[chico20854]

January 7, 1998

Although Chicago itself was not a target, the oil refineries at Joliet were, and this is enough to panic the population of the city and surrounding suburbs. Food shortages are not severe except in large urban areas, and most deaths are caused by epidemics and rioting.

A mass prison break from Matsqui Penitentiary in British Columbia, orchestrated by Tom "Fang" Strakes occurs. Most prisoners disperse into the countryside south of the Frasier River, but some remain and form the Razorheads marauder gang.

Anglia has escaped damage during the first nuclear exchange, which attracts many refugees to the area. The local population resists this invasion, and open warfare erupts. Some towns manage to force back the refugees, but in the majority of cases, sheer weight of numbers win the battle. When the refugees get into the towns, they find that the situation is not as good as they had been led to believe and fighting for the few good spots breaks out among the refugee groups. The fighting dies down as winter approaches.

The Dutch 105th Recon Battalion inflicts heavy casualties on the Belgian 7th Mechanized Brigade on the approaches to Arnhem.

Konstantin P. Yermolaev, commander of the 10th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, is promoted to Major General in Iran.

Unofficially

The 49th Armored Division struggles under the burden of trying to secure one of America's largest cities and is forced to cede control of some areas (most notably the remnants of Chicago's South Side) to the armed gangs that have threatened food and fuel convoys, requiring more resources to escort than the divisional commander has.

In order to conserve fuel, the destroyer Morton is travelling alone at 12 knots through Indonesian waters. (The ship's bunkers don't carry enough fuel for the 5500-mile voyage at the usual cruising speed of 17 knots, and refueling is unlikely along the way). The warship is approached at dawn by a small flotilla of armed small craft (the largest is an 8-meter customs boat mounting a 20mm cannon), who approach the destroyer despite radio calls to keep a distance. Soon a surface action has erupted, the destroyer using one of its 5-inch main guns to blast the customs boat out of the water and deck mounted 25mm cannons and machineguns to drive off the smaller craft.

The Dutch 5th Mechanized Division (in reality less than a brigade in strength after the attrition of the German campaign of 1997 and the prior day's French airstrikes) tries to hold the advancing Belgians from entering Nijmegen, but short of fuel and ammunition, is forced to displace, leaving many of its remaining vehicles behind, their gas tanks empty. To the west, the 1st Mechanized Division fights another sharp engagement against the invading French, launching another flank attack, this one on the 8th Infantry Division's 67e Régiment d'Infanterie; the French motorized infantry unit's VAB armored cars proving exceedingly vulnerable to fire from Dutch APCs and AIFVs emplaced in the engineer training center at Vught outside 's-Hertenbosch.

On the German front, Belgian reconnaissance units have reached the Rhine opposite Duisburg, halting while German territorials destroy the road and rail bridges over the Rhine. The French II Corps resumes its drive north along the banks of the Rhine, creating a large pocket of disorganized German troops and tens of thousands of displaced civilians sheltering in and near the cluster of American installations in Baumholder.

At Diego Garcia, a team from the USCG's cutter Thetis continues its survey of the lagoon's anchorage. One pier is blocked by the sunken Cypriot freighter Ever Happy, as are three of the atoll's 20 dredged anchorage sites. The team ashore, haven broken into one of the explosives magazines, reports that there likely are several hundred tons of iron bombs present but that the airfield facilities (hangars, landing aids, fuel pipeline system, power, water and accommodations) are all destroyed beyond repair. Tactical or field-expedient systems will be needed to restore the base to operations, limited by the capabilities of those systems.