[chico20854]

November 7, 1997

In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art's directors remove most of the paintings, transferring them to underground vaults on Long Island.

Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, an important transportation hub and industrial town (home of the Vitkovice Iron Works), is destroyed by a 200 kt nuclear bomb (unofficially) dropped by an American F-111 fighter-bomber, one of only a few dozen remaining.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Mosely is delivered in Mobile, Alabama and manned by a mix of USN and USCG personnel.

US Army authorities approve the resumption of AT-4 production at the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant.

In the mountains of North Korea, the remnants of the North Korean Peoples Army attempts to sustain their advance using their fairly successful tactics developed pre-war: take advantage of night and poor weather to infiltrate the Allied lines and attack from the rear. The easternmost American formation is the 41st Infantry Division (Light), which abuts a South Korean unit to its east. The ROK troops, while tough and skilled, display less initiative than the Americans and operate more rigidly. The 41st suffers the loss of one of its newest privates, Joseph P. Snoofie, who, not the brightest soldier, doesn't realize that the inscription "front towards enemy" on his Claymore mine means that he should face that side away from his fighting position.

The first technical assessment team arrives at the ruins of the Rotterdam refinery. Their initial assessment is that there is very left remaining to salvage following the blast and subsequent fire and that it will be several years and over a billion Dutch guilders to rebuild it.

Responding to the need for trained NCOs and technical experts, the Southwestern TVD command orders the return of the leadership of the 42nd Guards Tank Division to the Ukraine. The unit, which started the war as a training unit, leaves its junior soldiers and much of its equipment behind, to be distributed to other units, and moves to Chernigov.

NATO naval and civilian salvage and rescue craft move to the site of the sunken USS Coral Sea in an attempt to save what remains. The remainder of the Coral Sea battle group has suffered varying levels of damage and is evacuated from the area to Danish and German shipyard facilities for emergency repairs under a cover of NATO fighter aircraft protecting the flotilla from a Soviet follow-up attack.

The Sierra-class attack submarine K-534, which has been patrolling the Indian Ocean for many months, successfully intercepts the Diego Garcia supply ship, the Galveston Bay, and sinks it with a pair of torpedoes. The loss of the ship impairs the base's long-term viability, but USAF airlifters can provide any immediately needed critical items.