[chico20854]

June 10, 1997

In Czestochowa, Poland, Major Filipowicz (former commander of the 6th Engineer Battalion), wounded and suffering from a confused mind, locates the body of Colonel Piotrkowski (the last commander of the 6th Air Assault Divison) and buries him in a sarcophagus under the Jasna Gora, gathering bodies of his troops to form an honor guard for him and the Black Madonna.

Unofficially,

In New Delhi, the peace talks are paused while the Soviet delegation awaits its new head.

The US Navy's Military Sealift Command notifies the Naval Sea Systems Command that it does not have a requirement for a high-speed troop transport such as the SS United States, ending the effort to reactivate the ship.

Following the killing of an unarmed Mexican immigrant while he broke into an elderly couple's home in San Antonio, Texas, a self-appointed militia forms and deploys to the Mexican border.

As American and South Korean troops continue to advance to the DMZ, the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade launches the first substantial attack across the border, landing in the prewar "peace village" of Panmunjom. The Japanese troops are reinforced by the air assault troops of the US 2nd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.

The Chinese offensive makes progress in overrunning Soviet front-line positions, unfortunately by using human-wave attacks to overwhelm the outnumbered Soviet defenders. Soviet artillery, under attack in their battery positions by infiltrators, is unable to support the motor-riflemen, and tank battalions reap a wide swath through Chinese infantry until American-supplied Assault Breaker systems douse them with submunitions.

The pocket around the cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk is isolated from the rest of Poland when III US Corps reaches the Wisła and an Apache helicopter sinks the ferry at the mouth of the river.

Shortly before dusk, German troops of Panzergruppe Westhoven capture the road junction at Grójec, 40 km south of Warsaw.

The American 10th Mountain Division confronts its first real resistance at Sodankylä, 300 km into Finland, when the lead elements hit the Lapland Jaeger Brigade’s defensive positions on the eastern shore of the Kitinen River overlooking the downed bridge. Two infantry battalions from the division’s 1st Brigade move into the town but are cut off when Finnish troops destroy the highway bridge west of the town, cutting them off. Finnish troops emerge from the forests and isolate the halted American battalions strung out along the road to the west.

Outside Murmansk, the Soviets respond to the landing fleet with a hail of gunfire from surviving defensive guns, sinking several transports and escorts, while the marines ashore are subjected to a relentless barrage from an ancient railway gun. The battleship USS Wisconsin shifts her fire to the big Russian gun and silences it, but the remnants of the Soviet surface fleet and Frontal Aviation once again sweep in, striking the stationary NATO fleet, sinking several more transports and escorts. Finally, Northwestern TVD orders the 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup to move north from the 26th Corps area to contain the landing.

The ore carrier Berg Nord completes loading its first cargo, 220,000 tons of iron ore for German steel mills. It is too slow to travel in a convoy (and so large that a single torpedo or missile is unlikely to sink it), so it travels the North Atlantic unescorted.

Soviet Naval Infantry troops of the 810th Independent Marine Brigade enter the port city of Constanța against light resistance. Once in the town, however, the elite marines find themselves responsible for the management of the city of some 300,000 people, most of which are hostile and thousands of which were armed by the now-absent Romanian regime. The brigade commander makes a desperate plea for KGB or MVD troops to relieve his force and assume control of the city, but is dryly informed that such forces are not available and the commander is told "You're a good comrade! I'm sure you will figure out how to use the resources the Party has given you well."

The USS Salem retires from the "bombardment operating area" off Bandar Abbas to replenish its dwindling supply of ammunition. To the north of the town, British Gurkha troops of the 27th Infantry Brigade link up with the American marines as the Soviet 350th Guards Airborne Regiment withdraws into the city's environs.