[chico20854]

July 13, 1997

The deployment of the 46th Infantry Division to Europe, delayed due to shipping shortages until this time, is further delayed by the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

The drug charges against Dain Dangerous are dropped.

Unofficially,

General Secretary Sauronski refuses to take President Tanner's call.

Hyped up over the (almost entirely imaginary) threat from "Marxist infiltrators from Mexico", the Texas civilian militias along the border begin more aggressive patrolling.

A second day of protests outside RAF Greenham Common. Demonstrators block all entrances to the base, hindering the resupply of cruise missile flights that are dispersed throughout the countryside.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team returns to three GLCM launch sites in Berkshire that they had located in February, establishing a hidden observation post monitoring each. To their east, another Spetsnaz team launches an attack on the weapons storage area at RAF Upper Heyford, initiated with a truck bomb to blast through the perimeter fences. The attack is repulsed when the WSA's guard force ties down the Soviet sabateurs long enough for a pair of Peacekeeper Armored Cars from the 620th Security Police Squadron to arrive. One of the armored cars is destroyed by a RPG-18, but the other is able to employ its machineguns to pin down the attackers while more reinforcements arrive. Two commandos surrender, while the rest of the team is wiped out.

Far Eastern TVD retaliates against China for the nuclear attacks on Vladivostok and other naval bases. SS-20 mobile IRBMs from the 53rd Missile Army strike the PLA Navy's sole boomer base at Jianggezhuang, the Jiuquan and Xichang Satellite Launch Centers, the entrance to the Yuquanshan Mountain underground command center and the headquarters of the PLA's ICBM brigades. (There are hundreds of launch sites and dozens of underground missile and warhead storage facilities, too many for the Soviets to hit).

Internally displaced persons (mostly refugees from the fall and winter's fighting in East Germany and along the Czech border) begin moving away from locations that might be targets for Soviet nuclear weapons - air bases, the Mainz Army Depot, fixed military headquarters (even though the commands based there moved to alternative and field sites long ago), munitions plants and air defense sites, joined by some locals who, despite living near such targets for many years, decide that the risk is no longer worth it. The flow of people inhibits military traffic in West Germany, especially the trickle of units into Bavaria to resist the oncoming Italian-Pact force.

Italian troops advancing from the south link up with troops of the Hungarian 25th "Klapka György" Tank Brigade on the outskirts of Graz, Austria. The Austian government, from its wartime command post in St Johann im Pongau, calls for assistance from NATO to halt the Warsaw Pact onslaught.

The battle for Warsaw continues as the British 107th Infantry Brigade pushes south in intense fighting and the American 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) launches an attack out of the ruins of the international airport. Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are still locked in fierce combat in the Towarowa train station - they have captured and been driven out of a signal shed three times over the prior week, losing 40 men in the process.

NATO Air Forces on the Central Front drop the first nuclear bomb of the war, striking a SS-21 missile battery of the 458th Missile Brigade with a .5 kiloton B-61 bomb as it prepared to launch.

NATO forces in Northern Norway respond to the prior day's Soviet nuclear attack on the Norwegian-Soviet border. A F-16 from the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing drops a 60 kt B-61 bomb on the Kola Highway's Litsa River crossing.

The Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine building orders truck manufacturing plants (as well as a wide variety of other factories supporting the war effort) to implement industrial civil defense measures. Some manufacturing is moved to underground facilities and workers and their families are dispersed to a number of associated facilities, including resorts and rest camps, usually located within 100 km of the plant. During peacetime these provided recreation and vacation opportunities for workers; in wartime they serve as housing for employees and their families. The workers commute daily via train to the plant; if the plant is struck the workers on duty will potentially be lost but the off-duty workers and families will be safely outside the blast zone.

US Navy ship repair experts arrive in Mombassa, Kenya to evaluate the condition of the frigate Bagley.

The USS Independence battle group, in the Arabian Sea, resumes attacks on the isolated Soviet airborne force in Chah Bahar.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) shifts north as the 45th (my 32nd) Army begins a rapid retreat from the Shiraz area, pursued by the American 1st Marine Division, reinforced with the Australian 1st Brigade.

The final six A-7s of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, also returning to Texas for redeployment overseas.