[chico20854]

February 28, 1998

French and Belgian civil servants have resolved the major issues regarding the unification of the two nations; Belgian territories will be treated as additional departments of France, as will (eventually) the occupied areas of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany. Belgian officials will be transferred to Paris, and some ministries (Transport and Solidarity and Health) will relocate to Brussels, a co-capital that the unified legislature will meet in at least four months a year. The French franc will be legal tender in both nations, and Belgian francs will be converted over at a favorable exchange ratio.

The first of three two-aircraft flights of A-37 Dragonfly attack planes arrives in Norfolk, Virginia. The planes are prepared for shipboard transport and towed to the nearby pier.

Polish units begin experimenting with distilling alcohol from edible grains and waste vegetable material for fuel, since Polish oil production is minimal (especially given the devastation inflicted by the prior year’s campaigns) and the Warsaw Pact command has placed Polish units low on the priority list for provision of fuel and other resources from the trickle that arrives from the USSR.

Outside Trakai, Lithuania, the MVD troops wait for further information from higher headquarters on what support it will receive and how to communicate with it. As the morning turns to afternoon, the troops become increasingly disheartened as no contact is made. Shortly after 3 p.m., a pair of Su-25 attack planes from the 76th Guards Shturmovik Regiment fly overhead, releasing a volley of S-8 80mm rockets at the castle; 20 minutes later a lone Su-17 fighter-bomber overflies the town and drops a pair of 200-kg iron bombs. Both strikes are made with no prior coordination (the MVD troops do not have the proper radios) and have little effect other than alerting the defenses of the town. The annoyed commander orders his troops to rally and attack the town nonetheless, taking the lead. They are advancing across open ground towards the town when the artillery support arrives, a volley of long-range 180mm gun fire (from the mobilization-only 70th Artillery Division's 438th Cannon Artillery Regiment), which tears the attacking force to shreds. The attack, obviously, fails, and the three survivors are captured by the town's defense force. Two agree to join it, and the third is hanged from the castle's battlement at dusk.