[chico20854]

May 20, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

Following Munson's breakdown, the Secretary of State is sworn in as President of the United States. Munson is escorted out of the bunker in south-central Virginia to a comfortable home at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station outside Newport News, where he can rest.

In Colorado Springs, the Joint Chiefs and FEMA managers agree that to maximize the utility of the limited trickle of fuel available for transportation, that maximum use is to be made of rail and river transportation. (A gallon of diesel can move 59 ton-miles by truck, 202 by train and 514 ton-miles by barge).

Erbach an der Donau finally falls to Soviet troops, with scattered German and Danish troops slipping away through the woods and hills outside the city. The Soviet victory has come at great cost and the NATO defense has held up the advance of the entire 41st Army.

The Estonian fishing boat carrying CIA agent David Hudson arrives in view of the Swedish island of Gotland. The CIA man makes radio contact with the acting CIA station chief in Stockholm and is instructed to land and surrender himself to the local defense force.

The Dutch salvage team aboard the freighter Randfontien reports that nearly half of the ship's cargo of grain is still dry and undamaged but that the ship cannot be refloated, such is the damage inflicted by the mine the ship detonated six days prior. Unloading the ship, however, will require a stream of barges and construction equipment, since the ship is listing at an angle that precludes use of its onboard cranes.

In Shiraz, Iran, the state munitions plant brings online its second production line, turning out track pads for the IPA's small but useful fleet of Scorpion light tanks. The British-educated chief engineer hopes that once the plant's workers before proficient in the Scorpion pads that they can expand to other track sections for the Scorpions as well as pads for the plethora of other tracked AFVs in use by Allied forces in Iran.