[chico20854]

September 9, 1997

The US 3rd Armored Cavlary Regiment, heavily engaged by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army, holds the front line as it covers the withdrawal of III US Corps. The regiment's dispersal and canny leadership prevent the Soviet force from being presented a viable target for tactical nuclear weapons.

The 49th MP Brigade (California National Guard) transfers responsibility for distribution of foodstuffs in the southern half of Federal Region IX (California, Nevada and Arizona) to a variety of state guard and police units, including the California State Guard's 3rd and 4th Brigades.

Unofficially,

BMSA (Boatswains Mate Apprentice) Cutler reports to the USS Makin Island pre-commissioning unit in Brownsville Texas.

The first POWs from the 23rd Infantry Division arrive in the Vladivostok area. Unexpectedly, they are not moved on to POW camps in the Soviet Far East; instead they are dispersed to a wide array of military facilities in the area to serve as human shields to protect the bases from American nuclear attacks.

The USS Des Moines battle group is once again active in the Yellow Sea supporting Marines ashore. While conducting a strike, the group is surprised by a lone Soviet Su-24 bomber approaching at low level in the predawn darkness from the mountainous center of North Korea. The bomber fires a spread of four AS-17 anti-radiation missiles, which home in on the group's air defense command ship, the cruiser William H Standley. Three of the four hit, inflicting fatal damage; the cruiser sinks five hours later after firefighting efforts are unable to extinguish the multiple fires.

XI US Corps provides cover for VII Corps' withdrawal as it attempts to maintain contact with the Germans near Tarnow, Panzergruppe Oberdorff to its northeast while retreating towards the Wisla itself. Its' 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment and 50th Armored Division take turns launching sudden and vigorous counterattacks on the Polish 2nd Army, forcing that unit to devote resources to protect the supply line to the Polish 3rd Army, which is at risk of being cut by the American armor.

The last American and Canadian troops are withdrawn from Sicily for action on other fronts. The NATO occupation force in Siciliy is composed of detachments of the Spanish Guardia Civil and Portugese Guarda Nacional Republicana, who oversee a local NATO-supported militia/police force.

As Allied troops in Romania scramble to hold off the Soviet onslaught and piece together a defensive line that has been blasted apart by Soviet nuclear weapons, the Warsaw Pact ups the ante, sending the 16th Army across the Drava River into Croatia. Simultaneously, the Italian Grupo Dalmatia in Slovenia resumes its offensive operations and the Italian 5th Corps attacks south into Croatia from captured Austrian territory. The well dug in but outnumbered (and equipped with weapons a generation older) Jugoslav front line cracks under the pressure of seven hours of Soviet artillery fire, leavened with attacks on three JNA corps headquarters by Su-17s dropping 30-kiloton TN-1000 atomic bombs. As the sun sets, the Hungarian 2nd Corps executes a 90-degree turn and crosses into the Vojvodina, the Serbian province between Belgrade and the Romanian border.

1st Marine Division trucks and helicopters operating from within the Bandar Abbas perimeter have moved the remainder of the divison into the town of Anar, while Force Reconnaissance patrols depart at dusk south into the hills, seeking the path of least resistance.