On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[cawest]

one of the things that might happen is a throwback to the ACW. Officers will be offered the idea that they buy their own sidearms as long as it is a the "right" set of calibers. maybe after it does so well that senior NCOs will get the same offer. there are a lot of small shops that can make AR platforms or 1911 clones and the like.

[chico20854]

May 20, 1997

Today is the original jump-off date for Operation Rampart, Third German Army's offensive to capture Opole and Czestochowa. Heavy spring rains force a delay.

Unofficially,

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

The lieutentant and about half of the privates arrested at the "5th Squad" gathering over the weekend are released from jail at Fort Lee, Virginia.

Poor weather over much of the Korean Peninsula results in most Allied airstrikes being called off; the F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing, however, score a coup when they catch a train carrying hundreds of tons of munitions from the USSR rushing south between Wonsan and Hamhung; the bombers not only take out the train but the secondary explosions destroy the railbed in the rugged mountains, taking the rail line out of commission for months.

In central Poland, First German Army’s advanced slows. Its rear areas are in disarray, from both Pact attacks on its supply lines and damage to the infrastructure needed to support the offensive. Parties of engineers struggle to repair damaged bridges, roads and railroad lines and develop new depots, supply dumps, helipads, headquarters and expeditionary airfields. The deployment of additional rear area security troops only adds to the logistical difficulties. The First German Army commander, General Helmut Diedrichs, also faces a strategic choice - whether to continue driving east for Warsaw, whose defenses are relatively rudimentary, or whether to attack northeast towards Bydgoszcz and the lower Wisła River valley, where the Soviet Reserve Front is still relatively intact and growing stronger every day as it absorbs both replacements from the USSR and stragglers from other Soviet units fleeing the NATO onslaught. Such a drive would also decrease the pressure on Second German Army’s flank, allowing the two formations to reinforce each others’ efforts.

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) is declared ready for combat and is assigned to XI Corps.

Saami partisans, accompanied by Green Berets, launch their most audacious and successful attack, on the airfield located on the outskirts of their home village of Lovozero. The mortar and rocket attack on the base destroys six airplanes and three helicopters.

A portion of SACLANT’s growing sea power in the Norwegian Sea is used to escort a large supply convoy to Kirkenes and Liinakhamari on the Kola. The arrival of that convoy improves the logistical situation of Allied forces on Soviet territory, although it takes weeks to unload all the ships, even using all available small craft as lighters. The convoy effort is part of an effort by SACLANT to draw elements of the Red Banner Northern Fleet out into battle, where they can be overwhelmed by superior NATO numbers and firepower and defeated in detail.

XVIII Airborne Corps resumes its slow-paced, limited advance in Iran, pushing back the remnants of the Soviet airborne and Tudeh force in Khuzestan and establishing firm links to Iranian forces.

In a 1 am raid, KGB Alfa group commandos attack the Leningrad SAS safe house. They are too late, the British having exfiltrated to neutral Finland immediately following the attack on the power facility. The KGB team takes two casualties from booby traps ("anti-handling devices") left behind by the British.

Headquarters, USAF Tactical Air Command, directs that the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) reduce its allocation of A-7D aircraft from 24 to 16. (While authorized 24, it has only 22 present following the loss of an airframe in the Rumble in the Jungle and a crash during a training flight in March).

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by cawest

one of the things that might happen is a throwback to the ACW. Officers will be offered the idea that they buy their own sidearms as long as it is a the "right" set of calibers. maybe after it does so well that senior NCOs will get the same offer. there are a lot of small shops that can make AR platforms or 1911 clones and the like.

I think it would, at most, be on a limited basis. The main reason I say so would be ammunition/magazine compatability and spare part/maintenance availability - the weapon needs to be able to function as part of a unit that has standardized on the issue weapon. From what I have read, generals provided their own sidearms until 1943, when the Army started issuing "special" upgraded pistols to generals; upon retirement they are presented the opportunity to purchase the gun from the Army.

From personal experience, I wouldn't say never, because there are enough units, especially in the reserve components, where some rules receive "variable enforcement", that higher-ups look the other way.

The Army also had a pretty good stockpile of M1911s in Anniston, Albama following the fielding of the M9. In the mid-90s there were over 100,000 M1911s in storage, which makes the Charter Arms Bulldog purchase (on May 8th above, pulled from the v1 Small Arms Guide) a little redundant, except perhaps the Air Force felt that the Army wasn't forthcoming enough with the 1911s.

[cawest]

Originally Posted by chico20854

I think it would, at most, be on a limited basis. The main reason I say so would be ammunition/magazine compatability and spare part/maintenance availability - the weapon needs to be able to function as part of a unit that has standardized on the issue weapon. From what I have read, generals provided their own sidearms until 1943, when the Army started issuing "special" upgraded pistols to generals; upon retirement they are presented the opportunity to purchase the gun from the Army.

From personal experience, I wouldn't say never, because there are enough units, especially in the reserve components, where some rules receive "variable enforcement", that higher-ups look the other way.

The Army also had a pretty good stockpile of M1911s in Anniston, Albama following the fielding of the M9. In the mid-90s there were over 100,000 M1911s in storage, which makes the Charter Arms Bulldog purchase (on May 8th above, pulled from the v1 Small Arms Guide) a little redundant, except perhaps the Air Force felt that the Army wasn't forthcoming enough with the 1911s.

When we sent units into OEF, units bought sigs, and some other brands. to issue sidearms to more than just officers because there were not enough M9s. also SOCOM can and does buy a crazy amount of different weapons for the groups to use. its your time line, if this does not work for you... that is cool. i am still enjoying your work

[Homer]

Nice touch with MREs becoming controlled. I always thought the (relatively) easy availability of MREs or similar rations was a headscratcher in the equipment list given their manufacturing requirements, ease of use, and demand. Post-TDM they’d likely not be able to be produced. I can almost imagine MREs being signed for from a issue point and subsequently turned in if not used. Maybe there’s a cottage industry reboxing loose meals into cases for ease of storage and transport (Eventually there’d be cases with nothing but Ham Omelette!). Probably any similar rations captured or “acquired” would be similarly managed.

I wonder if there’d be an attempt to produce a “c-ration like” meal pre-tdm using commercial canned goods for use by low priority, mech, or rear echelon units. I guess they could just eat more T-rations, UGR-As, etc, but I’m looking at an individual meal for when unit feeding is impractical (offensive operations, NBC, or dispersed operations). Post-TDM, this may transition to a cottage industry producing preserved food such as dried meat, dried fruit, and hardtack for local patrolling and operations with the remaining canned goods and MREs held for high priority units or offensive operations. Maybe an early harbinger of Operation Ancient Mariner was the release of MRE and canned rations to 3d German Army from depot storage?

A friend of mine in a theater level unit attached to V Corps during OIF I related to me that they were on straight MREs from just before they jumped off until late June because the logistics chain hadn’t been able to bring even T-rations forward due to priorities on fuel, ammo, supporting additional forces flowing in, and water.

[chico20854]

May 21, 1997

Polish intelligence receives word of Operation Rampart from a German deserter. Colonel Tomasz Piotrowski, Commander of the Polish 6th Air Assault Division, radios 1st Polish Tank Army HQ at Lublin for reinforcements, Piotrowski is told there aren't any to be sent. Undaunted, he then contacts the 4th Czechoslovak Army HQ. Defenses of Czestochowa consist of three ORMO battalions and a battalion of 30 obsolescent T-55s manned by military cadets.

Unofficially,

A quick survey of CONUS Army bases reveal that members of "5th Squad" are stationed at nearly every post. Few bases host more than 3 members, and none of the bases report any known criminal activity related to the group.

The first truck-mounted SS-23 guidance radar jammer is deployed at Bitburg Air Base, Germany.

The undamaged condition of Poznań’s old city leads the government in exile to choose the town as its temporary seat of government.

At a unit formation, Polish Free Congress president Lech Walesa addresses the troops of the 10th Border Guard Brigade. The troops are welcomed and the unit renamed the 1st Polish Free Legion, and Walesa offers to release any troops that do not wish to fight for a free Poland. About 30 percent accept the offer, but are dismayed to discover that there are American MPs of the 42nd MP Group waiting nearby to take them into custody as prisoners of war.

Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) demands the arrest of the Poznań garrison commander’s family; the Polish Ministry of Defense refuses, judging that it is preferable for the historic old city to be left intact and occupied by a government of Poles than to be destroyed in a pointless battle of annihilation that would result in tens of thousands of Polish deaths.

The 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) is declared combat ready in Germany. It is rushed into Poland to support the advance.

The growing NATO force on the Norwegian-Finnish border is kept supplied by convoys of civilian trucks, requisitioned by the government and largely driven by Pakistanis and Somalis. The American 10th Light Infantry Division detaches its light mechanized battalion and ground cavalry troops’ LAV-25s, HMMWV gun trucks and Fast Attack Vehicles to escort the convoys.

The Soviets reveal a new weapon in the skies over the North Atlantic, with the appearance of the Tu-22M2DP, an older-model Backfire bomber that has been modified into a long-range interceptor. The "new" aircraft mounts the long-range radar and missile system of the MiG-31 interceptor, while the aircraft's bombing equipment has been removed, replaced with additional fuel tankage, giving it enough range to wander over the airlanes over and south of the GIUK Gap. The fighter's first kill is a trio of C-5 transports from the 439th Military Airlift Wing and a World Airlines 767 carrying replacements to Germany.

The Sierra II-class attack sub K-336 returns to the Kola Peninsula after its long patrol in the Atlantic. It berths in the remote port of Gremikha, 350 km east of Murmansk, to avoid capture by NATO ground troops.

In the skies over Korea, 7th Air Force launches another major raid on Pyongyang, striking targets that the North Koreans had repaired or that were missed in earlier raids. The strike manages to knock out the city's largest coal-fired power plant, making electrical service even more infrequent.

The final detachments of the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) arrive in Iran from Saudi Arabia. Two combat engineer battalions (the 27th and 5th) are detached to the 9th and 24th Infantry Divisions, respectively, to support their organic engineer regiments, while the remaining battalions begin constructing infrastructure to support Third Army’s concept of holding a strip of territory along the shore of the Persian Gulf, forcing the Soviets to fight in the Zagros Mountains. Several heliports are constructed for the 101st Air Assault Division and the 6th ACCB, supply dumps established and fortified and the road network along the coast and into the mountains is improved to support the additional traffic generated by XVIII Airborne Corps.

The 82nd Airborne Division completes its withdrawal from Iran, returning to Saudi Arabia to absorb reinforcements and reconstitute.

The USS Independence strikes Chah Bahar, disrupting the Soviet paratroopers there.

Further south in the Indian Ocean, the Diego Garcia base is working to put itself back together after the cruise missile attacks. SEEBEEs are en route to repair the damage, while the base's P-3s launch a frantic search for the Soviet vessels that launched the attack.

The Soviet raiding force, having expended their missiles, have looped south and east. They are en route to meet up with some Soviet fishing vessels for fuel for the Buliny before making way to Vietnam for a resupply.

The Politburo grants permission for the General Staff to direct local military commissions to initiate another round of mobilization to support troop levels at the front. Each republic, region and locality is given a number of reservists to provide within 15 days; it is up to local officials to determine who is chosen. In larger cities the call-up is based on age and civilian employment; in the regions and countryside, especially in the villages and collective farms, it is decided by favoritism and bribery.

The call-up also extends to the large population of the incarcerated. The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior meet to establish criteria for selecting prisoners from the MVD's massive labor camp system for "parole at the front".

[pmulcahy11b]

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

Chewbarka loves that there is an Airborne unit named for him.

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

I was lucky enough to have one of the 6th's (at that time a brigade) companies guarding the base I was stationed on in Bosnia. Wonderful guys, their NCOs were tough as nails and great friends. Many of the professional troops had years of experience on UN peacekeeping missions dating back to the 80s.

I'm using GDW's larger orbat for the 6th for this timeline, it reduces the effort I need to expend in re-writing the Battle of Czestochowa and I would justify it by saying that they called up recently discharged vets to beef up the force structure!