February 9, 1997

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

Unofficial:

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

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

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

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

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

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The Mainz Army Depot in Germany returns its 200th M1-series tank damaged in the Battle of Germany to 7th Army after repair, testing and certification as combat ready.

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Soviet Su-24 bombers strike Danish targets, including the Gedser port facility (terminus of a ferry to Germany).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greece might not be in NATO anymore but the USSR is still going to sink your ships.

February 10, 1997

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

Unofficially:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

definition of a bar room brawl that keeps getting bigger

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

The Soviets figured that the cargo moving on the world's oceans wasn't going to make it through the NATO blockades along the approaches to the USSR, so if it's moving it isn't for them and therefore possibly for NATO or neutral countries. Either way they aren't going to risk the possibility of being sighted and called in, so it's more or less a sink on sight (visual, radar or shipborne helicopter) policy.

And the Greeks were the largest owners of ships in the world at the time, so it was inevitable both that some of them would see the earning potential of carrying cargo to combatant nations and that some of their ships would get sunk. Most of their ships weren't even Greek flagged (which obligated them to use more expensive Greek crews and follow all kinds of pesky bureaucratic rules!).

So it's not really that the Soviets targeted the ship knowing it was Greek, it was more a case of "nothing personal, its just business"!

February 11, 1997

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

Unofficial:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 12, 1997

Nothing official for today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 13, 1997

Nothing official for the day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 14, 1997

Another day with nothing in the official canon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The naval raider activity has me wondering about the MPA force. I know Keflavik got hit by a SSM strike early on (I’m asssuming they’ve reconstituted or developed a dispersed base), and Kirov bombarded Ascension with NGF. Bermuda, Azores, etc. seem to be up and running covering convoys and hunting raiders. Seeing Kirov load FAE warheads has me wondering if something isn’t about to be done to address that.

February 15, 1997

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

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

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Headquarters, II Corps is activated at Fort Rucker, Alabama from the 121st Army Reserve Command (ARCOM), an Army Reserve unit responsible for providing peacetime command and administrative support to other Army Reserve units in its geographic area, with an initial wartime mission of supporting the mobilization and deployment of those units as well as assisting Army National Guard units in its area.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The 1st Tactical Fighter Wing's F-15s fly their first operational sortie, patrolling over the Persian Gulf to protect the eastern Saudi ports and assist the Iranian Air Force.

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

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

here is one item that has not shown up yet. i could see them flying off the coast. one thing of note. it takes a high end radar guided missile to take out. they will show up on Radar, but hitting one with a missile is hard. why. most of them have fabric wings and little metal. the single engine also have small heat output...compared to a jet engine or gas turbine (P3). so if they see a sub, they can get a contact report off and if the sub has a SAM it will be hard to hit. the young pilot would need a spatula to clean out their flight suit.


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

Just one thing, Chico -- the Tu-16 is not capable of supersonic speeds down on the deck. If you want a combination of age and down-on-the-deck supersonic capability, I would replace the Tu-16s with Tu-22 Blinders, which are capable of Mach 1.22 on the deck (though they have no NOE capability and bombing accuracy would be poor; probably better to arm them with cruise missiles or SRAMs).

Or the Tu-160 but they didnt build many of them

I can’t imagine there’s a lot of hikers roaming around the forest parks after TTW. It’ll be one interesting cover story for a military age male caught doing so!

February 16, 1997

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

Unofficially:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks! I wrote them in for today!!!

Thanks Paul!

I went and edited the post to swap them out with Blinders. At this point in the war, I have Long Range Aviation relying on dumb bombs for missions like these. Most of the cruise missiles and ASMs in the stockpiles were expended in the campaign against the Chinese air defense network and subsequent demolition of Chinese military industry, in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea and in strikes on Luftwaffe bases in West Germany in the fall of 96, as well as long-range strikes on air bases in the UK. With targets in the Balkans relatively poorly protected, Long Range Aviation can use dumb bombs and save the remaining missiles (and current production) for higher priority targets.

I have those held back for strategic strikes on NATO. Most of them are sitting deep in the USSR with nukes on board.

Wow, that’s a good bit of Caribbean production knocked out! I know Trinidad and Tobago is commonwealth, but is it a combatant when attacked? That’ll potentially widen the war as other uncommitted countries look at their own vulnerable resources.

the us navy might want to blow apart the Pueblo. but it could also be a trap.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_(AGER-2)

February 17, 1997

Nothing official today!

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

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

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

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

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Soviet rocket artillery fire disrupts the 6th US Division's rear area, temporarily halting the unit's artillery fire as the guns expend the last of their ammunition and poor weather prevents helicopters from resupplying the batteries.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Possibly so! I guess the Soviets figured that if they were selling petroleum to combatant nations then their refinery was a legitimate target, combatant nation or not!

If I can’t have it, nobody can!

February 18, 1997

Nothing official for today.

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

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

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

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

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

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The New Jersey battle group transits the Panama Canal and heads east at flank speed.

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

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

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

February 19, 1997

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I finally decided to mosey over here. Not sure why I didnt sooner but very impressive writing Chico. Can't wait to read what comes next.

I'm glad you (and others) are enjoying it! It's a lot of fun to do!

February 20, 1997

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

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

February 21, 1997

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

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your writeup of the aircraft inspired me to extrapolate on it!

That was something we were always getting on our troops about: Site OPSEC. Pick up your trash. Camouflage your positions, Camouflage or erase your entry and exits from the bivouac. Etc, Etc, Etc. You really have to inspect the bivouac and keep on them.

GLCM and Pershing doctrinal pubs both directed one time use of hide sites. That said, finding multiple sites let’s you know you’re in the right area, and helps you narrow down what to look for. Pretty soon they’re going to get lucky.

February 22, 1997

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


Unofficially:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OPSEC, OPSEC, OPSEC!!!! After a couple months in the field the Air Force guys are getting sloppy! Of course with that many trucks in winter weather it's going to be quite a challenge to conceal the tire tracks, but the MRE wrappers are just poor soldier (airman?) skills and NCOs not doing their jobs...

Or could this be an elaborate ruse by MI-5 or MI-6 to see if there are foreign Spetsnaz teams operating in England. Remember they've already concluded that the "accident" on the Forties oil rigs were Spetsnaz operations, so I can see MI-5 or MI-6 saying let's find out what's what. JMHO.

I put your article on a thumb drive to read later tonight. (I have to sneakernet right now -- I bought a new laptop and I can't get the damned think to talk to my desktop like my old laptop. The old laptop sucked, but at least it networked!) :grumble:

That's at least as important as competent soldiers -- competent NCOs.

I’d imagine the GLCM troops and their accompanying security force would have been pretty keyed up at first, but fatigue, boredom, and complacency have doubtless crept in.

That said, a deployed GLCM flight would still be a tough target. In addition to a platoon sized force of USAF CSPs on the inner perimeter, they had an outer perimeter formed from host nation troops. According to the sources I’ve found these were supposed to be RAF Regiment or TA Infantry in what looks to be platoon or larger. Plus dogs, electronic sensors, etc. And probably a local reaction force.

The spetsnaz can hit and hit hard. After all, they’ve got the rest of their lives to do this mission. Once they do so, they can expect to be hunted ruthlessly.