On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

April 30, 1998

The American counteroffensive in Alaska has severed the Soviet's main supply route across the Bering Strait. The Soviet units are forced to live off the land and many have to break up to survive.

The first major outbreak of bubonic plague occurs in San Francisco.

In Cameroon, the Limbe oil refinery is forced to shut down when the facility's reboiler fails due to fatigue. It is the nation's sole source of refined petroleum following the collapse of seaborne imports.

Unofficially,

At a "Cabinet" meeting (nearly all of the pre-war Cabinet is dead, and nearly every department is represented by some junior official acting far above their pay grade and expertise) President Munson is presented with a report on the status of the American economy at the end of the first quarter of the year. It is impossible to even semi-accurately enumerate the state of the economy, with entire sectors (finance and insurance, most manufacturing, energy and mining) almost entirely shut down and millions not only unemployed but dead from Soviet nuclear strikes, famine, disease or civil unrest. The sliver of good news is that there are islands of stability and order from which modest reconstruction efforts are starting, and, the (Acting) CIA Director gleefully reports, conditions in the USSR are, by all reports, much worse, indicating that it is appearing increasingly as if the US has prevailed in the nuclear war. Munson, reeling from news of the horror he has just received, flies into a rage and has to be physically restrained from attacking the CIA man.

In an unusual occurrence, a F-15 of the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing is intercepted by a Soviet fighter, a MiG-23 of the 841st Guards Fighter Regiment, over the front lines south of Dezful. The American aircraft has only three missiles aboard and the Soviet one has two, and a short engagement results in the loss of the Soviet bird.

CIA agent David Hudson has covered nearly 50 km on foot since escaping the collective farm northeast of Moscow three nights ago, but has come to the realization that there is no way he will escape the USSR at such a pace. On the other hand, an exfiltration by the CIA clearly isn't going to occur, so he needs to find another way to escape the massive enemy nation.

[chico20854]

May 1, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

California authorities order the immediate quarantine of San Francisco to prevent the spread of bubonic plague. Unfortunately, issuing the orders is the easiest step to take; the State Guard is more than fully engaged just trying to keep food distribution going (and the exhausted guardsmen are less than enthusiastic about travelling into the quarantine zone and interacting with people in rat-infested warehouses), and the federal government has no meaningful assistance to lend.

The weather over X Corps' front lines in Alaska finally clears enough for 120 paratroops of the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division to drop behind Soviet lines in the hamlet of McKinley Village, blocking their supply route in coordination with scattered patrols of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon), which are blocking minor routes and other potential travel routes.

Map of front lines
In Europe, the warring armies are ready to resume active hostilities. Higher commanders have regained contact with most remaining subordinate units and the long, cold winter has given units time to rest and restructure. While supplies of food and fuel were depleted over the winter, ammunition stocks have not been used and the long quiet period gave unit maintainers time to sort through remaining spare part inventories and identify vehicles for cannibalization, restoring some vehicles to full operational status. Many formations have disbanded understrength units to bring others up to closer to full strength, resulting in brigades with two battalions or companies short of a platoon but otherwise at 75 percent of “book” strength. Additional reinforcements have been sent to front-line units after rear area support units were culled for surplus soldiers and excess air force and shoreside naval personnel were reassigned to army units.

For the first time since 1917, there is no parade through Red Square in Moscow, which is much too irradiated for most surviving Soviet citizens to dare enter.

[chico20854]

May 2, 1998

A New America expedition to ruins of Blytheville Air Force Base stumbles across an army unit busily excavating a cache of undamaged cruise missiles from a rubble-buried storage bunker. The New American commander, showing more initiative than sense, attacks the unit. His unit suffers 60% casualties, but a truck convoy with five ALCMs already loaded on board is overrun and captured. The army unit suffers light casualties and attributes the attack to marauders.


Unofficially,

The American airborne force in Alaska comes under Soviet attack as the 110th Guards Motor Rifle Division dispatches a detachment from the 558th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment to dislodge the blocking force. To the south, the combined force of the 22nd Guards Motor-Rifle Division and the 99th Guards Air Assault Division move south into British Columbia, sending scavenging parties far and wide to secure food and fuel to sustain the attacking force.

In the skies over Czechoslovakia, two RF-16Cs of the 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing collide while swerving and weaving to throw off a pursuing MiG-29 of the Czech 8th Fighter Regiment. The pilots had only flown three missions in the prior two months, none of which had included flying with a wingman. The loss of the two precious fighters shows how rapidly proficiency of fighter pilots deteriorates when pilot skills are not used.

The American freighter Gulf Shipper is attacked by pirates in small boats off the Horn of Africa while on a voyage to secure food supplies for the Iranian civilian population.

Another car bomb tears apart the downtown of a South African city, this time the provincial capital of Bloemfontein. Authorities strongly suspect that it is the work of AWB terrorists, whose compatriots still control vast swathes of the countryside despite a massive active counterinsurgency by SADF forces.

[chico20854]

May 3, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

To conserve fuel, the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron halts patrols of its 21 MGM-134 Midgetman ICBM Hard Mobile Launchers, instead stationing each at a dispersal site within 10 miles of the squadron headquarters at Desert Rock airfield, Nevada.

The 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division thrashes against the small American blocking force, pushing the paratroops off the main (and only paved) road while other division elements attempt to withdraw from the front lines under pressure from other elements of X Corps.

As part of an effort to strip precious resources from NATO troops in southern Germany, the Soviet Baltic Front launches a series of attacks on II MEF and the Danish Jutland Mechanized Division in northwestern Poland. The attacks are a welcome to the British 3rd Commando Brigade (reinforced with the Dutch 9th Amphibious Combat Group), which has just arrived in Germany after extensive service in northern Norway.

The nuclear cruiser USS Virginia turns southwest in the South Atlantic, heading for the remote Gough Island and the sealanes between there and Tristan da Cunha, seeking the Soviet fishing fleet.

South African Buccaneer light bombers attack an isolated farm 120 km northwest of Bloemfontien, which informants within the AWB have indicated is the regional headquarters for the right-wing terrorist group. Delivering a distinct message, the farm is incinerated by the napalm canisters dispensed by the low-flying aircraft.

[chico20854]

May 4, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The first case of bubonic plague is reported in Sacramento, 85 miles from San Francisco, despite the (ineffective) quarantine of the latter city.

In Mexico, the governing El Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) party is failing to alleviate the challenges of life in 1998 (as is every government in the world at this time), and the military-supported Partido Autentico de la Revolucion Mexicano (PARM) makes a move in the Chamber of Deputies to have the caretaker government (the PAN lacks a majority and elections are scheduled for June) replaced. The PARM backs up this demand with a demonstration of force by the Presidential Guard Brigade.

RainbowSix reports that Parliament reconvenes for the first time since Black Thursday as a number of surviving MP’s and Peers meet in the cathedral city of Winchester in Hampshire. (They meet in the city's Guildhall). With Douglas Montgomery confirmed as Prime Minister. Parliament’s first act is to pass a continuation of the Emergency Powers Act, with the military retaining primacy for law and order. Most of the surviving members of the British and Dutch Royal Families move to the Winchester area at this time, taking up residence in several country houses just outside the city, although those in the immediate line of succession to both Thrones (Prince Harry for the British and Prince Willem Alexander of Orange for the Dutch) are moved to secret locations in secure areas controlled by the military (rumours persist for some time afterwards that they have gone overseas, to either Australia or New Zealand).

Baltic Front continues its assault on II MEF's front lines. The 5th Marine Division's 27th Regimental Combat Team is brought forward from reserve positions in the town of Goleniów, and overhead F/A-18s and Harriers of Marine Aircraft Group 14 are called in (in small numbers) to reinforce outposts that are at risk of being overrun.

[chico20854]

May 5, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The trailing elements of the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division descend to the southern slopes of the Alaska Range, under pressure from troops of the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division, marking the successful eviction of Soviet troops from their strongest defensive line between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Order in much of central and eastern England deteriorates with the withdrawal of 5th Division and 19 Infantry Brigade from civil relief duties for deployment to the continent.

The last US Pacific Fleet nuclear missile submarine, the USS Georgia, returns to port at Port Hadlock, Washington, joining ten other Trident boats in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.

The heavy equipment of the 46th Infanty Division (roughly one armored, one mechanized infantry and four truck-borne infantry battalions, plus two and a half battalions worth of artillery and other divisional combat support and service supportunits) departs Norfolk, Virginia aboard the American freighters Cape Turner and Baltimore Freedom and the (captured Greek and reflagged Panamanian) Manley Falmouth.

AWB terrorists continue to control wide swathes of the South African countryside; the SADF makes the drastic decision to incorporate former ANC (African National Congress) guerillas into regular units.

[chico20854]

May 6, 1998

Canon has nothing for the day. Unofficially,

The students of the 10th California Cadet Brigade and the garrison of the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, on the southern edge of the Los Angeles urban buildup, have succeeded in planting nearly all of the 5250-acre (21 sq-km) complex. They hope that the crops, shellfish harvested from the extensive marshes and fish caught from shore and the few small boats available will be sufficient to sustain themselves. (Military authorities have stopped sending troops into the devastated Los Angeles area following the extensive nuclear strikes on refineries in December).

In Alaska, once again X Corps troops are too short of supplies to offer a close pursuit of the Soviets that they have driven out of defensive positions; what little spare food and fuel available is dedicated to relief of the airborne and scout troops that had blocked the Soviet supply lines.

The Soviet Sierra-III class sub K-231, which has been on patrol non-stop since escaping the Mediterranean in late August, is running low on provisions. The captain's orders authorize him to seek shelter in Luanda, Angola as well as giving him code information to contact a number of supply vessels lurking in remote anchorages around the world. Luanda was struck by South African nuclear weapons in December, forcing the skipper to broadcast signals to try to locate a supply ship.

In Afghanistan, the isolated Soviet garrison in Khandahar (built around the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade) finds itself in an increasingly difficult situation. It has been nearly four months since the last resupply flight arrived and over 18 months since the last ground convoy. The only reason the command has not been wiped out is that the unit provides the only protection for the townspeople against the bands of deserters (from the Red Army and the puppet Afghan DRA), bandits and mujahidin that roam the countryside. The garrison commander provides protection for the poppy farms in the region, receiving the supply of food and fuel his command needs and that can only be supplied by drug runners in this chaotic environment.

The Hungarians of the 53rd Mechanized Brigade are forced to once again abandon the trains that have transported them from China after several days of seeking a way to repair or bypass the damaged portion of the Trans-Siberian railroad in eastern Siberia. They load their vehicles with as much fuel as they can carry and light the abandoned train they are leaving behind afire.

The convoy to Kenya is ordered to hold in place as an Allied naval force is hastily assembled to deal with the Soviet naval task force that has been sighted by a rare S-3 Viking patrol flight.

[chico20854]

May 7, 1998

Another day with nothing in canon. Unofficially,

The Acting Director of the CIA, his pride wounded by the dressing-down he received from President Munson following the assessment that the US has prevailed in the nuclear exchange, begins plotting revenge.

As word of the establishment of the Ho-Chunk territory spreads, Native Americans from throughout the upper Midwest begin to travel to the territory.

In Alaska, the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) dispatches a company (B Company, 2nd Battalion, 297th Infantry) down the still frozen Yukon River to secure the river's mouth, firmly denying use of the river as a transport route to the Soviets, who still have a sizeable portion of the 6th (my 99th) Guards Air Assault Division isolated to the north.

The cruiser USS Virginia, patrolling remote areas of the South Atlantic, as well as the NSA intercept station on Ascension Island and South African naval intelligence center at Silvermine near Capetown, intercept the K-231's transmissions and the response it receives from the Soviet fishing flotilla in the South Atlantic. Coordination between the three stations, however, takes some time, but the American cruiser has turned to advance down the bearing of the submarine's transmission while the South Africans dispatch a Boeing 707 tanker/ELINT aircraft of 60 Squadron SAAF to the area as well. Unbeknownst to the Americans and their South African comrades in arms (the American government, such as it is, is still working on the diplomatic niceties of formalizing the relationship as an alliance), the K-231 has returned to depth and is moving slowly towards the Soviet fishing fleet, which is remaining nearly stationary to preserve fuel and simplify the rendezvous with the sub.

A hastily assembled task force of American and Kenyan surface combatants sorties from Mombasa to cut off the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron before it can intercept the AFRICOM supply convoy, which is off Durban, South Africa. The South African Navy dispatches a task force as well, which rushes past the slowly-moving convoy.

In the Caribbean, French forces eliminate the last holdout positions of the Dutch 3rd Amphibious Combat Group and their local militia augmentees on St. Maarten. The Dutch, out of touch with home for months, have been resisting the French invasion since January.

[chico20854]

May 8, 1998

The remaining Soviet naval forces in the Indian Ocean that had survived the nuclear strikes on Maputo and the Seychelles are destroyed by the combined efforts of the US, Kenyan and South African Navies.

Unofficially,

RainbowSix reports that James (Lord Seymour of Marston), decorated Korean War hero and former Defense Minister and Foreign Secretary and an old friend of PM Douglas Montgomery, is visited at his home, where the PM asks him to return to Government service and take up the role of Foreign Secretary. Seymour agrees at once, joining the Government at Winchester.

Soviet forces along the Oder River line launch fierce artillery and mortar barrages, commencing after sunset. One of the units, the 20th (my 16th Guards) Tank Division adds its tanks' gunfire to the barrage, using inclined earthen ramps to add to their guns' elevation.

American and South African naval commands covering the South Atlantic coordinate as well, fixing the location from which the K-231 broadcast as well as the responding station. The overflight of the former location by a South African Boeing 707 reports nothing on the surface or vicinity, and the aircraft continues to the second location. Upon arrival in the vicinity of the fishing fleet, the South African aircraft is expectantly engaged by a SA-N-7 missile, which shoots it down, although not before it is able to relay the fleet's location to shore. The American cruiser is dispatched to the location, and thanks to its nuclear propulsion, it is able to travel at over 30 knots towards the Soviet fleet.

[chico20854]

May 9, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

In the first of several "dirty tricks" inflicted on President Munson, power is cut to his personal quarters by an unexplained electrical fault.

The Nebraska corn and alfalfa crops begin to be planted, using carefully husbanded seed and fuel. Grae adds that there is not enough hybrid seed, and much of it never gets out of the seed warehouses. In many areas fuel is too scarce for use to cultivate and herbicide and pesticide chemicals are used sparingly as farmers realize there probably will not be more forthcoming; in the end there is not enough commercial fertilizer for all the new crop. What fertilizer and herbicide there is is allocated to the highest yielding fields and crops. In the western part of the state irrigation has ceased with the cutoff of electrical power, leaving much of the land to revert to rangeland. Likewise, irrigation-supported agriculture collapses in much of California and the desert southwest, except in areas that have transitioned to specialized (or long-forgotten) dry agricultural techniques. All around the nation, the spring planting is nearly entirely dedicated to food, with less than 5 percent of the 1997 acreage of cotton planted.

Fulfilling the Soviet command's decree that the offensive be launched on the anniversary of Germany’s surrender in the Second World War, Soviet troops of the 16th and 41st Armies launch a coordinated attack northwest of Munich, preceded by a brief but intense barrage that mixes smoke and chemical artillery shells, effectively neutralizing the thinly spread line of outposts in front of the main defensive line. In most cases the defenders are not able to raise the alarm, as the chemicals overcome them when their expired gas mask filters and chemical defense suits fail. Soviet motor-riflemen have infiltrated between and even behind the well dispersed defensive positions, isolating them from reinforcement. The Soviet offensive is intended to seize the remaining industrial sites and power stations of central Germany.

The American cruiser USS Virginia continues to steam southwest at flank speed, closing on the location of the Soviet fishing flotilla in the South Atlantic. Ashore, the South African Air Force readies its Canberra and Buccaneer strike fleets for an attack on the Soviets, while liaison officers coordinate for an overflight by American B-52 bombers from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who are going to conduct a separate strike on the Soviets.

North of Moscow CIA Agent David Hudson stumbles on a remote dacha (country house) occupied by a minor party official from Moscow and his family, who had fled to the retreat to avoid the (easily foreseen) destruction of Moscow. Desperate for a quicker way out of the Soviet Union, he takes the official's wife hostage at gunpoint when she is outside tending the garden and forces the family to stock the family car, a Lada sedan, with food, blankets and all the fuel (both gasoline and homemade vodka) it can hold. He then races off to the west.

The Norwegian sail training ship Statsraad Lehmkuh departs Montevideo, Uruguay with a cargo of food for its home city aboard.

[chico20854]

May 10, 1998

The replica USS Constitution calls on Lisbon, discharging a cargo of electronic parts.

Unofficially,

In southern Ohio, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang launches a mirror operation to the one their West Coast brethren pulled in January, attacking the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison, from both the inside and outside. The under-supplied and inadequate guard force fights valiantly, but after nearly nine hours of running combat inside and outside the secure area the last of the corrections officers surrender. Despite orders from the gang's leadership the guards are executed by the inmates, and soon a second bloodletting commences as the bikers purge the inmate population of those that may prove problematic in the future.

Colonel Oleg Tumanski's Spetsnaz team in western England emerges from its winter hibernation, with new orders from GRU Moscow Center. While last year's operations were largely focused on pinprick attacks on critical points to hinder the British war effort, the team is now tasked with gathering strategic intelligence about conditions within the UK. This information will hopefully enable Soviet command to assess the likely level of British contribution to the war as well as provide post-strike damage assessment to permit planners to retarget surviving nuclear weapons should the nuclear exchange resume.

In many areas of southern Germany Pact forces have overrun the NATO outpost line and closed on the main line of resistance. The Italian 4th Army Corps, which was not informed of the offensive by Soviet commanders (who were concerned about disloyal Italian officers who may harbor pro-NATO sympathies leaking word of the offensive), hurriedly scrambles to reposition itself into an offensive posture.

The skies above the battlefront are suddenly relatively crowded with aircraft. While theatre-wide daily sortie counts in April averaged approximately a dozen by NATO and six by the Pact there are over 60 NATO fighter-bombers and interceptors airborne while Frontal Aviation and the Czechoslovakian Air Force get nearly 100 flights aloft. Some minor dogfighting occurs, with the loss of three MiGs and a Luftwaffe F-4 Phantom, but the emphasis of the operations are on support of ground troops.

CIA Agent David Hudson, driving a stolen Lada sedan, takes back and side roads in his evacuation from the USSR. He skirts the towns of Kalinin (the Tsarist Tver) and Novgorod, bluffing his way past the occasional MVD or local militia roadblock. (The stash of food and vodka comes in handy for this, as well as a small stash of gold coins provided long ago by the CIA).

[chico20854]

May 11, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

Another dirty trick is played on President Munson, when the canteen manager reports that the supplies of fresh food have run out and that there are only canned baked beans and tuna to feed the staff of the Presidential Bunker. Munson, who has developed a sensitive stomach as a result of the stress of his near-impossible job, spends much of the day unable to function.

Mexico City is wracked by unrest as Army units supporting the PARM party clash with shadow paramilitary groups loyal to the PAN caretaker government or the PRI party, the traditional ruling party of the nation. Rumors swirl that the anti-Army militias contain military deserters, policemen and enforcers from the many narcotics cartels.

5th Squad, operating in northwestern former East Germany, accepts its first non-American recruit, a Canadian Army deserter from the outskirts of Toronto. He is subjected to a beating as an initiation ritual into the gang.

In southern Germany, Italian troops join Hungarians, Czechs and Soviets in attacks all along the NATO main line of resistance, probing for weak spots and trying to run down their opponent's carefully husbanded supplies. Behind the NATO lines, commanders attempt to rush replacements and supplies to the front.

A naval battle erupts in the South Atlantic when the nuclear guided missile cruiser USS Virginia blazes into contact with the massed Soviet Atlantic fishing fleet, which has been sheltering in remote waters since the outbreak of war, unable to return home but able to provide limited support to Soviet raiders and submarines. The battle finds the Soviets harboring two raiders - the Sovremmeny-class destroyer Rastoropny, thought lost in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea 18 months ago, and the Akula-class submarine K-154. Rastoropny has been sheltering with the fishing fleet for over a year after being damaged in the Norwegian Sea, but successfully breaking out and joining the fishermen. The fleet has been unable to repair the destroyer (it is now running on one shaft and has but two older-model P-80 SS-N-22 Sunburn missiles remaining) but it has recently proved itself able to defend its countrymen, having shot down the SAAF Boeing a few days prior. The fleet's Ka-26 helicopter has been grounded for many months, so early warning is maintained by a screen of picket trawlers. The Sierra-class sub K-231, which inadvertently caused the fishing fleet to reveal its location, is also in the area, en route to join it.

Virginia launches her sole SH-2G helicopter to gain visibility of what lurks over the horizon. The Seasprite's radar reveals a virtual Soviet flotilla of over 75 vessels; the Soviet force's location is relayed back to the ship and then back to South African and American commands ashore. Within 20 minutes the South African Air Force has launched another Boeing 707, playing the multiple roles of ELINT aircraft, airborne command post and tanker for the accompanying strike force of four Buccaneer light bombers armed with AS.30 anti-ship missiles. Virginia launches her three remaining Harpoon anti-ship missiles at what its commander hopes is the Soviet destroyer; during the five minutes the missiles take to arrive over the target the cruiser's crew detects one of the submerged Soviet submarines and LtCdr Hans Brupp, the helicopter pilot, is recalled to localize and prosecute the contact as the American cruiser charges at the Soviet fleet at top speed. The Harpoons close on the Soviet fleet; one hits the factory ship (a vessel that processes fish caught by other trawlers) Vasili Krennekov, one is shot down by the Rastoropny's point defense 30mm cannon and the third hits the Soviet destroyer 25m short of the bow, knocking the dual 130mm gun turret off its mounting, starting a fierce fire. The shock wave from the explosion knocks most of the destroyer's electronics offline and ruptures pipes throughout the ship.

As Virginia closes in, she engages the outlying picket ships with her 5-inch guns, concentrating fire on the trawlers' bridges to disable their ability to maneuver and communicate. Brupp is able to obtain a MAD (magnetic anomaly detector) hit on the K-154 and turns and drops a Mk-46 lightweight torpedo on the Soviet sub. The torpedo hits within 30 seconds but its 96-pound warhead is insufficient to breach the subs inner pressure hull. The helo turns back to its parent ship to rearm (it carries only a single torpedo), allowing the damaged sub to slink away at low speed.

While Virginia's helicopter is on the aft deck (halting fire from the aft 5-inch gun), the Soviet destroyer restores enough fighting capability to launch its two remaining anti-ship missiles at the American cruiser, its location being relayed by the picket ships. One of the missiles fails to lock on the nuclear cruiser and the second is hit by Virginia's Phalanx anti-missile gun systems. Shortly thereafter the South African Boeing appears over the horizon and begins verbal relays of ship locations to the American ship (there being no data link system in common between the two nations) as well as the approaching bombers. The Buccaneers launch all eight of their AS.30 anti-ship missiles at Rastoropny, five of which hit, breaking her back and making the fires aboard even worse; within four hours the battered ship slips beneath the waves.

Brupp returns to the air having rearmed with two more Mk-46 torpedoes, discarding the spare fuel tank he had on the prior flight, and attempts to re-locate the Akula-class boat. He fails to do so, Virginia's hull-mounted sonar of little use and with crude jamming of the sononbuoy relay circuit by the Soviet fishing craft. Virginia slows its rate of advance when it receives word of Rastoropny's condition, concentrating its effort on sinking the largest Soviet support ships while dispatching a motor whaleboat to capture the Soviet tanker Captain Pershin. After 45 minutes the cruiser has nearly run out of ammunition for its guns and shooting comes to a halt, allowing the gun barrels to cool as the whaleboat comes alongside the tanker. After a short firefight the Captain Pershin's Soviet ensign is struck and the Stars and Stripes flown; unfortunately the tanker's cargo tanks are nearly dry. As the remaining trawlers scatter in all directions a flight of B-52s arrives overhead; the high-flying bombers are laden with unguided munitions (all that were available in Kenya) which are of little use against the Soviet fleet. Virginia pulls alongside the fish transport ship Motovskiy Zaliv, capturing it and its cargo of 4000 tons of frozen fish. The trio of American-controlled ships soon departs, aware of the presence of enemy submarines, having sunk eight trawlers, two factory ships and the Soviet destroyer.

Nhaziern Khazi, a drug smuggler turned Pasdaran militiaman, decides to strike out on his own. He slips away from the camp at night and makes contact with an old acquaintance who he knows has contact with the communist Tudeh guerrillas. A meeting is scheduled.

The gas tank in CIA agent David Hudson's stolen Lada finally runs dry, forcing him to abandon the rugged car and resume his journey on foot. The vehicle had, however, enabled him to cover over 800 km of hostile territory in less than 72 hours, leaving him outside the town of Võru in southeastern Estonia. Hudson sets out on foot for the Baltic coast.

[chico20854]

May 12, 1998

As food and fuel become increasingly hard to come by legitimately, Grunge McLeod, a biker in Butler, Pennsylvania and several of his associates in the Blackhawk Bike Club turn to crime for survival.


Unofficially,

Fighting continues in Mexico City between various armed groups; it is unclear who is in charge.

The Pact offensive in southern Germany rolls on, with the appearance on the battlefield of the Hungarian 1st Corps and Czechoslovakian 1st Army opposite British troops south of Nuremberg and in the former US Army training center at Grafenwohr, respectively. Rumors swirl that additional Soviet and Italian troops are moving through the rear area in Austria and occupied Bavaria.

The assessment team sent to the Sonico hydroelectric plant, located under the Gavia pass in northern Italy, completes its evaluation. The plant's subterranean control center and generator hall are intact and operable, but 1000 liters of fuel are needed to run diesel generators to restore operation before enough electrical power is delivered for self-sufficiency. Transmission lines from the plant appear intact for several kilometers down the mountains from the plant.

US Navy Seebees of the 58th Naval Construction Battalion and repair, salvage and maintenance sailors assigned to 5th Fleet begin an effort to transform the damaged guided missile frigate Samuel Eliot Morison into a stationary defense platform for Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf. 5th Fleet experts have determined that the ship, damaged by a Soviet missile in 1997, cannot be repaired in the region and that there is no reasonable expectation that it can be towed home for repair. Therefore, employment of the ship's weapon systems (chiefly its Mk-13 missile launcher with SM-1MR surface to air missiles and 76mm multi-use gun) to defend the oil processing facilities and adjacent port while the frigate's generators support critical infrastructure ashore (chiefly the pumping stations that keep a steady flow of crude oil going) are the best use for the vessel.

[chico20854]

May 13, 1998

The Dutch 1st Mechanized Division is stood down, its surviving personnel assigned to other units.

Unofficially,

The bubonic plague is spreading along the US West Coast, with new cases reported in Astoria, Oregon and Riverside, California.

In Alaska, X Corps has finally amassed sufficient food and fuel to resume its pursuit of the Soviet force retreating towards Anchorage.

Southwest of Ulm, the German town of Erbach an der Donau is held by a mixed force of Bundeswehr troops of the 10th Panzer Division and Danish reservists of the 2nd Jutland Regiment, forming the junction between the Danish Expeditionary Force and IV German Korps. The town is separated from the Pact lines by the Danube River and low-lying marshy ground between the shore and the town's built-up area; the prior days' Pact attacks have only eliminated some of the NATO observation posts on an island opposite the town. At dawn the Soviet 62nd Tank Division, a mobilization-only division from Ukraine equipped with an array of obsolescent armor (T-34s, T-10s and SU-100s) tries to force a crossing onto the island opposite the town. NATO artillery observers from the schloss (castle) overlooking the town from the far side call in effective artillery and mortar fire which strips the supporting infantry off the Soviet armor. The Soviet tanks turn back, seeking the cover of nearby vegetation. The German commander's request for air or further artillery support to eliminate the sheltering tanks is denied; no ammunition can be spared to engage enemy troops not in direct contact.

The small group of transports carrying replacement equipment (much of the heavy weapons and vehicles of the 46th Infantry Division) arrives in Bremerhaven, Germany. The vehicles aboard the Cape Turner and Baltimore Freedom can be driven off the ships' ramps, while the supplies on the Baltimore Freedom and Manley Falmouth are unloaded using the ships' onboard cranes; this allows them to be unloaded without requiring the heavily damaged port's cranes to have power and masses of stevedore labor.
The convoy's escort, the destroyer USS Stump, remains on patrol offshore.

Nhaziern Khazi meets with a Tudeh guerrilla leader, who agrees on a bounty to be paid for assistance in attacking Khazi's Pasdaran unit.

In the south Atlantic, the USS Virginia and the two ships it captured in battle two days prior have turned north. What little fuel that remains aboard the tanker Captain Pershin is transferred to the refrigerated cargo ship Motovskiy Zaliv as well as spares, lubricants and other items of value that cannot be used by the American cruiser. The upper two levels of the forward hold are fitted with bedding, and an American prize crew guards the transfer of the crews of the two Soviet ships as well as the POWs captured in April from the trawler Star of Crimea into the hold. The ship is dispatched to Norfolk, Virginia while the cruiser turns west, heading for the Pacific.

[chico20854]

May 14, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day.

In Yukon, a GRU technical team arrives at the Canadian Security Establishment (the Canadian counterpart to the National Security Agency) ELINT station outside Whitehorse. The team had been stationed on Shemya Island, Alaska to evaluate the various monitoring devices the US had operated there; they see some of the same equipment and are overall amazed at the relative sophistication of the electronics compared to the much more privative in use by the GRU.

The 7th Panzer Division’s headquarters is located by a Spetsnaz team from the 18th Spetsnaz Brigade, infiltrated at the onset of the offensive. The Soviet commandos relay the position to the 442nd Missile Brigade, which, in a rare feat of efficiency, has a SS-21 missile en route within 90 minutes. The nuclear-tipped missile scores a near-hit, landing within the headquarters' perimeter fence, destroying the German facility and the command staff. The nuclear attack is followed shortly thereafter with an intense but short artillery barrage, expending the last of 41st Army's chemical weapons, which is then followed by a mass assault by two of the Army's motor-rifle divisions. By nightfall, the German positions have been overrun, and scattered survivors break out northward.

The Soviet 41st Army repeats its dawn attack on the town of Erbach an der Donau, achieving the same result (no territory captured, several vehicles lost to defensive fire).

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-888, operating in the English Channel after sinking the British frigate HMS Achilles in April, is running low on torpedoes, fuel and stores. Not having sighted any Allied shipping in several days (partly due to the lack of traffic, partly due to persistent fog), the boat's commander decides to have his weapons officer deploy the remaining mines aboard (including conversion of all but one of the remaining torps to mines) before turning for home. Given the dire conditions on the Kola, he aims for the Baltic Fleet submarine base at Paldiski, Estonia.

The Marines of the 4th Marine Division have their first clash with Marine deserters, a band that calls itself the Junkyard Dawgs. The Dawgs are composed of members of a motor-transport unit that was cut off and destroyed while running supplies to the isolated 1st Marine Division in the fall; they have spent the last several months making their way south, living off the land and what they can plunder from local civilians, but find the prospect of returning to military discipline unattractive.

After a month in transit, the 106th Motor-Rifle (my 232nd Rear Area Protection) Division has reached the border of Austria and Hungary. It has expended all of its food and fuel, and made it across Hungary mostly by begging/extorting supplies from local authorities, who determine that it is better to provide the division what it needs to move on than deny it and have the unit remain where they are.

In the south Atlantic, the damaged Akula-class submarine K-154 meets up with the Sierra-class K-231 after both boats have escaped the destruction of the Soviet South Atlantic fishing fleet. K-154 transfers stocks of frozen fish to the other boat as their captains agree to strike out for Maputo, Mozambique, hoping that they will receive a friendly reception there.

[chico20854]

May 15, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The Franco-Belgian government authorizes the military to provide covert aid to Quebecois separatists; previous aid was limited to advisors to help integrate the various military, police and militia formations into the Quebec National Army; the aid is now to include providing munitions (all NATO-standard items, many from Belgian Army stocks that cannot be definitively traced back to France or Belgium) as well as food and limited amounts of precious fuel.

Members of the Ho-Chunk tribal militia turn back a group of refugees seeking entry to the tribe's territory in west-central Wisconsin. The refugees are not natives.

The Polish government makes a desperate plea to their Soviet and Czech allies for seed for the spring planting. The 1997 farming year was disastrous thanks to the war twice crisscrossing the country, with what scant reserves and the seed stock used up over the winter to sustain the civilian population (and a great deal of the Soviet forces stationed within the country).

Erbach an der Donau is hit again with another attack by the Soviet 62nd Tank Division. Inexplicably, the attack is a near mirror-image of the attack the same unit launched in the same sector just days prior. It is turned back by the mixed force of Danish and German defenders.

In South Africa, the Security Service scores a major success when radio-location units pinpoint the location of the safehouse where the leaders of the right-wing AWB terrorist group are gathered. A hastily arranged heliborne assault by troops of the 5 Recon Commando catches the plotters asleep, allowing them to be captured mostly alive.

[chico20854]

May 16, 1998

Nother day when canon is silent. Unofficially,

BMSA (Boatswains Mate Apprentice) Rodney Cutler in Brownsville, Texas is involved with another incident with Mexican citizens. He is one of six sailors who, faced with desperate refugees refusing to return to Mexico, beats the men to within inches of their lives, throwing the unconcious men into a truck along with their families before dumping them on the far side of the US-Mexico border station.

The American attack submarine USS Baton Rouge, which departed on an unauthorized patrol from Bremerton, Washington in the chaotic days after the initial nuclear attacks on the US, returns from its voyage when it sails into Pearl Harbor. It is docked alongside the nuclear attack sub USS Pargo. Baton Rouge's captain is escorted to fleet headquarters to answer for his actions in December.

The Soviet 62nd Tank Division launches a third attack on the defenders of Erbach an der Donau, using the same avenues of approach. The attack is slowed down by the need for the tank drivers to weave between the wrecks of the prior two attacks. Like the others, the attack is unsuccessful and the division is forced back to its start lines.

The Dutch freighter Randfontien, carrying a cargo of grain from South Africa, hits a mine off the Dutch coast and sinks in shallow water off The Hague.

In the early morning hours the Pasdaran militia garrison in the small village of Asmadabad, east of Shiraz, is overrun in a surprise Tudeh attack. The Tudeh commander thanks the traitor in the Pasdaran ranks, Nhaziern Khazi, who ensured that he and his cousins and friends were on guard and allowed the Tudeh rebels into the village prior to the confused massacre.

The prior night's raid on AWB leadership has a devastating effect on the ongoing rural terror campaign. The leaderless movement finds itself adrift, and resistance to government authority rapidly begins to fade as the government tightens control of food and fuel distribution.

[chico20854]

May 17, 1998

Yet another day where I'm on my own! Unofficially,

After over a week of perilous travel along the frozen Yukon River, the troops of B Co., 2nd Battalion 297th Infantry (part of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon)) secure the USAF forward operating base at Galena, Alaska, which the Air Force was forced to abandon the prior summer.

The defense of Erbach an der Donau finally comes under pressure, not from the now-daily frontal assault by the 62nd Tank Division on the same entrenched defenders with artillery support on call but from Soviet forces advancing along the north bank of the Danube from the city of Ulm, which fell under Soviet control several days ago.

Days after departing its last patrol station in the English Channel and successfully avoiding Belgian naval patrols and Danish minefields, the Kilo-class submarine B-888 passes through the Kattegat, the narrow sea that forms the mouth of the Baltic. Ignoring the long-compromised idea of Swedish neutrality, the Soviet boat traverses Swedish territorial waters. Its passage is noted by a bottom-mounted hydrophone array, and the Swedish Navy dispatches a former Coast Guard C-212 maritime patrol aircraft to investigate. The plane's observer sees the submerged boat, and the plane circles overhead while patrol boats with depth charges are sortied. (The Kilo's periscope-mounted surface-to-air missile system has been out of missiles for over a year). After several hours of hunting and evading, the Soviet boat, damaged and with dead batteries, surfaces for the crew to abandon ship before being scuttled. Swedish sailors board the boat and secure the seacocks before it can be sent to the bottom; the boat is taken under tow to the nearby naval base in Goteborg.

CIA Agent David Hudson, after spending five nights walking through rural Estonia, arrives at the small fishing village of Võiste on the coast of the Gulf of Riga. He makes contact with a "CIA contractor", a local fisherman whose father was shot by the Soviets after their recapture of Estonia in 1944-5 (a not uncommon occurrence). The fishing boat captain is still willing to continue his long-standing service for the CIA (and MI6), in exchange for Hudson's remaining gold coins. After dark the captain's fishing boat sets sail, taking his passenger out of Soviet territorial waters.

[chico20854]

May 18, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

President Munson is "extremely frustrated" when his phone calls are nearly drowned out by a high-pitch squealing on the line, making communications with his far-flung subordinatesd nearly impossible.

The commander of the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron orders the initiation of an effort to harden the dispersal sites of the 21 Hard Mobile Launchers his squadron possessed.

The defenders of Erbach an der Donau pivot their dwindling reserves to the town's northeast approaches as their Soviet opponents advancing from Ulm send a dismounted detachment northwest to encircle the town. The commitment of reserves to that flank causes the burden of turning back the day's daily frontal assault by the 62nd Tank Division to shift to the Luftwaffe, which commits some of its scarce close air support aircraft to the skies overhead. A pair of Alphajets overfly the treeline that the Soviets have attacked from repeatedly, each dropping two BLU-23B napalm bombs, enveloping them in flames and disrupting the Soviet armored formation. As they turn for another pass with their onboard 27mm cannon they are bracketed by fire from the Soviet division's anti-aircraft guns (the mobilization-only division never received surface-to-air missiles). One of the light bombers is downed by a 57mm hit, while the other heads back to base trailed by a thin line of smoke.

A Swedish naval Super Puma helicopter overflies the captured B-888 and disembarks several intelligence and signals officers on the partially flooded Kilo-class sub's hull. They head below immediately, headed for the sub's radio compartment.

Dutch authorities launch a rescue and salvage operation to retrieve as much of the grain cargo aboard the mined freighter Randfontien which is aground off The Hague.

Nhaziern Khazi and a small group of friends and cousins strike out on their own, one of hundreds of marauder bands wandering the no-mans-land of central Iran.

CIA officer David Hudson spends the day at sea as the small fishing boat he is a passenger on transits the mouth of the Gulf of Riga past the destroyed remains of Soviet Naval coastal defense radars, observation towers and gun and missile batteries.

[chico20854]

May 19, 1998

President Munson suffers a nervous breakdown.

The newly-reformed 40th Infantry Division arrives at Camp Roberts, California and begins battling armed bands as the authorities struggle to maintain order. The unit had to take a long route from Oregon to avoid the quarantines of San Francisco and Sacramento.

Unofficially,

Mexican officials spread word among the masses of refugees huddled around Matamoros about the abuse of their compatriots inflicted by US Navy sailors over the border in Brownsville.

In Mexico City an armed standoff has settled in between the Presidential Guard, which has declared loyalty to the PARM party, a nascent militia composed of various military deserters and police that is loyal to the ruling PAN party, and a coalition of narco traffickers that are taking advantage of the disorder.

The bandit gang of US Army deserters in the former East Germany forms a subordinate gang. Led by a cousin of 5th Squad "Drill Private Major" Malcolm Green, 5th Squadron (led by "Vice Airman No Class" Aubrey Green) is composed largely of US Air Force deserters. 5th Squadron heads for territory to its south, hoping to prey on traffic transiting the roads between the ports on the former West German North Sea coast and the front lines east of the ruins of Berlin.

The German and Danish defence of Erbach an der Donau begins to crack. After the prior day's loss over the town, the Luftwaffe is unwilling to commit additional aircraft and artillery and mortar ammunition is running short; the defense's last reserves have been committed as Soviet forces threaten the routes out of the town to the north and west. The 62nd Tank Division tries a different approach from the full-scale frontal attacks it has tried for the past several days; instead the unit's obsolescent T-54 and T-34 tanks stand back under the cover of the burned-out forest and wrecked vehicles of previous attacks and pound NATO defensive positions with precision fire.

The small Estonian fishing boat carrying CIA officer David Hudson reaches the central Baltic and continues sailing west towards the Swedish coast.

[chico20854]

May 20, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

Following Munson's breakdown, the Secretary of State is sworn in as President of the United States. Munson is escorted out of the bunker in south-central Virginia to a comfortable home at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station outside Newport News, where he can rest.

In Colorado Springs, the Joint Chiefs and FEMA managers agree that to maximize the utility of the limited trickle of fuel available for transportation, that maximum use is to be made of rail and river transportation. (A gallon of diesel can move 59 ton-miles by truck, 202 by train and 514 ton-miles by barge).

Erbach an der Donau finally falls to Soviet troops, with scattered German and Danish troops slipping away through the woods and hills outside the city. The Soviet victory has come at great cost and the NATO defense has held up the advance of the entire 41st Army.

The Estonian fishing boat carrying CIA agent David Hudson arrives in view of the Swedish island of Gotland. The CIA man makes radio contact with the acting CIA station chief in Stockholm and is instructed to land and surrender himself to the local defense force.

The Dutch salvage team aboard the freighter Randfontien reports that nearly half of the ship's cargo of grain is still dry and undamaged but that the ship cannot be refloated, such is the damage inflicted by the mine the ship detonated six days prior. Unloading the ship, however, will require a stream of barges and construction equipment, since the ship is listing at an angle that precludes use of its onboard cranes.

In Shiraz, Iran, the state munitions plant brings online its second production line, turning out track pads for the IPA's small but useful fleet of Scorpion light tanks. The British-educated chief engineer hopes that once the plant's workers before proficient in the Scorpion pads that they can expand to other track sections for the Scorpions as well as pads for the plethora of other tracked AFVs in use by Allied forces in Iran.

[chico20854]

May 21, 1998

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The new American President, the former Secretary of State, is briefed on the myriad challenges the nation faces, including over 30 percent casualties from the nuclear attacks and aftermath, a collapse of the economy, what is looking to be a poor spring planting and petroleum production of approximately 25 percent of a year earlier.

The Joint Chiefs' logistic coordinator, the J-4, issues a directive that civilian rail and river transportation is to be organized along military lines. Regional military commanders are ordered to propose strategic rail and river corridors where remaining assets are to be concentrated.

The Freedom-class freighter Rhode Island Freedom, en route unescorted to Pusan, South Korea with a cargo of replacement vehicles and foodstuffs for 8th US Army, strikes a mine while traversing the Kanmon Straits (separating the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu). While taking on water the captain radios for help; Japanese tugs respond but are unwilling to approach the ship, afraid of striking additional mines. The ship settles in as the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force dispatches a minesweeper to clear a way for the tugs.

CIA officer David Hudson lands on Gotland Island in the mid-Baltic and is nearly immediately taken into custody by Swedish coast defense troops.

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-888, captured by the Swedish Navy, arrives in the port of Goteborg, where the boat is rushed into a drydock for repairs. The intelligence officers that were flown aboard disembark, while the crew are hurried off to special facilities for interrogation before being transferred to POW camps.

Italian salvage experts complete their assessment of the Mese hydropower plant. Like the team at the Campore Basso plant, they determine that the underground facility has survived the nuclear exchange nearly intact and will require extensive repairs to the grid connections but can be fairly easily restored to operation.

[chico20854]

May 22, 1998

The Secretary of State, President Munson's successor, suffers heart failure and is replaced by the Secretary of Energy, June R. Flaherty. Flaherty is the United State's first woman president.

Unofficially,

The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force minesweeper Takashima arrives in the Kanmon Straits and begins searching for Soviet mines near the damaged American freighter Rhode Island Freedom. By nightfall they have identified two additional devices on the seabed.

Pact forces are forced to pause their offensive in southern Germany while they consolidate their gains and await the arrival of another train carrying supplies from the Ukraine via the circuitous route through Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria.

A Dutch Navy salvage team begins scouring port facilities for barges and tug boats that can be used to support the salvage of the grounded freighter Randfontien. The team aboard the ship off The Hague's beach tries to secure the vessel to slow its deterioration as it is battered by waves and wind.

The Australian Navy dispatches the transport Jervis Bay and survey ship Cook, loaded with reinforcements (freshly trained recruits) for the Australian Mechanized Brigade fighting in Iran, from Sydney's HMAS Waterhen naval base. The small convoy is escorted by the frigate Torrens.

[chico20854]

May 23, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The passes in Washington State's Cascade Mountains have cleared enough for Janet Clancy, daughter of the late Vice President Pemberton, her father, two Secret Service bodyguards and the family's cook to emerge from the remote cabin where they have sheltered since the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.

In the early morning hours the Japanese minesweeper Takashima declares the area between the damaged Rhode Island Freedom and the nearby port of Kokura "reasonably clear" of mines. The American freighter is towed into the harbor, where it is determined that the ship has taken on so much water that it has to be partially unloaded to avoid running aground before reaching the pier.

After two days in Swedish military custody, CIA officer David Hudson is transferred to a plainclothes civilian who identifies himself as a police officer. (He is likely an intelligence agent. Hudson knows better than to inquire.) They depart on the afternoon ferry to the mainland.

The Hungarian 53rd Mechanized Brigade in eastern Siberia decides to strike out overland, abandoning the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which is pockmarked with craters from American nuclear bombs dropped by B-2s flying "Golden Spike" missions along the route.

[chico20854]

May 24, 1998

Delayed by the effects of the nuclear strikes of 1997, a second convoy finally arrives from the US two months after it was originally supposed to arrive, bringing reinforcements and vitally needed ammunition as well as a single USANG jet fighter squadron. Accompanying the convoy are several naval auxiliaries that escaped the nuclear attacks on Norfolk and Charleston that have been assigned for CENTCOM.

Unofficially,

When Rear Admiral Scott McDowell receives word that his cousin June Flaherty has been named President he reaches out to her regarding his plan to use his command to assist in the recovery of New England.

Maritime salvage experts examine the mine-shattered Rhode Island Freedom and determine that the ship requires more significant repair than can be economically performed in the challenging environment of post-nuclear Kyushu. Local authorities declare the ship a total loss and, incidentally, seize it as well as its cargo of foodstuffs.

Professor Kristof Cikowski at the University of Lodz conceives of a way to restore operation to the millions of computers damaged by Electro-Magnetic Pulse by means of a hard-wired device to simulate the function of the computer's chip. He approaches University officials for approval to pursue the project.

[chico20854]

May 25, 1998

Canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

First Maritime Defense District commander MacDowell presents his plan to the new President. He provides Flaherty with specific language that enables him to escape control by any authority short of the Joint Chiefs, if he so chooses. Flaherty's staff write the orders, and already completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the job, she signs off on MacDowell's scheme after a few cursory questions and without consulting the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Specialist Cutler, in Germany, is reassigned from his comfortable duties attempting to repair and maintain HMMWVs and other vehicles assigned to 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, part of the 36th Infantry Division to one of the division's front-line battalions, the 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry. Upon arrival he is quickly disavowed of any notion that he is there to maintain vehicles - he is put on duty overnight in a listening post 500 meters beyond the battalion's front line.

David Hudson, the CIA agent who was recently exfiltrated from northeast of Moscow, accompanied by a plainclothes Swedish official, is given a train and bus ticket to the small port town of Klädesholmen on Sweden's west coast.

In Jugoslavia, the reformed JSA force in the center of the country overruns Soviet positions in the town of Bosanska Dubica, sweeping down the valley of the Una River that forms the border between the republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The cruiser USS Virginia calls in Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where it takes on fresh water and trades some of its store of frozen fish (which the crew is more than tired of eating) for some fresh mutton. The ship's captain consults with the commander of the Falklands Defense Force on the situation in the region, and obtains permission to remain for a few days to allow the crew some time ashore and to make some minor repairs to the ship. The British are unable to provide any ammunition to replenish the cruiser's depleted magazines.

[chico20854]

May 26, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

Overwhelmed by the demands of the job and by the emotions invoked by the prior day's Memorial Day commemoration (a particularly solemn occasion given the nation's losses in the past 18 months), President June R. Flaherty, America's first female President, commits suicide.

In Mexico, the PRI (the semi-authoritarian party that ruled the country for over 75 years prior to the unrest of the mid-90s) calls for the caretaker government to step down, the military to restore order in the capital and the nation to demand dignified treatment of its citizens over the border in the U.S. The appeal is widely popular, but denounced by the PAN party (which holds the reins of the caretaker government) as posturing and detached from the reality of trying to govern a shattered nation.

Following the capture of the bridges over the Danube at Erbach an der Donau, 41st Army shifts its main line of effort to the northwest, heading for Stuttgart. Having taken a beating in the Danube crossing operations, it is reinforced by the Italian 3rd Corps on its western flank.

Engineers assigned to the 29th Infantry Division (Light) in Yemen restore the operation of one of the Aden refinery's extraction units, turning out 8,800 barrels of diesel, kerosene and gasoline daily. The unit requires a regular supply of Kuwaiti crude and waterborne service to take the product away; cleaning requirements dictate that these be on different tankers, or at least in separate tanks serviced by separate pumps and piping aboard a single tanker.

[chico20854]

May 27, 1998

The federal civilian government ceases to exist. The Joint Chiefs of Staff assume de facto control of the remainder of the executive branch.

Unofficially,

MacDowell wastes no time consolidating his new command. He abandons Cape Cod wholesale, taking everything and everyone of value from the Massachusetts Military Reserve. MacDowell even manages to scoop up a number of Coast Guard Auxiliary and Coast Guard Reservists who have been operating under Holsbirger's orders. Holsbirger is furious, but there is nothing he can do except hang onto everything he has left after MacDowell makes his grab.

The Soviet 16th Army, its fuel tanks refilled with Romanian diesel, launches an operation to drive the US VII Corps out of Ansbach. Its 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division launches a dawn attack on the outposts of the 1st and 36th Infantry Divisions, supported by the artillery of the 93rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division and the 168th Artillery Brigade. The American corps commander brings reserve companies into the town from outlying positions to the east and west of the city, relying on the scouts of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment to screen his flanks.

CIA agent David Hudson is escorted aboard another small craft in the fishing port of Klädesholmen, Sweden, which sets sail after dark. Once out of territorial waters the craft is revealed as a CIA high speed transport craft, fitted with a pair of powerful diesel engines that propel the craft at 30 knots west.

Captain Christensen of the replica USS Constitution trades some of her stash of diamonds for a towed 20mm PIVAD gun and 15 .50-caliber M2HB machineguns.

[chico20854]

May 28, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

After slightly over a month in the Upper East Side marauder gang Hells Own, former Corporal Nathan Snyder instigates a fight with one of the other gang members, a tough former street fighter from Queens who seems to enjoy a higher "status" within the group. Snyder defeats the other member after a rough and tumble dustup that ends with Snyder's M9 bayonet at the other gangster's throat.

After a week of evaluation, regional military commanders have proposed several key transportation routes within the U.S. The intracoastal waterway from Norfolk to Brownsville, Texas, the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio-Tennessee-Red River and Columbia-Snake River systems, coastal shipping along the west coast and from Hampton Roads to Maine are identified as the key water routes; strategic rail lines are identified from San Diego to Kansas City, Chicago, Buffalo and Boston; New Orleans to Green Bay and Chicago to Salt Lake City, continuing on to San Francisco.

The fighting for Ansbach, Germany continues as the lead battalions of the 57th Guards Motor-Rifle Division's 170th Guards and 174th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiments, veterans of hard fighting from the war's outbreak, gain the cover of the city's buildings. One of those structures is held by an extremely frightened Specialist Randolph Cutler, who has never seen battle in his months in Germany. The corps commander commits more of his precious reserves of ammunition and fuel to the city's defenders.

To the east, the British defenders of Nurenburg find themselves under increasing pressure from the Hungarians of the 1st Corps and the German 1st Korps is under attack by the Czechoslovakian 1st Army.

US Navy technical teams establish reliable connections between the permanently moored frigate Samuel Eliot Morison and shore, enabling the ship to provide reliable power to critical infrastructure on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf.

The South African Army destroys what turns out to be the last AWB roadblock on a rural road outside the small town of Loxton. A Ratel 90 of the Regiment Oranjerivier takes out the bunker with three high explosive rounds.

[chico20854]

May 29, 1998

Another day with nothing in canon. Unofficially,

A landowner and his extended family arrive at the border of the Ho-Chunk tribal territory in west-central Wisconsin, demanding access to his family cabin which had been in his family for generations before being appropriated to house members of the Ho-Chunk tribe. He refuses to leave and tensions rise. One of his sons shoots the head of the checkpoint's militia force and the militiamen in overwatch positions in the trees open fire, killing all the adults and several of the children. The tribe adopts the children to raise as tribal members, unwilling to abandon them (the oldest is 7) in the chaos of post-nuclear America.

Word slowly spreads of the death of the last President of the United States. FEMA's Central Location Service, whose role is to continually track each successor at all times, to make sure all of them are never in the same place at the same time and locate the next successor in line, has broken down and it is unclear if any Senate-approved cabinet members remain alive. (The senior Senate-approved appointee in Virginia is the Acting Secretary of Agriculture, the former Deputy Director of the US Forest Service).

CIA agent David Hudson arrives at the British port of Sunderland, where he is dropped off by the CIA transport he is traveling on. During the voyage he is given a cover identity and a small amount of cash, allotted a month's leave following his long, arduous escape from the USSR, and ordered to begin rebuilding the CIA's network in the UK after he recovers.

As a third day of fighting continues in Ansbach, Germany, 16th Army commits a regiment, the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle, to reinforce the embattled 57th Motor-Rifle Division. The fighting in the city is a ruse, however, for as darkness falls the Soviet's main blow falls east and west of the city. Lead by several volleys of BM-21 and BM-27 rocket fire, the last of which contain HCN blood agent chemical rounds, artillery batters VII Corps' outposts. As the artillery fire diminishes the ground attack begins, the massed tanks of the 19th Guards and 20th Tank Divisions in the armored attack long feared by generations of American soldiers in Germany. The tank assault is successful, pushing back the pickets of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (to the west of the city) and a composite cavalry force composed of the 1st and 36th Division's divisional cavalry squadrons (the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry and 36th Cavalry Squadron (Composite), respectively) defending the city's eastern approaches.

The Soviet nuclear attack submarines - the damaged Akula-class K-154 and the Sierra-class K-231 - that had been operating in the South Atlantic arrive off Maputo, Mozambique. They are distressed to discover that the city's harbor was destroyed in December by South African nuclear bombs and that the surviving friendly shipping has also been sunk.