[chico20854]

July 14, 1998

Father Wojiech Niekarz forms the Wojsko Ludowa (People's Army) to free Poland of all outsiders.

Unofficially,

The conflict between Mexico and the US has rapidly evolved in the 32 days since Mexican troops first crossed the border. The poor logistical readiness of the Mexican Army, fierce American resistance and the nuclear strikes on the rail lines connecting the fighting forces with central Mexico have combined to starve Mexican troops of much of their fighting power. The attack on the Mexican Ministry of Defense and pinprick strikes throughout southern Mexico have further limited the amount of effort Mexican authorities can devote to the fighting in the north; the combination of all these factors as well as fatigue and declining combat power cause the struggle to take on (for both sides) a nature somewhere between conventional medium-intensity warfare and counterinsurgency. The Joint Chiefs, assessing the situation, determine that additional nuclear strikes in Mexican territory are unlikely to have a significant effect on the outcome of the fighting, and the large-scale use of tactical nuclear weapons needed to drive Mexican troops from American territory is impractical in the conditions, even if they were comfortable with the concept of using nuclear weapons on American territory. (They are not.)

In California, the center of gravity of the fighting has shifted northward with the collapse of American resistance in San Diego. (In that city, small bands and even individual Marines who survived the battle and evaded capture begin moving north and east, out of areas actively patrolled by Mexican troops and their criminal allies). It is another day of confused fighting in Los Angeles, with American troops under attack from all directions as Mexican troops and allies slip through the porous American front line.

Vicious short-range firefights rage throughout the 20th Tank Division's sector and by noon a steady stream of demoralized Soviet soldiers are fleeing back to and across the Main, abandoning their vehicles and many of their wounded or dead comrades.

The Soviet breakthrough in the US 3rd Infantry Division sector is brought to a rapid halt with the deployment of a trio of M422 eight-inch tactical nuclear rounds fired across the width of the Soviet breakthrough sector by the guns of the 209th Field Artillery Brigade. Elsewhere along the front the Soviet offensive peters to a halt in the face of rising NATO resistance.

The final Jugoslav crossings of the Sava River are initiated with the opening of ferry service at Slavonski Brod and the completion of a pontoon bridge at Sisak, Croatia.

In the wale of the prior day's airstrikes, the Soviet 7th Army instructs its subordinate units to preserve what supplies they have on hand while increasing "local provisioning", a euphemism for seizing needed food and fuel from the local population.