[chico20854]

August 2, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion is withdrawn to Holland for reconstruction as the defense of the Augsburg area is strengthened with the arrival of additional British units of I British Corps.

Under pressure from the Soviet 7th Army and with Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division active to its rear, the 24th Infantry Division abandons Ahvaz, which it had captured but days before.

The commander of the 10th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, Major General V.B. Dovator, is killed in an American artillery attack while he is inspecting a forward position. His deputy commander, Konstantin P. Yermolayev, assumes command.

Although the Pembertons are divorced, the Vice President arranges for her daughter to take an extended hiking trip in the Cascades with her father. When it becomes obvious that a nuclear attack is not imminent, America's readiness level is downgraded, and conditions return more or less to normal. Vice President Pemberton objects to what she calls the "women and children first mentality" which had put her on the NEACP aircraft, and insists that she and the President trade off each time there is a crisis. The next time Tanner will board NEACP and Pemberton will stay in Washington until the last minute.

The population of patients suffering from PTSD at the Bay Pines, Florida VA hospital peaks at over 9,000.

Unofficially,

Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-27554-9, located at the US Department of Agriculture Sheep Research Center in Dubois, Idaho, is fully stocked with the arrival of the final shipment - ten brand-new M1081 LMTV trucks, loaded with MREs. The trucks are refueled and the entrance to the underground garage facility is concreted over.

The Italians resume their attacks in Bavaria, driving north from the northern suburbs of Munich towards Regensburg to link up with Czech troops and attacking across the Iller River, pushing back the exhausted troops of the US 10th Mountain Division.

On Sicily, the Canadian Airborne seizes the Messina municipal airfield, and a stream of C-130 and C-17 aircraft begins airlifting in the Espana Airmobile Brigade.

The Soviet 42nd Corps launches its attack on the Turkish IX Corps outside of Kars. Taking advantage of its superior training and equipment, the Soviet force masses 250 guns and howitzers, delivering a massive 45-minute barrage that tears great gaps in the Turkish defensive positions. The feeble counterbattery fire from the dug-in Turkish artillery is met with a devastating response (from two entire battalions of self-propelled 152mm howitzers guided by counterbattery radar). The final half dozen rounds fired by each Soviet gun before the assault commences are loaded with Soman nerve gas, blanketing the Turkish positions in deadly clouds. The subsequent Soviet assault is successful, running through the shattered and choking remnants of the 9th Infantry Division; by nightfall the Turkish commanding general is being interrogated by the 42nd Corps GRU detachment. Along the Black Sea Coast, Turkish troops battle the Soviet 156th Motor-Rifle Division for control of the town of Rize. The battle in the town has started innumerable fires and sends much of the civilian population fleeing.

In Cherbakul (in the Urals), the 257th Motor-Rifle Division, which was activated in June from the students and some of the cadre of the 78th Training Motor-Rifle Division, completes its training and embarks on trains for transit to the front in the west. The unit needs less than the normal amount of rail capacity, since it has only four battalions of tanks (old T-55s) and three battalion of APCs (early model, open-top BTR-60s).