[chico20854]

May 30, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The peace talks in New Delhi have an added sense of urgency and seriousness following the cruise missile attack on Maine but make no progress.

The Victory ship Occidental Victory and freighter Leslie Lykes complete their reactivations in Oakland, California and move to the adjacent Army terminal to load cargo for Korea.

The junior members of the "5th Squad" gang at Fort Lee, Virginia have their Article 15 non judicial punishment proceedings concluded. Most are found guilty of assorted minor offenses. The men are washed out of their training courses at the base and cycled into various infantry and artillery training courses around the US, sending each soldier to a different base to complete their training before being sent to combat.

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a working-class suburb of Pittsburgh, the twins Randall and Rodney Cutler begin 36 hours of drunken partying in preparation for their upcoming induction into the military on June 1. They procure four cases of Iron City beer (known as 'Arns) and several cans of spray paint. The 25 year-olds are accompanied by their latest girlfriends and their buddies to "enjoy their last few hours of freedom."

The US 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized), in Bremerhaven and loading on railcars for transport to southern Germany, is diverted to Frankfurt-Oder to deal with the Soviet air assault force.

The US 2nd Armored Division, relieved in Northern Poland, is withdrawn to Germany for rest and reconstruction.

For internal security duties, the Polish command commits ORMO militia troops, ZOMO anti-riot troops, three WOW brigades and three WOW regiments, as well as activating OTK units in most cities. These units are under the command of the Polish government, rather than the Warsaw Pact high command, and they are, to the extent possible, kept out of the front lines since they lack heavy weapons and modern anti-tank systems. The call up of these units further slows the already strained Polish war economy, but with NATO troops occupying the western third of the country and a rival government claiming sovereignty over the entirety, the Polish government feels it is more important to maintain control.

Western TVD command commits the Soviet 230th Rear Area Security Division to securing the bridge crossings over the lower Wisła while the KGB converts its Border Guard Brigades on the Polish border to KGB Motor-Rifle Regiments, operating on both sides of the border against “anti-Soviet terrorists and criminals”. On the NATO side, the unified German government authorizes the deployment of border guard and territorial troop units in areas loyal to the Free Polish Congress. This action coincides with the effective cessation of pro-Soviet guerilla activity in the former East Germany, to a level that the civil police authorities, local militias and military units’ internal guard forces can suppress without outside assistance.

General Diedrichs, commander of the German First Army, after consulting with SACEUR following the Battle of Chojnice, decides to continue to advance east, peeling off I German Korps to guard the army’s northern flank against another counterattack from the Soviets to the north. V US and II British Corps move east, the British through Konin, Koło, and Kutno and the Americans through Kalisz, Sieradz and bypassing Łódź to the south.

A single TLAM (Tomahawk Land Attack Missile) is launched by the battleship Iowa in the Baltic Sea at the Soviet Jēkabpils Air Base in Latvia. The strike is in retaliation for the previous day's attack on Bangor International Airport, Maine, and it destroys the base' control tower and main maintenance hangar.

In the fighting in Bulgaria, 26th Army (a composite force of Red Army and Bulgarian soldiers, Bulgarian internal troops and sailors and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet's 810th Naval Infantry Brigade) finally overwhelms the Turkish XV Corps defenders, with several Turkish units abandoning their positions after over a week of nonstop artillery and infantry attack. In southeastern Romania, 14th Guards Army's drive on Foscani is slowed by repeated attacks and ambushes in its rear area by members of the Romanian Patriotic Guard, forcing the Soviets to divert significant combat power to securing its supply lines.

The USS Salem battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea, remaining out of sight of land.

There is further unrest in the POW camp outside Ganaveh, Iran when the supply of cigarettes for the prisoners runs low. Military authorities had not planned for the number of smokes consumed by their Soviet charges (who were excited to be able to get ahold of "premier" Western cigarettes rather than the inferior Soviet ones they were used to) and had diverted supplies for sale to American troops. This diversion was halted when the Third Army Command Sergeant Major went to the PX trailer and couldn't buy any cigarettes. The guard force at the camp demonstrated the rapid fire capability of their new shotguns but the prisoners were seething about the reduction in their nicotine supply.

The Echo II-class cruise missile sub K-35 arrives at a remote Indonesian port facility, secretly owned by the GRU following its attack on Diego Garcia. The crew is granted three days of liberty on the tropical island, their first time ashore since departing Polyarnyy in December. When they return to the boat the job of restocking her for her next patrol will commence.

Venezuela dispatches another round of tankers to Soviet allies in the Third World. The Miguel Hidalgo is dispatched to Nicarauga and the Jose Felix Ribas departs for Angola carrying loads of crude oil. This maintains Venezuela's self declared neutrality, offsetting the daily shipments of crude to NATO-controlled refineries in Aruba, St Croix and the US Gulf Coast.

The pressure on the rebels in Khabarovsk increases under the weight of the full 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division and KGB and MVD loyalist troops. (Additional MVD riot control troops have arrived to augment the 65th Training Regiment.) Isolated surrenders of rebel individuals and small units and dwindling ammunition, food and water stocks begin to sap the mutineer's fighting strength as the perimeter shrinks.