[chico20854]

December 2, 1997

Officially, two New Jersey towns, Linden and Perth Amboy (both locations of important refineries and oil storage farms), were hit by thermonuclear warheads on the night of December 2. Staten Island was badly damaged by blast and subsequent fires, but damage to the other boroughs was relatively light. The nuclear strikes did direct damage only to portions of Staten Island. Since the New Jersey strikes were airbursts, fallout was less severe than it could have been. The blasts lit up the night sky and shattered windows close to the ground. The fires raging across Staten Island, which had the misfortune to be located directly adjacent to the two oil refining complexes which were targets for a pair of Soviet nuclear warheads, were seen illuminating the sky as far north as Hyde Park. The entire western third of the island as far east as Port Richmond in the north and Staten Island Mall in the center of the island were reduced to rubble. Another third of the island suffered severe damage to buildings from blast and the subsequent fires. Over 117,000 people died on Staten Island from the blast alone, and another 11,000 perished across the Narrows in Brooklyn.

None of the city's other boroughs, however, suffered any deaths directly from the blasts. Damage to Manhattan from the New Jersey nuclear strikes was slight. Some glass was shattered, particularly near the ground floors where the blast was intensified by reflection from the pavement, and particularly near the southern tip of Manhattan, which was closer to ground zero. The nuclear explosions across the bay, however, did almost no blast damage at all, and even fallout was minimal, with the worst radiation effects being confined to Staten Island and western Brooklyn. Due to prevailing winds during and after the strikes, the heaviest of the fallout from the Linden blast missed Manhattan but fell across southern Brooklyn, Coney Island, and Rockaway Point. Over 300,000 people suffered from radiation sickness and many died. Brooklyn also suffered the riots, disease, and starvation which swept the rest of the city as well.

There was other physical damage as well. Most of Manhattan south of Central Park is only a few feet above sea level. After the electricity stopped working, the pumps which kept the subway, road and rail tunnels dry stopped. None of the bridges suffered extensive damage from the nukes, but all became clogged with cars soon thereafter. The military partially cleared several key bridges in order to facilitate their movements (this means abandoned cars were smashed together or were overturned on top of one another). Many of the city's hospitals were destroyed during the riots following the New Jersey nukes. Hospitals, after all, have stores of food and medical supplies.

Unofficially, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the Chairman, Army Chief of Staff, Commandant of the Marine Corps and Chief of Naval Operations had gathered at the Raven Rock site), after consulting with President Munson, ordered a coordinated support effort from many of the remaining military forces in the US. Units assigned to the Army’s strategic reserve had, in many cases, already assumed responsibility for food distribution. They were soon joined by training units (the Army alone had ten training divisions and numerous training brigades), which halted most basic and advanced training cycles in order to provide assistance to areas in the region that they were located. Naval and Air Force training units, alongside the support and security troops of the small USAF strategic reserve force, assumed similar duties. The effort, while well-intentioned, was doomed to failure, since the units were led by less than the best officers, poorly equipped, in many cases only partially trained and, overall, woefully too few to meet the needs of the population.

In order to prevent a possible Empty Quiver incident (loss of an operable nuclear weapon) an emergency USAF, Department of Energy and Army team arrived at the ruins of Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas in a convoy of armored vehicles (which offer protection from the still-high radiation) from Little Rock. They secured the nuclear warheads for the XX Bomb Wings ALCMs and the dozens of B61, B53 and B83 nuclear bombs, all of which survived the blast intact in their secure bunkers.

Three 335 kt warheads from a Minuteman III ICBM strike Northern Fleet headquarters in Murmansk, the SLBM storage facility at Yagel'naya Bay and the Severomorsk naval base, with its reserves of fuel, munitions and spare parts. The strike marks the unofficial end of the Red Banner Northern Fleet as a force to be reckoned with. On the Pacific coast, Vladivostok is attacked a second time, with three MIRVs tearing into several hardened targets that escaped earlier tactical nuclear strikes.

RainbowSix reports in the aftermath of the nuclear strikes on London large numbers of refugees poured into Norfolk and Suffolk from the capital. As with elsewhere in the UK, the reactions from locals to these refugees varied - some tried to help them, although they were a minority, with the majority concerned about their own survival. An already precarious situation was made even worse by the destruction of Ipswich, which added many more displaced souls. Norfolk and southern Suffolk managed to remain relatively stable, thanks partly to strong leadership provided by the staff of the RGHQ in Norwich but mainly to the significant British and American military presence (in addition to the Air Force personnel a battalion of Territorial Army Infantry were also stationed in the region), with the airmen maintaining order and taking charge of food distribution, and substantial organised enclaves in the areas around Norwich, King’s Lynn, and Bury St Edmunds, close to air bases.

Elsewhere in the UK, armed troops, many partially trained conscripts and Territorial Army home service troops, take to the streets to try to maintain law and order while others began incinerating the unburied dead to slow the spread of disease.

Unofficially, the Freedom ship Colorado City Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas. The captain and crew are overjoyed to be away from the city’s petroleum facilities.

The 14th Air Division became the de facto command of 15th Air Force, after that headquarters' destruction the prior day.

Deep in the Chinese interior, the 292nd Motor-Rifle Division, on foot and out of contact with higher headquarters for many weeks, finally halted its advance and seeks winter quarters. The division had driven all the way to the base of the Tibetan Plateau.

Officially, the 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade began withdrawing from Chah Bahar.

Unofficially, in Belize the British troops’ blocking position on the remnants of the prewar border comes under attack by an ad-hoc force of Guatemalan troops, led by a competent and charismatic young captain who took initiative (an uncommon trait among his peers) to try to reopen the road. The British force calls in artillery fire and the few light helicopters, whose onboard machineguns disrupt the Guatemalans as well as correcting the artillery. By dusk the Guatemalan attack has failed and demoralized Guatemalan troops begin to drift westward. Those that approach the blocking position with a white flag of surrender are disarmed by the British and sent westward; many others flee the battlefield and try to make their way around the border post by travelling through the jungle.