September 30, 1997
In Korea, 4th (my 1st) Marine Division suffers heavy causalities from tactical nuclear strikes and retreats from the front lines along the west coast of the peninsula.
Unofficially,
The 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, in the eastern Netherlands after being pulled from the front line, reorganizes. Surviving MLRS launchers are consolidated in one battalion (4th Battalion, 27th Artillery) and, as the M110 had been out of production for many years, 4-14 is reduced to a single battery of nine guns; the excess personnel are assigned to other artillery units in Europe and the identities of the deactivated units transferred back to Fort Sill.
The Pact offensive in southern Germany is making slow progress, as the Italian war economy is not yet ramped up to full production, Pact forces are hobbled by tranport bottlenecks entering the theatre and additional NATO forces arrive at the front from Poland and Scandinavia.
The American attack submarine USS Olympia moves west into the Barents Sea.
In the North Atlantic, the frigate HMS Southerland detects an enemy submarine and dispatches its Sea Lynx helicopter to engage. The helo locates the Tango-class B-319 and sinks her with a WE-177 nuclear depth charge.
The Jugoslav high command and governmental leaders depart Belgrade in an early-morning helicopter flight, arriving at the Crna Rijeka bunker in the mountains of Bosnia.
Bulgarian troops of the 1st Guards Motor-Rifle Division capture the town of Pirot, while Bulgarian paratroops land at the Nis Air Base.
While the prior day's assault west of Bandar Abbas has reopened the coastal road and Kurdish guerillas remain active in northwestern Iran, both Allied and Soviet forces in Iran are stretched to their limits logistically. Both sides' combatants are operating at the end of very long, unsecure supply lines that are being fed by nations on the brink, exhausted by months of intense combat.
The Pakistani army along the entire front begins to give way as Indian armored and motorized formations drive deeper into the country's heartland.
__________________
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
|