[chico20854]

October 23, 1997

Following the loss of the 24th Guards (my 60th) Motor-Rifle Division the prior day when the Soviet force ran out of gas while attacking American troops, the 147th Guards Motor-Rifle Division suffers the same fate while attacking the 101st Air Assault Division around Bushehr. (Unofficially) The American airmobile unit inserts several battalions of infantry in the division rear areas, who then advance towards the coast, rolling up the Soviet unit from behind.

Unofficially,

FEMA completes another racetrack to refugee camp conversion, this one the Flemington Speedway in New Jersey.

The Daily Mail newspaper publishes the results of its investigation of the scandal involving the wealthy and influential evading military service. It concludes that the Guardian's reporting is flawed, and thoroughly debunks the article's reporting and conclusion.

As the front lines of the Chinese 31st (my 3rd) Army disintegrate, the remnants of the British 6th Division (down to 2500 men and a handful of armored vehicles) board three transports and a dozen smaller craft (tugs, fishing boats and the like) in the ports of Dandong and Sinuiju to be extracted from the rapidly collapsing Allied pocket at the mouth of the Yalu.

The 12th Luftjaeger Regiment, a Luftwaffe security unit, is hastily converted into a motorized infantry regiment with the addition of a company of obsolescent M48 tanks, two dozen captured Soviet BTR-152 APCs and requisitioned civilian trucks.

NATO defensive efforts in Poland are increasingly hampered by supply shortages, fed by insufficient German industrial production (made worse by the occupation of southern Germany by Pact forces) and severe damage to Northern European ports. Only minor ports remain undamaged, and air resupply from the UK and North America is unable to move even 10 percent of the needed supplies, if logistic planners could even have an assurance that the airports required were safe from nuclear attack.

On the opposite side of the lines, the Pact forces are equally starved of supplies and Soviet divisions are running low on troops. The NATO interdiction campaign has severely hampered the flow of supplies and replacements into the theater, Czech and Hungarian industry has been almost totally neutralized by nuclear attacks, and production and transportation in the USSR are increasingly being disrupted by strikes, ethnic unrest and disorder. Still, the offensive to drive NATO out of Poland continues.

The remnants of the Turkish civilian government issue a proclamation declaring the imposition of martial law. (Some have speculated that this order was issued under duress, with the politicians under military protection/custody, but the reality is that the military is the sole entity in Turkey that is capable of organizing security and relief. Even then, military rule is largely delegated to the local level).

The team from the Soviet Ministry of Oil and Gas concludes their assessment of the main strategic prize from the conquest of Romania - its oil industry. The assessment is positive, reflecting that both sides strove not to damage it, leaving it largely intact. The team from the ministry notes two urgent needs to bring Romanian production online to support the Soviet war effort - a workforce of experienced and self-reliant employees led by managers that can adapt to the unfamiliar conditions and equipment (Romania having imported some high-technology machinery denied to the USSR), and an adequate security force to protect the oil wells, pipelines, pumping stations, refineries and supporting sites.