLANT authorizes the mining of the Straits of Gibraltar. An inbound and westbound lane are maintained for friendly shipping and for neutrals that accept a local pilot.

STAVKA directs the transfer of the 16th Army, which started the war in Hungary, was bloodied in Romania early in the year before being withdrawn for the invasion of Austria, back to Hungary in preparation for an upcoming effort to crush the NATO force in the Balkans before the Allies can rush reinforcements through the re-opened Mediterranean.

In Iran, as supplies in the surrounded airhead of Yadz continue to diminish (despite the herculean efforts of transport aircraft and helicopter pilots) and the front lines retreat farther south, the commander of the 1st Marine Division orders his subordinate commanders and their staff to begin preparations for a breakout to rejoin the rest of I MEF along the coast.

[chico20854]

August 29, 1997

Noting official for the day!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Orlando Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

The first units of the 70th Guards Motor-Rifle Division begin loading their less-damaged vehicles aboard train cars in southern Mongolia for transit to Europe.

In North Korea, the American 23rd Infantry Division (Light) has its supply lines cut as it serves as the rear guard of the IX Corps retreating from the road and rail hub of Hyangsan in the mountainous center of the country.

Due to the chaotic situation behind the lines, the overburdened and ineptly run Soviet rail system finally delivers the last troop train containing the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards) Tank Division to the front in Western Ukraine, where it joins 1st Guards Tank Army.

The 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron flies its first close air support sorties since early July, in support of the 10th Mountain Division's defense against the Italian 4th Alpini Corps in southwestern Germany.

The last American conventional troops depart Ukrainian territory as XI Corps withdraws westward; special operations forces remain behind, seeking targets for NATO nuclear weapons, organizing and assisting pro-NATO partisans and desperately searching for Soviet nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

CIA operatives note the transit of trains carrying armored vehicles across the Dnieper River north of Zaporozhye. Within hours the trains have been located by American spy satellites.

The first flight departs Frankfurt, Germany carrying excess command and support personnel from the 40th Infantry Division, which has been reduced to one brigade by nuclear attacks earlier in the month.

Rifleman Goreng Nassang, VC, still with the 1/7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles in Iran, uses his trusty GPMG in defense of his company's position helping to hold the transport hub of Sirjan, Iran. He uses his gun in indirect fire mode; when combined with other guns from his platoon they catch a company of dismounted infantry from the 108th Motor-Rifle Division's 180th Motor-Rifle Regiment and inflict heavy casaulties and disrupting the Soviet attack.

The Royal Navy patrol craft Leeds Castle arrives off Port Stanley in the Falklands Islands. The ship had been pulled from its South Atlantic patrol ship duties earlier in the war, but the threat of Argentine adventurism has called for its return to the area.

[chico20854]

August 30, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day (that I'm using... GDW has the 5th Marine Division entering combat in Korea today; I have the 5th in action in Poland at this point). Unofficially,

3rd Brigade, 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-10 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and, as the last brigade in the division to complete a NTC rotation following its retraining and re-equipment with the Abrams/Bradley weapons systems, the entire division is declared combat ready, nearly a year after mobilization.

The 11th Infantry Brigade is declared combat ready after completing Rotation 97-10 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas and transferred by road to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma for immediate deployment to Korea.

The 22nd Motor-Rifle Division, relocated from central Alaska, takes advantage of the cover provided by the 99th Motor-Rifle Division to undertake a follow-up landing at Skagway, Alaska. The weak guard company there is quickly overrun and Soviet troops begin advancing east into British Columbia towards Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon Territory 110 miles away.

Army engineers complete construction of a secure storage facility in Glady, West Virginia, in an abandoned railroad tunnel and FEMA begins stocking it with food, weapons, generators, clothing, tents and other supplies.

Poor weather over much of the Korean Peninsula returns to the mountains of central North Korea, preventing Army and Air Force transport units from flying resupply missions to the encircled 23rd Infantry Division (Light). Special Operations aircraft have the ability to reach the isolated 23rd, but to its commander's frustration, are assigned to other missions. (Although widely criticized by the division's veterans in the years following the war, the few MC-141s, MC-130s, MH-53s and MH-60s in the theater are not able to transport even 10 percent of the tonnage of supplies the 23rd needs on a daily basis).

VII US Corps is subjected to multiple, repeated attacks from two Soviet armies - the veteran 8th Guards and the 1st Shock, a relatively fresh formation composed of some of the Red Army's finest parade divisions and other units from around Moscow. The battle, as the Americans retreat from the Ukrainian border, sees both sides slinging nuclear weapons at the other's rear areas as the front-line troops press close to each other to prevent the other side from using nukes on them.

The USS John F Kennedy and America conclude four days of strikes on the Italian and Greek air defenses over the Adriatic as F-14s of VF-33 escort a flight of six C-17s of the 20th Airlift Squadron into Tuzla Air Base, Jugoslavia carrying supplies and munitions for the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania Air National Guard).

A task force of fast transports leaves Gibraltar carrying munitions, vehicles and spares for the beleaguered Jugoslav and Romanian armies. Sixth Fleet task forces are stripped of escorts to protect the convoy, while the battleship Wisconsin surface action group prepares for a sortie into the Adriatic.

The Albanian Army reports that it has more or less completed its mobilization, having called up over a quarter million reservists to bring their forces up to full strength. The effects on the economy are, convieniently, not mentioned, especially since the Albanian economy has consistently been the worst in Europe.

The 487th Tactical Missile Wing fires 24 missiles into Ukraine; PVO missiles and interceptors shoot down seven while crossing the Black Sea, and three others are shot down over Ukraine. Two malfunction, and a dozen explode over central Ukraine, where the trains carrying the 341st (my 22nd Guards) Tank Division are en route to Romania.

The final supply route into Shiraz is cut when troops of the 1st (my 9th) Army's 145th and 147th Motor-Rifle Divisions link up south of the city, and the second siege of the city begins. The city's government, having experienced a prior siege, is relatively well prepared - food has been stockpiled and many non-essential civilians evacuated to the coast.

The Soviet Air Defense Force (the PVO) makes a concerted effort to intercept a R-5D Aurora hypersonic spyplane. After an agent in the US alerts Moscow of an Aurora carrier taking off, the PVO sets up an airborne ambush. A line of MiG-31 interceptors is established at 100km intervals over the Urals, cruising at 40,000 feet and loaded with experimental infra-red seeking AA-13 AAMs, while outside Moscow the remaining Su-47s of the 91st Fighter Regiment scramble. The effort is detected by the NSA's ELINT satellites, which alert the Aurora before it is launched. The alert prompts the execution of the pre-briefed alternative flight plan over Central Asia, exiting over western China and looping northward across the Pacific for recovery.

The Argentine submarine Salta returns to the Mar del Plata naval base and the commando team disembarks. The rebellious senior NCO is sent to the brig to await court martial.

[chico20854]

August 31, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day! Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Santa Fe Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The area of responsibility of the First Maritime Defense District (formerly the First Coast Guard District, under command of Rear Admiral Scott MacDowell) is adjusted to encompass the area from the Rhode Island-Connecticut border to the Canadian border.

In Alaska, the 99th Motor-Rifle Division follows up on its earlier landing with a successful attack on Juneau. The attack is opened with a tactical nuclear strike on the command post of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (located in the town's high school), which leaves the defense in disarray. The veteran Soviet arctic troops are able to sweep aside the defenders, composed of the remnants of the 172nd that survived the battles outside Anchorage, the 4th battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon), cut off from its headquarters, as well as a hodgepodge of policemen, state guards, coast guardsmen and local volunteer militia. The surviving defenders evacuate into the hills overlooking the town, where they form the core of a partisan movement which hampers the Soviet occupation force for many months to come.

A C-5 airlifter of the 75th Airlift Squadron unloads the first two PAMSS - Palletized Armored Shelter Systems - at Osan Air Base in Korea. The systems are standard 20-foot cargo containers, reinforced with Kevlar armor, converted to serve as headquarters shelters, with diesel generators, climate control and a NBC overpressure system, intended for lighter units that do not have M577 or M4 armored command posts. The PAMSS is transported by an armored M1074 PLS truck and intended for battalion and higher headquarters in light divisions as well as towed artillery battery headquarters and fire direction centers. Development was extended due to (idiotic) bureaocracy within the Pentagon, who argued that fielding the PAMSS would impact the deployability of light divisions despite the fact that nearly all of the Army's light divisions have already been deployed. The prototype PAMSS are headed to the 1st Brigade, 7th Infantry Infantry Division for field testing; production of additional systems continues at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama.

As the troops of the 11th Panzergrenadier Division, part of V German Korps, begin to crumble after days of ceasless attacks from the Polish 3rd Army, Third German Army orders a nuclear attack to break the Polish momentum and disrupt their supply lines. A flight of Luftwaffe Tornado strike aircraft drop 60kt B-61 bombs on the massed guns of the 120th Artillery Regiment, the narrow road leading north through the Wisloka River valley and, for good measure, the town of Jasło, with its small oil refinery and transport links.

Convoy 418 from Oman arrives of the southeastern US coasts, dispatching its surviving 37 ships, including the Victory ship Wayne Victory, to Jacksonville, Florida, Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina.

As nightfall comes, Marines along the northern edge of the Yadz perimeter begin to fall back, abandoning their positions. Overhead, Navy and Marine Corps EA-6 jamming aircraft shut down 40th Army's command-and-control radio network, and a F/A-18 of VMFA-323 drops a B-61 tactical nuclear bomb on the headquarters of the 210st Motor-Rifle Division's 395th Motor-Rifle Regiment, which is blocking the southern approaches to Yadz. The 1st Marine Division's 5th Regiment goes on the offensive, overwhelming the veteran Soviet troops. 1st Marine Division's breakout from the Yadz pocket has begun.

British intelligence receives word of the impending court martial of the naval commando. It seeks verification before ordering the SAS team to stand down its hunt.

[chico20854]

More next week! Enjoy the weekend!

[Homer]

Awesome update!

The PAMSS sounds like an interesting idea. Assuming it’s an ISO 20 foot container, it can deploy on C-5/C-17 and move intratheater on a C-130 with handling kit. The issue would be tactical movement since the PLS truck isn’t on the L series MTOE for light/airborne/air assault infantry/artillery battalions or infantry brigades at this point. The division MSB has 9 PLS trucks, almost invariably managed as division assets and anecdotally ending up spending NTC/JRTC/BCTP events dropping skids of ammo to support DIVARTY, dropping skids of barrier material and mines to support the engineer obstacle plan, or helping to jump the DIV Main/AVN Assembly Area or BSA/DSA. If additional PLS are fielded with the system, they will require the fielding of suitable recovery and maintenance assets and personnel in the FSB and BDE/BN HHC/HHB, change the fuel and POL resupply requirements (PLS and HEMMT vehicles seem to drink oil and fluids like there’s no tomorrow!) and will change the transportation equation (a PLS can’t be slung under a chinook or flown in a C-130) for air assault and air mobility operations.

However, there are 5 ton M1087 expando-vans with mobile, plug and play type shelters. The M1086 LWB MTV is also made to move up to an ISO 20 foot container and has onboard MHE and winch (M1085 is base LWB). The MTV is already organic to DISCOM, DIVARTY, AVN, and the DIV base, so assets could be reallocated, or additional systems supported relatively easily. There are also shelter options for the LMTV and HMMWV (s-250/s-788/SICPS, etc). As designed they’re soft, but some have the ability to provide GPFU/over pressure, EMP isolation, and accept ballistic panels. However, dismounting ISO based shelters in a field environment requires dedicated MHE not present at any echelon in the Division.

They do need something considering the average light infantry bn TOC of the era is a few SICP tents moved around in the back of the S-3 shop’s LMTV and set up with mapboards hung on the wall, radios mounted on tables and broadcasting with OE-254s. The TOC personnel were housed in poncho hooches around the perimeter roughly aligning to their defensive sector. Camo nets were hung over SICP tents and associated vehicles (All HMMWVs parked with hoods up and mirrors turned in!). Easy to hide, but exceptionally unsurvivable, time consuming to move, and a cramped and miserable smelling place to work in at night with the sides of the SICPS tents down! Just being able to crank vehicles and drive away in an emergency would make a huge difference to TOC survivability.

Digging the “Escape from Yazd”! “Death of a Motor-Rifle Division” handout to follow?

[chico20854]

September 1, 1997

Nothing official today! Unofficially,

map of front lines from the Baltic to Pakistani border (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=19nCMAP1YtR1GVniWz4eP9VYd9nl6nIs&usp=sharing)

The 199th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys a detachment to the Pacific Test Range Facility airport at Barking Sands, Hawaii. This remote location will spare the squadron from the nuclear attack on its home station of Hickam Air Force Base in November.

The 22nd Motor-Rifle Division reaches White Pass, on the border between British Columbia and Alaska, and clashes with a small RCMP detachment.

New equipment authorizations (Tables of Organization and Equipment) for US Army units go into effect, taking into account the lessons of the past year's battles and developments in American war production. Two of the changes include authorizing the M1-A2D as a substitute standard tank for armor battalions and armored cavalry squadrons and creation of an engineer section within the service battery of towed artillery battalions, equipped with four Small Emplacement Excavators - Unimog light trucks fitted with a dozer bucket and backhoe to dig gun emplacements and fighting positions.

The so-called "Shangri-La" Air Base in far southwestern China, the US Air Force launches its first operational mission, receiving a KC-135 tanker of the 117th Air Refuelling Squadron (Kansas National Guard) after it drained its tanks into a B-2 bomber that made the flying wing's first penetration into the Soviet Union. (more below).

The South Korean 2nd Armored Brigade launches an attack against Soviet covering forces in an attempt to break through to the surrounded American 23rd Infantry Division. The skillful Soviet defenders of the 192nd Motor-Rifle Division use minefields and artillery fire to channel the ROK tanks into a narrow valley approach route, where dismounted infantry equipped with AT-4 anti-tank missiles, artillery and the attack helicopters of the 364th Helicopter Regiment are able to inflict heavy losses on the Korean force, pushing them back to their start lines by dusk.

At the urging of the commander of NATO's NORTHAG, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force assigns the remnants of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing's A-10 force (17 aircraft) solely to support the embattled V US Corps. Based at the former Polish Air Force base at Powidz east of Poznan (and associated highway strips nearby) , the wing quickly establishes a standing patrol of tank-busters over the American force. The aircraft see nearly constant action countering Soviet attacks or trimming back outlying positions along the corps' flanks.

The situation of NATO troops in northeastern Poland is growing increasingly perilous as three NATO corps (the III US, II British and VII German) with eight divisions in total try to cover a nearly 170-mile front against superior numbers of Soviet troops (18 divisions). The NATO force is operating at the end of a very long supply line, one plagued by poor rail and road links, near-constant partisan attacks and limited numbers of support and transport troops.

Ships carrying the first contingent of the Portugese 1st Independent Mixed Brigade (the support battalion, air defense battery, one of the motorized infantry battalions and the engineer company) arrive at the port of Antalya and begin unloading. Due to the uncertain situation, the brigade's troops have to negotiate with the local army units and civil authorities, who are not expecting the unit and are already under considerable stress from the reverses suffered in the north.

The battleship Wisconsin, entering the Adriatic, pounds Greek coast defense positions on Corfu, protected against anti-ship missiles by the Aegis destroyer USS Barry, trailing 500 meters behind the battlewagon.

The 1st Marine Division evacuates the Yadz pocket, having held off the Soviet 40th Army for several weeks. In their departure the Yadz Airport and a smaller expeditionary airfield constructed by American engineers are thoroughly destroyed to prevent their use by the enemy. The American force is moving relatively slowly, with several battalions of troops on foot, the force's vehicles loaded down with supplies to sustain the withdrawal. Their progress is challenged by the remainder of the battle-hardened 201st Motor-Rifle Division, veterans of Afghanistan, which throws its two remaining motor-rifle regiments at the Marine's flanks while raking the American column with artillery fire. Marine helicopters and tactical aviation seek out the Soviet guns and the Marines cover seven miles of the the distance to Bandar Abbas.

To the north and west, the 1st (my 9th) Army settles into field positions surrounding Shiraz, while the 45th (my 32nd) Army is too exhausted to press an attack on the 101st Air Assault Division, which holds the town of Dakali, blocking an exit from the Zagros onto the coastal plain along the Persian Gulf.

The US Strategic Air Command launches its first "Golden Spike" mission to slow the flow of reinforcements from the Far Eastern Front to the fighting in Europe. A lone B-2 bomber crosses the Altai Mountains (where China, Mongolia and the USSR converge) after dark, weaving between Soviet air defense radars to remain out of their detection ranges and soon heads east, on a track parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. At a pre-determined point it turns on its AN/APQ-181 radar, searching for a troop train spotted heading west, and soon locates it. The bomber waits for the train to reach a bridge (over the Uda river, a tributary of the Yenesi) drops a single B-61 tactical nuclear bomb fitted with a modified JDAM guidance unit. The blast leaves the bridge over the Uda a tangled mess, tosses the locoomotive into the river and rips the loaded railcars apart; the surviving contents are lit on fire. The B-2 continues down the line, seeking additional troop trains or SS-24 rail-mobile ICBMs. Finding neither, it turns north for egress over the Arctic, launching a trio of SRAM II missiles with 200 kt nuclear warheads at three air defense radar stations generally along its exit route. Once over the North Pole the aircraft refuels from a waiting SAC tanker and returns to its home base, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.

[bash]

This thread reads like a nuclear armed version of Red Storm Rising. The Google maps are fantastic. Such good work.

[chico20854]

September 2, 1997

Transcaucasian Front's offensive (coupled with a lack of supplies arriving from home) has largely pushed Third Army back to it's original starting positions.

Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler and his peers graduate from Advanced Individual Training. Because of the serious situation on the ground in Europe, the class is bussed to Shaw Air Force Base 30 miles away, where a chartered 767 awaits to fly the newly trained light wheeled vehicle mechanics to Germany as replacements. The plane has just finished flying the last remaining excess command and support personnel from the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) home from Germany after the division was pounded by Soviet nuclear weapons near Warsaw in August.

In Alaska, X Corps stands up a new unit, the 2nd Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment, to provide additional transportation support to the embattled corps. The battalion is formed by mass requistioning of Alaska's fleet of bush planes and conscription of their pilots, a move that is not without considerable controversy, especially among the pilots and owners of those aircraft (often the same people). Company A is equipped with Twin Otter aircraft, adding to the Alaska National Guard's small fleet of the type, Company B is equipped with DeHavilland Beaver floatplanes (ironically, many of which are former US Army aircraft), Company C with Cessnas and Company D, the heavy lift company, operates six Grumman Goose flying boats and a like number of DC-3 transports. The new formation is based at Fort Wainwright, but it operates over the vast state, much as the aircraft did as commercial bush pilots.

A warning is received that Soviet missiles and bombers are inbound towards the UK. The Royal Family and Prime Minister are rushed onto helicopters and are over the outskirts of London when word is received that it is a false alarm, and they quickly return.

The Soviet 35th Army diverts much of its remaining artillery from the front lines facing the Americans, Commonwealth and South Koreans to firing missions against the surrounded and isolated American 23rd Infantry Division. A break in the weather allows a handful of helicopters to slip into the surrounded unit's enclave, dropping off ammunition and food and evacuating several dozen wounded.

The 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) arrives aboard Air Force and civilian transport aircraft at Kimpo Air Base, Korea.

Third German Army's order to withdraw to the vicinity of the Wisla River is mirrored by the Second German Army in northern Poland. All effort is to be made to restore contact with First German Army's V US Corps to the south, as 7th Tank Army has severed contact and, despite the nuclear strikes in Bialystok, is making progress towards Warsaw.

In Munich, the commander of the Italian forces holds a conference with the commander of the 1st Southwestern Front, Marshall V.I. Avdeev, to try to formalize what has been heretofore an ad-hoc effort to coordinate the invasion of southern Germany. Bundeswehr stay-behind troops launch an unsuccessful ambush on the Italian commander as he leaves the Soviet command compound in an upscale area of the Bavarian capital.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia detects a coastal convoy running along north Russian coast and closes on it. The Soviets score a rich prize when a Tu-22M2DP interceptor stumbles across the weekly ferry flight of new-production A-10Bs (accompanied by a KC-135E of the 191st Air Refuelling Squadron) from the US to Europe. The converted Soviet bomber is able to down three of the four attack aircraft as well as the tanker (the survivor diverting to Keflavik, Iceland), escaping back to Severomorsk unscathed.

The carriers John F Kennedy and America launch another round of air strikes on Italian military positions along the Adriatic coast. At dusk a S-3 Viking patrol aircraft from the America spots a squadron of Italian missile craft sortieing from Brindisi; it remains on station as the carrier strike group responds. The two F/A-18s from the SURCAP (anti-surface combat air patrol) are the first to arrive, followed by four additional F/A-18s launched from Kennedy, and the destroyer Caron is dispatched at flank speed to engage with its two 5-inch guns. By 2200 hours the missile boat force has been broken up, with eight of the ten Italian craft sunk or sinking and two fleeing the area at high speed.

The Soviet military reacts to the prior day's Golden Spike airstrike on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A commission from Moscow is dispatched to the headquarters of the 39th Air Defense Corps in Irkutsk to evaluate what the raid looked like to the defenses. The Railroad Troops dispatch the 44th Railroad Brigade to repair or replace the damaged bridge and clear the remains of the train off the line before restoring it to service.

[chico20854]

This thread reads like a nuclear armed version of Red Storm Rising. The Google maps are fantastic. Such good work.

Glad you're enjoying it!!!!

[chico20854]

Septmber 3, 1997

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The survivors of the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) returned to California are granted two weeks of leave to recover before reporting to Camp Rilea, Oregon to begin forming a new division.

FEMA begins to restock the Defense Logistics Agency storage depot in Pontiac, Michigan, which has been largely emptied of its reserve of machine tools.

As casualties mount on the continent, the House of Commons introduces a conscription bill.

The air over China is the clearest it has been in years as combat operations wind down. The American Volunteer Group II, sucessors to the Flying Tigers of World War Two, are disbanded, surviving aircraft, ground crew and pilots joining USAF and US Naval air units in the Korean Theater. Their Soviet opponents are transferred west, mostly to European skies, although a few aircraft are directed to the skies over Iran.

Pro-Communist guerrillas remain active behind the lines in Poland. Outside the Polish city of Wegrow east of Warsaw a band captures two American soldiers who were travelling (against standing orders) in a lone vehicle, a M1009 CUCV Blazer. The prisoners are Father (Major) John Burroughs, chaplain for 2nd Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, and his assistant, Specialist Karl Cray. The vehicle is hidden in a nearby grove and the prisoners rushed away.

The US Army orders the transfer of the 197th Field Artillery Brigade from USAEUR to Alaska. The formation, in reserve since July, have become experts in Arctic warfare and will add badly needed firepower to X Corps' effort to halt the Soviet offensive in Alaska.

The Olympia attacks the Russian coastal convoy, sinking the corvette SKR-29 with a Harpoon missile and the freighters Bratsk and Kuloy and icebreaker Dikson with torpedoes. The minesweeper RT-350 and the small tanker Imant Sudmalis escaped, radioing for assistance.

The battleship Wisconsin engages Greek coastal positions with its massive 16-inch guns as the resupply convoy enters the Adriatic with a vital cargo of supplies and munitions for the NATO effort in the Balkans. Aircraft from Sixth Fleet carriers patrol overhead, easily dealing with the feeble effort of the Greek Air Force to interfere with the ships' passage.

Private Randall Cutler and 179 other recently graduated support soldiers arrive at Rhein Main Air Force Base in Germany. They are rushed onto busses to a nearby Bundeswehr Kaserne where Army personnel staff assign them to units as replacements.

Pro-Soviet Kurdish partisans launch an attack on the Batman Air Base in southeastern Turkey. When Turkish security troops respond to the truck bomb they use to breach the perimeter fence, a Spetsnaz team from the 15th Spetsnaz Brigade slips over the perimeter fence on the far side of the base. They attack several hardened aircraft shelters, capturing three of them (at the cost of 17 men), one of which contains a F-16 of the 149th Tactical Fighter Group. They destroy the aircraft and grab what documentation they can before withdrawing; thankfully the Batman base is not one of the six Turkish air bases that host American tactical nuclear weapons.

The 1st Marine Division continues its movement southward towards the Persian Gulf; the division commander, Major General John P. Leonard (proceeding on foot most of the way), describes the effort as "continuing the attack, just to our south". The command takes the unconventional decision to travel across the barren Dasht-e-Lut desert, which is much more lightly patrolled by the Soviet 40th Army. The Marine's native guides, provided by the IPA, identify underground qanat aqueducts that the command can use; when those have been left behind the command is reliant on what water is already aboard the division's vehicles and what is flown in by the nightly resupply flights from the coast.

The lead company of the 44th Railroad Brigade reaches the site of the Golden Spike nuclear strike in eastern Siberia by truck. The company commander reports that residual radiaition in the area is still at a high level. When the brigade commander orders him to have his company don their protective garments and conduct a site survey and begin work the young senior lieutenant is forced to tell the colonel that his unit was never issued protective garments, the unit's prewar stocks diverted to China in 1996 and never replaced.

[chico20854]

September 4, 1997

Nothing official today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Cook Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas while the Albany Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) completes Rotation 97-10 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready. It is initially assigned to the Army's strategic reserve.

The destroyer USS Howard is commissioned in Bath, Maine and begins shakedown training before being committed to action, assigned to the Fourth Fleet in the Atlantic. The shipyard at Bath has two more destroyers (the McCambell and Mason) in the water fitting out and six more in various states of construction ashore or in the yard's drydocks.

Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team, down to four men, ambushes a pair of army Land Rovers 10km from Erskine Barracks, Wiltshrie, killing six soldiers from HQ, UK Land Forces.

In southern China, the Soviet 1st Indochinese Front has established two of its three divisions as occupying forces in the cities of Nanning and Kunming, while its Vietnamese allies have sent troops to occupy areas of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. Two Vietnamese task forces land forces in the Paracel and Spratley Islands, asserting control of the disputed islands in the South China Sea and taking advantage of their neighbor's collapse.

Private Randall Cutler is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, part of the 36th Infantry Division, as a wheeled vehicle mechanic working on the battalion's HMMWVs, CUCVs, Avengers and trucks.

The two prisoners captured the day before by Polish partisans are blindfolded and held in the group's hideout, the basement of an abandoned furniture factory.

A week after being hit by NATO nuclear bombs, 3rd Polish Army resumes its drive north out of the foothills of the Carpathians, with Polish infantry riding on the exterior of Soviet tanks of the 50th Tank Division. To the east, XI and VII US Corps withdraw another 10 km, destroying roads and bridges as they retreat behind a screen maintained by the corps' armored cavalry regiments, the 107th and 2nd.

No Soviet surface ships are available to assist the convoy attacked by the Olympia, but some ASW aircraft are called into the area. A lone Tu-142 Bear-F, two Il-78 Mays and a Be-14 flying boat all fly sorties over the area, but have little luck locating the creeping American boat.

The NATO resupply convoy arrives at the Jugoslav ports of Split and Ploce, bringing vitally needed replacement munitions, fuel and spare parts. The USS Wisconsin, accompanying the convoy, launches a volley of four Tomahawk cruise missiles against Italian logistic and transportation sites.

The John F Kennedy and America launch airstrikes on Italian naval targets, returning to Brindisi in search of the two missile boats that survived the battle on the 2nd. They are located hiding among the pleasure boats in the harbor's yacht marina; the air strikes destroy billions of Lire worth of luxury. Military Airlift Command begins routing transports from Germany and the Netherlands to central Norway, where the 197th Field Artillery brigade is moving to Orland and Vaernes air bases for transit to Alaska.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), serving as I MEF's counterattack force along the shore of the Persian Gulf, launches a raid from the outskirts of Bandar Abbas, forcing the 108th Motor-Rifle Division to expend scarce supplies and also convincing the division commander that releasing reserves northward to counter the 1st Marine Division could leave his own command in a precarious place.

[chico20854]

September 5, 1997

With the UK completely committed in Europe, the Middle East and China, Kenya appeals to the US to commit substantial forces to aid them in their fight against the various invading forces and seaborne commerce raiders. The US government, although already deeply mired in Europe and facing the specter of all out nuclear war on the horizon, decides that Kenya was too valuable an ally to lose, especially as its naval and air bases are considered essential for defending the convoys bringing supplies to the RDF and vitally needed oil to the US. The President directs the Joint Chiefs to divert units currently tasked as reinforcements for the RDF to Kenya, with the first units to be air deployed immediately.

Unofficially,

The Governor of New York places his militia forces (the New York Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the Veteran Corps of Artillery) on alert for possible civil and security duties as the nuclear conflict continues around the world.

At Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Rodney Cutler is one of 250 graduates from his recruit training company. Cutler receives orders for Brownsville, Texas, where he will be assigned to the pre-commissioning unit for the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, which is currently a mass of steel over 500 feet long and seven stories high sitting in a dusty bayou bank.

Despite hours of debate in the House of Commons and heated opposition, the Conscription Bill is passed (by a narrow margin) in the early morning hours.

The 23rd Infantry Division, surrounded in the mountains of North Korea, is attacked at dusk from all sides after another day of intense artillery bombardment. The attack is led by waves of dismounted infantry, largely the remnants of North Korean army and militia units forced into service under the guns of their so-called Soviet allies. The American infantry largely defeat the attack, although one battalion, the 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry, is destroyed when North Korean infiltrators overrun its headquarters and a night of fierce, uncoordinated actions in the dark lead to three of the companies being overrun, with the loss of over 350 men. The night's action depletes the division's ammunition supplies; while successful, the 23rd has expended so much ammunition that another attack of that scale will exhaust the supplies, rendering the division's mortars and machineguns worthless.

VI German Korps, vulnerable to being cut off by Soviet tank armies, withdraws from Lublin, setting the central city afire before departing. The main body of the American XI Corps reaches the Wisla at Tarnobrzeg as the evacuation of rear area units picks up pace. To its north VII US Corps begins withdrawing across the Wisla at Sandomierz, under the air defense umbrella provided by the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. Panzergruppe Oberdorff moves northwest, trying to prevent the 1st Guards Tank Army from cutting off the German force evacuating Lublin; the 5th Infantry Division's artillery contributes to this by striking the lead Soviet tank regiment's headquarters (located by a hovering EH-60 ELINT helicopter) with a prompt tactical nuclear strike.

The German freighter Herm Kiepe is delivered in Hamburg. It sails immediately to Canada to load munitions and containerized grain, the crew of the 13,000-ton ship eager to clear the port, a potential target for Soviet missiles and bombs.

The USAF 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron withdraws from Trapani Birgi Air Base in Sicily, returning to its prior base in Gibraltar.

Italian, Hungarian and Soviet troops along the northern Jugoslav border receive increased allocations of fuel and munitions, part of the windfall from the collapse of the Chinese front, while commanders gather at a resort on Lake Balaton to discuss the next steps in the Balkan theater.

Fifth Fleet receives reassurances from the owners of the giant drydock in Dubai that they are nearing completion of the repairs to the supertanker Starlight Gigant, damaged by a Soviet anti-ship missile in June, and that the drydock will then be available for repairs to the damaged USS Independence. The American carrier is anchored in Muscat, Oman with torpedo damage, and the dock in Dubai is the only undamaged one in the region able to accomodate the carrier. (The large dock in Bahrain was damaged by Soviet missiles in April).

In Iran, the 48th Infantry Brigade continues its spoiling attack against the 108th Motor-Rifle Division, forcing the commitment of the Soviet 285th Tank Regiment's T-74s to seal off a break in the front line between the 177th and 181st MRRs.

To the north, the Soviet 4th Army pressures the Iranian I Corps, trying to drive a wedge between XVIII Airborne Corps' dual centers, at Bandar-e-Khomeyni and Bushehr; the US 24th Infantry Division is tied down by a probe launched by the 7th Army. In both these actions, the absence of the 6th ACCB, rebuilding in Saudi Arabia, is keenly felt as the depleted 9th Air Force struggles to maintain air defense, provide close air support and interdict Soviet supply lines over such a vast theater at the end of such a long supply line, with only a fraction of the aircraft it was supposed to have available.

[Homer]

Poor 1-46 IN. First overrun at FSB Mary Ann, now overrun in North Korea. Some units can’t catch a break!

[cawest]

now you have me wondering what this AU's amphibious assault ship Makin Island is going to be. LHD-8 was not laid down until 2004. this can be so many things, that i might lose sleep over this just waiting. :)

[chico20854]

September 6, 1997

Canon is silent on the day. Unofficially,

The fifth R-5D hypersonic spy plane is completed and handed over to the Air Force.

At Fort Bragg, North Carolina the 4th Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group is activated, slated for a rapid deployment to reinforce the rest of its parent headquarters in Africa. It is rapidly brought up to strength with an influx of recent graduates of the Special Forces Q-course and another shakedown of the Special Forces training and administrative structure for excess personnel that can be operationally deployed.

The final British Army regular ground unit, the 3rd Battalion, The Queen's Regiment, departs Northern Ireland, leaving the province's security solely in the hands of the Ulster Defense Regiment. The UDR is supported by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft operating from Aldergrove, which is protected by a squadron of the RAF Regiment. The Queens Regiment troops are sent to Catterick in preparation for deployment to Germany as part of 5th Infantry Division.

The 23rd Infantry Division, cut off in the mountains of North Korea, is struck by multiple Soviet tactical nuclear weapons. The division's LARS rocket battery, A Battery 16th Field Artillery, is struck by a SS-21 missile with a 10-kt warhead, while the 2nd Brigade headquarters is hit by a 152mm nuclear artillery round, disrupting the already weakened brigade. An ad-hoc infantry unit composed of rear-area troops, holding a supposedly quieter section of front, is hit by another SS-21, taking heavy losses. Large numbers of light anti-aircraft guns surrounding the division disrupt aerial resupply and South Korean troops some 20 km to the south are under heavy pressure from Soviet forces. With no relief possible and Soviet commanders rallying more North Korean troops for another night of human wave attacks, the division commander surrenders his command to the Soviet 35th Army in an effort to save the lives of as many of his soldiers as possible. Scattered small groups of American troops break out on foot, heading for friendly lines.

As the Warsaw Pact assault in southern Germany continues to make progress and NATO forces give ground in Poland, SACEUR directs the redeployment of the US VII Corps to Bavaria. The first unit to start moving west is the 2nd Corps Support Command, most of which has crossed the Wisla.

The Soviet raider Ostorozhnyy, which sank a straggler from Convoy 418 two weeks ago, sinks the neutral containership Elite, which was in the central Atlantic en route to France with a cargo of foodstuffs from South America.

The Soviet Black Sea fleet establishes a pontoon pier leading to the beach resort town of Zlatni Pyasatsi, Bulgaria, 17 km north of the port of Varna, which was struck by American GLCMs in August. This allows freighters to be unloaded across the beach, greatly increasing the amount of cargo the Soviets are able to transfer into Bulgaria. (Previously, cargo movement was largely limited to shallow-draft amphibious craft).

The 1st Marine Division continues its trek across the desert, heading south largely on foot. The Marines in the division rear guard (a rotating duty, with the prior day's rearguard battalions trucked to the head of the column and the rearmost battalions assuming the duty) are able to make use of the desert's unique rock formations to strengthen their holding power against 40th Army's pursuing forces, which are having a difficult time traversing the desert terrain.

The 44th Railroad Brigade receives a complement of protective garments and nuclear reconnaissance equipment to begin its efforts to clear the site of the American nuclear strike on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The delay has allowed radiation levels to drop slightly in the blast zone, although the unit commanders are dismayed to discover the level off radiation in their own bivouac areas.

[chico20854]

now you have me wondering what this AU's amphibious assault ship Makin Island is going to be. LHD-8 was not laid down until 2004. this can be so many things, that i might lose sleep over this just waiting. :)

I'll have more on Makin Island; it is indeed LHD-8. As part of the US industrial mobilization, shipbuilding contracts are accelerated. Here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FRtdKoD8IOdR7j6noGKm_b5zsn8JDCIN/view?usp=sharing) is the last US Navy shipbuilding plan prior to the post-Cold War defense drawdown; the plan was for a dozen LHDs, probably one every other year after LHD-1 and -2 in the late 80s/early 90s. To speed things up, contracts for LHD-7 and LHD-8 are awarded to two shipyards in Texas that have the space to build something that big and complex, yards that in peacetime build offshore oil rigs. As you will see in coming updates, things don't work out so well...

[chico20854]

September 7, 1997

Isolated along the western coast of Korea, the US 25th Infantry Division (Light) strikes north, linking up with elements of Chinese 31st (my 3rd) Army. The Chinese force, sustained by US and British air and sea power, holds the mouth of the Yalu River and the city of Dadong, an island of relative stability. The British 6th Division has been in the enclave since late July.

Unofficially,

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is ordered to return to its home station at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania to await a full equipment set and transportation to an overseas theater. While waiting, it is assigned a variety of disaster relief and civil support duties in eastern Pennsylvania.

Another of the organizational changes that was authorized at the beginning of the month is the issuance of select-fire shotguns in infantry battalions; the Army expands its buy of SPAS-12s, previously issued to Military Police units as well as ordering thousands of HK-CAWs built under license by Olin Armaments. The plan is to issue an initial four to each infantry company in the Army, then expand the issue until there is one per squad.

The first draft notices are sent out across the UK.

Soviet troops begin the process of disaring the remnants of the 23rd Infantry Division and processing the over 6,000 POWs. Some are attacked by North Koreans eager for revenge on their nation's hated enemy.

Private Cutler is promoted to Private E-2, reflecting his early competence (he has a gift for understanding machinery, and he has yet to join the seemingly never-ending spades game in the motor pool''s break area) and the extent that his unit is understrength - Cutler occupies a position designated for a Specialist, a rank two above his new one.

Headquarters, VII Corps sets up in the town of Sandomierz, requisitioning the city's castle as headquarters. The Corps' 7th Engineer Brigade takes over operation of two Soviet pontoon bridges that had been captured in June, as well as surveying the railroad bridge a little ways downstream to ensure that it can be used as an emergency evacuation; the Corps commander is determined to keep traffic across the river flowing as smoothly as possible and preventing any massing of troops and equipment that can present a tempting nuclear target.

NATO's Operation Group Warsaw, the command responsible for the capture of the Polish capital, orders a cessation of offensive operations into the city, diverting armored vehicles and artillery towards the eastern side of the perimeter to defend against the approaching Soviet forces.

Likewise, a concerted effort is launched by I and XII German Korps to reduce the surrounded Baltic Front before it can be relieved by the rapidly progressing Pact counterattack, and along the Baltic coast the American II Marine Expeditoary Force launches a probing attack to seek a weak spot in the defense of the greatly shrunken Gdansk pocket, where the Polish 7th Marine Division has been holed up for many months.

A French naval Atlantique 3 patrol aircraft, dispatched from French Guiana, searches for the Soviet raider that sank a merchantman en route to France the prior day. The hunt is not successful.

The damaged heavy cruiser USS Newport News, struck by a Soviet SSC-3 coast defense missile in the Baltic, arrives at the (former) Brooklyn Navy Yard to begin repairs. It is placed in the drydock next to the one containing the USS Dale, which was struck by a SS-N-19 fired by an Oscar-class sub in July.

The air defense commission from Moscow completes its review of the radar record from last week's American stealth bomber penetration of the USSR. Given the limittations of the recording they are unable to reach any useful conclusion; the commander of the relevant sector radar unit is, however, relieved of command and sent to the front as an infantry lieutenant.

[pmulcahy11b]

September 7, 1997
Cutler occupies a position designated for a Specialist, a rank two above his new one.



You'd be surprised at how common that is. I don't think I worked in my pay grade the whole time I was in the Army.

[Homer]

Lucky for his unit manning documents are done by skill level. E4 and below is skill level 10 (even corporals). It’s pretty common to get a raft of PV1s and PV2s as replacements, especially once the IRR and recall pool is gone. I could see broad waiver authority being granted for time in grade/time in service requirements, though. Unit leadership will usually focus their waivers on the most promising potential NCOs in an effort to get them to SPC so they can lateral promote them to corporal and put the new NCO in charge of a team or squad.

The 2 up or 1 down rule can easily see an SGT as PSG and an SSG as acting 1SG when manning gets bad. Somehow there’s never a shortage of SGMs though…
Ditto for officers- a 2LT could command a company (lots of material for jokes there), and a MAJ can command a brigade.

Making up ranks is going to be relatively simple. 2LTs can be battlefield commissioned, and up to SSG is an house promotion. With delegated authority you could get waivers for time and decentralized authority for SFC-SGM and 1LT and higher promotions as long as the personnel system continues to function.

The challenge will be developing leaders who can perform at the appropriate level for the rank they hold. There may well be unit or command level schools running trimmed down PLDC, BNOC, etc; a combat skills course for replacements; and refresher/retrain courses. This will help, but given the probable level of SSG-1SG and LT-MAJ losses from the prewar “trained” population, there will still be serious impacts on combat effectiveness. It will only get worse once the replacement and resource pipe becomes a trickle.


Once the computers are fried and the CONEX with the 201 files in it goes up in flames there may be some “PX promotions”…

[chico20854]

September 8, 1997

The long-dreaded Pact offensive in the Balkans commences with a series of tactical nuclear strikes on Romanian defensive positions along the entire length of the front. The Southwestern TVD's divisions have been replenished with additional recruits and recalled reservists, augmented with a sprinkling of obsolescent T-55, T-62 and T-64 tanks that Soviet commanders are reluctant to commit against more modern NATO armor in Poland.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Indianapolis Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

As the television networks roll out their new fall season, at 8 pm the hit comedy Darwin Was a Monkey's Uncle premiers its fifth season, featuring leading man Bob Socali as the loveable and bumbling James Darwin.

With the annual Morgan County, Ohio Fair concluded, construction workers arrive under the terms of a FEMA contract. The livestock buildings are cleaned out and fully enclosed, with chimneys added to permit use of coal or wood buning stoves to heat thee structures. The restrooms, cooking facilities and other buildings are modified so that they can be used through the winter, allowing the fairgrounds to house several thousand evacuees from the city of Columbus 75 miles away. This sort of contract is being carried out in many sites around the U.S.

Anti-draft riots erupt on universities across the UK. Despite the appearance portrayed on the telly, the riots are actually smaller scale and less prevalent than those in the US a year prior.

With the surrender of the 23rd Infantry Division freeing up large numbers of Soviet and North Korean troops, 35th Army begins a massive movement of vehicles and dismounted infantry to the front lines to the south. The effort is noted by American intelligence, and the might of the 43rd and 320th Bomb Wings is called into play, plastering the area with massive amounts of bombs from the two wings' B-52 bombers.

Units on the flanks of VII US Corps begin to hand over responsibility to their neighboring NATO corps - XI US Corps on the south and Panzergruppe Oberdorf to the north, which is transferred back to Third German Army's command. In US VII Corps' rear area, CH-47s of the 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation (US Army Reserve) are committed to the evacuation of personnel and equipment across the Wisla; while not making a large contribution to the effort, every means to relieve the burden on the bridges speeds the corps' transfer to Bavaria, where intelligence is pointing towards a resumption of the Pact-Italian offensive.

VI German Korps falls back to the Wisla at Pulawy and Deblin, under heavy pressure from the 1st Guards Tank Army; it sends patrols along the river to the north and south to destroy pontoon bridges and ferry landing sites, liberally sowing landmines around the landing sites on both shores.

The Sierra III-class attack sub K-321 takes up station near the US SSBN base at Kings Bay, Georgia, dodging American patrol aircraft and craft in hopes of catching an elusive American missile boat. The Soviet raider Ostorozhnyy turns westward, seeking to interdict traffic leaving the Caribbean.

In Iran, a task force from the 7th Marines makes a predawn foray south, capturing the road junction and town of Anar, surprising the KGB-Tudeh rear area detachment that was mostly asleep. The move puts the 1st Marine Division astride the road to Bandar Abbas; the nearest friendly forces are the British 27th Brigade in the town of Sirjan 100 miles to the south.

[chico20854]

September 9, 1997

The US 3rd Armored Cavlary Regiment, heavily engaged by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army, holds the front line as it covers the withdrawal of III US Corps. The regiment's dispersal and canny leadership prevent the Soviet force from being presented a viable target for tactical nuclear weapons.

The 49th MP Brigade (California National Guard) transfers responsibility for distribution of foodstuffs in the southern half of Federal Region IX (California, Nevada and Arizona) to a variety of state guard and police units, including the California State Guard's 3rd and 4th Brigades.

Unofficially,

BMSA (Boatswains Mate Apprentice) Cutler reports to the USS Makin Island pre-commissioning unit in Brownsville Texas.

The first POWs from the 23rd Infantry Division arrive in the Vladivostok area. Unexpectedly, they are not moved on to POW camps in the Soviet Far East; instead they are dispersed to a wide array of military facilities in the area to serve as human shields to protect the bases from American nuclear attacks.

The USS Des Moines battle group is once again active in the Yellow Sea supporting Marines ashore. While conducting a strike, the group is surprised by a lone Soviet Su-24 bomber approaching at low level in the predawn darkness from the mountainous center of North Korea. The bomber fires a spread of four AS-17 anti-radiation missiles, which home in on the group's air defense command ship, the cruiser William H Standley. Three of the four hit, inflicting fatal damage; the cruiser sinks five hours later after firefighting efforts are unable to extinguish the multiple fires.

XI US Corps provides cover for VII Corps' withdrawal as it attempts to maintain contact with the Germans near Tarnow, Panzergruppe Oberdorff to its northeast while retreating towards the Wisla itself. Its' 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment and 50th Armored Division take turns launching sudden and vigorous counterattacks on the Polish 2nd Army, forcing that unit to devote resources to protect the supply line to the Polish 3rd Army, which is at risk of being cut by the American armor.

The last American and Canadian troops are withdrawn from Sicily for action on other fronts. The NATO occupation force in Siciliy is composed of detachments of the Spanish Guardia Civil and Portugese Guarda Nacional Republicana, who oversee a local NATO-supported militia/police force.

As Allied troops in Romania scramble to hold off the Soviet onslaught and piece together a defensive line that has been blasted apart by Soviet nuclear weapons, the Warsaw Pact ups the ante, sending the 16th Army across the Drava River into Croatia. Simultaneously, the Italian Grupo Dalmatia in Slovenia resumes its offensive operations and the Italian 5th Corps attacks south into Croatia from captured Austrian territory. The well dug in but outnumbered (and equipped with weapons a generation older) Jugoslav front line cracks under the pressure of seven hours of Soviet artillery fire, leavened with attacks on three JNA corps headquarters by Su-17s dropping 30-kiloton TN-1000 atomic bombs. As the sun sets, the Hungarian 2nd Corps executes a 90-degree turn and crosses into the Vojvodina, the Serbian province between Belgrade and the Romanian border.

1st Marine Division trucks and helicopters operating from within the Bandar Abbas perimeter have moved the remainder of the divison into the town of Anar, while Force Reconnaissance patrols depart at dusk south into the hills, seeking the path of least resistance.

[chico20854]

September 10, 1997

Canon has nothing on the day. Unofficially,

SACEUR hosts a commanders' conference to discuss the strategic situation. The meeting begins with each of the major sub-theater commanders, from the (largely dormant) Norwegian front to eastern Turkey, giving a status report on their sector, followed by a briefing by the SACLANT deputy commander on the status of the war at sea. That is followed by a briefing from representatives of the various industrial and support organizations in the alliance on upcoming production, transportation, medical support and other logsistic issues. In the discussion that follows, the gathered generals and admirals conclude that with the collapse of the Chinese war effort and outbreak of nuclear war that the chance of NATO reaching a successful attainment of its war aims is low, and that the most prudent way to avert a collapse on the central front is to stage a fighting withdrawal to German territory, where there is the best chance of defending the Oder-Niesse line for an extended period of time; simultaneously all available effort should be made to shore up the embattled NATO southern flank, taking advantage of the damage already wrought on the Greeks and Italians.

The final flights carrying the 197th Field Artillery Brigade (New Hampshire National Guard) arrive at Allen Army Airfield and Eielson Air Force Base near Fort Wainwright, Alaska as the brigade's lead batteries fire their first shots against the Soviets in the theater. The guardsmen are Arctic warfare experts, having fought along the Litsa line throughout the winter, spring and into July. X Corps assigns a CH-47 helicopter company to the brigade to allow its heavy howitzers to be moved around the battlefield.

Another (false) alarm about an imminent Soviet nuclear attack sends the Royal Family and Government scrambling to emergency dispersal locations.

Following the departure of the 70th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, the 17th Guards Motor-Rifle Division begins loading aboard trains in Mongolia for transit to the fronts in Europe.

The USS Missouri battle group makes a sweep through the Gulf of Alaska, guided by the P-3s of VP-48 (relocated from Adak to Anchorage, then CFB Comox), to intercept a Soviet reinforcement convoy. The poorly defended Soviet force - a handful of obsolescent frigates and corvettes, led by the 1964-built cruiser Steregushyy - prove to be excellent fodder for the American force's guns. The loss of the convoy severly hampers the ability of Soviet forces in southeastern Alaska and British Columbia to operate, as it carried much of the fuel, rations, ammunition and replaceements needed to sustain their offensive.

As NATO commanders contemplate the loss of Polish territory, they begin to plan for the area they currently occupy to be, in the future, once again behind enemy lines. Accordingly, they implement measures to support their stay-behind forces, embed remote monitoring and ease future operations behind the lines, with an aim to delay and disrupt Warsaw Pact forces. Hide sites are prepared for Special Forces and Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrols, stocked with rations, ammunition, batteries and medical supplies. Several clearings in forests and abandoned farms have fuel tanks quietly buried and filled with JP8 to serve as forward refuelling sites for attack helicopter deep penetration raids. REMBASS and other unmanned remote acoustic, seismic and magnetic sensors are buried near road junctions, bridges and other key points so that future Pact troop movements can be tracked and reported to NATO commanders, allowing a prompt and accurate strike.

The US 71st Airborne Brigade is forced out of the city of Deva, which it has been defending for many weeks against the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army. To avoid becoming the target of another Soviet nuclear strike - the city was struck by a nuclear-armed Scud missile at the onset of the Pact offensive - the brigade disperses into company-sized detachments in the mountains, fighting alongside their trusted allies of the Romanian 5th Mountain Brigade.

The Jugoslav high command furiously scrambles to gather more troops from around the country to defend the capital as that city's main garrison, the 1st Proliterian Guards Mechanized Infantry Division rushes north to face off against the Soviet 16th Army, which is shaking itself free of the remnants of the Jugoslav border defenses. Throughout southern and central Jugoslavia, Territorial Defense militia units are called up to compensate for the loss of regular units which have hastily departed.

[chico20854]

You'd be surprised at how common that is. I don't think I worked in my pay grade the whole time I was in the Army.

The most extreme I had was as a freshly-minted E-3 in a E-6 slot. (Never mind that the only reason I was an E-3 was that the Army screwed me, and ultimately itself, over.)


The relevant brigade staff officer had a few words with my NCO peers when I came in first in the annual competition/inspection 2 weeks later, especially since I ended up being post runner-up. Something about what is wrong with you that a PFC just beat every single one of you... heard through the grapevine after the fact.

[chico20854]

September 11, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

SACEUR and SACLANT make a joint presentation to to the (video conferenced) NATO heads of state in a hastily convened meeting. SACEUR lays out the assessment reached the prior day, and, testing the limits of civilian control of the military, states that he and his subordinate commanders will be implementing the withdrawal from Poland unless directed otherwise by the political leaders. When the Dutch and Canadian prime ministers push back, SACEUR offers his resignation as well as those of the commanders of CENTAG and SOUTHAG. The offers are immediately rejected and the NATO heads of state, less Polish Free Congress president Lech Walesa, approve the execution of the plan to evacuate Poland.

The first American war-built light frigate, the USS Poole, is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and manned by USCG personnel. (The ship is a slightly updated Bear-class medium endurance coast guard cutter. Construction was started under a contract for the Chinese Navy; with US entry into the war and the losses suffered in the first weeks of the war the ship was taken over by the US Navy and the Chinese government refunded what they had paid for construction up to that point).

Order is restored on the last of the British university campuses that had erupted in violence with the onset of conscription.

Surviving Soviet Naval Aviation Backfire bombers launch a raid against British fixed coastal radar stations, blasting many of them with a mix of conventional and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. British air defense forces rush a handful of their remaining mobile radars to Scotland to try to plug the gaps in coverage, but they are not as powerful or capable as the destroyed sites.

Following up on the success of the 9th, Soviet Frontal Aviation, in coordination with an Il-38 of Naval Aviation, launches another Su-24 anti-shipping raid across the Sea of Japan from airfields near Vladivostok. The Il-38's radar locates the Tarawa amphibious group and vectors the Su-24s in. The strike that follows sees the loss of Tarawa, the transports Anchorage and Fresno and the frigade Reid as the Soviets dramatically demonstrate the power of tactical nuclear weapons at sea. The destroyer Buchannan, its topsides wrecked by the blast, remains afloat, a portion of its crew that were below decks still able to perform their duties, heads for the nearby friendly port of Donghae.

V German Korps fights off another attack from the Polish 3rd Army outside of Tarnow, but is forced to give ground, retreating to the city itself. The last VII US Corps units cross the Wisla, where a line of heavy equipment transporter trucks await to load AFVs for transit across Poland, where they will be transloaded onto railcars for the remainder of the journey to Bavaria.The US XI Corps' 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) assumes responsibility for the Tarnobrezg bridges; Panzergruppe Oberdoff takes over the Sandomierz bridgehead.

Soviet attack aircraft (mostly armed L-39 Albatros trainers with a sprinkling of MiG-27 and Su-17s) disrupt the movement of the Jugoslav 1st Guards Mechanized Infantry Division as it crosses the Danube plains towards the onrushing 16th Army. The most severe blow comes when a Su-17, responding to intelligence gained from an orbiting An-26RT ELINT aircraft, drops a nuclear bomb on the division headquarters while it is set up in a grove off trees alongside the main highway. The division's defense suffers accordingly, and the Jugoslav command recalls the JNA expeditionary force from Romania.

In Romania, the defense lines are crumbling and the 14th Guards Army's 55th Motor-Rifle Division breaks through the defenses and reaches the outskirts of the oil center of Ploesti.

To support the defense of Kenya, under pressure from many directions, Military Airlift Command deploys a mix of transports (C-5s, -17s, -141s and civil airliners) to the eastern Mediterranean to load the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

The 1st Marine Division continues its journey south across the desert, with elements of the 40th Army in pursuit. The 201st Motor-Rifle Division, to the south, which is holding the Bandar Abbas perimeter, tries to keep up the pressure on the perimeter despite its deplorable supply situation. 40th Army's pursuit of the 1st is mainly performed by the 5th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, whose commander is fearful of American nuclear weapons and keeps his troops lightly engaged, preferring to try to attrit the retreating Americans with artillery attacks and small unit ambushes.

[chico20854]

September 12, 1997

The 2nd Brigade, Arkansas State Guard is activated in Fort Smith, under the command of retired US Army Colonel William Simms. Simms and much of his command staff are former servicemen past mandatory retirement age. The brigade leadership’s advanced age leads to it to be derided as the “Seniors Brigade.” Due to the demands of the war, the brigade is placed on a waiting list to receive small arms and surplus uniforms (M1 carbines and M1 rifles, M1911 pistols, olive green field uniforms and steel helmets) from the federal government.

The 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) is assigned to III MEF and is thrown onto the lines on Korea's west coast, with the air assault battalion held in reserve as a counter-breakthrough reaction force.

1st Brigade, 40th Infantry Division, now an independent formation, is ordered back to the front. It is returned to XXIII Corps' command and brought into Poland. It is held in a reserve position, however, preparing defensive positions on the east side of Lodz for the rest of the corps to fall back upon if, as it looks increasingly likely, it is driven back from Warsaw.

VI German Korps, unable to maintain contact with XI US Corps to its northeast, abandons the defense of Tarnow, falling back westward as the only corps in Third German Army on the south/east bank of the Wisla. Troops of the 3rd Polish Army triumphantly enter the town, the first town of over 100,000 it has liberated from the Free Polish Congress.

The plan to support NATO resistance with Poland recaptured by Pact troops is amended to add support for Free Polish stay-behind units and pro-NATO partisans.

The America and John F Kennedy battle groups move cautiously north into the Ionian Sea, stretching the range of their attack aircraft to try to support the embattled Jugoslav resistance over Croatia.

The arrival of the 205th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, 70th Guards Motor-Rifle Division opposite Romanian lines east of Bucharest is an ominous development, for the veteran Soviet unit is the first from the 13th Army to arrive in the Balkan theater from China.

The Soviet 1st Guards Army makes progress into the Carpathians, capturing the oil refinery at Onesti, aided by a tactical nuclear strike on the headquarters of the Romanian 2nd Mountain Brigade, which falls back in disarray into the mountains overhead.

In Pristina, capital of the Serbian province of Kosovo, the recently activated Territorial Defense militia, composed almost entirely of ethnic Serbs, breaks up a minor demonstration by ethnic Albanian students, who are agitating to be armed as well, wanting to do their part to defend their nation.

Italian troops in Croatia approach the outskirts of the Croatian capital of Zagreb and begin long-range shelling of the city, inducing a panic among the city's civilians.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, part of the 41st Wing, which received its F-20s in March, is down to three operable aircraft. It transfers those aircraft to its sister 41st Tactical Fighter Squaadron, along with its remaining six trained pilots and experienced ground crew, and temporarily disbands, as the flow of replacement aircraft from the US is insufficient to keep up with the Iranian Air Force's losses.

As 1st Marine Division covers more ground heading south, the rest of I MEF is able to provide more support. Battalions of the 4th Marine Division and the British 27 Brigade launch local attacks to tie down the 201st Motor-Rifle Division, while the 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard) prepares for an armored dash to link up with the isolated marines. Marine Corps aviation and the shore-based air wing from the carrier Independence provide support, while more helicopters are in range of the Bandar Abbas perimeter, allowing more fuel to be flown in to the 1st Division and excess troops evacauted on the return flights.

The US Air Force flies another Golden Spike sortie against the Trans-Siberian Railroad. This one crosses into the USSR over the Arctic and, failing to locate any troop trains or rail-mobile ICBMs, departs over the Mongolian border, striking four air defense sites as it goes.

[chico20854]

September 13, 1997

Pact forces grow closer to the embattled Warsaw perimeter. North of the city, the town of Ciechanów is abandoned by NATO troops, who detonate a massive cratering charge in the middle of the expeditionary runway that engineers had created in the summer. The formerly massive supply dump that Allied support troops had built up is empty, set afire as the last defenders depart.

Lest Turkish forces try to come to Romania's aid, Southern Front, the Bulgarian Army and the Greek D Corps launch attacks all along the front from the Black Sea to the Aegean, punctuated with nuclear strikes on the Turkish First Army's logistic sites and the crossroads of Edirne.

Unofficially,

Following the handover of responsibility for food distribution to state guard units, the 49th MP Brigade (California National Guard) concentrates at Fort Irwin to assume responsibility of providing security for a growing POW stockade on the base (as well as a secret emergency stockpile in a newly constructed mountain tunnel on a remote corner of the base).

The Soviet 35th Army resumes its southward attacks in the mountains of North Korea, but is immediately faced with well entrenched South Korean and American troops, who have used the respite provided by the reduction of the 23rd Infantry Division to improve their fighting positions and stockpile supplies. Yalu Front is suffering from the diversion of ammunition, fuel and replacements from the Far Eastern TVD to the fighting in Europe.

The heavily damaged destroyer Buchannan, caught in the blast zone of the missile that sank the USS Tarawa, reaches port in Donghae, South Korea. It is tied up at the naval base there, its surviving crew rushed ashore for treatment of radiation sickness.

Second German Army, in northeastern Poland, is in full-scale retreat, logistically challenged and outnumbered.

RAF Germany launches a flurry of Tornado sorties, each bearing a WE 177 nuclear bomb. They strike the lead elements of the 23rd Army, the communication hub of Lozma, river crossings in Grodno, Byelorussia and the air bases in Lida, Shchuchin and Ross'.

Selected members of the Polish Free Legions are detached from their units and sent to a hastily established "partisan warfare" school established in the woods north of Poznan, where they are taught the arts of demolition, encoding communications, conducting ambushes, psychological warfare and living off the land.

The USS Olympia, still operating in the Arctic, begins a three-day hunt for a Soviet submarine it detected at long range.

The German-flag container ship Herm Kiepe arrives in Montreal to load nearly 500 containers of bagged grain, small arms ammunition, fertilizer and 105mm howitzer rounds.

To the north, Romanian troops of the 1st Army (and stragglers from the 2nd Army, which is being pushed back into the mountains) stream back towards Bucharest while those north in Transylvania fight to the extent their supply situation permits; many units disintegrate under Pact pressure, the motivated Romanians heading into the hills to wage a viscous guerrilla campaign against the Soviet occupiers. The Soviet 13th Guards Tank Division captures the city of Novi Sad before the defending Jugoslav forces can destroy all the bridges over the Danube.

Two battalions of the 173rd Airborne Brigade load onto Air Force transports in Egypt and Turkey for transit to Kenya. Although capable (and experienced in) parachute landings, the move is considered "administrative", since the reception field at Moi Air Base east of Nairobi is in friendly hands and no combat landing is required.

[chico20854]

September 14, 1997

The first two battalions of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, supported by a single company of M551 Sheridan light tanks, are flown into Nairobi and go straight into battle, attacking the Zambian/Mozambique brigade that has cut the railway between Mombasa and Nairobi.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Trenton Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the DuPage Freedom in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Black Sunday - the Soviets retaliate against RAF Germany for its strikes on targets in northeastern Poland and Byelorussia. All of RAF Germany's main bases - Gütersloh, Laarbruch, Brüggen and Wildenrath - are obliterated by nuclear attacks. Some aircraft escape, returning to the UK or landing at other Allied air bases. Some Tornados of 9 Squadron had been operating from roads for sometime and escape the carnage. The Harrier Wing, still operating 'in the field' also escapes, although some of its support units didn't make it out of Poland. The remaining Typhoons of 65 Squadron are operating as close-protection for the AWACS fleet operating now from the UK. However the picture for the RAF on the continent is overwhelmingly bleak, the 2 ATAF logistics tail has been destroyed, its spare crew are dead as are its vital maintenance staff. With the exception of the Harriers RAF Germany has ceased to exist.

The (formerly East-) German 23rd Missile Brigade fires its last Scud missile, striking a road junction southwest of Baranovichi, Byelorussia with a high explosive warhead weighing nearly a ton.

The German 5th Panzer Division, fighting east of Warsaw, is running low on supplies and in danger of being overmatched by the Soviet 7th Tank Army; it falls back to within 10 km of the city limits.

Soviet commanders seek to replicate the success of the strike on the USS Tarawa amphibious group. They do so in the Baltic, striking the Kearsage amphibious group. The nuclear strike on the group catches the flagship, the transports Shreveport, Gunston Hall, Minneapolis Freedom and LCPL Roy M. Wheat and the frigates Stark and Ainsworth.

The Bulgarian Army, depleted as it is by months of combat, disposes its forces in three directions. The 1st Army, which has been in action on the western end of the Turkish front opposite Erdine, is withdrawn from that front as the Turkish Army is driven back, transferred west to the Sofia area for a brief period of refit. The 2nd Army remains in action against the Turks as part of the Southern Front alongside its Soviet allies, while the 3rd Army takes advantage of the Romanian's weakness to undertake an assault crossing of the Danube southwest of Bucharest.

In Romania, the 6th Guards Tank Army has broken out onto the southwestern corner of the Transylvania Plateau, linking up with the Hungarian 3rd Corps, which has chased Romanian forces back from the north.

Italian troops in northwestern Jugoslavia reach the outskirts of Zagreb, where the Italian commander declares the establishment of a nationalist Croatian government independent of Jugoslavia, headed by a prominent (but disgraced) Croatian nationalist exilee.

In Pristina, Kosovo ethnic-Albanian students are hunted down by roving bands of Serbian militiamen, who are suspicious of their loyalty to the Jugoslav state and desire for weapons from the Territorial Defense militia.

40th Army receives badly needed reinforcements, the 209th Motor-Rifle Division. The 209th, a mobilization-only unit from from the Turkestan Military District has been assisting KGB Border Guards in containing the wave of smugglers and mujaheddin crossing the Pamir River into the USSR from Iran. The division's commanding general, V.S. Kholopov, born to a Kirghiz mother and a devoted Communist as well as a practicing Muslim, is an inspired leader and the unit's outstanding performance convinced Transcaucasian Front to send the unit to the front in Iran.

The 1st Marine Division arrives in the town of Shahr-e Babak, 60 miles from the outer positions of I MEF at the Bandar Abbas perimeter.

[chico20854]

September 15, 1997

The Soviet 7th Guards Tank Army breaks through the final NATO covering force between 1st Byelorussian Front and the encircled Pact forces in Warsaw. The siege of Warsaw has ended.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Springfield Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

FEMA completes the stocking of an emergency stockpile in a gypsum cave (Alabaster Caverns State Park) in Freedom, Oklahoma.

The first British draftees, threatened with dire penalties for noncompliance, report to basic training centers across the UK.

After over two weeks of effort, the final units of the 13th Army load their troops and vehicles on board trains in southern Mongolia for the long transit to Europe.

The Soviet 30th Army, operating along the eastern coast of Korea, encounters fierce resistance as it tries to force its way down the coastal road and railroad route to the city of Hamhung. Forward passage is difficult when the USS Des Moines lurks offshore, ready to pound any advance with rapid fire from its nine eight-inch guns; the suggestion that Soviet troops absorb the pounding and wait for the cruiser to depart to reload is thoroughly abandoned when the colonel that made the suggestion declines to sit there and absorb the pounding himself.

Allied air forces respond to the obliteration of RAF Germany, dispersing remaining aircraft to even more remote locations (nearly every civilian airfield in Germany out of Pact artillery range hosts a few NATO combat aircraft), hardening facilities that cannot be dispersed and requiring off-duty crews to stay at least 5 km away from bases when off duty, in most cases staying in German Territorial Army or Bundeswehr facilities protected by territorial security troops.

A more aggressive response comes from the intermediate nuclear force, with the continent-based cruise missile wings (the 38th, 485th and 486th) launching a swarm of missiles against surviving air bases in western Ukraine, Kaliningrad, Lithuania and Byelorussia.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia (one of less than 20 still operating in the Atlantic Fleet) finally gets a decent firing solution on the Soviet nuclear Akula II-class attack submarine K-335 and launches two Mk-48 torpedoes at it. Once again the Soviet boat turns tail to outrun the American fish, placing it in perfect position for a Sea Lance-N missile to drop a 200kt W89 warhead on top of it.

map of Balkan theatre (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1WkO34XNejHjiO0ejBvyrBgkph2op6O4&usp=sharing)
Bulgarian troops have covered half the distance between the Danube and Bucharest as the Romanian high command scrambles to organize a defense of the city as it faces Pact troops from the north (14th Guards Army), east (13th Army) and south (Bulgarians). Massive columns of civilians, mostly women and children, flee the city.

The German containership Herm Kiepe departs Montreal with a cargo of food, fertilizer and munitions. It sails independently.

In western Iran, 7th Army launches a surprise dawn attack on the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) along the main road from Ahvaz to Bandar-e-Khomeyni. The attack succeeds in overrunning the American outpost line, but quickly gets bogged down in prepared minefields, which are refreshed by artillery-fired FASCAM mines, which land not only in the existing minefields but also on top of the advancing Soviet formations.

[chico20854]

September 16, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today. Unofficially,

As tensions in the city of Boston subside, the 43rd MP Brigade (Rhode Island National Guard) is able to withdraw the last of its troops from the streets.

BMSA Cutler, after a week working on the under-construction USS Makin Island in Brownsville, Texas, has discovered that the construction program on the ship is a disorganized mess. Construction of the ship is the responsibility of the shipyard, but the yard is short of workers (many of its prewar staff has been called up for military service and the Navy will not authorize the employment of Mexican day laborers who cross the Rio Grande daily). The Navy has made numerous changes to the ship's design as lessons learned from its sisters are received; while welcomed by the Navy the changes slow construction and often result in costly re-work. Delivery of required equipment, supplies and materiel is often delayed. Cutler realizes that the Navy is using the pre-commissioning unit to hang on to excess trained personnel - the unit is approaching half of the ship's complement in size yet should be less than 20 percent given the state of construction progress. The unit itself is a mess, a poorly organized mishmash of raw recruits, resentful recalled inactive reservists and shell-shocked survivors of naval battles around the world; each day the available sailors are assigned to "augment" the shipyard workforce. There is considerable tension between the sailors and the civilian workforce, not helped by the grumbling of senior managers on both sides who blame each other for the lack of progress on the ship.

The first British officer candidates report for training. Many come from the same universities that had anti-draft riots last week.

With Warsaw liberated, NATO forces in retreat along a broad front and Krakow, Torun and Gdansk all under Pact control, the Romanian front on the verge of collapse and additional Soviet units arriving from China each day, SACEUR orders the execution of Operation Barnyard Tiger - a massive interdiction strike. Over a three-hour period, NATO nuclear forces from four nations (the US, UK, Canada and Turkey) strike 26 rail bridges across the Dniester, Bug and Neman Rivers in the western USSR as well as six rail facilities in eastern Poland and western Ukraine and Byelorussia. The attacks sever the rail lines between the Baltic and Black Seas, isolating Warsaw Pact forces to the west of those targets from rail connections to the rest of the USSR.

The USS Olympia begins searching for the SSBN that the Akula was protecting.

In Romania, the 6th Guards Tank Army begins fighting through the valley of the Olt River, Gorge which carries a highway and railroad through the Carpathian Mountains, connecting Transylvania with the Danube plain. The valley is defended by highly motivated Romanian troops, who lack heavy weapons and are short of supplies. The Soviet formation takes heavy losses from attacks from overhead, and is forced to divert considerable combat power to defending its supply lines as well, since it seems that every town, village and hamlet that it has captured harbors armed civilians or Romanian stragglers that are more than happy to take shots at passing supply trucks.

USS Independence, tied dockside in Muscat, Oman following a torpedo attack, is struck by an AS-4 missile launched in a Backfire raid. The hit disables an elevator, further delaying the ship's return to operational status.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), reinforced with 4th Marine Division's 4th and 8th Tank Battalions and 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, breaks through the 201st Motor-Rifle Division's perimeter, overruns the forward airfield at Sirjan and breaks northwest towards 1st Marine Division.

Regional military commissariat officials arrive in central Ukraine to re-form the survivors of the nuclear strike on the 341st (my 22nd Guards) Tank Division into a useful military unit and organize the salvage of useful vehicles and equipment from the sites where the division's trains were struck by a dozen American nuclear warheads.

[ToughOmbres]

Really enjoying the new posted updates. Glad to see the detail given to the FEMA/SRS stockpiles. That was a favorite module plot line and good to see it included in this expanded chronology. Keep up the good work.

[Targan]

September 11, 1997
Surviving Soviet Naval Aviation Backfire bombers launch a raid against British fixed coastal radar stations, blasting many of them with a mix of conventional and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

Is that the first ever nuclear strike on the British Isles?

[chico20854]

September 17, 1997

The 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division links up with the 4th Marine Division's 4th Light Armored Recon Battalion and 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard) north of Sirjan. Its long journey out of the Yadz pocket has succeeded.

As NATO forces retreat, the Polish Government seeks out collaborators and others who did not sufficiently oppose the NATO occupation. In the town of Ciechanów north of Warsaw, which has been used as a supply hub to support the siege of Warsaw, a battalion commander from the 6th (my 22nd) Border Guard Brigade orders most of the town's adult male population shot for aiding the enemy during their stay.

Unofficially,

The survivors of the 40th Infantry Division evacuated from Europe return to Camp Rilea, Oregon and begin forming a new division from new trainees streaming out of the training system. Supply of equipment is problematic, as the demands of worldwide war exceed American industry's ability to produce weapons, vehicles and the myriad items needed to supply a military unit.

A Soviet tactical nuclear attack on American and South Korean positions north of Hamhung permits tanks of the Bulgarian 11th Tank Brigade to break through, wreaking havoc in the Allied rear area and forcing the defenders into the city. The Freedom ship Idaho Freedom, due to depart after discharging munitions and food, is nearly overwhelmed by refugees seeking to escape the returning Communist regime; the ship eventually leaves port with nearly 5,000 people aboard, crammed onto nearly every horizontal surface aboard. (Armed guards prevent entry to the bridge and engine rooms)

German troops fall back towards the Wisla, allowing the relief of Baltic Front in the Torun Pocket. Baltic Front had been cut off for over three months, and the battered formation has sustained 70% losses in action since April.

Pact troops in southern Poland close on the Wisla as well, following the withdrawal of XI Corps, Panzergruppe Oberdorff and the German V Corps. They receive a nasty surprise in the form of numerous Atomic Demolition Munitions, losing multiple tank battalions to the remotely-detonated "nuclear land mines" as well as contaminating miles and miles of transportation routes.

A shipyard in Odense, Denmark delivers the world's largest containership, the Sovereign Mae. At over 100,000 tons, the massive ship can transport over 8,100 containers, moving at 21 knots. The ship is dispatched to Norfolk, Virginia, one of only a handful of US ports able to handle the ship's size (which is too large to fit through the Panama Canal).

NATO's Mediterranean command, AFSOUTH, dispatches another convoy to Turkey, this one carrying the remaining elements of the Portuguese 1st Mechanized Brigade.

Troops of the 1st Guards Army capture the Ghimeș Pass through the Carpathians and begin descending into Transylvania along the rail line and road against weakening Romanian resistance.

The Bulgarian 3rd Army advancing on Bucharest from the south dispatches the 16th Motor-Rifle Division to the west in a drive to cut off the Romanian capital, hoping to link up with Soviet troops from the 14th Guards Army. They are fiercely resisted by Romanian irregular forces; the Bulgarians deploy chemical weapons, sweeping away the opposition (and hundreds of civilians fleeing the city) shortly before dark.

[chico20854]

Is that the first ever nuclear strike on the British Isles?

I believe so.

[chico20854]

September 18, 1997

NATO tactical missiles strike Byelorussia and the Ukraine, hitting Kiev, Lvov and Odessa, severely weakening the Soviets’ attempts to build up the western front. The 87th (my 52nd) Tank Division, forming in Kiev, is destroyed in the attack.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Memphis Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

The 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, lead unit of the US VII Corps, enters action in Ingolstadt, Germany, catching the Soviet 18th Guards Motor-Rifle Division’s 278th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment off guard as it moves on Ingolstadt, Germany. The veteran cavalrymen rake the columns of Soviet BTRs with withering fire, driving the Soviets off.

Along the Baltic coast, II MEF uses a detachment of LCAC hovercraft to maintain an active withdrawal, using the fast craft and remaining helicopters of the 2nd Marine Air Wing to outflank the attacking Pact forces and disrupt their rear areas. Some of these raids also include covert supply drops or pickups of agents and sympathizers who would be at risk due to their work with the Free Polish Congress.

The lone Vulcan bomber remaining in service, No. 55 Squadron's XH558, crashes on landing at RAF Honington following a refueling mission over the North Sea. While no lives are lost the aircraft is written off as a total loss. Unrest continues in Kosovo and spreads to the ethnic-Albanian population of Macedonia. The local Orthodox population, dominant in the Territorial Defense militias and police forces, try to suppress it, while additional army brigades are rushed to the front to the north.

Soviet tanks reach Belgrade, while the Jugoslav expeditionary force to Romania is tied down fighting the Hungarians (their traditional enemy) to the northeast of the city.

Another NATO capital in the Balkans comes under threat as Soviet and Bulgarian forces link up in the town of Bolontin, completing the encirclement of the city. To the south, Turkish troops, hammered by multiple Soviet nuclear strikes, retreat in a semi-organized fashion; the withdrawal threatens to become a rout.

In Iran, the exhausted troops of the 1st Marine Division are evacuated to rest stations in warehouses near the waterfront at Bandar Abbas, where they have access to hot water, a US Army quartermaster laundry unit, fresh food and cots for the first time in months.

[Matt Wiser]

And no doubt 1st MarDiv echoed what Chesty Puller said during the Chosin days: "We're not retreating, we're just advancing in another direction." I'd also bet that a lot of Iranian civilians-who had a taste of life under the Soviets, went south with them.

[chico20854]

September 19, 1997

The 184th Transportation Brigade is redesignated an infantry brigade and assigned assigned responsibility for security and distribution of foodstuffs in Federal Region III (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware).

Unofficially,

Colonel Tumanksi's spetsnaz team relocates to a new safe house, an abandoned farmhouse in eastern Hertfordshire. They make the move in a stolen van, which is abandoned on the outskirts of Hertford.

Soviet and North Korean forces subject the city of Hamhung to a furious artillery barrage, hoping to reduce the number of Allied defenders. Persistent chemical agents and nuclear weapons are not used, lest the city's remaining industry and other resources be destroyed.

With Warsaw relieved, the Polish military begins to try to reorganize the battered defenders of Warsaw. The wounded are evacuated from the various makeshift facilities under the city, while combat forces are categorized into various classes, ranging from reassign as replacement to return to support duties. One wounded riot policeman, Captain Czarny, is dispatched to his hometown of Polutsk to recover from his wounds.

In Bavaria the battle for control of Ingolstadt intensifies as the remainder of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment arrives, supported by the guns of the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, relieving the battered German territorial garrison. They face the full weight of the 18th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, reinforced with 21st Army's 211th Guards Artillery Brigade, which launch a renewed assault at dusk. The Allied force holds off the Soviet attack, assisted by the timely intervention of a flight of A-10s from the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing.

In south-central Poland Soviet troops, celebrating crossing the Wisla after hard fighting driving NATO from the outskirts of Lvov, liberate a wine cellar in the town of Sandomierz. The celebration (as many do) gets out of hand, and by midnight a fire has broken out in the historic Sandomierz Castle, heavily damaging the historic structure. The Polish civil defense and fire forces respond and extinguish the fire, saving part of the structure.

The defense of Zagreb against attacking Italian forces disintegrates as increasing numbers of troops desert or go over to the Italian side, convinced by psy-ops efforts to join the nationalist cause in fighting for an independent Croatia.

The Italian San Marino marine brigade captures the Croatian port of Rijeka; the defending 13th Corps disintegrates as Jugoslavia seems to be disintegrating; the most aggressively commanded brigade had been lured out of the city to pursue a retreating Italian carabinieri force, an Italian feint to draw the Jugoslav mechanized force into open ground where Italian artillery and airpower could tear it apart.

Operation Golden Fleece - the 29th US Infantry Division (Maryland and Virginia National Guard) and detachment from the 4th Marine Division lands near Aden, South Yemen, supported by the guns of the USS Salem, and quickly captures the international airport, while 3rd Brigade's 1/175th Infantry parachutes on the nearby Al Anad airbase, fighting off fierce counterattacks from Yemeni and Soviet airmen and South Yemeni Army troops. The attack is the 29th's second amphibious assault, having been one of the lead divisions on Omaha Beach in 1944.

The Indian offensive in the south, which has cost over 25,000 casualties, begins to make progress. The Indian high command orders its expansion to the Kashmir sector.

[chico20854]

September 20, 1997

The Soviets respond to the nuclear attacks on Kiev, Lvov and Odessa with attacks on NATO ports and command facilities. Bremerhaven and Bremen are targeted with SS-20 missiles (Hamburg has already been so heavily damaged by conventional strikes that a nuclear strike is considered unnecessary); by a fluke the warhead aimed at Bremerhaven lands 12 km northwest of the city, inflicting minor damage.

In Warsaw, the arrival of Soviet troops and lifting of the siege is followed almost immediately by a flood of refugees fleeing the heavily damaged city. Among the tens of thousands of civilians fleeing the heavily damaged city are the family of a Wisla tug boat captain, Adam Rataj, who head for the (relative) safety of Lublin.

Unofficially,

In Alaska, the Soviet offensive has slowed as supplies grow more scarce and the weather cools, with the first snowfalls on 25th Corps units approaching Fairbanks. X Corps uses the lull to try to reorganize its widely dispersed and intermixed units.

The fighting for Ingolstadt continues, with additional American and Soviet units entering the fray.

The US Army in Europe is facing a manning crisis after 10 months of combat. The training system in the US is providing nearly 4000 newly trained privates every week, which is roughly enough to make up for losses at the front, but is unable to provide adequate mid-level leaders - staff sergeants and captains and above. The training system attempts to identify soldiers with leadership potential, and units are quick to act on such soldiers, promoting them to corporal within months (or even weeks) of arrival, but such instant NCOs lack the years of experience and judgement that are the hallmark of the American NCO corps. The flow of experienced soldiers from the inactive reserve has ended, depriving units of potential mid-grade NCOs, and the pre-war ROTC and West Point cadets have all been sent to the front as lieutenants. In Europe, the 7th Army Training Command re-establishes some of its training classes at prewar barracks in northern Germany (away from Pact troops advancing through Bavaria), including battle staff NCO, air assault and combat lifesaver classes and standing up an officer candidate school for high-potential soldiers already serving in Europe, using a modified National Guard OCS curriculum. Some NCOs that distinguish themselves in action receive battlefield commissions, but many battalions still suffer from attrition in their mid-grade NCOs and officers.

The American submarine Olympia is still searching for a Soviet SSBN but it has slipped away.

F-15s of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron operating over the Norwegian Sea intercept a Soviet Tu-22M2DP southbound, shooting it down and protecting the streams of NATO transport aircraft between Europe and North America.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), launches another counterattack on the 201st Motor-Rifle Division from the outskirts of Bandar Abbas, slowing 40th Army's effort to concentrate against the Bandar Abbas perimeter.

[chico20854]

September 21, 1997

Greek and Albanian forces invade Jugoslavia, and the Jugoslav Army begins to break up. (Unofficially) The Albanians commit their 1st, 10th and 11th Divisions to capturing Kosovo while their 4th and 24th Divisions advance over the mountainous terrain into western Macedonia. The Greek A, B and C Corps move into southern Macedonia. Both nations claim their interventions are to secure the rights of their ethnic minorities in Jugslavia from Slavic oppression.

The Freedom ship Baltimore Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas. The light frigate USS Marchand is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and manned by USCG personnel.

Soviet forces secure a toehold in the outer eastern suburbs of Ingolstadt, which is subjected to near-constant artillery and air attack by VII US Corps. As the fight absorbs more and more American resources and attention, the commander of the 21st Army, Colonel General Boris Aristov, moves his tank division, the 15th Guards, to the northeast of the town, positioning it to capture the town of Neustadt an der Donau, its crossings over the Danube and Bavaria's largest refinery outside the town.

The Sierra III-class sub K-231, unable to locate an American nuclear missile submarine, consoles itself with a support target, the submarine tender Simon Lake, which is returning to Kings Bay, Georgia after supporting a SSBN in the mid-Atlantic. The area is almost immediately flooded with P-3s from nearby Jacksonville.

The NATO convoy in the Mediterranean reaches Izmir, Turkey and begins unloading the vehicles and men of the Portuguese 1st Mechanized Brigade. Ships carrying ammunition and replacement vehicles wait their turn at the city's docks.

The Pakistani Army scrambles to contain the new Indian offensive in the northern Kashmir sector. It commits one of its last reserve formations, the (at this point only somewhat mechanized) II Corps to counter a breakthrough south of Lahore. Pakistani leaders scrape together additional paramilitary troops from the poorly controlled western areas of the nation to shore up the thinning lines in the south.

[chico20854]

That's all I will have for a while, taking some time off to go play in the woods and enjoy some cooler weather!

[cawest]

will we get the stats for the mod Bear. sonar and old style depth charges/heghogs spitgot mortars.

[pmulcahy11b]

...and enjoy some cooler weather!

It's great, isn't it? Even down here in San Antonio, it seems like Fall came early this year!

[Targan]

It'll just get warmer here, with a typically brutally hot Christmas to look forward to.

[chico20854]

It's great, isn't it? Even down here in San Antonio, it seems like Fall came early this year!

Well, camping the night of the first freeze of the year was less than fun! We had been in the 80s the week before; it was more of a psychological shock and not being properly prepared than being truly terribly cold! :cool:

[chico20854]

September 22, 1997

In an attempt to slow Warsaw Pact forces and cripple the road and communication networks, the British submarine HMS Victorious fires three of its 16 Trident II missiles at a variety of targets in Poland. One of the missiles is aimed at Warsaw - three at the city center, a fourth at Okecie airport, the fifth at the suburb of Wlochy to the west and the sixth at the southern spur of suburbs on the east bank of the Wisla. Two other warheads strike military units to the southeast of Warsaw, (unofficially: the two other missiles hit targets in and around the cities of Bialystok and Kielce. The Polish government had just begun the process of returning to the capital, reoccupying underground bomb shelters that survived the siege.)

Czech and Italian troops begin a renewed offensive in southern Germany.

Unofficially,

Soviet forces and their North Korean allies make another concerted effort to capture Hamhung, North Korea. They take heavy casualties from the American cruiser Des Moines and American carrier airpower.

Several Soviet warheads target at Tempelhof airport, Berlin, Germany, virtually destroying the US 10th Air Force's Headquarters (as well as much of what remained of the city after the Second Battle of Berlin).

The Czech-Italian offensive in Bavaria also includes the Soviet 21st Army's drive to secure Ingolstadt and the Danube crossings to the northeast. An American E-8 JSTARS radar aircraft detects the armor of the Soviet 15th Guards Tank Division massing for the attack on Neustadt an der Donau and within 45 minutes the Soviet division is on the receiving end of a hailstorm of NATO conventional and tactical nuclear bombardment. The disciplined Soviet tankers launch their assault despite the destruction of much of their supporting artillery and command structure, but the planned coup de main has become a slog.

Soviet railroad troops from around the USSR are rushed to the west to begin restoring the rail links severed by Operation Barnyard Tiger the week before as well as B-2 Stealth bomber attacks on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

The commander of the PVO (Air Defense Force) 14th Air Army, responsible for defending the skies over eastern Siberia, is shot after another B-2 incursion over the Trans-Siberian.

The attack submarine USS Olympia hears a snorkeling Soviet boat in the Barents and diverts to investigate. Only at the last moment does it discover that the noise is a decoy in a minefield.

The Albanian Army's drive into Kosovo and Macedonia makes slow progress, more from lack of competence and leadership on the Albanian's part than from effective Jugoslav resistance. (The almost-overwhelmingly Serbian territorial defense forces fight savagely, but are poorly coordinated and their rear areas under attack from ethnic Albanian guerillas).

The Italian Army is likewise unable to take advantage of collapsing Jugoslav resistance in Croatia; logistic difficulties and poor coordination between Grupo Dalmatia and command in Rome hamper any concerted drive out of the newly captured city of Zagreb.

Soviet collective and state farms are exerting a maximum effort to bring in a bountiful harvest. The increase in private plots in the spring has boosted production, but the harvest is challenging due to shortages of fuel, trucks and labor (despite the diversion of tens of thousands of Allied POWs to the fields to augment the nation's school children and pensioners sent to long days of work in the fields).

[chico20854]

September 23, 1997

Nothing in canon for today.

American authorities complete the stocking of another reserve stockpile, this one located in San Francisco's abandoned Fort Mason railroad tunnel. This is the city's second stockpile, following the covert positioning of thousands of tons of food, fuel and supplies on Alcatraz Island. These urban stockpiles are controversial within FEMA, who fear that they will be quickly discovered and looted by desperate residents.

South Korean troops from the 21st Infantry Division launch a midnight counterattack on the Soviet 30th Army, kicked off with a 20kt W-33 8-inch round fired from the USS Des Moines on the headquarters of the 266th Motor-Rifle Division's 430th Motor-Rifle Regiment, which had overextended itself in the prior day's assault on the city. The disorganized Soviet troops fall back in to their starting positions by dawn.

The US VII Corps commits its carefully husbanded reserve battalions to the defense of Neustadt an der Donau, while the German territorial command releases the 63rd Security Regiment (which had been relieved a week earlier by VII Corps) to once again bolster the defense of Ingolstadt. Soviet forces in the town gain almost 200 meters of territory in the day's fighting, while to the north the 15th Guards Tank Division is hampered by orders to leave the massive refinery complex intact and the fierce defense offered by the US 36th Infantry Division.

More generally, Pact forces in Europe begin to feel the bite from the severing of rail lines from the USSR. It has now been a week since Operation Barnyard Tiger severed the rail lines from the USSR and Soviet forces have largely expended the supplies they had on hand and that had already crossed the Nema-Bug-Dneister Rivers. Units that have not crossed the Wisla are ordered to remain in place, freeing fuel for other units and giving NATO forces temporary but well-needed breathing room.

A R-5D hypersonic spy plane, Airframe #4, is lost when one of the airplane's booster rockets detonates on ignition.

The German containership Herm Kiepe arrives in the small German port of Brunsbüttel, at the mouth of the Elbe and western end of the Kiel Canal. The ship's master is reluctant to risk the ship's safety by bringing her into a larger port.

The Indo-Pakistani War takes on more and more of an early 20th century character as both sides' armor and aviation assets are attrited away. Their main arms suppliers, the UK and USSR (for India) and China and the US (for Pakistan) have no munitions to spare for their clients and their domestic industries are by no means able to make up for the prodigious consumption of the fighting forces.

[pmulcahy11b]

Well, camping the night of the first freeze of the year was less than fun! We had been in the 80s the week before; it was more of a psychological shock and not being properly prepared than being truly terribly cold! :cool:

In a couple of weeks, it'll be that time of year here when you have to run the air during the day and the heat at night -- ack, bills!

[Homer]

Well, camping the night of the first freeze of the year was less than fun! We had been in the 80s the week before; it was more of a psychological shock and not being properly prepared than being truly terribly cold! :cool:

At least the bugs were down?

[chico20854]

September 24, 1997

As the southern German offensive gains momentum, NATO forces in Poland increase the rate of their withdrawal, practicing a scorched earth policy as they fall back.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship San Antonio Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Battle of Hamhung continues to rage, with Soviet troops spending the day regrouping and struggling to contain the ROK 21st Division's assault while sheltering from the unrelenting American naval gunfire and air attacks, the North Korean air force having been swept from the skies long ago and Frontal Aviation largely diverted to European skies.

The Luftwaffe 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment is assigned to the US Marine Corps’ 6th MEB as reinforcements and to help defend its rear areas from Pact infiltrators.

Pact commanders scramble for trucks to sustain the offensive in the absence of reliable rail transport; Polish government authorities draft masses of civilian refugees to manually load and unload cargo from trucks into the portion of the Polish rail network that are still intact and operational. As Soviet railway troops work around the clock (the need is too high to limit themselves to night operations only) to restore or replace the bridges destroyed in Operation Barnyard Tiger they become targets for follow-on nuclear strikes, especially as combat units transiting from China and deep in the USSR and increasing masses of supplies pile up waiting to cross. Fed by satellite and aerial reconnaissance (both photographic and electronic), NATO targeting specialists dispatch additional rounds of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and deep strike aircraft; some sites are hit three and even four times.

SACEUR inquires with the Norwegian government about the availability of Army units for service on the central front. The Norwegians are struggling to recover from the losses suffered in the Kola campaign and are non-committal, although they agree to divert nearly the entire production of their munitions factories to the battlefields of Poland and Germany, having rebuilt their units' holding to a level unmatched by NATO units on the Central Front.

40th Army, having regrouped and brought forces south following the evacuation of the 1st Marine Division, launches a series of attacks on the Bandar Abbas area. The104th Guards Air Assault Division's 387th Airborne Regiment, despite being depleted by months in action, is landed by helicopter west of the city, cutting the coastal road and overland contact with XVIII Airborne Corps.

As more and more elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrive in Kenya the front stabilizes. The combat hardened American veterans, supported with a sprinkling of friendly air power and able to use advanced communications, logistics and intelligence assets, are more than a match for the hodgepodge Tanzanian and Ugandan expeditionary forces, which are suffering from months of action and are poorly led in the best of times.

[chico20854]

September 25, 1997

As 40th Army attacks the Bandar Abbas perimeter, the cruiser USS Salem is key to holding it. (Unofficially, the troops of the 1st Marine Division, after having over a week to rest and recuperate, are thrown back into action alongside 4th Marine Division and their British and Iranian allies. With overland communications to the rest of Iran cut, local transportation is forced to rely on dhows and other small craft in the Persian Gulf while Allied command scrambles for troops to break the Soviet deadlock on the coastal road.)

The Freedom ship San Jose Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the Brooklyn Freedom in San Diego, California.

A late-night fire breaks out at the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in Illinois. The fire soon detonates some warheads on the AT-4 production line, destroying the building and killing six workers; the design of the plant (with multiple buildings, partially buried and surrounded by berms, each handling a small portion of production) prevents a wider disaster from occurring.

The airbases at Sembach and Lahr, Germany are hit by Soviet nuclear strikes. The main headquarters of 17th US Air Force at Sembach is destroyed but operations continue from alternate and backup field headquarters.

West of Warsaw, Pact troops shake off the effects of the nuclear strikes and resume their attacks on the withdrawing NATO troops; the lead elements are composed the East German loyalists, now fighting as part of a single VOPO regiment. The East German communists, a strange mix of fanatics and reluctant students and workers unfortunate enough to be in other Warsaw Pact countries at the outbreak of war and drafted into the unit, are used as cannon fodder by their Soviet commanders, who question their loyalty while simultaneously afraid that they will call out the Soviet for not being "good enough communists".

Deployment of new large formation from the US has largely stopped as the war consumes men and materiel at a pace that exceeds America's ability to replace. The best that Training and Doctrine Command can manage is sending Cohort squads, platoons and, once or twice a week, companies. These units are formed at the onset of basic training, allowing unit cohesion to develop throughout the soldiers' training, and are led by experienced NCOs (often recalled retirees or the lightly wounded being returned to duty), often by freshly minted officers. These units can be "plugged into" formations that have been ravaged in combat, taking advantage of the new parent command's already existing command structure. Deployment of these units is almost entirely by air, as there are adequate numbers of requisitioned civilian airliners to fly the troops over; westbound return flights carry heavily guarded POWs or wounded

In northwestern Iran, Kurdish guerillas, guided by Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group, execute a well-orchestrated campaign to interdict Soviet supply lines. They launch multiple ambushes along the roads leading from Azerbaijan as well as guiding F-15Es of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing and A-6F bombers from VA-155, the last strike aircraft remaining from the USS Independence's air wing.

Pakistani lines across the entire front begin to buckle under weeks of relentless Indian assault. The Indian Army, sensing an opportunity, throws its last heavily mechanized formation, the XXI Corps, into action at the bulge in the Pakistani lines south of Lahore, crashing into the armored forces of the Pakistani II Corps. A massive tank battle ensues.

[ToughOmbres]

More excellent updates per usual.

Great to see more attention to the stockpiling from both FEMA and DOD prior to the Thanksgiving Day exchange. Good plot and adventure material-future updates eagerly awaited.

[chico20854]

September 26, 1997

Nothing in canon for today!

A detachment from the 1st Armored Brigade (Training) escorts the train that transports a large portion of the gold from the Fort Knox Bullion Depository to a secret, secure location.

The Soviet drive in Alaska is stalled by a poor (and deteriorating) supply situation and the increased resistance offered by X Corps, whose newly-arrived 197th Field Artillery Brigade is providing well-placed and timed heavy fire support to the front-line light infantry units facing the Soviets.

Naval gunfire support plays a key role in the defense of Allied positions in North Korea, with the USS Missouri alternating between supporting III MEF west of Pyongyang and the Chinese 31st Group Army and its American and British attacjhments holding the mouth of the Yalu. On Korea's east coast the heavy cruiser Des Moines is pulled south, off the gunline, its magazines depleted, fuel tanks running low and, most seriously, the liners of its eight-inch gun barrels in dire need of replacement. The ship heads to Pusan at top speed, its way cleared by an umbrella of American, Japanese and South Korean patrol aircraft.

With the supply of missiles becoming problematic, the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade consolidates into two battalions, 4th Battalion, 200th Air Defense Artillery with Patriots and 7th Battalion, 200th Air Defense Artillery with I-Hawks, with excess personnel transferred to other units. The brigade is assigned to XX Corps, facing the Italians in far southwestern Germany and is fortunate that the Italian Air Force in the sector is composed almost entirely of simple light attck aircraft and helicopters.

With continued NATO attacks on the rail lines into Eastern Europe, Pact logistics planners make greater use of the industry of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, taking the entire output from those nation's refineries and munitions plants and even depleting the national food reserves to feed Soviet soldiers at the front.

The NATO forces operating in southern Poland withdraw from Krakow after inflicting as much damage as possible on the industrial facilities of the nearby industrial center of Novy Huta. Their withdrawal is accompanied by streams of refugees, ordinary Poles who desperately seek a more comfortable life in the West as well as Free Polish Congress operatives and sympathisers who fear the reprisals that surely will accompany the returrn of Communist control.

The American carriers John F Kennedy and America are joined by the Royal Navy's last remaining carrier, HMS Illustrious, in the Mediterranean. The addition of the British ships's air wing (depleted as it is, consisting of 5 Sea Harriers (including two 2-seat trainers pressed into combat service) and 8 helicopters) provides additional anti-submarine and anti-surface screening, allowing longer-ranged American aircraft to range over the battlefields of Jugoslavia as the carriers remain on station at the mouth of the Adriatic.

The situation for NATO in the Balkans is grim. Both Belgrade and Bucharest are under attack by Pact troops and the Romanian and Jugoslav armies outside the capital cities are disintegrating under the weight of unrelenting Soviet nuclear attacks and increasing numbers of Soviet reservists flooding into the area, poorly trained and equipped as they are.

In Romania, the American 71st Airborne Brigade is joined by the 2nd Battalion, 6th Special Forces Group. Each airborne rifle company is paired with a Green Beret A-team and the brigade's service and support units (everythign from the air defense battery to the support battalion) is broken down, attached to individual companies as Soviet tank forces approach the 71st's positions in the Carpathians from all directions. The brigade's reserves of food, fuel and ammunition are placed in hidden caches as the final C-17 flight departs with as many of the wounded as can be crammed aboard.

Transcaucasian Front reels from the disruption to its supply lines in northwestern Iran; while doctrine calls for Soviet formations to carry 3-7 days of supplies aboard unit trucks the long distances and lack of functioning railroads mean that many units subsist only on daily supply deliveries. The KGB arrests Transcaucasian Front's deputy commander for the rear for deriliction of duty, despite his protests that the front was never provided the requisitie rear area protection division. More helpfully, the KGB dispatches several of its motor-rifle regiments to northwestern Iran to suppress the Kurdish uprising.

South of Lahore, Pakistan, a massive tank batle rages as Indian Vijayanta tanks of the 31st Armored Division clash with Pakistani Type 59s and M-48A5s. By noon the fighting has died down, as the remaining Pakistani tanks are hunted down by the numerically superior surviving Indian ones. Truckloads of Indian infantry arrive on the eastern edge of the battle area and begins streaming west.

[chico20854]

September 27, 1997

Another day without any guidance from GDW! Thanks guys! :) Unofficially,

The tanker Cacpon is delivered in Newport News, Virginia.

Gander Air Base, Newfoundland is struck by Soviet conventional cruise missiles launched by the Sierra-II class sub K-453; Headquarters, 170th Air Refueling Group is one of several buildings hit. Three KC-135 tankers and a transiting C-5 are lost.

The Victory ship Queens Victory leaves the shipyard in Oakland, California and loads military cargo for transit to Korea.

Another day of fierce battle rages in the eastern port city of Hamhung, North Korea. Allied forces are running low on supplies as US Naval commanders refuse to authorize merchantmen to sail through the minefields and North Korean and Soviet light craft which have arrived in the area following the departure of the Des Moines. The stream of refugees south has abated somewhat, as those most eager to flee have already left and the remaining population is too fearful to leave their shelters into an active battlefield.

The 72nd Field Artillery Brigade is pulled from the line and sent to the eastern Netherlands for rest and recovery.

Soviet troops reach the outer pickets of the US 1st Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) on the eastern outskirts of Lodz and are halted by the defenses the guardsmen have had a week or more to prepare.

A detachment from the Polish 28th Infantry Division occupies Krakow's Wawel Castle, signifying the return of the Polish Army to what some say is Poland's grandest city. NATO forces throughout Poland have uniformly fallen back from the Wisla River.

Although nearly all American Green Berets have been withdrawn from the Kola (a single B Team from 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group remains), Saami partisans continue their resistance to Soviet rule. Saami reindeer herders cautiously wander the summer's battlefields, scavenging weapons, ammunition and supplies that can be used to defend their villages when the opportunity for an uprising arises. Their American advisors work to train village militias, accompany the herders to gather intelligence, and undertake their own special missions, gathering intelligence and monitoring troop movements in and out of the region.

As Soviet tanks reach the brigade's outer positions, the commander of the 71st Airborne Brigade gives the order for the brigade to disperse into company-size units and scatter through the Romanian mountains. His order is echoed by the Romanian high command to all Romanian units remaining in isolated pockets throughout the country as Soviet and Bulgarian troops launch an armored force into the capital, siezing the refugee-packed main train station only a mile and a half from the Parliament. Elsewhere in the city, civilians sheltering in the city's metro system are panicked by the appearance of Soviet troops, who have entered the system from the city''s outskirts and are trying to use the network for concealed movement, avoiding the numerous Romainan defenders aboverground.

The German container ship Herm Kiepe completes discharge of its cargo of food, fertilizer and munitions in Brunsbüttel, Germany and departs for another load from Canada, carrying 100 containers of scrap aluminum.

The Iranian 9th Airmobile Brigade disengages from fighting the Soviet 32nd Army in the central Zagros, leaving their positions to Pasdaran units, and returns to the Persian Gulf coast aboard trucks.

The gap blasted in Pakistani lines south of Lahore beccomes a hole as additional Indian infantry battalions flood the area, pushing back the desperate Pakistani units on either flank. The Indian 31st Armored Division hurridly reconstitutes its surviving tanks, concentrating them in its 54th Armored Brigade, while the Pakistanis rush troops from Kashmir south and west.

[chico20854]

September 28, 1997

The 5th US Infantry Division (Mechanized) withdraws from Czestochowa, Poland, detonating a 10kt demolition charge in the industrial section of the city.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Hurst is delivered in Savannah, GA and manned by USCG personnel.

Headquarters, 170th Air Refueling Group is disbanded, with survivors and subordinate units reporting to the 101st Air Refueling Wing.

A team from the (much-depleted) 4th Spetsnaz Brigade locates a GLCM flight from the 485th Tactical Missile Wing in the forests and rough terrain east of Cologne, Germany. It immediately attacks, but is driven off by the USAF security force. The surviving Soviet commandos report the location, and soon Soviet commandos and pro-Soviet guerrillas are streaming into the area.

All along the front in Poland NATO forces give ground, practicing the half-forgotten tactics of a fighting withdrawal under nuclear conditions that they had long planned for in the many decades of the Cold War.

Orders from the alternate headquarters, 17th Air Force call for the withdrawal of the 112th Tactical Fighter Group (Pennsylvania National Guard) and its remaining 9 A-7 attack aircraft from Tuzla Air Base, Jugoslavia as the security situation in the country takes a turn for the worse. A hastily assembled fleet of C-130s, C-23s, C-17s and even C-2 light transports from the carriers in the Adriatic begin a round-the-clock airlift to evacuate the unit's personnel, equipment and what munitions and supplies that can be hastily salvaged.

The Iranian 9th Airmobile Brigade is trucked to the Jam airport, 120 miles southeast of Bushehr, where the Iranian Army is massing its remaining utility helicopters from throughout the Zagros.

The USS Salem moves west into the Persian Gulf and, guided by US Marine Force Recon troops, begins attacking the dug-in 387th Airborne Regiment's positions.

In northwestern Iran, KGB border guard motor-rifle regiments dispatched to suppress pro-NATO Kurdish guerillas begin operations; ominously their first actions involve rounding up civilian hostages from villages near recent attacks; several prominent local leaders disappear after being detained by KGB troops.

As an economy measure, new recruits (the fall intake of conscripts has been extended to 17-year olds) and reservists aged 35-40 (the current round for mobilization) are issued Second-World War-style uniforms when new camouflage battle dress are not available. The uniform consists of either a woolen greatcoat or quilted cotton jacket, riding breeches-style trousers and a pullover tunic with faux-leather jackboots. While less comfortable than more modern uniforms, they offer reasonable performance in harsh weather.

At dawn the Indian Army releases its XXI Corps into the hole in the Pakistani lines, led by the 31st Armored Division, which has been reinforced with several battalions of truck-mobile paramilitary troops. The corps breaks through the crust of Pakistani irregular infantry that have been thrown into action and soon is arcing deep into Pakistani territory, passing west of Lahore. Indian forces in Kashmir, noting the weakening of Pakistani lines opposite them, go over on the offensive, overrunning numerous Pakistani positions, held by troops that, in many cases, arrived just hours before and in third of the strength that had previously held the sector (i.e. a company holding a battalion's frontage).

[chico20854]

September 29, 1997

(Unofficially) With the front opposite it a rare quiet sector, NATO forces withdrawing from Poland and Allied commanders growing increasingly concerned about the long, lightly held (on both sides) southern East German border with Czechoslovakia, (officially) XV US Corps detaches the 38th Infantry Division (Indiana, Illinois and Michigan National Guards) to establish defensive positions south of Berlin. (Unofficially,) Retreating American corps deploy their assigned Armored Cavalry Regiments to serve as a screen covering the withdrawal of the rest of the corps; in many cases frustrated cavalry commanders discover that the supporting field and air defense artillery batteries, engineer companies and other support units assigned to them are "not available" when called upon, their troops bugging out rather than hang around and get overrun by advancing Pact troops. (According to canon) Two of the ACRs, depleted by months of hard tactical nuclear combat, are surrounded by Soviet armored formations that are able to outflank their extended lines - the 3rd ACR east of Piła and the 107th north of Bytom in Silesia.

Unofficially,

The American freighter Louise is reactivated in Oakland, California and moves to Puget Sound to load ammunition at the Port Hadlock naval ordnance facility.

Tokyo announces the formal incorporation of the Kurile Islands of Iturup and Kunashir back into Japan and appoints a regional governor and authorizes the creation of local government authorities. Elections for local officials are to occur in April, giving six months for officials, candidates and parties to prepare.

German territorial troops engage in numerous firefights in the Rhine Valley as Soviet special operations troops and pro-Soviet terrorist groups arrive in the region intent on attacking NATO nuclear weapons units.

In a final blow for Jugoslavia, the Bulgarian 1st Army crosses the now lightly-protected border (many troops having been diverted to other fronts) and makes rapid progress towards the town of Pirot, advancing down the valley of the Nišava River.

In the predawn hours the Iranian 9th Airmobile Brigade embarks in a mixed flotilla of Huey helicopters (old American built Bell 214s and Italian Augusta-Bell 205s), the remaining four UH-60s delivered in 1994 and a pair of CH-47s. Sunrise finds the brigade's troops landing amongst the Soviet paratroops of the 387th Airborne Regiment and, supported by the guns of the USS Salem and her escorts, a series of small actions erupts throughout the wadis and villages of the region. By midmorning supporting USMC EA-6 electronic warfare aircraft have identified the location of the Soviet regimental commander and his position is soon plastered with high explosives. As the situation continues to deteriorate for the elite Soviet force, at noon the deputy commander orders the remaining desnatniki to head for the hills, to return to friendly lines in small groups.

Pakistani lines crumble on a broad front as additional Indian motorized formations stream through the gap south of Lahore. The remnants of the Indian Army's II Corps (which saw many months of combat starting in the summer prior to being withdrawn for reconstruction) are committed once again, even though at 45 percent of authorized strength. That corps drives southwest, heading for the communications hub of Multan. Indian fighter-bombers break up a forming Pakistani infantry counterattack that sought to drive north and seal the hole in the lines.

[chico20854]

September 30, 1997

In Korea, 4th (my 1st) Marine Division suffers heavy causalities from tactical nuclear strikes and retreats from the front lines along the west coast of the peninsula.

Unofficially,

The 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, in the eastern Netherlands after being pulled from the front line, reorganizes. Surviving MLRS launchers are consolidated in one battalion (4th Battalion, 27th Artillery) and, as the M110 had been out of production for many years, 4-14 is reduced to a single battery of nine guns; the excess personnel are assigned to other artillery units in Europe and the identities of the deactivated units transferred back to Fort Sill.

The Pact offensive in southern Germany is making slow progress, as the Italian war economy is not yet ramped up to full production, Pact forces are hobbled by tranport bottlenecks entering the theatre and additional NATO forces arrive at the front from Poland and Scandinavia.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia moves west into the Barents Sea.

In the North Atlantic, the frigate HMS Southerland detects an enemy submarine and dispatches its Sea Lynx helicopter to engage. The helo locates the Tango-class B-319 and sinks her with a WE-177 nuclear depth charge.

The Jugoslav high command and governmental leaders depart Belgrade in an early-morning helicopter flight, arriving at the Crna Rijeka bunker in the mountains of Bosnia.

Bulgarian troops of the 1st Guards Motor-Rifle Division capture the town of Pirot, while Bulgarian paratroops land at the Nis Air Base.

While the prior day's assault west of Bandar Abbas has reopened the coastal road and Kurdish guerillas remain active in northwestern Iran, both Allied and Soviet forces in Iran are stretched to their limits logistically. Both sides' combatants are operating at the end of very long, unsecure supply lines that are being fed by nations on the brink, exhausted by months of intense combat.

The Pakistani army along the entire front begins to give way as Indian armored and motorized formations drive deeper into the country's heartland.

[Andrew]

This is stellar work, keep ‘em coming!

[chico20854]

October 1, 1997

In the skies over Iran, the operations tempo has slowed significantly as both sides' air forces struggle to obtain sufficient fuel, missiles and spare parts.

Soviet forces recapture Brzeg, Poland and institute brutal reprisals for the citizenry's unopposed surrender to NATO in the spring and friendliness to the Allied occupation force.

Unofficially,

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

The 11th Tactical Air Support Squadron is consolidated into the 18th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Eileson Air Force Base, Alaska (east of Fairbanks).

The Soviet 35th Army in western Korea goes on the attack, taking advantage of the nuclear strike on the American 4th (my 3rd) Marine Division the day before. Allied commanders are dismayed by the sudden and unexplained withdrawal of American carrier air support, forcing them to rely on much-depleted USMC and USAF units.

Headquarters, 17th Air Force is reconstituted at Neuberg AB, Germany.

The 11th Luftjaeger Regiment, originally a Luftwaffe reserve security unit dedicated to defense of radar and communication sites is placed under Army command, converted to infantry and committed to combat. It is deployed along a quieter sector of the Czech border, bolstering NATO's defense of that long and vulnerable sector.

The battered 75th Field Artillery Brigade is withdrawn from the front in northern Poland, handing over its remaining MLRS rocket launchers to III Corps' other artillery brigade, the 212th.

In Bavaria, as the struggle for Ingolstadt drags on, Italian and Soviet forces launch a surprise strike against Danish and Britsh forces, finally capturing Augsburg (or the ruins thereof, having been fought over since early August).

XI German Korps is withdrawn from the front lines north of Lodz and directed to prepare defenses along the Oder River opposite Frankfurt-Oder. The move will alos provide the corps, battered by months of fierce combat in Warsaw, an opportunity to rest and receive replacement troops; replacement equipment is in short supply.

Despite the efforts of HMS Illustrious, the Italian Navy strikes a blow against the NATO naval force operating in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. NATO forces have permitted local fishermen to ply their traditional trade; Italy's hard-pressed government has exploited this generosity, using several of the craft to lay mines in the overnight hours. The submarine Primo Longobardo sneaks into the operating area in the darkness as well, tailing the USS America as it conducts flight operations. At mid-morning the carrier strikes one of the mines, disrupting operations and blasting a 15-foot long hole in the carrier's port side. As escorts race to assist, the Italian sub opens fire, hitting the carrier with two torpedoes as well as the destroyer Joseph Strauss. The American destroyer goes down while America remains afloat, forced to be withdrawn to Sigonella, Sicily for emergency repair.

Soviet forces on the ground in Iran continue local attacks to keep Allied defenses on alert and deny them the opportunity to rest and improve their positions unmolested.

[chico20854]

October 2, 1997

Nothing official for the day, but a busy one nonetheless!

In a debate in the German Bundestag, a member of a leftist party rises to decry the fact that the defense of Bavaria is under the command of an American general, the commander of the 4th Army. The defense minister explains that the American commander has troops of many NATO nations (Germany, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands as well as two American corps) and that the commanders of the German 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies in Poland have many American troops under their command. He also explains that the alternative, swapping out the American command for one in Poland, would be unreasonably disruptive and serve no military purpose. The member responds with his opinion that it would serve a great military purpose - motivating German troops to fight harder for one of their on commanders. The defense minister replies that such an assumption could imply that Allied troops might be less motivated (absent, of course, of any evidence to support such an idea either way, in Poland or Germany). While it is generally assessed that the defense minister prevailed in the debate, the lawmaker was able to seed doubt as to the wisdom of the command arrangement in the public mind.

Early Warning assets report a single inbound missile heading towards the UK. Once again the Government and Royal Family hastily evacuate the capital. As with the other occurrences, it is a false alarm - the missile is headed for a Dutch target.

The battleship USS Missouri provides much-needed relief to the embattled Allied forces along the western coast of Pyongyang. After a South Korean commando team operating behind the lines locates the pontoon bridges across the Ch'ongch'on River supporting 35th Army, the battleship commander, unable to get a rapid response from fleet headquarters, authorizes the release of one of the ship's nuclear-tipped TLAM cruise missiles to cut the Soviet supply line.

The missile that panicked the British government and Royal Family strikes a Dutch target - the Gilze-Rijen air base, cutting the runway and destroying most of the base's infrastructure. Three of 314 Squadron RNLAF's F-16s, protected in hardened aircraft shelters, survive the attack.

All along the front in Poland, NATO commanders shift units west, out of contact with Pact troops, to prepare defensive lines farther in the rear, to rest and to rebuild following nuclear strikes. Often the evacuation is of command and support personnel, surviving combat troops and weapons transferred to units still in contact to bring them up to strength. This shift of units west presents great challenges to NATO rear area security units, who are charged to, among other duties, battle desertion. Some troops, their morale shattered by months of nuclear combat, seek to flee the horror; others, under legitimate orders to withdraw, lack sufficient written proof of such orders. Many local commanders throw up their hands and retain all such soldiers, forming them into ad-hoc defense units, tasked with preparing defense lines or assisting with the massive logistic support effort.

The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, surrounded by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army in northern Poland, battles its way out of encirclement, taking heavy losses in the effort. To its south, the troops of the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment dig in, surrounded by the 8th Guards Tank Army.

The commander of the Baltic Front orders his 4th Guards Tank Army to be gutted to provide replacements for the 22nd Army; the 4th GTA's units are stripped of tanks with their crews, motor-rifle companies and artillery batteries while their trucks and artillery are tasked to support the rest of the Front. The remaining command staffs absorb some of the trickle of replacements arriving in the region, aging reservists and untrained teenagers, taking the chance to form them into semi-coherent units rather than allow them to be slaughtered at the front gaining the irreplacable experience gained in the first action.

The Danish Jutland Division joins II MEF in defending the city of Słupsk from the Polish 1st Army.

Romanian troops in Bucharest rally to defend downtown, surrounding the Pact forces in the main train station. A day-long series of assaults by combined forces of Army, Securitate and Patriotic Guard units suffer horrendous losses but succeed in recapturing the station in some of the war's most intense urban fighting, on par with the fighting in Stalingrad's Barrikada Plant in World War Two.

To the south, Turkish lines begin to crumble under the weight of multiple Soviet nuclear strikes on defensive positions, artillery batteries and logistic sites.

The 78th Tank Division is brought forward from reserve positions near Tehran it had held while rebuilding since late June. It is assigned to reinforce 45th (my 32nd) Army.

In Aden, South Yemen, the 29th Infantry Division (Light) (Maryland and Virginia National Guard) secures the final portion of the city. Elements of the division's 3rd Brigade have already moved out of the city, patrolling the approaches to the city and its' all-important refinery.

As the full-blown rupture in Pakistani lines transitions into a widescale collapse of the Pakistani Army, the country's leadership makes a dreadful and desperate decision - to use the country's stockpile of nuclear weapons against India. Driving this decision is the threat posed to Pakistania air bases by advancing Indian armored formations, which threaten to overrun the runways needed by Pakistan's fighter-bombers to deliver the country's bombs.

[chico20854]

October 3, 1997

The last NATO troops are driven out of Silesia.

Unofficially,

The mistress of the German lawmaker who challenged the command arrangements in the prior day's Bundestag debate receives a 2m Deutschmark deposit into her Swiss bank account. While the investigation is never concluded, it is likely that the payment came from the GRU.

The 2nd Battle of Kamchatka occurs as the U.S. attempts to eliminate smaller Soviet naval bases before pounding Petropavlovsk from both sides (knocking out the remaining support facilities for the Soviet Pacific Fleet as well as surviving airfields) as well as hunting Soviet missile submarines lurking near friendly shores. The American force, built around the remaining carriers in the Pacific - Nimitz, Kitty Hawk, Lincoln and Stennis and their battle groups and a diversionary group built around the surviving escorts for the sunken USS Constellation, moved into the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk. Two carriers (Nimitz and Stennis) approach from the southwest, two carriers (Lincoln and Kitty Hawk) from the northeast and the diversionary group from the southeast.

They run into an aggressive Soviet force that intends to sink all the carriers and defend their homeports, knowing that they are the USSR’s last line of defense in the Pacific. One group, built around the nuclear-power battlecruiser Varyag, sorties from Petropavlovsk and heads into the Barents, alerted by spotters deployed in the Aleutians. Another group departs Vladivostok, trailing the American force entering the Sea of Oshkosh. The diversionary group, with their Aegis combat systems operating at full power, draws out the remnants of Soviet Naval Aviation, who believe that they are accompanied by a carrier.

The resulting scrum is the final application of Soviet naval warfighting doctrine, with massed attacks from surface ships, submarines, bombers and even coastal defense missiles, timed to arrive on target simultaneously, overwhelming American defenses. The American force gets its aircraft airborne for another of the oft-repeated massed air strikes while the escorts try to hold off the incoming wave of missiles with the last of the Pacific Fleet’s carefully husbanded store of air defense missiles.

The Americans are only partially successful - the Soviets heavily damage Nimitz and moderately damage the Stennis and Kitty Hawk, leaving Abraham Lincoln as the only undamaged carrier in the Pacific. The diversionary group suffers heavily - the Aegis cruiser Lake Champlain's and the Aegis destroyer Benfold's superstructure are shredded by Soviet anti-radiation missiles. The cruiser Port Royal is damaged by an anti-ship missile fired by a Soviet SSGN (the Oscar II-class K-132) and the destroyer David Ray is sunk. Port Royal is saved by the herculean efforts of its crew as well as the timely assistance of the frigate Roark, which takes the cruiser under tow to Japan. The Nimitz and Kitty Hawk require dry dock repairs in the U.S. lasting several weeks, while Stennis undergoes almost a month of repair in port in Japan. A total of six other American escorts (and three supporting auxiliaries) are damaged or sunk. In return, the USSR loses almost all of its participating surface units - five cruisers (mostly older Kresta/Kresta-II, but Kara and Slava class cruisers as well), the helicopter carrier Baku, five destroyers, and seven frigates as well as several submarines. The airstrikes from the Nimitz and Stennis ravage the Soviet naval aviation base complex at Sovetskaya Gavan while Lincoln and Kitty Hawk’s aircraft knock back Petrpavlovsk’s air defenses and replenish the minefields in the channel laid earlier in the war; the damaged carriers’ aircraft recover to Japan, assisted by rapidly responding SAC tankers.

Strategically, like the First Battle of Kamchatka in June, the engagement is a draw; some claim it as a slight Soviet victory. The Soviet Pacific Fleet loses nearly all of its remaining surface fleet and its naval aviation force is badly depleted, both never to operate again. The Americans neutralize Petropavlovsk (it is struck by an American nuclear missile later in the year, just as minesweepers are finishing clearing the channel) but are unable to conduct the boomer hunt they had planned on or deliver a concerted pounding to Petropavlovsk or the minor bases in Sakhalin and on the Soviet Pacific coast.

Despite changing locations frequently and the deployment of additional German territorial troops for area security, another Spetsnaz team locates a flight of USAF nuclear cruise missiles of the 485th Tactical Missile Wing east of Cologne. Once again the USAF security troops are able to fight off the attackers, who are ambushed by German security troops while evacuating the area. Documents found on their bodies reveal the location of their safehouse, which is raided by GSG-9 commandos within four hours. The safehouse is empty (and booby trapped); the loss of the German commando from the trap is not offset by capture of any further useful intelligence.

XII German Korps is authorized to withdraw its jaeger divisions - composed of former border guard and territorial units - to the east of Szeczin to prepare defenses and rebuild, detaching its 6th PanzerGrenadier division to VII Korps, which is facing the 2nd Guards Tank Army near Chojnice, Poland.

The nuclear cruiser USS Virginia leads an anti-submarine hunter-killer group into the Norwegian Sea hunting Soviet ballistic missile submarines. (Naval intelligence believes that the Soviets are sortieing older boomers with shorter-range missiles, which in peacetime patrolled north of Bermuda, to the Norwegian Sea east of Greenland to avoid transiting the GIUK Gap).

The damaged USS America arrives in Sigonella, Sicily for emergency repairs. The US Navy salvage ship Grasp is there to begin repairs, while the destroyer tender USS Shenandoah departs Rota Spain, escorted by the frigate Blakely, to assist.

Jugoslav resistance in Belgrade collapses as the surrounded defenders, abandoned by their political leaders, decide that the life in captivity offered by Soviet propaganda units is preferable to death in the isolated city.

Elsewhere in Jugoslavia, remaining surviving JNA units fight rearguard actions as they retreat to the mountainous center of the country, under attack from all directions.

The Portuguese 1st Mechanized Brigade, facing the Soviet 58th Army in Thrace, is blooded by a coordinated attack by two Soviet divisions - the 9th and 82nd Motor-Rifle - and forced to fall back. The Bulgarian 2nd Army captures the key communication hub of Kirkakeli, forcing the Turkish XV Corps to withdraw. Greek Forces in Thrace send a secondary force south to capture the base of the Gallipoli Peninsula, allowing Greece to cut off traffic out of the Dardanelles; the only resistance the Greeks face are lightly-equipped Turkish gendarmes, that are supported by a few sorties by the dwindling Turkish Air Force.

The day marks the formal end of South Yemeni resistance in Aden as “arrangements” are reached with local tribal leaders (which mostly involved transfers of cash and weapons as well as guaranteed jobs for relatives and tribe members) as the communist government of South Yemen has faded away. The 29th Infantry Division is in constant action against unorganized bandits and guerrillas.

Executing the Pakistani high command's instructions, in the predawn hours the Pakistani Air Force's No. 16 and 26 launch a combined 14 Nanchang A-5 bomber aircraft at Indian targets - three air bases (Ambala, Gorakhpur and Maharajpur) and seven cities in the center and west of the country. Each airplane carries one 35-kt nuclear bomb. Indian interceptors shoot down four planes, but two of the airbases and five cities are hit in a bid to knock out India's nuclear strike ability and cripple its economy. The Pakistanis lose two more aircraft on the egress, and one (with a volunteer pilot) was assigned a one-way mission, to strike Calcutta.

[chico20854]

October 4, 1997

Nothing official for the day.

The Freedom ship Columbus Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the tanker Caliente is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland.

The commander of the USS Missouri is relieved of command for the unauthorized release of a nuclear-tipped TLAM cruise missile two days before. He is evacuated to Yokohama, Japan.

NATO forces in Bavaria launch a counterattack against Italian and Soviet forces that recently captured Augsburg. Ironically, the NATO attack is supported by the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, which is fighting to recapture its long-time peacetime barracks.

The attack submarine USS Olympia attacks the submarine support ship Amga and its escorting frigate Norka in the Barents Sea, sinking both Soviet ships as they sortied to support extended missile submarine patrols. The American sub expends its last Harpoon missiles in the mission.

The Indian government authorizes immediate retaliation for the Pakistani nuclear attacks on two of its three nuclear-capable air bases and major economic and population centers. Within hours, Indian Jaguar strike aircraft are roaring over Pakistan, wiping out the two Pakistani air bases that launched the strikes as well as the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Islamabad. As the Indian aircraft are headed into Pakistani airspace, a second wave of Pakistani aircraft are headed eastbound, striking additional population and economic targets in the Indian heartland.

[chico20854]

October 5, 1997

Nothing in canon for today.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tulsa Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas, the Ft. Worth Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the Spokane Freedom in San Diego, California.

Canton, China is struck by a small Soviet tactical nuclear strike in a bid to cut off the trickle of relief supplies that daring captains continue to deliver.

The former commanding officer of the USS Missouri is arrested in Yokohama, Japan and charged with dereliction of duty for the unauthorized release of a nuclear weapon.

The NORTHAG G-4, the general responsible for the logistic support of most NATO units in Poland, reports that his efforts are at a critical state. His greatest concerns are the losses inflicted by Soviet nuclear weapons on his supply lines and support sites, the disruption of supply lines from damage to north German ports, the wholesale desertion of third-nation civilian contract workers and the near-total depletion of spare part supplies for former East German units. (Many former NVA units had subsisted during the advance across Poland by scavenging the battlefield for damaged Soviet and Pact vehicles for spares; while withdrawing that source has been cut off).

The NATO attack on Augsburg sees success, driving the Italian Ariete Armored Division from the city center, pushing the fighting to the city's southern outskirts; the nearby Battle of Ingolstadt is going less well for NATO, with American forces gradually being pushed out of that battered city.

In order to support the embattled Turkish Army in Thrace, 6th Fleet redirects the John F Kennedy, Wisconsin and Illustrious from the Adriatic to the Aegean Sea, hopefully forcing the Greeks to divert forces from the Turks and allowing JFK's aircraft to appear over the battlefield in Thrace. JFK's squadrons have been restored to full or near-full strength by the transfer of aircraft from the damaged USS America.

Turkish resistance in Thrace begins to evaporate as Soviet and Bulgarian tank units, supported by tactical nuclear strikes, begin a seemingly mad dash for Istanbul. Isolated units that stand and fight are bypassed or pounded to bits by conventional and nuclear artillery, while others streaming away from the battlefield in an attempt to survive find themselves competing with Pact units to see who reaches Istanbul first.

The German container ship Herm Kiepe arrives at the port of Becancour, Quebec to take on another load of containerized foodstuffs, industrial chemicals and munitions. The ship's master, nervous about the continuing and escalating nuclear exchange, is distressed by the presence of the Gentilly nuclear power plant a little more than a mile from his berth.

In one of the rare arms sales (the major arms manufacturers either retaining their output for themselves or their allies, or delivering to the Chinese under extremely large contracts signed in late 1995), France delivers the first AMX-40 tanks to Saudi Arabia, where they are placed into service with the 11th Mechanized Brigade, initially serving alongside older AMX-30 tanks from which the AMX-40 was developed. The deal helps to reinforce France's ties with the kingdom, hopefully (in the French calculus) encouraging preferred supplies of crude.

The Pakistani and Indian governments struggle to provide adequate relief to their populations in the wake of the nuclear attacks on their country.

[chico20854]

October 6, 1997

7th Guards Army renews its attacks against the 24th Infantry Division in the Bandar-e Khomeyni area. The Soviet 45th Army (my 32nd Army) debouches from the passes in the Zagros Mountains and attacks the positions of the 101st and 9th Divisions at Bushehr and Ganaveh. The Soviet 1st and 40th Armies have the US I Amphibious Corps (I have it as I MEF) pinned down at Bandar Abbas.

Unofficially

FEMA contractors complete the conversion of another facility - the Madera Speedway in Madera, California - to evacuee housing, taking advantage of the power, water and traffic handling already on the site.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK runs a story detailing how the draft papers of wealthy and influential families' sons had "gone missing". The article causes great anger from families whose sons reported for their mandatory military service.

The local military commander of the city of Xiangfan in central China declares himself the city's overlord and protector. The locality has suffered relatively lightly - its car plant (converted to military production) was destroyed by Soviet strategic bombers in the winter of 1995-6, sparing the city from a nuclear attack. The local population welcomes the declaration, with its implicit promise that the general will restore order and be able to coordinate the delivery of food, water and house the refugees flooding into the region from the north.

The commander, 3rd Fleet in Japan sets a November 8 trial date for the former commander of the battleship Missouri.

Faced with dwindling reserves and relentless attacks from the 1st Byelorussian Front's combined three tank armies seeking to exploit the boundary between V and XXIII US Corps, the commander of NORTHAG, over the objections of the Polish Free Congress, authorizes the creation of a tactical nuclear barrier along the Warta west of Lodz. After coordinated planning between both corps' operations cells and consultation with meteorologists, engineer and artillery units of both corps execute over a dozen nuclear strikes. The explosions, all ground bursts, are arrayed so that their blast radii overlap, creating a continuous line of blown-down trees, cratered or burned ground and intense radiation on the far shore of the river, hopefully impassable to Pact troops on foot or in unprotected vehicles. The blasts also create vast amounts of radioactive fallout which blows north, reinforcing the intensity of the radiation along the barrier line. The river valley is overwatched by mechanized detachments prepared to deal with armored vehicles attempting to cross the blast zone and approaching the river.

The USS Virginia hunter-killer group, operating as a team with P-3s from Keflavik and Goose Bay, establishes contact with a suspected Soviet SSBN and begins to hunt it. Over the next 16 hours they lose and re-establish fleeting contact six times.

Unable to stop the rout of its troops, the Turkish High Command directs all available reserves (mostly training formations and recently raised infantry units filled by recalled reservists and nervous teens) to the western edge of the Istanbul metro area, where there is an attempt to construct a defensive line at Catalca. That location, which succeeded in halting a similar Bulgarian drive in 1912, is a point where the isthmus is only 40 kilometers wide, much of which is bisected by lakes and waterways, forming a naturally strong defensive position. Military Police are stationed at the crossings to direct retreating soldiers seeking shelter from the battlefields in Thrace to positions along the nascent defensive line.

The survivors of the 341st (my 22nd Guards) Tank Division are formed into a single composite regiment, the 302nd Guards Tank Regiment, with 44 T-72s and a smattering of other armored vehicles salvaged from the ruins of the division’s trains. The unit begins drills in the local area in preparation for a continuation of its movement to the front in the Balkans.

[chico20854]

October 7, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Camp is delivered in Panama City, Florida and manned by USCG personnel. The tanker Chikaskia is delivered in Newport News, Virginia and placed into naval service, manned by a mix of naval and civilian sailors.

Polish civil defense authorities resist the demands from high Party officials to enter the still-burning ruins of Warsaw to put out fires and begin rescue and restoration work. The General in charge of civil defense responds that the area is still too radioactive, is infested with unexploded ordnance from the recent siege and that his remaining overworked troops (many have been press-ganged into Army service as engineers and infantrymen) are better used restoring less-heavily damaged areas of the country.

Reorganized troops of the 35th Army in North Korea are able to resume some offensive action following the nuclear attack on their supply lines. The pontoon bridges have been replaced by a more primitive method - forced-labor by North Korean civilians taking loads across the river in small boats and rafts.

The Virginia group is finally able to establish a solid enough situation to engage the suspected Soviet boomer east of Greenland. A helicopter from the cruiser, piloted by Lt. Hans Brupp, drops a B-57 nuclear depth charge on the contact, identified by postwar research as the Yankee Notch-class cruise missile sub K-423, sinking it.

Romanian troops in Bucharest are forced out of the train station by a massive Soviet counterattack that is supported by a combined force of Su-130 assault guns and 2S3 152mm self-propelled howitzers firing in direct-fire mode. The fierce Soviet firepower sets the building ablaze and the roof collapses, forcing the remaining defenders into the tunnels under the building.

Bulgarian and Greek troops link up east of Skopje, Macedonia, having defeated or run off the last Jugoslav defenders in the southeastern portion of the nation.

[chico20854]

October 8, 1997

Nothing official for today!

R-5D spy plane number 6 is delivered in Palmdale, California.

Naval experts across the US are frantically searching old warehouses and back lots of naval bases and arranging visits to museum ships across the country as the naval ship repair organization struggles to come up with the parts to complete the reactivation of three Essex-class carriers - the Oriskany, Bennington and Hornet and the Independence-class light carrier Cabot as well as repair damage to the aged carriers Lexington and Midway, which have returned to the US in need of major repairs to systems that have been out of production for decades.

Allied troops finally begin to evacuate the ruined city of Hamhung, North Korea after weeks of pounding from Soviet forces and their ragtag North Korean allies. The fighting has left the city a mostly depopulated ruin, with the meagre industrial capacity leveled and the port clogged with wreckage and sunken craft.

A hasty reorganization occurs among units of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, which happen to be located in the UK. The 112th Tactical Fighter Group, evacuated from Jugoslavia and equipped with 9 A-7Ds, is effectively disbanded. Its subordinate 146th Tactical Fighter Squadron hands over its aircraft (and associated ground crew and experienced pilots) to the 132nd Tactical Fighter Wing (Iowa Air National Guard) in Germany, the only other A-7 unit in the Western European Theatre. The 146th is then re-designated an Air Refueling Squadron and assigned to the Pennsylvania Air Guard's 171st Air Refueling Wing at RAF Fairford. Simultaneously, nine KC-767 tankers, which have been gradually arriving in theatre and assigned on an ad-hoc basis to other 171st ARW squadrons, are transferred to the 146th, allowing planning, support and maintenance of the type to be centralized in a single organization.

Building on the strikes on Soviet rail lines in September, NATO executes a round of nuclear strikes on Czechoslovakian transportation sites and petroleum pipelines. In this round of attacks, Ground Launched Cruise Missiles fired from the UK substitute for deep-strike aircraft, which have suffered heavy losses over the nearly year of action. The attacks hit railyards, bridges, tunnels and highway junctions that are vital to transferring the relative trickle of supplies to the Western TVD.

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment, surrounded in central Poland, endures another round of intense Soviet artillery attacks. The unit is dispersed in rough terrain to avoid creating a lucrative target for a Soviet nuclear strike, but supplies are running low and most of the regiment's armor is immobilized due to lack of fuel. The regiment's air cavalry squadron, depleted by the drive from East Germany into the Ukraine, has evacuated to the west, temporarily bringing the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment's air cav unit up to near-full strength.

The destroyer USS John Rodgers is sunk in the Aegean Sea by a torpedo from the Greek Type 209 sub Proteus as it escorts the battleship Wisconsin towards the Turkish Straits.

The first Bulgarian reconnaissance units arrive opposite the Turkish defensive line west of Istanbul. The Turks have managed to throw up a somewhat formidable defensive line in a few days, assisted by a massive number of civilian volunteers who are less than eager to see Soviet troops in their fine city. To the northwest, the Soviet 810th Naval Infantry Brigade embarks on a collection of naval amphibious and small civilian merchant ships in the Danube Delta.

XVIII Airborne Corps units are hard pressed to hold off the Soviet assaults on their front lines. The 101st and 9th Divisions rely on Iranian allies to defend their fixed base areas while the combat troops rely on their superior mobility to strike at the Soviets' flanks and rear and exploit the speed and superior mobility of their lighter force structure.

[chico20854]

October 9, 1997

Students of St George's Medical University in Grenada complete their vaccination drive against "the flu"; over 90% of the island's surviving population has received the jab, although one third of the prewar population has succumbed to the disease.

The Dutch 105th Recon Battalion is withdrawn to the Netherlands for refit following heavy losses to the Italian air force and army in southern Germany.

Unofficially,

The Army staff at the Pentagon authorizes the immediate raising of 20 medium and heavy truck companies to help address the growing shortage of transportation capacity in the theaters of war. Each medium company will field 60 Mack 8-ton trucks, while the heavy companies will be equipped with 96 tank transporters, military conversions of civilian heavy trucks that are underused by the Army but being produced in adequate numbers to equip the new units.

In reserve in a series of dispersed camps in central Germany, the American 75th Field Artillery Brigade is re-equipped following its transfer of its remaining MLRS launchers - it receives a full contingent of Lance missile launchers. Many of the senior officers and NCOs of the brigade's MLRS battalions are familiar with the older system and begin a series of rapid training classes to bring the junior troops up to speed on the short-range rockets. The new launchers are accompanied by four light infantry companies to serve as guards for the launchers and their nuclear warheads (all the conventional missiles were expended by allies months ago).

The last American troops (bar a handful of isolated pre-designated stay behind parties) evacuate Ingolstadt, while the main body of VII Corps withdraws into the uplands dividing the Danube and Main valleys. VII Corps' engineer brigade - the 7th - prepares obstacles to reinforce the natural barrier of the steep-sided and deep Altmühl River Valley. Pact forces in Poland keep up their relentless advance, with NATO forces aggressively counterattacking any Soviet or Polish units that achieve breakthroughs. Often these take the form of a tactical nuclear strike at the base of a Pact salient, followed by a vigorous armored thrust to cut off the forward elements.

The German destroyer Molders, operating in the Baltic protecting coastal shipping and providing air defense along the northern Polish coast, is attacked by a trio of Frontal Aviation Su-24s. The destroyer shoots two of them down but is hit by three AS-10 missiles from the last one, setting it afire and adrift.

The Wisconsin surface action group continues its foray into the Aegean Sea, covered by aircraft from the John F. Kennedy, whose squadrons have been augmented by aircraft and pilots from the damaged America. The Greek Navy makes an appearance, but after sighting the battlewagon (and losing a pair of destroyers to its guns) they flee to remote harbors and bays until the overwhelming power of the American group moves on. Once beyond Crete, the battleship and its escorts unleash a volley of nuclear-tipped TLAM cruise missiles, which strike all four of Greece's refineries, incinerating them and forcing Greece to rely on fuel imported overland from Bulgaria (which, in turn, is reliant on crude supplied by ports in the Black Sea which were struck several weeks ago by American nuclear weapons.

[chico20854]

October 10, 1997

The 6th ACCB and 82nd Airborne Division, in Saudi Arabia, are reported combat ready. The 82nd has been in reserve since May, and the 6th since August. During that time, they had absorbed the bulk of what few replacements had been sent from the US. The 6th ACCB had been able to replace some of its aircraft and aircrew losses.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Howard D. Crow is delivered in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and manned by USCG personnel. The troop transport General Patch is reactivated from reserve in Philadelphia and towed, without a crew, south to the Chesapeake Bay, where it is anchored in St. Mary's, Maryland (at the mouth of the Potomac River) to serve as evacuee housing.

The 72nd Field Artillery Brigade's brief rest in the eastern Netherlands comes to its conclusion, the rest was brief, as it is rushed to the front in southern Germany under the command of XX Corps, helping to halt the Pact advance out of Bavaria.

The USS Virginia, hunting for Soviet subs in the western Norwegian Sea, is attacked by its quarry, the Akula-class attack submarine K-154, one of the most advanced subs in the Northern Fleet. The nuclear-powered cruiser is damaged by detonation of a torpedo warhead that struck Virginia's towed decoy; the blast damages one of the cruiser's rudders and causes leaks in the port propeller shaft. The sub goes on to attack another combatant in the hunter-killer group - the frigate Joseph Hewes, which is blown apart by two Soviet torpedoes.

The end comes for the Romanian government in Bucharest. The commander of the Southwestern TVD declares "we finally have all the rats cornered" and orders a rapid withdrawal of Soviet and Bulgarian troops from central Bucharest, followed shortly thereafter by five artillery-fired tactical nuclear strikes centered on the massive Palace of the People and the surrounding government and historic districts. The strikes result in massive civilian casualties (much like in Kiev, Warsaw and Minsk) and the final collapse of the Romanian government.

Romanian resistance to Soviet occupation, however, continues. Soviet, Bulgarian and Hungarian troops in the country are quickly discovering that the population remains hostile and it is best to travel in large, heavily armed groups and that the highlands of the Carpathians are strictly off limits to any force that is not well stocked with ammunition and with ready air support.

The Greek junta further tightens rationing of gasoline and diesel fuel, effectively reserving all remaining stocks for military use. Rolling blackouts accompany the shutdown of over 1.2 gigawatts of electrical generating capacity that are taken offline as remaining fuel oil stocks are requisitioned to sustain military operations.

US Air Force Europe is stripped of six squadrons of C-130s, which begin a transit to Saudi Arabia via Spain and Egypt. Military Airlift Command likewise dispatches multiple squadrons of C-17s and C-141s to the CENTCOM area of responsibility.

[chico20854]

October 11, 1997

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment, surrounded in southern Poland for over a week, expends the last of its vehicles ammunition in blasting a hole in the lines of the Polish and Soviet troops that have cut it off and begins to break out on foot, abandoning its vehicles.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Oklahoma City Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

In an attempt to slow the flow of weapons and reinforcements into China, the Soviets strike the port of Hong Kong with a 10kt bomb dropped by a Su-24. The strike is sufficient to halt operations at the port, sinking the large containership Newport Bay at its berth, destroying the operations center and convincing the surviving stevedores (the world's most productive) that their work is not worth the risk to their lives.

In North Korea, Allied troops continue to gradually give ground under pressure from Soviet nuclear strikes and a relatively-well supplied 30th and 35th Armies.

The American attack submarine Olympia sinks the Soviet troop transport Alla Tarasova, which is ferrying personnel from Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic, with a trio of Mk-48 torpedoes.

The Bulgarian Army makes an unsuccessful attempt to storm the Turkish defensive lines outside Istanbul. The Turkish outer pickets fall back in the face of Bulgarian armor (mostly composed of older T-55s and T-62s, with a sprinkling of T-34s thrown in to bring numbers up), luring the Pact tanks into an elaborately prepared urban armor ambush, with Turkish anti-tank teams located in basements and upper floors of multi-story buildings to attack the tank's weak spots. Only a scattered handfuls of survivors of the Bulgarian 104th Tank Regiment make their way back to friendly lines.

[chico20854]

October 12, 1997

Two battalions of Rangers and 82nd Airborne Division pathfinders are dropped into the Tabriz area. Accompanying them is the young female American journalist Fanya Ayn Wilkerson, who films the spectacular airborne assault upon Tabriz. The eerie grey-green of her low light-level mini-cam as she films the ghostly arrival of 6000 paratroopers descending in silence upon the sleeping city jolts the nation on the six o'clock news when it airs.

(Unofficially) The US Department of Agriculture signs a series of major procurement contracts at the onset of the nation's fall harvest. The USDA buys over 100,000 tons of grain throughout the country, arranging for much of it to be stored in commercial grain handling facilities and additional amounts to be stored aboard covered barges in the inland waterway system. The purchase serves a dual purpose - to provide FEMA with a ready reserve if the nuclear exchange in Europe is to disrupt commerical food distribution in the US or elsewhere in the world, and (for the third fall in a row) to offset the loss of farmer's income from the cutoff of grain sales to the USSR and its satellites. (Officially) Despite these actions, the glut of food produced results in low prices for the commodities and many farmers hang on to their harvest awaiting higher prices.

Czestochowa, Poland is incinerated by a 150kt blast from an American cruise missile, leaving the city smoking rubble.

Unofficially,

A team from Army Materiel Command, in one of the war's more audacious missions for its personnel, travels to North Kroea to meet with soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division (Light) about their experience with the PAMSS shelter systems. The Palletized Armored Shelter Systems were fielded in early September to the division, offering an improved portable hedquarters environment for combat commands. The response from the units that received the prototype units are mixed - they, to a man (and woman), find them more convienient, comfortable and useful than the array of truck and HMMWV-mounted shelters and tents that PAMSS is intended to replace. The biggest challlenge is their method of transportation - by PLS truck, which is in short supply in light infantry divisions and not assigned to the units that operate PAMSS, requiriing either tasking from a unit that has PLS trucks (which is seldom timely) or assignment of the heavy trucks to the PAMSS command, an inefficient use that also requires another stream of spare parts, heavy wreckers and all the additional logistic burden that comes from adding another vehicle to a unit's table of organization and equipment.

Under the superb leadership of the regimental commander, Colonel Steven Myers, the 107th ACR makes good progress towards rejoining NATO lines in western Poland. They are supported by allied airpower and the unseen efforts of a number of NATO special operations teams that help clear the way for the regiment, which is moving on foot.

The Red Banner Northern Fleet dispatches two surface ASW groups (one from Severomorsk in the White Sea, the other from Ostrovnoy in the remote eastern Kola) to locate and destroy the American submarine which has been marauding the Barents Sea for weeks.

Southern Front deploys additional troops to Istanbul, halting mopping-up operations to clear the last remnants of bypassed Turkish formations in Thrace. The 810th Naval Infantry Brigade moves south in the Black Sea aboard ships, closely following a small flotilla of minesweepers that are clearing a path for them.

[chico20854]

I'm determined to get caught up this week! I really think and hope I can!!!

[ToughOmbres]

More really good updates per usual and I am really enjoying each one. They are bittersweet in one respect: each update brings us closer chronologically to Thanksgiving Day, 1997...

[chico20854]

October 13, 1997

The 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division (reinforced with the British 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment) and 5th Special Forces Group are dropped into the Tabriz area of northwestern Iran in the second day of Operation Pegasus II.

Polish authorities order the immediate evacuation of the small town of Klobuck, west of Czestochowa, to protect the population from fallout from the strike on the nearby city.

Unofficially,

In what the court's press office characterizes as a "working justice's retreat", the nine justices of the US Supreme Court spend the Columbus Day weekend at a luxury resort in Ashville, North Carolina.

Despite the completion of training all pre-war divisions and brigades, the US Army's Combat Training Centers remain at work, now with newly-raised combat units. The National Training Centers (at three sites in California, Washington and Arizona) and Joint Readiness Training Centers (in Arkansas and Louisiana) have transitioned into supporting a 90-day rotation for new units, with 30 days spent on platoon and company/troop/battery-level exercises, another month on battalion-level and the final month forming combat-ready brigades. (Division staffs are prepared for war with command post exercises at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas).

Troop trains depart northern China with additional reinforcements for the western fronts - the 20th Guards Army, which in pre-war times had been part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

The USS Des Moines completes its minor repairs in the Korean port of Pusan, including replacement of the heavy cruiser's gun barrels with ones with new liners, flown into Korea by priority airlift.

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment's scouts locate a blocking position thrown up by the Polish 4th Border Guard Brigade and call in supporting strikes. A pair of F-16s, one Dutch and one American, soon arrive and hit the Polish positions with B-61 tactical nuclear bombs, throwing the Polish unit into disarray and allowing the Americans to slip past the disoriented border guards.

The USS John F. Kennedy, HMS Illustrious and battleship Wisconsin continue their patrolling in the Aegean, taking up station between Crete and the Greek mainland. The force attracts considerable attention from light Greek naval units, which are dealt with by a combination of standing air patrols and gunfire from the battlewagon and escorts.

The Greek Army's operations begin to grind to a halt as a result of shortages of fuel, ammunition and spare parts. The nation had been able to sustain a war on the Turkish front, but the addition of the Macedonian operation combined with the Allied naval blockade and destruction of the nation's refineries are more than the fragile Greek economy can sustain. Generals order a halt to offensive operations.

In Romania, active combat in the lowlands has largely ended as 1st Ukrainian Front transitions to an occupation force, Danube Front pivots to complete the defeat of and occupation of Jugoslavia and Southern Front pivots the last of its forces to face the Turks. In the mountains the dispersed companies of the American 71st Airborne Brigade are hardening their positions; in nearly every case they are joined by remnants of the Romanian Armed Forces who are eager to continue the fight against the Soviets and their Hungarian and Bulgarian allies. US Air Force transports attempt daring low-level night airdrop missions to try to provide a minimal level of resupply to the scattered paratroops.

In the freshly divided and largely defeated Jugoslavia, chaos reigns. A Soviet Spetsnaz team assaults the command post of the Jugoslav National Army, and while unable to force its way into the complex it is able to disable the bunker's external communications. In Macedonia an uneasy truce holds between Greek and Albanian troops (in the west) and Bulgarian and Greek troops (to the east). The first truck convoys of looted grain, coal and consumer goods have already reached the Bulgarian border, looted from Jugoslav civilians by Bulgarian officers. The central mountains of Jugoslavaia are essentially a lawless no-man's land, with armed bands of Jugoslavs turning on communities from other ethnic groups. The Italian occupation authorities are pressed by their political leadership to expand the area under their control, but the overstretched Italian Army is unable to fully control the area it has occupied; it resorts to incorporation of ethnic Croatian militias into its forces, looking the other way at the atrocities they commit. The Albanian Army likewise raises ethnic Albanian militias in the areas of Kosovo and Macedonia it controls. The Albanian high command is struggling to support the three divisions it has committed and looks on the militias as useful proxies.

[chico20854]

More really good updates per usual and I am really enjoying each one. They are bittersweet in one respect: each update brings us closer chronologically to Thanksgiving Day, 1997...

Yes, and from there things get even more depressing...

[chico20854]

October 14, 1997

The 2nd and 3rd Brigades, 82nd Airborne Division parachute into the Tabriz area airheads established by the rest of the division as Transcaucasian Front reels from the massive disruption to its supply lines.

Open warfare erupts in Northern Ireland. With no regular army units available, the brunt of the battle on the British side falls upon the police and the Ulster Defense Regiment. Both forces are composed primarily of Protestants, and as a result, they tend to concentrate on the Catholic terrorists - the IRA and the INLA. Protestants and Catholics begin fighting in the streets of Belfast and Londonderry (as it is labeled on the British maps - Catholic Irish prefer to call the city Derry), and many Catholics are killed or forced out. In the border counties of Fermanagh and Armagh, the Catholics seize control, backed by the IRA, and call for military aid from Eire to overthrow the Protestant government.

Rotterdam is struck by Soviet nuclear warheads. (Unofficially) The strikes ignite the oil refinery and sets chemical plants on fire (for the second time in less than a year) and sinks dozens of ships in the port, NATO's busiest. (Officially) The city's security force, the 304th Infantry Brigade, is largely destroyed by the attack, and only scattered survivors escape the firestorm and subsequent chaos.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Pettit is delivered in Marinette, Wisconsin and manned by USCG personnel. The tanker Elokomin is delivered in Baltimore and placed in naval service.

With a quick stop at the ROK Navy's ammunition pier, the USS Des Moines returns to sea in the Sea of Japan. Once out of Korean waters, helicopters from the ammunition ship USS Pyro land on the cruiser's stern and a work party unload a half-dozen 12-kt W33 tactical nuclear rounds for the ship's main guns.

The 107th Cavalry Regiment's fighting withdrawal is sped along by the capture of a column of trucks from the rear area of the Soviet 1st Shock Army. The fuel bowsers are used to keep a relay of the cargo trucks going, transporting the trailing cavalry troops to the lead and then returning for more.

The first Soviet ASW group (from Ostrovnoy) arrives in the vicinity of the USS Olympia and begins hunting her, using active sonar to drive the American boat towards a new minefield.

The Pact renews its attacks on the Turkish defensive positions west of Istanbul. The initial attacks come from two divisions of Bulgarian Construction Troops, paramilitary formations composed of Gypsies, ethnic Turks and those judged too politically unreliable for military service, supported by Soviet assault guns of the 367th Guards Assault Gun Brigade (who have a secondary mission to machinegun the Bulgarians if any are to try to flee the battlefield). The assault is met with furious Turkish resistance, and it fails entirely after US Air Force F-16s of the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing arrive overhead, hitting the supporting artillery batteries with four 60-kiloton B-61 tactical nuclear bombs.

The repair of the damaged tanker Starlight Gigant in Dubai is completed, freeing up the drydock it occupies, the only one in the region capable of holding the USS Independence.

[chico20854]

October 15, 1997

The commander of the German 1st Panzer Division is killed (unofficially) when Soviet electronic reconnaissance units locate his command post vehicle and relay its location to a battery of 2S7 203mm guns, which rapidly plaster the area with high explosive rounds. His deputy, Brigadier General Helmut Korell, assumes command.

The Tabriz airhead is declared secure and raids throughout the Soviet rear area begin.

The 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade stages forward to Bandar-e-Khomeyni from Saudi Arabia to support the airhead near Tabriz. The brigade has received the bulk of the few replacement aircraft that have arrived from the US and (unofficially) is operating at over two-thirds of authorized strength.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship San Francisco Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Kansas City Freedom in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The light frigate USS Sellstrom is delivered in Newport, Rhode Island.

On the extreme western end of the Chinese Front, the commander of the 39th Army directs the 292nd Motor-Rifle Division to drive south into the Chinese interior and not to stop.

Bremen International Airport is hit by a 250-kt Soviet warhead. The headquarters, maintenance facility and most of the 64th Tactical Airlift Squadron is destroyed.

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment, having covered nearly 100 km with captured Soviet trucks, abandons them (their gas tanks drained) and resumes its slower movement on foot.

The second Soviet ASW group, rushing north from the White Sea after the USS Olympia (which the Soviets have had intermittent detections of on fixed seabed sensors), arrives in the sub's vicinity, coordinating with the other group and one of the few remaining land-based ASW aircraft.

A difficult day for Soviet troops in the Balkans. In an operation coordinated by the 6th Special Forces Group, rail lines across the region are cut and dozens of supply convoys in the mountains of Jugoslavia and Romania are ambushed. The intensity and huge breadth of the attacks are paralyzing, and of such a huge scale that the few Soviet units specifically dedicated to anti-partisan warfare (mostly airborne troops augmented by a handful of KGB Border Guard detachments) are unable to effectively respond. The attacks not only cripple Soviet operations for days, the flurry of radio traffic from panicked Soviet formations allows an orbiting RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft to pinpoint numerous headquarters and troop locations for further attacks.

Civilian tugs begin towing the damaged USS Independence from the dock in Muscat, Oman to Dubai.

After weeks of delay, bureaucracy and equipment shortages, the 321st (my 252nd) Motor-Rifle Division begins movement from its home stations to the front in Romania. American reconnaissance satellites spot the division’s movement (to maintain control it moves in closely-spaced regimental columns) and within hours the formation is the unwelcome recipient of five air-launched cruise missiles which ravage the unit.

[chico20854]

October 16, 1997

XVIII Airborne Corps and I MEF launch limited counterattacks to tie down Soviet troops.

Unofficially,

With the increasing risk of nuclear attack, the deployment of the 301st Port Security Unit from New England to Korea is put on hold.

The first two new truck companies are stood up - the 476th at Fort Eustis, Virginia and the 297th (Heavy) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team scores another (minor) victory, overrunning a Royal Observer Corps outpost and seizing communications gear and documents for their examination.

Berlin-Schoenfeld International Airport is struck by Soviet tactical nuclear weapon, destroying the headquarters of the 917th Tactical Airlift Wing (Air Force Reserve) but few aircraft, several of which are serving in Iran while many of the rest had been dispersed following the initiation of tactical nuclear warfare in July.

The American XI Corps launches a counterattack on the Soviet 1st Shock Army, which has been pursuing it all the way from the Ukrainian border. The 50th Armored Division (New Jersey National Guard) advances through the blast zone of a series of artillery-fired strikes, exploiting the disruption of those strikes and an ATACMS-N strike on the army's rear headquarters and creating a gap between the 2nd Guards Motor-Rifle Division and the 60th Tank Division. With the guardsmen holding the flanks, a task force rushes eastward, linking up with the outer pickets of the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The task force quickly loads up the exhausted cavalry troopers into its trucks and APCs and the entire formation retreats back to friendly lines near the German border by dawn on the 17th.

The Battle of Svyatoi Nos. 30 miles off the eastern tip of the Kola Peninsula, the American attack submarine Olympia is under attack by two surface anti-surface groups, boxed in with shallow water to the west, a minefield to the east and a surface group to the north and south. The American boat is out of anti-ship missiles, and takes the bold move of launching its remaining torpedoes at the attacking ships while launching a series of three (all it had on board) Sea Lance-N missiles in sequence to blast a path through the minefield. The move is successful, the torpedoes sinking the pursuing destroyer Admiral Golokovo (the Red Banner Northern Fleet's last modern surface combatant) and two corvettes and allowing the American submarine to slip away.

A group of experts from the Soviet Ministry of Oil and Gas arrive in Romania to begin assessing the condition of the Romanian oil industry and the potential to exploit it to support Soviet war aims. Soviet troops are protecting the refineries and patrolling the major oil fields but the occupation authorities have been unable to round up the industry's former workforce, who they are loathe to trust with such a strategic asset in any case.

[chico20854]

October 17, 1997

NATO nuclear strikes target an array of industrial sites in Silesia to ensure that the Polish communist government cannot mobilize them. (The speed of the German Third Army's withdrawal from the region did not permit a thorough demolition of the sites). The Bytom-Katowice-Sosnowiec-Chorzow-Zabrze industrial conurbation is leveled by 2 megatons from a submarine-launched ballistic missile and Gliwice by a trio of 200 kt bombs.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Harveston is delivered in Panama City, Florida and manned by USCG personnel.

Stavka orders the battered 58th Air Assault Brigade to redeploy from Manchuria, where it has largely been on occupation duty, to Austria, to help secure the restive mountains. The unit, which lost its BMD armored airborne fighting vehicles in the 1995-6 campaigns, is able to rapidly redeploy aboard Aeroflot airliners, with its heavy equipment filling a number of Military Transport Aviation's carefully husbanded An-22 and An-124 heavy lifters.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-392, returning from a successful patrol in the Bering Sea (where it sank an oiler and the frigate USS Davidson during the 2nd Battle of Kamchatka) strikes a mine while returning to its homeport of Petropavlovsk. It is never determined if the mine was Soviet or American.

1st Shock Army throws its 321st Motor-Rifle Division at XI Corps' attack force, now nearly back to its start lines. The veteran American troops savage the Soviet division, which was formed of Zampolits in training, Ukrainian workers and peasants, prisoners rushed to the front on “combat parole”, the MVD guards who escorted them to the front and whatever other semi-able-bodied men that could be found on the streets of Lvov, poorly equipped and exhausted from months of fighting across Poland. As the Soviet formation falls back to friendly lines, XI Corps' 151st Field Artillery Brigade (South Carolina National Guard) hits the exposed infantry with a trio of W82 "neutron bombs" that rip the formation apart.

The 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, the remnant of the 45th Guards Motor-Rifle Division that survived the Kola Campaign, is pulled back to the Leningrad area, where it is felt the presence of loyal veterans would help the MVD maintain order.

The first sub-units of the 53rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division arrive in Romania. The weak Category C division from the Kiev Military District took so long to get ready for deployment that it missed active fighting against Romanian Army units. The division is assigned to 6th Guards Tank Army, serving as the occupation force for the city of Dej.

The damaged American aircraft carrier USS Independence arrives in Dubai, where shipyard workers, assisted by US Navy sailors, are preparing the giant drydock there to accept the ship.

The dazed and confused survivors of the 321st (my 252nd) Motor-Rifle Division are distributed to other units in 1st Ukrainian Front.

[chico20854]

October 18, 1997

The residents of Pyskowice, Poland flee their town in the aftermath of the nuclear strikes on the nearby Bytom-Katowice industrial region. They hide from the fallout in nearby coal mines. The population of the nearby town of Tychy seek shelter from the radiation in the railway tunnel that runs underneath their town. The (Communist) Polish government orders the closure of the Gliwice Canal to avoid the potential of radioactive contamination of the Oder River.

Unofficially,

Two additional truck companies are stood up, also at Fort Eustis, Virginia and Fort Leonard Wood. Responding to the continuing need for support troops, the Army Staff directs the activation of a dozen additional hospitals and a wide array of specialist ordnance units to maintain the wide array of systems the wartime army is fielding. Unfortunately, both kinds of units require large number of highly trained soldiers, which the training base will struggle to produce in hastily.

The German III Korps scores a notable success in its defense of the town of Szczecinek, Poland. The Korps lays a trap for the leadership of the 23rd Army by having the 220th Panzergrenadier Division (much reduced by months of combat and trying to limp by on a mix of Soviet and German vehicles) conspicuously evacuate the town. The Soviets take the bait, dispatching a combat group built around nearly half of the 43rd (my 274th) Motor-Rifle Division to seize the town. The Germans then spring the trap, surrounding the town with kamfgruppes from the 1st and 12th Panzer Divisions which cut the Soviet division off and subsequently defeat the reinforcements dispatched by the Soviets to relieve them. While those battles rage north and east of the town, the 220th returns to action, with artillery fire directed by stay-behind parties hidden throughout the town.

COMSUBLANT is informed that the Olympia will be terminating its patrol, transiting to Holy Loch, Scotland. The boat's skipper states that his crew is exhausted and his ship is out of torpedoes and anti-ship missiles. The damaged USS Virginia arrives in Hampton Roads, Virginia and enters the shipyard for repair.

Order breaks down in Turkey after Ankara is hit by a trio of Soviet SS-N-3c cruise missiles launched from the Juliette-class submarine K-67. Each missile carries a 350-kiloton warhead; they are relatively inaccurate and end up destroying large areas of the city.

The Soviet air forces score a rare victory in the skies over Iran, when a carefully orchestrated operation results in the shootdown of an American U-2 reconnaissance plane. The aircraft was orbiting over the northern end of the Persian Gulf, protected by a flight of F-15 interceptors from the 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 1st Tactical Fighter Wing and under the radar coverage of a Saudi E-3 AWACS aircraft. Soviet forces send a regiment-sized force after the spy plane, drawing off the F-15s and clearing the way for a PVO (Soviet air defense force) MiG-25, traveling south at high speed from Soviet airspace. The high-flying MiG is able to execute one successful pass at the high-flying (70,000 feet) spy plane, which is restricted to a very specific speed range to remain stable. The loss of the U-2, which was providing real-time ground radar data to commanders below, deprives CENTCOM of one of a handful of sensor platforms that have been essential in locating Red Army formations before they reach Allied lines.

[Targan]

Impressive productivity, Chico. I've enjoyed your On This Day series immensely since you started it.

[chico20854]

October 19, 1997

The American Heliumair Industries leadership has prepared an emergency plan, which is to flee Cincinnati and fly southwest, stopping at California and Hawaii if necessary, then proceed on across the Pacific to Australia, a trek of slightly more than 10,000 miles. Australia, it is thought, will be a relatively safe haven during the coming holocaust no matter how serious the nuclear exchange. And with the supplies stored in Columbia's belly, the Heliumair colony will provide the Australians with a valuable technological treasure... one which will, perhaps, provide a nucleus for rebuilding civilization. The reactor propulsion system is not installed, but its component parts and fuel are loaded onto the ship to supply power at their
destination. With electrical power, machine tools, and people who know how to use them, almost anything can be accomplished.

In late 1997 the escalating exchange of tactical nukes in Europe brings a renewed bombing scare to the continental US. Mike Brummley, CEO of Heliumair Industries, makes the decision to go. Forty-eight technicians, scientists, employees, and company officers and their families, 119 people in all, board the airship Columbia in the afternoon. As soon as it is dark Columbia takes to the air, travelling at low altitude to avoid commercial air lanes and inquisitive government radar. The pilots rotate through four-hour shifts.

The Silesian town of Chrzanow is hastily abandoned when civil defense authorities note the danger from fallout from the nuclear strikes on nearby Bytom and Katowice.

Unofficially,

As the Soviet 20th Guards Army, which was part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany before the war, prepares to travel back to Europe from China, its 58th Independent Tank Regiment is disbanded to bring other units in the command up to strength.

Allied forces along the North Korean coasts enjoy the support provided by naval gunfire, the USS Missouri off the west coast and USS Des Moines along the east coast. The gunfire is especially appreciated as supplies of artillery ammunition for batteries ashore becomes scarce, the massive stockpiles built up in prewar years exhausted and new production (both in South Korean factories short of drafted workers and with those in the US trying to support a worldwide war) unable to keep up with the prodigious consumption. For now the supply of small arms ammunition remains adequate, although both ROK and US training commands have begun to use .22LR adaptors in basic trainee's M16s to stretch the supply of 5.56mm.

The 937th Engineer Brigade is transferred from the US V Corps to the nearby XI Corps. A construction rather than combat engineer unit, upon arrival in the former East Germany it begins preparing winter quarters and defensive positions along the western shore of the Oder River.

The destruction of the isolated 43rd (my 274th) Motor-Rifle Division in the town of Szczecinek continues as German infantry advance on the town while the defenders are hampered by German artillery fire directed from spotters within the town. At midday a squadron of German PAH-1 anti-tank helicopters arrive, providing pinpoint fire on targets throughout the town, and at dusk the Soviet commander orders a breakout of remaining troops.

The defensive line along the Warta, created with a series of ground bursts, is abandoned, the defenders at risk of being outflanked. The damage from the creation of the line, however, will linger for several years.

In one of the last major convoy battles of the war in the Atlantic, Soviet forces attack Convoy 302 southwest of Iceland. The attack is by a rare (for this stage of the war) Soviet "wolfpack", composed of three nuclear and one conventional attack submarine and a cruise missile submarine (the Oscar II-class K-329), which fires a nuclear SS-N-19 in an airburst over the convoy's approximate center. The attack subs are able to penetrate the convoy's screen by avoiding the widely-spaced escorts (dispersed to avoid nuclear strikes) and have a heyday among the thundering merchants, sinking eight ships and damaging six more before slipping away. One of the nuclear boats, the Victor I-class K-398, is unlucky enough to get caught during its egress by a helicopter from the Canadian frigate Fredericton; it calls in a responding P-3 from VP-11 which sinks the Soviet boat with a B-57 nuclear depth charge. The sub is the sole Soviet loss, while over 150,000 tons of badly needed equipment and supplies are lost to the Allies.

Romanian and American troops in the southern Carpathian Mountains welcome the 53rd Guards Motor Rifle Division to the Dej area by overrunning one of the Soviet division's outposts before its troops have a chance to fortify it, melting away before the division's rapid response force can arrive.

Following the attack on Ankara, Turkish resistance at the Catalca Line west of Istanbul begins to crumble. The Soviet 810th Naval Infantry Regiment lands along Istanbul's Black Sea coast and rushes inland, capturing the Istanbul airport’s control tower and cargo complex. With Soviet troops in their rear and after receiving repeated Soviet and Bulgarian hammer blows, the Turkish defense line west of the city collapses. Advancing Soviet troops are opposed by isolated groups of stragglers, diehard nationalists holding out in Istanbul's west end, and NATO aircraft, mostly American but with a significant Turkish presence, overhead.

The 1103rd Assault Gun Regiment, assigned to Transcaucasian Front, is destroyed when the unit's vehicles, immobilized by lack of fuel, are located by an American Special Forces team which called in attack helicopters and strike aircraft. The mass of Soviet vehicles is raked by guns and rockets and within a half hour the 1103rd had ceases to exist.

Army engineers complete repairs to the Tabriz air base, allowing C-17s and C-130s to land and disgorge vehicles and supplies more efficiently than airdropping.

[chico20854]

October 20, 1997

The airship Columbia crashes in the Ozark Mountains in the early hours of the day. Columbia's altimeter is an old model which worked by reading air pressure, replacing a more modern laser altimeter which had been removed several days before because of a technical fault. The pilot knows about the change; the air pressure altimeter gives altitude from sea level rather than from the ground, a fact which has to be taken into account by the pilot during flight. Lack of sleep, the strain of handling the unfamiliar airship in the darkness, and the fear that he might at any moment be blown from the air by a stray nuclear explosion all contribute to pilot error. As the airship approaches the Ozark Mountains, the severe low-pressure zone of a nearby, rapidly building thunderstorm causes the altimeter to give consistently higher readings than it should. The mountainous region of northern-central Arkansas averages 1,500 to 2000 feet above sea level with peaks reaching to 2300 feet or more. Columbia rises to 2800 feet to clear the mountains, but at 2800 feet in that low-pressure weather cell her altimeter reads 3400 feet. The pilot, not wishing to go too high, cuts back on the power to bring the ship lower. Columbia flies into the side of a mountain, effectively ending her journey 9,500 miles short of her goal. Damage is surprisingly light. The airframe is twisted and damaged enough that Columbia will never fly again, but her cargo is intact, and only three people (engineers working among the gas cells, who had fallen on impact) are killed. Her speed, fortunately, is low enough, and the angle of collision shallow enough, that she merely bulldozes a path through a patch of pine timber and comes to rest in the heavily wooded semi-wilderness between Harrison and Osage, Arkansas. New American soldiers are there, guns drawn, almost before the Heliumair people had crawled clear of the wreckage.


Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Omaha Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon and the tanker Aucilla is delivered in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The 292nd Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only division from the Siberian Military District formed from the faculty and student body of the Tomsk Higher Command School of Communications, has advanced over 450 kilometers from its start line in Inner Mongolia. The division’s vehicles have run out of gas and is out of radio contact with headquarters. The division commander, General Piskunov, forms a laager of the vehicles and heavy weapons and leaves it under the command of his deputy and continues the advance on foot, taking most of his young charges with him.

As Allied forces in North Korea continue to give ground, Soviet troops of the 35th Army enter the norther outskirts of Pyongyang.

The 85th Tank Training Regiment, which despite its name is a veteran formation with years of combat experience in China, arrives in Poland, assigned to the 11th Guards Tank Division, replacing one of that division's battered regiments. The survivors of the 43rd (my 274th) Motor-Rifle Davison reach friendly lines; less than 700 survive.

An article in Der Spiegel blows open the German government's covert efforts to obtain more armor for the embattled Bundeswehr. The article reveals that there have been secret shipments of Leopard II tanks from Switzerland (which was producing the type under license), TAM tanks from Argentina and BMPs from Israel. The revelations cause considerable controversy, more in the supplier countries (who fear their neutrality being revealed as compromised), nearly leading to the fall of the Swiss government.

In a highly unusual operation, a pair of NATO's most modern diesel submarines - HMS Ursula and HNLMS Bruinvis - penetrate the defenses of the Murmansk fjord and attack the Soviet Gadzhiyevo Naval Base. They succeed in sinking three moored submarines - the reactivating Whiskey-class boats S-286 and S-381 and the Kilo-class Vologodskiy Komsomolets, but their greatest success is in collapsing entrance to one of the tunnels drilled into the mountainside, trapping two Delta-class SSBNs, the K-487 and K-472, inside.

The USSR launches a flurry of attacks on NATO air bases in Turkey in a bid to knock them out of the war. Konya Air Base is struck by two SS-12 Scaleboard missiles armed with nuclear warheads. The attack devastates the base's infrastructure and destroys the rump headquarters of the 487th Tactical Missile Wing as well as the wing's technical support elements and three Ground Launch Cruise Missiles and their launchers. The bases at Batman, Erhac, Eskisehir and Afyon are also hit, while the Dutch air defense battery at Incirlik manages to shoot down an incoming SS-12 with a Patriot missile. The attacks are generally successful in destroying the bases' infrastructure and in some cases cutting the runway; however they are not intense enough to crack open hardened aircraft shelters. Nevertheless, the loss of the other bases facilities and effect on the airmen's morale is sufficient to reduce the NATO air presence over the country to a nuisance rather than a threat to Soviet operations.

The commander of the 302nd Guards Tank Regiment, all that remains of the 341st (my 22nd Guards) Tank Division in central Ukraine, issues orders to prepare to depart for the front in the Balkans. He is shocked when his junior officers report that the enlisted men are mutinous and are unlikely to follow his orders. He demands a meeting with a delegation of the men.

[chico20854]

October 21, 1997

Major General Aleksandr A. Vostokov is named commander of the 19th (my 145th) Motor-Rifle Division, at the request of Transcaucasian Front commander Suryakin. Vostokov had previously served as Suryakin's Chief of Staff.

In Boston Harbor, the sail frigate USS Constitution celebrates its bicentennial.

The US 25th Infantry Division (Light) is hit by six Soviet tactical nukes, taking heavy casualties and disintegrating while retiring back to the ROK under heavy pressure.

The 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade is moved south to the Baltic Sea and disbanded, reverting to 2nd Marine Division control along with the 6th Marine Regiment.

Unofficially,

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

FEMA completes the stocking of another emergency stockpile, SRS-17374-2, at [REDACTED] in the Alleghany Mountains of Pennsylvania.

The first units of 20th Guards Army arrive at the terminus of the rail lines into Poland, between Lvov and Lutsk, Ukraine. They quickly detrain, scurrying to cover as rapidly as possible to avoid detection by NATO overhead reconnaissance, and after dark continue their transit westward under their own power, with only a handful of tanks moving via tank transporter.

The remnants of the 43rd (my 274th) Motor-Rifle Division are evacuated to Byelorussia to rebuild.

Following the destruction of their wing headquarters, the two remaining flights from the 487th Tactical Missile Wing - Cobra Flight with five missiles and four launchers and Echo Flight with four missiles and launchers - in dispersal areas over 75 miles from the smoking ruin of their headquarters - decide to head to the nearest large, intact and secure USAF facility, the Incirlik Air Base. The units are dependent on higher headquarters for the detailed radar mapping data required for the missiles to find their targets; the destruction of Konya airbase has made it impossible for the missiles to be targeted. Prewar plans, when the unit was still stationed in Italy, called for backup support to come from the two GLCM wings in the UK. Unfortunately, the flights in the field are unable to establish secure communications with those units; their commanders hope Incirlik will have that capability.

The 216th Motor-Rifle Division, mauled by fanatical Pasdaran resistance in December and recalled to Baku, Azerbaijan for reconstruction, is ordered back into Iran to attack the American airhead in Tabriz. Almost immediately after crossing the border the division becomes engaged by pro-NATO Kurdish guerrillas supported by Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group; the division nonetheless advances, but slowly as it fights a series of small skirmishes along its route of advance.

The commander of the 302nd Guards Tank Regiment meets with the rebellious enlisted men, who explain that while they are loyal Soviet citizens, that they have already been attacked by and survived American nuclear weapons. Given that the nuclear conflict has only grown since then, they are unwilling to place their lives at risk yet again, but are willing to support other units that have not done their part and support the Soviet war effort. When the general objects, he is "arrested" by the men and escorted out of the unit's area of control, told that anyone approaching with orders for the division to move to the front will be met with gunfire.

[chico20854]

October 22, 1997

The effect of Operation Pegasus II is catastrophic to the Soviets. The steady stream of supplies and replacements dries up. The Soviet 24th Guards (my 60th) Motorized Rifle Division literally runs out of gas while assaulting the US 24th ID's positions around Ramshir. American planes and artillery destroy most of the Soviet's vehicles and a quick counterattack finishes them as a unit.

The British 6th Division, also attached to the Chinese 31st (my 3rd) Army along the North Korean-Chinese border at the mouth of the Yalu River, suffers heavy losses from follow-up Soviet tactical nuclear strikes. (Unofficially) As the Americans withdraw south towards friendly lines under heavy pressure, the British force retreats to the ports of Dandong, China and Sinuiju, North Korea, at the mouth of the river.

The nuclear exchange in Europe continues unabated. NATO targets the city of Radom with a pair of submarine-launched ballistic missiles fired from beyond Scotland, with a yield approaching 2 megatons. (Unofficially, Three of the warheads are aimed at the Radom Sadków Air Base, tearing apart the massed helicopters of the 37th Air Assault Brigade; others hit transport junctions and industrial facilities in the city.)

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Joyce is delivered in Tacoma, Washington and manned by USCG personnel.

Three additional Army truck companies are stood up - two using recalled retiree leadership and recent trainee drivers and the third using trained and experienced drivers transferred from Air Force bases in Texas.

In the predawn hours the lead troops of the 20th Guards Army's 38th (my 27th Guards) Motor-Rifle Division cross the frontier into Poland.

The USS Olympia, off the North Cape on its way south, is ordered to launch its Tomahawk cruise missiles (a mix of conventional and nuclear armed variants) against an array of targets in northwestern Russia. (The most notable is the chemical weapons production facility in Kineshma, which was struck with a pair of missiles).

STAVKA directs 1st Ukrainian Front, on occupation duty in Romania, to transfer a division to 2nd Southwestern Front to reinforce the Austrian occupation force. Unwilling to divert one of his experienced combat divisions, 1st Ukrainian Front commander Marshall Agayev foists the 155th Motor-Rifle (my 235th Rear Area Protection) Division onto Western TVD. The hapless division (with only two battalions of T-34 tanks and lightly equipped with artillery and staffed with overaged reservists and teenagers shanghaied from local communities) is loaded into boxcars, bereft of vehicles or supplies, and begins a slow and roundabout ride to the front.

[chico20854]

October 23, 1997

Following the loss of the 24th Guards (my 60th) Motor-Rifle Division the prior day when the Soviet force ran out of gas while attacking American troops, the 147th Guards Motor-Rifle Division suffers the same fate while attacking the 101st Air Assault Division around Bushehr. (Unofficially) The American airmobile unit inserts several battalions of infantry in the division rear areas, who then advance towards the coast, rolling up the Soviet unit from behind.

Unofficially,

FEMA completes another racetrack to refugee camp conversion, this one the Flemington Speedway in New Jersey.

The Daily Mail newspaper publishes the results of its investigation of the scandal involving the wealthy and influential evading military service. It concludes that the Guardian's reporting is flawed, and thoroughly debunks the article's reporting and conclusion.

As the front lines of the Chinese 31st (my 3rd) Army disintegrate, the remnants of the British 6th Division (down to 2500 men and a handful of armored vehicles) board three transports and a dozen smaller craft (tugs, fishing boats and the like) in the ports of Dandong and Sinuiju to be extracted from the rapidly collapsing Allied pocket at the mouth of the Yalu.

The 12th Luftjaeger Regiment, a Luftwaffe security unit, is hastily converted into a motorized infantry regiment with the addition of a company of obsolescent M48 tanks, two dozen captured Soviet BTR-152 APCs and requisitioned civilian trucks.

NATO defensive efforts in Poland are increasingly hampered by supply shortages, fed by insufficient German industrial production (made worse by the occupation of southern Germany by Pact forces) and severe damage to Northern European ports. Only minor ports remain undamaged, and air resupply from the UK and North America is unable to move even 10 percent of the needed supplies, if logistic planners could even have an assurance that the airports required were safe from nuclear attack.

On the opposite side of the lines, the Pact forces are equally starved of supplies and Soviet divisions are running low on troops. The NATO interdiction campaign has severely hampered the flow of supplies and replacements into the theater, Czech and Hungarian industry has been almost totally neutralized by nuclear attacks, and production and transportation in the USSR are increasingly being disrupted by strikes, ethnic unrest and disorder. Still, the offensive to drive NATO out of Poland continues.

The remnants of the Turkish civilian government issue a proclamation declaring the imposition of martial law. (Some have speculated that this order was issued under duress, with the politicians under military protection/custody, but the reality is that the military is the sole entity in Turkey that is capable of organizing security and relief. Even then, military rule is largely delegated to the local level).

The team from the Soviet Ministry of Oil and Gas concludes their assessment of the main strategic prize from the conquest of Romania - its oil industry. The assessment is positive, reflecting that both sides strove not to damage it, leaving it largely intact. The team from the ministry notes two urgent needs to bring Romanian production online to support the Soviet war effort - a workforce of experienced and self-reliant employees led by managers that can adapt to the unfamiliar conditions and equipment (Romania having imported some high-technology machinery denied to the USSR), and an adequate security force to protect the oil wells, pipelines, pumping stations, refineries and supporting sites.

[chico20854]

Impressive productivity, Chico. I've enjoyed your On This Day series immensely since you started it.

I was able to get a lot done this week! Glad folks are still reading and enjoying this!

[Claidheamh]

Really appreciate the effort, Chico - this is great reading and is helping me prep my next campaign.

[kato13]

I was able to get a lot done this week! Glad folks are still reading and enjoying this!

I have never looked forward to Thanksgiving more.

The work is AMAZING.

One question: the "Freedom" class ships you mention, do you have any stats for those (Searches get lost in the LCS void).

[chico20854]

I have never looked forward to Thanksgiving more.

The work is AMAZING.

One question: the "Freedom" class ships you mention, do you have any stats for those (Searches get lost in the LCS void).

Thanks!

There's an article on the Freedom class ships coming out in the next issue of the fanzine, which I understand might be coming out in the next week or so! Stats, backstory, deck plans.

[chico20854]

October 24, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day!

The light frigate USS Kirkpatrick is delivered in Moss Point, Mississippi and manned by USCG personnel, and the tanker Marias is delivered in Baltimore.

In Northern Ireland the IRA begins forming more conventional military units, designating them according to geographic location. The initial units include the Derry Brigade, South Armagh Brigade, Fermanagh Brigade and three brigades in Belfast - the Falls Brigade, Short Strand Brigade and the Ardpyne Brigade. The IRA has had considerable success in asserting control in Derry and in rural areas adjoining the Republic; in Belfast intense battles rage between the Provos and the UDR and RUC, who are assisted (on a as-yet unofficial basis) by Unionist paramilitary bands. The US Navy, whose carrier Enterprise is in the midst of an extensive repair following battle damage off the Kola in the city's shipyard, restricts its personnel to the yard's territory, firmly defended by the ship's Marine detachment supplemented by contingents from the ship's 3300+-strong complement.

The Abraham Lincoln, the sole surviving operational and undamaged carrier in the US Pacific Fleet, returns to the waters off Petropavlovsk. Operating under EMCOM (Emissions Control, with all radar and radio emissions off) the carrier launches a predawn air raid which once again pounds the Soviet port after catching its air defense force off guard. After recovering its aircraft (three F/A-18s and an A-6 are lost) the carrier group turns tail and retreats to the vast empty spaces of the North Pacific.

The lead regiments of the 38th (my 27th Guards) Motor-Rifle Division reinforce the battered 1st Shock Army east of Wroclaw. The arrival of the hardened veterans of the Chinese campaign is an unpleasant shock to the troops of the American 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), which are already under considerable pressure.

NATO forces in Poland continue to fall back, with the front line running from Koszalin on the Baltic coast, to the eastern outskirts of Poznan and Wroclaw to the Czech border.

Overcoming scattered and disorganized resistance, Soviet troops reach the Bosporus in Istanbul. Patrols are sent across to the Asian side, but Southern Front's logistic difficulties at the end of a very long supply line, prevent any further advance into Turkish territory. STAVKA concludes that the removal of Turkey from the war has effectively been achieved and redirects remaining scarce resources to more urgent fronts. (The decision also relieves the Soviet authorities from responsibility to administer the vast and populous nation).

Preparations hastily completed, the Dubai shipyard floods its largest drydock to accept the carrier USS Independence.

The 236th Rear Area Protection Division, in the Central Asian Military District, is struggling to secure the supply lines into eastern Iran against the array of bandits, nationalist or Islamic partisans, deserters and draft-dodgers and criminals that are roaming the border regions of the USSR. The importance of this effort is further driven home by the cutoff of the transportation routes between Transcaucasian Front and the Caucasus by Pegasus II, which is forcing more traffic through the vast, lightly populated area.

[chico20854]

October 25, 1997

Another day with nothing in canon!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Las Vegas Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

The light frigate USS Pride is delivered in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Guardian newspaper publishes an apology for the inaccurate story it ran on the 8th, alleging that the wealthy and influential were evading conscription. Nonetheless, the damage has been done to the perception that conscription in the UK is a fair and impartial process.

The Irish government closes the Donegal Air Corridor, a "unofficial understanding" which permitted British and NATO aircraft to access the Atlantic via a 4-mile long overflight of Irish territory between Belleek, Northern Ireland and Ballyshannon, Ireland.

With increasing Soviet artillery attacks on Poznan (ignoring the protests from their Polish Communist allies), the Polish Free Congress decides to evacuate its provisional capital. As the city's population's reaction varies from panic to mocking, the collaborators and exiles depart the city in a hastily-organized convoy headed for the German border.

The carrier Independence is successfully drydocked in Dubai and experts can begin cutting away damaged portions of the hull.

The 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (New York Air National Guard) detaches a trio of helicopters from its home station at RAF Gibraltar to Mombasa International Airport, Kenya. Two of the squadron's HC-130 fixed-wing aircraft accompany the helicopters, refueling them inflight to allow them to transit to Cairo West Air Base in one flight.

[chico20854]

October 26, 1997

The American journalist Fanya Ayn Wilkerson is withdrawn from the Pegasus II airhead along with the remaining rangers and pathfinders.

Unofficially,

The (what was destined to be the) second to last FEMA emergency stockpile is sealed, this one at Ohio Caverns near Dayton.

FEMA officials are dismayed when they receive a report that the new Flemington Speedway evacuee camp in New Jersey has reached full capacity; word of the camp's opening quickly spread and nervous city dwellers from the New York and Philadelphia areas arrived in droves. Local officials are less than pleased, and the local sheriff (who is responsible for security in the camp) claims that the camp has attracted "a mass of neer-do-wells, troublemakers and shiftless folks looking for a handout from our fine community."

Fighting in Belfast intensifies. IRA forces, who in prewar years had amassed an impressive arsenal thanks to KGB support, enjoy an advantage in firepower, widely fielding RPG-7s and light machineguns. Added to this arsenal are weapons captured from Army and police outposts which were overrun in the past week. This firepower, combined with a superiority in young, enthusiastic volunteers, allows the IRA to accomplish a long-dreamed of goal in Belfast - conquest of the Loyalist Shankhill neighborhood, accompanied by a massive displacement of the population and widespread atrocities. The victory allows the Unionist forces to form a coherent pocket in primarily working-class areas from the city center to the northwest, which is surrounded by Loyalist suburbs, which the Catholics have yet to attempt to break into.

Soviet forces all along the front launch a day of coordinated attacks in an effort to dilute the efforts of the few remaining NATO tactical aircraft. The day's actions are somewhat successful, with advances in excess of 5 km on average, but the effort results in the expenditure of three days worth of supply deliveries. Many of the Allied aircraft that do respond, however, are armed with nuclear bombs as ELINT and reconnaissance teams desperately try to locate artillery and rocket batteries and headquarters.

In Bavaria, the Italian Army has drawn almost to a halt as depleted stocks of munitions and spare parts cripple its mechanized troops and its elite light infantry is unable to replace losses from earlier in the campaign. Platoons and squads of paramilitary Carabinieri troops, withdrawn from internal security duties at home, are increasingly shuffled to the front to serve as replacements; at least they are trained troops, unlike many new arrivals at fronts around the world at this stage of the war.

The first flight of workers from the Baku oil fields arrives in Ploesti, Romania. They were grabbed without any prior notice from their work sites and loaded onto an Aeroflot airliner for a harrowing low-level flight to Romania. Upon arrival, KGB and Communist Party officials give them a brief "inspirational" feat before ordering them to immediately get the unfamiliar plant back to maximum production.

The remnants of the battered Convoy 302 limp into European ports. Due to overcrowding in the few more lightly damaged ones (all medium to small in size, the largest ones - Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven - having been heavily bombarded or targeted by nuclear weapons), several ships have to remain at anchor in the North Sea or English Channel. One, the former East German freighter Hettstedt, is sunk by a drifting mine off Vlissingen, Netherlands.

The 241st Rear Area Protection Division is activated in Novosibirsk, Siberia, from the cadre and students of the MVD officer school in that city. Once formed, STAVKA intends to use it to assist the MVD with putting down the increasing number of uprisings and mutinies within the USSR. The MVD command objects to the Army takeover of its formation, sparking a harsh rebuke from STAVKA, which replies that if the MVD Internal Troops were doing their job maintaining order that the Army wouldn't need to.

[chico20854]

October 27, 1997

Nothing in canon for today!

In response to the continuing losses in Europe and the SACEUR decision to try to hold the Oder River line between Poland and East Germany, the Army command authorizes the release of the 353rd Engineer Group (Combat) (US Army Reserve) to Europe. The unit begins moving its equipment to Corpus Christi, Texas for movement overseas.

On the front line in Poland, NATO troops launch local counterattacks to keep their Pact opponents from consolidating the prior day's gains.

The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment joins the 107th in reserve in central Germany as they recover from their periods isolated behind enemy lines in Poland. Unfortunately, replacement armored vehicles are in short supply. US Army Material Command in the US has been dispatching a wide array of tanks to the European theater - LAV-75s, Cadillac-Gage Stingrays, M-60A4s and M1s of all models (the older ones either stripped from the test and training establishments or returned to service after battle damage repairs). It is up to exhausted logisticians at US Army Europe to allocate these vehicles (as well as the trickle that are returned to service after repairs from the severely damaged repair facilities in theatre) to the units that need them most, balancing the need with their current fleet and ability to maintain them. (i.e., most M-60A4s go to National Guard divisions that originally had them or had them in the 1992-5 time period, hoping that those units mechanics have memory of how to maintain the type). In this situation, the ACRs in the rear area are of lower priority for replacement vehicles than units still at the front.

The Bavarian defense is bolstered by the efforts of German territorial Wallmeister (rampart master) troops. These are Bundesheer soldiers trained in demolitions, obstacle creation, and key infrastructure denial. They use military painted civilian vehicles, and assigned their area of operations on a long term basis, allowing them to blend in thoroughly if needed. Armed with small arms, they travel with demo, tools, etc. At this stage of the war, they also make use of propositioned caches of demo and prepositioned obstacles designed as part of the existing infrastructure.

Along the high ground between the Danube and Main River valleys, VII Corps' defense is proving successful against a depleted and exhausted Soviet 21st Army.

Another naval action rages in the Baltic Sea as desperate Soviet commanders push a convoy of large merchantmen south, heading for the devastated harbors of Gdansk and Gdynia. The American carrier Coral Sea, which has been operating in the western Baltic for months, launches its remaining squadron of F/A-18s armed with unguided munitions (cluster bombs, iron bombs and rockets) to damage the Soviet convoy, which is escorted by a pair of aged destroyers and several frigates and corvettes. As the American attack aircraft wheel above the convoy's ships, strafing the merchantmen, a squadron of German missile boats arrives at high speed, adding their firepower to the effort. As their missiles are expended (many of them entered the action with only one or two aboard) they weave through the convoy at high speed, attacking the Soviet ships with deck mounted guns and even machineguns. As the Allied force departs, a single Marineflieger (German Naval Air Force) Tornado flies overhead and drops a B-61 tactical nuclear bomb, which bursts in the air over the convoy.

The carriers USS John F Kennedy and HMS Illustrious move close to the Turkish coast east of Crete in an effort to evacuate Allied citizens from the disorder that is rapidly spreading across the battered country. Helicopters from the carriers evacuate stranded personnel, while the carriers' fighters provide cover for a stream of airliners that are bravely evacuating civilians to airports in Egypt and Israel. 6th Fleet's request for additional helicopter carriers from SACLANT is approved, but they are all days away from the Mediterranean. CENTCOM refuses to release its amphibious ships, which would entail a voyage around Africa as the Egyptian effort to clear the Suez Canal is hopelessly delayed.

The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment launches a successful raid on outposts of the Soviet 4th Army, forcing that formation to burn thousands of gallons of diesel fuel when it dispatches a tank regiment to reinforce the incursion.

The first strike mission is flown by a R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy plane, striking the tank rebuild facility in Kiev, Ukraine with a B-61-11 nuclear bomb. (The facility had survived the general attack on Kiev in September, and the plant had continued operations using workers who had been evacuated to the factory's "workers rest camp" 75 km from the city, brought in daily on surviving commuter trains.

Detachment 1, 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron resumes its journey to Kenya, departing Cairo West Air Base at dawn.

[chico20854]

October 28, 1997

In a further blow to Transcaucasian Front, the 346th (my 155th) Motor-Rifle Division is caught in an airmobile ambush by the IPA's 9th Airmobile Brigade as the Soviet force is hunkered down, low on fuel, ammunition and supplies, in the Zagros Mountains southwest of Shiraz. The unit takes heavy casualties and is nearly destroyed.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Leopold is delivered in Mobile, Alabama and manned by a mix of USN and USCG personnel.

In Northern Ireland, the IRA forces in Derry are suffering setbacks as the UDR and their Loyalist allies rally and force the Unionists back from the city center, cornering them in the historic "Free Derry" area in the Bogside neighborhood. In Belfast, the IRA-dominated Nationalist force has established a functioning shadow government to rule the Catholic enclave, which is still hemmed in by British troops. The pleas of the British force's commander to Westminster for reinforcements and armored vehicles are met with the response that none are available, so severe is the situation on the Continent.

The battleship USS New Jersey makes another sweep along the Aleutians, screened by USAF air defense fighters operating out of the Pacific Northwest (with tanker support) and with a tag-team of USN and USCG patrol aircraft providing surface search. The grouping is highly successful, allowing the New Jersey Surface Action Group to locate and sink seven Soviet supply vessels trying to sneak forward to resupply isolated Aleutian Front units.

Panzergruppe Oberdorf, formed in April to lead Third German Army's assault into northern Silesia, has returned to (former) East German territory and is disbanded. Most of its American units (the 5th Infantry Division, the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 46th Engineer Brigade) are assigned to the American XI Corps, which is holding a sector east of the group's. General Oberdorf is assigned to lead the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command, responsible for security and reconstruction of the West German Baltic coast and the region between Hamburg and the Danish border.

[chico20854]

Caught up finally! Thanks for your patience and support!

[chico20854]

October 29, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

Delegations from the Greek and Bulgarian military governments meet in Erdine, Turkey to delineate administration of occupied areas in Thrace as Soviet forces begin withdrawing from the region. Both nations had lost sovereignty over the region in wars earlier in the century; while allies in the fighting against the Turks and Jugoslavs the two nations are both desperate to regain the lost territories and too weak militarily and economically to fight the other over them.

Another three Army truck companies are activated, one each at Fort Eustis and Fort Leonard Wood, with the third forming at Camp Perry, Ohio, from volunteers from the civilian trucking industry.

Soviet forces of the 1st Far Eastern Front conclude the clearing the last remaining pocket of Chinese Army resistance, the remnants of the 31st Group Army that had been sheltering in Dandong at the mouth of the Yalu. The suppression of the Chinese troops, who fought with a tenacity driven by fatalism and hate, is a bloody effort, and following its conclusion 1st Far Eastern Front directs the diversion of some of the less battered formations to reinforce Yalu Front's efforts in adjacent North Korea

The first ships of the ragtag evacuation fleet carrying the remnants of the British 6th Division arrive in Kowloon.

Soviet nuclear forces strike the main NATO aerial ports that receive reinforcements - Frankfurt International Airport/Rhine Main Air Force Base, Luxembourg International Airport, Amsterdam-Schipol International Airport and Dusseldorf International Airport - with IRBMs and cruise missiles, halting reinforcement operations at the bases. Aircraft already in flight are directed to land at Gatwick, Prestwick and Stanstead airports in the UK, where an ad-hoc aerial ferry system is implemented using smaller civilian transports and USAF airlifters flying to smaller (and in many cases damaged) airfields in Germany and the eastern Netherlands.

Convoy 306 departs Jacksonville, Florida, with 18 loaded freighters, two tankers and six escorts as well as an umbrella of maritime patrol aircraft overhead.

A particularly heavy day of flights into the Tabriz bridgehead, taking advantage of heavy air tasking by 9th Air Force with cooperation from the IPA and the Saudi Air Force.

Detachment 1, 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron is declared operational at Mombasa International Airport, Kenya. Two of the squadron's HC-130 transports return to Gibraltar.

[chico20854]

October 30, 1997

After several weeks of sheltering from fallout in local coal mines, the first inhabitants of Pyskowice return to their homes. They have deteriorated somewhat during the interval when they were abandoned but overall are still habitable and far preferable to conditions in government-operated refugee camps.

The 82nd Airborne and the Rangers begin to break out of their airhead and begin raiding south.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Milwaukee Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

NATO transportation planners assess the implications of the prior day's attacks on airports as well as the ongoing effort to cripple European seaports. The twin developments challenge NATO's ability to replace even a portion of the losses its forces are suffering at the front, for while the US Army's Training and Doctrine Command is churning out hundreds of recruits daily and American (and Canadian and British) industry is building armored and unarmored vehicles, the inability to get them to into the theatre threatens the alliance's ability to hold off the advancing Pact forces. The US Navy offers up the idea of troop ships - both purpose built ones brought out of mothballs and requisitioned cruise ships - but they are slower than airlift and require use of the same damaged port facilities that are currently unable to unload supplies and fuel. No decision is reached other than to continue to make maximum use of smaller, undamaged facilities; the available tactical assets (landing craft and C-130-scale transports) are too few and too urgently needed to divert to logistic support missions.

Hearing the approaching thundering horde of Convoy 306, the Sierra-III class sub K-231 moves east into the Atlantic to ensure that a 120-km square area of the Atlantic north of Bermuda and away from the shipping routes is clear of enemy activity.

The first vehicles of the 353rd Engineer Group (Combat) arrive at Corpus Christi, Texas for movement to Europe.

[chico20854]

October 31, 1997

The 82nd Airborne Division and Rangers have done as much damage as they can to the Soviet base structure and communications routes in the Tabriz area as they can. To their south, Soviet troops are running out of supplies while XVIII Airborne Corps, I MEF and the IPA begin a limited counteroffensive. Caught in a vice, the Soviets begin withdrawing northward from their positions threatening Allied positions along the coast of the Persian Gulf.

The fires in the outer city of Warsaw have nearly died out. The firestorm had swept through those areas of the city which were not in the rubble, destroying most of those structures which withstood the blasts. The destruction is nearly complete. Over half of the native population died in the initial blasts and the firestorm which ran through the city. While many structures still remain standing, they are, for the most part, only shells, standing ominously over the sea of rubble which is modern Warsaw.

Unoffiicially,

Having had an entire two weeks (!) to organize, the 476th Truck Company is ordered to the nearby port of Norfolk for immediate deployment to Europe.

As the IRA consolidates its positions in Belfast and struggles to hold Derry it introduces involuntary conscription of all males between the ages of 13 and 62. Some affected men manage to slip away, while others willingly take up arms against the Loyalists.

One of the Soviet units involved in the elimination of the Chinese 31st Army, the 12th Motor-Rifle Division (3500 men, 25 tanks), is ordered south into North Korea to reinforce 35th Army. It crosses the Yalu later in the day, its infantry mostly on foot except for a lucky battalion which rides the exterior of the tanks.

The last elements of the British 6th Division arrive in Kowloon, having been evacuated from the mouth of the Yalu River, bringing an end to the "Dunkirk of China".

Convoy 306 is off the Hampton Roads area and picks up an additional nine ships and another escort, the frigate Koelsch, returning to sea after being damaged in March.

[Ewan]

October 29, 1997
Aircraft already in flight are directed to land at Gatwick, Preston and Stanstead airports in the UK, where an ad-hoc aerial ferry system is implemented using smaller civilian transports and USAF airlifters flying to smaller (and in many cases damaged) airfields in Germany and the eastern Netherlands.


Do you not mean Prestwick rather than Preston.

All in I’m really enjoying the diary of events and the detail is amazing.

[Nyrond24]

Sorry preston hasn't got an airport, i live in Blackpool about 20 miles away and we have an airport, its not open at the moment but was an international airport in the t2k timeline.
Keep up the brilliant work mate , its a great read.

[chico20854]

Do you not mean Prestwick rather than Preston.

Sorry preston hasn't got an airport, i live in Blackpool about 20 miles away and we have an airport, its not open at the moment but was an international airport in the t2k timeline.

I had meant Prestwick but was working too fast and didn't double check the name! Thanks for the correction! I've gone back and fixed it. I think Prestwick saw (and continues to see) an awful lot of military traffic, making it a logical choice for a diversion field for troop carriers.

[chico20854]

November 1, 1997

The first convoy to Kenya from the United States arrives after being attacked by two Soviet submarines off the coast of Madagascar. The convoy loses two freighters, including one carrying the balance of the Sheridan tanks assigned to the 173rd. The escorts, aided by P-3C’s, manage to sink both submarines but lose one frigate and have another so badly damaged that it barely makes it to Mombasa. The rest of the convoy arrives intact, bringing the remainder of the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 228th Aviation Regiment along with various support elements.

Unofficially,

The Army Chief of Staff reports that as of October 31, total casualties (KIA, wounded, missing and captured) have exceeded 100 percent of the Army's prewar (January 1996) Active Duty strength. (Noting, of course, that the Army Reserve and National Guard made up 58 percent of the total Army). While shocking, the Commandant of the Marine Corps notes that his force reached that milestone in July and that the nuclear exchange has put the equivalent number for the Marine Corps approaching 150 percent.

The government of Eire, noting the instability in Northern Ireland, calls up the FCA, the Army's reserve force. Reservists repeat the experience of most reservists around the world from a year ago, nervously leaving loved ones, reporting to mobilization stations and rushing through paperwork and store issuance.

In North Korea, Soviet artillery strikes the city of Wonsan on the east coast as Allied defenders continue to withdraw. To the west, fighting spreads in Pyongyang as the Soviets commit additional numbers of North Korea troops (a mix of pre-war regulars, reservists and People's Militia with a sprinkling of civilians forced to fight fleshing them out). Allied airpower, operating closer to its home bases, is able to provide slightly more effective support.

The US Pacific Fleet orders the withdrawal of the battleship Missouri from the western coast of North Korea, ordering it to Yokosuka, Japan for a brief period for minor repairs, resupply and minor electronic upgrades.

The German 23rd Missile Brigade, which has shot off it's entire stock of Scud-D missiles and taken grievous losses in the fighting in Poland, is disbanded. Survivors of the unit are distributed to other Bundeswehr formations.

The Dutch Air Force resumes flying missions from the Gilze-Rijen Air Base, which was struck by a Soviet missile a month earlier. The Dutch 314 Squadron's three remaining F-16s are able to take off and land from the base's taxiways, which were constructed specifically with this emergency option in mind.

Elsewhere in Germany, some Luftwaffe and USAF aircraft have begun to operate from small civilian strips and closed sections of Autobahn to reduce the risk of being struck by Soviet nuclear weapons while at one of the few remaining intact bases. NATO's remaining E-3 AWACS aircraft operating over the front have retreated to Stavanger, Norway and RAF Alconbury, relying on tankers to make up for the lost range.

The German defenders of Wroclaw, mostly the V Korps, are surrounded by Pact troops of the 2nd Polish and 8th Guards Soviet Armies.

The NATO attack submarines HMS Ursula and HNLMS Bruinvis blast their way out of the Murmansk Fjord following nearly two weeks of lurking. They follow the Soviet minesweeper Pavel Malkov out through the minefields, then sink her and her escort, the Grisha-class corvette MPK-33.

The USS Virginia remains in drydock in Norfolk, Virginia being repaired from damage sustained in mid-October. The ship's helicopter pilot, Lt. Hans Brupp, is promoted to Lieutenant Commander, partially in recognition of his role sinking the submarine that attacked the ship.

Following a long and difficult journey Cobra and Echo Flights, 487th Tactical Missile Wing, with nine GLCM missiles and launchers, arrive at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. Incirlik is quickly evolving to be an enclave of relative order in the chaos that is Turkey, with a combination of local, Dutch, and USAF Security troops who are securing the miles-long perimeter. The base is slowly gathering stragglers from other NATO formations in Turkey that are able to make it there; most of 16th Air Force's surviving aircraft are recovering to the base after flying missions from their damaged home stations.

[Targan]

All these decades of playing and running T2K campaigns and I'm only now getting a solid sense of what a total mangled mess the war was BEFORE the ICBMs started hitting CONUS. I struggle to understand how the war continued in any meaningful way through '98 and '99, let alone NATO's final push into Poland in 2000.

[chico20854]

All these decades of playing and running T2K campaigns and I'm only now getting a solid sense of what a total mangled mess the war was BEFORE the ICBMs started hitting CONUS. I struggle to understand how the war continued in any meaningful way through '98 and '99, let alone NATO's final push into Poland in 2000.

Yes, hopefully this is putting an exclamation point after the line in the referee's manual that peace might have come following the initial nuclear exchange if any governments had remained intact to seek it.

To a certain extent the 98 campaign will depend on salvage. I guess the 2000 offensive is drawn from the meagre (and described as foolish/questionable) reinforcements of 1999...

[chico20854]

November 2, 1997

Irish troops begin to move to the northern counties in response to the growing conflict across the border in Northern Ireland. The government of Eire, which relies on Sinn Fein for support, claims that the deployment is wholly defensive.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Menges is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and manned by a mix of USN and USCG personnel.

The 1950s-vintage Decatur-class destroyer USS John Paul Jones, is recommissioned in Norfolk, Virginia and sets sail for the Pacific. The ship had last been in commission in 1982; such is the need for escorts that in January she and her sisters were ordered back into service, obsolescent as she is. The reactivation process included installation of modern radars, electronics and self-defense systems but she still lacks helicopters and a modern sonar.

ROK stay-behind special forces troops in North Korea spot the columns of the reinforcing 12th Motor-Rifle Division heading south after crossing the Ch'ongch'on River and within hours the formation is stuck by a South Korean nuclear-tipped Lance missile, largely ending the division’s war.

Allied forces in Korea have established a semi-prepared defensive line across North Korea from Wonsan to Pyongyang, using the south bank of the Taedong River as an obstacle. Engineers destroy the river crossings, while 8th Army headquarters acquiesces to ROK concerns and denies the use of atomic demolition munitions or nuclear strikes to create a nuclear dead zone on the north bank. ROK and US light units establish a screen through the central mountains, and the most battered units are withdrawn from the front lines for reconstruction.

ROK naval units move into the estuary of the Taedong River to provide naval gunfire support to Allied forces. The South Koreas are willing to risk the destroyer Jeon Ju, a World War II-era ship with six 5-inch guns, in the effort.

The Luftwaffe 2nd Luftjaeger Regiment reaches the safety of the German border and is assigned a sector along the Oder River south of Frankfurt-Oder.

The 930th Tactical Fighter Group (USAF Reserve) relinquishes the last of its surviving A-10s to the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing. It receives a composite force of six A-37 and six Boeing Skyfox light attack aircraft as replacements; it has been nearly six months since the unit had a dozen combat-ready aircraft.

Panzergruppe Westhoven, another ad-hoc multinational formation formed in the spring and assigned to First German Army, is disbanded, its constituent units returned to their national corps.

West of Wroclaw, the US XI Corps prepares a counterattack to once again rescue an encircled friendly unit, in this case the V German Korps.

NATO technical intelligence specialists score an amazing prize when a SS-23 missile lands within the perimeter of Ramstein Air Base and its nuclear warhead fails to detonate. Air Force Security Police immediately secure the site and EOD personnel arrive; unfamiliar with Soviet nuclear weapons they are unable to make the warhead safe but transport it (very! gingerly) to a hardened aircraft shelter.

Convoy 304 arrives in the North Sea following a nearly-unopposed voyage from North America. Naval commanders are dismayed to discover that some ships from Convoy 302 are still at anchor awaiting berths. The smaller ships are able to proceed to shallower ports such as Esbjerg, Denmark and Eemshaven, Netherlands.

Convoy 306 is off St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Red Banner Northern Fleet surges many of its remaining nuclear and diesel-powered submarines into the Barents Sea.

While 5th Special Force Group's Green Berets work with the Kurds of northwestern Iran, the 7th Group works in central and Eastern Iran, among the Baluch and Lur tribal groups. 7th Group even deploys several A-teams across the border into post-nuclear Pakistan, more gathering intelligence than active combat operations.

Kenyan stevedores work to unload the convoy that arrived in Mombasa. American commanders are frustrated to learn the slow pace that the workers work at, and are forced to choose between unloading supplies for the units already in action and unloading additional combat capability. Ultimately, the decision is made to unload several days worth of munitions and fuel as well as desperately needed parts, then switch over, if the ships' loading permits.

[shrike6]

November 2, 1997

The 1950s-vintage Decatur-class destroyer USS John Paul Jones, is recommissioned in Norfolk, Virginia and sets sail for the Pacific. The ship had last been in commission in 1982; such is the need for escorts that in January she and her sisters were ordered back into service, obsolescent as she is. The reactivation process included installation of modern radars, electronics and self-defense systems but she still lacks helicopters and a modern sonar.



I have a question for the Naval experts out there and admit I'm a bit curious on this. Since its successor ship the USS John Paul Jones, Arleigh Burke class was commissioned in 1993, would the Decatur class ship still be called the John Paul Jones or would they have to rename it something else on recommissioning?

[chico20854]

November 3, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day!

NATO dispatches a team of experts from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the British Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to examine the captured SS-23 warhead.

The tanker Manatee is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland.

The refinery in Ashland, Ohio is shut down for six weeks of maintenance and upgrades, some of it long overdue.

The lead Irish Army battalions begin arriving to hastily erected camps within 5 km of the border with Northern Ireland.

The remnants of the 12th Motor-Rifle Division are split. The surviving enlisted troops are assigned to 35th Army as replacements and the remaining officers are returned to their prewar garrisons in Mongolia, ordered to stand up a new 12th Division.

The Missouri battle group arrives in Yokosuka, Japan.

The US XI Corps launches its drive to relieve the surrounded German V Korps in Wroclaw. The 1st Shock Army is forced to halt the counterattack east of Legnica with the battered remnants of the 321st Motor-Rifle Division, which was a low-quality unit from the beginning and has been roughly handled over the last several months. The 321st succeeds in stopping the advancing tanks (its few remaining artillery pieces being used as makeshift anti-tank guns in direct-fire mode), but at the cost of nearly all of its remaining men and all of its artillery.

The amphibious assault ship USS Nassau arrives off the southern coast of Turkey, where its embarked helicopters are able to reach isolated detachments of non-Turkish NATO troops and evacuate them.

The last vehicles of the 353rd Engineer Group (Combat) (US Army Reserve) arrive in Corpus Christi, Texas to await a ship to carry them to Europe. The group's personnel move by bus to Fort Hood, Texas, where they are released for two weeks of leave before deploying.

In distant McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, the annual summertime resupply of the American scientific research station (by the tanker Delaware Trader and freighter Green Wave, escorted by the icebreaker Polar Sea) is interrupted by the arrival of a Soviet raider, the destroyer Velichavyy. The raider was last identified by NATO when it broke out of Petropavlovsk in March alongside seven of her sisters; it has spent the prior months sheltering with the massed fishing fleet in a remote area of the South Pacific. The destroyer sits off the station and shells it, sinking all three ships and setting the station ablaze.

[chico20854]

I have a question for the Naval experts out there and admit I'm a bit curious on this. Since its successor ship the USS John Paul Jones, Arleigh Burke class was commissioned in 1993, would the Decatur class ship still be called the John Paul Jones or would they have to rename it something else on recommissioning?

My bad! I should have caught that...

I read that when a ship is decommissioned the name is released although the hull number is not. (i.e. the battleship USS South Dakota BB-57 when decommissioned became the ex-South Dakota, freeing the name up for the new USS South Dakota SSN-790). Usually the old ship is long gone by the time the name is reused - there hasn't been a USS Kansas in 100 years!

So the old Decatur-class destroyer should have been renamed before being recommissioned.

[shrike6]

My bad! I should have caught that...

I read that when a ship is decommissioned the name is released although the hull number is not. (i.e. the battleship USS South Dakota BB-57 when decommissioned became the ex-South Dakota, freeing the name up for the new USS South Dakota SSN-790). Usually the old ship is long gone by the time the name is reused - there hasn't been a USS Kansas in 100 years!

So the old Decatur-class destroyer should have been renamed before being recommissioned.

I kind of thought so. It would become confusing to have two ships with the same name. The good news is you have a wide range of names to choose from.