On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

May 5, 1997

Amazingly, nothing in the canon for today.

32nd Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (Wisconsin National Guard), completes Rotation 97-8 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. The 92nd Infantry Brigade (Puerto Rico National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready.

The Victory Ship Wayne Victory is unloaded of returned Argentinian munitions, which are sent to various locations for inspection, refurbishment (if needed), disposal or further issue.

The Air National Guard's 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii receives the first operational KC-767 tanker transport. The aircraft has received preliminary type approval from Air Force Systems Command; the new aircraft increases the squadron's ability to support aircraft transiting the Pacific. Boeing continues to deliver new airliners for conversion at its Wichita, Kansas plant.

Regular Army troops (the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers) begin moving from Northern Ireland to England, in preparation for movement to the war zone in Poland.

British troops of the 6th Armoured Brigade capture Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland as Pact troops begin to withdraw (rather than fighting to the point of ineffectiveness, which had been the case for the prior four weeks).

In an overnight raid, the headquarters of the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division is plastered with bombs from a flight of F-15E Strike Eagles. Command and control of the division is disrupted and the unit is paralyzed. By dawn the Soviet unit is encircled and the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment is on the outskirts of Wrocław, with elements of three German divisions close behind.

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Soviet commanders attempt to close the gap in the lines with artillery fire, but the loss of the ammunition train a week ago means that the near-constant interdiction fires are instead sporatic and uncoordinated.

The 82nd Airborne Division gains the upper hand in fierce combat against the Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division. To their south the 105th Guards has largely disintegrated, while the 103rd Guards continue to dig in at Bandar Abbas. Despite repeated calls for help, Red Army units to the north seem to be making little serious effort to break through Iranian lines to relieve them. (Actually, their logistics situation is atrocious thanks to Allied interdiction and the overburdened Soviet war economy; commanders are barely able to hold their positions, let alone advance).

The RAF stations the Buccaneer attack bombers of Nos. 12 and 208 Squadrons at the airbase in Mosjoen, Norway. The planes are primarily assigned with naval strike duties but perform sporatic interdiction strikes, carefully flying around Swedish and Finnish territory.

The Turkish offensive in Bulgaria gains steam, advancing over 2 miles from their start lines. The first group surrenders begin, with individual squads and the occaisional platoon dropping their weapons.

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The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) begins loading onto ships in Philadelphia, Norfolk and Wilmington, Delaware.

The USS John F Kennedy and USS America carrier battle groups finish clearing the remnants of the Soviet 5th Squadron from the Eastern Mediterranean and begin rotating ships in for replenishment in Alexandria, Egypt. The damaged destroyer Stethem is under tow back to Gibraltar.

In Berdichev, Ukraine, the 62nd Tank Division begins mobilizing. The unit, the second "shadow" division to be hatched from the 117th Guards Training Tank Division. The 62nd takes most of the training unit's students, which are nearing the conclusion of their course of study. Like other mobilization-only tank divisions, it is equipped with 1940s and 1950s-era T-34 and T-10 tanks, Su-100 assault guns and an assortment of aged howitzers and APCs.