June 14, 1997
The headquarters of the 3rd Marine Division joins the 1st (my 4th) Marine Division on the beachhead at Bandar Abbas.
Warsaw is surrounded by NATO forces, including the British 1st (my II British) Corps; the city begins to prepare for a long siege.
Many inhabitants of the town of Wieliczka, east of Krakow, flee the fighting, seeking shelter in the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine, an incredible complex of hand-cut tunnels and chambers.
Unofficially,
The Australian National Security Committee holds a secret emergency meeting to consider the request placed by the British for greater contribution to the war effort. The leader of the opposition party is also in attendance, and the committee decides to commit a second Army brigade to action as well as extending Australia's assistance in supplying and supporting other combatant nations.
The Freedom-class cargo ship Istanbul Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.
At Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Seaman Recruit Rodney Cutler is the recipient of a late night "blanket party" after one of his peers notices his missing flashlight in Cutler's locker. When a dazed and crying Cutler reports that he has been attacked, the entire company is awoken and made to run laps around the barracks until dawn, then carry out their training day as scheduled.
The Des Moines battle group arrives in the Straits of Tsushima between Japan and Korea. It is directed east to provide fire support for Allied forces ashore.
The 4th Guards Tank Army attacks south out of the Bydgoszcz and Torun bridgeheads, overrunning the outer pickets of the German 1st Gebirgsjaeger Division and capturing the city of Inowrocław within hours. The counterattack continues south, threatening the rail line and highway running through Konin and Koło. The advance south is protected by lakes on either flank, but the Soviet tanks reach a German blocking position 40 km north of Konin. The German mountain troops are forced to retreat, setting up blocking positions to try to slow the armored assault and dispersing into small units to take advantage of rough terrain.
German First Army commander General Diedrichs commits his final light formation, the 25th Fallschirmjäger Brigade, with a helicopter-borne assault on the towns of Wyszkow and Pultusk, capturing bridges over the Bug and Narew Rivers.
In the Kola, the 2nd Spetsnaz Brigade scores its biggest victory of the campaign, when a team from its 329th Special Forces Battalion (the same team that had attacked the Kirkenes stevedores’ barracks a few weeks earlier) locates and attacks X Corps’ forward command post. The brief and furious firefight between the elite Soviet operators and the platoon of Italian Alpini guarding it sees both forces wiped out, and the corps commander General Collins killed. Command of the corps switches, after a confusing interlude of three hours, to the main command post in Nikel and the corps deputy commander, Brigadier General Robert Bryant.
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The USS Coral Sea battle group undertakes an hours-long replenishment at sea prior to entering the Baltic Sea. All of the groups' ships are refuelled while helicopters buzz overhead landing provisions on helipads and open spots on deck.
As the final flight carrying the 71st Airborne Brigade arrives in Romania, the brigade S-4 (supply officer) scrambles to get ahold of the supplies needed to sustain his unit in action. His hosts assure him adequate food and fuel (although not of the type and quality that the troops are used to), but his formation requires spare parts, higher-level maintenance and ammunition that no other unit for hundreds of miles has or uses.
The engagement between the airborne unit and the 17th Guards Tank Division continues to grow, as both sides feed additional units into the narrow valley of the Mureș River. The American units (and their allies of the Romanian 5th Mountain Brigade) retreat to the high ground overlooking the valley, taking advantage of the Soviet tanks' limited elevation and the Soviet formation's sparse motor-rifle contingent to inflict disproportionate losses on the Pact troops. The American commanders are also able to rely on close air support from the A-7s of the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania National Guard), which have been operating from Jugoslav bases since January.