[chico20854]

April 2, 1997

A big day...

The US 45th Infantry Division is declared operational and begins deployment to Korea by sea.

NATO launches Operation Advent Crown, the invasion of Poland. The plan calls for the Second German Army to strike along the Baltic Coast with Kaliningrad and Grodno as the ultimate objectives, advancing through Szczecin, Slupsk and Gdańsk. The First German Army, with I British Corps will advance through central Poland, with the objective of reaching the Soviet border in the vicinity of Brest, capturing Poznań and Łódź and bypassing Warsaw. The Third German Army is tasked to take Silesia and southern Poland, ultimately reaching Lublin and Lvov in the Ukraine, advancing through Wrocław, Gliwice, Katowice, Krakow and Rzeszow. On the flank, Seventh US Army will gradually extend its area of responsibility eastward as additional National Guard divisions become available from the United States.

Unofficially,

While the plan envisions sweeping armored thrusts deep into Poland, on the ground there is a different reality. The Polish Army, the Polish people and their Soviet allies have prepared a deep system of fortifications the likes of which have been unseen since the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Western Poland has been transformed into a series of interlocking lines of field fortifications, painstakingly constructed by every available engineer unit from the Polish Army and Soviet First and Second Western Fronts. OTK (Territorial Defense) units and support troops, local civilians, Allied POWs and even prisoners from Polish jails had all been drafted into digging trench lines in the snow, working up to 18 hours a day. Command posts had been buried and camouflaged, minefields laid, barbed wire strung and reserve positions prepared. Open areas that could serve as helicopter landing zones had poles and cables rigged across them. Artillery batteries had, on average, ten firing positions surveyed and prepared. Fighting positions had stockpiles of food and ammunition to enable their defenders to hold out when cut off. Anti-tank reserve units and mobile blocking forces were in position to counter NATO breakthroughs. The Pact front line is actually a series of outposts, with the main line of resistance out of the direct line of sight of NATO troops. The defense zone is nearly 50 miles deep along the entire frontier, a truly massive effort to construct in three short months of winter. Following the completion of the defensive line, the Polish government evacuated the remaining civilian population, both to protect them and to prevent pro-NATO partisans from hiding among them.

This construction activity had been observed by NATO reconnaissance assets, so the attacking force knew what it would have to defeat. Second German Army begins clearing the coastal minefields and neutralizing Polish coastal defense missile launchers before being able to launch flanking amphibious landings. In other sectors the solution is simply to apply large amounts of firepower. Massed artillery fires, concentrated in key sectors, break up small parts of the defensive line. DPICM and FASCAM munitions are used to tie reaction forces in place. Hunter-killer helicopter teams hunt bunkers rather than tanks. Transport aircraft drop large fuel air explosive bombs into stretches of forest to create new landing zones for helicopters.

Nonetheless, when the offensive kicks off progress is slow. The artillery barrage is less intense than its Second World War counterparts because NATO artillery units are constantly changing position to avoid Pact counterbattery fire. IFVs and tanks are used in direct-fire support of attacking NATO infantry, but by the end of the day the attacks have only succeeded in overrunning the Polish outer picket line; defensive minefields block access to the main line of resistance.

The ground offensive is accompanied by the beginning of Advent Storm, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force's offensive. Advent Storm's first goal is the interruption of Pact reinforcements' flow into the battle area. In this effort they try to balance striking target-rich chokepoints against doing so much damage to the infrastructure that advancing troops will be slowed down or blocked. In this regard, Soviet troops in open terrain are the preferred (and maddeningly rare) target.

On the Kola, a scratch force of Soviet paratroops, sailors, MVD and KGB troops continue to prevent the NATO force from making rapid progress. NATO marines force Soviet defenders back along the road, advance, and then find their flank under attack from Soviet troops enjoying superior mobility. The advance is measured in meters; a successful day might see 400 meters of territory gained at the cost of a company of highly trained marines.

The carrier Lexington carries out an airstrike against the Polish cargo ship Praca in the Yucatán Channel. The Polish ship had left the Soviet enclave in Mariel, Cuba and is headed to Nicarauga to act as a raider supply ship. Lady Lex's A-4 Skyhawks sink the ship with general-purpose bombs.

The Soviet Kilo-class diesel submarine B-177 moves west to the sealane between Cyprus and Turkey. The Turkish landing ship Karamürselbey soon passes close by (returning from Cyprus with wounded and refugees from the fighting), and the Soviet submarine launches a pair of 53-61M torpedoes, which hit and break the transport's back. As it settles under the waves the ship gets a mayday call off, and soon the sky overhead is filled with helicopters rescuing sailors and passengers from the water. Other helicopters, AB-205 naval variants, begin hunting for the sub using dipping sonars. The Soviet boat maneuvers to evade its pursuers, but unwittingly sails into a Turkish defensive minefield. It sets off a MR-80 mine on the seabed and the subsequent blast is the end of the Soviet boat.

Labor unrest occurs across the USSR, in nearly every of the union republics and across the USSR's 11 time zones. MVD riot control units are supplemented by VDV airborne troops in restoring order in the cities.

The Soviet Tango-class submarine B-498 arrives off the coast of Guinea, and attacks the Greek-flag Konkar Star, carrying a load of Brazilian wheat into Conkary.

The freighter Cape Bingham exits the shipyard in Oakland, California and moves to the Oakland Army Terminal to load vehicles and equipment of the 40th Infantry Division.

The Coast Guard-sourced patrol squadron VOJ-202 is deployed to the Caribbean to continue the raider hunt.

US Civil Affairs units are made responsible for handling refugees and restoration of local administration by the Polish Free Congress in NATO Occupied Poland.