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Old 12-13-2021, 02:14 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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December 13, 1996

F/A-18s and A-6s from the USS Abraham Lincoln launch airstrikes on the Soviet fleet base in Maputo, Mozambique.

unofficially a lot happens...

The Soviet Politburo receives assurances from Castro that Soviet troops and advisors in Cuba may remain indefinately, since evacuation through the war zone is clearly impractical. In exchange, the Soviets commit that they will not use Cuban facilities to support the war. (The GRU violates this agreement with Operation Primus...)

US Coast Guard aviation assets are placed under naval control. HU-25 patrol aircraft are organized into four squadrons, VOJ-201-204. They are capable of surface search and attack, but have minimal anti-submarine capabilities.

The Chinese 29th Group Army launches attacks on Soviet 36th Army Corps in an attempt to drive the Soviets farther away from Beijing. The Chinese force is infantry-heavy, using human-wave attacks and nighttime infiltration to overwhelm the outnumbered Soviets and compensate for its lack of armored vehicles. The NATO-supported AVG II provides top cover using its squadrons of F-16s and Mirage-2000s.

Soviet Frontal Aviation, augmented by Polish and Czech air forces and PVO fighters from Byelorussia and Ukraine launch a mass air raid on West Germany. They succeed in downing a NATO E-3 AWACS plane, at the cost of 35% of the attacking interceptors.

Unrest in France and the Low Countires. In Paris an unprecedented "Vive la France - For the Republic" march organized by neo-Gaullists and Communist-allied trade unions brings the nation to a halt with millions in the streets to oppose "an Anglo-American-German war that will inevitably result in worldwide nuclear war". Three trains of British Territorials traversing France and an additional train in the Channel tunnel are stopped by striking railroad workers. In Belgium, Socialist trade unions organize anti-NATO strikes. Truckers block access to NATO HQ in Mons and dockworkers refuse to unload ships carrying war materiel in the port of Antwerp. Radical utility workers cut off the power and water to the NATO headquarters later in the day; the action is largely symbolic since the facility has backup systems and operational control has moved into dispersed field headquarters. In the Netherlands, opposition is more violent. Unknown actors open fire on a bus in Nijemegen ferrying reservists to their mobilization stations with AK-47s, killing 29.

The US 209th FA Bde (NY NG) was called into federal service and reported to a mobilization station at Fort Hood, Texas without subordinate battalions assigned.

The Czechoslovakian 4th Tank Division was reported ready for action, with a full contingent of reservists.

The mobilization-only 8th Naval Infantry Regiment, assigned to the Red Banner Northern Fleet, was hurriedly activated in December 1996 following the decimation of the fleet’s naval infantry force in the assault on Narvik. Composed of older reservists in their 30s, led by whichever officers with naval infantry experience that could be found, the regiment was issued skis, a company of PT-57 light tanks and several batteries of mortars. Its mobilization station was east of Murmansk.

The first train leaves Ft. Polk, Louisiana with vehicles and heavy equipment left behind by the 5th ID when it deployed via air in November, receiving equipment from POMCUS stores. The ordnance will be shipped to Europe (through the port of Wilmington, NC) and issued to units there as battle loss replacements.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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