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Old 10-27-2022, 02:55 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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October 19, 1997

Forty-eight technicians, scientists, employees, and company officers and their families, 119 people in all, board the airship Columbia in the afternoon.

The Silesian town of Chrzanow is hastily abandoned when civil defense authorities note the danger from fallout from the nuclear strikes on nearby Bytom and Katowice.

Unofficially,

As the Soviet 20th Guards Army, which was part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany before the war, prepares to travel back to Europe from China, its 58th Independent Tank Regiment is disbanded to bring other units in the command up to strength.

Allied forces along the North Korean coasts enjoy the support provided by naval gunfire, the USS Missouri off the west coast and USS Des Moines along the east coast. The gunfire is especially appreciated as supplies of artillery ammunition for batteries ashore becomes scarce, the massive stockpiles built up in prewar years exhausted and new production (both in South Korean factories short of drafted workers and with those in the US trying to support a worldwide war) unable to keep up with the prodigious consumption. For now the supply of small arms ammunition remains adequate, although both ROK and US training commands have begun to use .22LR adaptors in basic trainee's M16s to stretch the supply of 5.56mm.

The 937th Engineer Brigade is transferred from the US V Corps to the nearby XI Corps. A construction rather than combat engineer unit, upon arrival in the former East Germany it begins preparing winter quarters and defensive positions along the western shore of the Oder River.

The destruction of the isolated 43rd (my 274th) Motor-Rifle Division in the town of Szczecinek continues as German infantry advance on the town while the defenders are hampered by German artillery fire directed from spotters within the town. At midday a squadron of German PAH-1 anti-tank helicopters arrive, providing pinpoint fire on targets throughout the town, and at dusk the Soviet commander orders a breakout of remaining troops.

The defensive line along the Warta, created with a series of ground bursts, is abandoned, the defenders at risk of being outflanked. The damage from the creation of the line, however, will linger for several years.

In one of the last major convoy battles of the war in the Atlantic, Soviet forces attack Convoy 302 southwest of Iceland. The attack is by a rare (for this stage of the war) Soviet "wolfpack", composed of three nuclear and one conventional attack submarine and a cruise missile submarine (the Oscar II-class K-329), which fires a nuclear SS-N-19 in an airburst over the convoy's approximate center. The attack subs are able to penetrate the convoy's screen by avoiding the widely-spaced escorts (dispersed to avoid nuclear strikes) and have a heyday among the thundering merchants, sinking eight ships and damaging six more before slipping away. One of the nuclear boats, the Victor I-class K-398, is unlucky enough to get caught during its egress by a helicopter from the Canadian frigate Fredericton; it calls in a responding P-3 from VP-11 which sinks the Soviet boat with a B-57 nuclear depth charge. The sub is the sole Soviet loss, while over 150,000 tons of badly needed equipment and supplies are lost to the Allies.

Romanian and American troops in the southern Carpathian Mountains welcome the 53rd Guards Motor Rifle Division to the Dej area by overrunning one of the Soviet division's outposts before its troops have a chance to fortify it, melting away before the division's rapid response force can arrive.

Following the attack on Ankara, Turkish resistance at the Catalca Line west of Istanbul begins to crumble. The Soviet 810th Naval Infantry Regiment lands along Istanbul's Black Sea coast and rushes inland, capturing the Istanbul airport’s control tower and cargo complex. With Soviet troops in their rear and after receiving repeated Soviet and Bulgarian hammer blows, the Turkish defense line west of the city collapses. Advancing Soviet troops are opposed by isolated groups of stragglers, diehard nationalists holding out in Istanbul's west end, and NATO aircraft, mostly American but with a significant Turkish presence, overhead.

The 1103rd Assault Gun Regiment, assigned to Transcaucasian Front, is destroyed when the unit's vehicles, immobilized by lack of fuel, are located by an American Special Forces team which called in attack helicopters and strike aircraft. The mass of Soviet vehicles is raked by guns and rockets and within a half hour the 1103rd had ceases to exist.

Army engineers complete repairs to the Tabriz air base, allowing C-17s and C-130s to land and disgorge vehicles and supplies more efficiently than airdropping.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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