On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

September 24, 1997

As the southern German offensive gains momentum, NATO forces in Poland increase the rate of their withdrawal, practicing a scorched earth policy as they fall back.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship San Antonio Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Battle of Hamhung continues to rage, with Soviet troops spending the day regrouping and struggling to contain the ROK 21st Division's assault while sheltering from the unrelenting American naval gunfire and air attacks, the North Korean air force having been swept from the skies long ago and Frontal Aviation largely diverted to European skies.

The Luftwaffe 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment is assigned to the US Marine Corps’ 6th MEB as reinforcements and to help defend its rear areas from Pact infiltrators.

Pact commanders scramble for trucks to sustain the offensive in the absence of reliable rail transport; Polish government authorities draft masses of civilian refugees to manually load and unload cargo from trucks into the portion of the Polish rail network that are still intact and operational. As Soviet railway troops work around the clock (the need is too high to limit themselves to night operations only) to restore or replace the bridges destroyed in Operation Barnyard Tiger they become targets for follow-on nuclear strikes, especially as combat units transiting from China and deep in the USSR and increasing masses of supplies pile up waiting to cross. Fed by satellite and aerial reconnaissance (both photographic and electronic), NATO targeting specialists dispatch additional rounds of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and deep strike aircraft; some sites are hit three and even four times.

SACEUR inquires with the Norwegian government about the availability of Army units for service on the central front. The Norwegians are struggling to recover from the losses suffered in the Kola campaign and are non-committal, although they agree to divert nearly the entire production of their munitions factories to the battlefields of Poland and Germany, having rebuilt their units' holding to a level unmatched by NATO units on the Central Front.

40th Army, having regrouped and brought forces south following the evacuation of the 1st Marine Division, launches a series of attacks on the Bandar Abbas area. The104th Guards Air Assault Division's 387th Airborne Regiment, despite being depleted by months in action, is landed by helicopter west of the city, cutting the coastal road and overland contact with XVIII Airborne Corps.

As more and more elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrive in Kenya the front stabilizes. The combat hardened American veterans, supported with a sprinkling of friendly air power and able to use advanced communications, logistics and intelligence assets, are more than a match for the hodgepodge Tanzanian and Ugandan expeditionary forces, which are suffering from months of action and are poorly led in the best of times.