On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by ToughOmbres

Do you think by now in the conflict Portugal's Mechanized Brigade which was IRL earmarked for NATO would have entered combat or been retained in Portugal?

Canon doesn't mention Portugal at all... I believe that the NATO-committed mechanized brigade was slotted for service in Northeastern Italy. With Italy out of NATO that mission goes away. It should probably be considered for employment in Turkey. I hadn't really concentrated on it, so thank you, I'll see if I can write it in soon!

The Portugese airborne and marines will make an appearance soon, though, I believe! Stay tuned!

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Homer

True, if CWC implementation was followed through, the weapons would be at Johnston Atoll, PB arsenal or elsewhere for destruction. Not sure if the CWC process went down the same way in T2K- could easily see it not happening.

That said, my question was more related to the 55th SRW dispersing earlier than the remainder of the strategic force. Its assets have a pre and post attack C2 and targeting role. I was curious about the the trigger for their dispersal considering it happened in CONUS in advance of the initiation of nuclear warfare and separate of other assets dispersing. Since pact CW use did not trigger a US/NATO nuclear response I wondered if it increased the readiness posture of US strategic forces or if the dispersal was just coincidence.

I have the CWC fall to the wayside when the Soviets suppress the liberalization in Eastern Europe in 1989, so the US plows ahead with development and fielding of the Bigeye chemical bombs and binary chemical rounds, as well as retention of older 1950s-era capability. The mustard gas attack mentioned a few days ago was with older chemical weapons, mustard gas from the 1950s, chosen because it is more persistent than the nerve gas in the modern rounds.

The 55th SRW dispersal was just a forward-looking commander "taking initiative".

[Homer]

Cool- thanks.

So, Steel Box/Golden Python didn’t happen. That means there’s a good quantity of air and artillery delivered agent out there. As I recall Clausen and Miesiau kept the bulk of US chemical rounds in USAREUR. Like nuclear, they were available for “sharing” with allied partners as circumstances required.

[bash]

I just started following this thread again. It's so well done!

[ToughOmbres]

I believe that's correct-the mechanized brigade from Portugal was earmarked for Italy RL/our time line. The Brigade's area of assignment/responsibility is a bit fuzzy now-been a long time.

Regardless the 25 Years ago thread is excellent and always look forward to future installments!

[chico20854]

July 29, 1997

The American forces in Iran are quick to recover. The commander of the US I MEF, Lt. General Samuel A. MacLean, assumes command of CENTCOM while the commander of the US XVIII Airborne Corps, Lt. General Edward Carabello, takes over the US 3rd Army. The first step MacLean takes is to order a withdrawal to the Gulf Coast. The 3rd Army begins moving out of their forward positions even as the Soviets attack. Most units withdraw in good order under the protection of the 6th ACCB and elements of the US 9th Air Force.

Unofficially,

The Victory ship Pan American Victory and cargo ship Nancy Lykes are reactivated in Oakland, California and begin loading cargo for the CENTCOM AOR.

In Alaska, the remainder of X Corps, facing 25th Corps along the Yukon River east of Nome, is ordered to undertake a fighting withdrawal eastward, evacuating to the Fort Wainwright-Fairbanks area.

In southern China the Soviet 28th Army consolidates its hold on the city of Nanning. Their Vietnamese allies encourage them to continue their advance, especially as Chinese resistance has faded away, but the Soviet commander is reluctant, concerned about his ability to protect his supply lines, which themselves are fragile, support from home virtually non-existent due to Allied naval activity.

South Korean artillery and tank units in Pyongyang concentrate their fire on the unfinished Ryugyong Hotel, which looms 105 stories over the city and provides innumerable observation points for the fanatical defenders.

To the north, advance patrols of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) link up with the lead elements of the Chinese 45th Airborne Division. I Corps turns its axis of advance eastward to clear the mountainous center of the country and link up with Allied forces operating along the east coast of the peninsula.

The Soviet attack outside Brest is slowed by German artillery fire that drops DPICM, FASCAM and chemical rounds on the lead tank regiments. Behind the Soviet lines, a German Fernspäher long-range reconnaissance patrol frantically searches the Soviet rear area for targets for a tactical nuclear round.

Soviet EW forces jam NATO's JSTARS airborne radar, blinding the vital targeting asset. NATO air forces need over four hours to sortie Dutch F-16s with ARMs to attack the jammers; once they leave the area the jamming resumes. After dark falls NATO ELINT assets locate the jammers and MLRS rockets are fired at them, blanketing the area around them with submunitions.

The fighting in Bavaria slows as the Italian forces consolidate their holdings, reposition units and replenish supplies. Opposite them NATO forces try to reorganize a coherent defense line as additional troops arrive.

A change of government occurs in Portugal. The prior government, which had followed a policy of neutrality despite its NATO obligations, is replaced with a right-wing one that offers Portugal's expeditionary forces (marines, airborne troops and a mechanized brigade which had been tasked to northeastern Italy) for employment in the Mediterranean. The change in government is trumpeted by Soviet propaganda as a military coup in the Iberian nation, highlighting that the new Prime Minister is a former Army captain.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian Trapani Birgi AFB in Sicily. The remainder of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys to Moron AB, Spain from RAF Lakenheath and commences flying strike missions against targets in Sardinia, Sicily and southern Italy.

Commanders of the Jugoslav 5th Army issue desperate calls to Beograd for additional troops, ammunition, armored vehicles and air support to help counter the Italian offensive. The only air support that is forthcoming is a dozen sorties from the Americans of the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania National Guard), who are able to silence the Italian's MLRS force with liberal application of cluster munitions. The Jugoslav Army, facing Pact troops on all sides and exhausted by months of war in Romania, has nothing to spare.

The Soviet drive outside Kars, Turkey is stalled when the Turkish IX Corps command orders the mobile portion of the 14th Mechanized Brigade (a battalion of infantry in M59 APCs, a tank battalion in M-47 tanks and a self-propelled artillery battalion with M52T self-propelled 155mm howitzers) to halt the Soviet attack and drive 42nd Corps back across the border in preparation for a Turkish assault on the border city of Leninkan. The plan is a fantasy, but the loyal Turkish brigade commander faithfully orders his brigade forward. The counterattack is a debacle as the Soviet artillery commander masses over 150 guns and howitzers on the Turkish formation as it advances over open ground in broad daylight. The survivors of the artillery attack then run into the 42nd Motor-Rifle Division’s 392nd Tank Regiment, whose T-62s are superior to the aged American tanks. By sundown the brigade is destroyed, its survivors absorbed by the 9th Infantry Division, which is rushing to the Kars region.

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by ToughOmbres

I believe that's correct-the mechanized brigade from Portugal was earmarked for Italy RL/our time line. The Brigade's area of assignment/responsibility is a bit fuzzy now-been a long time.

Regardless the 25 Years ago thread is excellent and always look forward to future installments!

I just started following this thread again. It's so well done!

Glad folks are enjoying this!!!

[chico20854]

July 30, 1997

The Soviet 1st Tank Division begins redeployment from China to Poland.

Unofficially,

Seeing the potential to destabilize the situation, Carl Hughes, leader of the shadowy New America extremist group, authorizes the infiltration of several of the civilian militias on the Mexican border by members of his organization.

The Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-35 departs the Pavlovsk Bay submarine base outside Vladivostok for its next patrol.

Patrols from IX US Corps, driving northeast through central North Korea, establish direct radio contact with South Korean troops of the II Corps in their positions to the east.

The Soviet 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts have fully committed their reserve formations and are advancing on a broad front from Mongolia to the Yalu. Chinese resistance is met almost immediately with tactical nuclear firepower, and individual regiments and divisions, acting with uncharacteristic initiative, launch themselves southward, advancing headlong regardless of lines of communication to their rear.

On the edge of the Arctic icepack northwest of Spitsbergen, the American attack submarine USS Olympia locates the Soviet Delta II-class SSBN K-92 and sinks her with two Mk. 48 torpedoes.

American logisitcs units in western Germany begin mass issues of the last rounds remaining in the vast ammunition depots that had been built up in prewar years - chemical munitions of a dizzying variety - artillery shells, aerial bombs, even landmines. The chemical weapons are distributed to a wide variety of American and NATO commands.

The German I Korps and XII Korps pause their attack on the large Pact pocket around the city of Torun as supplies of fuel and ammunition are cut to support higher priority units elsewhere.

The Soviet counterattack at Brest continues, with German forces pushed back another 5 km under intense (conventional) artillery attack. The only nuclear weapon use is against the Soviet 325th Tank Regiment, part of the 30th Guards Tank Division, whose regimental commander (an elderly colonel recalled from retirement after the regiment's prior commander was killed by a Romanian partisan as the division was en route to Byelorussia) was tricked by German radio-intelligence units to first transmit in the clear and then to relay his location to the Germans (who were impersonating his lost engineer company commander).

British II Corps makes another attempt to cross the Narew River, this time north of Grodno, against weak Soviet resistance (mostly the mobilization-only 249th Motor-Rifle Division and MVD internal troops), but the lack of adequate bridging equipment dooms the attempt.

Italian forces in Bavaria continue their pause as additional supply convoys wind their way through the Alps. Overhead the air battles diminish in intensity as some of the remaining Italian interceptors are diverted south and east to deal with NATO air attacks on Sicily and Jugoslav air attacks.

The 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron's F-111Fs strike Palermo Air Force Base and Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily.

The Italian assault in Slovenia rolls on as the overextended and poorly trained, equipped and motivated Jugoslav troops of the 5th Army begin to surrender en masse.

In eastern Turkey the 9th Infantry Division arrives in the valley to the east of Kars throughout the day; behind a screen established by the division's armored cavalry battalion the division is able to deploy its first two regiments (the 9th and 28th) in battle positions as the division artillery digs its guns in.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan attack the home of the city's water authority (striking it with three RPG-7 rounds, setting it afire), following his decision to divert scarce resources from the city's population to supporting the Soviet military.

The Soviet 40th Army, driven into the desert east of Yadz, returns with a vengance. While the 5th Guards Motor-Rifle Division attacks the Marine lines (and artillery tries to disrupt the flow of reserves to the threatened sector), the 201st Motor-Rifle Division sweeps south and west in a drive to cut the American supply lines. The 108th Motor-Rifle Division sends a two-regiment operational maneuver group west, into the no mans land between Yadz and Esfahan to block Allied reinforcements from that direction.

Despite the intervention of American Skyfox light attack aircraft earlier in the week, the town of Ábrego, Colombia falls to the communist force that has been attacking it for weeks.

[chico20854]

July 31, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion holds the approaches to Augsburg against a determined assault by the Italian Folgore Airborne Brigade. Although nearly wiped out, the 104th succeeds in preventing the Italian paratroopers from seizing several vital road junctions.

Unofficially,

The 9th Airborne Command and Control Squadron deploys some of its "Blue Eagle" airborne command post aircraft (a mix of EC-135 and E-6s) to its dispersal field at Kona International Airport, Hawaii.

The freighter Galveston Bay and troop ship General Patrick are activated in Oakland, California. Galveston Bay moves to Concord NWS to load ammunition, while the General Patrick moves to Tacoma, Washington to load troops for movement to Alaska.

Two US Army aviation contractors deliver in time to meet the end-of-month goals called for in their contracts. First, the Erickson Air Crane company delivers its first all-new CH-54B Tarhe, the fourth of the type to be accepted by the Army since 1972 (three others have been provided to the Alaska National Guard earlier in the year, assembled from spares the company had on hand at its Oregon facility). Second, two contract flight schools graduate their first classes that have trained on Robinson R44 light helicopters, rather than Army-owned and operated TH-57s.

The attack submarine USS Topeka, lurking off the Soviet coast near Vladivostok, detects the Echo II-class submarine K-35. After two hours of tracking, it attacks the old Soviet boat with three Mk-48 torpedoes and sinks it, ending the Soviet boat's long career attacking NATO targets around the world. (Its tally is two warships, seven tankers and freighters, 150 trucks and several aircraft destroyed in cruise missile attacks on Diego Garcia and Ningbo, China).

The USS Olympia is pursued by a pair of Soviet Tu-142 Bear-F ASW aircraft operating out of northern Russia after it sank a Soviet SSBN the prior day. It is able to escape by going deep and slow.

7th Tank Army's attack at Brest continues to gain steam as the 30th Guards Tank Division's spot in the line is replaced by the 47th (my 37th Guards) Tank Division. In the Army's rear area, survivors of the 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division are transferred to the 30th Guards Tank, making up many of the losses it suffered in yesterday's tactical nuclear attack.

In the Baltic, Danish and American minesweeping forces complete clearing a safe zone around the hulk of the battleship Iowa.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike Comiso AFB, Sicily.

The Italian fleet sorties to drive 6th Fleet back from the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The movement is reported to US Naval Intelligence before the first ship weighs anchor (by a Christian Democrat officer apalled by Italy's socialist and communist-dominated goverment and its war against its longstanding NATO allies). The American carriers America and John F Kennedy are alerted, and the Italian fleet is met by a hail of missiles and bombs when it reaches open water beyond the range of land-based anti-aircraft missiles. The Italian carrier Garibaldi is hit by seven Harpoons and breaks its back, and seven other combatants are sunk or damaged before the fleet turns back to port.

The 42nd Motor-Rifle Division's assault on Kars, Turkey is reinforced by the arrival of the 19th Motor-Rifle Divison from the north, having blasted its way through the mountain passes from Georgia. The 19th faces the Turkish 9th Division's third regiment (the 17th), which offers fierce resistance to the advancing Soviets.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory begins its voyage back to US as part of Convoy 418.

In Iran, I MEF directs the full weight of 1st and 4th Marine Air Wings to disrupt 40th Army's counterattack on the 1st Marine Division at Yadz. Meanwhile, 4th Marine Division consolidates its positions in Kerman, protecting the east flank of the Allied advance and forcing support to the isolated airborne garrison at Chah Bahar onto a remote and lonely road far to the east, nearly touching the Pakistani border. The paras are subjected to harassment attacks by airstrikes from the USS Independence, preventing them from building up stocks to sustain them should the road be blocked.

To the north, the last elements of the 101st Air Assault Division abandon the Shia holy city of Qom as XVIII Airborne Corps withdraws to more defensible positions. The Iranian secret service, however, uses the brief Allied occupation of the city as an opportunity to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents and establish hidden supply caches.

[chico20854]

August 1, 1997

The last overland supply route between Yadz and Bandar Abbas is cut by attacking Soviet troops from the 40th Army, isolating 1st Marine Division.

The US 2nd Infantry Division relieves the surrounded airhead of the 2nd (my 44th) Chinese Parachute Division.

Another tank division, the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards), begins movement from the front as it is ordered to be transferred from the Chinese front to Europe.

(unofficially) The Soviets launch a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Almost immediately after launch it disgorged six Strela-3 secure communications satellites (used by the GRU to keep in touch with their agents and attaches around the world). NORAD, however, on high alert, is initially unable to distinguish between the satellites and Soviet nuclear weapons and sends out a flash nuclear alert. (officially) NATO governments spring into action, with President John Tanner ordering Vice President Julia Pemberton to board the NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) aircraft while he remains in Washington (taking shelter in the facility under the east wing of the White House). President Tanner refuses to leave Washington during this crisis. He says, in an informal remark to an aide, "I can't tell Americans to stand firm and stay calm if I'm hiding in a cave in the Smoky Mountains. If there's an inbound missile, I'll jump on a helicopter, but not one second before." Mrs. Tanner also refuses to leave Washington, but insists that their two children leave school and go to the family ranch in Wyoming.

Unofficially,

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

The American attack submarine Topeka is hounded by Soviet coastal forces and anti-submarine aircraft following its sinking of the Echo II-class boat K-35 the prior day. Defenders detect the breakup of the Soviet boat and send the corvette MPK-64 to investigate. The Soviet boat gets a return on the submarine and calls for more support; a Be-12 amphibian of the 289th Independent Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment is the first to arrive. Soon the sky overhead is a hive of activity, with helicopters, flying boats and an Il-38 patrol plane all joining the hunt. Numerous torpedoes are dropped, all of which the American boat evades, but it is driven towards the corvette, which launches a volley from its anti-submarine mortars. One of the rounds strikes seconds after the American boat fires a volley of Mk 48 torpedoes at the Soviet ship. The 43-pound warhead punches a hole through the sub's conning tower (it struck at an angle), saving the hull from a major penetration, while the corvette turns at high speed to try to outrun the torpedoes. As the ship hits 32 knots it strikes a mine which had broke loose during the explosions and disruptions in the water over the prior hours, sinking MPK-64. The Topeka goes deep and slips away at 5 knots, trying to remain as quiet as possible with the damaged sail.

The front line in Ukraine and Poland is largely static, as both sides try to husband resources in a manner to prevent creation of a suitable nuclear target.

The Soviet high command brings forward the 26th and 28th Railway Brigades to repair the railyard in Kovel, Ukraine that had been struck by an American ATACMS-N missile on July 28th. The railroad troops provide the expertise and heavy equipment to repair the damage (which was relatively light, since the American missile had a W70-3 "nuetron bomb", which was optimized to create a massive blast of man-killing radiation but inflict little physical damage). Raw manpower was provided by a levy of over 1500 NATO POWs which were gathered from MVD prison camps from throughout Ukraine and Minsk, guarded by contingents from the 18th Convoy Brigade and 345th Convoy Regiment.

photo
Operation Carthaginian - the Allied invasion of Sicily and Sardinia - begins at dawn. The US 173rd Airborne Brigade and Canadian Parachute Regiment are dropped outside Messina, Sicily while the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade land at Marsala. The Iberian Airborne Brigade Group is dropped on the Caligari airfield, Sardinia and Portuguese marines land at Alghero. Air support is provided by the carriers America and John F Kennedy as well as fighters from the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing and Spanish Escuadron 121 and Escuadron 122 of Ala de Caza 12 at Torrejon de Ardoz, all supported by over a dozen KC-10 and KC-135 tankers.

Back in Portugal, the 1st Independent Composite Brigade begins the process of preparing for deployment. Additional conscripts are transferred in, and units from elsewhere in the Army are stripped of trucks, radios and other equipment needed to bring the brigade up to full strength.

Organized Jugoslav resistance on the Italian front has effectively ceased, with only isolated Army units offering resistance while the mass of the Jugoslav force either flees or surrenders.

In eastern Turkey, Third Army is forced to divide its attention when Soviet forces launch an amphibious attack on the Black Sea coast, cutting the coastal road between the port city (and naval base) of Rize and the border. The landing is bloody but successful as the Turkish defenders pound the invasion force with heavy fire from a wide variety of obsolescent guns and artillery pieces, sinking the escorting corvettes MPK-68 and SKR-30.

42nd Corps pauses for resupply and to allow better preparation for an attack on the Turkish defense around Kars, a defense that has been reinforced by the remnants of the 49th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which has reformed after being driven back from the border by the 19th MRD.

The reclusive Albanian regime begins a full mobilization of its military, which is heavily reliant on reservists. With few foreign diplomats in Tirana, and even fewer foreigners elsewhere in the country, the thinking behind the regime's decision is unknown. High officials refuse to acknowledge the development, let alone offer an explanation.

[chico20854]

August 2, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion is withdrawn to Holland for reconstruction as the defense of the Augsburg area is strengthened with the arrival of additional British units of I British Corps.

Under pressure from the Soviet 7th Army and with Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division active to its rear, the 24th Infantry Division abandons Ahvaz, which it had captured but days before.

The commander of the 10th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, Major General V.B. Dovator, is killed in an American artillery attack while he is inspecting a forward position. His deputy commander, Konstantin P. Yermolayev, assumes command.

Although the Pembertons are divorced, the Vice President arranges for her daughter to take an extended hiking trip in the Cascades with her father. When it becomes obvious that a nuclear attack is not imminent, America's readiness level is downgraded, and conditions return more or less to normal. Vice President Pemberton objects to what she calls the "women and children first mentality" which had put her on the NEACP aircraft, and insists that she and the President trade off each time there is a crisis. The next time Tanner will board NEACP and Pemberton will stay in Washington until the last minute.

The population of patients suffering from PTSD at the Bay Pines, Florida VA hospital peaks at over 9,000.

Unofficially,

Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-27554-9, located at the US Department of Agriculture Sheep Research Center in Dubois, Idaho, is fully stocked with the arrival of the final shipment - ten brand-new M1081 LMTV trucks, loaded with MREs. The trucks are refueled and the entrance to the underground garage facility is concreted over.

The Italians resume their attacks in Bavaria, driving north from the northern suburbs of Munich towards Regensburg to link up with Czech troops and attacking across the Iller River, pushing back the exhausted troops of the US 10th Mountain Division.

On Sicily, the Canadian Airborne seizes the Messina municipal airfield, and a stream of C-130 and C-17 aircraft begins airlifting in the Espana Airmobile Brigade.

The Soviet 42nd Corps launches its attack on the Turkish IX Corps outside of Kars. Taking advantage of its superior training and equipment, the Soviet force masses 250 guns and howitzers, delivering a massive 45-minute barrage that tears great gaps in the Turkish defensive positions. The feeble counterbattery fire from the dug-in Turkish artillery is met with a devastating response (from two entire battalions of self-propelled 152mm howitzers guided by counterbattery radar). The final half dozen rounds fired by each Soviet gun before the assault commences are loaded with Soman nerve gas, blanketing the Turkish positions in deadly clouds. The subsequent Soviet assault is successful, running through the shattered and choking remnants of the 9th Infantry Division; by nightfall the Turkish commanding general is being interrogated by the 42nd Corps GRU detachment. Along the Black Sea Coast, Turkish troops battle the Soviet 156th Motor-Rifle Division for control of the town of Rize. The battle in the town has started innumerable fires and sends much of the civilian population fleeing.

In Cherbakul (in the Urals), the 257th Motor-Rifle Division, which was activated in June from the students and some of the cadre of the 78th Training Motor-Rifle Division, completes its training and embarks on trains for transit to the front in the west. The unit needs less than the normal amount of rail capacity, since it has only four battalions of tanks (old T-55s) and three battalion of APCs (early model, open-top BTR-60s).

[chico20854]

August 3, 1997

As in late 1950, the stunning success of the Allied summer offensive ultimately leads to disaster. The Soviet STAVKA, its armed forces hard pressed in Europe and struggling to maintain control of Manchuria, decides to take drastic countermeasures in order to neutralize this new threat to its conquests in China. As in late 1950, the Allies are taken by surprise by the direct, overwhelming intervention of a third power. Rushed to the Yalu, the newly-formed Soviet Yalu Front (consisting of the 30th and 35th Soviet Armies) crashes into the long, exposed right flank of 8th Army.

Unofficially,

The troop transport General Patrick loads 3000 replacement troops from Fort Lewis for movement to Alaska, sailing unescorted.

The first levy of American athletes - both collegiate and professional - report to basic training sites around the US following the June policy change which eliminated deferments for top-tier athletes. For many, it is shocking development and underscores just how bad the manpower pinch has become.

A disagreement mars the daily Joint Chiefs morning meeting, when the Army Chief of Staff and Commandant of the Marine Corps, reflecting on the latest manpower figures (losses, accessions and the allocation of drafted personnel), note that the Navy and Air Force have lost considerable numbers of weapons systems (ships and aircraft) and are decreasing in combat power yet continue to receive draftees as if they were still a much larger force, as well as retaining tens of thousands of excess personnel to crew and support ships and weapons that no longer exist and that American industry is unable to replace. The ground combat commanders, whose forces are taking heavy losses from Kaliningrad to Korea, see their manpower strength drop while the Navy and Air Force have excess service members. Chairman Cummings is able to tamp down the argument that follows, decreeing that the matter is to be decided by the Secretary of Defense.

Colonel Tumanski, his Spetsnaz team reduced to four men, receives word from Moscow Center that he is to concentrate his efforts on identifying targets that other teams (or systems) can hit.

Czech, Soviet and Italian troops link up north of Munich, cutting off the narrow corridor that was still open between Austria and Germany. Taking advantage of the transfer of NATO troops south to halt the Italians, the Czechoslovakian 2nd Motor-Rifle Division resumes its advance, capturing Nuremburg.

After several days of preparatory work, the hulk of the USS Iowa is taken under tow by a trio of tugs - two civilian oilfield support boats and the US Navy salvage tug Edenton.

All Italian resistance in Sardinia has ended. The San Marco marine regiment, rushed south from the Trieste battlefront, attempts an amphibious crossing of the Straits of Massina at night. The Italian Marines are decimated by the American paratroopers who are prepared for that eventuality.

photo
To the north of Sicily, a battle erupts as Patrol Hydrofoil Squadron Two, with the six Pegasus-class missile boats, intercepts a Italian surface squadron dispatched from Naples to interdict the NATO transport fleet. While awaiting support from fighter-bombers from the USS America (operating to the south of the island), the hydrofoils accelerate to 48 knots on their foils and close on the Italian ships, which an orbiting E-3 AWACS aircraft in the area has located on radar and relays their position to the missile boats. The American force launches all 48 Harpoon missiles against the Italian force before turning tail and running west in an attempt to escape the Italian force's SSMs. Ten of the American missiles strike, sinking the destroyer Ardito, the frigates Euro and Perseo and damaging the cruiser Andrea Doria. Italian helicopters pursue the retreating hydrofoils and attack them with wire-guided anti-ship missiles. The missile boats, traveling at speed, are difficult targets, and only one, the USS Taurus, is hit. The strike is on the engine room, leaving the boat dead in the water. The crew abandons ship, leaving the boat adrift and smoking, where it is finished off by a flight of G.91Ys (which, in turn, are intercepted by a flight of F/A-18s from VFA-46, losing two). The Andrea Doria receives fatal damage minutes later when hit by a raid of 22 aircraft from the USS America and USS John F Kennedy.

Italian forces enter Ljubljana, capital of the Jugoslav republic of Slovenia. The commander of the Italian Forza Dalmatia establishes his headquarters in Ljubljana Castle, which rises above the city.

The Soviet 42nd Corps occupies the city of Kars, while to the north Soviet forces gain control of the port of Rize.

Convoy 158 arrives at three north German ports - Hamburg, Bremen and Bremerhaven and begin discharging its cargo - the 5th US Marine Division, a heavy brigade's worth of armored and wheeled vehicles as well as munitions, supplies and new vehicles.

[ToughOmbres]

Originally Posted by chico20854

August 1, 1997

The last overland supply route between Yadz and Bandar Abbas is cut by attacking Soviet troops from the 40th Army, isolating 1st Marine Division.

The US 2nd Infantry Division relieves the surrounded airhead of the 2nd (my 44th) Chinese Parachute Division.

Another tank division, the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards), begins movement from the front as it is ordered to be transferred from the Chinese front to Europe.

(unofficially) The Soviets launch a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Almost immediately after launch it disgorged six Strela-3 secure communications satellites (used by the GRU to keep in touch with their agents and attaches around the world). NORAD, however, on high alert, is initially unable to distinguish between the satellites and Soviet nuclear weapons and sends out a flash nuclear alert. (officially) NATO governments spring into action, with President John Tanner ordering Vice President Julia Pemberton to board the NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) aircraft while he remains in Washington (taking shelter in the facility under the east wing of the White House). President Tanner refuses to leave Washington during this crisis. He says, in an informal remark to an aide, "I can't tell Americans to stand firm and stay calm if I'm hiding in a cave in the Smoky Mountains. If there's an inbound missile, I'll jump on a helicopter, but not one second before." Mrs. Tanner also refuses to leave Washington, but insists that their two children leave school and go to the family ranch in Wyoming.

Unofficially,

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

The American attack submarine Topeka is hounded by Soviet coastal forces and anti-submarine aircraft following its sinking of the Echo II-class boat K-35 the prior day. Defenders detect the breakup of the Soviet boat and send the corvette MPK-64 to investigate. The Soviet boat gets a return on the submarine and calls for more support; a Be-12 amphibian of the 289th Independent Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment is the first to arrive. Soon the sky overhead is a hive of activity, with helicopters, flying boats and an Il-38 patrol plane all joining the hunt. Numerous torpedoes are dropped, all of which the American boat evades, but it is driven towards the corvette, which launches a volley from its anti-submarine mortars. One of the rounds strikes seconds after the American boat fires a volley of Mk 48 torpedoes at the Soviet ship. The 43-pound warhead punches a hole through the sub's conning tower (it struck at an angle), saving the hull from a major penetration, while the corvette turns at high speed to try to outrun the torpedoes. As the ship hits 32 knots it strikes a mine which had broke loose during the explosions and disruptions in the water over the prior hours, sinking MPK-64. The Topeka goes deep and slips away at 5 knots, trying to remain as quiet as possible with the damaged sail.

The front line in Ukraine and Poland is largely static, as both sides try to husband resources in a manner to prevent creation of a suitable nuclear target.

The Soviet high command brings forward the 26th and 28th Railway Brigades to repair the railyard in Kovel, Ukraine that had been struck by an American ATACMS-N missile on July 28th. The railroad troops provide the expertise and heavy equipment to repair the damage (which was relatively light, since the American missile had a W70-3 "nuetron bomb", which was optimized to create a massive blast of man-killing radiation but inflict little physical damage). Raw manpower was provided by a levy of over 1500 NATO POWs which were gathered from MVD prison camps from throughout Ukraine and Minsk, guarded by contingents from the 18th Convoy Brigade and 345th Convoy Regiment.

photo
Operation Carthaginian - the Allied invasion of Sicily and Sardinia - begins at dawn. The US 173rd Airborne Brigade and Canadian Parachute Regiment are dropped outside Messina, Sicily while the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade land at Marsala. The Iberian Airborne Brigade Group is dropped on the Caligari airfield, Sardinia and Portuguese marines land at Alghero. Air support is provided by the carriers America and John F Kennedy as well as fighters from the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing and Spanish Escuadron 121 and Escuadron 122 of Ala de Caza 12 at Torrejon de Ardoz, all supported by over a dozen KC-10 and KC-135 tankers.

Back in Portugal, the 1st Independent Composite Brigade begins the process of preparing for deployment. Additional conscripts are transferred in, and units from elsewhere in the Army are stripped of trucks, radios and other equipment needed to bring the brigade up to full strength.

Organized Jugoslav resistance on the Italian front has effectively ceased, with only isolated Army units offering resistance while the mass of the Jugoslav force either flees or surrenders.

In eastern Turkey, Third Army is forced to divide its attention when Soviet forces launch an amphibious attack on the Black Sea coast, cutting the coastal road between the port city (and naval base) of Rize and the border. The landing is bloody but successful as the Turkish defenders pound the invasion force with heavy fire from a wide variety of obsolescent guns and artillery pieces, sinking the escorting corvettes MPK-68 and SKR-30.

42nd Corps pauses for resupply and to allow better preparation for an attack on the Turkish defense around Kars, a defense that has been reinforced by the remnants of the 49th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which has reformed after being driven back from the border by the 19th MRD.

The reclusive Albanian regime begins a full mobilization of its military, which is heavily reliant on reservists. With few foreign diplomats in Tirana, and even fewer foreigners elsewhere in the country, the thinking behind the regime's decision is unknown. High officials refuse to acknowledge the development, let alone offer an explanation.

The Hoxa Regime's innumerable bunkers across Albania aren't going to man themselves now are they......

[pmulcahy11b]

How has the Twilight War impacted the international stock market and banking system?

[bash]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

How has the Twilight War impacted the international stock market and banking system?

I would posit that most securities/commodity markets probably shutter as soon as nuclear weapons start being used. No trader is going to want to be in one of the cities that is a potential nuke target and have the resources to leave. They'll all skip town for their cabins and cottages outside of the metro areas.

Banking would probably fall under emergency controls to prevent bank runs and riots and that kinds of thing. We'd also see everyone setting government enforced price controls for essential commodities. Non-essential items would see prices skyrocket but for basics the various governments would likely want to prevent price gouging. The effectiveness of price controls would basically extend only as far as police enforcing such things.

[Targan]

Yes the movement of manufactured goods internationally by sea would be hugely disrupted by mid-'97. And goods manufactured in China would pretty much have ceased to exist. Exports from Japan and Taiwan would massively jump in price with the combined impacts of restricted shipping, huge fuel costs, maritime insurance somewhere between difficult and impossible to obtain, and the manufacturers themselves having having a hard time getting raw materials and paying exorbitant prices for them.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Although the Pembertons are divorced, the Vice President arranges for her daughter to take an extended hiking trip in the Cascades with her father

Well that gives me inspiration for a PC choice if I play in a campaign using Teg's Pacific Northwest module. Or a plot seed if I ever end up running a campaign in that area myself.

[chico20854]

August 4, 1997

The German 10th Panzer Division, hastily transferred from Poland, enters action in Bavaria. The hardened veterans attack the Italian Ariete Armored Division outside Augsburg.

The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, in central North Korea south of the Yalu, is cut off from the rest of VI (my IX) Corps by the unexpected attack and is temporarily subordinated to the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army.

Unofficially,

Another Soviet Spetsnaz team is intercepted and eliminated by the native troops of the Canadian Native Rangers, this one approaching the massive Nanisivik zinc mine on Baffin Island.

The USS Midway battle group withdraws from the Gulf of Alaska, retiring to Bremerton, Washington as the air wing is badly depleted, the Midway's magazines nearly empty and the aged carrier in dire need of refit despite being in service for only eight months.

X Corps continues to resist the Soviet advance in Alaska, slowly being pushed back in heavy fighting.

HMS Eskimo, commissioned in July, begins its first voyage, escorting a resupply convoy to the Persian Gulf.

HQ, UK Land Forces implements Operation Mornington, the reinforcement of BAOR from the strategic reserve. British forces from Northern Ireland and further personnel from Territorial Army units are moved to Germany to fill in the ranks depleted by casualties, placing the bulk of the counter insurgency work in Ireland with the local Ulster Defense Regiment units (which are heavily biased towards the Protestants due to recruitment).

A joint team from the FDA-run National Center for Toxicological Research in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland is dispatched to China to investigate the Soviet use of biological and anti-crop weapons.

In Poland and western Ukraine the front remains largely static, despite the near-daily use of artillery-fired or short-range missiles armed with tactical nuclear weapons. NATO and Soviet forces trade the weapons in nearly a one-for-one manner.

One of the tow lines on the battleship Iowa parts when the tugs try to speed the tow up to 4 knots. The salvage effort is halted for six hours while a new line is secured.

Another NATO sortie in the eastern Baltic leads to another clash with the Soviet Baltic fleet. This one is less conclusive but succeeds in turning back the Soviet convoy headed for Kaliningrad as well as forcing the Soviet Baltic Fleet to rally more escorts for future missions. (This results in roughly half as many convoys, each stronger, but overloads the damaged recipient ports as well as being delayed while forming).

The Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) begins moving down the coast from Naples to link up with the San Marco regiment.

A convoy carrying supplies up the hill to the Italian Forza Dalmatia headquarters in Ljubljana Castle is attacked by Slovenian Territorial Defense guerrillas. They fade away into the woods before the guard force can respond.

The Sierra-class SSN K-534 returns to the Arabian Sea south of Oman after a long period in the southern Indian Ocean, where it received replacement torpedoes and a handful of SS-N-21 cruise missiles. It announces its return by putting a trio of torpedoes into the side of the supertanker Protea Guardian.

POWs captured when the Soviets captured Shemya in Alaska arrive in MVD-run prison camps in the Soviet Far East, assigned to the custody of the 92nd Convoy Division, which operates camps from Vladivostok to Sakhalin to the Alaskan border.

[chico20854]

August 5, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Salt Lake Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The FEMA Stockpile SRS-35587-3, located underground at the Rickwood Caverns State Park in Alabama, is fully stocked and sealed.

The Irish patrol ship Aoife, operating in the southwest approaches to the island nation, is sunk by a torpedo. Postwar research will fail to identify a Soviet submarine reporting the attack, but surviving records are incomplete and over a dozen Soviet boats are unaccounted for fron this time period. Nationalists in Ireland attribute the sinking to a British submarine, although likewise there is no surviving evidence to support this belief.

In a low-key effort, the American Embassy in London is largely evacuated. The evacuation convoy is attacked by a Soviet Spetsnaz unit but the ambassador escapes. Sixteen troops of B Squadron 22 SAS are sent after the unit.

South Korean forces drive the remaining defenders of Pyongyang to Rungra Island in the Taedong River. The South Korean troops are able to fire down on the island from the heights above, but many of the defenders are sheltering underground in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, home of the famous pre-war mass gymnastics festival.

The 6th Ranger Battalion, rebuilt at Fort Lewis, Washington after the losses it suffered in the January Operation Steel Bandit attack on Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, completes its training and is flown to Korea.

The 74th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Volga Military District, arrives at the front assigned to 3rd Guards Tank Army in the Brest sector. It is organized along 1950s heavy tank division lines, with two tank regiments with T-10M heavy tanks, a breakthrough tank regiment with T-34/85s and a regiment of infantry that relies on the tanks and requisitioned trucks for mobility. The T-10s are hopelessly obsolete - their 122mm guns, while extremely powerful, can only fire two to three rounds a minute, by which time any opposing NATO tank will have fired six or more shots, and ATGMs offer similar anti-tank power in a much lighter package. The aged tanks also move slowly - 50 kmph maximum on roads - and are limited in what bridges they can cross.

The Italians scramble together more forces to reinforce the Ariete Division as the battle around Augsburg grows; Dutch, Danish and German troops have all battled outside the city.

The USS Olympia is ambushed by two Soviet attack submarines, the Akula-class K-480 and the Alfa-class K-463. The detection range is extremely short, and when the Alfa fires its torpedoes at the American sub, Olympia is able to maneuver the Akula in the line of fire. K-480 is hit by the Alfa's torpedoes, and the American boat drives the remaining enemy boat away with a spread of Mk-48 torpedoes, placing in position to be unaware of the Sea Lance-N missile that the American boat drops in front of the fleeing fast Soviet boat. The 200kt W89 warhead on the American missile crushes the Alfa's hull.

At dawn Spanish Marines began landing at Licata, and begin advancing towards Syracuse. Italian COMSUBIN divers succeed in infiltrating the amphibious operations area offshore, attaching explosive charges to the American transports USS Tortuga and USNS Maj. Stephen W. Pless and the helicopter carrier Iwo Jima.

Soviet troops begin to advance westward from the Turkish port of Rize. Their progress is soon halted by the Turkish defenders, who demolish a section of the coast road, leaving a 500-meter gap of sheer cliff leading down to the Black Sea.

The K-534 continues its attack on shipping leaving the Persian Gulf, damaging the supertanker Piper Thrush, which is heavily laden with crude, bound for Spain. The Soviet sub strews a half dozen mines from its torpedo tubes as it withdraws to the south.

CIA operatives inform the Kenyan government of troops massing for what appears to be an impending Tanzanian invasion.

[chico20854]

August 6, 1997

Nothing official today!

Marine Corps squadron VMA-134 at MC Air Station El Toro, California, the A-4 Skyhawk readiness squadron, responsible for training pilots to fly the aged attack aircraft, begins transitioning to the AV-8B Harrier, as the A-4 force in action (exclusively over Iran and from naval shore stations along the Gulf of Mexico) dwindles, largely eliminating the need for new pilots.

1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

The onslaught against the North Korean bastion in Pyongyang continues as South Korean troops bring towed 105mm and 155mm howitzers onto the heights, firing them direct-fire into holdout's identified firing positions. The few tanks remaining to the second- and third-line divisions are withdrawn, transferred to units facing the Soviets and the remnants of the NKPA to the north.

In the mountains of central North Korea, American and South Korean attack helicopters and fighter-bombers try to slow the Soviet advance through the mountains; attack helicotpers try to pick off command vehicles and selectively target vehicles to block narrow mountain roads prior to the fighter-bombers' arrival to blanket the resultant halted column with cluster bombs, napalm and rockets.

SACEUR receives fervent pleas from his subordinate Corps commanders for a relaxation of the political constraints on the employment of tactical nuclear weapons. He is not in favor, knowing that his subordiante commanders, if let off the proverbial leash, would almost immediately launch a major escalation, each desiring to fire dozens of weapons to either thoroughly decimate their opponents or turn the ground in front of their positions into an irradiated wasteland impassible by Soviet troops. SACEUR fears that such a development will result in a proportionate response by his Soviet counterpart, or possibly an escalation, stranding his troops hundreds of miles from "home" territory. He offers additional release of chemical munitions to their control to partially offset his denial of their request.

US Marines enter Palermo while the greatly reduced Aosta Brigade batters itself to pieces against the American and Canadian paratroopers who had been digging in to Messina for days. En route, the Italian brigade is under constant air attack by USMC and Spanish Harrier and USMC Cobra aircraft. The North Coastal Road becomes a highway of death.

The Soviet 42nd Corps moves west out of the city of Kars in eastern Turkey after a pause of several days to resupply. The 42nd MRD heads southwest, overrunning the scattered outpost line thrown up by the Turkish Third Army.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran tries to maintain a coherent, organized withdrawal. Light mechanized units (the 14th ACR and 9th ID) try to maintain a screen for the lighter units and support formations to withdraw behind. In this effort the support of Allied airpower is essential, since the LAVs and TOW missile vehicles of the light forces can be easily overwhelmed by the superior armor of the Soviet tank and motor-rifle divisions; the American ground units become masters of calling in artillery fire and air strikes and guiding attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB on advancing Soviet units.

5th Fleet command institutes local convoying of tankers carrying crude oil to Allied nations. The Salem battlegroup is stripped of escorts (the cruiser is docked in Bandar Abbas), augmented by frigates from the Belleau Wood amphibious group to escort the tankers to a point 350 nm south of the mouth of the Gulf, where the convoys disperse and the laden vessels proceed independently, each on their own seperate course to their destination under the long-range protection of patrol aircraft from shore bases and the carrier Independence.

[chico20854]

August 7, 1997

As the tactical nuclear exchanges continue, people in the US seem relieved - a nuclear holocaust hasn't resulted immediately, and although things are still tense, it seems like one might not break out.

Southern TVD commander Suryakin is granted permission from Stavka to begin the small-scale use of tactical nuclear weapons to reinforce the offensive to drive CENTCOM and its allies back to the shore of the Persian Gulf.

Kenyan forces rush into position to blunt the initial Tanzanian thrusts, spoiling the Tanzanian surprise attack from succeeding.

Soviet electronic warfare units radio-locate the headquarters of the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and within hours the headquarters is struck by a SS-23 missile (fired by the 20th Guards Missile Brigade). The Chinese headquarters is destroyed in the strike.

Unofficially,

The front in North Korea is active in five areas. The reduction of the North Korean defense of Pyongyang continues. Along the Sea of Japan on the east coast a combined USMC-South Korean force, supported by the cruiser Des Moines, is slowly being pushed south from the approaches to Vladivostok. There is a more or less contiguous defense line along the Chongchon River from the Yellow Sea deep into the center of the country, maintained by American and Commonwealth troops and mechanized elements of the South Korean Army. Finally, along the Yalu there are two salients where Allied forces have linked up with Chinese units - the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and 2nd US Infantry Division, operating south from the Yalu to the city of Kanggye, and the 31st (my 3rd) and 15th Airborne Armies, with the US 25th ID and the British 6th Division, at the mouth of the Yalu.

The commander of the newly raised NATO SOUTHAG tries to rationalize his front line, creating pure national formations rather than the jumble of allied forces that has, by necessity, emerged.

The Italian Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) is hit by a US 100 kt tactical nuclear strike in Villa San Giovanni, making it very clear to the Italian Government that no reinforcement from the mainland will be possible and marking the end of active combat operations in Sicily.

The Soviet 42nd MRD continues its advance in eastern Turkey, climbing into rougher terrain as the highway climbs into the mountains on the way to the next sizeable town, Erzurum. The 19th MRD remains largely immobile in Kars, releasing many of its trucks to carry supplies to sustain the 42nd's advance. Along the coast, the 156th MRD remains isolated in the port town of Rize; a detachment of its 550th Motor-Rifle Regiment has opened an overland route back to Batumi, Georgia, largely clearing the coast road of Turkish troops. (to be safe, however, the divisional commander orders each supply convoy to receive a robust escort, aware of the threat posed by highly motivated Turkish troops).

At the front in Pakistan, the defenders continue to give up ground, although the prior weeks' armored counterattack has managed to buy time to seal the breakthrough. The war descends into a slow, slogging war of infantry, trenches and artillery; cursed to continue as a war of attrition until one side runs out of ammunition or men. Given the vast populations of both nations, analysts predict that the supply of munitions will determine the outcome of the war, if a nuclear holocaust can be avoided.

[chico20854]

August 8, 1997

The forces of the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army begin to disintegrate. The US 2nd Infantry Division, which had fallen under the Chinese headquarters' command after being cut off by Soviet forces, begins to withdraw south.

The Great War of Africa expands as Tanzania, reinforced by large numbers of Zambian and Mozambique volunteers, invades Kenya to capture the port of Mombasa and its refinery and thus cut off fuel and supplies to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

Unofficially,

The Italian Aosta Brigade surrenders to the NATO forces on the island of Sicily.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's depleted ZOMO company is once again thrown into action, this time aiding the defense of Fort Bema on the northwestern portion of the perimeter. His mortar team (equipped with a pair of 82mm mortars) distinguishes itself by striking at a German logistic operation at the nearby Warsaw-Babice Airport.

The commander of the British II Corps in northwestern Byelorussia informs his subordinates that, unofficially at least, he sees no way to continue the offensive and that he strives to have the Corps hold the line along the Narew as long as possible.

The Tu-22M2DP interceptor resumes its operations over the North Atlantic, taking advantage of the weakening of US naval and USAF aircraft defending the airlanes. A pair of the converted bombers infiltrate the air tracks south of Iceland, one eastbound and the other westbound, and over the next 45 minutes shoot down 18 Allied transports (both civil and military, all but one carrying troops, wounded or supplies).

The Sierra-class submarine K-534 torpedoes the American transport ship Cape Texas as it crossed the Indian Ocean with a cargo of badly-needed vehicles for CENTCOM. The Independence battle group sails southwest, deploying its squadron of S-3 ASW planes, escorting SSN and surface ships and helicopters in an effort to locate the marauding sub.

Argentina tries to divert attention from the poor situation at home and considers launching an invasion of the Falklands. A naval task force is prepared and even sets sail. It's departure is noted by MI6 agents, who have kept a careful watch on Argentine naval bases since 1982.

[Matt Wiser]

I'm surprised the Soviets haven't gone full strategic on China yet: SS-20s, Backfire strikes, etc.to knock them out of the war NOW. Their strategic forces should have been hit, and they should have some Tactical Nuclear capability via SRBMs and Fantan and JH-7 strike aircraft.

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

I'm surprised the Soviets haven't gone full strategic on China yet: SS-20s, Backfire strikes, etc.to knock them out of the war NOW. Their strategic forces should have been hit, and they should have some Tactical Nuclear capability via SRBMs and Fantan and JH-7 strike aircraft.

I agree! From the timeline in the referees manual the Chinese should be well on their way to the Stone Age by this point. What I'm trying to balance is that the USAVG and SGUK have the 25th US and 6th British divisions fighting under Chinese command well into September and October! I'm still trying to figure out how to balance these...

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

How has the Twilight War impacted the international stock market and banking system?

I could write a book on this, but it would be a long and boring book!

A few thoughts...

The effect would not be uniform. Germany's economy would be among the hardest hit... mobilization, absorbing the east, war damage, the cut off of energy from the USSR and the closure of the Italian, French and Belgian borders would each individually be severe hits. On the other hand, the US, Australia and Canada would initially be less severely affected, immune from physical damage but burdened by the massive government spending and mobilization adjustments. In this environment I could see a reversion to fixed exchange rates to lowering the damage to Germany from international investors fleeing to more attractive markets. Within non-front line economies the winning sectors would be defense (obviously), transportation equipment (trucks, shipbuilding, aircraft) and construction (for the facilities needed for mobilization). Others might be parts of hospitality (as people flee the cities) and food processing. Sectors that would be suffering could be insurance, ship operators and airlines (balancing losses of assets with sky-high demand and premium rates by government buyers), entertainment (although we know that TV sitcom production continues up to and past the TDM!) and international travel and trade. Commodity markets would be volatile as the war at sea disrupts normal trade patterns, another area where there might be government intervention and price controls. In the US we might see an increase in government deposit insurance for individuals and small businesses to shore up the banks.

All these combine to create a really volatile stock market. Rest assured, traders are going to be active trying to make a profit from each up and down!

[Louied]

Chico,

Pedant hat on.....
1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

It would more likely be that the HSF Coy, IRL, E (HSF) Coy 7 LI (1 Pl @ Bishop Auckland), would become a Bn of the Light Infantry. There was discussion of using the HSF Coys as command cadres for Reservists who would be mobilized for MHD. The initial role for the HSF was KP Defence, however it was quickly realized that the Old & Bold in some units could outwit & outmaneuver even THEM in exercises. They wanted to utilize this wealth of military knowledge and, as one ex-squaddie put it, trickery!

Equipment wise, there was definitely enough Pigs & Saracens, I do have documents from the mid/late 80's that indicate some MHD Coys being formed from reservists would have to be issued '37 or '44 Pattern web gear and SMLE No.4 Rifles!!!

[chico20854]

August 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars are deployed to the continent to reinforce I British Corps in Bavaria. The Chieftain tank battalion comes from UK Land Forces' strategic reserve.

The Foreign Minister calls the Argentine ambassador to confront him about the departure of the Argentine naval task force (its movement confirmed by American satellites). The ambassador (truthfully) reports that he is unaware of the development and relays the message to Buenos Aires. Nonetheless, HM Government orders reinforcement of the garrison infantry company on the islands.

As the lead American battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division bash their way through Soviet lines, the division's support command tries to impose some order among the thousands of panicked Chinese troops that want to accompany the American force south. Working with the division's MP company, many of the Chinese troops are disarmed and assigned duties as porters. The most experienced (and especially, those that can speak English or Korean) are assigned as squad leaders for ad-hoc CATUSA (Chinese Augmentees to the US Army, modeled on the long-standing KATUSA program that bulked up US Army units with South Korean conscripts) squads, assigned to round-up American infantry platoons. In Pyongyang, South Korean troops close in on the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, last holdout of the fanatical defenders o Pyongyang.

The 60th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing disperses some of its B-52s to Guam International Airport, out of the blast zone of nuclear weapons that might be targeted at Anderson Air Force Base or Guam Naval Station.

The 257th Motor-Rifle Division arrives at the front, where it is assigned to reinforce the battered 3rd Guards Tank Army.

II MEF (the US Marine's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force), previously located in Denmark and previously mostly concerned with coordinating support for three widely spread Marine Expeditionary Brigades, takes an active role as a front-line corps with 5th Marine Division, the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the German 18th Coast Defense Regiment under command. It also secures the release of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Norway along with its associated Marine Aircraft Group 14. The headquarters moves into northeastern Poland, assaulting Kaliningrad along the coast.

XXIII US Corps rotates the battered 40th Infantry Division from the lines in southern Warsaw to the front in the east, where its AFVs and tanks will be more fruitfully employed. The 40th's positions are assumed by the former West German border guards of the 2nd GrenzJaeger Division.

As rough weather approaches the Baltic, and given the poor condition of the ship, the commander of the USS Iowa salvage effort makes the decision to beach the battleship on a gentle section of the German Baltic Coast. Within a few hours the view from the pretty resort town of Boltenhagen is drastically changed, with 58,000 tons of steel lurking offshore.

Catania is the last major town in Sicily to fall under NATO control when Spanish Marines arrive. American and Canadian troops begin a sweep of the island to round up any surviving defenders.

It being a week after the mobilization order was given, the dictatorial Albanian ruler Kiço Bedaj and the Politburo demand a status report. The defense minister reports that the Army and the Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense militia have manned the 175,000 bunkers scattered around the country and are ready to repulse a combined NATO-Pact-Jugoslav invasion. If a combined air and amphibious assault is launched, like the one just unleashed on Sicily, it would fail as the landing force would be brought under immediate fire from the nearest bunkers while one of the nation's tank brigades would soon arrive to overrun the landing site. Bedaj asks about the Army's ability to intervene to protect the oppressed Albanian minorities in nearby Kosovo and Macedonia. The defense minister explains that the Army is not deployed to carry that mission out, with the tank brigades spread around the nation to counter an enemy invasion, and a repositioning will take weeks since the Army only possesses a dozen tank transporters.

The USAF 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and the 465th Tactical Fighter Squadron in Keflavik, Iceland scramble all available aircraft to prevent a repeat of the prior day's massacre in the air lanes across the North Atlantic, while NATO airlift planners route more aircraft across the mid-Atlantic, flooding the Azores with as many aircraft as it can land and refuel. Anticipating such a response, the Soviets ground the Tu-22M2DPs temporarily.

Allied logistics teams in Iran complete their cleanup of the battlefield from the Battle of the Valley some weeks prior. Australian fitters are able to recover all of the damaged Leopard tanks that had been lost in the battle and restore over 80 percent of them to service, while Iranian teams (many composed of grizzled veterans of the superhuman efforts needed to sustain the war effort against Iraq in the 80s) have amazingly been able to recover over 100 T-34/85s lost by the Soviet 69th Tank Division. Forty are restored to running condition and issued to lower-quality infantry divisions while the rest are hauled off to be emplaced as pillboxes around Shiraz and guarding choke points in the Zagros Mountains.

At the Kapustin Yar test site in south-central Russia, scientists and engineers from the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau launch the first of a series of six SS-23 missiles fitted with an experimental new guidance package that, using technology developed from salvage from downed and crashed American Tomahawk cruise missiles, is nearly 7 times more accurate than the seeker currently fitted. The test is a success, hitting 12 m from the aim point when fired 500 km.

[chico20854]

August 10, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

1st Brigade, 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready, redeeming the brigade and its new commander after a disastrous NTC rotation in late 1996 that led to new leadership, re-equipment with M1/M2-series vehicles and widescale retraining and replacement of personnel.

A high-priority airlift carries the headquarters and first company of the 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment to Ascension Island, en route to the Falklands.

Heavy fighting continues in central Pyongyang as gangs of POWs and engineers clear rubble from roads through the capital, creating a main supply route to the front to the north. The MSR speeds the flow of reinforcements and supplies to the beleagured troops of the US I and IX Corps and their Korean and Commonwealth allies to the north, who had previously been relying on a patchwork of secondary roads, marginal in the best of times, for the bulk of their support.

The Dutch Marine Corps, in order to exploit the vast pool of Marine reservists, (over 1500 of them under the age of 35) who have not been called up for service in the three Amphibious Combat Groups or four Security Groups, forms the 9th Marine Amphibious Combat Group. The Dutch government intends to use the unit to support NATO operations in the Mediterranean, potentially in operations in Sicily, Jugoslavia or Turkey. Due to the situation the formation is equipped with obsolescent weapons from war stockpiles (FAL rifles, Uzi SMGs, 106mm recoilless rifles instead of Dragon or Tank Breaker missiles, .50 caliber machineguns instead of Stinger missiles for air defense) and requisitioned civilian vehicles for mobility ashore.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and troops of the 27th Marines launch a predawn transit of the Vistula Lagoon in AAVP-9 amphibians, assaulting the Soviet naval base at Baltiysk. The remnants of the base (it was first attacked by Marineflieger Tornadoes in November and has been struck numerous times since then) are defended by the sailors and shoreside staff, formed into the ad-hoc Division Baltiysk. Fierce fighting rages throughout the town, and the coming of the dawn makes any further crossings of the lagoon perilous at best. Allied naval forces are active offshore, and the American destroyer Coontz, returned to action following multiple repairs, provides naval gunfire support with its 5-inch gun.

Remaining British and Canadian units in Norway are pulled out, staging in England in preparation for deployment to Iran, where the situation continues to look bleak.

The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) and 4th Armies are maintaining pressure on XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran. They have pushed 9th ID's screen back to the town of Ardakan high in the Zagros Mountains. To their east 40th Army has surrounded the 1st Marine Division at Yadz, although their cordon is leaky enough that small caravans of Iranian civilians (some contracted by the Americans or Iranian intelligence) are able to slip through, bringing small quantities of ammunition, food and fuel to the Marines. To the west, 7th Army is slowly driving the 24th Infantry Division south, back towards the defense lines it had maintained throughout May and June.

Two more SS-23 missiles are fired at Kapustin Yar. They reflect similar increases in accuracy.

[chico20854]

August 11, 1997

The 106th Guards Air Assault Division, a high command reserve unit, is brought forward into Poland from its home station of Tula.

The 1st Tank Division enters action on the Polish-Ukrainian border; the veterans of the war in China, assigned to 1st Guards tank Army, face off against the German 2nd PanzerGrenadier Division.

Unofficially,

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

A Soviet spetsnaz team locates the rear headquarters of the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group; following its doctrine it immediately attacks and temporarily overruns it, capturing a number of documents before being driven off by a counterattack by a scratch force of Dutch mechanics, truck drivers and clerks. The remnants of the US Army Berlin Brigade (consolidated into two weak battalions) is alerted for deployment to the Warsaw perimeter, where its urban combat expertise could be best used.

The Battle of Baltiysk continues, with the 28th Marine Regiment ferried into the city overnight and a flight of A-7Es of VA-66, operating off the USS Coral Sea, stopping a Soviet reinforcement column with an attack with three B-57 nuclear bombs as they approached the city.

Convoy 161 forms in the North Sea for a voyage to North America. It contains many of the ships from Convoy 158 that brought the 5th Marine Division to Europe, the Freedom ships Austin, Birmingham, Michigan and Oklahoma Freedom and over 40 other assorted merchantmen. The escort consists of two American frigates (the Brooke and Kauffman), the former Coast Guard cutters Munro and Tahoma, the Canadian destroyer Maragee, all led by the American destroyer Harry W Hill.

At the next Albanian Politburo session, the minister of the economy reports that the mobilization has stripped approximately one third of the labor force and that as a consequence the goals of the latest Five-Year plan are unlikely to be achieved. Oil production has been halved from the nation's oil fields and four refineries, the copper smelters are operating at half capacity. The wholesale callup of the nation's educated men (who form the officer corps) will soon cripple the major industrial enterprises. The minister of agriculture reports that the fall harvest, which usually requires the deployment of over half the peacetime Army, will be catastrophic unless the units currently on alert are allocated to assist in the harvest. The minister of transport reports that the nation will soon have all recalled reservists en route to their mobilization stations, the national fleet of nearly 5000 buses able to reach most of the remote mountain towns along the Jugoslav and Greek borders.

photo
The carrier USS Independence, operating in the Arabian Sea, is struck by a Type-65 torpedo from the Sierra-class SSN K-534, and is lucky to stay afloat after receiving extensive damage. It loses two of its four propellers and a rudder is hopelessly jammed, along with a prop shaft blown out by the torpedo (the ship's Nixie torpedo decoy worked-barely). There is some internal flooding and shock damage as well.

The SS-23 test firing series is disrupted when the first of two missiles to be fired for the day explodes shortly after launch.

[chico20854]

August 12, 1997

Canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

The Canadian Navy recommissions the last of the St. Laurent-class destroyers, the Assinboine, which had been paid off in 1988 but used as a training and accommodation ship since then. The ship required extensive refit, but emerges with a modern 76mm gun, electronics and sonar. It is put into service on the convoy lanes.

The Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is, at its commander's request, thrown into action in the final battle for Pyongyang. His troops seem less than eager, although his officers are enthusiastic about being there for the end of the North Korean regime. (Allied intelligence has not ruled out the possibility that the Kim dynasty is lurking in the tunnels under the 1st of May Stadium.)

Exploiting the documents captured from the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group headquarters, the GRU directs several other Spetsnaz teams into the area behind the Dutch front lines in Bavaria. Over a four-hour predawn period three of the Dutch 8-inch howitzer batteries are overrun, although an attack on the unit's tactical nuclear weapons storage site is driven off with heavy losses on both sides.

photo
As US Marines gain control of the town of Baltiysk, the Soviet command orders its surviving defenders out. Shortly after 10 pm the city is struck by a SSC-3 Styx coast defense missile fitted with a 15kt warhead, destroying much of what had survived. Casaulties among the marines were relatively light, as most were in fighting positions or inside buildings that provided protection from the worst blast effects.

The US Navy returns the carrier Eisenhower to service in the Atlantic after over six weeks of repairs at Scapa Flow. The damage has only been partially repaired, with the two waist catapults out of operation; fabrication of replacement machinery is expected to take another nine months.

photo
In Iran, Frontal Aviation makes another mass raid against Persian Gulf ports, with a fighter-bomber regiment tasked to neutralize the pipeline terminals. American and Saudi early warning aircraft detect the Soviet force as it forms up over northern Iran, and the raid is met with swarms of American, Iranian, Qatari and Saudi fighters.

The SS-23 test series is paused for additional inspections of the two remaining test missiles.

The 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment, a TA regiment from Lancaster, closes on RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. One ex-regular sergeant had even been in the Falklands as a Lance-Corporal in 2 Para in 1982. A unit of Argentine commandos lands on West Falkland and moves into hiding.