[chico20854]

June 22, 1997

Canon is silent on the day's activities. Unofficially,

The third R-5D hypersonic spy plane is delivered in Palmdale, California.

The court martial of the Fort Lee, Virginia drill sergeant, accused of being a member of the "5th Squad" gang, is concluded with the sergeant's conviction on six counts. He is reduced in rank to buck private and, as a result of his impassioned pleas to be given "long, hard time at Leavenworth" is ordered to the front in Poland as an infantryman.

The torpedo factory in Nestor, England near Liverpool, resumes full production after being attacked by a Spetsnaz team in March.

Allied troops in Korea move north through more of the DMZ fortifications. Many of the emplacements had been used for artillery or anti-aircraft guns rather than being designed for infantry use. In the east, III ROK Corps has completed its linkup with the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade. While the Koreans continue up the coast, the Marines begin a drive inland to further disrupt the North Korean defense.

The Polish 3rd Missile Brigade, assigned to Baltic Front headquarters, fires a salvo of Scud missiles at the NATO crossing point over the Oder River at Kołbaskowo, south of Szczecin. The strike causes significant disruption to the traffic crossing the bridge, inducing panic among the foreign civilian contract drivers, although the missiles miss the bridge.

Outside Warsaw, the NATO effort is dedicated to shoring up the NATO lines around the city to prevent a breakout or relief as well as positioning troops and building supporting supply infrastructure. XI German Korps, composed mostly of territorials and border guards, both East and West German, moves to the northwest sector outside the city. The US commits XXIII US Corps, composed of the 3rd, 35th and 40th Infantry Divisions and the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (now a full regiment, although with two squadrons of improvised vehicles scraped together in Germany), as well as a sizeable contingent of artillery and engineer brigades, mainly from the southwest and west. Much of the east section of the perimeter is held by British troops.

In Finland, the 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division finally clears the Finnish defenders from its path and makes contact with the rear guard of the American 10th Mountain Division, which is trying to make an orderly withdrawal to Norwegian territory.

The damaged USS Enterprise arrives in Belfast, Northern Ireland and enters the drydock at Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic in 1912.

To distract Soviet naval efforts from the convoy headed to Turkey, 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches three separate raids along the eastern Libyan coast under cover from the aircraft of the USS John F Kennedy and USS America. Each strikes a radar or air defense missile installation.

Outside Bandar Abbas, small groups of paratroopers, numbering around 1000 (mostly from the division's , make their way on foot northward. They are the sole survivors of the once-mighty 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. Behind them, in the ruined city of Bandar Abbas, the two Marine divisions, Gurkha brigade and assortment of support units begin the grim task of building a semblance of order.