May 7, 1997
The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with 101st Air Assault Division and begins mopping up scattered remnants of the 105th Guards Air Assault Division.
Unofficially,
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The treason trial begins for Autumn Lotus, the New Mexico woman accused of sheltering a Spetsnaz team earlier in the year; she unleashes a rant in court about the government's oppression of the proletariat, the evils of capitalism and the war profiteering that is occurring. She is removed from the courtroom; her public defender tries his best to offer a coherent defense.
The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (a Territorial Army unit from Chorley), is activated and assigned to 3rd Infantry Brigade.
At Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, the tanker task force maintained for many decades using tankers rotating in from throughout the Air Force on temporary assignments is designated as the 301st Air Refueling Squadron. The new squadron maintains control of its assigned rotational aircraft, as it is currently only assigned a C-12 liaison transport aircraft, with a KC-135R en route from Hawaii. (The KC-135 was released by the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron in Hawaii as that squadron receives the new KC-767 tankers).
The Luftwaffe forms the 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment from airfield defense units assigned to the Luftwaffe’s 3rd Division (which flew strike aircraft from northern German bases). The regiment is committed to action in Poland, augmenting the RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police in defense of captured air bases and highway strips in Poland and East Germany.
Along the Baltic Coast, NATO starts landing elements of the Danish Jutland Division near Kolobrzeg. The Soviet Western TVD commander is forced to commit 22nd Army, from his reserve force in the northern half of the front, to prevent the landing force from overrunning the Polish port and naval base. (NATO deep strike ATACMS missiles, sea-launched cruise missiles and tactical aircraft have a field day on the hundreds of Soviet tanks that break cover and rushed to the coast, although the Danish, German and American troops had halted their advance and dug in in anticipation of the Soviet assault). German troops also break through the Second Western Front’s lines east of Szczecin.
The heavy cruiser Salem completes 45 days of post-commissioning workups and is dispatched to the Persian Gulf. It receives a complement of Army 8-inch ammunition to augment the Second World War-era high explosive and armor piercing rounds, including 10 tactical nuclear rounds.
The Bulgarian Second Army, weakened by having its 2nd Motor-Rifle Division and 11th Tank Brigade in China, commits its reserve 104th Tank Training Regiment and a regiment of construction troops from the 18th Construction Division, to try to slow the Turkish advance. Preceding the Bulgarian counterattack is an airstrike by L-29 trainers of the 2nd Combat Training Regiment; the trainer's 7.62mm machineguns and 57mm rockets do little to slow the Turks. When the T-55s arrive in range of the Turkish M-48 tanks the slaughter begins in earnest. The construction troops, equipped with 19th-century-vintage M95 Mannlicher rifles, DP-27 LMGs and 82mm mortars but no anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, are swept from the field while the tank regiment takes heavy losses from Turkish tanks firing from the flanks of the wide valley they are advancing up and a platoon of Turkish AH-1 anti-tank helicopters.
The escort carrier Shangri La and eight freighters carrying equipment and vehicles of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) join Convoy 140 as it sails up the US East Coast. The group also includes the Dutch cruise ship Maasdam, packed with nearly 4000 National Guardsmen.
Given up for lost two weeks ago, Rifleman Goreng Nassang rejoins his unit, complete with the GPMG he had refused to abandon.
In Leningrad, a MI6 operative obtains a workers pass for the Baltic Shipyard.
American carriers in the Pacific shift south, their aircraft reappearing over the front line in Korea.
The USS Independence continues to provide air support to IPA forces in Iran - American troops are too far north in the Persian Gulf for the carrier's F/A-18s to reach, and 5th Fleet refuses to permit the carrier group to operate in the Gulf. As Soviet troops retreat inland, the Independence group regains the destroyers it had detached to provide naval gunfire support.
In the Mediterranean, the John F Kennedy and America battle groups sortie from Alexandria, Egypt and sail north. Once in the area north of Cyprus the carriers plan to fly long-range strike missions in support of the Turkish offensive, adding their bombs to those being dropped by the USAF's 112th Tactical Fighter Group.
A second Atlantic Fleet carrier, the USS Enterprise, joins the effort to protect Convoy 140. Returning north from the vicinity of the Canaries, Enterprise sends fighters and ASW aircraft to sweep ahead of the growing formation.