On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

December 1, 1997

Officially, President Munson flew back east (unofficially aboard a E-4B of the 1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron) to the Special Facility at Mount Weather where a skeleton staff of the various category A agencies and FEMA personnel were on duty. Almost no members of Congress were present, and no legislative business could be conducted, but FEP-D permitted a number of emergency procedures to be undertaken. Communication was next to impossible since the effects of nuclear EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) proved much greater than predicted, and most of the supposedly shielded electronic circuitry was fried during the initial attacks.

A radio report was received at the SAC backup command post (which was preparing to displace to Naval Ammunition Depot Hastings, lest a Soviet snooper satellite detect its radio transmissions) from North Dakota that the air police garrisons at Minot and Grand Forks Air Force Bases remained intact and in control of the bases’ stock of warheads, with a number of the missiles operable. (The Soviet attacks struck the main base area, not the dozens of missile silos dispersed over many miles of prairie.)

In Maryland, Roger Caldwell, an assistant undersecretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, arrived in the state capital. He had avoided the riots in Baltimore and was able to travel to Annapolis where he rejoined a number of former government officials who had survived the Washington holocaust. The civilian population of Frederick dispersed following the strikes on Fort Dietrich and Camp David, virtually abandoning the city to its craters and radiation.

Not far from Mount Weather, and contrary to the situation there, radio waves cleared enough for radio contact with Carl Hughes to be reestablished; New America leader Carl Hughes found himself dealing with the only female head of a New America cell in the country in St. Petersburg, Florida.

With plenty of national defense industry plants that made the city of Clearwater, Florida seem like a target for further bombing, the inhabitants panicked and fled to the countryside. The exodus was joined by an estimated 4500 residents of the nearby town of Gulfport.

Unofficially, streams of survivors streamed out of Las Vegas as food, water, fuel and electricity grew scarce.

Officially, when news of the nuclear strikes against Washington, DC and the other areas broke in New England, fear of nuclear holocaust resurfaced. Widespread rioting in the metropolitan areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts taxed both the civilian and military police. Much of the factory facilities which supported the sub base in Groton and New London were destroyed in the riots and civil disorder. Much of Providence was ravaged by the disorder -fires gutted many of the large buildings in the downtown area.

Unofficially, across the nation, defense industry workers reported back to work. In many cases many of their co-workers had fled, and managers (and the military’s on-site contracting representatives) tried to figure out how to resume production after the damage wreaked by EMP and the loss of electrical power. Many sites had been fitted with emergency backup generators, but even in these cases the backups were inadequate to resume full production. An exception, however, were the many shipyards what ringed the nation’s coasts. The ships under construction, in many cases, had on-board generators and landside connections, originally intended to power the ships in port. Shipyard managers were, in several cases, quickly able to start the generators aboard the vessels under construction (which had largely escaped damage from EMP, being disconnected from power mains and installed in a large steel box of an engine room) and resume work on board and ashore.

Officially, a low-power AM radio station located somewhere in the heart of Central Florida came on the air. Calling itself the "Voice of the Lord," this apparently authoritative, allegedly fundamentalist Christian radio station began churning out the wildest and most criminally irresponsible propaganda imaginable. The criminally and deliberately misinforming Voice of the Lord did more to create and spread the senseless pain and suffering than the combined death count attributed to the entire bombardment of Florida. With no authoritative counter-voice to challenge the genocidal recommendation and advice from this allegedly Christian fundamentalist radio station, it deliberately and maliciously spread the notions that radiation sickness and the once-dreaded AIDS were one and the same and that the persons exposed to radiation in the attacks (particularly the one in Tampa) were now somehow "carriers" of lethal radiation that could be indiscriminately spread from one person to another in a manner identical to that of AIDS. The broadcaster went on to suggest that the radioactive sign of the city-dwelling, godless, immoral fathers would be visited upon their sons and daughters (and all who sheltered them or even breathed the same air) for the next seven generations. It was heavy stuff, laid on with all the skill, subtlety, and salesmanship of a true genius in the science of propaganda. The immediate effects of the attack, even in the countryside, had been traumatic enough

Nuclear mushrooms sprouted over Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and at Marcus Hook, a few kilometers down the Delaware River. The cities of Chester, Marcus Hook, Philadelphia, and many others were devastated by nuclear attacks on the refineries that dotted the southern reaches of the Delaware River. The strike on the Delaware City refinery in adjacent Delaware only wiped out one percent of the total US refining capacity, but it was just one of many strikes in the region of the lower Delaware River. Its contribution to the devastation was enough, however, to cause the northern half of Delaware to become almost completely deserted within days.

Unofficially, also struck in the attacks was the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where the carrier USS Saratoga was in drydock being repaired after being struck by a Soviet cruise missile. Also lost in the strike were the destroyer USS Dahlgren, the stores ship USS Sylvania and the amphibious assault ship USS Portland. The blast and subsequent firestorm raged across the city of Philadelphia; wide boulevards and green areas, designed in the 19th Century to prevent the spread of fires, were no match for the 100-plus mile per hour winds that fed the massive fires. Officially, radiation, fire, blast, and the resulting civil unrest killed or severely injured millions. The eccentric rockstar Ted Hendrix was killed in the attacks.

The Soviets launched a series of attacks on Southern California, firing five missiles from the Delta I-class K-477, which was sheltering under ice in the Sea of Oshkosh. The relatively inaccurate missiles made up for it with 800-kiloton warheads, which tore the city of Los Angeles apart. Three missiles were directed at the refineries in Los Angeles, igniting massive fires at the El Segundo, Long Beach, Wilmington, Torrance and Carson refineries and taking out over 1.25 million barrels of daily refining capacity. March Air Force Base, California was struck by two missiles, knocking out the headquarters of SAC’s 15th Air Force and a number of KC-10 tankers of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing.

Officially, the Norwegian naval bases at Horten, Haakonsvern, Ramsund, and Olavsvern came under attack, being destroyed or severely damaged. The inhabitants of the city of Kristiansund had largely dispersed into the surrounding coastal villages, and more left after that, fearing they would become a target. Even more of the populace left in the chaos and economic dislocation that followed.

Unofficially, Strategic Air Command started the month by exploiting the large gap in the Soviet air defense network it had created over the weekend. For the first time a B-52 flew its second nuclear sortie, when a BUFF from the 26th Bombardment Squadron fired a salvo of ALCMs at the Teykovo ICBM field; other aircraft from the 5th Bomb Wing fired a series of cruise missiles at the nearby Kostroma ICBM complex. Like the prior day’s strikes at the Dombarovskiy ICBM sites, the missiles targeted regimental launch control centers with ground bursts; the highly accurate cruise missiles were very effective in taking out the buried facilities.

Officially, in Africa an all-out attack by US and Kenyan forces, heavily supported by a small force of bombers attacking out of Diego Garcia, defeated the Tanzanian forces near Mombasa, driving what was left of them back into Tanzania. The bombers landed at Kenyan air bases near Nairobi instead of returning to Diego Garcia as the US began to disperse it forces to avoid having them be destroyed in a single attack. In the north the Somalis, under constant attack by US Rangers and Special Forces aided by US and Kenyan attack helicopters, began to withdraw towards Somalia, devastating the area as they leave. The Dar es Salaam refinery in Tanzania was destroyed by cruise missiles from USS Louisville, cutting off local oil production and leaving Tanzania dependent on oil from the Ndola refinery in Zambia to keep its tanks and armored vehicles running. Much of their remaining anti-aircraft weaponry was assigned to protect their fuel supplies and the pipeline from Zambia.

Unofficially,

The war in Europe dragged on as well. Logistically, NATO forces in Germany were somewhat adequately supplied thanks to the dozens of fully loaded ships waiting n he North Sea for berths in the few operable Dutch, German and Danish ports. Morale among soldiers dropped precipitously, however, as each man and woman wondered and worried about their friends and family back home. Soldiers (and most commanders with less than two stars on their shoulders) were unaware of the specifics of the attacks back home, just that America had been struck, with all details of where and when still highly classified (as was the fact that President Tanner and Vice President Pemberton were dead and that Speaker Munson had been sworn in as President of the United States).

On the other side of the lines, however, things were falling apart rather quickly. The destruction of the Red Army’s higher command levels paralyzed operations, while the attacks on Moscow caused the central coordination of production and transportation of supplies and replacements to the front to come to a screeching halt. Absent orders from Moscow, even Front commanders were reluctant to order the movement of even a single battalion. What supplies were en route to the front trickled in gradually as dedicated individuals doggedly pushed their way westward.

Nonetheless, SACEUR ordered a withdrawal of most of the remaining NATO bridgeheads in Poland, leaving only the US Marine garrison opposite Szczecin at the mouth of the Oder in place. The withdrawal

In Belize the final members of the Guatemalan marine force in southern Belize were rounded up by Belizian soldiers as they tried to make their way back home on foot. To the northwest, the British-Belizian combined force launched an assault on the Guatemalan force that had been stalled some ten miles inside the border for weeks. A platoon of British troops, led by cadre from the British Army’s jungle warfare training school, set up a blocking position in the remnants of the prewar border crossing station, completely cutting off the Guatemalan force from what few supplies that had been receiving (while simultaneously ensuring that they had more than enough food, fuel and ammunition!)

[chico20854]

December 2, 1997

Officially, two New Jersey towns, Linden and Perth Amboy (both locations of important refineries and oil storage farms), were hit by thermonuclear warheads on the night of December 2. Staten Island was badly damaged by blast and subsequent fires, but damage to the other boroughs was relatively light. The nuclear strikes did direct damage only to portions of Staten Island. Since the New Jersey strikes were airbursts, fallout was less severe than it could have been. The blasts lit up the night sky and shattered windows close to the ground. The fires raging across Staten Island, which had the misfortune to be located directly adjacent to the two oil refining complexes which were targets for a pair of Soviet nuclear warheads, were seen illuminating the sky as far north as Hyde Park. The entire western third of the island as far east as Port Richmond in the north and Staten Island Mall in the center of the island were reduced to rubble. Another third of the island suffered severe damage to buildings from blast and the subsequent fires. Over 117,000 people died on Staten Island from the blast alone, and another 11,000 perished across the Narrows in Brooklyn.

None of the city's other boroughs, however, suffered any deaths directly from the blasts. Damage to Manhattan from the New Jersey nuclear strikes was slight. Some glass was shattered, particularly near the ground floors where the blast was intensified by reflection from the pavement, and particularly near the southern tip of Manhattan, which was closer to ground zero. The nuclear explosions across the bay, however, did almost no blast damage at all, and even fallout was minimal, with the worst radiation effects being confined to Staten Island and western Brooklyn. Due to prevailing winds during and after the strikes, the heaviest of the fallout from the Linden blast missed Manhattan but fell across southern Brooklyn, Coney Island, and Rockaway Point. Over 300,000 people suffered from radiation sickness and many died. Brooklyn also suffered the riots, disease, and starvation which swept the rest of the city as well.

There was other physical damage as well. Most of Manhattan south of Central Park is only a few feet above sea level. After the electricity stopped working, the pumps which kept the subway, road and rail tunnels dry stopped. None of the bridges suffered extensive damage from the nukes, but all became clogged with cars soon thereafter. The military partially cleared several key bridges in order to facilitate their movements (this means abandoned cars were smashed together or were overturned on top of one another). Many of the city's hospitals were destroyed during the riots following the New Jersey nukes. Hospitals, after all, have stores of food and medical supplies.

Unofficially, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the Chairman, Army Chief of Staff, Commandant of the Marine Corps and Chief of Naval Operations had gathered at the Raven Rock site), after consulting with President Munson, ordered a coordinated support effort from many of the remaining military forces in the US. Units assigned to the Army’s strategic reserve had, in many cases, already assumed responsibility for food distribution. They were soon joined by training units (the Army alone had ten training divisions and numerous training brigades), which halted most basic and advanced training cycles in order to provide assistance to areas in the region that they were located. Naval and Air Force training units, alongside the support and security troops of the small USAF strategic reserve force, assumed similar duties. The effort, while well-intentioned, was doomed to failure, since the units were led by less than the best officers, poorly equipped, in many cases only partially trained and, overall, woefully too few to meet the needs of the population.

In order to prevent a possible Empty Quiver incident (loss of an operable nuclear weapon) an emergency USAF, Department of Energy and Army team arrived at the ruins of Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas in a convoy of armored vehicles (which offer protection from the still-high radiation) from Little Rock. They secured the nuclear warheads for the XX Bomb Wings ALCMs and the dozens of B61, B53 and B83 nuclear bombs, all of which survived the blast intact in their secure bunkers.

Three 335 kt warheads from a Minuteman III ICBM strike Northern Fleet headquarters in Murmansk, the SLBM storage facility at Yagel'naya Bay and the Severomorsk naval base, with its reserves of fuel, munitions and spare parts. The strike marks the unofficial end of the Red Banner Northern Fleet as a force to be reckoned with. On the Pacific coast, Vladivostok is attacked a second time, with three MIRVs tearing into several hardened targets that escaped earlier tactical nuclear strikes.

RainbowSix reports in the aftermath of the nuclear strikes on London large numbers of refugees poured into Norfolk and Suffolk from the capital. As with elsewhere in the UK, the reactions from locals to these refugees varied - some tried to help them, although they were a minority, with the majority concerned about their own survival. An already precarious situation was made even worse by the destruction of Ipswich, which added many more displaced souls. Norfolk and southern Suffolk managed to remain relatively stable, thanks partly to strong leadership provided by the staff of the RGHQ in Norwich but mainly to the significant British and American military presence (in addition to the Air Force personnel a battalion of Territorial Army Infantry were also stationed in the region), with the airmen maintaining order and taking charge of food distribution, and substantial organised enclaves in the areas around Norwich, King’s Lynn, and Bury St Edmunds, close to air bases.

Elsewhere in the UK, armed troops, many partially trained conscripts and Territorial Army home service troops, take to the streets to try to maintain law and order while others began incinerating the unburied dead to slow the spread of disease.

Unofficially, the Freedom ship Colorado City Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas. The captain and crew are overjoyed to be away from the city’s petroleum facilities.

The 14th Air Division became the de facto command of 15th Air Force, after that headquarters' destruction the prior day.

Deep in the Chinese interior, the 292nd Motor-Rifle Division, on foot and out of contact with higher headquarters for many weeks, finally halted its advance and seeks winter quarters. The division had driven all the way to the base of the Tibetan Plateau.

Officially, the 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade began withdrawing from Chah Bahar.

Unofficially, in Belize the British troops’ blocking position on the remnants of the prewar border comes under attack by an ad-hoc force of Guatemalan troops, led by a competent and charismatic young captain who took initiative (an uncommon trait among his peers) to try to reopen the road. The British force calls in artillery fire and the few light helicopters, whose onboard machineguns disrupt the Guatemalans as well as correcting the artillery. By dusk the Guatemalan attack has failed and demoralized Guatemalan troops begin to drift westward. Those that approach the blocking position with a white flag of surrender are disarmed by the British and sent westward; many others flee the battlefield and try to make their way around the border post by travelling through the jungle.

[chico20854]

December 3, 1997

Officially, Soviet missiles strike oil refineries in Ohio. The city of Toledo was not directly struck by the missiles aimed at the refineries and oil fields to the west of the city, but was nonetheless severely damaged by the strikes and subsequent fallout. (While the strike was an air burst, the subsequent fires dropped massive quantities of hazardous chemicals from the smoke cloud). Lima, Ohio was half destroyed by the blast that hit just to the southwest of the city. The strike on the refinery left most of the city in rubble and much of it uninhabitable due to radiation. Unofficially, the Lima Tank Plant, across the street from the refineries that were the target of a Soviet SS-11 ICBM, was damaged by the strikes, halting production (as if the EMP and massive disorder and dislocation that followed the strikes were not enough), although the tools and dies survived under the collapsed roof and walls burst by overpressure. Officially, the Ohio town of Irontown was devastated by missile strike on the refinery across the Ohio River in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.

Unofficially, the USSR targets additional American bases in the Pacific Rim. A Tu-95 Bear-H bomber of the 79th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division at Dolon, Kazakhstan launches and proceeds over undefended skies over western China, dropping to lower altitude over the ruins of Wuhan, where it launches a spread of AS-15 cruise missiles. Eight missiles travel at low level to the Philippines, where the American bases at Subic Bay, Cubi Point and Clark Air Force Base are plastered by Soviet nuclear fire. (F-16s of the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing succeed in shooting down two of the missiles, saving Clark from more severe damage). Nearly simultaneously, the 551st Missile Regiment fires a spread of eight SS-20 IRBMs at American bases in Okinawa (a ninth explodes on launch, destroying its launcher). The island's defending Patriot missile batteries succeed in only striking one of the incoming missiles, and 21 150 -kiloton warheads blanket the island's military bases with nuclear hellfire.

The Empty Quiver team returns to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas with the warheads and nuclear components of the bombs that they recovered from Blytheville Air Force Base. Two of the team members display the initial signs of radiation sickness. Empty Quiver response teams are dispatched from Ellsworth Air Force Base to recover the weapons from Minot and Grand Forks Air Force Bases. (The warheads of those bases’ ICBMs, of course, remain fully operable, intact and in place in their silos, their launch control centers manned by nervous controllers.)

Officially, the resources of the local governments in New Jersey and New York City were immediately overwhelmed by the conditions which followed the nuclear strikes. Fuel was in short supply, and all stocks were confiscated so that heat, electricity, and transportation could continue. Medical facilities were hopelessly inadequate to handle the burn, blast, and radiation casualties from New Jersey and Staten Island, let alone from other areas. Food and water were rationed. That, coupled with the sudden desire of millions of people to go elsewhere, resulted in rapidly escalating civil disorder. Each one of the city's hundreds of diverse ethnic or cultural groups thought it was being cheated so that some other group could get more than its fair share. There were riots, lynchings, mass looting, and arson. Thousands of people of Russian and Eastern European backgrounds - as well as French, Greeks, and Italians (who were perceived as having betrayed NATO in Europe), plus Chinese and other Orientals because they were different - were slaughtered in city-wide massacres, which only provoked reprisals.

Most of New York City's casualties occurred in the weeks and months following the nuclear attacks on New Jersey’s refineries, from starvation, disease, and the carnage as several million city-dwellers fought to escape or to survive. In Manhattan wreckage incurred when the island's population rioted was infinitely worse than the blast damage. Successive food and race riots along with fires (some of them arson) swept the city, leaving few, if any, buildings untouched. The nuclear blasts shattered many lower floor windows, and the rioting mobs got most of the rest, but above the 20th floor or so, windows were intact.

Philadelphia Congressman Charles Franklin, who was visiting relatives in Maryland, arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, joining the growing number of federal government officials that were gathering at the state capital. Elsewhere in the state, to the southwest of Frederick, the population of Sandy Hook, Maryland, fled the area.

In Florida, it was plain to anyone who cared to give it any thought that the tourist season would not be arriving in the winter of 1997. A lot of sensible people who had both somewhere else to go and a means to do so fled not just to Maderia Beach but to almost all of the dozen beach communities. Elsewhere in the state, a sympathetic guard cleared his prison in the face of a fire storm, releasing dozens of hardened criminals into the chaos outside. The fires at Tampa International Airport died down, nearly a week after the nuclear attack on MacDill Air Force Base. Dozens of other large fires still burned within the city.

Although there was no food shortage on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, there was fear of one, and rioting and civil unrest killed more people than the bomb. By the time troops had been brought in to restore order, almost a million people had become casualties, more than half the population. State government collapsed during this period, and the military (in the form of 221st MP and 29th Infantry Brigades) took over the civil administration.

Unofficially, the captain of the attack submarine USS Baton Rouge demands that his boat be released from the shipyard in Bremerton, where it has been since August undergoing repair from its duel with a Soviet Akula-class attack submarine. The boat is operable (some minor repairs remain unfinished), but the naval command has ordered it to be held pending an electronics upgrade, and several crew members have not returned to the boat after Thanksgiving leave.

The first dual search-and-strike mission is launched by Det. G, 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron with two R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy planes. The lead aircraft overflies the Dombarovskiy ICBM field, identifying which silos are intact and unfired, relaying that information to a second R-5D traveling a few minutes behind. The second aircraft strike those silos with B-61-11 bunker-buster nuclear bombs.

RainbowSix reports in the aftermath of the nuclear strikes on London large numbers of refugees poured into Norfolk and Suffolk from the capital. As with elsewhere in the UK, the reactions from locals to these refugees varied - some tried to help them, although they were a minority, with the majority concerned about their own survival. An already precarious situation was made even worse by the destruction of Ipswich, which added many more displaced souls. Norfolk and southern Suffolk managed to remain relatively stable, thanks partly to strong leadership provided by the staff of the RGHQ in Norwich but mainly to the significant British and American military presence (in addition to the Air Force personnel a battalion of Territorial Army Infantry were also stationed in the region), with the airmen maintaining order and taking charge of food distribution, and substantial organised enclaves in the areas around Norwich, King’s Lynn, and Bury St Edmunds, close to air bases.

Coventry met its demise when the warhead from a Soviet SS-17 ICBM detonated at 3,500 metres altitude at 1030GMT. Many inhabitants of Coventry and Wolverhampton had already fled into the surrounding counties, however the death toll from the strikes themselves and the subsequent fallout, disease, and civil disorder would reach well over a million.

[chico20854]

December 4, 1997

Officially, a Soviet missile destroyed the British government's wartime command post, killing most of the government, some of the royal family, and the chiefs of staff - it was a devastating blow. RainbowSix adds whether by chance or design would never be known, but the missile detonated just as the War Cabinet and Heads of the Armed Forces were meeting to brief the King. Not only was Prime Minister Tony Blake and most of the War Cabinet killed, but perhaps more crucially so too were several senior members of the Royal Family, including the King himself (although rumours would persist for some months afterwards that he had survived the attack but suffered a major nervous breakdown). In one stroke the UK’s national leadership had been virtually decapitated (recriminations would carry on for many months afterwards as to why so many senior figures had been allowed to be in the same place at the same time; in truth, British Intelligence had believed EYEGLASS’s existence to be secret, and in doing so had seriously underestimated the capabilities of their Soviet counterparts, who had learnt of its existence and location several years previously). Also killed in the attack was the director and operational staff of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO), a Home Office agency that was tasked with warning the civilian population in the event that a nuclear attack on the UK was detected and providing post-strike data to military and civilian authorities.

Officially, Minister of Defense Ian Burton was attending to his wife, who was undergoing a liver transplant, in Birmingham and survived the attack but his wife’s condition and the breakdown in law and order prevented him from traveling. RainbowSix adds he had been attending a meeting at Army Headquarters in Salisbury. Fearing the effect that it would have on national morale, Burton instructed that the death of the King be kept secret from the general population. (Note: this is a fusion of canon and RainbowSix’s interpretation of the situation.)

Unofficially, following up with the attacks of the prior day, Soviet missiles struck Wolverhampton, that city joining its neighbor in suffering and destruction. The last of the fires in London from the Soviet nuclear bombs died out, more from lack of fuel than from the pitiful efforts of the overwhelmed emergency services.

Officially, in the US federal plans for reconstruction after a nuclear exchange included almost immediate assessment of casualties and demographic dislocation, and efforts in this vein began. The widespread breakdown of transportation due to fuel shortages and blocked highways, along with the flight of workers and drivers, led to an end of food distribution in every major urban center. No American city had reserves of food large enough to last more than three days… and panic buying and pandemic riots and looting depleted what supplies there were in far less time than that. Within a week, those who had remained in the cities were starving, and those who could leave were joining the mass exodus to the country.

In New York City, an independent group called the Harbor Pirates took control of the various historical vessels at the Seaport Museum. Led by minor drug lord named Manuel Diego Huerra who, before the war, used pleasure craft on the East River to bring his wares into Manhattan from ships contacted clandestinely at night off the New Jersey coast. When government began collapsing in New York City, Huerra gathered together a group of merchant seamen, yacht owners, and young, wealthy, former clients who had had experience with sailing craft. Anticipating the chronic shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel which paralyzed all metropolitan New York, Huerra's group seized Piers 16, 17, and 18 on the East River, which was where five historic vessels belonging to the Seaport Museum on Front Street were berthed. These craft, still seaworthy, became the nucleus of the Pirates' East River Fleet.

The US 1st Army proclaimed martial law in New York, with the consent of the President. Under the proclamation the 42nd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade (New York National Guard), along with units of the 43rd Military Police Brigade (Rhode Island National Guard), took over government of the New York metropolitan area, with instructions to keep order and to oversee the relocation of the city's population to rural areas. Most of the inhabitants were alive and possessed of a single thought: Get Out!

Within the Seminole Indian Nation of Florida, a cohort of younger, more militantly radical tribal politicians succeeded to the tribal council. These militants longed for the political power that the tribe's newly earned wealth would bring. In the prewar years the radicals had thrown open the doors of tribal membership to admit a large number of other (non-Seminole) Indian radicals, part-Indians, near-Indians and would be Indians. This policy swelled tribal ranks to almost half a million before the war began. When the bombs fell and a political vacuum was created in Florida, the radicals were ready with a plan to drive all whites out of the state and reclaim their rightful lands. Following the nuclear strikes and the resulting EMP, the radicals seized power within the tribe.

In Ohio, the town of Marietta was the initial reception point for those fleeing the strike that hit Irontown; the influx of panicked civilians overwhelmed the small town; rioting between the locals and the refugees devastated the town.

A B-1B bomber carrying eight 200 kt nuclear-armed ALCMs crashed in poor weather over the Black Hills of South Dakota while approaching Ellsworth Air Force Base.

As expected, New American cells across the country lost touch with one another and each fell back on the provisions of the Eagle Papers. Their prewar preparations had served them well, and now, with stockpiles of food, fuel, weapons, ammunition, and spare parts, they were safe in their prepared communities (except for the cell near Fairbanks, Alaska, which was overrun by the Soviets).

Unofficially, Soviet missiles continued their campaign to destroy American command and control centers and petroleum production. Scott Air Force Base, Illinois was one target of a SS-19 ICBM fired by the 28th Guards Missile Division at Kozelsk. Three of missile’s six warheads (set to 750 kilotons) were aimed at the Transportation Command headquarters, while the others struck refineries at Lawrenceville, Robinson and Wood River/Roxana, Illinois.

The British strategic submarine force returned to action, firing a trio of Trident II missiles at the Volga region of Russia. The strikes are centered on the city of Kuybyshev, location of the Volga Military District Headquarters, a BMP plant, a Tupolev aircraft plant, two refineries, a steel mill and chemical plant. The Volga car plant in nearby Togliatti was struck, as were refineries and military industry in nearby Ulyanovsk and Syrazan. To avoid conflict with incoming British strikes, SAC refrained from attacks on the USSR; instead Pershing II missiles in Germany attacked Czechoslovakian and Hungarian political leadership targets.

The container-barge carrier Kunming Carrier was delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts; the ship already had a crew aboard and was nearly fully stocked. The captain-to-be was desperate to get his ship to sea lest it be destroyed by a nuclear attack.

His request denied by the base commander, the USS Baton Rouge's skipper defied orders and sailed from Bremerton, intent on saving his boat from what he felt was an impending nuclear attack. The boat was only partially stocked with food and spares and had a polyglot crew from the base (several sailors volunteered to escape the base) and a half dozen civilian shipyard workers on board to complete several minor repairs.

Receiving word of its owner's death, the crew of the Iron Duke (a full-scale replica of the clipper ship Cutty Sark) decided to seek shelter in the Caribbean. The captain hastily loaded the ship with as much food and fuel as he could locate in the chaos that was post-strike Key West and hastily departed.

[chico20854]

December 5, 1997

RainbowSix reports i an effort to ensure GCHQ was completely destroyed a second warhead was aimed at Cheltenham, although it overshot its target, devastating the nearby town of Gloucester instead. Soviet missiles also returned to South Wales - Cardiff, Swansea and Newport were all destroyed, along with the steel works at Port Talbot. A final Soviet nuclear missile targeted the twin port facilities of Felixstone and Harwich (the former was the busiest container port in the UK whilst the latter had been the main departure point for ships taking troops and material to the Continent). The missile missed its mark however, detonating directly over the nearby city of Ipswich, which was totally destroyed. Both ports suffered some damage, which was compounded by subsequent disorder, but would not require a large amount of work to be brought back to working order. The Folkestone strike also destroyed the UK end of the Channel Tunnel. RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge both suffered heavy damage in the nuclear strike aimed at the Felixstone and Harwich ports.

Throughout the UK, food and fuel were both rationed, although this was a relatively futile measure, as supplies of both were already exhausted in many areas; the news media came under Government control; and emergency centres were set up to deal with casualties, however the sheer scale of the devastation meant that much of the Government’s planning, whilst well intentioned, was woefully inadequate. The South East in particular was swamped with displaced persons, with many thousands of people being housed in hastily erected tented camps that offered little protection against the bitter winter. Bodies were still lying unburied in some areas, causing outbreaks of diseases unknown in Britain for decades; cholera first broke out in a Kent refugee camp on this date. Officially, one of the refugees fleeing London was GRU Colonel Piotr Bulganin

RainbowSix also reports that attempts to evacuate the major cities which had not yet been targeted proved futile in many cases; many of those who could leave had already done so, overwhelming rural communities.

Officially, in northeastern Arkansas most towns near the destroyed Blytheville AFB but outside the fallout footprint were abandoned in the panic.

The decapitation of the US military command, control, and communications systems proved to be only the beginning, although the apocalyptic spasm predicted for decades never took place. Instead of a chain reaction of ever-widening destruction, a slow, carefully calculated program of industrial and economic destruction began. American retaliatory strikes were not only aimed at Soviet command centers, but also at key industrial targets. Prewar studies had determined that the one key industry for modern society was petroleum production and refining.

Unofficially, President Munson, after watching the Soviet destruction of refineries across the US, authorized the execution of the SIOP’s anti-petroleum package, albeit on an extended time scale as a result of his stipulation that no more than ten warheads be expended in the campaign within any 24-hour time period. (Even the wording of his approval reflected Munson’s background as a contract attorney).

While the British had struck several refineries in the Volga region in the prior days and Baku’s oil infrastructure had been severely damaged by American strikes on the city when the Southern TVD headquarters was hit in the prior week, the Soviet petroleum industry had yet to suffer the effects of an all-out American nuclear attack. That began to change rapidly.

While Soviet PVO (Air Defense Force) commanders had ordered large numbers of the SA-10 missile batteries that had surrounded Moscow north to close the massive gap in the air defense network, but ordering and happening in the post-nuclear USSR were two vastly different things. The missile batteries were reasonably truck mobile, but the headquarters and support organizations had been largely static for many decades and had been raided for trucks earlier in the war. Shortages abounded, and the distances were too vast for the batteries to make it without refueling their thirsty trucks; the most fuel-efficient way to deploy was to move to the northern terminuses of the rail network before proceeding overland. The rapidly cooling winter weather would transform the northern-flowing rivers to travelable roads. Unfortunately, none of that plan came to pass. Without the coordination of the Ministry of Railways there was no rail capacity available, and the few batteries that attempted to make the move entirely by road soon found themselves spread out over many kilometers of northern Russian highway, out of fuel and with a trail of broken-down vehicles behind them leading to the ruins of Moscow. The hole in the Soviet air defenses would remain a permanent fixture of the Soviet Union, one that had been supplemented in prior days by smaller strikes that opened egress corridors over the Baltic, Balkans and Iranian-Afghan border.

The day saw SAC bombers launching cruise missiles at three Soviet refinery complexes in Siberia- at Angarsk near Irkutsk in eastern Siberia, Tomsk in western Siberia and Achinsk in the center. Ground Launched Cruise Missiles fired by the 303rd Tactical Missile Wing in the UK targeted two of the largest refineries in Europe, at Novopolotsk and Mozyr in Byelorussia, destroying each of them with a pair of 150-kiloton missiles. The loss of five refineries is a fierce blow to the already-reeling Soviet war economy.

photo
The Soviets respond in kind with one of their most severe attacks on the American petroleum industry with an attack on the Houston area. Once again, two SS-17s rise over the steppes near Pervomaisk, Ukraine and 25 minutes later mushroom clouds rise over Texas. Two 750-kiloton MIRVs each are aimed at Texas City, Houston and Baytown, Texas, with the last two MIRVs aimed at NASA’s Houston Space Center. Seven of the eight warheads work, extinguishing nearly 2.5 million barrels per day of America’s refining capacity at ten refineries, over ten percent of the nation’s refining capacity in a single afternoon.

Officially, on President Munson's orders, Army and National Guard units seized bulk food storage facilities across the country and took custody of what petroleum remained. Rationing of food and fuel was introduced.

Congress attempted to reconvene at Mount Weather, but most members of Congress chose not to or were unable to return. (Unofficially, several dozen members gathered at the Greenbriar Resort 200 miles to the southwest, which contained a large bunker that had been long designated as a Congressional shelter.) Officially, lacking a quorum, nothing could be accomplished.

The search for the downed B-1B bomber was called off after two rescue UH-1s were lost in blizzard conditions over the Black Hills.

New England had one of the worst food/population ratios in the United States before the war and was the site of some of the earliest food riots. Having no local coal, oil, or natural gas reserves to speak of. New England could have survived on the energy production of local hydroelectric and nuclear power stations had these not been rendered almost completely inoperable by EMP from nuclear detonations. Local authorities determined that the prior week’s explosion that killed the CNBF leadership outside Boston was caused by flammable gas which collected in an empty heating oil tank.

The KGB broke 400 Pact POWs out of Graterford Prison outside Philadelphia, taking advantage of the chaos that reigned over Eastern Pennsylvania. Unofficially, KGB agents were able to incite an infamous Philadelphia leftist organization, MOVE, to provide armed fighters for the attack on the outnumbered guard force (many of which had fled the area in the aftermath of the attacks).

Officially, in Florida, the worst of the burn victims from the Tampa strike had died. Others died from shock, blast-related injuries, suicide, heart attacks, pacemaker failure, insulin shock, and related causes brought on by the subsequent EMP that stripped the central portion of Florida right out of the electrical age. The doomed stampede of panic-stricken civilians from Tampa and later from an ever-enlarging circle of surrounding communities did far more harm than the direct effects of the original attack. Many of those who didn't flee to the interior clung to the gulf beaches. Water was a major problem on the beaches and that alone thinned the population there. The reality of the chaos and death among those fleeing the Pinellas megalopolis soon brought back a trickle of former residents, and not a few brought new refugees back to this desolate little parcel of paradise. Life among those that remained was difficult as well. Without electricity and without water pressure, the great concrete and glass shells of the high-rise retirement condominiums in the seaside village of South Pasadena could not sustain life for long. Like the individual coral polyps that make up a coral reef, the residents of those high rises perished when the power failed in the EMP. The many elderly people with pacemakers were snuffed out as the EMP stole the electrical genie that kept their heartbeat tuned to a livable rhythm. The insulin-dependent perished over the next few days as did those whose spirits could no longer stand up under the onslaught of depression and despair. Death came in a thousand ways: dehydration, exposure, starvation, and despair. High-rise towers of proud engineering became homes for the dead. The tower dwellers would be no more; they were gone and soon to be as forgotten as the mound-building Indian tribes. The loss of electricity and telecommunications by the effects of the EMP created an information void into which fear, ignorance, and blind panic rushed. Without the strong voice of civil authority (be it Civil Defense, the military, police, or even the local radio or television announcers) to sooth and calm fears in an unprecedented situation, fear grew to panic and panic to blind flight.

Eighteen miles from Corpus Christi, Texas, the impact point of a 1 megaton nuclear device, the city of Sinton suffered heavy casualties - mostly in riots and panic that broke out in the prior days following the blast.

In Iran, the IPA 2nd Armored Division and 9th Airmobile Brigade destroyed the Soviet 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade at Chah Bahar, as the Soviet paratroops were preparing to withdraw to friendlier territory.

Unofficially, the Headquarters of the 157th Air Refueling Wing was overrun by rioters at Boston-Logan airport; some of the staff escaped on the remaining tankers.

An assessment team from FEMA travelled to the site of the strike on the Robinson, Illinois refinery. (Emergency response teams, either state or federal, attempted to perform a site assessment on each attack outside of military installations). The team, heavily protected against radiation, was elated to discover that the MIRV targeted at the refinery not only fizzled (the warhead’s small fission primary charge failed to initiate the much larger thermonuclear part of the charge), with an assessed yield of 8.5 kilotons, but it also missed by over two kilometers. Unfortunately, that put the detonation right over the center of the small town, but meant that the refinery, the target of the attack, was only subjected to .5 psi of blast overpressure and was only very lightly damaged and remained fully operational. Of course, this information was kept highly classified, and the surviving population was unaware that the terrible explosion over the city was actually a Soviet failure and was intended to be much, much worse. (The Soviet analyst tasked to evaluate the poor-quality damage assessment imagery of the strike noted the presence of a mushroom cloud over the target area but, in a typical instance of Soviet sloppiness, didn't check the size of the cloud with what a 750-kiloton warhead should produce and therefore didn't realize that the strike was a fizzle; the GRU reported to the Strategic Rocket Forces that the target was destroyed).

An awkward confrontation occurred at the Naval magazine in Port Hadlock, Washington, when the USS Baton Rouge appeared at the facility, its captain demanding torpedoes and whatever missiles were available. He had a valid requisition from COMSUBPAC but the base commander had been told that the sub's skipper should be arrested for defying the Bremerton naval base commander's order for the sub to remain. The skipper succeeded in convincing the magazine's CO that he just want to preserve his ship and crew and return to the fight, and received a load of four Mk-101 and ten Mk-48 torpedoes, two Sub-Harpoon missiles, two Sea Lance-Ns and four Tomahawk cruise missiles (two with nuclear warheads, two with conventional). The crew began loading the weapons aboard, raiding the post commissary for food and finishing what repairs it could.

In Europe, the last of the NATO troops (except for the US-Dutch-German marine force under II MEF command along the Baltic Coast) withdrew from Polish territory after combat engineers rigged the bridges over the Oder with command-detonated mines. The bridges were not blown, the defenders on the western shore holding the triggers but unwilling to complicate any potential future advance into Poland with having to build replacement bridges. The initial Warsaw Pact forces to reach the eastern shore were Polish territorial defense troops under command of the Polish Internal Front, reporting to the Polish Communist Party, such was the paralysis gripping Soviet Front commanders following the attacks on Moscow and the Western TVD headquarters. American ELINT aircraft located a suspected Soviet higher-level headquarters along the Polish-Soviet border south of Brest and relayed its location to US Army headquarters. Two hours later a Pershing II missile was on its way to the target, its TV-guidance package landing it within the field headquarters’ inner perimeter. While it would be years before what was hit in the strike, the attack destroyed the field command post of the KGB Border Guards’ Western District, killing the commander and most of his remaining staff.

The collapse of the Guatemalan invasion of Belize was nearly completed with the arrival of Belizian Defense Force troops at the border, relieving the British troops holding the former border post. The Belizian troops passed through several encampments of demoralized and disorganized Guatemalan troops as they drove west, leaving the task of accepting the Guatemalan’s surrender to following forces. As with the British detachment at the border, surrendering Guatemalan troops were disarmed and sent west on foot back into the remote Guatemalan jungle to fend for themselves; the burden of supporting thousands of POWs was beyond the ability of the tiny British-Belizian force.

[chico20854]

December 6, 1997

RainbowSix reports that the news of the losses on the EYEGLASS bunker leaks out, at which point it spreads like wildfire despite the absence of any conventional media outlets. The consequences are exactly what Burton had feared - the loss of the figurehead of their King has a devastating effect on the British people, accelerating a headlong surge in to total anarchy.

Officially,

Africa had watched in horror as first China, then much of Europe and North America experienced nuclear warfare, seeing city after city die, hoping they would be spared the horror of nuclear warfare. Those hopes proved to be false ones, as two Soviet nuclear ballistic submarines attack multiple targets throughout Africa, destroying refineries, oil fields and oil terminals in Nigeria, Morocco, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, Tunisia and South Africa.

Cairo, Suez and Alexandria are left in ruins by multiple strikes against the major refineries in those cities. While the Suez Canal is not directly targeted in the attack, the nuclear strikes on the refineries at Suez effectively block the southern end of the Canal with the wrecks of several merchant ships and tankers. Over three million Egyptians die in the attacks and another two million are severely wounded.

Soviet nuclear attacks on Morocco destroy both of its refineries, with the city and harbor of Casablanca being destroyed by two 250kt warheads as well. The detonations sink or damage over half the Royal Moroccan Navy and deny the use of the port to NATO for the rest of the war.

The main oilfield at El Borma in Tunisia is struck by a 250kt nuclear weapon, causing widespread damage but relatively few casualties due to its remoteness.

Nigeria is hit by twelve warheads, destroying every Nigerian oil refinery and onshore terminal as well as several offshore terminals. The strikes kill or wound two and a half million Nigerians in the space of fifteen minutes and devastate Nigerian oil production and shipping capabilities. The city of Port Harcourt is almost completely destroyed by the nuclear detonations and the fires that spread unchecked afterward.

The Abidjan Refinery in the Ivory Coast is destroyed by a direct hit, with over 350,000 dead and wounded including over 2000 French civilians and military. Casualties would have been much larger but the warhead fizzles and only detonates with 40kt, devastating the area around the refinery but leaving much of the city relatively untouched. The explosion sinks three tankers loading at the oil piers and wrecks the Vridi Canal, cutting off the port from the sea and trapping over three dozen ships

South Africa’s nuclear arsenal doesn’t deter the Soviets from attacking the refineries at Durban and Sasolburg, destroying both along with the cities that surround them, and leading to a very large loss of life. Panicked riots break out in Johannesburg as survivors from the nuclear strike at Sasolburg stream into the city.

The USAF and USN facilities at Diego Garcia are struck by two 200kt airbursts which destroy every remaining USAF and USN aircraft that is still on the ground or who failed to get far enough way in time as well as sinking several ships. The base facilities are destroyed as well except for some underground bunkers.

The refineries and ports at Mombasa and Cape Town, both targeted for destruction, are spared when the assigned Soviet SSBN, in the act of launching the attack on those cities, suffers a massive malfunction. The hatch on the missile tube does not fully open and the missile strikes the hatch, destroying the submarine and its remaining missiles.

Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt rapidly slide into anarchy as what is left of their governments and police are overrun by panicked citizens who go on an orgy of rioting, looting and killing trying to get what food and medical care are still left. Tunisia’s government manages to keep control, for now, only due to the remoteness of the attack itself.

In the Ivory Coast Abidjan rapidly devolves into chaos as panic and rioting cause almost as much damage as the nuclear attack caused. The French 43rd Marine Infantry Battalion loses 150 of its 500 men between the nuclear attack and trying to stop the riots and is forced to retreat to Port Bouet.

South Africa mobilizes quickly to re-establish public order as riots sweep the country as news of the nuclear attack spreads, slowed by EMP related damage causing disruptions to their communications and electrical power generation plants. By days end South Africa officially becomes a co-belligerent with the US, declaring war on the Soviets, their Warsaw Pact allies, Mozambique, Angola and Cuba.

Unofficially,

In Korea, Allied forces have retreated fully back to the prewar demilitarized zone fortifications, which had been hastily refurbished by forced labor of a combined force of North Korean civilian refugees, Soviet and North Korean POWs and South Korean civilians.

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is ordered to assume responsibility for disaster relief and food distribution in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area. The regiment, with one squadron of LAV-25s (originally issued for training purposes) and an air squadron using requisitioned civilian helicopters, requisitions civilian vehicles for the dismounted 2nd and 3rd Squadrons (as well as the Peacekeeper armored cars from the Three Mile Island and Susquehanna nuclear power plant guard forces). Despite the consternation the regiments' seizure causes, its role supporting the state government, police force and State Guard was instrumental in preventing Harrisburg from being overwhelmed by the flood of panicked evacuees fleeing the Philadelphia area.

A sheriff's patrol outside Bakersfield, California discovers a mass grave in an abandoned almond grove; the victims appear to have been shot.

In California, the desperate state government calls up the boys of the 10th California Cadet Brigade, which prewar had been part of a school-based paramilitary youth training program for children from elementary school to college ages. The brigade is one of two disaster relief units stood up over the summer, composed of 16-18 year old boys from the Los Angeles area.

In a tragic example of secrecy and poor communication gone mad, as part of a round of strikes against American and Canadian command and control sites, a Soviet SS-20 IRBM fired by the 586th Guards Missile Regiment in Siberia strikes Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. The Strategic Rocket Forces had not been informed of the Soviet invasion of Alaska and that the air base was actually the headquarters of the 25th Corps, the highest-level Red Army headquarters in the state.

Other attacks pound the Pacific Northwest, hitting the refineries in Ferndale and Anacortes, Washington, the bomber base at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane in the eastern part of the state and the nuclear submarine base at Bangor in Puget Sound, home base of the Pacific Fleet's Trident missile boats. While no boats are in port, the attack at Bangor destroys the support and reloading infrastructure at the base, although the dozens of ammunition igloos on the base remain intact.

American forces continue their campaign to cripple the Soviet petroleum industry, hitting targets throughout southern Russia - the refinery, petroleum facilities and naval base at Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) to the north (with a refinery, nerve gas plant, artillery plant and the famous Barrikada tractor factory) and Rostav-na-Donu, where the North Caucasian Military District headquarters, helicopter plant, air defense headquarters and ICBM repair facility are all struck by American MIRVs.

[chico20854]

December 7, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

Despite the chaos in Los Angeles, the first members of the 10th California Cadet Brigade begin to rally at their designated mobilization point, the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. Many of the boys have armed themselves at some point in their travels.

Soviet missiles strike the Scottish naval bases at Rosyth and Faslane, where a number of British, American and even Dutch submarines are undergoing badly needed post-voyage repairs. The attack submarines USS Olympia, USS Alexandria, HMS Superb and HNLMS Tijgerhaai are lost, as is the aged British boomer HMS Repulse.

A B-2 bomber of the 529th Bomb Squadron, following up on the launch of the SS-20 against Alaska a few hours before, locates the Soviet launcher as it is reloading with a new missile and hits them with a B61 10-kiloton bomb, destroying the launcher and a part of the 586th Guards Missile Regiment's support force.

Having dealt a heavy blow to American refining on the 5th, the Soviets renew their attacks, this time targeting the east Texas and Louisiana oil industry. A pair of SS-18s of the 41st Guards Missile Division, from Alyesk in Central Asia, are launched and release 20 MIRVs. Nineteen explode, striking the petroleum center of Beaumont, Nederland and Port Arthur, the Port Allen and Baton Rouge refineries, the Garyville and St. Charles, Louisiana refineries, the Lake Charles and Westlake refinery complex, and the lone refineries at Convent, Louisiana, Belle Chase, Louisiana and Pascagoula, Mississippi. The attacks ignite massive firestorms that, fed by the thousands of tons of petroleum products, will burn for days and destroy entire towns. The shipyards in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Pascagoula are destroyed by fire, the ships under construction reduced to burned-out, twisted steel.

The 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve), in southern Denmark after months of action in outside Warsaw, is in appalling shape. The barrels of the howitzers are worn out by thousands of rounds and the engines and suspensions of the M110s need overhaul. The towed guns should have been scrapped according to prewar standards. While its parent XXIII Corps remains on the front lines, the unit is able to obtain spare parts and barrels for its M114 guns from Danish Army stockpiles as well as a handful of older-model 8-inch howitzer barrels found in the weeds behind a storehouse, allowing the unit to downgrade a single battery to M110s instead of the more modern M110A2 model.

A pair of Minuteman III missiles strike Novosibirsk, hitting the headquarters of the Siberian Military District, Sukhoi aircraft plant, bioweapons facility, tank plant and other military industry.

A DC-10 packed with heroin and cocaine, cash and gold krugerrands, crashes after missing the runway at Pearls Airport on Grenada while trying to land in an early morning thunderstorm.

[chico20854]

December 8, 1997

In New York, Harbor Pirates leader Manuel Diego*Huerra is killed by one of his lieutenants in a knife fight over a woman. A power struggle within the group ensues.

Unofficially,

The coroner in Bakersfield, California determines that the bodies in the mass grave discovered a few days ago were executed with military-caliber firearms after being tortured. Despite the mutilations, local authorities have been able to identify several of them - local peace activists, union officials, outspoken college professors and Mexican immigrants - that had been disappearing for the past several months.

Soviet and North Korean troops reach the last Allied positions along the DMZ, completing the reconquest of North Korea. Months of conventional and tactical nuclear warfare have left North Korea an even more backward and impoverished country than it was at the outbreak of the war. Millions of its people have fled (either to the USSR or to South Korea) or been killed.

Finishing off what Operation Steel Bandit had started the prior winter, two TLAM-Ns fired from USS Hue City detonate over the airfields and southern tip of the peninsula at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.

Afraid that the last of the boomers in port may slip away, the Soviets strike remaining American missile submarine bases, hitting the Charleston, South Carolina and Kings Bay, Georgia naval bases and nearby port facilities. The Russians are too late, all available SSBNs are at sea and their backup crews (each boat has two crews) dispersed across the region assisting with food distribution.

The 337th Security Police Group, a US Air Force unit that had performed rear area security duties in Poland and East Germany, comes into its first direct contact with Soviet troops, outside Goerlitz. Fortunately, the Soviet forces were as worn down as the NATO armies, so the unit’s lack of fire support or anti-tank weapons is not a recipe for disaster.

The Canadian Navy commissions the patrol-minesweeper Whitehorse in Nova Scotia. While originally slated for deployment to the Pacific, the needs in the Atlantic are so great that it is pressed into service locally, hunting for rumored Soviet submarines positioning themselves for cruise missile attacks in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

In Iran, XVIII Airborne Corps' has gone over to a general offensive, while to their south III MEF has increased its pressure on the 40th Army, forcing the Soviets to fall back deeper into the Zagros Mountains. The 24th Infantry DIvision is reinforced by the 48th Infantry (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), which is brought back into action after a brief period of rest in Saudi Arabia, where it received most of the few replacement tanks and AFVs arriving from the US. (With a month-long voyage to the region from East Coast ports, the flow of supplies to CENTCOM has yet to be disrupted. This allows Third Army logistic officers to begin taking planning for the disruption that is to come.)

To ensure that the SS-24 missiles from the 46th Missile Division at Pervomaysk in the Ukraine are unable to be used again, a pair of B-1B bombers from Dyess AFB, Texas cross over the Balkans (their path cleared by fighters from the USS John F. Kennedy, which is making a rare foray into the eastern Mediterranean) and into Ukraine. Once within 50 miles of the ICBM field, they each dispatch ten SRAM-II missiles, set for ground burst, against the Soviet missile division's command post and regimental control facilities. One SRAM fails to detonate, so one of the B-1s, loitering nearby, fires a second round that eliminates the headquarters of the 309th Missile Regiment. Both bombers expend their remaining missiles as they egress over Turkey and northern Iran, where they pick up an escort of F-15s from the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing.

Meanwhile, a MX missile from the 400th Strategic Missile Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming retaliates for the strikes on the Gulf Coast the day before, destroying the command and control structure of the 41st Guards Missile Division at Aleysk in southern Siberia with ten 335-kiloton MIRVs set for ground bursts.

[chico20854]

December 9, 1997

The regimental HQ of the Canadian Native Ranger Regiment is attached to X Corps. (Unofficially) Elsewhere in Alaska, Soviet occupation authorities in Anchorage are completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the damage inflicted by their own weapons. Already struggling to provide food, water and heat for the local population in the absence of local government authorities (most of whom have either fled or been shot by the KGB), (officially) the aftermath of the attack on Elmendorf AFB ends up inflicting even more casualties than the strikes themselves.

Taking advantage of the chaos gripping Egypt, Libya launches an attack by Tu-22 bombers against the Aswan Dam, causing the dam to collapse and send a wall of water down the Nile, drowning hundreds of thousands of Egyptians and displacing even more. The attack destroys most of what electrical power was still being generated in Egypt after the nuclear attacks. Libyan tank formations cross into Egypt and head east against pitiful resistance.

Unofficially,

The commander of the 10th California Cadet Brigade, at the head of 250 16-to-18 year-olds, realizes that he has no communications off post and that his unit would be swept away; instead he offers his force to the base commander. It is armed by the mixed force of civilian security guards and recovering Marines and sailors guarding the facility. A Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant, healing from wounds received in Bandar Abbas, Iran, assumes command and integrates the guard force into the unit in leadership positions.

The Soviets turn their attention to Canada's military potential, hitting the Maritimes with an array of SLBMs fired from the safety of the Arctic ice pack in the Barents near Svalbard. They hit the oil industry in Saint John, New Brunswick, Come-by-Chance, Newfoundland and Halifax and Point Tupper, Nova Scotia. The Halifax strike also targets Maritime Command Headquarters; the cumulative effect is to paralyze Canadian naval operations in the western Atlantic and invoke an immediate fuel crisis from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Norfolk, Virginia. The Soviets also strike Yellowknife, Yukon with a 500-kiloton airburst, destroying the Northern Command Headquarters along with the USAF 20th Air Division, which was coordinating area air defense with the Canadians.

Soviet attacks on the UK continue, this time with SS-11s hitting the North Sea petroleum center of Aberdeen as well as military industry in Nottingham.

The light frigate USS Camp departs Gulfport, Mississippi after sixty days of training following delivery. She goes to sea short of many provisions and ammunition, one of the last new American surface combatants to sail during the war.

Targets struck in the USSR this day by the US include the Black Sea Fleet, with the headquarters and naval base complex at Sevastopol receiving ten 100-kiloton MIRVs from a Trident D5 missile fired by the USS Rhode Island. Another of the boomer's missiles strike the naval shipbuilding facilities, port, industrial district and early warning radars at Nikolaev. Three more missiles are aimed at the garrisons and headquarters of three SS-20 IRBM missile divisions, at Lutsk, Romny and Belokorovichi in Ukraine; the missile launchers are largely dispersed (two were located in the garrisons for maintenance) but the attacks curtail their command, control and support, all in short supply in the Ukraine at this point. While the Soviets planned for remote launch for silos that had their launch control centers (at regimental level, each regiment controlling six to ten silos), the American campaign against the Strategic Rocket Forces' command, control and communications infrastructure has largely degraded this capability. The airborne launch control aircraft (never as many or as sophisticated as SAC's elaborate arrangements) have been grounded or destroyed, and the "Dead Hand" emergency launch system is not activated, as it is hard-wired to order an all-out launch of all surviving missiles.

The status of political leaders around the world is uncertain as well. The status (and even the ultimate fate) of General Secretary Sauronski is unknown after multiple nuclear attacks on his bunker complex in the Volga region. In the UK, the military is working to bring Defence Minister Burton to a location where he can coordinate government relief efforts. The death of President Tanner and his replacement by President Munson in the US is common knowledge among US military personnel serving overseas (owing to intact military communications networks), while word is spreading quite rapidly around the US, both among civilians and military personnel.

[chico20854]

December 10, 1997

Due to the disruptions in both the US and South Africa it takes several days to retaliate for the Soviet attacks in Africa. However, once they are ready, their attacks hit hard, and no protestation of “neutrality” means much of anything to the Americans or South Africans.

Conakry, the capital of Guinea, is devastated by two 350kt warheads targeted on the damaged but still functional Soviet air and naval bases as revenge for the attack on Diego Garcia. The attacks annihilate the remaining Soviet air, naval and army forces in the area (including three of the last four operational Soviet subs in the Atlantic who were being resupplied there) as well as the government and military of the Republic of Guinea. Over a million and half civilians are killed or wounded in the attack.

Multiple nuclear strikes hit pro-Soviet Algeria and Libya hard, destroying refineries, oil fields and ports, cutting off almost all oil production and in the process causing nearly seven million casualties. The cities of Tripoli, Skikda (Philippeville), Algiers, Arzew, Ra's Lanuf, Zawiya, Benghazi and Oran have all been targeted in the attacks. The attacks on Algeria incense the French government and many of its people who still think of that country as being part of France.

Libyan armored formations that had crossed the Egyptian border are devastated by three tactical nuclear warheads, knocking out over 80 percent of the tanks and APC’s and sending the survivors fleeing back towards Libya. (Unofficially, the bombs were dropped by A-7Es flying from the US carrier John F Kennedy, which has been patrolling the Mediterranean, trying to avoid repeating the fate of the battleship Wisconsin.)

In the Indian Ocean, a single TLAM-N 150kt nuclear tipped cruise missile detonates over the harbor of Victoria, capital of the Seychelles, destroying the city and killing over 17,000 people. A group of Soviet merchantmen and Indian Ocean Squadron auxiliaries who were under the protection of the “neutral” Seychelles government are sunk and the 300 man Soviet Marine detachment there is wiped out.

Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, is hit with four 38kt nuclear bombs delivered by South African Canberra and Buccaneer bombers, two over the city and two over the harbor, sinking over thirty Soviet and Warsaw Pact merchants “interned” there including three resupply ships critical for Soviet naval operations in the Indian Ocean. South African Cheetah fighters shoot down over two dozen MiG’s that attempt to intercept the bombers, losing five fighters and one bomber to the enemy fighters and AA. Three South African 38kt weapons delivered by missiles detonate over Angola’s capital of Luanda, targeting the government, the refinery and the main bases of the Cuban and Angolan bases in the city, destroying much of the city along with the refinery there. The third warhead detonates almost directly over the airbase that harbors most of the Cuban air power in Africa, destroying all the aircraft based there.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship San Diego Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon. Like the handful of others, it was essentially complete on Thanksgiving, taking a few weeks to perform sea trials and storing.

The prosecutors office in Bakersfield, California receives a tip from a deserter from the 5th California Brigade, a state guard unit, that the brigade commander and some of the long-standing members of the unit have been running a covert "Death Squad" that has engaged in a series of nighttime raids against suspected “enemy sympathizers.”

A month after returning to its pre-war stations in Mongolia, the officers of the 12th Motor-Rifle Division have made very little progress in standing up a new division following the poundings the division suffered in China and North Korea. It seems that in a Red Army months into a nuclear war that Mongolia is a low-priority sector for the allocation of conscripts and recalled reservists. The 12th has received only 45 enlisted men in the unit's time at home station, and since it is stationed in a foreign country cannot resort to the age-old practice of grabbing civilians off the local streets to fill out the division's squads, companies and battalions. Likewise, the division's equipment park consists of a dozen aged GAZ-63 light trucks and a pair of T-34 tanks, former gate guards for the division's barracks.

After 30 days of workups (interrupted as they were), the recommissioned destroyer USS Morton is ordered to sea from San Diego. She sets sail accompanied by the freighters Houston Freedom and the Liberian Westerbrook, heading to Honolulu.

MIRVs from a Soviet SS-19 strike SAC bases in the mountain west. Malmstrom AFB in Montana and F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming receive multiple warheads on their airfields and command and control facilities: their ICBMs remain safely intact in their silos, their crews in constant contact with the SAC command post in Nebraska.

The attack submarine USS Pasadena, lurking only 100 miles offshore, launches a volley of 12 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, each with a 170-kiloton warhead, against an array of targets in Petropavlovsk in an attempt to neutralize the Soviet port and naval base that is supporting the invasion of Alaska as well as Soviet boomers in the Pacific. Eleven of the missiles find their targets (the last one overshot and exploded harmlessly over the Kamchakta Peninsula), tearing apart the port, submarine bases, air defense headquarters, ELINT facility, long-range communication center and SLBM depot.

Danish troops escort the last members of the royal family to Helsingor north of Copenhagen (still burning in areas), where they take up residence in Kronor Castle, the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet.

[chico20854]

[December 11, 1997

Nothing in canon for today.

Civil unrest still rolls across the world as the remnants of national governments attempt to provide local and regional governments with resources, resources that are far from adequate given both the scale of damage and the breakdown of world trade.

Merchant ships try to avoid surviving major ports lest they be caught in a strike on one of them. The ships of Convoy 314 finally begin crossing the North Atlantic to Europe following strikes on Norfolk and Halifax, Nova Scotia, both marshalling ports for the flotilla.

Two investigators from the Bakersfield District Attorney's office are beaten by California State Guardsmen after attempting to conduct an investigative interview with the commander of the 5th California Brigade.

Most US Army training units have adopted a hybrid model. Depending on the length of training completed before the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, trainees are assigned differing levels of duties off-post supporting civil authorities. The senior-most trainees are officially graduated and assigned full-time duties, escorting food trucks, guarding fuel depots or assisting with refugees. Those with a month or more training completed pull civil relief duties part-time. Depending on the situation, they may perform a few hours of training each day or have several days of training each week and some days on civil duties. Those basic trainees with less than a month of service are, at this point, doing training full time in order to adequately transform them mentally from draftees to soldiers. Finally, to keep the pipeline going, local 18-22 year-olds, both men and women, are forcibly conscripted; the fact that college has not resumed after the attacks means that millions of college students are home and available for military service. (Meanwhile, FEMA has begun to implement plans to use unoccupied dorm rooms in rural areas as refugee housing, never mind that the rooms are full of student's possessions.)

When word is received of the nuclear strike on Hawaii, the battleship USS Missouri diverts to Puget Sound for repairs after it was damaged by a torpedo in November.

Private Cutler, having survived over three months in combat with the 36th Infantry Division, is promoted to Private First Class. His brother, still in Brownsville, Texas, is guarding a grocery distribution center.

The Soviets decide that they have suffered too much from American bombers and, being unable to close the gaps in their air defense net, the best way to stop them is to eliminate their main operating bases. (The GRU has a long list of suspected dispersal bases but absent confirmation that any particular one is being used the Strategic Rocket Forces are reluctant to waste warheads on them.). A SS-24 ICBM from the 60th Missile Division at Tatischevo near Saratov is fired at USAF bases across the south; Dyess and Carswell Air Force Bases (bases for B-1B and B-52H bombers, respectively) and Randolph AFB (headquarters of the USAF Training Command) in Texas are struck, alongside Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana, host of a number of military industrial sites and Barksdale Air Force Base, home of the 2nd Bomb Wing and its B-52s and tankers.

SAC strikes Soviet Central Asia, targeting the Central Asian Military District headquarters and aircraft plant in Tashkent, the SLBM plant and Communist Party apparatus in Alma-Ata, the energy weapons test and development center at Sary-Shagan and BMP plant at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

[chico20854]

December 12, 1997

Nothing in canon for today.

(except Challenge Magazine states that the first nuclear attacks on Canada, in the Toronto area, occurred today. That conflicts with Boomer, which states that Barrikada fired missiles on Canada in late November!)

The Naval Security Group at Galeta Island in Panama picks up intelligence indicating that Venezuela is going to officially join the war on the Soviet side. Hugo Chavez is convinced the US is on its last legs and he wants to grab his share of the spoils.

President Munson is briefed on the situation and that the entry of Venezuela with her modern navy, air force and army on the Soviet side, given the damage inflicted in the TDM, would completely unbalance the situation in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and cut the vital shipping lanes thru the Panama Canal. “Let’s teach this little Mussolini a lesson!” is his immediate response, ordering the release of nuclear weapons to neutralize Venezuela’s military and deny her refineries to the Soviets.

Webstral detailed the strikes on the San Francisco area refineries:

Four MIRVs are fired at them, all from a single SS-17 ICBM from the 10th Guards Missile Division from Kostroma. The MIRV targeted at Richmond fails, and Soviet bomb damage assessment (a satellite passing by a few hours later) notes that the refinery is intact. The Strategic Rocket Forces fire a second missile, a old SS-11 that, while inaccurate, mounts a single 1.3 MT warhead.

The three .5 Mt strikes against Benicia, Martinez, and Avon are overkill for these targets. The strike on Martinez starts catastrophic fires at Benicia and Avon. Still, the Soviets like to be thorough. It's just blind luck that the one refinery physically separated from the others was missed while the overlapping attacks all succeeded.

The Soviets follow up the failed attack on Richmond with an ICBM with a single warhead. The launch vehicle selected is less accurate than more modern platforms. Whoever makes the decision to use the ICBM with a single warhead reasons that the higher yield of the warhead will compensate for the greater CEP.

The warhead is deliberately off-target. The Soviet strike is an airburst centered 7 km north-northwest of the center of the refinery complex, including the complex in the 5 psi ring as well as the thermal radiation ring, causing fires that destroy the complex. Richmond and San Pablo are doomed, but Oakland and San Francisco are far enough away that they are not obviously targets of the attack. No one is going across the Richmond Bridge anytime soon. Even though the bridge stays up, Richmond is completely destroyed. Burning tanks of fuel melt the roadway at the eastern end of the bridge and damage the concrete. There is no convenient bypass that also hasn’t been severely affected by the destruction of Richmond.

The first strikes at Benicia, Martinez, and Avon cause tremendous damage throughout central Contra Contra County and southwestern Solano County. Highly accurate strikes by the first three reentry vehicles wipe out the refineries and associated facilities at these three locations. Firestorms quickly engulf Concord and Walnut Creek to the south, Port Chicago to the east, Port Costa and Crockett to the west, and Vallejo to the northwest. Topography and the very wet El Nino winter of ’97-’98 serve to limit the damage compared to the devastation that reduces greater Los Angeles to ashes and rubble. While towns nearest the strikes suffer tremendous damage, the hills and marshes separating clusters of towns in Contra Costa and Solano Counties serve as effective fire breaks.

The strike at Richmond is particularly devastating due to the high population density of western Contra Costa County. Firestorms rage throughout Richmond, San Pablo, and the adjoining municipalities. By the time they have run their course, everything north of University Avenue in Berkeley has been consumed by fire. A virtually unbroken heap of smoldering ruin characterizes the Contra County shoreline from the western edge of Pittsburg, west through Martinez and inland to include almost the entire urban area in the valleys occupied by Concord, Walnut Creek, and Clayton; through the smaller towns lining the Carquinez Strait, along the southeastern shore of San Pablo Bay, and throughout the entire flat and densely developed area between the hills and the shore of greater San Francisco Bay south to Berkeley. On the Solano side of the Bay, Benicia has been annihilated, while Vallejo has been burned to the ground.

Seen in a larger context, these strikes virtually paralyze the San Francisco Bay Area and its 8.5 million inhabitants. Direct loss of life is significant but not overwhelming - less than 1 million. Loss of fuel for transportation, damage to the electrical grid, and the breakdown of order cause far more casualties over the next 2 years. Interstate 80, linking Sacramento with Oakland and San Francisco, is impassible through sections of Vallejo and virtually all of San Pablo, Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany, and much of Berkeley

Elsewhere,

The Freedom ship Trenton Freedom is delivered, having been at sea when the Galveston, Texas area was hit.

The last operating TV network, NBC, leaves New York City.

The Bakersfield DA travels to Sacramento, escorted by two patrol cars of heavily armed sheriff's deputies, to meet with state officials about the death squad within the 5th California Brigade.

At a US Army field depot in Waren, East Germany (a former Soviet missile base), three US Army deserters are arrested by guards as they attempt to enter the depot and secure fuel, ammunition and food by masquerading as resupply detachment for a III Corps unit. Under interrogation by MPs the three soldiers reveal that their attempt was directed by the leadership of their group of deserters, all former quartermaster soldiers, known as Fifth Squad. (CID investigators in Virginia had, they thought, broke the group up at Fort Lee, Virginia over the summer).

The Canadian Navy commissions its last warship of the war, the patrol-minesweeper Yellowknife, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship is pressed into service performing local security and relief duties.

[chico20854]

December 13, 1997

Two B-1B’s striking from Kenyan bases destroy the Cabinda refinery in Angola in a conventional bombing attack to deny its use to the Soviets and
Cubans, eliminating the last source of refined fuel for the Cuban forces in Angola, crippling their remaining air and mechanized forces.

Egyptian and Israeli aircraft destroy the last operational Libyan refinery at Tobruk, depriving the Libyan Army and Air Force of their last source of refined fuel. All fighting in the area soon grinds to a halt as the Egyptian and Libyan militaries come apart along with their countries.

In South Africa, the police and military forces put down the last of the rioters, using armor and machine guns freely against them as martial law
is enforced fully. Over two hundred thousand people have been killed in the riots since the nuclear attacks occurred.

Afraid that it is just a matter of time before Mount Weather, one of the most well known secret sites in America, is struck, President Munson orders the evacuation of the executive and legislative officials, leaving a caretaker staff behind to guard the site's still considerable resources.

Unofficially,

President Munson and his entourage (over 500 federal employees, members of Congress, military personnel and security forces, with an additional 350 family members) travel to Peters Mountain, Virginia, site of a less well-known bunker, 90 miles away near Charlottesville. The president travels by armored vehicle, the employees and their families by requisitioned school buses.

A B-52G from the 93rd Bomb Wing from Castle AFB, California (operating from its dispersal base at NAS Fallon in Nevada) flies another sortie over the USSR, this one targeting the city of Ulan-Ude. Closing to within 200 miles, the bomber launched four of its SRAM II missiles, each with a 100kt warhead. Two hit the Far Eastern TVD headquarters (one ground burst aimed at the headquarters building in the city center and one, also a ground burst, the alternate command post bunker outside the city), one is set for air burst over the city's airport (home to a Mi-17 and Su-25 airframe plant as well as a pair of Tu-95 Bear bombers dispersed from their home station in Kazakhstan) and the final one strikes the junction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Trans-Mongolian railroad, cutting off the main resupply route for Soviet forces in central China. Following the attack, the bomber turns south, where it is intercepted by a PVO MiG-23 that damages the big bomber (wounding the female co-pilot) but fails to bring it down. The bomber lumbers on, exiting over China before turning east over the Pacific, hoping for a tanker before heading to a recovery base. No tanker can be located (following attacks on Guam, Clark AFB and Okinawa), so the bomber lands at the Japanese air base on Iwo Jima, which the co-pilot bitterly complains is not the tropical paradise she dreamed of riding out a nuclear war in. Within six hours a KC-135 tanker lands, bringing with it a repair crew, fuel and reload missiles. Unfortunately, the damage to the BUFF is more than can be repaired at the remote island, so it is destroyed and the crew and remaining weapons evacuated.

The Soviets continue their campaign to destroy the American petroleum industry, this time by attacking refineries in the center of the country. A SS-19 ICBM fired by the 28th Guards Missile Division at Kozelsk disperses six MIRVs, each with a 550-kiloton warhead. They are aimed at the refineries in Tulsa and Ponca City, Oklahoma and Eldorado, Kansas. Two are aimed at oil terminals (at Kansas City, Kansas and Sugar Creek, Missouri) - both targets that were once refineries that the GRU failed to notice had closed. A final MIRV, aimed at McConnell Air Force Base, detonates several miles short of the target, destroying several dozen acres of productive farmland.

To escape the chaos in Boston, the headquarters of the First Maritime Defense District is moved to Camp Edwards on Cape Cod. Its commander, RADM Scott MacDowell, concentrates his very limited assets on supporting the fishing fleets and defending critical assets along the New England coastline.

In California, the Lieutenant Governor, State Adjutant General, Attorney General, Commander of the State Police and Bakersfield DA take some time from the response to the strikes in the Bay area to meet about the situation in the 5th Brigade. The state government is overtaxed responding to the nuclear strikes on the state, and the prospect of putting down a rebellious, heavily armed brigade would be a challenge in normal times. The decision is made to request military assistance, and the governor contacts the commander of Sixth Army at the Presidio of San Francisco to formally request armed federal troops.

The shipyard in Odense, Denmark delivers its last ship, the Susan Mae. The massive 100,000-ton containership is dispatched to the US to load supplies to sustain the war effort.

[chico20854]

December 14, 1997

Large numbers of refugees from the eastern cities pass through Hagerstown, Maryland on their way to havens, real or imagined, in West Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and western Pennsylvania. Much of Hagerstown is destroyed by fires and rioting mobs when local food supplies run out, and rumors spread that the townspeople are hoarding.

Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Shenyang Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts. The US government takes possession of the ship and transfers it to the Chesapeake Bay.

In western Europe, French and Belgian authorities record a record number of refugees crossing their borders from Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - over 50,000 for the day, with tens of thousands more piling up in huge backups on the roads leading to the frontier. The French government calls up reservists to back up the Army and gendarme units patrolling the borders on foot, in vehicles and by helicopter. Additional tens of thousands cross into neutral Switzerland.

US Army Criminal Investigation Division agents in Waren, East Germany discover that the attempted theft of supplies by deserters affiliated with the Fifth Squad organization (some want to label it a gang) was supposed to be an inside job when three members of the group, all quartermaster soldiers trained at Fort Lee over the summer, are identified as members of the group. A last-minute change of the guard roster meant that one of the members, who was supposed to admit the Fifth Squad truck, was moved to a different area of the base perimeter rather than manning the gate.

The Soviet Yankee Notch nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine K-395 is sunk with all hands northwest of Bermuda by helicopters from the escort carrier Shangri-La while firing SS-N-21 SLCMs. Interceptors shoot down 75% of the missiles; the two 200-kiloton warheads that survive detonate over Loring Air Force Base and Bangor International Airport in Maine.

A Soviet Tu-95 Bear bomber fires a single AS-15 cruise missile at the Akko steel mill in Haifa, Israel from over the Caspian Sea. The missile detonates over the mill 30 minutes later, destroying it and signaling to Israel that it should proceed carefully with providing any support to the US and its allies.

With rumors swirling about the nuclear attacks on the Soviet homeland and the never-ending meatgrinder of the European battlefields consuming entire divisions, the junior officers of the 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division in Manchuria revolt, lest they be the next victims.

Proving the reasonableness of their decision, the Czechoslovakian 3rd Motor-Rifle Division, en route back home via the Trans-Siberian Railroad, is caught packed aboard troop trains in Sverdlovsk when the city is attacked by two American Minuteman III ICBMs fired by the 490th Strategic Missile Squadron in Montana. The six 170-kiloton warheads blanket the city, destroying the Ural Military District Headquarters, the bioweapons plant, the steel mill, missile plant, artillery plant and truck plant in a sea of fire. In the attack, the Czech soldiers, locked in their railcars to prevent desertion, are incinerated.

Two additional Minuteman IIIs hit a variety of strategic targets near Sverdlovsk - the bomber training base at Kamensk-Uralskiy, the nuclear weapons plant at Lesnoy, uranium enrichment plant at Novouralsk and nuclear weapons stockpiles at Sverdlovsk-16 and Verkhnyaya Pyshma.

Hugo Chavez (who seized power in September 1995 with the assistance of the USSR and Cuba) is in the middle of broadcasting his declaration of war on the United States when a 340kt warhead from a Minuteman III fired from Malmstrom AFB in Montana detonates over the government district of Caracas, killing Chavez and destroying the entire government of the country as well as the Army General Command. The crack 3rd Infantry Division, stationed in the city, is almost completely destroyed. The other two warheads from the Minuteman III are targeted on Maracay, destroying the two largest Venezuelan Air Force bases and taking out most of her Air Force including every F-16, MiG-21, and F-5 fighter in their inventory as well as most of their training and transport aircraft. The CAVIM weapons factory is completely destroyed and the 42nd Airborne Brigade is wiped out. Puerto Caballo is hit by two 150kt nuclear armed cruise missiles, one destroying the Agustin Armario Naval Base, sinking the majority of the Venezuelan Navy. Both of its submarines, all six Mariscal Sucre class frigates, the four Capana class LST’s and over two dozen smaller ships are lost and several Marine battalions that were at the base being readied for operations against Curacao and Aruba are destroyed. The second missile destroys the El Palito Refinery and the Caribbean Ranger battalion guarding it. A single B-2 bomber completes the destruction of Venezuela’s refineries, with three 300kt B-61 nuclear bombs destroying the Amuay, Cardón, and Puerto La Cruz Refineries. It also drops a fourth bomb that destroys the 41st Armored Brigade at Fort Pamaracay in Valencia. Four B-1B and four FB-111 bombers armed with 500lb and 2000lb conventional bombs as well as GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided bombs attack the 44th Light Armored Brigade at Fort Conopoima in San Juan de Los Morros, destroying or damaging every armored vehicle and causing nearly 80 percent casualties. In the space of a few hours over four million Venezuelans are dead or injured and every major refinery in the country has been destroyed. Her Air Force and Navy have been eliminated as a threat to the Panama Canal and shipping in the Gulf of Mexico and the best units of her Army have been destroyed. The country is in a panic as it waits for more attacks, with the police unable to handle the rioting and looting that breaks out. The surviving Army and Marine units are too busy defending their base areas against waves of looters and panicked civilians to even think of taking action against the US. The attacks convince the leaders of Cuba that any thought of joining the Soviets in their war against NATO and the US is tantamount to committing national suicide. Miguel Hernandez is worried that the continuing presence of Soviet troops on the island makes Cuba a tempting target for US nukes and starts looking for any way to get those troops to leave.

[chico20854]

December 15, 1997

President Munson, on the advice of what was left of Tanner's cabinet, issues the Emergency Relocation Decree. The purpose of Emergency Relocation Plan is to relocate the nation's urban population closer to food-producing areas and minimize food transportation. For this reason, about 100,000 urban residents are shifted from the larger cities around the Great Lakes to smaller cities on the Great Plains. There is considerable opposition to the relocation from both rural and urban populations. This program, acknowledging that construction of sufficient shelters in each major city to protect the majority of each city's inhabitants during a nuclear attack was impossible, calls for the wholesale evacuation of the cities to surrounding "host communities" in the event that a nuclear attack seemed imminent.

Morland Bryce, a British SAS commander in Norway, receives word of his wife's slow death in a Bristol hospital and the disappearance of his 4-year-old son.

Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Lanchow Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama. The Chinese government is in no condition to take possession of the ship, so it is taken by the US government. The 1108th Signal Brigade is made responsible for reestablishing communications, disaster relief and civil order missions within the 1st US Army's area of command.

RainbowSix reports that Southampton is a target of Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at its port and refining facilities.

Action at the front lines in Germany has largely ground to a halt due to lack of supplies. The Bundeswehr high command, effectively the government of Germany, consults with SACEUR about the redeployment of troops from the Oder-Niesse line to the German interior as it appears that the Warsaw Pact is in no condition to launch an attack into East Germany. Dispersing the masses of Allied troops evacuated from Poland will also help in maintaining order in the German interior and more evenly spread the burden of billeting tens of thousands of troops through the upcoming winter.

The last operational American nuclear carriers in the Atlantic, the USS Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt, move north and east into the Norwegian Sea, the scene of such fierce naval battles a year prior.

Israel retaliates against the USSR for its strike on the Haifa, firing a single Jericho II missile at the steel mill in Rustavi, Georgia. The missile's 450 kt warhead incinerates the mill and a nearby chemical plant, effectively delivering the message that Israel will retain its sovereignty and retaliate fiercely against any attack.

Analysts from the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade (Airborne) in Saudi Arabia intercept Soviet communications ordering Transcaucasian Front's 126th Missile Brigade to launch a nuclear-tipped SS-12M missile at CENTCOM headquarters. Knowing that the response time to such an order is roughly 45 minutes, the headquarters is able to evacuate its commander and most of its staff, while the defending Patriot missile batteries of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade are all brought on alert and a pair of F-15Es of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing dispatched to attack the launch site once it is detected. The effort is successful, with the incoming missile shot down and the launch site plastered with cluster bombs within five minutes of the launch.

The mutineers of the 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division hold hasty trials for the more senior officers, finding them guilty of betraying true Communism. The colonels and generals are executed, the majors and lieutenant colonels released to wander the Altai region on their own, unarmed and alone.

[chico20854]

December 16, 1997

The commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is forced to reorganize the regiment as a single squadron and relinquishes its remaining helicopters to III Corps’ combat aviation brigade, the 21st ACCR.

Throughout the month, sporadic nuclear exchanges continue, and the populace of America panicks as the Soviet attacks persist. It is not the all-out exchange feared for decades, but the horror of nuclear war has at last been unleashed against the continental United States. Communications and transportation have broken down almost at once as the government declares a state of emergency and preempts those telecommunications networks which have survived the missiles, the repeated EMP (electromagnetic pulse) surges, and inevitable breakdowns.

As law and order breaks down, some cities in the UK take action. In Leicester, the local council declares the city independent and orderes the city's Territorial Army infantry battalion to halt the flood of refugees entering the city.

Unoffiicially,

Following American nuclear strikes on Soviet ally but officially neutral Venezuela and the devestation of Africa's petroleum industry, the Soviets strike other neutral nations to deny their resources to NATO. SS-20s from the 32nd Missile Division, dispersed in forests of northeastern Byelorussia, target the four largest refineries in France, at Gonfreville, Donges, Lavera and Port-Jérôme, hitting each with a trio of 150-kiloton warheads (except Gonfreville, hit with two MIRVs and Port-Jérôme, 30 km away, which is hit with the third warhead from the missile aimed at Gonfreville).

Commander Phil Kearny, who survived the attack on Washington, returns to the nearest militay installation he can reach, Fort Ritchie, Maryland. The guard force there, understandably nervous, detains him while verifying his identity.

The GRU assesses that most of the United States' largest refineries have been destroyed, except for a few clusters that remain. Accordingly, the General Staff authorizes an attack on the cluster around Chicago. A single SS-18 from the 59th Missile Division at Kartaly in the southern Urals, containing ten 550-kiloton MIRVs is launched. Less than 30 minutes later three warheads detonate over the refinery in Whiting, Indiana, two over the refinery in Lemont, Illinois (on the southwest outer edge of the city's suburbs) and three over the refinery and Army Ammunition Plant in Joliet. The subsequent blasts wipe out the refineries, damage the ammunition plant and unofficially, start a massive firestorm in the industrial cities of northwestern Indiana. Within minutes the steel mills at Gary and Burns harbor, two of the primary sources of armor-grade steel for American AFV and warship production, are engulfed.

VIII German Korps, last in action on the Czech border south of Berlin, begins movement to newly assigned winter garrisons near the Baltic coast around the ruins of Bremen. Its place on the front line will be taken by the XXIII US Corps, which is being moved south from assembly areas east of Berlin.

A flurry of MX and Minuteman II missiles strike an array of Soviet targets, one in Siberia and one in central Russia. A Minuteman II missile flattens the T-74 tank plant at Nizhniy Tagil with a single massive 1.2 MT warhead. A pair of MX missiles strike the six garrisons of the 42nd Missile Division (which operates road-mobile SS-25 ICBMs, which are dispersed in hide sites throughout the area) and the divisional and regimental command posts of the 52nd Missile Division, which operates a mix of rail-mobile SS-24 ICBMs and aged SS-11s in relatively soft silos.

The 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division, masquerading as a loyal unit, goes on the march northward, crossing the Soviet border into Siberia. The KGB Border Guards do not question the unit's assertion that it is en route to the European front and fail to notice that their interactions are all with junior officers.

Detachment 1, 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron loses one of its HH-3 helicopters during a thunderstorm over Ugandan territory. One of the helo's pararescuemen, Technical Sergeant John Watson, survives the crash and escapes the crash site, wounded but armed with his CAR-15 and a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol.

[chico20854]

December 17, 1997

At Fort Ritchie, Maryland, Commander Kearny is confirmed as an active-duty Naval officer and assigned to stand watch at the Alternative National Command Center at nearby Site R, Raven Rock.

Unofficially,

The French retaliate for the Soviet strikes on their refineries with the launch of three S3 IRBMs from their silos in southeastern France. Two of the missiles, with 1.2 MT warheads, hit Riga and Kishinev, while the third destroys the massive refinery complex in occupied Ploesti, Romania.

As part of the effort to cut the US off from fuel from its North American neighbors, the USSR intensifies its nuclear attacks on the Western Hemisphere's petroleum industry. Once again the Typhoon-class submarine Barrikada is ordered to launch six missiles at targets at various countries. One missile targets Texas, hitting refneries in El Paso, Borger and Sunray with a trio of 100-kiloton warheads at each (unofficially, the 10th MIRV strikes the large airfield at White Sands Missile Range, which the GRU suspects may harbor dispersed SAC bombers). One missile is aimed at Alberta's oil industry, depositing MIRVs along a 300-kilometer stretch from Edmonton to Calgary.

Two of Barrikada's missiles destroy the PEMEX refineries at Tula, Minatitlan, Cadereyta Jiménez, Salamanca, and Salina Cruz, destroying all of them, killing 260,000 and injuring 350,000 people in the process. The refinery at Ciudad Madero is spared when the guidance system on the warhead malfunctions causing it to explode 20 miles to the south, leaving the refinery intact.

In Colombia both the Barrancabermeja Refinery and the Cartagena Refinery are hit by two 100-kt warheads, causing over a half million casualties, sparking rioting and panic buying that rapidly spirals out of control. The Isla Refinery in Curacao is targeted as well by the Soviets. Newly arrived Patriot missile batteries shoot the 100-kiloton warhead down short of its target. The warhead salvage fuses and detonates, killing over 16,000 people and injuring another 47,000, overwhelming the ability of the hospitals to treat the injured. The magnetic pulse from the warhead detonation takes out power all over the island, completely shutting down the refinery and Hato Airport.

After Washington and Annapolis are hit by nuclear strikes, the Naval Academy is relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, home of the Naval War College and OCS program. With its combat-ready resources already stretched thin, the Navy assigns Coast Guard Commandant HoIsgirder the duty of providing local security and defense for the new Naval Academy. HoIsgirder welcomes the assignment; Newport is a perfect base of operations and very likely to last through the dark ages he sees on the horizon. He begins shifting his assets out of bases on Cape Cod and Maine, and reorganizing them into a full-time fighting force at Newport.

RainbowSix reports that the town of Hereford is destroyed by a Soviet nuclear missile. (Hereford has no major strategic targets, although it was the pre-war home of 22 Special Air Service Regiment, the British Army's Special Forces, however by this time virtually the entire Regiment is deployed on operations worldwide and only a few dozen personnel remain at Hereford, most of whom operate in a support role).

The American carriers Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt and their battle groups enter the Vestfjord off central Norway. As their escorts clear the area of enemy submarines, the force prepares to execute a number of nuclear strikes, which launch in the early evening. A ragged mix of F-14s, F/A-18s and F-4 fighters provide escort to the Soviet border for a trio of A-6F medium bombers, EA-6B jammers and KA-6D tankers, which refuel the bombers before turning back. The force overflies Norway, Sweden and Finland before crossing into the USSR, where the bombers split onto separate courses. One bomber attacks the submarine building yards at Severodvinsk while the other two hit a variety of targets in the nearby port city of Arkhangelsk. (The latter city had been targeted by British Tornados in June in the disastrous Operation Gabriel which saw the loss of 15 of the 20 bombers.) Two of the A-6s returned to the carriers, the last one simply disappearing in the Arctic night after dropping its B61 bombs.

SAC is ordered to eliminate the Soviets ability to launch further SS-18 missiles, following the previous day's SS-18 attack that ripped apart massive parts of the Chicago area. Two B-2 bombers, operating from the forward airbase in the Western Chinese desert (which the Soviets still have no idea exists), cross into the USSR and loiter some 150 kilometers away from the surviving SS-18 bases, at Kartaly in the southern Urals and Uzhur in eastern Siberia. Weaving between air defense radars, they each launch ten SRAM-II missiles, set for ground burst with their 200-kiloton warheads, at the regimental and divisional command posts of the 59th and 62nd Missile Divisions, respectively. As each bomber exits Soviet territory (flying across the North Pole, returning to dispersal bases in the Midwest), it expends its remaining six SRAMs against remaining operable SAM sites, air defense radars and air defense garrisons.

The flow of supplies to Soviet forces in the Balkans has slowed to a trickle as disorder convulses the USSR, disrupting production of war materiel and transportation through the Ukraine. Southwestern TVD pleads for more support from STAVKA, but is instead instructed to make do with what they can gather from the comparatively rich and undamaged lands they occupy.

The remnants of the Romanian and Jugoslav militaries (and the US 71st Airborne Brigade and 6th Special Forces Group) continue their active guerrilla campaigns against the Soviet occupiers, gaining valuable supplies in raids and ambushes while simultaneously making the occupiers' logistic situation worse.

TSgt Watson evades a group of LRA rebels seeking him out after his helicopter crashed in rough weather. He is unable to reestablish contact with the squadron's other rescue helicopter, which was sent to locate him.

[chico20854]

December 18, 1997

A New America scouting team scouts the ruins of Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas but turns back due to high levels of radiation.

After a brief power struggle, a former longshoreman and small-time hood named Max Graciano assumes control of New York's Harbor Pirates.

Unofficially,

After receiving word from CIA briefers that a Syrian tanker was recently sighted entering the Bosphorus, President Munson authorizes nuclear strikes on Syrian targets. Communications cannot be established with Sixth Fleet or the NATO air base at Incirlik in Turkey from the bunker he is sheltering in (which has less robust equipment than Mount Weather), so the order is executed with a strike by a Trident I SLBM from the USS Henry L Stimson, patrolling west of Spain. The seven MIRVs which function (one fails) strike the refineries at Homs and Baniyas (one warhead each) and the ports and Soviet naval bases at Latakia (two warheads) and Tartus (three).

SAC's systematic dismantlement of the Soviet ICBM force continues with a B-52H sortie over the Arctic. The bomber launches 14 ALCM missiles at the 14th Missile Division at Yoshkar Ola in the Mari El Republic of Russia. Three hours later a dozen of the missiles explode (two failed in flight), destroying the control sites for the division's SS-13 missiles, the division command post and the garrisons for its road-mobile SS-25 ICBMs.

The refineries at Rosemount and St. Paul Park, Minnesota are hit by MIRVs from a SLBM and destroyed.

The small convoy of the destroyer USS Morton, Houston Freedom and Westerbrook arrives off Honolulu, Hawaii. The destroyer pulls into Pearl Harbor for refuelling, while the freighters proceed to the commercial harbor to discharge cargo.

In western East Germany, III Corps' 21st Air Cavalry Combat Brigade is reorganized, taking the remnants of 3rd ACR's aviation squadron and consolidating into a single composite battalion, with attack, lift and assault companies (alongside the usual headquarters and support organizations). Due to the unit's shrunken size, there is an excess of support troops; the Corps G-1 (personnel officer) offers them to other units in the corps. Most are reassigned, although a few (mostly specialized helicopter and avionics technicians) are not needed in the corps, and they are offered to US Army Europe for reassignment.

A clash breaks out in western Siberia when the 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division, which revolted while on occupation duty in China, is confronted by the riot troopers of the MVD's 180th Separate Motorized Battalion in the Altai Mountains. The MVD troops make skillful use of their few anti-tank weapons (mostly RPG-7s, with a handful of aged AT-3 Sagger ATGMs) in blocking the rebel's progress, but are forced to give way when the full weight of the rebel artillery is brought to bear. Retreating on foot, most of the MVD troops are rounded up by the rebels and offered the choice of execution or joining the 190th in refusing certain death that would result from continuing to follow orders from "Moscow".

[chico20854]

December 19, 1997

The first arrest for hoarding under the provisions of FEP-D is made.

The Dutch 101st Mechanized Brigade is brought home from Germany, where it had been mainly performing rear area security duties, to the Leeuwarden area to assist Territorial troops with internal security duties.

Unofficially,

With stocks of aviation fuel running low on many dispersal bases and the exchange somewhat settled into a handful of attacks daily, President Munson authorizes a dramatic cutback to SAC's airborne alert posture. The new status will be but four bombers airborne at any time, each with an accompanying tanker, one airborne command post and a single relay aircraft.

A mixture of military and police forces operating out of Nellis Air Force Base attempt to maintain law and order in Clark County, Nevada, but they are unable to prevent the rise of a number of gangs that compete ruthlessly for the remaining consumables.

The Soviets make what will prove to be the final attack an American refinery, hitting Sweeney, Texas with a SS-N-18 from the Delta III-class SSBN K-496. The SLBM is topped with a single 450-kiloton warhead, which incinerates the refinery and much of the surrounding area.

American Pershing II missiles hit more targets in the Western USSR. The strategic early warning radar in Mukachevo, Ukraine is hit, as is the Kharkov tank plant, the Smolensk nuclear power plant and the Lysychansk refinery.

The 1st Battalion, Minnesota Regiment (a state guard unit) is called away from evacuation duties to provide relief following the prior day's refinery strikes outside the Twin Cities.

The headquarters of the Sixth Army, holding out in the Presidio of San Francisco, like other Army headquarters around the nation, determines that it needs more troops to maintain martial law. Unlike, others, however, it has an available force - the 221st MP Brigade in Hawaii.

Rainbow Six reports that the Greater Manchester-Merseyside area has, to date, escaped the 1997 nuclear strikes (although it has suffered from widespread civil disorder, which the authorities struggle to contain). A TA battalion, 5/8 KINGS, is deployed to the Manchester area to quell the serious disorder as rioting mobs fight with the authorities and each other over control of food, water, and other supplies. As the Regional Government implements a dusk to dawn curfew the troops find themselves confronting the mobs with orders to shoot to kill if necessary. A peace returns to the city, but it is an uneasy one, one enforced only by military patrols, by the threat of deadly force. The Battalion takes under command all manner of reinforcements, airmen and women from the RAF, Army cadets, civilian police officers, even traffic wardens. As well as maintaining order they distribute aid to the city's population, although supplies are becoming harder to come by as each week passes. Tent cities spring up outside the barracks.

Lest it be caught in port, the destroyer USS Morton, which was quickly refuelled and took on stores, departs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, accompanied by the container-barge carrier Harbin Carrier, headed for the Phillippines.

The American frigate USS Klackring sinks after hitting a mine in Vestfjord while protecting the Eisenhower and Roosevelt battle groups. The mine's origin is never established - whether it was a NATO or Soviet mine, freshly laid or left over from the Battle of the Norwegian Sea in December of 1996.

The new, massive containership Susan Mae arrives in New York on its maiden voyage. Upon arrival it rapidly becomes clear that conditions ashore are difficult and that it is extremely unlikely that there are 8,000 containers of cargo ready to be loaded. Wary of the disorder shore, the ship's master anchors in the outer harbor and contacts the Coast Guard for guidance. The Coast Guard responds, urging utmost caution (that there are armed, desperate people in small boats on the water) and advising the ship not to berth.

US Air Forces Africa calls off the search for TSgt Watson. Uknown to his headquarters, he is alive and sheltering in the bush outside a Ugandan village.

[chico20854]

December 20, 1997

On remote Svalbard, the residents, both Norwegian and Soviet, realize that in order to survive they must set aside national differences and cooperate. The coal mines there are largely dependent on machines to extract the coal, which requires imported petroleum fuel. With supplies cut off by the war, the remaining inhabitants are forced to fall back on their own resources. Some machines are modified to steam power, but most of the coal is mined with hand tools.

A Soviet SS-20 IRBM with three MIRVs attack the Belgian refinery complex in Antwerp. The attack takes out most of Belgium's oil refining capacity.

In France, the overwhelmed border police are increasingly relying on military assistance for dealing with the flood of German, Dutch and Free Polish refugees seeking sanctuary from the war.

Coast Guard Commandant Holsgirder, in Newport, Rhode Island commands only USCG assets that were not operating under the direct command of the US Navy. He and First Maritime Defense District commander Scott MacDowell trade hard words over the movement of Coast Guard ships, crews and equipment from northern New England to the southern New England coastline. MacDowell believes firmly that the fishing fleets are the key to keeping the coastal population of New England from starving and turning into the kinds of rioting masses that had driven him out of Boston. These fleets need Coast Guard protection and succor. Although MacDowell commands a force with US Coast Guard on its uniforms and ships, he is acting under Navy orders. Already, his force has been tapped to provide replacements and to escort Army units (including a recently-raised brigade of New Hampshire Army National Guard troops) to reinforce Europe. MacDowell believes it was necessary to keep every USCG asset possible in northern New England to protect shipping and fishing in the event the Navy decides to move more of MacDowell's assets. Holsgirder flatly disagrees.

In the Vestfjord off Norway's west coast, the Roosevelt and Eisenhower battle groups are visited by their remaining support ship, the USS Detroit. Unfortunately, the ship is less than full, having been unable to obtain a full load of fuel or munitions from the replenishment fleet operating along the GIUK Gap. The available JP-5 will be enough for only five days of defensive operations or three full-scale offensive air strikes, even with the carriers' diminished air wings.

SAC continues its neutralization of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces with B-1 strikes on the Svobodnyy and Olovyanneya ICBM complexes. Like other attacks on Soviet missilebases, the B-1s stand off and lob SRAM II missiles from 100 miles off at command posts, with each 200-kiloton warhead set for ground burst to ensure the destruction of the buried installations. On their exit they expend remaining missiles on air defense, transportation and industrial targets.

The 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division arrives in the industrial, transportation and agricultural center of Barnaul in Western Siberia. The city government, with an overwhelmed MVD detachment struggling to maintain order among a panicked population fearful of American nuclear bombs arriving at any moment, abdicates to the rebel formation rather than see the city suffer any further damage and destruction in a battle it knows it cannot win.

TSgt Watson slips past a LRA patrol in rural Uganda as he moves toward the Kenyan border.

[chico20854]

December 21, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day.

On the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere it is not only sunlight that is in short supply. As the nuclear attacks continue, the world trading and transportation systems have almost entirely shut down, leading to massive shortages of food, fuel and other necessities of lie. While food stocks exist, thanks to the bountiful harvest of the fall, moving the food to the population without petroleum is a nearly insurmountable challenge for the remnants of national governments.

In Paramus, New Jersey the 42nd Infantry Division makes its first arrest for hoarding food. Tony DiBello, owner of a small grocery wholesaler, refuses to sell his remaining stock to the military at the price established by 1st Army under the provisions of martial law (twice the price in effect on November 15), demanding five times the price. After he is arrested, troops sieze his entire inventory and allocate half of it to feeding centers and the other half is transported back to the local national guard armory that the battalion is operating from for the unit's cooks to prepare for the troops.

The Belgian government rallies all available security and emergency forces to provide relief in Antwerp following the attack on Antwerp. The interior minister reaches out to his French counterpart for assistance.

Soviet missiles rain down on petroleum and command and control targets in Ontario and Quebec. The national capital of Ottawa is blanketed with MIRVs from a SLBM.

An American Minuteman II missile strikes the Soviet refinery complex in Nizhnekamsk, and another destroys the massive Kama River Truck Plant at nearby Naberezhnye Chelny.

The new Danish containership Susan Mae, at anchor in New York's outer harbor awaiting cargo, is boarded by six armed men from a motorboat. The men rob the crew of cash, electronics and food from the galley but are disappointed to discover that the ship does not have any cargo aboard.

RainbowSix reports that most survivors of the strikes in South Wales head north into rural Wales or east across the border into South West England. Refugees fleeing the chaos of South Wales cause large scale upheaval in Mid Wales as many small towns and villages are swamped by the desperate hordes. Some refugees are integrated into the local communities but many locals oppose the influx and form armed groups in resistance against them.

The commanding officer of the 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division, the former deputy commander of the division's 53rd Reconnaissance Battalion, appears in public alongside the city's Communist Party chief to declare that the city is in safe hands. The division's troops spread out throughout the city, establishing small garrisons in most neighborhoods. The 190th's logistics officers are overjoyed by the seizure of the city's small arms ammunition factory, which yields over a million rounds for the division's guns. They are even more pleased by the capture of the intact Transmash plant, which has been turning out T-74s since early 1996. There are only a few complete tanks present, but plenty of parts to maintain them and several dozen in various stages of construction.

[chico20854]

December 22, 1997

Dain Dangerous, Boston megapunk leader, seems rejuvenated somehow. In the midst of the riots, the strikes, and the civil unrest, his band Terminal Illness begins to give impromptu street performances, sometimes with only the most primitive sound equipment, sometimes without instruments at all. Dain's new music is the saga of what is occurring in Boston, and like all sagas, it has a moral - "Only the gangs will survive." When the first of the gasoline riots occurs, the megapunks decide to add a little looting and arson to the list of crimes. Strangely coincident, the buildings and homes that are burned belong to the old established leaders of the Boston area.

A dozen other cities in the UK have joined Leicester in declaring their independence and asserting local control over local security forces (usually some combination of Territorial Army, police, RAF and naval personnel, augmented by university and high school cadets and even minor police personnel).

Unofficially,

The eighth and final R-5D spy plane is completed in Palmdale, California. Elsewhere in the US, military production continues at a lower level at surviving facilities. Armored vehicle production continues in San Jose, California (Bradley and M113-series vehicles), York, Pennsylvania (M-109s and M-88s), Detroit, Michigan (M-1 tanks), Muskegon, Michigan (LAV-75s) as well as a handful of mobilization plants. In all cases production continues under backup generator power (or in a few cases, restored mains power) with widespread worker absenteeism and declining stocks of components. In many cases completed vehicles sit at the plants awaiting transportation to ports.

Army armored vehicle repair plants such as the Red River and Anniston Army Depots continue to repair combat damaged vehicles, again using backup generator power and, in many cases, POW labor for unskilled tasks.

In Alaska, the Soviet 25th Corps and US X Corps have gone to ground for the winter as temperatures in the Fairbanks area drop precipitously. Even though both forces are experienced cold-weather combatants, high temperatures in the -20 Fahrenheit range and near total collapse of logistical support force a cessation of offensive action from both sides.

The Belgian interior minister's plea for French assistance is passed to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Within hours the dialog has moved to the highest levels of the French and Belgian governments.

Back in the US, the evacuation of some intact urban and suburban areas is proceeding in an orderly manner. School busses follow their normal routes through residential areas, collecting people of all ages. Baggage is limited to 50 kg per person and pets must be left behind. The busses transport the relocatees (as they are dubbed by emergency planners) to the local high schools, where intercity busses load them for transfer to food producing areas. Citizens, if they have sufficient fuel, may self-evacuate in their own vehicles. As neighborhoods empty, local law enforcement notes who remains; initially no additional action is taken.

Rainbow Six reports that HMG converts the RAF research and development facility at RAF Boscombe Down to an operational air base, relocating a number of the RAF's surviving fighter aircraft, including the remaining Eurofighter Typhoons, to there.

A Soviet SS-19 missile is fired at southern England. MIRVs destroy the port and naval base at Southampton, and the port in Dover. A bus malfunction results in the three MIRVs targeted at the major Royal Navy base at Portsmouth tumbling into the Atlantic.

In a case of cutting edge aircraft neutralizing their counterparts, a R-5D Aurora drops a pair of B61 nuclear bombs on the Ramenskoye aircraft research and development center southest of Moscow.

Soviet missiles continue their destruction of the Canadian petroleum industry, raining destruction on Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The massive Danish containership Susan Mae, at anchor in New York's outer harbor, receives permission to anchor further offshore after the crew was robbed the prior day. It moves 20 miles further offshore.

In Iran, 2nd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division secures the town of Shushtar from rear guard elements of the 1st Guards Army, while the highly dispersed 82nd Airborne Division has largely exited the highlands of northwestern Iran into northern Kuzestan Peovince.

[chico20854]

December 23, 1997

POWs at a camp in Exmoor, England wake up to find their camp guards (largely civilians) have fled. Colonel Andrei Zvetayev, the ranking officer, takes stock of the situation and leads the men out of the camp.

The Typhoon-class submarine Barrikada receives what is to be its last launch orders, showering five more missiles on targets (unofficially) in Canada (Air Defense headquarters at North Bay, the Chalk River nuclear power plant and the industrial complex in Hamilton, Ontario), Mexico (the refinery at Ciudad Madero, which was missed in an attack on the 17th) and the US (SAC bases at Griffiss and Plattsburg, New York and Pease AFB, New Hampshire).

Unofficially,

The situation in the Chicago area contiunues to deteriorate a week after Soviet missiles struck targets along the eastern and southern edges of the region. Fires continue to burn their way westward, despite the cold temperatures and the heroic efforts of the fire departments. Rail traffic through the city has been halted as workers refuse to enter the danger zone, paralyzing one of America's largest transportation hubs. The troops of the 49th Armored Division, the primary force responsible for maintaining martial law, is woefully inadequate for the task, its 14,000-some soldiers and fleet of armored vehicles utterly incapable of maintaining power, water and food distribution to the millions of civilians in the area.

The 221st Military Police Brigade (US Army Reserve) embarks on several ships in Honolulu harbor, orderd to return to California to help maintain order there.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan assassinate a lone Soviet Major, who unwisely decided to take a late evening walk outside the garrison area. To their northwest, the 24th Infantry Division's advance patrols reach the outskirts of Dezful. To their east, the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) secures the 24th's eastern flank with a drive northeast from Ramhormoz, keeping the Soviet 4th Army off-balance and unable to intervene to the west.

[chico20854]

December 24, 1997

Food riots begin in New York City as stockpiles of food dwindle. Whole armies of crazed people invade nearby neighborhoods, following rumors of secret stockpiles of food, water, or fuel, and the resultant slaughters leaves tens of thousands dead and dying in the streets. These rumors are sometimes true - a handful of dwellings - usually the upper floors of apartments and condominiums, and the penthouses of the very rich - had stocks of food before the attack. Some owners took what they could and fled. The majority are cleaned out by the owners to eat or trade with, and many are looted by hungry mobs or by street gangs. In many cases, however, the owners left their dwellings and fled or died... and stores of canned food and other valuables remain. Much of Harlem is ravaged by fires which raged through the district during the food riots, while the Columbia University security forces lead the defense of Morningside Heights from the fortifications above Morningside Park.

The Chinese suffer disproportionately during the riots. Largely ignored during the race riots of July 1997 (the Chinese, after all, were fighting the Russians), Chinatown is attacked and pillaged time and time again during the food riots. Hungry, raging mobs use the rationale that only "real Americans" have claim to the dwindling food supplies of Manhattan. Thousands of Chinese flee the island entirely, but thousands more die, murdered in the streets or killed when arsonist fires race uncontrolled through the shabby, crowded, substandard tenements which jammed the streets behind the shops and restaurants. The southern parts of the Bowery, much of TriBeCa and most of SoHo burn to the ground in the Chinatown fires as well. In the Lower East Side, the riots bring wholesale slaughter to the streets, particularly to older people who have been unwilling to flee to uncertain havens before the troubles began.

The inhabitants of Roosevelt Island take advantage of their natural isolation and the experience offered by one of their civic leaders, a retired Marine Corps officer, Colonel Randolph Phillips, to form a militia and maintain a semblance of order. The various hospitals on the island have large stocks of drugs and other items. Roosevelt Island's leaders, knowing the value of such supplies, see to it that several basement refrigerators are hooked up to alcohol-converted portable generators soon after the power went out. Here they store large supplies of gram positive, gram negative, and broad-spectrum antibiotics, saline, D5W and other IV fluids, anesthetics, morphine, and dozens of other drugs and supplies which are nearly impossible to find elsewhere in the city (or anywhere else in the country for that matter).

On Governors Island, the largest island in New York Harbor and the location of a military reservation named Fort Jay, the reservation is abandoned (the soldiers were more useful guarding critical buildings and intersections in Manhattan and Brooklyn than they were guarding the harbor from amphibious invasions).

Unofficially,

A secret meeting occurs between the Belgian Prime Minister and President of France. While nothing is announced to other members of their respective governments, let alone their publics, the idea of a Franco-Belgian Union is proposed by the French President, as a condition for substantial French aid to the badly damaged Belgium.

The container-barge carrier Sian Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts to the US government. This is the last ship built in Quincy.

For the second year in a row, NORAD commanders are on watch for visitors from the North Pole that are not in a sleigh. Fortunately, none arrive.

Rainbow Six reports that local commanders order the withdrawal of all police and military personnel from Birmingham, effectively conceding control of the City to the mobs, many of whom have managed to arm themselves with weapons taken from the police or other troops who have been overrun.

NATO intelligence identifies a major grouping of Soviet and Polish forces, under command of the Baltic Front, massing in northwestern Poland opposite the reinforced II MEF. Commanders hastily order the diversion of the US V Corps, which has been pulled back from the front line in anticipation of redeployment to the German interior for reconstitution and to assist civil authorities, to the Szczecin bridgehead.

German territorial troops, mostly security forces and support units, in the areas west of the Rhine, try to manage the flow of refugees trying to reach the perceived safety of French and Belgian territory. The border is effectively closed by French military units but the stream of civilians continues.

The last Transatlantic convoy in the "normal" series, Convoy 314, arrives in the North Sea, carrying a vast array of spare parts, replacement vehicles, munitions, food and the vehicles of two of the medium transportation companies stood up in October. The G-4 (logistics officer) of US Army Europe has had time to carefully prepare for the use and distribution of this bonanza, aware both of the vast needs of his command and that this convoy is the last of the pre-exchange resupply. (Additional ad-hoc convoys will sail for Europe in 1998 and 1999, but this is the final one of 58 North Atlantic convoys organized by SACLANT since hostilities started in Norway in November 1996).

The 12th and 34th Air Armies, Transcaucasian Front's Frontal Aviation components, receive an influx of combat aircraft from other theaters as supplies of jet fuel in other regions dwindle. STAVKA has directed the transfer of a portion of combat-capable aircraft and their crews to the area where fuel is still somewhat plentiful and where Soviet airpower can make the greatest impact on the battlefield.

In the first of many clashes with loyalist forces, the 156th (my 190th) Motor-Rifle Division routs a patrol from the MVD's 52nd Specialized Motorized Regiment, a riot control unit sent from Novosibirsk to investigate the situation in the now-uncommunicative city of Barnaul.

[chico20854]

December 25, 1997

In Norway, as in most of the world, it is a grim Christmas. The nation's power generation and telecommunications facilities have been destroyed as electromagnetic pulse from the nuclear detonations fried their control circuitry. Refugees from the cities, seeking food and shelter from the coming winter, have flooded into the countryside. At first they are received with charity and kindness, but it soon becomes obvious that there are more mouths to be fed than there are meals left in most parts of the country. The only government is by martial law, and the only forces for civilization are the remnants of the Norwegian military. People turn to the military for their leadership and for their protection.

A provisional state capital is established at the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, on Route 29 between Baltimore and Washington, and fifteen kilometers from the nearest Fort Meade crater.

In Pennsylvania, the principal targets of the urban migrations are the broad, rich farming lands between Lancaster and Chambersburg, the heavily forested and remote regions of northern Pennsylvania beyond Scranton and Williamsport, and the fertile lands beyond the Allegheny Mountains, between Pittsburgh and Lake Erie. The broad strip of low, rolling, farming country between Allentown, Harrisburg, and the western suburbs of Philadelphia have been overrun by refugees since the first nuclear war scares earlier in the year. Because of continued fear that Pittsburgh itself will be hit by nuclear warheads, few refugees enter the city itself, and, in fact, many natives of the city fled either during the nuclear panics of the summer of '97, or during the riots, fires, and renewed fears of nuclear strikes of the present. In the disorder the indoor shopping mall in Monroeville (on the eastern outskirts of Pittsburgh) is repeatedly looted by vandals and rioting mobs, leaving little but the shell of the building complex.

Unofficially,

King Albert II of Belgium grants his consent to the formation of a Franco-Belgian Union and a full military mobilization to both control the flood of refugees into the nation and obtain French assistance in responding to the nuclear attacks on Antwerp. Likewise, the French President obtains the grudging consent of the opposition Socialist party, seeing no alternative and painfully aware of the consequences of taking a pro-Soviet position in the wake of Soviet attacks on the nation. (The French Communist Party's consent is not requested, many of its leaders in detention for pro-Soviet espionage).

Not respecting the sanctity of the (in their view) decadent and exploitative holiday, more Soviet bombs strike the UK, destroying industrial facilities in Coventry, Derby and Bedford and the harbor of Bristol.

V Corps units in northwestern Poland launch a spoiling attack on massing Soviet and Polish troops of the Baltic Front. A massive snowstorm offers concealment to the advancing M1s and Bradleys but confounding the close air support aircraft, many of whom's advanced avionics are inoperable. The initial Pact resistance is Polish infantry.

XVIII Airborne Corps troops surround the town of Dezful, which is defended by a grab bag of stragglers from a dozen Soviet divisions, support troops and pro-Soviet Tudeh guerrillas.

[chico20854]

December 26, 1996

When refugees begin arriving in rural areas, it is inevitable that they should inhabit the sprawling shantytowns and rural slums which came to be known as refugee cantonments. (The FEMA-constructed evacuation sites were long-since filled) They are not forced into the camps; it is a mark of human nature, however, that lost people seek out others like themselves, with the same backgrounds and troubles. Camps are erected on open fields near running water and sources of electricity. These grow as newcomers arrive, searching for other bands from near their homes. Many cantonments are even named after towns and cities left behind - Akron, Youngstown, Cleveland in Western Pennsylvania - though after a time, any given refugee comes simply to refer to his camp as "home" or "the camp," and most camps lose the distinguishing features which had given them some semblance of individuality. All of the camps are much the same: huts made of sheet tin or clapboard, plywood or cardboard, some little more than lean-tos. Food is scarce at first, almost impossible to find at last, as thousands, as tens of thousands die of hunger, disease, and exposure. Many have left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and a trek by foot across hundreds of kilometers has left many barefoot, sick, and poorly-clad.

While some in the surrounding communities are indifferent to the plight of the newcomers, the majority try to help.

Rains finally quench the last embers in the southern half of the city of Tampa, which had burned out of control for weeks. By this time the fires die out, Tampa has suffered over 800,000 casualties, some 160,000 of which were deaths.

In the chaos of post-strike Britain, a collection of minor nobles band together on this Boxing Day to establish a new monarchy. It is based on a prewar book (The Great Pretenders) which "proves" that the rightful heir to the throne is a man named Paul Poundstone-Tuedor. Poundstone-Tuedor claims to be descended from the offspring of Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh (married in a secret ceremony), and thus rightful King of England. It begins gathering weapons and recruits to form a paramilitary arm, named the New Royalist Army, or NRA.

Unofficially,

In Trenton, New Jersey, a fire in a residential neighborhood destroys eight homes. It is started when a 62 year old man spills gasoline that he is siphoning from his lawn mower into his car in order to have enough fuel to evacuate. Once the fire starts there is no means to call the fire department, and water service is down as well. The fire is stopped only by a combination of cold weather and distance between houses.

The container-barge carrier Sian Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama. It, like its sisters delivered in the prior weeks, is taken over by the US government.

The Soviet Union launches some its final attacks of the 1997 strategic nuclear exchange, hitting Luton, Gloucester, and Yeovil, England. Soviet nuclear attacks also continue in the Pacific with attacks on Sydney, Melbourne and Geelong, Australia and the city state of Singapore, whose industry and refineries are making valuable contributions to the war in the Far Eastern theater.

V Corps spoiling attack in northwest Poland continues, now encountering Soviet troops and armor. The Soviet tank regiments are equipped with an odd assortment of tanks, everything from top of the line T-86s to barely functioning T-55s dragged from storage in Siberian depots. II MEF assists V Corps by launching local attacks along its front line to tie down troops and prevent commanders from diverting reserves to face V Corps.

Transcaucasian Front attacks several refineries in the region to cut off CENTCOM's fuel supplies. A Su-24 is sacrificed on a one-way mission to hit the Sitra, Bahrain refinery while missiles hit the Saudi refineries at Rabigh and Jubail and the petroleum refining and transportation hub of Fujairah, UAE. In the medium term, the attacks will succeed in limiting CENTCOM's fuel supplies, but for now the strikes do nothing to arrest the Soviets' costly defeats on the battlefields of Iran.

In Iran, the defense of Dezful crumbles under American and Iranian assault. By nightfall the perimeter is less than 500m wide.

On the Korean front the war has gone largely static. The Soviet 30th and 35th Armies are starved of supplies after the destruction of Vladivostok and American tactical nuclear strikes on the supply lines from the USSR, added to the burden of supporting the suffering North Korean population, which had no opportunity to raise food in a year marred by intense fighting from one end of the country to the other. In South Korea the situation is nearly as grim - the local government is still intact and somewhat functional, but the growing collapse in the world transportation system and the burden of over a million Nortk Korean refugees after a year of fighting makes for a difficult winter.

[chico20854]

December 27, 1997

Prince Jungi of Trondheim is crowned King Haakon VIII of Norway.

In Boston, a rash of shootings and robberies prompts Carlucci to organize a private army to ensure the protection of the UBF warehouses. With the help of Vietnam combat veteran and longtime friend Captain Thomas R. Holmes, Carlucci begins organizing the UBF Marines. Holmes, director of Carlucci's A1 Security Guard and Courier Service, is convinced that complete civil collapse is at hand. Carlucci's avowed goal of preserving law and order appeals to Holmes and is quoted regularly during recruiting drives. The UBF's policy of never asking where you came from or who you were, together with the prospect of regular meals, appeals to large numbers of young men. Lavish funding, diverted from the UBF treasury, and a substantial stockpile of loot from Carlucci's black market operations provide ample equipment for the UBF forces.

During the riots in the UK, the Red Devils (the hooligan element of the Manchester United Football Club’s supporters) are feared for their casual use of violence. When martial law is declared, the army begins shooting them on sight, so they leave Manchester.

Unofficially,

French and Belgian military planners meet in the former NATO headquarters outside Brussels to determine a solution to the shared refugee crisis. Both nations, with food, fuel and electricity rationed, have filled every hotel and hostel bed, holiday camp and excess military barracks with refugees from the fighting in Central Europe.

In northwestern Poland, V Corps drive begins to waver as supplies run low. The corps' artillery brigades can fire off over a thousand rounds a day, yet the available supply for the day is less than 200. Fuel is also running low, and the corps pushes forward using the remaining fuel in its armored vehicles' tanks.

RainbowSix adds the strands that held UK society together are unraveling with ever increasing swiftness, and as the year draws to a close the outlook for many is bleak. In many areas the rule of law has collapsed. The Government has lost control of much of the West Midlands and large parts of Manchester are under a dusk to dawn curfew, with violators risking being shot on sight by the Army. With the situation at home rapidly deteriorating, two Territorial Battalions have to be brought back from Germany to help enforce order. In addition to more standard measures police officers evacuating the Sizewell Nuclear Power Station leave a number of signs warning that the site is heavily radioactive, even though it is not, in fact, radioactive. The Army has stripped the Ministry of Defence site at Donnington, which was one of the largest military stores in Western Europe, of virtually anything useful. The Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site, which was built to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste products, is safely shut down

The Soviet defense of Dezful is down to just six buildings in the city center; the commander of the 24th Infantry Division details two battalions (one American and the IPA 56th Independent Infantry Battalion) to contain the Soviets while the division support command and engineer regiment clear lines of communications through and around liverated areas of the city.

[chico20854]

December 28, 1997

Vancouver and Chiliwack, British Columbia are struck by Soviet nuclear weapons.

The Bronx has suffered over 800,000 fatalities in December and afterwards. Queens suffers half again as many casualties in the food and race riots as Manhattan (over 1.2 million fatalities in Queens, as opposed to over 800,000 in Manhattan).

Unofficially,

RainbowSix notes that Edinburgh, Scotland’s pre-war capital, is not directly targeted by the Soviets, but sufferes some loss of life and damage from the strikes on nearby Grangemouth and Rosyth, with fall out drifting over the western suburbs. Large numbers of people have fled the city in the last few months, with many heading for the perceived safety of the largely rural Border regions. Those who remain suffer from starvation, disease, and civil disorder.

Glasgow has been devastated by the Soviet nuclear attacks, with the death toll exceeding half a million people. Some refugees try to enter the area around Dumfries and Lockerbie in the aftermath of the nuclear strike on Glasgow, but most are turned back in a series of often deadly clashes with the locals.

French and Belgian military leaders work through the night on plans to halt the refugee flow using their nation's still largely intact military forces. They reach the conclusion that the only reasonable solution is to occupy German and Dutch territory, securing the Rhine as a hard barrier.

In northwestern Poland, the Polish 7th Marine Division is the last unit to evacuate the near-pocket between II MEF, V US Corps and the Baltic. The Polish marines take heavy losses from their advancing American, Dutch and German counterparts, leaving the Polish division a nearly empty shell.

In Bavaria, American GLCM cruise missiles are fired at Rome, Milan and Naples, Italy to eliminate Italy's ability to prosecute the war; the Italian III and IV Corps in southern Germany are already severly hampered by the closure of the mountain passes by weather and American nuclear strikes, forcing their supplies to be routed around the Alps through eastern Austria.

The carriers Roosevelt and Eisenhower, operating off the central Norwegian coast, launch one of their remaining few airstrikes before running out of aviation fuel and spare parts for the aircraft (nearly a quarter of their combined air groups have already been relegated to "hangar queen" status, serving as parts donors as maintenance crews are forced to cannibalize to keep airplanes operational). The strikes, using conventional munitions, knock out the transformer yard and ancillary facilities at the Kola nuclear power plant near Murmansk, disconnecting it from the power grid and allowing the operators to shut it down safely rather than induce a nuclear disaster that would contaminate the Arctic for centuries.

The American light frigate USS Marchand, on patrol in the North Atlantic, nearly capsizes after being struck by a wave coming from the aft quarter. The ship, built as a war emergency measure despite the Bear/Famous-class Coast Guard cutters it shares a design with's reputation as poor sea boats, loses its CIWS mount and its HU-65 helicopter, shaken about in its hangar, is a total loss. The captain orders a return to the nearest port for emergency repairs. Its sister the USS Petit is dispatched from the North Sea at 16 knots to Portsmouth, England to escort two ships on a special mission.

In central Dezful, the remaining Soviet troops (with a few Tudeh diehards fighting alongside) continue to put up fierce resistance to surrounding Iranian and American troops despite dwindling reserves of food, water and ammunition.

USANVCENT/Fifth Fleet dispatches the former Coast Guard Cutter USCG Thetis (newly arrived with the last supply convoy from home) to Diego Garcia, where it is to land a team (by one of the ship's small boats or its helicopter) to identify what facilities remain intact, what the repair effort required may be and what resources can be salvaged. The ship's complement includes a team of engineer planners from the 416th Engineer Command to assist with the effort.

An American B-2 bomber loitering over the Urals (an increasingly uncommon occurrence as fuel shortages cut back the number of sorties) catches a rare prize - a rail-mobile SS-24 missile train emerging from a tunnel, where it has been hiding between launches. It is quickly dispatched by a lone B61 nuclear bomb; it has never been determined what targets were spared by the attack, or, indeed, whether it was emerging to attack or simply to reposition.

[chico20854]

December 29, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The last known commmunication is transmitted by Secretary General Sauronski from the safety of his bunker complex under Zhiguli, which was severely damaged when by an American 9-megaton bomb struck the fortress on November 30. His ultimate fate has never been determined, despite decades of speculation, rumors and inquiries.

An alliance of two Canadian biker gangs, the Stone Machine and the Bandits, cross the border into North Dakota and raid the Cobray firearms plant six miles south of the border. They overwhelm the security force and make away with hundreds of MAC-10 SMGs and Street Sweeper shotguns.

A tragedy occurs on the Ohio River, when the dinner cruise boat Belle of the Ohio catches fire and burns to the waterline. The boat, only certified by he Coast Guard to carry passengers for a maximum of four hours, had been pressed into service to evacuate residents of Cincinnati, Ohio to rural communities in northwestern Kentucky. Fue was in short supply, and survivors indicate that the crew was unable to run the heating system on the boat and that some evacuees on the top deck (the ship was carrying over 1500 passengers, despite being rated for 400) lit fires to try to keep warm. A precise death toll was never compiled as no passenger manifest had been prepared and many bodies washed downstream in the icy river.

RainbowSix notes that the nuclear strikes see waves of refugees flee the cities of Yorkshire, leading to often deadly clashes with communities who have not been directly targeted. In some cases refugees take over a community, then start fighting amongst themselves, and a number of towns and villages are now little more than burned out shells occupied (and fought over) by several different groups, whilst others have become fortified enclaves, where strangers are unwelcome and will be turned away, by force if necessary. Tyneside and Wearside both escape nuclear attack (quite how this happened remained a mystery to most people in the region). Northampton is ravaged by riots that started off over food but ended up in wanton destruction and looting. Twenty miles to the north of Northampton, the town of Corby, home to a plant that manufactured steel tubes and a nuclear power station before the war, suceeds in shutting down both facilities.

The 221st Military Police Brigade (US Army Reserve) arrives at the military port facility at Port Hueneme, California (secured by Navy Seebees) (officially) to assume internal security duties in Southern Califonia. (Unofficially, it is tasked with bringing the near-renegade 5th California Brigade to heel).

Shortly before midnight, several small teams from the French 1st Marine Infantry Paratroopers Regiment and 13th Parachute Dragoon Regiment slip over the border into the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany west of the Rhine. They are tasked to determine the conditions on the ground, including surviving military units and facilities, concentrations of refugees and the condition of transportaion routes and chokepoints.

The Armee d'laire (French Air Force) issues a desperate call for all flightworthy transports overseas (throughout Africa and the Middle East, plus a lone C-130H in Frencch Guyana) to immediately return to Metropolitan France.

The Bundeswehr command begins preparations for an attack in Czechoslovakia in hopes of forcing the Czechs to withdraw their forces from southern Germany, clearing the way for the reconquest of the occupied areas. Supplies and reinforcements are brought forward; many of both have been stripped from terriorial units, especially those west of the Rhine, which are unlikely to see combat in the medium term and which are nearly entirely devoted to managing refugees and deserters.

King Haakon of Norway makes his first official public appearance when the "Arctic Fox" visits with refugees in the countryside outside Oslo.

The light frigate USS Petit meets up with its charges, a freighter and a large, aged troop transport, off Portsmouth and proceeds southwest, making sure to stay clear of French territorial waters, where a squadron of surface combatants has sortied from the French naval base of Lorient.

The US Navy's Sixth Fleet, facing the collapse of its logistic and repair infrastructuer and extensive damage to Gibraltar and Norfolk, makes the difficult decision to abandon the damaged USS America, which has been anchored in Sigonella, Sicily since it was damaged by mines and torpedoes in early October. The remaining crew (many have been transferred to other units or reassigned to shoreside security duties) work on transferring valuable materiel to the other American carrier in the Mediterranean, the USS John F. Kennedy. Three civilian cargo ships (the Berlin Freedom, the Cape Archway and the Panamanian Amer Asha) are also in port, ready to take on additional supplies and to transfer excess crewmembers to other locations, as Sixth Fleet has made the decision to abandon Sigonella as well.

[chico20854]

December 30, 1997

Dutch units on internal security duties suffer from desertions and poor morale as the nation suffers in the chaotic aftermath of Soviet nuclear strikes.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship El Paso Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon. The shipyard will struggle to complete another ship, but it is never delivered.

The Soviets launch what will turn out to be their last strategic nuclear attack on the US, with SS-N-18 missiles from the Delta III-class SSBN K-424 striking targets in the southeast. Dobbins Air Force Base, home of the US Air Force Reserve Command and the C-130 production line northwest of Atlanta, is hit with a 450-kiloton warhead (from a single-warhead SS-N-18), while Warner Robbins Air Force Base to the southeast is plastered by three 100-kiloton warheads from a SS-N-18, neutralizing the PAVE PAWS SLBM-detection radar. Fort Gillem and Fort Gordon are each hit by two 100-kiloton warheads from the same missile, ccausing heavy losses to the troops there.

RainbowSix reports that large numbers of people flee the cities of the West Midlands. This leads to a number of violent clashes between locals and refugees. Birmingham, the largest city in the UK outside London, suffers a complete collapse of law and order when the authorities, hopelessly outnumbered and having already lost large swathes of the city to the mobs, decide to withdraw all troops and police to prevent them from being overrun. (Whilst most Army units obey and pull out, a number of police officers, most of whom live in the same communities that are being abandoned, disobey the order and stay put).

Though not targeted by the Soviets, rioting and looting takes its toll on Birmingham, and much of the city is reduced to burned out ruins. Much of the southern part of Staffordshire descends into chaos as waves of refugees enter the area following the destruction of Wolverhampton and Coventry. Warwickshire also suffers due to its proximity to the West Midlands conurbation, with large numbers of refugees entering the northern part of the county from Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Coventry. Several towns are effectively taken over by refugees, who force out the former occupants, and violent clashes between different groups are commonplace, particularly in the area bordering what remains of Coventry.

French and Belgian military authorities implement a nationwide civilian communications blackout - the telephone system is turned off for civilians, as are telegraph and postal services. The high-speed TGV rail network is shut down as well (the airlines and civil aviation having been grounded following the nuclear strikes on French refineries earlier in the month), and a curfew imposed within 100 km of the border. This lockdown succeeds in cleariing the transportation routes and preventing word from slipping out of the massive troop movements towards the nations broders.

American missile squadrons in Europe launch another round of strikes on Warsaw Pact capitals as SACEUR, largely out of communication with President Munson and other NATO heads of state, is determined to eliminate Warsaw Pact allies' ability to continue waging the war. Prague, Budapest and Sofia are all struck by cruise missiles. killing additional hundreds of thousands of people. SACEUR is forced to use cruise missiles for the strikes by the dire state of his tactical air fleet, which has been ravaged by over a year of action, nuclear and conventional attacks on air bases and a near-collapse of the supply situation as desperate refugees look to the military to provide relief in the harsh winter conditions.

A French squadron sallies from the Channel Fleet's base in Cherbourg, preceded by minesweepers and operating under the cover of Atlantique patrol aircraft and Mirage interceptors to ward off any observers.

The Soviet 7th Army begins to crumble as it comes under fierce Allied attack from both north and south. Air operations over the front have largely halted as shortages of fuel, spare parts and muniions, not to mention replacement aircraft and pilots, all mount.