[chico20854]

March 19, 1998

In Djibouti, the French and Djibouti forces, already pushed to the limit dealing with Somali and Ethiopian marauders and Afar rebels, are overwhelmed with tens of thousands of desperate refugees as the Republic of Somaliland collapses due to a plague outbreak killing almost half its population.

Unofficcially,

At Fort Ritchie, Maryland, the support base of the Raven Rock "backup Pentagon", the garrison marshalls all available vehicles and fuel for the evacuation of the Joint Chiefs. The vast majority of the trip to Colorado will be conducted by rail, loading at the mostly intact Frederick, Maryland railroad station. To get there, however, the Joint Chiefs and staff will have to traverse the blast and fallout zone of the nuclear strikes on Camp David and Fort Deitrich; fortunately radiation levels have dropped in the intervening months.

The Battle of St. Lawrence Gulf rages in that body of water as the Royal Canadian Navy closes in on the ragtag Quebecois fleet. The Canadian task force receives the support of 880 Squadron, RCAF with a sortie of two CP-121 Tracker maritime scout aircraft, which confirm that the main body of the rebel force remains at anchor at Sept-Îles, with a few picket boats to prevent total surprise. The Trackers sink two of the picket boats with rocket fire before turning back, but the boats manage to get word out before going under. The RCN task force closes on the town and its harbor, subjecting it to sustained gunfire. (The Canadians are out of surface-to-surface missiles). The Margaree, the Canadian frigate that suffered an engineering casaulty the day before, continues its streak of misfortune when it is caught by an improvised Quebbecois command-detonated mine which rips its stern off. The remainder of the Canadian task force stands off from the harbor, as the Quebecois fleet refuses to sortie, bombarding it from medium range with gunfire and engaging in a duel with a battery of 105mm howitzers hidden among thhe town's buildings. The Canadians manage to launch a sole CH-124 Sea King helicopter to provide spotting support, which, after a long and sloppy engagement, results in heavy losses among the Quebecois fleet, including nearly all the requisitioned ferries and the sole pre-rebellion naval craft, the auxilary minesweeper HMCS Anticosti). The Canadian victory eliminates the threat of a Quebecois amphibious landing in Newfoundland or the Maritimes absent a more overt French intervention.

The remaining elements of the battered 158th Motor-Rifle Division attempt to cross the Sava River out of Bosnia-Hercegovina. The panicked troops abandon their vehicles and heavy equipment when they discover the bridges are down, crossing the river in small boats and makeshift rafts. They are met on the far shore by a Red Army colonel, who is able to deploy a mix of shaming and informing the deserters that they need to cross over 1,000 km of enemy territory before reaching Soviet soil to rally many of them into an ad-hoc formation.

In Poland, the army restructures some of its divisions, stripping some of their vehicles (which are transferred to other understrength formations) and converting them to cavalry, using horses seized from local farmers.

Joining the exodus of aircraft from Europe, the 155th Tactical Airlift Squadron (Tennessee Air National Guard) begins transferring personnel and equipment from its operating location at Cairo West Air Base in Egypt to Moi Airbase in Kenya.