On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

March 11, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today.

Another day of fierce artillery duels along the Oder-Niesse line. This time USAF A-10 aircraft of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing are on standby, catching the guns of the Polish 23rd Cannon Artillery Brigade in the open while they are scurrying to redeploy away from their firing positions.

PACFLT scrambles together maritime patrol aircraft and surface ships to locate and sink the raiders that broke out of Petropavlovsk the previous day. The carrier Midway is ordered to the southwestern extent of it's patrol zone, and the Constellation rushed east out of the Sea of Japan to hunt down the raiders.

A major mishap occurs on the escort carrier USS Langley's first operational voyage - as one of the ship's AV-8C Harriers makes a low-altitude, high-speed approach to the carrier over the convoy, the Phalanx CIWS anti-missile defense system aboard the transport West Virginia Freedom locks on the the aircraft and, misidentifying it as an incoming SSM, shoots it down as programmed. The pilot and aircraft are both lost.

Convoy 11 is formed at Port Said, Egypt, headed west through the Mediterranean. The escort includes the escort carrier Shangri-La. Many of the ships are returning empty after discharging cargo in the Middle East.

Headquarters, XI US Corps loads its vehicles and equipment on the Ohio Freedom (on its maiden voyage) in Bayonne, NJ for travel to Germany.

Convoy 12 departs from multiple East Coast ports, comprised of ships carrying equipment and supplies to Romania, Jugoslavia and the Middle East.

A month after being alerted, the 101st Air Assault Division closes on Saudi Arabia. The division fields over 15,500 soldiers and 320 helicopters and required 560 C-141, 240 C-5 and 260 C-17 sorties plus 35 widebody airliner flights carrying troops. Commanders around the world breathe a sigh of relief as Military Airlift Command is able to reassign many of the heavy lift aircraft to support other theathers with the conclusion of the 101st's deployment.

The 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard) begins deploying to the CENTCOM area of operations. The aircraft plan to fly across the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and are accompanied by six KC-10 tankers that provide refuelling, communications relay and overwater navigation as well as carrying the A-7's maintenance crews, tools and initial package of spare parts.

[chico20854]

March 12, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Narvik Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Maryland State Defense Force's 121st Engineer Regiment reaches its full strength of six companies, manned by construction workers and others with relevant experience and able to draw on the equipment of the state transportation department and local government resources. It is the nation's only state guard construction engineer unit.

All wreckage at the site of the munitions train explosion and fire outside RAF Caerwent in Wales has been cleared and restoration work on the line can begin.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team acquires a safe house in rural Cheshire, a farmhouse that a leftist university professor inherited some years before and has often loaned to various students and friends. The professor is willing to turn a blind eye to the "visitors" presence, helped in no little part by the hefty payment he receives from "a longtime friend".

The heavy equipment of the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrives at the port of Tacoma, Washington to load for Saudi Arabia.

The former NVA (East German Army) reserve 10th Motor-Rifle Division is re-named the 210th PanzerGrenadier Division and reorganized, one of its motor-rifle regiments converted to a panzer regiment, and all regiments are renamed brigades.

The Soviet Kilo-class diesel submarine B-445 sinks the Japanese bulk carrier Chita Maru, carrying a load of grain, 225 nm east of Japan in the Pacific.

The 43rd Infantry Division (less the 187th Brigade) (US Army Reserve) reports it is ready for combat in Germany.

The Battle of Hammerfest occurs between American and Soviet cruiser groups. The Newport News surface action group enters the Barents Sea to provide distant cover for Allied amphibious forces and a resupply convoy heading to Kirkenes and Pechenga further inshore to the west. While off the North Cape, one of the escorts’ helicopters detects a Soviet surface group proceeding west at high speed. The American squadron quickly turns to intercept the enemy force, and a fierce battle ensues.

The Soviet group is composed of two aged light cruisers, the Aleksandr Nevsky and the Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, and five escorting frigates and corvettes. The American navy’s missile stocks have been severely depleted over the prior months, and the entire force has only eight Harpoon antiship missiles available, which are quickly launched. The American missiles score three hits, sinking one of the escorts, leaving another dead in the water and the Aleksandr Nevsky damaged but still able to fight. As the forces close on each other, the world’s last gun-cruiser duel commences. The American heavy cruiser’s six automatic eight-inch guns, capable of firing 20 rounds a minute, make quick work of the remaining Soviet escorts. The Soviet light cruisers, with less armor and 12 six-inch guns each, initially focus on the American escorts. The only survivor of the American escort force is the destroyer Stout. In a case of tragic mis-naming, Stout’s captain flees the battle, issuing an unauthorized command to turn from the enemy force and escape at flank speed. The ship’s executive officer arrives on the bridge and a heated disagreement ensues, with resulted in the cowardly commander being executed on the spot by the executive officer. By the time the drama on Stout’s bridge is resolved, the gun battle is reaching its conclusion. The heavy cruiser’s superior armor allows it to absorb the 100mm and six-inch fire from the Soviet cruisers with less damage than its own eight-inch and five-inch rounds are inflicting. Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya is the last Soviet ship to go down, ablaze from stem to stern, leaving the battered Newport News as the sole surviving combatant.

The 18th Field Artillery Brigade is declared operational in Saudi Arabia.

photo
Soviet forces of the 7th Army have fought their way into the outskirts of Borujerd against fierce IPA resistance. The Soviets bring forward the heavy guns of the 217th "Tallin-Holm" Artillery Regiment to bash down the Iranian defenses.

The 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, from Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, flies a series of sweeps over the Celebes Sea (to the south of the Philippines), investigating rumors that Soviet raiders have been headed to Indonesia for resupply.

One of the Soviet destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk is located by a S-3 patrol aircraft from the USS Constellation. The subsequent strike by the carrier's fighter-bombers makes quick work of the 1951-built Vnimatel'nyy.

[chico20854]

March 13, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Arkansas Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.

The American transport Nevada Freedom is sunk by a Soviet submarine while returning from Europe.

A third Soviet Whiskey-class submarine arrives in the North Sea to lay mines.

Special Boat Unit One launches another raid in the Kuriles, attacking the headquarters of the 1257th Independent Machinegun-Artillery Battalion on the island of Shikotan.

North Korean commandos infiltrate the port of Chinhae in a minisubmarine. Once there, they attack the American attack submarine USS Sunfish in port for replenishing, sinking it with a large explosive charge. None of the commandos survive and the sub's reactor vessel is intact.

Convoy 126 departs the New York area, adding the Ohio Freedom and six other ships.

The ships carrying the 187th Infantry Brigade (US Army Reserve) from Iceland arrive in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The Soviet raider Buliny is spotted by a South African Air Force Buccaneer strike aircraft. The destroyer opens fire, driving the fast jet off.

A Soviet mechanized task force consisting of a BMP battalion reinforced with a tank company, 2S1 artillery battery, engineer platoon and six ZSU-23-4s makes a lightning drive into the center of Borujerd. Once there the column stops, waiting for reinforcements. Those fail to arrive before the inevitable Iranian counterattack. Led by fanatical Pasdaran infantry, the defenders overrun the Soviets, striking from buildings, rooftops and using mortars to pin down the motor-riflemen.

[chico20854]

March 14, 1997

The canon is silent again today...

The Freedom-class cargo ship Minnesota Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Warsaw Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The staff of 1st, 2nd and 3rd German Armies present their initial draft of the operations plan for Operation Advent Crown. While revisions are being made subordinate support units begin preparing staging areas and hauling supplies forward in preparation for the offensive.

The Canadian Navy commissions the patrol-minesweeper Shawinigan in Trois Rivières, Quebec, where it assumes local security duties in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

In the Yellow Sea, 7th Fleet launches Operation Speed Trap - unrestricted carrier raids on North Korean naval bases by the carriers Stennis and Abraham Lincoln.

The Divisional Support Command, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) loads on transport aircraft at McChord AFB, Washington and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for transit to Saudi Arabia. The division's aviation brigade flies to Portland, Oregon, where its helos are shrink wrapped and loaded onto ships for transit to Saudi Arabia.

Headquarters, 10th US Air Force (USAF Reserve) deployed to Tempelhof International Airport, Berlin, Germany to serve as intermediate command between TWOATAF and USAF wings supporting NORTHAG.

The Iranian 43rd Tactical Fighter Training Squadron departs Pensacola, FL for home in its new F-20s. The squadron will fly to Point Salines, Grenada, Recife, Brazil, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Kigali, Rwanda, Mombasa, Kenya, Masirah, Oman and finally home to Dezful.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Buenos Aires and begins to unload a cargo of scrap steel.

The Soviets, stung by the loss of a reinforced motor-rifle battalion in central Borujerd, redouble their efforts to smash Iranian resistance in the town. Limited arrivals of trucks constrain the Soviet artillery, which the enraged commander of 7th Army orders to level the city.

The Naval Spetsnaz team (from the Caspian Sea flotilla's battalion) that struck in the Strait of Hormuz arrives on Socotra Island, a South Yemenese territory in the northwestern Indian Ocean.

The Soviet raider Buliny heads west at high speed to withdraw from the range of the land-based South African Buccaneers before they can mass against the lone destroyer. As it speeds off, the Cypriot tanker Sun Saphire appears over the horizon, and the Soviets take the opportunity to set her ablaze with gunfire.

[chico20854]

March 15, 1997

Civil rationing goes into effect in Canada.

Unofficially,

The 374th Strategic Missile Squadron begins training at Gowen, Field, Idaho with three newly delivered Hard Mobile Launchers for the MGM-134 Midgetman ICBM. The missile itself is still in final testing and acceptance and the manufacturers are preparing to launch full-scale production.

The Royal Air Force designates the collection of requisitioned Britsh Airways and Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747s as No. 610 (Heathrow and Gatwick) Squadron, Royal Auxilary Air Force. The squadron is tasked to provide long-range passenger and cargo transportation, supporting British and Allied forces in the Middle and Far East, with occaisional sorties moving American troops.

A P-3 Orion of VP-40, flying from Iwakuni, Japan, locates the Soviet destroyer Vkradchivyy (which had broken out of Petropavlovsk a week earlier) and sinks her with three of the squadron's dwindling supply of Harpoon missiles.

The carrier Kitty Hawk flies its first combat missions of the war. The ship has just completed its pre-deployment workup and begins hunting for the Soviet destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk, six of which remain at large.

One of those six, the Vol'nyy, sinks the Japanese trawler Eikyu Maru 8, when the fishing vessel sights it. The Japanese are unable to transmit a warning before the boat goes down.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army moves troops north from the center of the country.

The NVA (East German Army) 7th Panzer Division is re-designated the 27th Panzer Division to avoid being confused with the Bundeswehr 7th Panzer Division.

A sweep by NATO Tornado, F-15, F-22, Typhoon and F-16 interceptors draws out the last fighters in the Polish Air Force, the MiG-29s of the 1st "Tadeusz Kosciusko, Warsaw" Fighter Regiment. In a massive engagement over Bydgoszcz the motivated but outnumbered and outgunned Poles fought to the last, taking eight NATO interceptors down with them. From this point forward, Poland is reliant on surface-to-air missiles (in short supply), guns and the goodwill of their Soviet protectors for air defense.

The destroyer USS Stout is sunk by the Soviet Tango-class submarine B-319 in the Norwegian Sea while returning to the UK for a Board of Inquiry into the circumstances that occurred on the ship's bridge during the Battle of Hammerfest.

The battleship New Jersey leaves the navy yard at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, after most of the damage suffered in the duel against the Kirov in late February has been repaired. (Shipyard workers accompany the ship to Panama, fixing the final items en route). Some of the new systems installed on the battleship are more up-to-date than those destroyed by the Kirov.

Troops of the Soviet 7th Army make progress grinding down Iranian resistance, slowly pulverizing the city of Borujerd as tanks, artillery in direct fire mode and anti-tank weapons are used in abundance to sustain the advance.

[chico20854]

March 16, 1997

Nothing official today.

The British military attache in New Dehli reaches out to the Swiss ambassador to arrange for another meeting with the Soviets.

The staff of a small gun manufacturing operation in Krotz Springs, Louisiana are informed by the company's new owners that they have received a (secret but) major order for M-16 rifles to support the war effort. They immediately ramp up production to 75 rifles per day.

The Headquarters, 14th Air Force (USAF Reserve) is ordered to remain in the US and act as a command and control headquarters for strategic reserve units and to coordinate combat use of Air Training Command assets as the emergency need may arise.

The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized)'s divisional artillery, engineer regiment, air defense artillery battalion and MP company load their vehicles and heavy equipment aboard transport ships at Tacoma, the final elements of the division to load for Saudi Arabia.

The 187th Infantry Brigade (US Army Reserve) completes unloading of its vehicles and equipment in Germany and resumes its combat-ready status, bringing its parent 43rd Infantry Division to full capability.

The Soviet overland convoy from the Black Sea Fleet arrives in Patras, Greece. They begin supporting surviving Soviet naval units in the Mediterranean, supplying food, fuel, rearmament and maintenance.

The Royal Air Force deploys No. 21 Squadron, equipped with Jaguar GR.3 attack aircraft, to Thumrait, Oman. The deploying aircraft are accompanied on their long flight (with an overnight stop in Cyprus) by RAF Tristar tankers.

Concerned with the potential of war with the US, the Cuban political leadership arranges for all Soviet military personnel on the island to concentrate in a coastal enclave in the port of Mariel, mirroring the American base in Guantanamo.

Likewise, the Venezuelan government declares its neutrality, stating that its oil will be sold to any and all customers that are willing to pay for it. Accordingly, several tankers are dispatched to Cuba, Nicaraugua and Soviet client states in Africa, as well as the stream of tankers feeding the Western-owned refineries in Aruba, St. Croix and the US Gulf Coast.

Convoy 12, carrying equipment and supplies to Romania, Jugoslavia and the Middle East, is attacked by the Soviet Echo II-class submarine K-35. The Soviet cruise missiles sink the German container ship Norasia Shanghai, the freighter Grace II and the Singapore-flag Maersk Newark. The escort commander dispatches his helicopters to follow the smoke trail back to their source, hoping to catch the sub on the surface, but they run low on fuel and the smoke disperses, allowing K-35 to escape, although it has expended all its missiles for a second time.

[chico20854]

March 17, 1997

The Headquarters, 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) is formed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The Headquarters, 46th Infantry Division is formed at Camp Blanding, Florida, taking the 58th (Maryland), 116th (Virginia) & 92nd (Puerto Rico National Guard) Infantry Brigades under command. (I have the 27th Infantry Brigade (New York National Guard) and 36th Infantry Brigade (Texas National Guard) replacing the 58th and 116th).

Soviet troops reach the center of Borujerd, having destroyed much of the city. IPA troops fall back, using mortars and artillery to cover their retreat and inflict further damage on 7th Army.

Unofficially,

The Texas State Guard raises the 1st Texas Brigade, headquartered in San Antonio with detachments in Zapata, Corpus Christi and Westlaco, from the prewar 8th Military Police Group. With the outbreak of war and additional federal support it is renamed the 1st Brigade, known as the “Alamo Guards”, and issued M14 rifles, M79 grenade launchers and M1919 machineguns from reserve stockpiles as well as new shotguns from the Mossberg factory in Eagle Pass. It is assigned responsibility for protecting vital infrastructure in southern Texas as well as patrolling to deter and intercept Soviet infiltrators.

The British 44th Airborne Brigade is deployed to Germany. The formation is composed of three Territorial Army parachute battalions (4, 10 and 15 Para) plus pathfinders, artillery and air defense units.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army, taking advantage of the third day of above freezing weather in Harbin, launches a massive spring offensive. The 24th Group Army, with a complement of over 100,000 light infantry troops built up over the winter, goes on the attack. Soviet units fight back, inflicting grievous losses on the Chinese, but by the end of the day they are low on ammunition while further waves of Chinese infantry continue attacking.

The large Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot is damaged by a mine (laid by a Soviet submarine) in the North Sea while carrying a cargo of replacement vehicles to Germany. A smaller ship would have been sunk, but the freighter is one of the world's largest.

The Soviet Victor III-class submarine K-412 fires its last three torpedoes at the Danish containership Marit Mae (which was travelling unescorted at 22 knots with a cargo of ammunition, parts and food). Two hit, leaving the ship listing, dead in the water and taking on water rapidly.

The USS John F Kennedy leaves drydock in Gibraltar and resumes operations in the Mediterranean.

The 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard) flies its first missions in the CENTCOM operational area, supporting IPA troops north of Khorramabad, Iran with precision strikes from the unit's A-7D fighter-bombers.

Clashes occur along the disputed Kashmir border between pro-Soviet India (which is trying hard to resist Soviet attempts to enlarge its role) and pro-Chinese Pakistan.

[chico20854]

March 18, 1997

Nothing official today!

The Soviet peace delegation arrives in New Delhi.

Sinn Fein leadership holds a meeting in Donegal, Ireland to discuss the British Government's message regarding the consequences of violence in Ulster during wartime.

No. 78 Squadron, RAF, embarks on the containership Author for transport to the Persian Gulf region. It is accompanied by the headquarters, 27 Infantry Brigade and several small support units as well as stockpiles of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to support more intense operations. (The MEFF was primarily equipped to combat insurgents rather than face Soviet troops).

Desperate Soviet commanders of the 13th Army call for resupply of ammunition to continue beating back the waves of Chinese light infantry. The roads, however, have disintegrated into massive, miles-long mud pits and helicopters are in scarce supply, low on spare parts after much hard campaigning. Chinese troops have largely overrun the Soviet outpost line, manned by the division's lead regiments, and encounter a Soviet main line of resistance which is bereft of meaningful artillery support and whose mobile reserves are bogged down in the quagmire that is the melting Manchurian countryside. Allied "Volunteer" pilots of the American Volunteer Group II, the Commonwealth Air Training Mission and the German Air Advisory Detachment fly top cover for the attack alongside their PLAAF brethren, keeping Soviet Frontal Aviation occupied and unable to interfere with the battle below.

The a helicopter from the destroyer Carney, part of the Kitty Hawk battle group, locates another of the Petropavlovsk raiders, the destroyer SM-274. Within 15 minutes the carrier's SURCAP (anti-surface combat air patrol), three F/A-18As from VFA-303 (US Navy Reserve) arrives, sinking the Soviet ship with a combination of Maverick guided missiles and bombs. Five of the Soviet ships remain at large.

The former East German 20th Motor-Rifle Division is renamed the 220th PanzerGrenadier Division. It is stationed in West Germany, absorbing a trickle of new recruits and some of the repatriated former POWs released by China and flown around the world.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-383 arrives in Patras, Greece to receive maintenance and a resupply of torpedoes and mines.

The Chief of Staff of the 7th Soviet Army and the commander of the 164th "Vitebsk" Motor-Rifle Division are killed while inspecting the ruins of central Borujerd when Iranian guerillas detonate a large bomb buried in the sidewalk outside the city hall.

Venezuelan authorities dispatch the tanker Che Guevara carrying diesel fuel and avgas to Luanda, Angola.

The Soviet raider Buliny strikes the bulker Pacific Victory, carrying 40,000 tons of Brazilian corn to Egypt, in the south Atlantic, sinking it.

The Soviet Echo II-class submarine K-35, once again out of missiles after attacking Convoy 12 on the 16th, is ordered to the far south Atlantic, to rendevous with the Soviet fishing fleet hiding in the remote reaches of the sub-Antarctic. Some of the fleet's support ships harbor munitions, and the fleet also has plenty of frozen fish to refill the submarine's food lockers.

[chico20854]

March 19, 1997

Nothing official, but a lot going on!!!

The Soviet Whiskey-class submarine S-377 is hunted and sunk by the Norwegian frigate Stavanger while creeping back to Murmansk after laying mines in the North Sea.

British and Soviet diplomats meet in New Delhi to discuss options for ending the war.

The Northern Irish nanopunk band The Razorheads hits the top of the UK charts with the smash hit "Killer from Kilkenny."

No. 64 Squadron, RAF, equipped with Tornado F.3 interceptors, deploys from the UK to West Germany, joining No. 5 and 23 Squadrons. All three Tornado interceptor units have been relieved from duties providing air defense for the UK, although their forward presence actually assists in dealing with Soviet cruise missiles launched over the Baltic. The Tornados are poor dogfighters, instead being employed to deal with any "leakers" that make it past the standing Combat Air Patrol along the Polish and Czech borders.

The battle along the front line in Manchuria continues, as the People's Liberation Army's 5th Mountain Group Army launches an unexpected attack at the far eastern end of the front line. Support for the attack comes from a force of four American aircraft carriers operating in the Yellow Sea. The American F/A-18 fighter-bombers decimate the attack helicopter force that the Soviet commander was rallying to disrupt the Chinese supporting artillery, and the American aircraft finish the day's operation by liberally applying planeloads of cluster bombs on Soviet artillery batteries, which are used to operating in an environment of friendly air superiority.

The Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot is towed to a shipyard in Bremen for repair after being damaged by a mine.

NATO logistics planners begin staging the limited supply of munitions arriving from North America and European factories into depots and warehouses in the former East Germany.

The remnants of the 2nd Guards Artillery Division, which was stripped of many of its guns to support the war in Central Europe, is brought forward on the Kola Peninsula, occupying positions carved out of the frozen tundra behind the Litsa River line.

No. 206 Squadron, RAF establishes a forward operating location at RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to extend its range in the northwestern approaches to the UK.

The carrier USS John F Kennedy launches airstrikes on Algerian petroleum export facilities. France objects, citing their use of the oil and environmental damage from the now-leaking pipelines and facilities.

The 164th Engineer Group (Combat) (North Dakota National Guard) loads its heavy equipment and vehicles on board smaller transport ships in Cleveland, Ohio for transit to Europe. (Larger ships cannot pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway to Cleveland).

The 129th (my 297th) Motor-Rifle Division is mobilized in the Moscow Military District from the cadre and student body of the Kolomna Higher Artillery Command School. The division quickly discovers that its equipment stockpiles had been drained to support the war in China, severely limiting its ability to prepare for combat.

[chico20854]

March 20, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon.

The peace talks in New Delhi reach agreement on the need for an immediate, worldwide ceasefire. The British inform the Soviets that they are acting on behalf of NATO and that they feel confident that Iran and South Korea will abide by any agreement reached, but they cannot commit to Chinese adherence to any deal reached.

The Freedom ship Seoul Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, a Chieftain tank regiment assigned to UK Land Force's strategic reserve, is alerted for deployment to the Middle East.

The Soviet front lines begin to crumble in Manchuria. The Far Eastern TVD commander flies in reinforcements from the Siberian Front to shore up the most vulnerable sectors and diverts KGB Border Guard and MVD internal troop units from rear area security duties to the front. Chinese forces advance along the west bank of the Yalu River, receiving only sporadic fire from the weak North Korean border guard detachments on the opposite shore.

Shipyard foremen in Bremen quickly determine that the damaged Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot needs to be unloaded before it can be drydocked for repairs. The tangled mess in Number Two hold makes that evolution challenging.

On the Kola, NATO forces undertake a second landing at Teriberka. Allied amphibious forces capture the town with minimal resistance. General Skinner, the amphibious force commander, eager to build forces ashore rapidly and facing less opposition, brings some of the transports into the harbor after it had been swept for mines.

The 138th Field Artillery Brigade (Kentucky and Michigan National Guards) loads its vehicles on ships in Norfolk, Virginia for transit to Europe.

Raiders sink three ships in the Atlantic, one off West Africa and two headed to Europe from North America.

The Soviet 7th Army pauses its pursuit of retreating Iranian forces south of Borujerd since its tanks and trucks are nearly out of fuel and it's troops dangerously short of ammunition. The situation is made worse by heavy air strikes on the Soviet rear by the US 4th and 150th Tactical Fighter Wings.

The Iranian 41st Tactical Fighter Squadron, accompanied by a 747 carrying headquarters and ground crew (and acting as a navigation and communications escort) departs Pensacola for the week-long ferry back home, following in the footsteps of its sister squadron six days before.

The Caspian Sea Flotilla's Spetsnaz team departs Socotra Island, Yemen in a dhow, headed for the mouth of the Red Sea to try to interdict Allied shipping.

The 10th Special Forces Group and Latvian Free Forces ambush the rail line leading south from Riga towards Lithuania (and Poland), derailing a train carrying new T-90 tanks from Leningrad.

The long-simmering war in Colombia continues, with drug gangs, FARC and ELN Marxist guerillas, right-wing paramilitary militias and groups of Soviet, Cuban and Venezuelan "volunteers" all battling the government for control.

[chico20854]

March 21, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

In New Delhi, talks move on to the next stage (post-ceasefire activities) while both delegations await confirmation from their respective capitals.

The Canadian Navy commissions the patrol-minesweeper Edmonton in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship begins a transit to British Columbia, accompanied by the minesweeper HMCS Moresby.

USAF Systems Command receives its first KC-767, a civil 767 airliner that has been converted into a combined transport-tanker aircraft, with a refuelling boom and wingtip pods with drouges for refuelling aircraft fitted with refuelling probes. The aircraft are controversial within the Air Force - Strategic Air Command, which controls tankers due to their role supporting strategic bombers - is opposed to the purchase, insisting the advanced aircraft undergo all manner of tests to ensure its reliability in a nuclear strike mission. Other elements of the air force - Military Airlift Command and Tactical Air Command - are eager for the aircraft, MAC for the lift they could provide and TAC to refuel tactical aircraft, which SAC has been reluctant to relesae large numbers of tankers to do. Air Training Command expresses concern about the added training burden of converting tanker pilots to the new aircraft. The Air Force Chief of Staff quells these opinions by splitting the aircraft between MAC and TAC, with none allocated to SAC, and assigning the aircraft to Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard squadrons, which have many pilots that have civilian certification and experience flying the 767.

Soviet reinforcements arriving in Manchuria are rushed to the front. Some of their convoys are ambushed by Chinese guerrillas that have slipped through the front lines or have been operating in the region, emboldened by the diversion of the KGB and MVD units that had been dedicated to their suppression. Many Soviet artillery units have expended their entire stock of conventional munitions.

The 434th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) arrives at the port of Long Beach, California to load for transit to the Middle East.

The Dutch Red Army attempts to assasinate the commanding general of the Leeuwarden Air Base but is thwarted by the adept driving of his driver.

The Commander of the Polish Internal Front (a command nominally independent of Warsaw Pact command, responsible for Polish internal defense) reports the completion of trenches and basic defensive measures around all Polish cities of over 250,000 population. Much of the work that can be accomplished by manual labor has been done, and the Polish defense council authorizes the release of farmers for the spring planting and workers in defense industries, leaving pensioners, housewives and teens to toil away at secondary defense lines. All men between the ages of 17 and 65 are enrolled in the citizens militia, the ORMO, and operational control of the ORMO is granted to the OTK (Territorial Defense Troops). All ORMO members are to train on weapons handling and tactics for at lease two hours each week.

A small flotilla of Soviet diesel attack submarines is dispatched to deal with the invasion fleet off the eastern Kola Peninsula, and Marshall Korolev (Commander of the Northwestern TVD) once again dispatches a ground force built around the 76th Guards Airborne Division to eliminate the NATO beachhead.

Additional A-teams from the 5th and 7th Special Forces Groups are deployed into Iran. Some teams support IPA and Pasdaran forces, offering vital secure communications links and fire support coordiantion, while others operate behind the lines, organizing Kurdish and other ethnic guerrilla bands to harass the Soviets and their Tudeh allies.

STAVKA places VDV airborne units and Military Transport Aviation squadrons on alert for an emergency deployment to stabilize the front in China.

[chico20854]

March 22, 1997

Nothing in the canon today!

The Soviet delegation delivers the position it received from Moscow - that a ceasefire absent a long-term agreement is an attempt to give the Allies more time to move troops into position for renewed attacks and, therefore, cannot be accepted.

The 31st Armored Brigde (Alabama National Guard), completes Rotation 97-6 at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California and is declared combat ready.

The 205th Infantry Brigade (Light) (US Army Reserve) completes Rotation 97-6 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready. Its troops and equipment are immediately moved to England AFB, Louisiana and loaded onto waiting aircraft for transit to Europe, where the remainder of its parent division (the 43rd Infantry) is assembling before being committed to action.

The Spetsnaz team under Col. Mikhail Tumanski has completed its fortification of its safehouse and launches another raid, this one striking the torpedo plant in Neston, near Liverpool. The team temporarily overwhelms the security force and starts a fire in the assembly building. They quickly retreat before the authorities arrive; the fire brigade extinguishes the fire but production will be halted for some time to repair the damage.

Chinese troops continue to make slow progress against increasingly panicked and desperate Soviet defenders. Pact reinforcements find themselves thrown into the gap of units that have been overrun, often with minimal logistic support and at times even without any communications with nearby friendly units or their own higher headquarters. Allied and Chinese aircraft are largely successful in intercepting the few remaining Soviet aircraft before they reach the front line, leaving isolated low-level helicopter attacks as the sole air support Soviet troops receive.

Polish Air Defense Force commanders, at the insistence of the Warsaw Pact high command, have reactivated four anti-aircraft artillery regiments (each with six 100mm and two 57mm batteries), 12 independent batteries armed with 57mm guns and 53 batteries of 37mm guns. The regiments are assigned to defend Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk and Wrocław; the batteries are dispersed to airfields and missile sites. Additionally, excess personnel (of which there were many following the force's grievous losses in the air) had been equipped with lighter anti-aircraft artillery (23mm and smaller). This mass of guns, it is hoped, will compensate for the dwindling supply of surface-to-air missiles and NATO superiority in electronic warfare. In any case, the hundreds of guns will make Allied attacks on Polish airfields costly indeed.

The Soviet raiders in the Pacific have largely eluded Allied search forces and dispersed into the expanses of the Central Pacific. While it is considered desirable to sink Allied and neutral shipping, Soviet Pacific Fleet commanders are pleased with the diversion of Allied resources to the hunt, lessening pressure on their embattled forces and ports.

The personnel of the XI US Corps headquarters are flown to Amsterdam onboard American and Dutch airliners.

The Iranian 43rd Tactical Fighter Training Squadron flies its first operational sorties with its F-20 fighters, flying top cover for F-4 fighter-bombers attacking Soviet artillery batteries south of Kashan. They succeed in downing a pair of MiG-23s, losing one pilot and aircraft.

The American attack submarine Sea Devil intercepts the Venezuelan tanker Che Guevara en route to Angola and sinks her with two Mark-101 torpedoes.

[chico20854]

March 23, 1997

Yet another day with nothing in the canon! Unofficially,

The British and Soviet delegations in New Dehli repeat their earlier positions from the last round of peace talks. The Soviets want a return to prewar German borders, transfer of all Manchuria to the USSR, annexation of captured territory in Iran to Azerbaijan, "regime change" in Romania, arrest of the Polish Government in Exile and their transfer to Poland for "Proletarian Justice" and neutral, demilitarized South Korea and Germany, accompanied by crippling reparations from Germany and a withdrawal of American troops and nuclear weapons from Europe and East Asia. NATO offers a permament ceasefire, followed by withdrawal of Allied and Pact troops from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, China, the Kola Peninsula and Iran, and free elections in Poland and Iran to determine the shape of future governments there.

At a ceremony in Philadelphia, the heavy cruiser Salem is recommissioned after over 37 years in mothballs and a nearly year-long reactivation and modernization. The refit fitted new radar, communications and electronic warfare equipment, removed the remaining 3-inch guns, added four Phalanx CIWS anti-missile systems, four Harpoon missile launchers and support for SH-2 and SH-60 helicopters. The ship was also outfitted for female crewmembers, over 150 of whom join the ship's complement.

First Far Eastern Front launches a desperate effort to halt the Chinese offensive. All available artillery and aircraft are thrown into a massive chemical attack along the length and breadth of the Chinese salients, with the 13th Guards Airborne Division dropped on top of the 24th Group Army headquarters. Front-line motor-rifle units are ordered to retreat to alternative fighting positions to the rear, bringing the Chinese infantry out to seize the abandoned positions (and opening them to chemical attack). The Soviets pay a heavy price for this effort, losing dozens of transport aircraft and helicopters, artillery batteries and attack aircraft.

Similar to their Polish opponents, troops of the British RAF Regiment, charged with defending British airbases in Germany, press a pair of partially destroyed captured Soviet ZSU-23-4 anti-aircraft guns and numbers of captured 12.7mm and 14.5mm machineguns into service to defend RAF Gutersloh and other forward airbases.

3 Commando Brigade and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade have landed most of their troops and many supplies in Teriberka, east of Murmansk and are preparing to break out from their beachead.

No. 35 Squadron, RAF follows its compatriots of No. 21 Squadron in deploying Jaguar attack bombers to Thumrait, Oman.

The first R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy plane mission overflies the USSR from west to east, passing over the Pletesk space center, industrial facilities in western Siberia and the Urals, ICBM fields and mobile missile garrisons in eastern Siberia and traffic on the Baikal-Amur Mainline railroad before splashing down off the coast of southern California.

All Soviet military personnel in Cuba have moved to the Mariel enclave, which the news media promptly nicknames "Guantanamo II". Cuban authorities arrange for the continued movement of Soviet equipment and supplies to the enclave from elsewhere on the island. The USSR, unhappy with the decision but with its plate full in many other areas, limits its response to cutting off economic aid to Cuba. (The practical effect of that was minimal, since Soviet commerce with Cuba was cut off by the war).

The Soviet raider Buliny passes into the Indian Ocean south of the Cape of Good Hope, hoping to continue the rampage of allied and neutral shipping and further diluting NATO naval power.

Two of the Soviet destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk earlier in the month rendevous and speed towards the isolated American outpost of Midway, scene of the turning point of the war in the Pacific in 1942. The destroyers work over the airfield with their 100mm guns.

[chico20854]

March 24, 1997

Nothing in the canon today.

The Chinese government is informed of the status of the peace talks in New Delhi. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes clear to Britain that China will accept nothing less than the removal of Soviet troops from all occupied territory. They state that the People's Liberation Army, if forced to drive the Soviets out of Manchuria by force, will not stop at the prewar borders and instead sieze all of Siberia and the Soviet Far East east of Lake Baikal, as well as possibly launching an offensive into Soviet Central Asia.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Guam Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Minneapolis Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Chinese assault in Manchuria falters as the 24th Group Army loses control and communications with its units while its headquarters staff engage in a desperate (and ultimately, losing) close-quarters battle with hardened Soviet paratroops. Hospital facilities in the Chinese rear are overwhelmed with soldiers suffering from debilitating chemical burns and nerve damage. Allied pilots return to the sky overhead, but Soviet forces have once again gone to ground, unwilling to advance into areas contaminated with persistent chemical agents and with its tanks and armored vehicles still stuck in the endless mud.

British Buccanneer strike fighters intercept the Soviet destroyer Plamennyy as it tries to sneak through the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap to reach the Atlantic convoy lanes. The RAF missiles soon send the obsolescent destroyer below the waves.

The Victor III-class attack submarine K-251 attacks the South Korean destroyer Kyong Ki, patrolling the approaches to Pohang. The modern submarine's torpedos make quick work of the (modernized but still 52-year old) destroyer.

On the Kola Peninsula, the Royal Marines launch an attack south out of Teriberka along the sole road from the town, with the US Marines defending the flanks of the offensive and the Dutch serving as a mobile reaction force. Three battalions of artillery and a flight of British attack helicopters support the assault.

A Soviet air raid, launched from Crimean air bases and travelling at low level over Turkey, finally achieves one of the USSR's strategic goals in the Mediterranean - it sinks a ship in the Suez Canal, blocking traffic.

Convoy 10.2 arrives in Jubayl and Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia with 12 transports carrying the vehicles and heavy equipment of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized). The equipment of the division's 3rd Brigade onboard the ships serves as a kernel of a theater loss reserve, as the brigade fell in on prepositioned equipment already in the theater.

The 180th "Kiev" Motor-Rifle Division, a Category B unit from the Odessa Military District, is activated. It had previously been used as a source of replacement troops for other units at the front. The 180th receives a levy of 1500 local men shanghied from the streets of Odessa and is ordered to prepare for deployment to the Bulgarian front as soon as possible.

[chico20854]

March 25, 1997

Yet another day with nothing official! Unofficially,

The British deliver the Chinese statement about the conclusion of the war; the head of the Soviet delegation laughs and declares "We will never permit such a plot to succeed!" The Soviets offer a comprimise position - Soviet-supervised elections in Manchuria and East Germany to determine the shape of future governments there, and withdraws its demands for the Polish Government in Exile to be handed over. The Soviets also propose a return to prewar borders in Romania and Bulgaria.

The 199th Infantry Brigade (Light) is formed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii for service in tropical areas in the Pacific basin. Most of the “Redcatcher Brigade”'s soldiers arrived from training units stateside, with an influx of lieutenants from West Point’s second class of 1996 and senior NCOs recalled from the retired reserve or recovering from minor wounds received in the Pacific theater, recently discharged from Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu.

Workers complete the reconstruction of the rail line outside the US Army ammunition dump at RAF Caerwent in Wales, allowing the resumption of rail traffic over a month after Soviet Spetsnaz troops blew up an ammunition train leaving the massive ammo dump.

Attempts by the PLA high command to restore order and the momentum of the attack in eastern Manchuria fail; the exhausted and shell-shocked troops are unable to launch another round of attacks and the infrastructure in the rear area is insufficient to bring fresh troops in to continue the offensive.

Sembach Air Base, Germany is struck by Soviet bombers (firing cruise missiles over friendly territory to avoid NATO fighters), sustaining minor damage.

The 21st PanzerGrenadier Division completes its retraining and integration of new equipment and is rushed to East Germany.

The Victor-I class Soviet SSN K-306 sinks the Danish ro/ro Camilla in the North Atlantic, its second kill.

Convoy 126 arrives in Bremerhaven, Germany, bringing supplies of ammunition, spares, fuel and the vehicles and equipment of the 209th (New York National Guard) and 227th (Florida National Guard) Field Artillery Brigades.

As Egyptian authorities attempt to clear the Suez Canal, NATO planners begin to reroute shipping around Africa, an added distance of nearly 5000 nautical miles between Gibraltar and the Persian Gulf.

The two RAF Jaguar GR.3 attack squadrons in Oman are integrated with the Omani Jaguar force, splitting missions between battling Yemen- and Soviet-supported guerillas in Oman, patrolling the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz and flying strike missions in support of the embattled Iranians.

After a long transit around Indonesian waters, the Independence battle group arrives in the Middle Eastern theater. Her aircraft maintain active patrolling for the remnants of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron as the group approaches the Persian Gulf.

The last defenders of the northeastern city of Mashad are rooted out of the ruins that are all that remains of the center of town. Few Pasdaran fighters surrendered, with over 95 percent of the garrison killed in the months-long siege. The fall of the city frees troops from the 40th and 45th Army to fight to the south, and the conquest of the city allows engineers to begin rebuilding the transport links to Turkmenistan, a vital second supply line that is harder for NATO airpower to interdict.

The 146th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Kiev Military District, is activated from an equipment stockpile and students from the 287th Training Motor-Rifle Division. It begins a several-month-long process of integrating green teenagers and recalled reservists from the region around its mobilization site in western Ukraine.

American A-7 attack aircraft from the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) fly a series of sorties in support of Colombian military and police forces, which are beseiged in a remote hilltop firebase by a large contingent of heavily armed Cuban and Venezuelan "liberation volunteers".

[chico20854]

March 26, 1997

Yet another day where I am forced to improvise!

The British delegation to the peace talks counters the latest Soviet offer with a counter-offer, of UN-supervised elections in Poland, East Germany, northern Iran and Manchuria and withdrawal of all combatant nation's troops from those areas.

2nd Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (California National Guard) completes Rotation 97-6 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team ambushes a bus full of soldiers headed for training on the Salisbury Plain. Thirteen British troops are killed, twelve are wounded. The crew of the Land Rover escorting the bus manage to kill one of the Russians before the remainder of the team escapes.

The Chinese offensive is called off. The Soviets have been driven back 30 or more kilometers. Pact losses approach 45,000 troops, and Chinese losses are over twice that level. STAVKA redirects replacement troops, equipment, armored vehicles, fuel, aircraft and supplies to the Far Eastern TVD, instead of to Soviet forces in Poland and Romania.

The American cargo ship Racer completes a month of loading ammunition at Naval Weapons Station Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay, awaiting a convoy bound for Guam.

Headquarters, 17th Air Force disperses into three field headquarters following the strike on Sembach Air Base the previous day.

The Danish Jutland Mechanized Division crosses from Denmark into West Germany.

General Frisvold, commander of NATO forces on the Kola, comes under pressure, like NATO and American commanders around the world, to launch an offensive in his area of responsibility

The American carrier Coral Sea and her battle group are ordered to cease patrolling the central Atlantic, moving into the North Sea and Baltic to support the upcoming NATO offensive into Poland.

A Soviet submarine sinks the Dutch freighter Medlloyd Tokyo in the North Atlantic.

The 134th Mountain Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Central Asian Military District, crosses the Amu Darya River into Afghanistan, en route The British delegation counters the latest Soviet offer with a counter-offer, of UN-supervised elections in Poland, East Germany, northern Iran and Manchuria and withdrawal of all combatant nation's troops from those areas.

2nd Brigade, 40th ID (M) (California National Guard) completes Rotation 97-6 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

The Chinese offensive is called off. The Soviets have been driven back 30 or more kilometers. Pact losses approach 45,000 troops, and Chinese losses are over twice that level.

The American cargo ship Racer completes a month of loading ammunition at Naval Weapons Station Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay, awaiting a convoy bound for Guam.

HQ, 17th AF dispersed into three field headquarters following the strike on Sembach AB the previous day.

The Danish Jutland Mechanized Division crosses from Denmark into West Germany.

General Frisvold, commander of NATO forces on the Kola comes under pressure, like NATO and American commanders around the world, to launch an offensive in his area of responsibility

The American carrier Coral Sea and her battle group are ordered to cease patrolling the central Atlantic, moving into the North Sea and Baltic to support the upcoming NATO offensive into Poland.

The 134th Mountain Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Central Asian Military District, crosses the Amu Darya River into Afghanistan, en route to the town of Kunduz, where it will help secure the supply line to the USSR and send raiding detachments into the hills. the town of Kunduz, where it will help secure the supply line to the USSR and send raiding detachments into the hills.

[chico20854]

March 27, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The head of the Soviet delegation states that, in face of the Allied rejection of the generous Soviet peace offer and the outrageous demands in the Allied counter-offer, further discussions appear to be an unreasonable waste of time and that the Soviet delegation will be returning to Moscow immediately. Despite the Swiss ambassador's protests and pleading, the Soviet team immediately departs for the airport.

The 27th Infantry Brigade (New York National Guard) completes Rotation 97-7 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas and is declared combat ready.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Virginia, begins certification tests on the 8-inch Mk 16 guns aboard the Des Moines-class heavy cruisers to fire Army eight-inch munitions. The highest priority rounds are the M650 Rocket-Assisted Round, the M509 Dual-Purpose ICM round and the M422 tactical nuclear round.

HQ, XI US Corps declared operational in Germany. It is initially assigned rear area duties in East Germany.

The 211th PanzerGrenadier Division (the former East German 11th MRD) completes an intense period of rebuilding and retraining at the Grafenwohr training center in Bavaria.

Longshoremen complete unloading the damaged Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot in Bremen, allowing it to be moved into the shipyard to begin repairing mine damage sustained earlier in the month.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-359 arrives at Polyarnyy on the Kola, successfully completing its minelaying voyage in the North Sea.

Another Soviet air raid on the Suez Canal lays dozens of mines and sinks two more ships.

The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) departs the ports of eastern Saudi Arabia and moves toward the Kuwaiti border. The division's 3rd Brigade remains in defensive positions protecting the region's ports.

The carrier Independence launches her first air strikes in Iran, supporting troops of the IPA II Corps northeast of Shiraz.

[chico20854]

March 28, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon...

Informed of the breakdown of the latest peace talks, NATO heads of state give final approval for the execution of Operation Advent Crown.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Illinois Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

A second mobilization LAV-25 plant is opened in Springfield, Ohio, at a recently closed heavy truck plant. The vehicles produced here are delivered to US Marine Corps and Army units around the world.

Sinn Fein leadership announces that the PIRA is implementing a unilateral cease fire for the duration of the war plus six months.

The Second German Army launches an artillery raid on Polish air defense positions. A task force of German, Danish and American MLRS launchers rush to the front lines along the Oder River in Szczecin and Swinoujscie (at the mouth of the river) and unleash a hail of rockets on the Polish 26th Air Defense Artillery Division's firing positions along the Baltic Coast and the river line. The raids do immense damage, blanketing the prepared firing positions with thousands of submunitions. The raid, while successful, is less effective than hoped. Many of the batteries had already been savaged by Allied airpower, and they had, in many cases, shot off nearly their entire stockpile of missiles, which the USSR had not replaced. Some of the batteries had moved to alternative firing positions (which had been identified by electronic and satellite reconniassance); the field positions offered less protection than the prewar permanent emplacments.

The Victor III-class submarine K-412, having successfully traversed the GIUK Gap, rendevous with the ice-strengthened freighter Rabochaya Smena in the icepack west of Svalbard (to avoid the mines and NATO naval forces approaching Murmansk). The freighter is able to supply the submarine with a full load of torpedoes, provisions and an opportunity for the crew to get some fresh air.

The Soviet raider Buliny makes its presence in the Indian Ocean known with an attack on the Cypriot general cargo carrier Orient Challenge, carrying a mixed cargo of steel rolls, automotive parts, bagged coffee beans and industrial chemicals in barrels from France and West Africa to Australia. The destroyer's gunfire sets the chemicals alight, leading to the ship's rapid abandonment and rapid loss.

The Iranian 41st Tactical Fighter Squadron flies its first sorties over Iran with its' new F-20 fighters, supporting the I Corps in the western portion of the front.

STAVKA requests that the Politburo seek negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party for a separate peace, in light of the horrendous casualties inflicted on First Far Eastern Front and demands of war in the West and Iran. They are unaware of the Chinese position expressing the desire to occupy Siberian territory if victorious.

[chico20854]

March 29, 1997

A young American journalist, Fanya Ayn Wilkerson, bribes her way onto a cargo ship headed to the Middle East, sent by an editor who wants stories about "the role of today's women in the Armed Services."

Unofficially,

3rd Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) completes Rotation 97-5 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready.

The US Navy places an order for an additional 5,000 Ruger P-85 pistols to supplement the over 10,000 of the gun that were already in Navy and Marine Corps use.

Unionist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland announce that they will observe ceasefire for "so long as the Catholic terrorists defer from taking the lives of innocent, loyal Britons." Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team emplaces explosives on an overpass over the M6 motorway, a major route known as the "Backbone of Britain".

The commander of the Far Eastern TVD, Marshall Aliyev, is ordered to launch an immediate counterattack to take advantage of the Chinese army's disarray. He replies with a list of supplies, reinforcements and replacements that are required to restore his forces to being able to maintain their current defensive line, and rebuts the request to launch an offensive as a complete fantasy given the dire state of his troops.

American, Danish, British, German and Canadian formations begin staging supplies and readying for movement into East Germany. Additional battalions are slipped into the Oder bridgeheads after nightfall.

The last Soviet defenders of the Rybachiy Peninsula are pushed to the shore of the Barents Sea by Canadian troops. Further east on the Kola Peninsula, British, Dutch and American marines continue their slow, steady advance southwest out of Teriberka.

The American carrier Independence moves farther south in the Arabian Sea, after receiving intelligence (gleaned from radio intercepts) that the Soviet Tango-class submarine B-290 is active in the Indian Ocean and possibly operating close to the southern Iranian coast.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron hands over its remaining five F-5Es to its sister 21st TFS and boards the Iran Air 747 that arrived from the US the day before. That aircraft will transport the squadron to Georgia to transition to the F-20 Tigershark, as part of the last Iranian Air Force wing to receive the fighter.

American carrier aircraft in the Yellow Sea turn their attention back to North Korea, continuing the weeks-long series of raids on North Korean hardened artillery bunkers along the DMZ. The heavily protected caves are easily enough dealth with when precision-guided munitions are available, but the large number of the bunkers and falling stockpiles of guided bombs and missiles mean that the task is still ongoing.

Soviet premier Sauronski orders the KGB to arrest the General Staff officers who were the genesis of the prior day's suggestion to seek peace with the Chinese. Such decisions are to be made by the Politburo and followed by the Army - it is not the Army's place to get involved. (Sauronski, however, refrains from having the Marshalls in STAVKA arrested, realizing he needs their expertise and influence to keep the war going).

[chico20854]

March 30, 1997

In a crude attempt to slow the flow of reinforcements and supplies into the Korean Peninsula and deter further cooperation with the Allies, North Korea launches several primitive ballistic missiles against western Japanese ports.

Unofficially,

The West German parliament holds a secret session, in which a measure is passed permitting Territorial troops to be used outside German territory. (Military lawyers had already deemed that use of Territorials in East Germany was allowable, as East Germany was still sovreign German land).

The Freedom ship Queens Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The 1st Brigade, Washington State Guard is ordered to begin intensive sweeps of the area around SeaTac International Airport and the approaches to McChord Air Force Base in anticipation of a major upcoming airlift from those fields.

The timer set by Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team runs down at 3 am, detonating the 55 lbs of Semtex and dropping the several-hundred-ton bridge onto a nearly deserted M6 motorway, blocking all traffic.

The NVA 19th Motor-Rifle Division is renamed the 219th PanzerGrenadier Division. It remains in West Germany reorganizing and rebuilding following the losses it sustained in the Battle of Germany.

As the sun sets, a massive contingent of NATO tactical aircraft take off from bases throughout Germany and the Netherlands. First, waves of interceptor aircraft, guided by a pair of E-3 AWACS aircraft, clear the skies of Soviet aircraft of any type. They are closely followed by USAF EF-111, Marine Corps EA-6 and Luftwaffe Tornado ECR jammer aircraft and F-16s loaded down with anti-radiation missiles to strike surface-to-air-missile batteries. These are in preparation for the main strike force: over 100 deep-strike F-15Es, F-111s and Tornadoes that target the bridges over the Wisla and other transportation bottlenecks, Phantoms, F/A-18s and F-16s that seek out Pact supply dumps and marshalling areas, and Alfa Jets, Harriers and A-10s that work over Soviet and Polish artillery batteries and headquarters along the Oder-Niesse line. The first large-scale NATO air offensive in months (and the first to appear over Poland) catches the Pact air defenses off guard, but they fight back, downing over 20 Allied aircraft.

Bundeswehr troops in East Germany suspend their anti-guerilla sweeps (several pockets of communist and pro-Soviet guerillas were still operating in both urban and rural areas), handing internal security duties over to border guard and territorial units as the regulars re-orient for the forthcoming offensive.

On the Kola Peninsula, the NATO amphibious force breaks out of the rough terrain along the coast into open snow-covered tundra and follows the road as it turns west towards the bomber base at Severomorsk 25 miles/40 km away. Once in the open, the Allied force brushes aside scattered Soviet pickets, composed of MVD and naval troops, using artillery fire to break up enemy resistance.

The Norwegian bulk carrier Star Hansa strikes a mine on the approaches to Rotterdam, leaving it listing with its cargo of 44,000 tons of iron ore.

The Greek government calls up an additional 15,000 reservists, hoping to bolster the forces facing Turkey along the stalled front line in Thrace. Like many other armies around the world, finding modern weapons and vehicles for the masses of trained manpower available is a challenge, as is forming an effective fighting force from called up veterans whose military service is many years or even a decade or more removed.

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-177 moves into position off theTurkish port of Mersin, headquarters of its Mediterranean Command and the destination for several smaller-scale shipments of war materiel, including ammunition, trucks and parts sold (at great profit!) by Israel.

The Turkish submarine Uluçalireis sinks the Greek transport Theofilos as the ferry transports additional troops and vehicles to Cyprus.

The Chinese high command takes advantage of the disarray along the front line to infiltrate partisans through the Soviet positions. They also steal a page from the North Korean playbook, sending Y-5 biplanes (license-built copies of the Soviet An-2) at low level in the dark to penetrate the Soviet lines, dropping special operations troops and supplies for partisan bands.

The Soviet Naval command orders a pair of submarines - the Tango-class B-498 and the Victor I-class K-469 - to station themselves off the coast of Guinea. While the government ashore is a (somewhat) reliable ally, it continues to sell bauxite (aluminum ore) to western countries. The submarines are to disrupt the supply of food into the country and the export of the vital strategic commodity to the Allies.

[chico20854]

April 1, 1997

Nothing official today!

Air Force System Command clears modified JDAM GPS-guidance kits for deployment on B-61 and B-83 nuclear bombs. The adaptation enables bombers and strike aircraft to neutralize the hardest of Soviet targets (including ICBM silos and underground command posts) with a single weapon.

Pilots and ground crew of the Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron arrive in Savannah, Georgia and receive their complement of F-20 fighters.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team damages a Britsh Airways 767 airliner with a SA-14 missile as it approaches Manchester Airport. The pilot manage to land the craft with only a few dozen injuries to the Canadian replacement troops aboard.

The Vol'nyy, one of the Skory-class destroyers which broke out of Petropavlovsk earlier in the month, completes replenishment from the Soviet fishing tanker Ust-Karsk in the islands of the southern Philippines and resumes its voyage.

The personnel of 1st Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) load onto airliners at McChord AFB, Washington for transit to Saudi Arabia. The planes will fly to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, Anderson AFB, Guam, Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore and then to Muscat, Oman before disembarking, transferring to C-130s and smaller civilian airliners for the final hop into eastern Saudi Arabia. The entire process takes three exhausting days, leaving the troops dazed and jet lagged (and a great many in great need of a smoke!)

As the sun sets, the NATO air offensive is of a markedly lower level of intensity, primarily intended not to tip off enemy air defenses of the onslaught that will arrive in the predawn hours.

The American attack submarine USS Batfish enters the Mediterranean and begins searching for Soviet and Pact shipping.

The convoy carrying reinforcements for the Middle East Field Force, including the containership Author carrying helicopters of 78 Squadron RAF, arrives in Muscat, Oman.

The Soviet raider Buliny makes its presence in the Indian Ocean known, sinking the American freighter South Dakota Freedom as it sailed in ballast back to the US after delivering supplies to CENTCOM.

The Caspian Sea Flotilla's Spetsnaz detachment attaches a limpet mine to the Liberian crude oil tanker Knock Sheen, at anchor in the Red Sea awaiting reopening of the Suez Canal. The subsequent explosion produces an effect less than hoped for, releasing a great quantity of crude oil but not putting the ship at risk of sinking. Instead, the leaking vessel has to be towed to Port Suez for drydocking and repair.

The Saudi government approves the hiring of two brigades of Pakistani mercanaries. The troops, seconded from the Pakistani Army, will obstensibly be employed to enhance security for the Saudi holy sites. In reality, one will be deployed to relieve American units in providing security for the Persian Gulf ports and the other will be deployed to Iran to guard ports and other vital facilities. The Pakistanis will bring their own small arms and use vehicles and heavy weapons from Saudi stockpiles. (The Saudis have more weapons available than citizens willing to wield them).

With the start of the second quarter of the year, new daily production goals go into effect across the USSR. Enterprises involved in the war effort (not just producing weapons but supporting war production or producing energy or raw materials for war production) are increased by 20 percent. Labor and raw materials allocated to consumer consumption are cut by 25 percent, the reductions redirected to the war effort. There will be no increase in pay for workers. When this is announced unrest breaks out around the nation. The workers of the Kirov Tank Plant in Leningrad put down their tools and march into the streets. Within 90 minutes they are facing off against the MVD troops of the 2nd Special Motorized Rifle Regiment. When a delegation of workers advances on the riot troops, their commander orders them to open fire on the "sabateurs and seditionists". 25 workers are killed in the first volley. The strike immediately fizzles, and MVD troops surround the workers, forcing them back to work. The workers are kept on the factory grounds, put back to work and only released after a review by the KGB, a process that takes up to five days. Unrest erupts elsewhere in the USSR, reaching the same terrible results.

[chico20854]

April 2, 1997

A big day...

The US 45th Infantry Division is declared operational and begins deployment to Korea by sea.

NATO launches Operation Advent Crown, the invasion of Poland. The plan calls for the Second German Army to strike along the Baltic Coast with Kaliningrad and Grodno as the ultimate objectives, advancing through Szczecin, Slupsk and Gdańsk. The First German Army, with I British Corps will advance through central Poland, with the objective of reaching the Soviet border in the vicinity of Brest, capturing Poznań and Łódź and bypassing Warsaw. The Third German Army is tasked to take Silesia and southern Poland, ultimately reaching Lublin and Lvov in the Ukraine, advancing through Wrocław, Gliwice, Katowice, Krakow and Rzeszow. On the flank, Seventh US Army will gradually extend its area of responsibility eastward as additional National Guard divisions become available from the United States.

Unofficially,

While the plan envisions sweeping armored thrusts deep into Poland, on the ground there is a different reality. The Polish Army, the Polish people and their Soviet allies have prepared a deep system of fortifications the likes of which have been unseen since the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Western Poland has been transformed into a series of interlocking lines of field fortifications, painstakingly constructed by every available engineer unit from the Polish Army and Soviet First and Second Western Fronts. OTK (Territorial Defense) units and support troops, local civilians, Allied POWs and even prisoners from Polish jails had all been drafted into digging trench lines in the snow, working up to 18 hours a day. Command posts had been buried and camouflaged, minefields laid, barbed wire strung and reserve positions prepared. Open areas that could serve as helicopter landing zones had poles and cables rigged across them. Artillery batteries had, on average, ten firing positions surveyed and prepared. Fighting positions had stockpiles of food and ammunition to enable their defenders to hold out when cut off. Anti-tank reserve units and mobile blocking forces were in position to counter NATO breakthroughs. The Pact front line is actually a series of outposts, with the main line of resistance out of the direct line of sight of NATO troops. The defense zone is nearly 50 miles deep along the entire frontier, a truly massive effort to construct in three short months of winter. Following the completion of the defensive line, the Polish government evacuated the remaining civilian population, both to protect them and to prevent pro-NATO partisans from hiding among them.

This construction activity had been observed by NATO reconnaissance assets, so the attacking force knew what it would have to defeat. Second German Army begins clearing the coastal minefields and neutralizing Polish coastal defense missile launchers before being able to launch flanking amphibious landings. In other sectors the solution is simply to apply large amounts of firepower. Massed artillery fires, concentrated in key sectors, break up small parts of the defensive line. DPICM and FASCAM munitions are used to tie reaction forces in place. Hunter-killer helicopter teams hunt bunkers rather than tanks. Transport aircraft drop large fuel air explosive bombs into stretches of forest to create new landing zones for helicopters.

Nonetheless, when the offensive kicks off progress is slow. The artillery barrage is less intense than its Second World War counterparts because NATO artillery units are constantly changing position to avoid Pact counterbattery fire. IFVs and tanks are used in direct-fire support of attacking NATO infantry, but by the end of the day the attacks have only succeeded in overrunning the Polish outer picket line; defensive minefields block access to the main line of resistance.

The ground offensive is accompanied by the beginning of Advent Storm, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force's offensive. Advent Storm's first goal is the interruption of Pact reinforcements' flow into the battle area. In this effort they try to balance striking target-rich chokepoints against doing so much damage to the infrastructure that advancing troops will be slowed down or blocked. In this regard, Soviet troops in open terrain are the preferred (and maddeningly rare) target.

On the Kola, a scratch force of Soviet paratroops, sailors, MVD and KGB troops continue to prevent the NATO force from making rapid progress. NATO marines force Soviet defenders back along the road, advance, and then find their flank under attack from Soviet troops enjoying superior mobility. The advance is measured in meters; a successful day might see 400 meters of territory gained at the cost of a company of highly trained marines.

The carrier Lexington carries out an airstrike against the Polish cargo ship Praca in the Yucatán Channel. The Polish ship had left the Soviet enclave in Mariel, Cuba and is headed to Nicarauga to act as a raider supply ship. Lady Lex's A-4 Skyhawks sink the ship with general-purpose bombs.

The Soviet Kilo-class diesel submarine B-177 moves west to the sealane between Cyprus and Turkey. The Turkish landing ship Karamürselbey soon passes close by (returning from Cyprus with wounded and refugees from the fighting), and the Soviet submarine launches a pair of 53-61M torpedoes, which hit and break the transport's back. As it settles under the waves the ship gets a mayday call off, and soon the sky overhead is filled with helicopters rescuing sailors and passengers from the water. Other helicopters, AB-205 naval variants, begin hunting for the sub using dipping sonars. The Soviet boat maneuvers to evade its pursuers, but unwittingly sails into a Turkish defensive minefield. It sets off a MR-80 mine on the seabed and the subsequent blast is the end of the Soviet boat.

Labor unrest occurs across the USSR, in nearly every of the union republics and across the USSR's 11 time zones. MVD riot control units are supplemented by VDV airborne troops in restoring order in the cities.

The Soviet Tango-class submarine B-498 arrives off the coast of Guinea, and attacks the Greek-flag Konkar Star, carrying a load of Brazilian wheat into Conkary.

The freighter Cape Bingham exits the shipyard in Oakland, California and moves to the Oakland Army Terminal to load vehicles and equipment of the 40th Infantry Division.

The Coast Guard-sourced patrol squadron VOJ-202 is deployed to the Caribbean to continue the raider hunt.

US Civil Affairs units are made responsible for handling refugees and restoration of local administration by the Polish Free Congress in NATO Occupied Poland.

[chico20854]

April 4, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The American heavy cruiser Des Moines follows its sister Salem back into commission in Philadelphia following a similar refit. Once it completes its post-commissioning workup it will be assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

The US 23rd Infantry Division, hastily formed at Camp Zama, Japan in February from miscellaneous Army troops located in Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere in the Pacific, augmented by several aircraft loads of freshly trained recruits fresh from training bases in the United States, begins battalion-level exercises at Marine Corps facilities at Camp Fuji and in Okinawa. Equipment is mostly issued from war reserve stocks in theater, with some new equipment from the US and other shortages made up by “informal” transfers from the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force.

Convoy 214, carrying troops and equipment of the 45th Infantry Division, departs San Francisco Bay under heavy escort. The Midway carrier battle group transits 300 miles to the north, with fighter-bombers patrolling the area around the convoy and airborne radar aircraft sweeping the region. P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft sweep the convoy's route, searching for Soviet submarines and surface raiders.

NATO electronic warfare units along the front line in Poland focus their efforts on identifying and locating Pact counterbattery radars so NATO artillery and air power can concentrate on them.

The Danish Odense shipyard delivers the massive container ship Kirsten Mae, the last of a series of five 90,000-ton containerships. Each ship can carry over 6400 containers. The ship is immediately dispatched to New York to load ammunition and supplies.

NATO forces southwest of Teriberka on the Kola Peninsula are still 20 miles from the Severomorsk bomber base and 50 miles from Murmans and face continuing fierce Soviet resistance. Offshore, the invasion fleet is in need of replenishment and has been actively engaged against a stream of Soviet submarines (losing a third landing ship, the transport USS Charleston in addition to the two frigates that have been lost since the landing almost two weeks ago).

The Bundesmarine (German Navy) commissions the former Al Zahraa, an Iraqi landing ship that had been interned in Hamburg since 1990. Requisitioned at the outbreak of war, the ship required extensive shipyard work before being placed in service.

The first aircraft carrying troops of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Saudi Arabia.

Soviet commanders in Iran have their allocations of supplies and fuel cut by 25 percent as resources are diverted to the Far East to make good the losses sustained in March. Their problem is made worse by a coordinated series of airstrikes on their supply lines made by F-15Es of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing and F-16s of the 149th Tactical Fighter Group operating out of eastern Turkey. The airstrikes prove particularly devastating since they are guided in by Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group, operating with Kurdish guerrillas.

The Victor I-class submarine K-469 sinks another bulk carrier, this time the Panamanian-flag Frontier Star, only a year old, as it arrives in Guinea to load bauuxite.

[chico20854]

April 5, 1997

In western Poland, the 6th Air Assault Division is called back into action, counterattacking wherever possible.

Unofficially,

With the relatively slow initial progress of Operation Advent Crown, the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars' alert is changed from preparing for deployment to the Middle East to standing by for deployment to the Continent to reinforce BAOR.

3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) embarks for transit to Saudi Arabia by air, where they will link up with their equipment, which left by sea some weeks prior.

The Luftwaffe forms the 1st Luftjaeger Regiment. Its constituent elements are airfield defense and light anti-aircraft units assigned to the 1st Luftwaffe Division, as the Luftwaffe begins to deploy eastward, operating out of captured Soviet bases in East Germany. The regiment is tasked with defending those bases and the supply convoys that supply them.

The 209th (New York National Guard) and 227th (Florida National Guard) Field Artillery Brigades fire their first shots in anger from positions in East Germany.

The remnants of the US Berlin Brigade (concentrated as a reinforced battalion task force built around the 6th Battalion, 502nd Infantry) is attached to the Canadian 1st Division for operations in Poland.

NATO marines evacuate Teriberka following two weeks of nearly fruitless attacks on the Soviet force east of Murmansk. Intelligence indicates that the Red Banner Northern Fleet is readying a major task force, built around the Slava-class cruiser Admiral Lobov (the fleet’s last remaining capital ship) to wipe out the amphibious force. (The Admiral Lobov was leaving the shipyard in Polyarnyy after repairs from a Harpoon strike during the Battle of the Norwegian Sea.) The Allied commander in Northern Norway requests additional naval forces from SACLANT, but the remnants of Strike Fleet Atlantic are still in the Atlantic south of the GIUK Gap and days away from the Barents Sea. Two American and one British SSN in the area hunting SSBNs are diverted to counter the Soviet force, and an additional American snooper boat is lying silently at the entrance to the Kola Bay. Forced with the possible loss of the amphibious fleet and the brigades ashore, a withdrawal is ordered.

The evacuation ashore that follows is haphazard at best. The ships in Teriberka harbor load whatever troops and vehicles they can get aboard in two hours, then depart at dusk. The armored vehicles are withdrawn under cover of darkness, some via LCAC hovercraft and the lighter ones and artillery lifted by helicopters. Troops are evacuated by helicopter and tilt-rotor aircraft; some companies are ordered to break contact with the Soviets and head for isolated dispersed landing zones for pickup. The Allied engineers lay enough mines along the road to force the Soviets to advance slowly, but Soviet artillery wreaks havoc on the mass of marines awaiting withdrawal. US Marine Force Recon commandos hold the final perimeter, then slip away into the tundra, evacuated by helicopter, small boat and submarine as the landing fleet leaves the Barents.

In the Indian Ocean, the USS Independence launches Operation Manhammer - airstrikes on Soviet facilities at Socotra Island, South Yemen. Most of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron has already been dealt with, and most remaining units are at sea. The Tango-class sub B-290, however, is caught in port and sunk, and the support ships, shoreside communications facility and supply dump are all rendered useless.

The ships carrying the 1st Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia.

A high priority airlift deploys the 8 MH-60G special operations helicopters of the 55th Special Operations Squadron to Al-Udaid AB, Qatar to support USAFCENT operations as well as US Army special operations in the Middle East.

The Soviet Ministry of Transport, operating under instructions from the Politburo, orders a second round of mobilization from civilian autokollonas (truck transport organizations at local and republic level). This round (an earlier round occurred in February) turns up smaller numbers of a wide variety of older trucks in rather poor condition, accompanied by either older drivers or teenagers barely able to drive.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory, in Buenos Aries, Argentina, completes loading 10 LVPT-7s, 85 M-101 105mm howitzers, 5,700 small arms (a mix of M1 Garands, M1911 pistols, M2HB and M1917 machineguns), 250 recoilless rifles and 5,000 tons of ammunition, all of which had been loaned to Argentina under the Military Aid Program. The ship departs Argentina the next day.

[chico20854]

April 6, 1997

The ECM system on a C-5 of the 137th Military Airlift Squadron (NY Air National Guard) diverts a SA-14 missile fired at it as it takes off from Stewart ANGB, New York on resupply mission to Europe.

The vehicle carrier Ohio is activated from mothballs and enters service in New Orleans, LA, loading vehicles of the 36 ID's 32nd Infantry Brigade.

In Mobile, Alabama the Victory ship Furman enters service, loading a cargo of bagged plastic pellets for Brazil.

US Army Forces Command accepts assignments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for three engineer units to construct or improve a number of facilities around the US for possible future FEMA use.

In the North Atlantic, the Victor II-class sub K-476 sinks the American frigate Voge and the tanker Pecos as they moved across the G-I-UK Gap to resupply NATO forces in the Norwegian Sea.

The British 6th Infantry Division is notified that it has been offered to the Chinese government for use in the upcoming summer offensive, as it has effectively neutralized local pro-Soviet activity.

The Soviet destroyer Vertkiy, one of the ships that broke out of Petropavlovsk, begins to raid the Aleutians, where it has been hiding from American search aircraft. It runs amok through a small convoy carrying supplies to the garrison of Adak, sinking the Alaska state ferry Bartlett, the tug boat Sea Racer and the cargo barge she was towing and the pair's escort, the aged Coast Guard cutter Storis, the oldest ship in the Coast Guard.

US III Corps launches an assault across the Oder at Schwedt, south of Szczecin. Assault bridging units of the 411th Engineer Brigade and helicopters from all of the corps' subordinate units transport the soldiers of 1st Infantry Division's 5th Battalion, 16th Infantry and 2nd Battalion, 136th Infantry (Minnesota National Guard) across the river. By nightfall the Polish defenders (remnants of the 12th “Pomorska” Border Guard Brigade) have been pushed back 500 meters from the river and American engineers begin ferrying tanks and Bradley IFVs across.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) begins to arrive in Saudi Arabia.

The Tango-class submarine B-489 attacks another ship off the coast of Guinea, the small tanker Blue Star. The gasoline and diesel she is carrying are soon ablaze, the fire and pillar of smoke visible ashore. The sinking tanker carries with it the fuel needed to keep the country's vehicles running for over a week.

[chico20854]

April 7, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tennessee Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

Two battalions of the 42nd Infantry Division (Mechanized) (New York National Guard) are dispatched to augment New York State Police in the search for a Spetsnaz team suspected in the recent SAM attack.

Troops of the Aviation Brigade, 9th Infantry Division embark on aircraft for movement to Saudi Arabia. The 28th Infantry Divison (Pennsylvania National Guard) begins loading its heavy equipment and vehicles aboard ships in the ports of Elizabeth, New Jersey, Davisville, Rhode Island and Camden, New Jersey.

The Dutch Red Army attacks the American transport ship Banner in the Ems River as it approaches the German port of Emdem.

Peter Robinson, a local beat reporter for the Twin Cities Herald News, is killed by a Polish mortar round when reporting on "what your local Minnesota National Guard troops are doing in the war" from the Oder bridgehead.

SACLANT authorizes the release of approximately two thirds of his amphibious shipping to 6th Fleet. The Kearsarge, Bataan, Saipan, Guadalcanal and Guam Amphibious Ready Groups all converge on Gibraltar, to form Task Force 61.

The 180th Motor-Rifle Division has completed its mobilization and two weeks of hasty training (enough to begin working on company-level manuevers) and is ordered to the port of Odessa to load for transfer to the Bulgarian front.

The ships carrying the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia.

Rioting breaks out in Conkary, Guinea, as the government tries to manage the rising crisis caused by the loss of food, fuel and export earnings as unidentified submarines ravage its coast.

The Soviet raider Buliny, operating in the sealanes off Madagascar, sinks the Cypriot-flagged bulk carrier Grand View, which was carrying iron ore to Japanese mills.

[chico20854]

April 8, 1997

Nothing official for today!

After a month of training at the Shoalwater Training Area in northeastern Australia, the 28th ANZUK Brigade is ready for combat and begins deploying to South Korea aboard a trio of chartered car carriers, a pair of freighters, the naval transports Jervis Bay and Tobruk. The convoy is escorted by a task force of four frigates (two Australian and two New Zealand) and the Australian destroyer HMAS Hobart, with P-3s of Nos. 10 and 11 Squadron, RAAF clearing their path northward.

Retired Bundeswer Feldwebel Wilhelm Schoenbohm completes his design for a field expedient 90mm anti-tank gun. Dubbed the PAK-90, it mounts an obsolescent surplus 90mm gun (taken from M-48 tanks and Jadgpanzer self-propelled guns, kept in storage) on a carriage constructed of commercial truck parts and construction materials, fitted with a splinter shield that sandwiches a Kevlar blanket between two layers of mild steel. It is offered to the Bundeswehr command to outfit the newly formed jaeger divisions, composed of territorial and border guard troops who lack heavy fire support.

The bridgehead south of Szczecin is expanded by over a half mile in each direction. The entire 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division has been ferried into the pocket, with intense attack helicopter and artillery support from most of III Corps' available assets.

The limited success of the Teriberka landing prompts a strategic discussion at the highest level of NATO command. On the one hand, the naval losses suffered by the invasion fleet demonstrated that the Red Banner Northern Fleet still have the ability to damage ships in the immediate proximity of their bases. On the other, the amphibious force had been able to operate for two weeks off the Kola, and the hodgepodge nature of the Soviet opposition ashore demonstrates that Northwestern TVD is nearly out of troops to defend the Kola. Soviet air defenses had been manageable, and the dreaded Backfires had not appeared. (Intelligence notes the participation of Naval Aviation Backfires in raids over the Baltic Sea and Poland). SACLANT’s forces in the Atlantic have hunted down most of the raiders in the North Atlantic and losses in the convoy lanes have dropped dramatically, while the surviving carrier groups have rebuilt their escort forces and air wings, albeit with older models. A bold plan is hatched to eliminate the last of the Red Banner Northern Fleet and position allied forces in the far north to threaten Leningrad, in hopes of forcing the USSR to the table for peace talks.

Flights carrying troops of the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) begin arriving in Saudi Arabia. 1st Brigade clears the ports and moves northwest into the Saudi desert.

Another R-5D hypersonic spyplane sortie traverses the USSR, this time flying southward across the Baltic Republics, Byelorussia, Ukraine before turning east over Kazahkstan and the eastern portion of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Unrest continues in Guinea as the government proves completely unable to address the shortages of food and fuel.

[chico20854]

April 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

The tanker Sabine is delivered in Newport News, Virginia. It is placed into civilian service, one of the last not to be pressed into service as a naval oiler.

The Oregon State Defense Force, a state military force, completes its civil emergency planning; the 41st Regiment is responsible for evacuation assembly/transportation sites and assisting law enforcement in traffic control, the 82nd Regiment is to provide in-transit security and protect evacuation sites on the east side of the Cascades, while the 249th Regiment is responsible for protecting the state government and Camp Rilea.

The last elements of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) - the Division Artillery, Engineer Regiment, Air Defense Artillery Battalion, MP Company and MI Company - begin loading on aircraft for transit to Saudi Arabia.

German troops in the central sector have advanced less than 10 miles and losses are heavy on both sides. There is an outcry from the public and political leadership about the slow pace of the advance, but NATO commanders continue the slow, grinding advance rather than risk even higher losses.

Advent Storm shifts the focus of its deep strike aircraft to crippling the Polish war economy. The steel works in Nowa Huta, Poland are the first target for the nightly pounding from the air.

12th Air Force in Norway requests the return of the 10th TFW’s A-10s, but with Operation Advent Crown in full swing the tank killers are fully committed in Poland.

After 60 days of repairs, the fuel system on Ascension Island is returned to service after being shelled by the battlecruiser Kirov, which lit the fuel dump on fire.

In the only known submarine kill by a Tango-class submarine, the USS Billfish is sunk by the B-515 as the American sub is rushing north through the GIUK gap as the Soviet boat is preparing to snorkel following its own transit.

The Sixth Fleet is reinforced with an additional carrier, the Enterprise, bringing it up to three (USS America, USS John F. Kennedy and Enterprise).

The Soviet destroyer Vertkiy, one of the ships that broke out of Petropavlovsk, continues its raid through the Aleutians, shelling the headquarters of C Company, 3-207th Infantry, part of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Reconnaissance).

Its sister ship, the Vol'nyy, makes a dash into the South China Sea, hoping to intercept some of the tankers and freighters sustaining China's war effort and the Japanese and Korean war economies.

3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized)'s heavy equipment and vehicles arrive in Jubayl, Saudi Arabia.

The Lexington battle group intercepts the Venezuelan-flag tanker Salvador Allende en route to Cuba with a cargo of gasoline and diesel fuel. The ship refuses to heave to, so it is set ablaze by rockets fired by the carrier's T-2 Buckeyes.

[chico20854]

April 10, 1997

France deploys lead elements of its FAR to former African colonies to Mauritania and Senegal to deal with pro-Soviet guerrillas and internal rebellions that are at the point of toppling the governments of both nations.

Unofficially,

Anti-war protests on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley turn violent.

NATO forces make a landing on the eastern shore of the Oder opposite Swinoujscie, Poland. Bundeswehr artillery pounds the opposite shore while jaegers cross in small boats. An amphibious task force of the German 18th Marine Regiment and the US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade lands a few miles to the east to cut off Polish reinforcements. The fighting is intense and the town (on both sides of the mouth of the Oder) is completely destroyed in the fighting.

Advent Storm deep strike aircraft turn their attention to Lublin, Poland, striking the city's truck and tractor plants.

The Echo II-class SSGN K-35 finally rendezvous with the Soviet fishing fleet drifting in the far South Atlantic. The aged Soviet missile boat had crept south at slow speed to avoid detection. The loyal fishermen are overjoyed to see new faces; the submarine tethers to a fish factory ship while receiving minor repairs, a resupply of food (mostly frozen fish, of course!) and a partial reload of four SS-N-12 Sandbox cruise missiles.

American reconnaissance satellites locate a Soviet troop convoy in the Black Sea, departing from Odessa. Analysts predict that it is headed to the Bulgarian ports of Varna and/or Burgas.

The 41st Guards Tank Division is assigned to 6th Guards Tank Army and committed to action in northeastern Romania.

Vehicles, guns (36 M110A2 self-propelled howitzers) and heavy equipment of the 434th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) load on ships in New Orleans, Louisiana for transit to Saudi Arabia.

The Independence battle group engages elements of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron making a run for Indian ports.

North Korean commandos launch an early morning attack on 8th Army's field headquarters. MPs of the 8th Military Police Brigade and headquarters staff fight off the attackers, losing nearly 50 men and women (including Captain Jennifer Warren, a MP company commander whose sister is serving in Germany).

[chico20854]

April 11, 1997

The second module of the Freedom space station is launched into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Unofficially,

A second night of rioting occurs on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. The campus police offices and ROTC offices are burned.

Convoy 132 departs Norfolk, Virginia, heading for Europe. The convoy includes a number of ships loaded with munitions, both new from America's war industry and aged rounds scrounged from the far corners of remote and nearly forgotten depots, as the offensive in Poland consumes incredible tonnages of ammunition. The convoy commander flies his flag in the nuclear-powered missile cruiser USS Virginia, returning to sea after sustaining damage early in the war.

Advent Storm strikes the Pokoj Steel Works in Bytom, Poland.

German troops in western Poland receive a rude surprise in the area that they have captured in the prior nine days' fighting, when a 45-year old farmer hits a Bundeswehr fuel tanker travelling in the division rear area with a homemade Molotov cocktail. This is the first instance of local civilian resistance to the NATO "liberation of Poland from Russian occupation."

American, Romanian and Turkish aircraft take turns attacking the reinforcement convoy that was located in the Black Sea south of Odessa, sinking several ships and strafing others.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, with a dozen F-20 fighter-bombers, arrives in Iran. It disperses to four small airstrips in the Zagros Mountains and begins flying ground attack missions in support of embattled IPA troops.

The Independence battle group continued to scour the northern Indian Ocean for Soviet and Pact shipping.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division relieves the 3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division of the mission securing the ports of eastern Saudi Arabia.

The helicopters, vehicles and heavy equipment of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized)'s aviation brigade arrive aboard their transport ships.

The Soviet destroyer Vol'nyy intercepts the supertanker Southern Jasmine, carrying 250,000 tons of crude oil to Japan, in the South China Sea. The raider rakes the tanker with gunfire, setting the accomodation block ablaze, but the ship's 130mm guns are insufficient to sink the massive tanker outright. After blasting away for 15 minutes, the electronic warfare officer reports that the tanker was successful in radioing a SOS, and the raider beats a hasty retreat before Allied aircraft arrive.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534 enters the Persian Gulf, transiting under a supertanker to avoid detection.

The Venezuelan tanker Salvador Allende sinks after being struck by aircraft from the USS Lexington two days ago.