[chico20854]

January 8, 1998

The 49th Armored Division, which has been deployed in a disaster relief and emergency security role in the northern Illinois and Indiana area, is moved out of the Chicago metropolitan area. The division's 1st Brigade moves to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, 2nd Brigade to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and 3rd Brigade and division headquarters to Springfield, Illinois. Likewise, the 46th Infantry Division is deployed on a variety of security and disaster relief missions along the eastern seaboard. Also leaving the Chicago area is the 35th Engineer Brigade (Combat), which moves into downstate Illinois to secure the energy resources there (oil fields, coal mines, the Robinson and Mount Vernon refineries) and food reserves of the region's bountiful farms. In Texas, a Navy salvage expedition withdraws the remaining operable aircraft from the lightly-damaged Corpus Christi Naval Air Station to the (unofficially) Memphis Naval Air Station.

The Dutch high command orders the remnants of the 5th Mechanized Division withdrawn across the Rhine for reconstruction. The Dutch 105th Recon Battalion is forced back to the Rhine from its defense of Arnhem. As it falls back, the advancing French and Belgian troops are engaged by the Dutch 4th Mechanized Division in a classic meeting engagement.

Unofficially,

The 1st Armored Brigade (Training) halts training at Fort Knox, Kentucky and dedicates all resources towards accommodating the over 100,000 refugees seeking shelter on and around the base.

The destroyer USS Morton is once again approached by pirates in Indonesian waters. Once again the crew is forced to open fire to drive off the attackers.

To the west, the 1st Mechanized Division is under pressure in 's-Hertenbosch as the French III Corps (provided with abundant air support by the French Air Force and the Mirage 5s of the Belgian Air Force) has massed troops on all the approaches to the city. The 101st Artillery Group fires its last two Lance missiles at logistic sites in northern Belgium. (The missiles are conventional cluster munitions, their American nuclear weapon custodial units having remained behind in southern Germany when I Dutch Corps displaced).

French and Belgian troops are busy establishing occupation authorities in the Dutch provinces of Zeeland and Limburg and the areas of Brabant that they control, as they are as well in areas in Germany that they control.

The campaign in Germany is winding down as remaining German troops are either defeated or withdraw across the Rhine. French field commanders grow increasingly irritated with the restrictions on their operations imposed by the presence of (mostly) American garrisons and the attendant exclusion zones, as well as the demand that they restore electrical power and water to the bases, with requirements for food and fuel still being developed by the isolated American commanders.

With winter weather arriving, the Danish containership Susan Mae weighs anchor from the New York Bight and sails around Long Island, seeking shelter in Long Island Sound.

In Iran, the units of XVIII Airborne Corps and III MEF begin falling back into the Zagros Mountains following the success of Operation Pegasus II. The move frees up several infantry battalions for duty securing the supply lines and rear areas, which have grown increasingly chaotic as various armed bands of deserters, smugglers, bandits and enemy special operations teams seek to eke out an existence preying on the civilian population and military traffic in the allied area of control. To their north and east, Transcaucasian Front is in no condition to occupy the territory evacuated, starved of supplies and replacements; Soviet commanders devote their efforts to securing food and fuel for their units and trying to prevent desertion from wearing their units down past the point of ineffectiveness.

STAVKA (or the remnants thereof) orders the deployment of the 260th Motor-Rifle Division in the Ural Military District. The mobilization-only division, located at Shadrinsk on the steppes of Siberia, has been forming since July, although other divisions were higher priority in receiving men and equipment. In fact, the declaration is more a reflection of the dire circumstances of the Soviet government than of the division’s condition, but nonetheless the division takes responsibility for maintaining order in its area of the country.