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

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

Thanks, and keep the feedback coming!!!!

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

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

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

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

These same sorts of sites exist in CONUS as well.

April 27, 1997

The commander of the detachment moving the Iranian Crown Jewels dispatches the empty trucks to Shiraz, instructed to inform the IPA command of their location while he returns to the city to aid in its defense.

Unofficially,

The FBI team records the inhabitants of the South Jersey apartment speaking Russian, positively identifying them as the Soviet Spetsnaz team that has been active across the northeast for weeks.

The Navy certifies the M650 Rocket-assisted Projectile, the M422 tactical nuclear and M509 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition rounds for use aboard the Des Moines-class heavy cruisers (the Salem, Des Moines and the Newport News).

Under cover of darkness and in great secrecy, the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards escorts the British Crown Jewels to a secret safe storage site at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

The skies over the front in Poland are relatively clear as both sides recover from the prior day's operations. NATO artillery attempts to make up the difference, delivering an especially heavy pounding to Pact defensive lines and supply lines in the division rear areas.

The Danish government commissions the first of three emergency stockpiles in Jutland, in the Daubjerg limestone mine. The cache contains approximately 20,000 tons of grain plus canned food, cooking oil, bulk salt and other foodstuffs, blankets, tents and cots, diesel generators and reverse osmosis water purification units. Simultaneously, the tanker Augustenborg, 22 years old and scheduled for replacement were it not for the war, is loaded with 45,000 tons of diesel fuel and anchored in the Aalborg fjord.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) begins loading for deployment to CENTCOM at the port of Charleston, South Carolina.

The USS Independence battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea near Masirah Island, where it meets with an underway replenishment group to refuel and bring aboard additional ammunition, spares and food before resuming strike operations against the Soviet paratroops at Chah Bahar.

The Soviet "wolfpack" (consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class cruise missile submarine K-503) that attacked eastbound Convoy 136 yesterday heads north, the boats having expended nearly all their ordnance in their months of raiding NATO sea lanes. To avoid the NATO naval forces guarding the GIUK Gap the group heads through the Labrador Sea to transit west of Greenland into the Arctic Ocean.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

April 28, 1997

Esfahan falls to Soviet 4th Army. The commander of the detachment assigned to evacuate the Iranian Crown Jewels is killed in the fighting.

Unofficially,

A POW camp for Pact senior officers is established in Bedford, Pennsylvania at a requisitioned luxury resort. The press quickly discovers that the contract is a boondoggle to benefit the financially troubled hotel owner and that fewer than 20 colonels and generals have been captured by all NATO forces worldwide, only 7 of which have been evacuated to the US to date.

The final elements of the US III Corps cross the Oder River into Poland, the first American corps to fully deploy into the nation. The corps is facing the Soviet 3rd Shock Army and Polish 1st Army. The corps' 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade is deployed towards the corps rear to protect the bridges that are the corps' lifeline to friendly territory, while the 89th Military Police Brigade patrols the corps rear area, evacuates captured enemy soldiers and refugees and escorts supply convoys. The roads and brigdes are maintained by detachment from the 411th (USAR) and 937th Engineer Brigades.

The first battalions of the 23rd Infantry Division arrive on the front lines in Korea. Assigned to IX Corps, the Americal Division is thrown into action holding the line against the North Korean onslaught. Losses are moderate and the division’s performance under fire is considered barely acceptable. (In this regard, the unit’s lack of training, nonstandard equipment and the perilous state of the logistic and personnel situation all hampered performance.)

A trio of convoys depart California. One, leaving San Diego, carries the reinforced 24th Marine Regiment, which is tactically loaded in amphibious assault ships. The second and third leave Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively, carrying the remainder of the 4th Marine Division and 4th Marine Air Wing. The 23rd Marine Regiment's equipment is carried in the naval-owned transports of MPS Squadron 3, which had carried prepositioned equipment already discharged in the CENTCOM area. The remainder of the force is carried aboard a wide array of requisitioned merchant shipping, including seven Freedom-class ships and the troopship Golden Bear, in peacetime a training ship for merchant ship cadets.

The workers at the Gdańsk shipyard, the original members of the Solidarność trade union, form an ORMO regiment to defend their home city from a possible German onslaught.

The escort carrier Langley and frigate Connole are detached from escorting the westbound Convoy 133 to reinforce the badly depleted screen of Convoy 136 following the wolfpack attack on the 26th.

In the central Atlantic, the Enterprise battle group concludes its unsuccessful raider hunt near the Canary Islands and heads north.

While aircraft from the USS John F Kennedy and America bombard Libyan air defenses and oil installations, the Soviet Mediterranean Squadron (the 5th Operational Squadron) gets word of the American fleet's approach. It deploys a line of diesel submarines in a line south of Crete to detect the fleet's approach (and attrit the American force as the opportunity may present itself). Soviet subs sortie from Tartus and Latakia in Syria and Patras, Greece.

April 29, 1997

The convoy of trucks assigned to transport the Iranian Crown Jewels is destroyed by an air strike while en route to Shiraz. There are no survivors; they were the last members of the detachment that were still alive. The Soviet command assumes that the jewels were evacauted while the Iran Nowin government assumes that they were captured by the Soviets. (The Iranian National Security Force's intelligence analysts consider that if the Tudeh had possession of the jewels that they would broadcast the fact in their propaganda.)

Unofficially,

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team and a detachment from F Squadron, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (the famed Delta Force) raid the Spetsnaz safehouse in South Jersey. The Spetsnaz team leader, Col. Oleg Tanatov and one member of his team are captured alive; the rest of the team (and three Americans) are killed in the predawn shootout.

The escort carrier Langley and frigate Connole join the escort of Convoy 136, now steaming towards Iceland, with longer-range protection from USN P-3s and the occaisional sortie by a S-3 carrier-borne ASW aircraft from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has returned to sea after rebuilding its air wing from the losses suffered in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea in December.

Green Berets of the 10th and 20th Special Forces Groups launch a battalion-sized raid on Second Western Front headquarters in Poland, killing most of the staff, destroying the communications center and capturing the Front's chief of Staff. (The commander, General Boris Aliyev, was away inspecting troops at the front, saving his life.)

A flight of F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing are vectored onto a train located by a E-8 JSTARS radar reconniassance aircraft south of Torun, Poland. The aircraft, which were circling over East Germany awaiting targets of opportunity, hit the train with general-purpose 1000-lb bombs, setting off the several thousand tons of ammunition that the train was bringing forward to sustain the Pact defense.

The American Victory ship Mayo Lykes, a reactivated Second World War veteran, is sunk by a Soviet submarine-laid mine in the English Channel. The Dutch Navy dispatches its Mijnenbestrijdingssquadron (Mine Countermeasures Squadron) 22, with three minesweepers, to search the area for other mines.

The USS Independence battle group resumes strike operations, launching a volley of conventionally-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles to accompany the carrier's attack aircraft in pounding the Soviet 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade in Chah Bahar.

The USS Salem and its battle group (the guided missile cruiser Fox, destroyer USS Russell, frigates Samuel Eliot Morrison, Bradley and Nichols and oiler Cimmaron) round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

Road and terrain conditions begin to deteriorate on the Kola Peninsula with warming spring weather. The melting of many meters of snow turn the dirt roads into running streams and the countryside into a half-meter deep layer of mud atop the permafrost, making overland travel extremely difficult. The changing temperatures and close proximity of the warm waters of the Barents Sea drape the region in thick fog, lasting between days and weeks depending on local wind and elevation. Those factors combine to nearly halt all military operations in the Northern theater.

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

April 30, 1997

The Soviet 7th Guards Army is in the outskirts of Dezful, the 4th Army is consolidating its grip on Esfahan before resuming its offensive and the 45th Army (my 32nd Army) has taken Yazd. The Council at Shiraz is cut off by the Soviet advance.

In Tehran, the People’s Democratic Republic of Iran is established by the Tudeh guerillas; only the Soviet Union and Syria recognize the nation.

Unofficially,

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-459 intercepts Convoy 136 on the southwestern approaches to Iceland. It lurks silently submerged, allowing the escorts to pass by before launching a spread of six (of its seven remaining) torpedoes, targeting three ships with two fish each. Two of the three are hit, the Louisiana Freedom and the former East German containership Ocean going down. The Soviet boat attempts to slip away in the resulting chaos, but the escort force is able to marshall too many helicopters and by dawn the boat's batteries are nearly dead and the crew exhausted and battered by multiple attacks. The boat's commander, Captain Second Rank Vasili Bovtramovich, orders the boat to surface and the crew to surrender. He stays below, opening the seacocks and riding his command to the bottom.

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

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron completes its conversion to F-20s in Pensacola and begins its ferry flights back to Iran.

Turkish marines land a major strike against their Greek opponents. A naval task force, under cover of F-4 fighter-bombers, departs the Çanakkale naval base at the southern entrance of the Dardanelles carrying the Marine Brigade. The convoy is protected by a screen of missile boats as well as several destroyers and frigates accompanying the fleet. Within five hours of departure the flotilla arrives in the Greek port of Alexandroupolis and the marines disembark. The following several hours of confused mellee see the elite Turkish troops overwhelming the Greek rear area security troops, and the Turkish force begins the systematic destruction of the town's transportation infrastructure. A company task force takes the train station and rail yard, destroying switches, signals and control systems, hobbling the sole rail line through eastern Greece and supporting Greek military operations in Thrace. Another company raided the airport, cratering the runway, destroying landing aids and torching the control tower, fuel tank farm and hangars after shooting up the aircraft that were on the ground. A third company boards the tugboats and other small craft in the harbor, setting demolition charges off in their engine rooms and along their hulls. The port's cranes are likewise toppled across the wharves into the water and the warehouses burned. Demolition charges are placed in the main roads into and out of the city, and the bridge across the small river that bisects the town is demolished. The marines then retreat, liberally scattering mines as they go, and as the fleet returns to Turkey it drops mines into the harbor while the escorting destroyers shell the town, igniting a large fire. The raid results in significant distruption to the Greek Army's operations in Thrace, reducing the pressure on the Turkish First Army's western flank.

The freighter Joseph Lykes completes a month loading munitions at NWS Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay awaiting a convoy to Japan and Korea.

The search for the SAS team in Leningrad has turned up no leads, and the KGB and local police back off from the state of heightened alert.

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

May 1, 1997

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

Unofficially,

Map of the front lines in Poland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-h...-regiment-bill

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

May 2, 1997

After dark, US Navy SEAL teams and Iranian Marine commandos make a series of devastating raids against the 105th Guards Air Assault Division's communications and command networks. The division commander and his chief of staff are assassinated. Command posts and supply dumps are destroyed. Those antiaircraft positions not destroyed by ground operations are knocked out by airstrikes.

A special team reporting directly to the 4th Army commander concludes its search of Esfahan, seeking the Iranian Crown Jewels, reckoning that they have been evacuated to an area controlled by the Iran Nowin government.

The 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (less the 32nd Mechanized Brigade, which is completing a NTC rotation) is declared operational at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Unofficially,

39th Infantry Brigade in Lisburn (on the outskirts of Belfast), using the Ulster Defense Regiment battalions called up in April, expands its area of responsibility south, allowing 3rd Infantry Brigade headquarters to be released for service on the Continent.

Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team strikes in the UK again, returning to the chemical plant in Runcorn, Cheshire, striking three loaded tank cars with RPG rockets. The resulting fire disrupts production, which had largely recovered from the prior mortar attack.

The Soviet "wolfpack" consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class cruise missile submarine K-503 are detected by a seabed hydrophone array between Greenland and Baffin Island as they attempt to return to Murmansk via the Arctic. Allied naval commanders dispatch a trio of P-3 Orion patrol aircraft from Goose Bay Labrador to locate the enemy sub (they are unaware that it is three), which begin a hunt in the loose ice. The commander of the K-412 gets spooked by a near miss, dashing for cover of a nearby iceberg. He misjudges, and the sub strikes the submerged portion of the berg. The noise of the collision is immediately localized by the aircraft's crew, and the sub is hammered with multiple air-dropped torpedoes which send it to the bottom.

The last battalions of the 23rd Infantry Division are on the front lines in Korea, allowing the battered 2nd Infantry Division to be transferred to the rear for some rest and to absorb replacements from the steady flow of recalled reservists and freshly trained draftees arriving on daily flights from the US.

Traffic jams in the Pact rear area in Poland prevent some of the wide-spectrum jammers from reaching their assigned positions. Commanders suspect some of the delay may be the result of the crews' reluctance to be in the vicinity of the powerful transmitters, which are expected to receive a "very healthy" dose of NATO firepower once turned on.

Soviet bombers in the Balkans are re-roled from their strategic bombing mission to anti-ship strike, as the Black Sea Fleet prepares to engage the advancing American carrier groups in the Mediterranean.

American marines and the German amphibious troops of the 18th Coast Defense Regiment are relieved along the Baltic coast and returned by truck to the East German port of Sassnitz, where the newly formed Bundesmarine 2nd Landing Squadron has been joined by American landing ships.

Unrest erupts across industrial facilities and mines throughout the USSR when workers are informed that not only do they have to make up the production missed during the May Day holiday but also produce an extra two day's worth of output as a "sign of proletarian unity and pride". (The fact that no additional raw materials or fuel were provided for this burst of productivity set off many otherwise fairly willing and motivated workers).

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

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

May 3, 1997

photo1 photo2
The US 82nd Airborne Division (reinforced with the British 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment) and two battalions of the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger) are airdropped into the Bandar-e Khomeyni-Khorramshahr area. The initial waves of pathfinders include an American journalist, Fanya Ayn Wilkerson, who takes shameless advantage of her uncle Marvin Wilkerson's good reputation among the "All Americans" of the 82nd Airborne Division to secure a seat. US Navy and Iranian surface units and gunships of the 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade provide fire support. Wilkerson loses two fingers on her left hand while earning a Pulitzer Prize and the undying love and respect of the 504th ("Devils in Baggy Pants") Airborne Regiment while delivering the first video footage and eyewitness accounts of the 82nd Airborne's parachute assault upon Bandar-e-Khomeyni.

photo1 photo2
The 101st Air Assault Division makes an airmobile landing in the Bushehr area, supported by units of the Iranian Navy and two battalions of Iranian Marines. At Bushehr and Ganaveh, as assault waves of UH-60's and AH-64's make their pre-dawn landing the Soviets are in a state of total confusion. By 1600 hours the 105th Guards Air Assault Division has been destroyed, seeding small bands of escaping desantniki fleeing to the mountains.

Unofficially,

The Canadian Navy recommissions the destroyer Margaree, which had been paid off in 1992.

Reporters discover that the Army has appointed the nephew of a prominent member of the House Armed Services Committee as commander of the guard company of the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp. The appointment prevents the young officer from deploying to Poland with his battalion. (One of his peers from ROTC, recovering from wounds received in Norway, says "He's a chickenshit. Always has been, always will be." when asked about the young captain).

The 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards escorts another "treasure caravan", containing priceless artifacts from the British Museum (including its Gutenberg Bible), in a secret nighttime effort to protect them from destruction if London should be struck. The items are stored in an underground quarry in a remote corner of Wales.

The newly arrived radiotechnical warfare officer at Western TVD deploys his new broad spectrum jammers. It is a colossal failure, as the jammers disrupt communications and radars on both sides of the front lines. The Warsaw Pact air defense early warning network collapses and Red Army and Polish commanders are forced to rely on couriers to send and receive messages. British troops take advantage of the confusion on the other side of the lines to break out of a bridgehead at Kostrzyn; small unit commanders are confident of the mission enough to advance when they realize that their opponents are unable to call in artillery to fend off their attacks.

The beleaguered Convoy 136 crosses into the North Sea.

Turkish forces in Bulgaria launch an offensive against the Bulgarian 2nd Army. Under cover of American and Turkish aircraft, the Turks open their attack with a furious artillery barrage against the dug in Bulgarians. The front lines are held by second-rate troops, many ethnic Turks, who initially hold their positions.

photo
A major naval battle erupts in the Mediterranean as Task Force 60 faces off against the Soviet 5th Squadron. The American carrier task force is located by Soviet and Greek aircraft operating overland, while American and (ostensibly neutral) Israeli E-2 AEW aircraft watch the Soviet squadron leave Syrian ports. Missiles almost immediately fly from the Soviet flagship, the missile cruiser Slava, timed to arrive simultaneously with missiles launched by Tu-22M and Tu-16 bombers over the Greek-Bulgarian border. The Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg, coordinating the American air defense, is struck by a torpedo fired by the Kilo-class diesel sub B-459, temporarily disrupting the anti-missile effort until the USS Richmond K. Turner assumes control. The disruption allows some of the missiles to slip through the multiple layers of defenses (F-14 interceptors, anti-aircraft missiles and short-range last-ditch defense guns), with the destroyer Stethem struck by a SS-N-12 and the America's flight deck peppered with shrapnel from a AS-4 that exploded 100m over the flight deck. Fortunately for the Americans, the air wing had just completed launching its aircraft for the anti-surface strike against the Soviet group, resulting in only a handful of aircraft being lost and only a (relatively) small fire from a pair of SH-60 helicopters on deck. The combined airstrike of the two carriers' A-6 and F/A-18 squadrons and subsequent cleanup by the S-3 squadrons left none of the Soviet ships afloat. The Soviet bombers escaped unscathed. ASW helicopters locate the Soviet submarine, and an ASROC missile from the destroyer USS Briscoe sends it to the bottom.

The headquarters and subordinate brigades of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) begin moving to ports under control of the Charleston Port of Embarkation (Wilmington and Morehead City, North Carolina and Charleston) to begin loading for Europe. The division's 32nd Infantry Brigade (Wisconsin National Guard) will follow when it completes its training; a logistics team from the Wisconsin National Guard command begins loading vehicles the 32nd left at its mobilization station of Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin onto railcars for transit to east coast ports.

Simultaneously, the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) is released from the Strategic Reserve for service in Europe and begins moving to Mid-Atlantic ports.

Caspian Flotilla spetsnaz team launches another raid in the Red Sea from the dhow that is, following the loss of Ethiopian bases, its mobile base of operations. The team attacks the Jizam airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, overpowering the Saudi National Guard platoon that was watching over the mostly inactive facility. They destroy the airfield's navigation aids and control tower and blast a 15m wide hole in the runway before returning to sea. The attack's direct consequences are slight, but it alarms the Saudi government, forcing it to divert troops from the northern border and causing distress about the departure of American troops to Iran.

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

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

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

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

Watch the suspense build as we approach November :D

May 4, 1997

The IPA command concludes that the Soviets captured the Iranian Crown Jewels when Esfahan fell.

Captain Pete Fanning of the 101st Air Assault Divison is awarded the Silver Star for bravery in the prior day's operation and receives an on-the-spot promotion to Major.

The 82nd Airborne Division continues to clear the area around Bandar-e-Khomeni and Khorramsharh.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Bronx Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Des Moines and Charleston Freedoms are delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Headquarters, 4th Armored Division is formed at Fort Carson, Colorado. The unit begins to receive troops and equipment and uses facilities left behind when the peacetime resident 4th Infantry Division was airlifted to Germany in 1996.

The 8th Armored Cavalry Regiment is likewise activated at Gowen Field, Idaho as a new unit. Staffed with personnel from throughout CONUS, many fresh from various training programs, the regiment is initially issued obsolescent or substitute equipment for training purposes - the primary tank is the Cadillac-Gage Stingray, with a mix of M113 and Peacekeeper armored cars as substitute APCs. The two formations are part of the US Army's effort to face the demands of high-intensity warfare in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The 118th Field Artillery Brigade (Georgia National Guard), which had failed its predeployment readiness evaluation in January and spent the next several months retraining in Florida (accompanied by a fairly extensive purge of unit leadership), is declared combat ready and moves to Jacksonville, Florida to load for Germany. Some of the brigade's troops believe that the evaluators were ordered to pass the unit so it could be rushed into action regardless of its actual readiness for action.

The disastrous Soviet jamming effort is stopped, but the damage has been done. Warsaw Pact lines begin to fail. A gap opens between the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, on the left flank of the 8th Guards Army and the Polish 2nd Mechanized Division (on the Polish 2nd Army’s right) and 2nd Squadron, 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) slips through. Within hours the rest of the regiment enters the gap and two battalions of the 27th Fallschirmjäger Brigade land in the woods north of Wrocław.

USAF F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, operating from Eindhoven, Netherlands, strike the small but important rail junction of Tunel, 35 km north of Krakow. The attack severely disrupts the rail yard but also devastates the surrounding community. Menawhile, NATO electronic reconnaissance aircraft identify the 3rd Guards headquarters.

The remaining two Soviet subs of the wolfpack in Baffin Bay (west of Greenland) are intercepted by the attack submarine USS Annapolis. The ultra-quiet Sierra II slips past the American boat, but the older and louder missile boat is located by the Americans. The Los Angeles-class boat launches a pair of Mk 48 torpedoes which sink the Soviet sub. The other Soviet boat does not come to its companion's aid, slipping away in the noise of the sinking boat and moving ice overhead.

Convoy 136 loses another ship, the Cypriot freighter Frantiz M, to a mine as it crosses the North Sea.

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The wreck of the Soviet 5th Squadron (and Black Sea Fleet) flagship, the missile cruiser Slava, slips beneath the waves.

The Bulgarian troops facing the Turkish First Army begin to waver as they continue to get pounded by artillery. The fighting prevents the Bulgarian Army's logistic troops (thinly equipped in the best of times) from pushing forward ammunition and rations to the troops on the front line.

The aircraft Constellation joins the Abraham Lincoln and Kitty Hawk in launching air strikes on Soviet defensive positions in the Kuriles, in a drive to increase Allied access to the region as well as forcing the Soviet commanders to dilute their limited resources.

May 5, 1997

Amazingly, nothing in the canon for today.

32nd Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (Wisconsin National Guard), completes Rotation 97-8 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. The 92nd Infantry Brigade (Puerto Rico National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready.

The Victory Ship Wayne Victory is unloaded of returned Argentinian munitions, which are sent to various locations for inspection, refurbishment (if needed), disposal or further issue.

The Air National Guard's 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii receives the first operational KC-767 tanker transport. The aircraft has received preliminary type approval from Air Force Systems Command; the new aircraft increases the squadron's ability to support aircraft transiting the Pacific. Boeing continues to deliver new airliners for conversion at its Wichita, Kansas plant.

Regular Army troops (the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers) begin moving from Northern Ireland to England, in preparation for movement to the war zone in Poland.

British troops of the 6th Armoured Brigade capture Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland as Pact troops begin to withdraw (rather than fighting to the point of ineffectiveness, which had been the case for the prior four weeks).

In an overnight raid, the headquarters of the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division is plastered with bombs from a flight of F-15E Strike Eagles. Command and control of the division is disrupted and the unit is paralyzed. By dawn the Soviet unit is encircled and the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment is on the outskirts of Wrocław, with elements of three German divisions close behind.

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Soviet commanders attempt to close the gap in the lines with artillery fire, but the loss of the ammunition train a week ago means that the near-constant interdiction fires are instead sporatic and uncoordinated.

The 82nd Airborne Division gains the upper hand in fierce combat against the Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division. To their south the 105th Guards has largely disintegrated, while the 103rd Guards continue to dig in at Bandar Abbas. Despite repeated calls for help, Red Army units to the north seem to be making little serious effort to break through Iranian lines to relieve them. (Actually, their logistics situation is atrocious thanks to Allied interdiction and the overburdened Soviet war economy; commanders are barely able to hold their positions, let alone advance).

The RAF stations the Buccaneer attack bombers of Nos. 12 and 208 Squadrons at the airbase in Mosjoen, Norway. The planes are primarily assigned with naval strike duties but perform sporatic interdiction strikes, carefully flying around Swedish and Finnish territory.

The Turkish offensive in Bulgaria gains steam, advancing over 2 miles from their start lines. The first group surrenders begin, with individual squads and the occaisional platoon dropping their weapons.

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The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) begins loading onto ships in Philadelphia, Norfolk and Wilmington, Delaware.

The USS John F Kennedy and USS America carrier battle groups finish clearing the remnants of the Soviet 5th Squadron from the Eastern Mediterranean and begin rotating ships in for replenishment in Alexandria, Egypt. The damaged destroyer Stethem is under tow back to Gibraltar.

In Berdichev, Ukraine, the 62nd Tank Division begins mobilizing. The unit, the second "shadow" division to be hatched from the 117th Guards Training Tank Division. The 62nd takes most of the training unit's students, which are nearing the conclusion of their course of study. Like other mobilization-only tank divisions, it is equipped with 1940s and 1950s-era T-34 and T-10 tanks, Su-100 assault guns and an assortment of aged howitzers and APCs.

May 6, 1997

After three days of heavy fighting Soviets begin to withdraw from the Bandar-e-Khomeni area, a battered, but still cohesive fighting force. The 82nd is ordered to hold its positions until the 24th Infantry Division can relieve them.

Unofficially,

The tanker Guadalupe is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service, with the hull number T-AOT-209.

In New Orleans, the Victory ship Wayne Victory begins loading a cargo of bagged corn meal destined for war-torn Iran.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps completes its command post exercise/wargame at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The staff there noted the corps' exceptional performance and recommended its immediate deployment overseas.

The Bundeswehr forms the 2nd Military Police Command to coordinate support and operations for three territorial military police battalions that had been operating independently under direct command of Territorial Command Ost, the Bundeswehr liaison command in the former East Germany.

Along the Polish Baltic coast, amphibious forces (the German 18th Marine Regiment and elements of the US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade) establish a lodgment on the coast west of Kolobrzeg. Allied troops all along the front continue to push back defending Pact forces.

The first graduates of the Saami partisan training course in Kautokeino, Norway, are armed with small arms and ammunition abandoned by the Red Army in the retreat from Norway and cross the border back into Soviet territory.

Turkish troops continue to capture Bulgarian territory, reaching the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains overlooking the wide Danube Valley. The Romanian border is less than 100 km to the north, and an advance to it would cut the lines of communication between Bulgaria's capital and the Black Sea Coast.

Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic assembles the largest convoy of the war to date, Convoy 140. The convoy will bring an entire armored division (the 44th (my 20th), roughly two-thirds of the 36th Infantry Divison and the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment to Europe under unprecedented escort. It departs Jacksonville, Florida at sundown, with five ships loaded with the 1169th Engineer Group (Alabama National Guard) as well as over a dozen ships carrying munitions, fuel and supplies.

In the Indian Ocean, the Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, makes its first strike in many weeks. A GRU source provided information about the at-sea rendevous of two ultra-large bulk carriers, the Rio Leonard and the Rio Lawrence, for the Leonard to transfer a spare part to the Lawrence. When the two massive ships (each capable of carrying over 175,000 tons of Australian coal to Europe) meet the Soviet destroyer is not far away and pounces. The ships' massive size makes them hard to sink, but the Buliny eventually does so - by sending boarding parties aboard to place demolition charges against the hull.

The Leningrad SAS team feels confident to resume operations, sending out a two-man team to observe conditions and begin assessing targets.

May 7, 1997


The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with 101st Air Assault Division and begins mopping up scattered remnants of the 105th Guards Air Assault Division.

Unofficially,

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The treason trial begins for Autumn Lotus, the New Mexico woman accused of sheltering a Spetsnaz team earlier in the year; she unleashes a rant in court about the government's oppression of the proletariat, the evils of capitalism and the war profiteering that is occurring. She is removed from the courtroom; her public defender tries his best to offer a coherent defense.

The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (a Territorial Army unit from Chorley), is activated and assigned to 3rd Infantry Brigade.

At Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, the tanker task force maintained for many decades using tankers rotating in from throughout the Air Force on temporary assignments is designated as the 301st Air Refueling Squadron. The new squadron maintains control of its assigned rotational aircraft, as it is currently only assigned a C-12 liaison transport aircraft, with a KC-135R en route from Hawaii. (The KC-135 was released by the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron in Hawaii as that squadron receives the new KC-767 tankers).

The Luftwaffe forms the 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment from airfield defense units assigned to the Luftwaffe’s 3rd Division (which flies strike aircraft from northern German bases). The regiment is committed to action in Poland, augmenting the RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police in defense of captured air bases and highway strips in Poland and East Germany.

Along the Baltic Coast, NATO starts landing elements of the Danish Jutland Division near Kolobrzeg. The Soviet Western TVD commander is forced to commit 22nd Army, from his reserve force in the northern half of the front, to prevent the landing force from overrunning the Polish port and naval base. (NATO deep strike ATACMS missiles, sea-launched cruise missiles and tactical aircraft have a field day on the hundreds of Soviet tanks that break cover and rushed to the coast, although the Danish, German and American troops had halted their advance and dug in in anticipation of the Soviet assault). German troops also break through the Second Western Front’s lines east of Szczecin.

The heavy cruiser Salem completes 45 days of post-commissioning workups and is dispatched to the Persian Gulf. It receives a complement of Army 8-inch ammunition to augment the Second World War-era high explosive and armor piercing rounds, including 10 tactical nuclear rounds.

The Bulgarian Second Army, weakened by having its 2nd Motor-Rifle Division and 11th Tank Brigade in China, commits its reserve 104th Tank Training Regiment and a regiment of construction troops from the 18th Construction Division, to try to slow the Turkish advance. Preceding the Bulgarian counterattack is an airstrike by L-29 trainers of the 2nd Combat Training Regiment; the trainer's 7.62mm machineguns and 57mm rockets do little to slow the Turks. When the T-55s arrive in range of the Turkish M-48 tanks the slaughter begins in earnest. The construction troops, equipped with 19th-century-vintage M95 Mannlicher rifles, DP-27 LMGs and 82mm mortars but no anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, are swept from the field while the tank regiment takes heavy losses from Turkish tanks firing from the flanks of the wide valley they are advancing up and a platoon of Turkish AH-1 anti-tank helicopters.

The escort carrier Shangri La and eight freighters carrying equipment and vehicles of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) join Convoy 140 as it sails up the US East Coast. The group also includes the Dutch cruise ship Maasdam, packed with nearly 4000 National Guardsmen.

Given up for lost two weeks ago, Rifleman Goreng Nassang rejoins his unit, complete with the GPMG he had refused to abandon.

In Leningrad, a MI6 operative obtains a workers pass for the Baltic Shipyard.

American carriers in the Pacific shift south, their aircraft reappearing over the front line in Korea.

The USS Independence continues to provide air support to IPA forces in Iran - American troops are too far north in the Persian Gulf for the carrier's F/A-18s to reach, and 5th Fleet refuses to permit the carrier group to operate in the Gulf. As Soviet troops retreat inland, the Independence group regains the destroyers it had detached to provide naval gunfire support.

In the Mediterranean, the John F Kennedy and America battle groups sortie from Alexandria, Egypt and sail north. Once in the area north of Cyprus the carriers plan to fly long-range strike missions in support of the Turkish offensive, adding their bombs to those being dropped by the USAF's 112th Tactical Fighter Group.

A second Atlantic Fleet carrier, the USS Enterprise, joins the effort to protect Convoy 140. Returning north from the vicinity of the Canaries, Enterprise sends fighters and ASW aircraft to sweep ahead of the growing formation.

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

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

May 8, 1997

The US Air Force places an order for thousands of Charter Arms Bulldog .45-caliber revolvers to equip Reserve Security Police Squadrons, as the demand for base security detachments in Europe and Saudi Arabia grows.

Unofficially,

1st Battalion, The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment departs Northern Ireland, returning to the UK for further service in Poland.

The Dutch Red Army detonates another car bomb in an attempt to destroy the NATO fuel terminal at Rijnwoude.

Intense combat rages along the entire front line in Poland as Pact troops try to halt the NATO offensive. NATO deep strike aircraft roam over central Poland, seeking out columns of reinforcements that have been identified by electronic reconnaissance aircraft and photographic satellites.

The Western TVD's radio-technical warfare officer is relieved of his post following the debacle that his wide-spectrum jamming plan caused. He is demoted to Senior Lieutenant and assigned a motor-rifle company in the disintegrating 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division.

USAF Strategic Air Command leaders "permit" the deployment of two wings of B-52Gs, their oldest and least effective bombers, to support conventional operations. The SAC commander "reserves the right" to issue nuclear war orders to the aircraft if he is ordered to execute his war plan. The move releases the 320th Bomb Wing to PACCOM and the 416th Bomb Wing to European Command. Two other bomb wings, the 42nd at Loring AFB, Maine and the 43rd in Guam, remain dedicated to naval support missions.

Allied commanders in northern Norway and the Kola use the pause inflicted by nature to repair the damaged front line and prepare for the upcoming offensive. The Norwegian Army makes some changes to its force structure. In the 6th Division, the 14th Brigade had suffered most severely from the battles of the prior months. Soldiers that had been in action fewer than four months are reassigned to other brigades in the division as replacements, while more veteran troops and the command staff are withdrawn to southern Norway for reconstruction and rest. The 7th Brigade, a fresh unit from southern Norway, takes the 14th’s place in the line.

Turkish troops attempt to advance through the remnants of the Bulgarian Second Army but are hampered by lingering pockets of resistance which make moving supplies forward on the narrow, winding and poorly maintained mountain roads nearly impossible. The Soviet Southern Front begins redeploying troops to deal with the potential breakthrough, bringing forward the 58th Army's 82nd Motor-Rifle Division and re-routing a supply convoy from Odessa into Varna, bringing additional supplies and troops to the area. 58th Army also takes command of the Bulgarian 4th Border Guard Regiment, throwing those well-motivated but only moderately equipped troops at the Turkish flank.

The Coast Guard cutter Gallatin, two tankers, the troop ship State of Maine and eighteen additional cargo ships join Convoy 140 as it passes New York. The convoy gets its first overflight from its escorts, when a pair of F-4s from the USS Saratoga passes overhead.

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Headquarters, XXIII Corps loads aboard aircraft at Westover AFB, Massachusetts for deployment to Germany.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron arrives in Iran, dispersing between several small airstrips while the squadron headquarters joins the 22nd Tactical Fighter Wing Headquarters at Shahid Asyaee Air Base.

The US 55th Special Operations Squadron is moved to Shiraz, Iran to better support Allied forces in the country.

The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) moves into Iran, arriving in Bandar-e-Khomeni to relieve the paratroops of the 82nd Airborne Division. The 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) begins to arrive in Iran, its equipment ferried across the Persian Gulf in landing craft.

The 101st Air Assault Division begins moving northward into the Zagros Mountains; a dawn landing of the division's 2nd Brigade secures the town of Dalaki 50 miles inland from the Gulf.

The Soviet raider Buliny is located on radar by a P-3B Orion from VP-60, operating from the Cocos/Keeling Islands. The American aircraft is armed with anti-submarine weapons, not anti-surface weapons, and when another aircraft arrives on station armed with bombs and rockets the Soviet ship has disappeared.

May 9, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

SACLANT is surprised by the absence of Soviet SSBNs in northern waters. Contrary to prewar expectations, when American and British attack submarines start scouring the White Sea and under the Arctic ice pack for Soviet SSBNs, they mostly find emptiness, livened by traps set by the Red Banner Northern Fleet such as minefields with a noisemaker in the center and the most advanced Soviet attack subs lying in wait for them. The USSR’s political leadership, in fact, has decided that keeping the SSBN fleet in harbor (those based in the Litsa Fjord were evacuated to bases farther east) ensures the strictest control of their fearsome nuclear arsenal and minimizes the chance of inadvertent launch.

1st Brigade, 50th Armored Division (New Jersey National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

NATO tactical airpower, reinforced with additional units from the USAF Reserve and Air National Guard and the USS Coral Sea air group operating in the North Sea, shifts its emphasis from close air support to battlefield interdiction, cutting Pact supply lines to the front. Polish and Soviet units all along the front start a gradual, orderly withdrawal, destroying roads, railways and bridges as they retreat. NATO mechanized units bypass isolated Pact garrisons, leaving them for follow-on units to surround and reduce.

A joint SEAL Team 3 - Special Boat Service team attacks the Soviet submarine base at Gremikha-Ostrovnoy. Satellite imagery (through a rare break in the clouds and fog) reveals that nearly a third of the Red Banner Northern Fleet's nuclear missile submarine force is there, sheltering from the NATO forces threatening Murmansk. A fierce firefight occurs between the NATO special operators and the security troops of the 313th Coastal Defense Battalion, a specialist anti-frogman unit.

Troops of the Turkish 8th Infantry Division enter the town of Popovo, Bulgaria. The town's capture cuts the rail line between Sofia and the Black Sea Coast as well as the most direct road connection. The country is not yet cut in half, relying on circuitous road and rail connections through the town of Ruse on the Romanian border, which is under periodic artillery fire from Romanian long-range guns.

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Troops and equipment of the 32nd Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Wisconsin National Guard), the last brigade of the 36th Infantry Division, arrive at the ports of Davisville, Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts and Portland, Maine to load onto ships for Europe.

Convoy 140 is joined by a flotilla of six smaller freighters which sailed from Great Lakes ports, carrying additional supplies and the 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve). The USS Saratoga battle group continues to provide cover to the convoy.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, ambush a small, isolated Soviet convoy, destroying two Zil-131 fuel trucks, a Ural-375 supply truck and an escorting UAZ-469 and capturing a useful stash of military-grade weapons and supplies to sustain the rebel band.

An overland convoy of the 101st Air Assault Division, escorted by TOW HMMWVs of the 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry (Oklahoma National Guard) arrives in Dalaki, Iran, linking up with the air assault troops that landed the prior day. The division then leapfrogs the 1st Brigade to the town of Kazerun, another 25 miles deeper into the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. The American troops there link up with rear area troops of the II Iranaian Corps.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534, which has been hiding under a disused offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf, resumes its interdiction of Allied shipping, launching another trio of SS-N-21 conventionally-armed cruise missiles at the port facilities in Jubail, which XVIII Airborne Corps is using to ferry troops and equipment into Iran. The attacks succeed in disrupting operations at the port, sinking the US Army small transport MG Charles P. Gross as it loaded equipment. The second missile's warhead (one was shot down by a patrolling Saudi F-15 interceptor) detonates above massed vehicles of the 3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, damaging many of them and disrupting the brigade's orderly loadout.

The 255th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Moscow Military District, is called up in Kursk. Equipment for the division is short, with no APCs, no anti-aircraft regiment, anti-tank or SSM battalion and with a single battalion of SU-100 assault guns in lieu of a tank regiment. Wisely, the formation is mostly used as a source of semi-trained manpower for rebuilding units that have been shattered at the front.

The Soviet raider Buliny races southward to escape the operating radius of American patrol aircraft that had located the destroyer the day before. Once confident of its relative safety the commander, Captain Second Rank Mikhail Mischenko, slows down to a sedate 10 knots to conserve fuel.

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

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

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

May 10, 1997

The French FAR completes the movement and reception stage of its deployment to Mauritania and Senegal.

Unofficially,

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

Supply officers at First Army headquarters deny the supply request submitted by the commander of the MP guard company at the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp. The commander there requested nearly a battalion's worth of armored vehicles, including four M-1A2 tanks, to "support his mission guarding high-value Pact prisoners".

1st Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment is withdrawn from Northern Ireland and returned to the UK prior to redeployment to Poland.

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Troops of the 28th ANZUK Brigade are on the receiving end of one of the last North Korean assaults of the 1997 campaign, when the 20th Motorized Infantry Division attemps to bash a hole in the Allied lines. The Commonwealth troops, operating in difficult terrain, contain the desperate North Korean assault, assisted by artillery fire from the South Korean 4th and 7th Field Artillery Groups, which break up the North Korean troops massing for each wave attack.

Gliwice targeted by NATO airstrikes, receiving heavy damage like its neighboring towns. NATO forces under command of the Third German Army advance up the Oder River valley against scattered Pact resistance, composed largely of ORMO, OTK and ZOMO units that lack adequate artillery and air support. Polish forces, however, have held the city of Wroclaw. The NATO commander, General Rudolph Beck, orders the city pounded into submission, committing the German 23rd Artillery Brigade, the US 209th Field Artillery Brigade, the artillery of his subordinate formations and the B-52s of the 416th Bomb Wing into reducing the city.

Saami anti-Soviet partisans attack a Soviet supply convoy travelling the main road to Murmansk, destroying a dozen trucks carrying supplies to 18th Army.

The Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot, damaged by a Soviet mine in the North Sea in March, emerges from the shipyard in Bremen.

The escorts of Convoy 140 intercept and sink the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-4 as the aged sub ran shallow, running its diesels through its snorkel to recharge its batteries.

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Southern Front commits the 58th Army fully to containing the Turkish drive in Bulgaria. The 82nd Motor-Rifle Division's 36th Tank Regiment, equipped with T-64s, attacks west through the foothills on the southern edge of the Turkish salient, with the Bulgarian border guards riding atop the tanks. Simultaneously, the Bulgarian 9th Tank Brigade, released from the 1st Bulgarian Army, attacks the base of the salient from the west, while Soviet Long-Range Aviation commits three regiments of bombers to carpet bomb the roads leading out of the mountains. The attack is successful in cutting off the Turkish lead division, the 8th Infantry. The Bulgarian border guards dismount the tanks and, having been liberally supplied with RPGs by their Soviet commander, hold their blocking positions against Turkish counterattacks from both north and south.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps arrives at Berlin-Schonefeld Airport, Germany.
Convoy 142 forms in the Gulf of Mexico, heading to Europe. A follow-on to Convoy 140, it will carry the 32nd Infantry Brigade, the 118th Field Artillery Brigade and the lead elements of the 50th Armored Divison.

The ships carrying the vehicles, guns and heavy equipment of the 434th Field Artillery Brigade arrive in Saudi Arabia after a nearly month-long voyage from New Orleans around the southern tip of Africa and through the Indian Ocean.

The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is moved into Iran, landing in Khorramshar to reinforce the 24th Infantry Division in pursuit of the retreating 104th Guards Air Assault Division.

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The 101st Air Assault Division takes the next leap into the Zagros, sending its Third Brigade to secure the town of Ardakan.

May 11, 1997

Wroclaw falls to NATO forces after being pounded nearly into rubble by artillery and B-52 bombers.

Unofficially,

In New Orleans, the Victory ship Wayne Victory completes loading of 8000 tons of corn meal and a deck cargo of telephone poles and departs, bound for Iran via the Cape of Good Hope.

The 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards performs another secret nighttime transfer, this time of the Bank of England's gold reserves.

The Danish government stocks a second supply cache, at the Thingbæk mine. (Only the highest levels of the Danish government are aware that the cache is less than 1500m from the bunker that will shelter the Government and Royal Family in the event of a nuclear alert.)

Troops from No. 15 Squadron, RAF Regiment secure the former Soviet Frontal Aviation base at Kąkolewo, southwest of Poznan and within hours a truck convoy arrives with munitions, fuel and spares to support RAF Harrier jump jets.

II MEF's 2nd and 5th Battalions, 10th Marines pound a pair of air defense missile sites east of Kolozbreg, one Soviet (the 325th SAM Regiment) and one Polish (the 26th SAM Brigade) with artillery. Both sites had been struck multiple times by NATO air defense suppression aircraft but managed to quickly restore operations. The command's 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company strikes air defense facilities further east, hitting a SAM site and air defense radar site outside Ustka. The Marines were landed from the destroyer Mitscher, which made a high-speed dash east in the Baltic.

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After flying the prior day's missions over Wroclaw, the B-52G bombers of the 416th Bomb Wing begin operations from a forward operating location at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, west of London.

The German government (on behalf of NATO) signs the first of several contracts with commercial firms to support the Advent Crown logistics effort. The contract is to a Dutch-owned company to provide trucking of fuel and general supplies (not explosives) from German and Dutch ports, depots and factories to locations in East Germany located out of artillery range from the front. The contractor must procure trucks and drivers (2 per truck) and maintain the trucks. Other contracts under negotiation include repair of roads, bridges and railroad infrastructure, construction of temporary/semi-permanent group housing (as billets, housing for refugees or POWs), installation of communications infrastructure and repair of East German water treatment and electrical systems. The total mobilization of German and Dutch economies results in large numbers of workers from non-combatant nations being recruited to work on these contracts.

In Finnmark, the weak border guard force in Karasjok is replaced by fresh troops from Oslo - the newly formed King’s Guard Regiment, an elite combined arms formation led by the King’s brother, Prince Jungi of Trondheim.

The destroyer USS Stethem, damaged by a Soviet missile strike, reaches Gibraltar, where the heavy lift ship Super Servant 5 is waiting to take it aboard for transit back to the US.

The Turkish 8th Infantry Division launches an all-out effort to break through 58th Army's blocking positions. It is assisted in this by V Corps' 105th Artillery Regiment and a northward thrust by the 3rd Armored Brigade towards Popovo. The attack is mostly successful, breaking through the Bulgarian and Soviet lines and allowing over 60 percent of the Turkish troops to escape being cut off. The effort, however, exhausts V Turkish Corps' supply stockpile, and the momentum of the Turkish offensive has been lost.

MPs of the 16th Military Police Brigade establish a large POW camp outside Bushehr to hold the thousands of Soviet troops that have been captured over the preceding few weeks.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with the Iranian garrison at Bandar-Deylam, en route to linking up with the 24th Infantry Division and 82nd Airborne Division to the northwest

The beachhead at Bandar-e-Khomeini is targeted by a concentrated effort by Southern TVD to disrupt the flow of American reinforcements into Iran. The area is hit repeatedly by conventionally-armed short- and intermediate-range surface to surface missiles, Su-24 bombers, fighter-bombers and cruise missiles launched by strategic bombers flying over the Caspian. The day-long attack overwhelms the ability of the divisions' air defense battalions and the forward deployed Corps Patriot missile battalion (3rd Battalion, 43rd ADA) to protect the unloading areas. Luckily, the Soviet weapons accuracy (and the crew's training) is so poor that many of the hits that do occur miss the intended target and, at day's end, the reinforcement effort has been set back by two days at most.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534, still hiding under a disused oil rig in the Persian Gulf, attacks the Panamanian supertanker World Prime as it departs Kuwait with a load of crude oil for Japan.

The USS Independence battle group shifts its day's efforts from supporting the Iranian II Corps to attacking the Soviet paratroops of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division, who remain ensconced in defensive positions in and around Bandar Abbas.

The trio of convoys carrying the 4th Marine Division depart Pago Pago, American Samoa, after a two-day stop to resupply and perform minor repairs. The island remains under a communications blackout imposed two days prior to the fleet's arrival.

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

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

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

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

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

Besides the Hawk TDM capability, there was also the NOAH (a 1988 article about the system is here, see p. 23) and coming online with the NATO allies is also the ground-launched AMRAAM, first fielded (again by Norway) as NASAMS.

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

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

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