[chico20854]

January 11, 1998

As the battered and bruised attack submarine USS City of Corpus Christi remains in drydock, the remaining powers that be in the US Navy decide that, while she is badly needed at sea, she is due for a reactor overhaul. The remaining shipyard workers begin to amass the material needed for the job.

Colonel Alfred White (US Army, Ret.) repeats his offer to form a volunteer combat unit formed from WW II re-enactor groups and civilian military vehicle collectors. When he previous offered the unit to the military in early 1997, he was rejected out of hand. Now, after the Thanksgiving Day massacre and the losses worldwide as the war went nuclear, his offer is accepted. He begins to rally his volunteers and their vehicles at the now-emptied Savannah Army Depot on the banks of the Mississippi in northwestern Illinois.

Opposite French forces in Germany, refugees pile up on the French and Belgian frontiers, a large lawless zone springs into existence. Open fighting for food is followed by mass starvation and disease, until the lawless zone has become barren and empty.

Unofficially,

The 199th Infantry Brigade is ordered, ready or not, to Korea from Hawaii to reinforce Eighth Army.

RainbowSix reports that the region of the Welsh border counties of Shropshire, Hereford and Worcester is caught between two waves of large scale refugee movements as people pour out of the cities of the West Midlands and South Wales seeking the perceived safety of the countryside, leading to a number of clashes between locals and refugees. To the west, North Wales has escaped any direct damage from the nuclear attack on Britain, although the eastern regions are very close to the heavily populated north west of England which was heavily damaged by the nuclear detonations. The mass influx of refugees and marauding gangs from England prompts the formation of the Welsh Assembly Government (in Welsh Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru or LCC) after parts of North Wales are overrun by marauding gangs from England. GDW reports that the Welsh Nationalist Party takes advantage of the chaos to seize control of the country.

Fighting south of the Rhine in the Netherlands comes to a halt with the withdrawal of the last Dutch combat formations, although occupation forces are frequently engaged by holdouts and stragglers as an active resistance network begins to form. French reconnaissance units approach Utrecht but are halted by Dutch roadblocks; the commander of III French Corps orders that they hold their position. (The recon troops had advanced to determine the status of Dutch military forces north of the river in case French and Belgian units would need to secure the opposite shore of the river to prevent infiltration of refugees; the presence of Dutch troops indicates that the Dutch government retains active control of the region).