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Old 05-21-2022, 06:14 AM
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May 21, 1997

Polish intelligence receives word of Operation Rampart from a German deserter. Colonel Tomasz Piotrowski, Commander of the Polish 6th Air Assault Division, radios 1st Polish Tank Army HQ at Lublin for reinforcements, Piotrowski is told there aren't any to be sent. Undaunted, he then contacts the 4th Czechoslovak Army HQ. Defenses of Czestochowa consist of three ORMO battalions and a battalion of 30 obsolescent T-55s manned by military cadets.

Unofficially,

A quick survey of CONUS Army bases reveal that members of "5th Squad" are stationed at nearly every post. Few bases host more than 3 members, and none of the bases report any known criminal activity related to the group.

The first truck-mounted SS-23 guidance radar jammer is deployed at Bitburg Air Base, Germany.

The undamaged condition of Poznań’s old city leads the government in exile to choose the town as its temporary seat of government.

At a unit formation, Polish Free Congress president Lech Walesa addresses the troops of the 10th Border Guard Brigade. The troops are welcomed and the unit renamed the 1st Polish Free Legion, and Walesa offers to release any troops that do not wish to fight for a free Poland. About 30 percent accept the offer, but are dismayed to discover that there are American MPs of the 42nd MP Group waiting nearby to take them into custody as prisoners of war.

Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) demands the arrest of the Poznań garrison commander’s family; the Polish Ministry of Defense refuses, judging that it is preferable for the historic old city to be left intact and occupied by a government of Poles than to be destroyed in a pointless battle of annihilation that would result in tens of thousands of Polish deaths.

The 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) is declared combat ready in Germany. It is rushed into Poland to support the advance.

The growing NATO force on the Norwegian-Finnish border is kept supplied by convoys of civilian trucks, requisitioned by the government and largely driven by Pakistanis and Somalis. The American 10th Light Infantry Division detaches its light mechanized battalion and ground cavalry troops’ LAV-25s, HMMWV gun trucks and Fast Attack Vehicles to escort the convoys.

The Soviets reveal a new weapon in the skies over the North Atlantic, with the appearance of the Tu-22M2DP, an older-model Backfire bomber that has been modified into a long-range interceptor. The "new" aircraft mounts the long-range radar and missile system of the MiG-31 interceptor, while the aircraft's bombing equipment has been removed, replaced with additional fuel tankage, giving it enough range to wander over the airlanes over and south of the GIUK Gap. The fighter's first kill is a trio of C-5 transports from the 439th Military Airlift Wing and a World Airlines 767 carrying replacements to Germany.

The Sierra II-class attack sub K-336 returns to the Kola Peninsula after its long patrol in the Atlantic. It berths in the remote port of Gremikha, 350 km east of Murmansk, to avoid capture by NATO ground troops.

In the skies over Korea, 7th Air Force launches another major raid on Pyongyang, striking targets that the North Koreans had repaired or that were missed in earlier raids. The strike manages to knock out the city's largest coal-fired power plant, making electrical service even more infrequent.

The final detachments of the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) arrive in Iran from Saudi Arabia. Two combat engineer battalions (the 27th and 5th) are detached to the 9th and 24th Infantry Divisions, respectively, to support their organic engineer regiments, while the remaining battalions begin constructing infrastructure to support Third Army’s concept of holding a strip of territory along the shore of the Persian Gulf, forcing the Soviets to fight in the Zagros Mountains. Several heliports are constructed for the 101st Air Assault Division and the 6th ACCB, supply dumps established and fortified and the road network along the coast and into the mountains is improved to support the additional traffic generated by XVIII Airborne Corps.

The 82nd Airborne Division completes its withdrawal from Iran, returning to Saudi Arabia to absorb reinforcements and reconstitute.

The USS Independence strikes Chah Bahar, disrupting the Soviet paratroopers there.

Further south in the Indian Ocean, the Diego Garcia base is working to put itself back together after the cruise missile attacks. SEEBEEs are en route to repair the damage, while the base's P-3s launch a frantic search for the Soviet vessels that launched the attack.

The Soviet raiding force, having expended their missiles, have looped south and east. They are en route to meet up with some Soviet fishing vessels for fuel for the Buliny before making way to Vietnam for a resupply.

The Politburo grants permission for the General Staff to direct local military commissions to initiate another round of mobilization to support troop levels at the front. Each republic, region and locality is given a number of reservists to provide within 15 days; it is up to local officials to determine who is chosen. In larger cities the call-up is based on age and civilian employment; in the regions and countryside, especially in the villages and collective farms, it is decided by favoritism and bribery.

The call-up also extends to the large population of the incarcerated. The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior meet to establish criteria for selecting prisoners from the MVD's massive labor camp system for "parole at the front".
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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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