April 6, 1998
Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,
In an attempt to improve its relative strategic position vis-à-vis the US, the Soviet command orders an attack on the US missile early warning radar at Thule, Greenland, which the recent reconnaissance flight has indicated is still operational. The target is selected both for its importance as a strategic warning asset and because it is the farthest that the Tu-16 bomber can reach with its onboard AS-6 missile. The missile partially malfunctions, detonating 16,000 feet over the base and with a reduced yield of 100 kilotons, knocking the radar out and lightly damaging the other on base facilities.
A second missile launched by the same aircraft at Keflavik air station in Iceland overshoots that site and detonates over the small town of Býjarskerseyri, 7 km away. The 350 kiloton blast inflicts light damage on the base, breaking windows and injuring a few exposed personnel who failed to take cover in the 7 seconds between the detonation and the arrival of the blast wave.
RainbowSix reports that the British Government has decided to evacuate the RAF base at Machrihanish on the tip of the Kintyre Peninsula in Argyll, Scotland. The Royal Navy warship HMS Achilles picks up a small number of British and American personnel still there and makes for Portsmouth.
The Dutch 1st Commando Group, armed with somewhat current intelligence on the Franco-Belgian occupation of Holland, begins scouring the area around Den Helder for small craft that can be used to infiltrate into occupied territory.
On the submerged Barrikada in the Arctic Ocean, the mutinous enlisted men continue to restart even one the reactors. The remaining reactor officer dies of his wounds received during the mutiny. Battery power is running low and the air aboard the boat grows foul as the ventilation system is turned off to conserve power.
The 115th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, a veteran formation that fought NATO troops on the Kola and across Finland before being stripped of men and equipment as the northwestern front died down, is in reserve south of Leningrad, assigned to 11th Guards Army on local security duties. The Army command orders the unit converted to horse cavalry, commandeering the division's few remaining vehicles and providing it with ten cavalry instructors, descendants of historical Cossack families and experienced horsemen.
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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...
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