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The 26th Infantry Division (Light) (Massachusetts and Connecticut National Guard) is withdrawn into reserve behind I Corps' front line following heavy action (unofficially) against the Soviet 30th Army.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The 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is withdrawn from the ruins of Baltiysk; it has seen months of action, culminating in the Battle of Baltiysk and the Soviet nuclear strike on the city that served as the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).

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.

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.

That must be one of the most hazardous transit routes in the war at that time.

There would be quite a lot of competition for that title by that stage of the war, I'm sure.

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.

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.

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.

dealing with COVID. Not too bad, just time consuming/distracting! I'll get caught up when I can!

Get well soon.

That darned 'Rona! Glad to hear you're weathering it okay.

Get well soon sir. I look these up and read them as soon as I see your post.

Get Well, Chico!
 

Dude, that sucks. I hope your immune system kicks the crap out of it tout suite, and you're back in battery soon.

-

I hope you're OK Chico! I'm doing the COVID thing myself right now, and I know how crummy it can feel.

hope you get to feeling better soon

Hope you’re feeling better. Get well soon!

Get well Chico. I know the feeling, 'Rona hit my family hard earlier this year.

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.

Chico and Paul,
Get well soon guys. I’m just getting over it too

Thanks for the well wishes guys! This is a mild case, thankfully, and hopefully I will be back to 100 percent soon!

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.

Well Wishes
 

Hope you are feeling better and on the mend. Updates, per usual, are great. Feel better fast!

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
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.

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!!! :)

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.

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...

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.

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!

The hair is mainly ancient history at this stage... started losing it in my early 20s! Thanks though!!

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.

25 Years Ago and Good Health
 

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!

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!

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”.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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
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.

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.

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.