[chico20854]

February 26, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Headquarters, XI US Corps completes its intense two-week command post exercise (in which it "fought" a month-long campaign which started as a defense against a Soviet Front and ended with a counteroffensive) and returns to its home station of Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana for equipment issue prior to deploying.

The 43rd (Wessex) Brigade dispatches additional companies to the area around the GLCM flight that was attacked (with only a single injury) by Col. Tumanski's Spetsnaz team. The flood of additional troops to the area causes the Soviet colonel to withdraw from the area and seek other targets. (The diversion of troops to the area in itself consumes resources that would otherwise be directed to the front).

The old carrier USS Midway and its air group, CVW-16, is declared combat ready in San Diego. It is ordered to patrol the northeast Pacific, the area between the Aleutians, Midway and Puget Sound. CVW-16 fields two F/A-18 squadrons, a squadron of A-7E attack jets and a squadron of A-6 bombers, along with the usual complement of airborne early warning and electronic warfare aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters. The air wing does not have tankers, F-14 interceptors or fixed-wing anti-submarine aircraft.

Convoy 208 arrives in Pusan, Korea, bringing with it the 264th Engineer Group, bulk ammunition and containerized supplies for 8th US Army and carrying bagged rice to help sustain the South Korean civilian population.

The 151st Field Artillery “Gamecock" Brigade (South Carolina National Guard), with a M109 battalion and a M110 howitzer battalion is reported ready for action in Germany, and is assigned to III Corps.

On the Kola Peninsula, units on the front line gradually reduce the portion of troops at the front, withdrawing the rest to prewar buildings in the rear (in the towns of Zaozersk, Kola and Murmansk for the Soviets, Nikel, Luostari and Pechenga for NATO troops). X Corps withdraws 10th Mountain Division, which has suffered the highest losses, back into Norway for rest, refit and to absorb what replacement troops and equipment arrive in Norway. The Norwegian Army rotates brigades off the front line, replacing the most damaged platoons in each battalion with replacement platoons reassigned from units in southern Norway and replacing losses in other units with fresh recruits from the training system, which was working overtime to make up for the casualties of over four months of intense combat. The Dutch marine battalion receives a steady stream of reservists to replace its losses, although the replacements arrive only with small arms.

A Soviet raider in the South Atlantic sinks the bulk carrier Merchant Pioneer, carrying 60,000 tons of fertilizer to Lagos, Nigeria. The loss of the cargo will add to the growing food catastrophe in Africa.

Convoy 8, under the protection of the escort carrier Shangri-La (and other escorts), arrives in Gibraltar.

2nd Squadron, 14th ACR (Light) and its 919th Engineer Company arrive in Saudi Arabia. The 269th Aviation Battalion (Combat) of the 18th Airborne Corps is deployed as well.

The 196th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only division from the Moscow Mlitary District, is called up in Kursk and assigned to the 2nd Guards Army. It is equipped with T-62 tanks, Second World War-vintage artillery and 160mm mortars instead of howitzers in the regimental artillery batteries.