[chico20854]

May 13, 1998

The Dutch 1st Mechanized Division is stood down, its surviving personnel assigned to other units.

Unofficially,

The bubonic plague is spreading along the US West Coast, with new cases reported in Astoria, Oregon and Riverside, California.

In Alaska, X Corps has finally amassed sufficient food and fuel to resume its pursuit of the Soviet force retreating towards Anchorage.

Southwest of Ulm, the German town of Erbach an der Donau is held by a mixed force of Bundeswehr troops of the 10th Panzer Division and Danish reservists of the 2nd Jutland Regiment, forming the junction between the Danish Expeditionary Force and IV German Korps. The town is separated from the Pact lines by the Danube River and low-lying marshy ground between the shore and the town's built-up area; the prior days' Pact attacks have only eliminated some of the NATO observation posts on an island opposite the town. At dawn the Soviet 62nd Tank Division, a mobilization-only division from Ukraine equipped with an array of obsolescent armor (T-34s, T-10s and SU-100s) tries to force a crossing onto the island opposite the town. NATO artillery observers from the schloss (castle) overlooking the town from the far side call in effective artillery and mortar fire which strips the supporting infantry off the Soviet armor. The Soviet tanks turn back, seeking the cover of nearby vegetation. The German commander's request for air or further artillery support to eliminate the sheltering tanks is denied; no ammunition can be spared to engage enemy troops not in direct contact.

The small group of transports carrying replacement equipment (much of the heavy weapons and vehicles of the 46th Infantry Division) arrives in Bremerhaven, Germany. The vehicles aboard the Cape Turner and Baltimore Freedom can be driven off the ships' ramps, while the supplies on the Baltimore Freedom and Manley Falmouth are unloaded using the ships' onboard cranes; this allows them to be unloaded without requiring the heavily damaged port's cranes to have power and masses of stevedore labor.
The convoy's escort, the destroyer USS Stump, remains on patrol offshore.

Nhaziern Khazi meets with a Tudeh guerrilla leader, who agrees on a bounty to be paid for assistance in attacking Khazi's Pasdaran unit.

In the south Atlantic, the USS Virginia and the two ships it captured in battle two days prior have turned north. What little fuel that remains aboard the tanker Captain Pershin is transferred to the refrigerated cargo ship Motovskiy Zaliv as well as spares, lubricants and other items of value that cannot be used by the American cruiser. The upper two levels of the forward hold are fitted with bedding, and an American prize crew guards the transfer of the crews of the two Soviet ships as well as the POWs captured in April from the trawler Star of Crimea into the hold. The ship is dispatched to Norfolk, Virginia while the cruiser turns west, heading for the Pacific.