March 1, 1998
The 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) is withdrawn from the lines to reorganize and refit after suffering heavy casulties from enemy conventional and nuclear attacks in the withdrawal across Poland.
Unofficially,
The second and third flights of A-37s are arrive in Norfolk and are prepped for ocean transit as the first two (and its pilot and crew chief) are loaded aboard the American ro/ro ship El Moro, part of an overdue resupply convoy for AFRICOM.
Quebecois forces arrive at the NATO air base at Goose Bay, Labrador, where they are confronted by a composite defensive force made up of troops from around European NATO, mostly administrative, maintenance and logistic support staff of the NATO air training detachment at the base. The overextended Quebeckers do not have the firepower to immediately attack the base, and instead try a bluff, demanding the base's immediate surrender. The Canadian base commander and the somewhat befuddled German Luftwaffe Oberst (Colonel), the senior non-Canadian officer, reject the demand out of hand.
Attacks on the beseiged outposts of the 158th Motor-Rifle Division in central Jugoslavia continue. As supplies of ammunition and fuel dwindle, demoralized soldiers at some isolated outposts begin to surrender; others just slip away from their positions at night, casting aside their uniforms and joining the growing numbers of desperate armed men wandering Eastern Europe.
A French tanker lingers in the port of Bizerte, Tunisia, awaiting the opportunity to purchase the output of the refinery ashore. Rumors abound about the loss of the Italian Norvegia G, the possibility of collusion between the Americans and the French to deny the valuable resource to the Italians, and even about the quantities of gold aboard the French ship, which is quite ostentatiously armed and crawling with dangerous-looked armed men.
Pro-NATO guerrillas overwhelm the guards of a stalled Soviet supply truck 25 km northwest of the city of Isfahan. The truck yields food, ammunition, and most valuable, a pair of SA-14 shoulder-launched SAMs.
MVD authorities in Lithuania disavoy any further responsibility for suppression of the renegade Colonel Skrebys in Trakai, declaring that they have made a valiant attempt but ultimately it is the Army's responsibility to maintain the discipline of its own officers, of which Colonel Skrebys is one.
__________________
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...
|