June 1, 1998
The replica USS Constitution obtains a cargo of food and general supplies for the population of the Azores.
Unofficially,
map
The day finds the military in the continental US widely spread on disaster relief, internal security and food distribution duties. There are less than three division equivalents of fully equipped combat troops (the 49th AD, 42nd ID and 194th and 197th Brigades), three other trained divisions (the 4th AD, 17th AbnDiv and 46th ID) and a number of independent regiments and brigades that are trained but lack equipment and a wide range of training units as well as scattered military police and engineer units supporting civilian government functions.
The Joint Chiefs, who have had plenty to do from the moment they took charge, become aware of the new orders concerning the First Maritime Defense District. Flaherty hadn't consulted them. Eventually, minutes of the day reveal that the President, who had committed suicide, had executed some sort of orders regarding the Coast Guard and Navy chains of command in New England.
The major decision the Joint Chiefs make today, however, is to cut the allocation of food provided by military units to civilians to 1200 calories a day, in response to dwindling reserves and the arrival of fresh food in many gardens across the country.
The group of escaped POWs from the Okehampton POW camp splits up, with most of the men following Captain Konev. He decides to head to the safety of the Dartmoor Forest.
With Pact forces continuing their advances in southern Germany, the Royal Canadian Air Force decides to evacuate its remaining base in the region, at Baden–Soellingen. (The RCAF base at Lahr was obliterated by a Soviet SS-20 IRBM in November). The USAF dispatches a C-130 of the 180th Tactical Airlift Squadron (Missouri Air National Guard) to evacuate the stockpile of tactical nuclear bombs and the American security element; its departure flight is escorted by the remaining six flyable CF-18s (F/A-18s) of 439 Squadron RCAF. A convoy of ground vehicles leaves at dusk, carrying ground crews, command staff and what tools and spare parts can be hastily gathered.
In surrounded Ansbach the American troops that are veterans of the long retreat across Poland coach the young replacements about how to break out of Soviet encirclement; the terrified Specialist Cutler, obviously drunk, retreats to the safety of his cellar as Soviet mortar barrages disrupt the defenders' activity.
The largest of the Italian-supported puppet armies in Jugoslavia, the Croatian Nationalist Army, musters two brigades as the Italians begin a mass conscription campaign that drafts boys and men from age 14 to 65.