On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

A nit that nobody in Canon picked up: there is no Al Qatif AB. The closest field to that town is King Fahd IAP to the west (about 15 miles). Either that, or Dhahran RSAFB/IAP. I have a set of TPC charts for the Gulf region and Iran, and I'm surprised GDW's writers didn't notice there was no base (King Fahd IAP was under construction when RDF Sourcebook was published-it hosted A-10s in 1990-91 during ODS but was a bare base). CVW-10 could go to either King Fahd or to Dhahran if in Saudi, or to Sheikh Isa in Bahrain.

I did actually look at that, sorry I didn't explain. Supposedly the (unfinished in 1996) King Fahd IAP is technically located in the "city limits" of Al Qatif. I took the liberty of re-styling that into GDW's Al Qatif Air Base. My concept is that the pair of 13,000 runways were complete (as at least a portion of them had been used in ODS, as you noted, and with several more years that is, I believe, reasonable) and the other infrastructure (tower, power, water, fuel pipelines) had been largely completed by 1996 when things started looking hairy across the way in Iran. The US and Saudis secretly agreed to shift the construction of the civil airport into an alternate headquarters for 9th Air Force. The terminal building construction was halted, the materials, equipment and workforce being redirected into a number of dispersed, hardened facilites, the partially completed terminal building re-puposed to housing administrative and support functions as well as housing. As 1996 wears on some of these facilities are filled with prepositioned equipment, as mentioned more generally in RDF SB.

My master map of airfields is here!

[Homer]

There were always some head scratchers in cannon. Like the absence of the 29th ID(L), 2 ID stationed at Cam Ranh Bay in the 2E American CVG, and the presence of a TX NG (3-143 IN) battalion in 5 ID(M).

I’ve chalked part of it up to the increased difficulty of getting information pre-internet, and partly to trying to project a plausible scenario without getting to a situation approximating “The Road”.

[chico20854]

August 22, 1997

In North Korea, the US 2nd Infantry Division links up with the lead battalions of IX Corps, concluding its two-week long march south through enemy-held territory.

Unofficially,

The Native Canadian Ranger Regiment intercepts and eliminates a third Spetsnaz team in the northeastern Canadian Arctic, this one near the Pelly Bay air defense radar site.

The British Ministry of Defense evaluates the report received from the Falklands. After consultations with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary once again calls the Argentine ambassodor in and demands the immediate withdrawal of Argentine forces. Once again, the ambassador professes ignorance but transmits word to Buenos Aires.

Heavy trucks arrive in the 13th Army area to load tanks and armored vehicles for transit to the nearest railheads, over 250 km to the north in Mongolia.

In the isolated Torun Pocket, cut off behind NATO lines since June, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Army reorganizes his remaining units, disbanding the 41st Independent Tank Regiment and 510th Independent Guards Tank Regiment and assigning those units' surviving tanks and crews to the 20th and 25th Tank Divisions, respectively.

The Warsaw Pact offensives, supported by tactical nuclear strikes on NATO supply dumps and static artillery positions, continue to make slow progress. East of Bialystok, Poland, lead regiments of the 7th Tank Army attempt to force a breakthrough along the boundary between II British Corps and the American V Corps. The British, under pressure from the 23rd Army on its northern flank and spoiling attacks from a mixed force of KGB, MVD and Army troops to its front, have little to commit to their southern flank. The American corps tries to cover the area with its 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and attack helicopters from the 12th Aviation Brigade, but the long frontage and need to remain dispersed to avoid a nuclear strike mean that there is more a screen than a front line in the area and the Soviet troops gain several additional kilometers of ground.

The American freighter Santa Isabel, which dropped away from Convoy 418 after experiencing engine problems (the ship was built in 1967) is attacked and sunk by a Soviet raider, the destroyer Ostorozhnyy. The destroyer, even older than its quarry, was recently reactivated and sailed from the Kola after the conclusion of the Allied offensive and slipped through the GIUK Gap in ice flows near the Greenland coast.

After a rushed three weeks, the Portugese 15th Infantry Regiment's operational battalion arrives at the Lisbon Naval Station, where three American transport ships (the Cape Domingo, Pioneer Crusader and Cleveland Freedom) are awaiting to transport the 1st Mechanized Brigade to Turkey.

The American carriers John F Kennedy and America continue their attacks on Italian naval targets.

The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense discovers that the electronics plant in Tblisi, Georgia that is supposed to be manufacturing the new guidance packages for the SS-23 missiles is still awaiting the production drawings, which due to an administrative error, were never sent from Moscow. They predict that they can have a prototype together in 10-12 weeks. The Colonel-General is quite upset, to say the least. The Tblisi plant has reallocated its production line to producing radars for Su-27 interceptors in the interim.

[chico20854]

I have a bunch more teed up, but no time to post them! And I want to get the Balkans and CENTCOM filled out a little more. More tomorrow!

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Homer

There were always some head scratchers in cannon. Like the absence of the 29th ID(L), 2 ID stationed at Cam Ranh Bay in the 2E American CVG, and the presence of a TX NG (3-143 IN) battalion in 5 ID(M).

I’ve chalked part of it up to the increased difficulty of getting information pre-internet, and partly to trying to project a plausible scenario without getting to a situation approximating “The Road”.

The 29th wasn't formed at the time they were publishing. Two of the brigades are in the 46th ID... one of the head-scratchers of forming new divisions out of independent National Guard brigades! There a bunch of others, like the timing of the TDM, were SAC bases targeted or not, a lot of the backstory in RDF Sourcebook re:Israel and Syria and more...

Given what they had to work with, however, I applaud what they got out. The amount of material that has appeared online since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, machine translation and the passage of time have given us the luxury of being able to see what they got right and got wrong!

[Targan]

I've been wondering about various radiological issues that would have arisen for other countries after China got plastered with nukes. I assume that due to the prevailing winds, plenty of radioactive fallout would have precipitated onto North and South Korea and Japan, and to a lesser extent eventually the US and Canada. The Soviets certainly didn't hold back once they started nuking China. Plenty of dirty ground bursts I'm sure.

[Homer]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Given what they had to work with, however, I applaud what they got out. The amount of material that has appeared online since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, machine translation and the passage of time have given us the luxury of being able to see what they got right and got wrong!

Agree. Sources of information were not as abundant or accessible (How many libraries had a full and current set of Jane’s, or the “Army Green Book”?). In addition, some information was much more controlled. Pretty impressive, considering.

[chico20854]

August 23, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day.

The 47th Infantry Division retreats east from the Anchorage area, with its cavalry squadron (the 1st Squadron, 194th Cavalry (Minnesota National Guard)) and 682nd Engineer Battalion detached to man a blocking position to prevent Soviet forces advancing north from Valdez from cutting the division's evacuation route east into the Yukon. The 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) is retreating under heavy Soviet pressure northward along the Mat-Su Valley, hoping to delay the linkup of Soviet forces advancing out of Anchorage with those that came across the Bering Strait.

1st Byelorussian Front, opposite the US V Corps, with the 3rd, 5th and 7th Tank Armies, continues its pressure on the US V Corps. While the front's tanks are mostly less modern T-64s, T-80s and T-74s, the collapse of the Chinese front has allowed additional reinforcements and supplies to flow to the front, allowing it to push back the exhausted American (and Canadian) troops, strung out at the end of a long supply line from Dutch and German ports far to the west. To the south, 1st Western and Reserve Fronts, with two Polish and three Soviet armies under command, push back Third German Army.

photo
In beseiged Warsaw, rations for civilians are cut again, to 1200 calories per day for adults and 600 calories for children under 15.

The ferry Beauport, carrying a cargo of replacement vehicles for British troops, is struck by a mine in the North Sea and sinks.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade has completed its redeployment from Sicily and launches the first of its raids, with two companies from 3-325 AIR raiding Tympaki Air Force Base in Crete. The paratroops land before dawn and are supported by gunfire from the battleship Wisconsin, which not only seals off the area but inflicts major damage on Greek infrastructure all along the southern Cretan coast. The airborne force evacuates after four hours; the final C-130 to depart does not carry troops but instead drops a modified BLU-82 7.5-ton bomb on the runway to crater it and render it useless to the Greeks.

In Iran, the isolated troops of the 1st Marine Division continue to hold the airfield complex at Yadz, supported by vigorous counterattacks on the surrounding 40th Army by the isolated troops as well as the 3rd (my 4th) Marine Division operating north of Bandar Abbas. Heavy air support keeps the Soviet forces from massing to overwhelm any particular sector, and the surrounded division's centrally stationed mobile reserve (built around the two tank battalions, light armored recon and amtrack battalions) is able to respond quickly to enemy attacks. Nightfall begins a parade of transport aircraft into the pocket, bringing in food and ammunition and evacuating the wounded, while KC-130 tankers drain their tanks into the airfields' to support the division's operations.

The Soviet Minister of Agriculture reports that the amount of food grown will be adequate to support the nation but warns that completing the harvest and distributing it is going to be a severe challenge given the lack of trucks and manpower.

The Argentine submarine Salta is dispatched from the Mar del Plata naval base to the Falkland Islands to retreive the naval commando force that has been operating on the islands for several weeks. Orders are radioed to the team to cease patrolling and remain in place until the submarine arrives to retrieve them. A SAS team arrivies in the islands and begins to search for them.

[chico20854]

August 24, 1997

Another day that canon is silent on... Unofficially,

Soviet troops in Alaska begin a reshuffle, with fresh units being committed in central Alaska and others shifted south.

The Prime Minister and Cabinet return to Downing Street. Despite the return of the Government to London, the 11 regional command centers remain fully manned and operational.

In the Japanese-occupied Kurile Islands of Iturup and Kunashir a population transfer is occurring. Along with the evacuation of Soviet POWs, recently arrived Japanese government officials begin evacuating civilians who do not have family ties to the area (defined as at least one family member living in the islands in July 1945 prior to the Soviet seizure). The same flights and voyages that are carrying evacuees off the islands are also carrying "tourists", Japanese citizens that were evicted by (or fled) the Soviets and their descendants. To the dismay of the Soviet citizens, many of the "tourists" begin assessing various homes and businesses, apparently with the intention of settling in the newly reconquered territory. The government officials have no comment on the plan.

Along the northern end of the front line of the Polish-Soviet border 2nd Western Front goes over on the offensive from the Kaliningrad enclave. A Polish-led task force cuts off the US Marine garrison of Baltiysk while the rest of 1st Polish Army (reinforced with Soviet and Polish border guards and the Baltic Fleet's Division Baltiysk) drives the Danish Jutland Division out of Soviet territory. The 3rd Guards Shock Army and 2nd Guards Tank Army also attack southward against the US III Corps and VII German Korps, who use their massive mobility and firepower (both conventional and nuclear) to blunt the attacks and hold their ground.

In southern Germany, the Italian Army has run out of steam as the last of the nation's prewar stocks of fuel, ammunition and spare parts has been largely depleted. Italian industry is still in the process of mobilizing, and the industrial mobilization process (which would be chaotic in the best of circumstances given the state of Italian government and industry) is slowed by the country's isolation from its former NATO partners, who are NOT going to assist it with transport, raw materials or critical components. The Soviets offer to step in, but their assistance is a far cry from what NATO provided.

A helicopter from the escort carrier USS Langley, operating in the Norwegian Sea, detects the Soviet Delta I-class SSBN K-171 moving southbound at 5 knots. Within 10 minutes a swarm of five SH-3 Sea King helicopters are overhead; the boomer is located and sunk by four Mk-46 air-dropped torpedo hits. It is the third Soviet boomer sunk in August.

In Egypt, the commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade receives word that his request for air-droppable armor has been approved; L Company, 73rd Armor is being activated at Fort Bragg. Unfortunately, due to the widespread losses in the LAV-75 force the unit will be equipped with obsolescent M551 Sheridan light tanks.

XVIII Airborne Corps continues its slow withdrawal through the Zagros Mountains, with the 101st Air Assault Division launching a string of airmobile assaults on the advancing 4th Army as it crawls through the Zagros Mountains, pushing back the highly mobile 9th Infantry Division (Motorized). Allied Pasdaran guerrillas harrass the Soviet transport and supply troops with repeated pinprick attacks on the Soviet rear, slowing their progress.

[chico20854]

August 25, 1997

Following months of intense action in the unforgiving desert environment, the helicopters of the 6th ACCB are suffering from lack of maintenance and attrition while the pilots and ground crews are beyond exhausted. As XVIII Airborne Corps is pushed out of the Zagros onto the coastal plains, fixed-wing attack aircraft are able to provide more effective support and the corps command orders the 6th to Saudi Arabia for rest and refit.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Louisville Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Phoenix and Sacramento Freedoms in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

2nd Brigade, 49th Armored Division, Texas National Guard, completes Rotation 97-11 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. It loads its equipment on railcars for the Chicago Port of Embarkation, where shipping is being massed in relative safety.

As students return to their schools, they resume an in-class drill that had fallen by the wayside for many years - "duck and cover" drills to respond to nuclear attacks. It is a sad reflection of the reality of the world.

IX and I US Corps continue to give up ground in Korea as supplies grow scarce and the Soviet Yalu Front incorporates more and more North Korean stragglers (and even civilians, who are almost all either NKPA reservists or members of the Patriotic Red Guard) into its ranks. Behind the front lines, however, massive flows of civilian refugees flee south, having enjoyed just a few weeks of exposure to South Korean propaganda and fearing the deprivation of life in war-ravaged North Korea.

The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment is driven out of Bialystok by the 7th Tank Army's 3rd Guards Tank Division. The regiment's 58th Engineer Company leaves a farewell gift behind in the city: a 15-kiloton W45 Atomic Demolition Munition, which reduces the city center to rubble. Two hours later V Corps' 142nd Field Artillery Brigade (Arkansas National Guard) strikes the airport on the city's southern outskirts with a 12-kiloton W33 8-inch tactical nuclear shell, preventing the Soviets from using it.

The remaining aircraft of the Marineflieger, CVW-19 aboard the USS Coral Sea in the Baltic and the USMC's 2nd Marine Air Wing line up to provide an umbrella of attack aircraft over the evacuation of the embattled 5th Marine Division (reinforced by the German 18th Coast Defense Regiment and the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade) from the city of Baltiysk, where they have been cut off by Polish troops who hold the shore of the lagoon and a strong blocking position along the narrow barrier island between their enclave and Poland. Under the air cover a flotilla of Allied shipping, of all sizes and nationalities, loads troops and what heavy equipment can be loaded aboard, transporting them to the ruined docks of Gdynia 55 miles across the Gulf of Gdansk. The defense of the city's perimeter is bolstered by naval gunfire support, with a task force built around the heavy cruiser Newport News and the American destroyers Coontz and Nicholson.

On the southern end of the Polish front, the highly motivated but poorly equipped troops of the Polish 3rd Army advance down (west along) the valley of the Wisłok River, reaffirming control of the southeastern Polish oilfields (the area had been lightly patrolled by German troops, who in recent weeks have been reluctant to venture into the hills to the north).

The USS John F Kennedy and USS America move closer to the Ionian Sea, launching a series of sorties under EMCOM (emissions control - all radars, radios and other electronic emmitters turn off) and low level into the Adriatic Sea to judge the level of Greek, Italian and Albanian air defense activity over the sea; if there is minimal resistance the route will be exploited for transit of transport aircraft into Jugoslavia and Romania.

Helicopters of the 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade roam out over the Arabian Sea, sinking several dhows (small coastal sailing craft) and a bigger prize, the Pakistani freighter Kaghan carrying a cargo of supplies and replacements for the Pakistani mercenary detachments in Saudi Arabia and the Iranian Gulf Coast.

[chico20854]

August 26, 1997

Canon is silent on the day. Unofficially,

The Joint Chiefs are presented the results of the worldwide military personnel study initiated three weeks ago. It notes that to date the Navy has taken casaulties equal to 15.5% of its prewar strength, the Air Force 17.8%, the Army 38.2%, the Marine Corps 39.7% and the Coast Guard 17.4%. Losses in July were spread more or less proportionally across the branches, between the naval battles off Kamchakta and the Kola, the initiation of nuclear warfare and offensives in Iran, Korea, Norway and the Central Front. Each branch's training establishment is operating at full capacity. Looking forward, industrial production is insufficient to keep up with equipment losses, resulting in an excess of trained personnel in all branches. The Army and Marine Corps have the greatest ability to absorb recruits in the absence of newly produced equipment, serving in light infantry roles, while excess Naval, Coast Guard and Air Force inductees are more likely to be used in security and support roles. The report reingites the debate that had been placed on hold earlier, with the Army Chief of Staff and General Green, Commandant of the Marine Corps once again arguing for a greater allocation of recruits and authority to expand their training establishments. After nearly an hour General Cummings intervenes, declaring that resolution will have to come from the Department of Defense's political leadership.

King Charles returns to Buckingham Palace.

At Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany the 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron turns over the last of its surviving F-16C fighters to its sister squadron the 480th in anticipation of the imminent receipt of AT-38 jets. The armed trainers are familiar to the pilots (who uniformly did their initial fast jet training on the type) and deemed fast and agile enough to survive in the air over Germany and Poland. While much less capable than the F-16s, they allow the 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing to resume flying close air support missions while its remaining F-16s are committed to air defense and nuclear strike missions.

The Polish 3rd Army turns north, attacking up the Wisłoka Valley towards the rail and road junction at Tarnow.

V US Corps is under heavy pressure from the Soviet 3rd Guards Tank Army to its front as 7th Tank Army advances to its north (in the widening gap between it and the British II Corps) and 5th Guards Tank Army pushes along the south, trying to drive a wedge between the Americans and VI German Korps defending Lublin.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia locates the Foxtrot-class B-34 snorkeling near the surface west of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic and sinks her with a pair of Mk 48 torpedoes.

The Sierra-III class sub K-231 slips into the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar by transiting under a NATO merchantman.

The John F Kennedy and America air wings follow up on the prior day's sorties, striking air defense radars and missile sites on the Greek island of Corfu and in southwestern Albania.

The Argentine submarine Slata arrives off West Falkland to retrieve the naval commando team. There is dissent within the team, with two of the senior NCOs, who had been captured by the British in 1982 as young Marine conscripts, disobeying the commanding officer's orders to withdraw. The senior NCOs want to strike at least a symbolic blow at the British to avenge the loss of their peer and salve their battered sense of machismo about having to "slink away in the darkness". The issue is violently resolved when the commander shoots one of the rebellious sailors in the head, then orders the other and the junior troops to drag the body to the boat. By dawn the second Argentine landing in the Falklands has ended.

[chico20854]

August 27, 1997

As a result of the third interception of Spetsnaz teams in northeastern Canada, the decision is made to leave one battalion-equivalent (10 teams) of the Native Canadian Ranger Regiment in the east.

Unofficially,

With its supply lines under threat, Third German Army orders a general withdrawal, ordering V German Korps to defend Tarnow from the Poles, XI US Corps to hold Rzeszow, VII US Corps to stage a fighting withdrawal to the Wisla at Sandomierz and Tarnobrzeg and Panzergruppe Oberdorff to maintain a screen to the north between it and the southern extent of First German Army's VI German Korps, which is holding Lublin against 1st Guards Tank Army.

The last US Marines and German troops are evacuated from Baltiysk, and as the naval task force retreats over the horizon the USS Newport News levels what remains intact in the city (it had been nuked by the Soviets on August 12) with an 8-inch tactical nuclear round.

III US Corps withdraws from the Soviet border into far northeastern Poland; the broken terrain of the Masurian Lakes region is used to the American's advantage, as the many chokepoints created by the topography are easily defended by small detachments, and present lucrative targets for tactical nuclear weapons once abandoned.

The 41st Army is brought west from reserve positions near Vienna to reinforce the Pact effort in Bavaria, leaving the 2nd Czech Army on occupation duty.

The 197th Field Artillery Brigade, which has remained in Norway rebuilding following the collapse of the Murmansk offensive, has received enough guns to field six howitzers per battery. (A full-strength battery fields eight howitzers).

The first of two convoys carrying the Portugese 1st Mechanzied Brigade departs Lisbon, bound for Turkey. Six other ships are in the Lisbon area loading the remainder of the brigade and 30 days of supplies.

American carrier aircraft and the F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron continue to clear an air corridor over the Adriatic, striking Italian mobile radars and returning to several air bases to impede repair efforts.

The Jugoslav Army has managed to move additional troops to its exposed and vulnerable border sectors, leaving the mountainous center of the country largely bereft of regular troops (but swarming with motivated Territorial Defense part-time troops, under control of the republican governments). The 4th Corps is moved from Sarejevo to the Croatian-Hungarian border and the 17th Corps is moved to the west bank of teh Danube at the Hungarian border. The 9th Corps is moved to the northwest to reinforce the battered 5th Army and further delay the slowing Italian advance from Slovenia. The move leaves the Adriatic coast lightly defended, a risk that the Jugoslav command deems acceptable given the battering the Greek and Italian navies have recevied from the 6th Fleet.

Soviet troops arrive in the outskirts of Dakali, Iran, on the western edge of the Zagros Mountains, having pushed the 9th Infantry Divison and 101st Air Assault Division nearly 750 km south in four short weeks. (American commanders maintain that much of that distance was territory abandoned by overextended American troops, but acknowledge the great distance covered). The exhausted combatants on both sides pause before a battle for the town erupts.

Indian troops in Pakistan launch an offensive in the south, committing nearly 50,000 troops. The Indian command abandons sophisticated plans for an armored thrust that can be exploited, instead planning on using its masses of troops to overwhelm the Pakistani defense. Losses on the first day exceed 5,000 men.

[chico20854]

August 28, 1997

With the border stripped of soldiers, Somali Islamist troops push down into northern Kenya to establish their leader’s goal of establishing Greater Somalia. Sudanese Muslim militias and Ethiopian marauders invade as well to grab their share of the spoils. The Kenyans try to slow them down but continue to lose more and more territory each day. A Tanzanian infantry regiment attacks across Lake Victoria and succeeds in seizing Kisumu, overwhelming the small garrison there and forcing the Kenyans to even further stretch their defensive lines around Nairobi.

Unofficially,

Calling into question the prior day's decision, a major Soviet force lands on the coast of British Columbia. The 14th (my 99th) Motor-Rifle Division lands a task force in the Alexander Archipelago, cutting off traffic in the Inside Passage and isolating Juneau from surface traffic. The task force's artillery (a battery of 85mm D-44 guns) catches the Alaska state highway ferry Matanuska passing by, sinking her with several well-aimed volleys. To its south, the 71st Tank Division lands at Prince Rupert, British Columbia and begins moving inland.

The situation in China is unclear, even to Soviet commanders. After over a month of nuclear attacks the Chinese Communist government has collapsed, its few remaining nuclear forces under the control of local commanders out of touch with higher headquarters. Following Soviet attacks on major production, transportation and command centers refugees flee the remaining cities lest they be caught in the next attack. Isolated PLA units are standing and fighting, most notably those remaining in North Korea, which are receiving limited logistical and air support from American and British naval and air forces that still control the Yellow Sea. In Manchuria Soviet forces are cautiously advancing, limited by the flow of POWs and refugees headed for the relative safety of Soviet lines and slowed by the rapid reallocation of fuel, ammunition and supplies to the European theater. In Inner Mongolia, numerous units flung themselves headlong south, outrunning their supply lines and, in some cases, their radio communications with higher headquarters. In central and southern China, where national government authority has collapsed but enemy forces are hundreds of miles away (at least) local Party officials, military commanders and traditional leaders struggle amongst themselves for control of their areas. Life for all Chinese citizens in this situation is disastrous, with the breakdown of transportation networks to move people, fuel and food, dangerous levels of radioactivity from Soviet strikes and rapid emergence of disease on a biblical scale.

At sunrise, the first flight of AT-33B armed trainers lands at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. The six aircraft are assigned to the 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron; the squadron's maintenance crews begin working the aircraft over after their long transatlantic flights.

Shortly after midnight a Soviet coast defense missile battery, down to two 4K51 Rubezh (SSC-3) launchers after months of playing cat-and-mouse with Allied aircraft and special forces, launches a volley at the retreating Allied naval task force. One of the missiles is shot down by a missile fired by the USS Coontz, one misses, and two strike - one hitting the Newport News and the other obliterating the Danish corvette Olfert Fischer. The crew of the Newport News gets the fires under control by dawn, but the ship needs to be repaired, so it begins the long voyage back to the US.

VII German Korps, the last NATO unit on the border with the Russian Kaliningrad enclave, evacuates to a more defensible line to the south, maintaining a tight linkage with the American III Corps to its east. The close terrain is of equal advantage to the Germans as the neighboring Americans, giving time for the German corps support troops to make a final salvage sweep through the region to secure spare parts, salvagable replacement vehicles and munitions to sustain the former East German Army 3rd Army, which the corps is the remnant of.

The Soviet 50th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Carpathian Military District, is attached to the Polish 3rd Army as a stiffener. The 50th is badly understrength, with only two battalions of tanks in each tank regiment and its motor-rifle regiment relying on requisitioned trucks from farms, factories and mines of Ukraine. Its artillery is of Second World War vintage, but the division is graced with a capable and charismatic commanding general, K.V. Beregovoi, whose honesty and sense of duty had exiled him in prewar days to command of a reserve division.

As SOSUS reports the transit of a Soviet submarine westbound leaving the Mediterranean (which American P-3s are unable to localize and attack), CINCIBERLANT authorizes the mining of the Straits of Gibraltar. An inbound and westbound lane are maintained for friendly shipping and for neutrals that accept a local pilot.

STAVKA directs the transfer of the 16th Army, which started the war in Hungary, was bloodied in Romania early in the year before being withdrawn for the invasion of Austria, back to Hungary in preparation for an upcoming effort to crush the NATO force in the Balkans before the Allies can rush reinforcements through the re-opened Mediterranean.

In Iran, as supplies in the surrounded airhead of Yadz continue to diminish (despite the herculean efforts of transport aircraft and helicopter pilots) and the front lines retreat farther south, the commander of the 1st Marine Division orders his subordinate commanders and their staff to begin preparations for a breakout to rejoin the rest of I MEF along the coast.

[chico20854]

August 29, 1997

Noting official for the day!

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

The first units of the 70th Guards Motor-Rifle Division begin loading their less-damaged vehicles aboard train cars in southern Mongolia for transit to Europe.

In North Korea, the American 23rd Infantry Division (Light) has its supply lines cut as it serves as the rear guard of the IX Corps retreating from the road and rail hub of Hyangsan in the mountainous center of the country.

Due to the chaotic situation behind the lines, the overburdened and ineptly run Soviet rail system finally delivers the last troop train containing the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards) Tank Division to the front in Western Ukraine, where it joins 1st Guards Tank Army.

The 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron flies its first close air support sorties since early July, in support of the 10th Mountain Division's defense against the Italian 4th Alpini Corps in southwestern Germany.

The last American conventional troops depart Ukrainian territory as XI Corps withdraws westward; special operations forces remain behind, seeking targets for NATO nuclear weapons, organizing and assisting pro-NATO partisans and desperately searching for Soviet nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

CIA operatives note the transit of trains carrying armored vehicles across the Dnieper River north of Zaporozhye. Within hours the trains have been located by American spy satellites.

The first flight departs Frankfurt, Germany carrying excess command and support personnel from the 40th Infantry Division, which has been reduced to one brigade by nuclear attacks earlier in the month.

Rifleman Goreng Nassang, VC, still with the 1/7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles in Iran, uses his trusty GPMG in defense of his company's position helping to hold the transport hub of Sirjan, Iran. He uses his gun in indirect fire mode; when combined with other guns from his platoon they catch a company of dismounted infantry from the 108th Motor-Rifle Division's 180th Motor-Rifle Regiment and inflict heavy casaulties and disrupting the Soviet attack.

The Royal Navy patrol craft Leeds Castle arrives off Port Stanley in the Falklands Islands. The ship had been pulled from its South Atlantic patrol ship duties earlier in the war, but the threat of Argentine adventurism has called for its return to the area.

[chico20854]

August 30, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day (that I'm using... GDW has the 5th Marine Division entering combat in Korea today; I have the 5th in action in Poland at this point). Unofficially,

3rd Brigade, 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-10 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and, as the last brigade in the division to complete a NTC rotation following its retraining and re-equipment with the Abrams/Bradley weapons systems, the entire division is declared combat ready, nearly a year after mobilization.

The 11th Infantry Brigade is declared combat ready after completing Rotation 97-10 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas and transferred by road to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma for immediate deployment to Korea.

The 22nd Motor-Rifle Division, relocated from central Alaska, takes advantage of the cover provided by the 99th Motor-Rifle Division to undertake a follow-up landing at Skagway, Alaska. The weak guard company there is quickly overrun and Soviet troops begin advancing east into British Columbia towards Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon Territory 110 miles away.

Army engineers complete construction of a secure storage facility in Glady, West Virginia, in an abandoned railroad tunnel and FEMA begins stocking it with food, weapons, generators, clothing, tents and other supplies.

Poor weather over much of the Korean Peninsula returns to the mountains of central North Korea, preventing Army and Air Force transport units from flying resupply missions to the encircled 23rd Infantry Division (Light). Special Operations aircraft have the ability to reach the isolated 23rd, but to its commander's frustration, are assigned to other missions. (Although widely criticized by the division's veterans in the years following the war, the few MC-141s, MC-130s, MH-53s and MH-60s in the theater are not able to transport even 10 percent of the tonnage of supplies the 23rd needs on a daily basis).

VII US Corps is subjected to multiple, repeated attacks from two Soviet armies - the veteran 8th Guards and the 1st Shock, a relatively fresh formation composed of some of the Red Army's finest parade divisions and other units from around Moscow. The battle, as the Americans retreat from the Ukrainian border, sees both sides slinging nuclear weapons at the other's rear areas as the front-line troops press close to each other to prevent the other side from using nukes on them.

The USS John F Kennedy and America conclude four days of strikes on the Italian and Greek air defenses over the Adriatic as F-14s of VF-33 escort a flight of six C-17s of the 20th Airlift Squadron into Tuzla Air Base, Jugoslavia carrying supplies and munitions for the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania Air National Guard).

A task force of fast transports leaves Gibraltar carrying munitions, vehicles and spares for the beleaguered Jugoslav and Romanian armies. Sixth Fleet task forces are stripped of escorts to protect the convoy, while the battleship Wisconsin surface action group prepares for a sortie into the Adriatic.

The Albanian Army reports that it has more or less completed its mobilization, having called up over a quarter million reservists to bring their forces up to full strength. The effects on the economy are, convieniently, not mentioned, especially since the Albanian economy has consistently been the worst in Europe.

The 487th Tactical Missile Wing fires 24 missiles into Ukraine; PVO missiles and interceptors shoot down seven while crossing the Black Sea, and three others are shot down over Ukraine. Two malfunction, and a dozen explode over central Ukraine, where the trains carrying the 341st (my 22nd Guards) Tank Division are en route to Romania.

The final supply route into Shiraz is cut when troops of the 1st (my 9th) Army's 145th and 147th Motor-Rifle Divisions link up south of the city, and the second siege of the city begins. The city's government, having experienced a prior siege, is relatively well prepared - food has been stockpiled and many non-essential civilians evacuated to the coast.

The Soviet Air Defense Force (the PVO) makes a concerted effort to intercept a R-5D Aurora hypersonic spyplane. After an agent in the US alerts Moscow of an Aurora carrier taking off, the PVO sets up an airborne ambush. A line of MiG-31 interceptors is established at 100km intervals over the Urals, cruising at 40,000 feet and loaded with experimental infra-red seeking AA-13 AAMs, while outside Moscow the remaining Su-47s of the 91st Fighter Regiment scramble. The effort is detected by the NSA's ELINT satellites, which alert the Aurora before it is launched. The alert prompts the execution of the pre-briefed alternative flight plan over Central Asia, exiting over western China and looping northward across the Pacific for recovery.

The Argentine submarine Salta returns to the Mar del Plata naval base and the commando team disembarks. The rebellious senior NCO is sent to the brig to await court martial.

[chico20854]

August 31, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day! Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Santa Fe Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The area of responsibility of the First Maritime Defense District (formerly the First Coast Guard District, under command of Rear Admiral Scott MacDowell) is adjusted to encompass the area from the Rhode Island-Connecticut border to the Canadian border.

In Alaska, the 99th Motor-Rifle Division follows up on its earlier landing with a successful attack on Juneau. The attack is opened with a tactical nuclear strike on the command post of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (located in the town's high school), which leaves the defense in disarray. The veteran Soviet arctic troops are able to sweep aside the defenders, composed of the remnants of the 172nd that survived the battles outside Anchorage, the 4th battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon), cut off from its headquarters, as well as a hodgepodge of policemen, state guards, coast guardsmen and local volunteer militia. The surviving defenders evacuate into the hills overlooking the town, where they form the core of a partisan movement which hampers the Soviet occupation force for many months to come.

A C-5 airlifter of the 75th Airlift Squadron unloads the first two PAMSS - Palletized Armored Shelter Systems - at Osan Air Base in Korea. The systems are standard 20-foot cargo containers, reinforced with Kevlar armor, converted to serve as headquarters shelters, with diesel generators, climate control and a NBC overpressure system, intended for lighter units that do not have M577 or M4 armored command posts. The PAMSS is transported by an armored M1074 PLS truck and intended for battalion and higher headquarters in light divisions as well as towed artillery battery headquarters and fire direction centers. Development was extended due to (idiotic) bureaocracy within the Pentagon, who argued that fielding the PAMSS would impact the deployability of light divisions despite the fact that nearly all of the Army's light divisions have already been deployed. The prototype PAMSS are headed to the 1st Brigade, 7th Infantry Infantry Division for field testing; production of additional systems continues at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama.

As the troops of the 11th Panzergrenadier Division, part of V German Korps, begin to crumble after days of ceasless attacks from the Polish 3rd Army, Third German Army orders a nuclear attack to break the Polish momentum and disrupt their supply lines. A flight of Luftwaffe Tornado strike aircraft drop 60kt B-61 bombs on the massed guns of the 120th Artillery Regiment, the narrow road leading north through the Wisloka River valley and, for good measure, the town of Jasło, with its small oil refinery and transport links.

Convoy 418 from Oman arrives of the southeastern US coasts, dispatching its surviving 37 ships, including the Victory ship Wayne Victory, to Jacksonville, Florida, Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina.

As nightfall comes, Marines along the northern edge of the Yadz perimeter begin to fall back, abandoning their positions. Overhead, Navy and Marine Corps EA-6 jamming aircraft shut down 40th Army's command-and-control radio network, and a F/A-18 of VMFA-323 drops a B-61 tactical nuclear bomb on the headquarters of the 210st Motor-Rifle Division's 395th Motor-Rifle Regiment, which is blocking the southern approaches to Yadz. The 1st Marine Division's 5th Regiment goes on the offensive, overwhelming the veteran Soviet troops. 1st Marine Division's breakout from the Yadz pocket has begun.

British intelligence receives word of the impending court martial of the naval commando. It seeks verification before ordering the SAS team to stand down its hunt.

[chico20854]

More next week! Enjoy the weekend!

[Homer]

Awesome update!

The PAMSS sounds like an interesting idea. Assuming it’s an ISO 20 foot container, it can deploy on C-5/C-17 and move intratheater on a C-130 with handling kit. The issue would be tactical movement since the PLS truck isn’t on the L series MTOE for light/airborne/air assault infantry/artillery battalions or infantry brigades at this point. The division MSB has 9 PLS trucks, almost invariably managed as division assets and anecdotally ending up spending NTC/JRTC/BCTP events dropping skids of ammo to support DIVARTY, dropping skids of barrier material and mines to support the engineer obstacle plan, or helping to jump the DIV Main/AVN Assembly Area or BSA/DSA. If additional PLS are fielded with the system, they will require the fielding of suitable recovery and maintenance assets and personnel in the FSB and BDE/BN HHC/HHB, change the fuel and POL resupply requirements (PLS and HEMMT vehicles seem to drink oil and fluids like there’s no tomorrow!) and will change the transportation equation (a PLS can’t be slung under a chinook or flown in a C-130) for air assault and air mobility operations.

However, there are 5 ton M1087 expando-vans with mobile, plug and play type shelters. The M1086 LWB MTV is also made to move up to an ISO 20 foot container and has onboard MHE and winch (M1085 is base LWB). The MTV is already organic to DISCOM, DIVARTY, AVN, and the DIV base, so assets could be reallocated, or additional systems supported relatively easily. There are also shelter options for the LMTV and HMMWV (s-250/s-788/SICPS, etc). As designed they’re soft, but some have the ability to provide GPFU/over pressure, EMP isolation, and accept ballistic panels. However, dismounting ISO based shelters in a field environment requires dedicated MHE not present at any echelon in the Division.

They do need something considering the average light infantry bn TOC of the era is a few SICP tents moved around in the back of the S-3 shop’s LMTV and set up with mapboards hung on the wall, radios mounted on tables and broadcasting with OE-254s. The TOC personnel were housed in poncho hooches around the perimeter roughly aligning to their defensive sector. Camo nets were hung over SICP tents and associated vehicles (All HMMWVs parked with hoods up and mirrors turned in!). Easy to hide, but exceptionally unsurvivable, time consuming to move, and a cramped and miserable smelling place to work in at night with the sides of the SICPS tents down! Just being able to crank vehicles and drive away in an emergency would make a huge difference to TOC survivability.

Digging the “Escape from Yazd”! “Death of a Motor-Rifle Division” handout to follow?

[chico20854]

September 1, 1997

Nothing official today! Unofficially,

map of front lines from the Baltic to Pakistani border

The 199th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys a detachment to the Pacific Test Range Facility airport at Barking Sands, Hawaii. This remote location will spare the squadron from the nuclear attack on its home station of Hickam Air Force Base in November.

The 22nd Motor-Rifle Division reaches White Pass, on the border between British Columbia and Alaska, and clashes with a small RCMP detachment.

New equipment authorizations (Tables of Organization and Equipment) for US Army units go into effect, taking into account the lessons of the past year's battles and developments in American war production. Two of the changes include authorizing the M1-A2D as a substitute standard tank for armor battalions and armored cavalry squadrons and creation of an engineer section within the service battery of towed artillery battalions, equipped with four Small Emplacement Excavators - Unimog light trucks fitted with a dozer bucket and backhoe to dig gun emplacements and fighting positions.

The so-called "Shangri-La" Air Base in far southwestern China, the US Air Force launches its first operational mission, receiving a KC-135 tanker of the 117th Air Refuelling Squadron (Kansas National Guard) after it drained its tanks into a B-2 bomber that made the flying wing's first penetration into the Soviet Union. (more below).

The South Korean 2nd Armored Brigade launches an attack against Soviet covering forces in an attempt to break through to the surrounded American 23rd Infantry Division. The skillful Soviet defenders of the 192nd Motor-Rifle Division use minefields and artillery fire to channel the ROK tanks into a narrow valley approach route, where dismounted infantry equipped with AT-4 anti-tank missiles, artillery and the attack helicopters of the 364th Helicopter Regiment are able to inflict heavy losses on the Korean force, pushing them back to their start lines by dusk.

At the urging of the commander of NATO's NORTHAG, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force assigns the remnants of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing's A-10 force (17 aircraft) solely to support the embattled V US Corps. Based at the former Polish Air Force base at Powidz east of Poznan (and associated highway strips nearby) , the wing quickly establishes a standing patrol of tank-busters over the American force. The aircraft see nearly constant action countering Soviet attacks or trimming back outlying positions along the corps' flanks.

The situation of NATO troops in northeastern Poland is growing increasingly perilous as three NATO corps (the III US, II British and VII German) with eight divisions in total try to cover a nearly 170-mile front against superior numbers of Soviet troops (18 divisions). The NATO force is operating at the end of a very long supply line, one plagued by poor rail and road links, near-constant partisan attacks and limited numbers of support and transport troops.

Ships carrying the first contingent of the Portugese 1st Independent Mixed Brigade (the support battalion, air defense battery, one of the motorized infantry battalions and the engineer company) arrive at the port of Antalya and begin unloading. Due to the uncertain situation, the brigade's troops have to negotiate with the local army units and civil authorities, who are not expecting the unit and are already under considerable stress from the reverses suffered in the north.

The battleship Wisconsin, entering the Adriatic, pounds Greek coast defense positions on Corfu, protected against anti-ship missiles by the Aegis destroyer USS Barry, trailing 500 meters behind the battlewagon.

The 1st Marine Division evacuates the Yadz pocket, having held off the Soviet 40th Army for several weeks. In their departure the Yadz Airport and a smaller expeditionary airfield constructed by American engineers are thoroughly destroyed to prevent their use by the enemy. The American force is moving relatively slowly, with several battalions of troops on foot, the force's vehicles loaded down with supplies to sustain the withdrawal. Their progress is challenged by the remainder of the battle-hardened 201st Motor-Rifle Division, veterans of Afghanistan, which throws its two remaining motor-rifle regiments at the Marine's flanks while raking the American column with artillery fire. Marine helicopters and tactical aviation seek out the Soviet guns and the Marines cover seven miles of the the distance to Bandar Abbas.

To the north and west, the 1st (my 9th) Army settles into field positions surrounding Shiraz, while the 45th (my 32nd) Army is too exhausted to press an attack on the 101st Air Assault Division, which holds the town of Dakali, blocking an exit from the Zagros onto the coastal plain along the Persian Gulf.

The US Strategic Air Command launches its first "Golden Spike" mission to slow the flow of reinforcements from the Far Eastern Front to the fighting in Europe. A lone B-2 bomber crosses the Altai Mountains (where China, Mongolia and the USSR converge) after dark, weaving between Soviet air defense radars to remain out of their detection ranges and soon heads east, on a track parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. At a pre-determined point it turns on its AN/APQ-181 radar, searching for a troop train spotted heading west, and soon locates it. The bomber waits for the train to reach a bridge (over the Uda river, a tributary of the Yenesi) drops a single B-61 tactical nuclear bomb fitted with a modified JDAM guidance unit. The blast leaves the bridge over the Uda a tangled mess, tosses the locoomotive into the river and rips the loaded railcars apart; the surviving contents are lit on fire. The B-2 continues down the line, seeking additional troop trains or SS-24 rail-mobile ICBMs. Finding neither, it turns north for egress over the Arctic, launching a trio of SRAM II missiles with 200 kt nuclear warheads at three air defense radar stations generally along its exit route. Once over the North Pole the aircraft refuels from a waiting SAC tanker and returns to its home base, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.

[bash]

This thread reads like a nuclear armed version of Red Storm Rising. The Google maps are fantastic. Such good work.

[chico20854]

September 2, 1997

Transcaucasian Front's offensive (coupled with a lack of supplies arriving from home) has largely pushed Third Army back to it's original starting positions.

Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler and his peers graduate from Advanced Individual Training. Because of the serious situation on the ground in Europe, the class is bussed to Shaw Air Force Base 30 miles away, where a chartered 767 awaits to fly the newly trained light wheeled vehicle mechanics to Germany as replacements. The plane has just finished flying the last remaining excess command and support personnel from the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) home from Germany after the division was pounded by Soviet nuclear weapons near Warsaw in August.

In Alaska, X Corps stands up a new unit, the 2nd Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment, to provide additional transportation support to the embattled corps. The battalion is formed by mass requistioning of Alaska's fleet of bush planes and conscription of their pilots, a move that is not without considerable controversy, especially among the pilots and owners of those aircraft (often the same people). Company A is equipped with Twin Otter aircraft, adding to the Alaska National Guard's small fleet of the type, Company B is equipped with DeHavilland Beaver floatplanes (ironically, many of which are former US Army aircraft), Company C with Cessnas and Company D, the heavy lift company, operates six Grumman Goose flying boats and a like number of DC-3 transports. The new formation is based at Fort Wainwright, but it operates over the vast state, much as the aircraft did as commercial bush pilots.

A warning is received that Soviet missiles and bombers are inbound towards the UK. The Royal Family and Prime Minister are rushed onto helicopters and are over the outskirts of London when word is received that it is a false alarm, and they quickly return.

The Soviet 35th Army diverts much of its remaining artillery from the front lines facing the Americans, Commonwealth and South Koreans to firing missions against the surrounded and isolated American 23rd Infantry Division. A break in the weather allows a handful of helicopters to slip into the surrounded unit's enclave, dropping off ammunition and food and evacuating several dozen wounded.

The 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) arrives aboard Air Force and civilian transport aircraft at Kimpo Air Base, Korea.

Third German Army's order to withdraw to the vicinity of the Wisla River is mirrored by the Second German Army in northern Poland. All effort is to be made to restore contact with First German Army's V US Corps to the south, as 7th Tank Army has severed contact and, despite the nuclear strikes in Bialystok, is making progress towards Warsaw.

In Munich, the commander of the Italian forces holds a conference with the commander of the 1st Southwestern Front, Marshall V.I. Avdeev, to try to formalize what has been heretofore an ad-hoc effort to coordinate the invasion of southern Germany. Bundeswehr stay-behind troops launch an unsuccessful ambush on the Italian commander as he leaves the Soviet command compound in an upscale area of the Bavarian capital.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia detects a coastal convoy running along north Russian coast and closes on it. The Soviets score a rich prize when a Tu-22M2DP interceptor stumbles across the weekly ferry flight of new-production A-10Bs (accompanied by a KC-135E of the 191st Air Refuelling Squadron) from the US to Europe. The converted Soviet bomber is able to down three of the four attack aircraft as well as the tanker (the survivor diverting to Keflavik, Iceland), escaping back to Severomorsk unscathed.

The carriers John F Kennedy and America launch another round of air strikes on Italian military positions along the Adriatic coast. At dusk a S-3 Viking patrol aircraft from the America spots a squadron of Italian missile craft sortieing from Brindisi; it remains on station as the carrier strike group responds. The two F/A-18s from the SURCAP (anti-surface combat air patrol) are the first to arrive, followed by four additional F/A-18s launched from Kennedy, and the destroyer Caron is dispatched at flank speed to engage with its two 5-inch guns. By 2200 hours the missile boat force has been broken up, with eight of the ten Italian craft sunk or sinking and two fleeing the area at high speed.

The Soviet military reacts to the prior day's Golden Spike airstrike on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A commission from Moscow is dispatched to the headquarters of the 39th Air Defense Corps in Irkutsk to evaluate what the raid looked like to the defenses. The Railroad Troops dispatch the 44th Railroad Brigade to repair or replace the damaged bridge and clear the remains of the train off the line before restoring it to service.

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by bash

This thread reads like a nuclear armed version of Red Storm Rising. The Google maps are fantastic. Such good work.

Glad you're enjoying it!!!!

[chico20854]

Septmber 3, 1997

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The survivors of the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) returned to California are granted two weeks of leave to recover before reporting to Camp Rilea, Oregon to begin forming a new division.

FEMA begins to restock the Defense Logistics Agency storage depot in Pontiac, Michigan, which has been largely emptied of its reserve of machine tools.

As casualties mount on the continent, the House of Commons introduces a conscription bill.

The air over China is the clearest it has been in years as combat operations wind down. The American Volunteer Group II, sucessors to the Flying Tigers of World War Two, are disbanded, surviving aircraft, ground crew and pilots joining USAF and US Naval air units in the Korean Theater. Their Soviet opponents are transferred west, mostly to European skies, although a few aircraft are directed to the skies over Iran.

Pro-Communist guerrillas remain active behind the lines in Poland. Outside the Polish city of Wegrow east of Warsaw a band captures two American soldiers who were travelling (against standing orders) in a lone vehicle, a M1009 CUCV Blazer. The prisoners are Father (Major) John Burroughs, chaplain for 2nd Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, and his assistant, Specialist Karl Cray. The vehicle is hidden in a nearby grove and the prisoners rushed away.

The US Army orders the transfer of the 197th Field Artillery Brigade from USAEUR to Alaska. The formation, in reserve since July, have become experts in Arctic warfare and will add badly needed firepower to X Corps' effort to halt the Soviet offensive in Alaska.

The Olympia attacks the Russian coastal convoy, sinking the corvette SKR-29 with a Harpoon missile and the freighters Bratsk and Kuloy and icebreaker Dikson with torpedoes. The minesweeper RT-350 and the small tanker Imant Sudmalis escaped, radioing for assistance.

The battleship Wisconsin engages Greek coastal positions with its massive 16-inch guns as the resupply convoy enters the Adriatic with a vital cargo of supplies and munitions for the NATO effort in the Balkans. Aircraft from Sixth Fleet carriers patrol overhead, easily dealing with the feeble effort of the Greek Air Force to interfere with the ships' passage.

Private Randall Cutler and 179 other recently graduated support soldiers arrive at Rhein Main Air Force Base in Germany. They are rushed onto busses to a nearby Bundeswehr Kaserne where Army personnel staff assign them to units as replacements.

Pro-Soviet Kurdish partisans launch an attack on the Batman Air Base in southeastern Turkey. When Turkish security troops respond to the truck bomb they use to breach the perimeter fence, a Spetsnaz team from the 15th Spetsnaz Brigade slips over the perimeter fence on the far side of the base. They attack several hardened aircraft shelters, capturing three of them (at the cost of 17 men), one of which contains a F-16 of the 149th Tactical Fighter Group. They destroy the aircraft and grab what documentation they can before withdrawing; thankfully the Batman base is not one of the six Turkish air bases that host American tactical nuclear weapons.

The 1st Marine Division continues its movement southward towards the Persian Gulf; the division commander, Major General John P. Leonard (proceeding on foot most of the way), describes the effort as "continuing the attack, just to our south". The command takes the unconventional decision to travel across the barren Dasht-e-Lut desert, which is much more lightly patrolled by the Soviet 40th Army. The Marine's native guides, provided by the IPA, identify underground qanat aqueducts that the command can use; when those have been left behind the command is reliant on what water is already aboard the division's vehicles and what is flown in by the nightly resupply flights from the coast.

The lead company of the 44th Railroad Brigade reaches the site of the Golden Spike nuclear strike in eastern Siberia by truck. The company commander reports that residual radiaition in the area is still at a high level. When the brigade commander orders him to have his company don their protective garments and conduct a site survey and begin work the young senior lieutenant is forced to tell the colonel that his unit was never issued protective garments, the unit's prewar stocks diverted to China in 1996 and never replaced.

[chico20854]

September 4, 1997

Nothing official today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Cook Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas while the Albany Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) completes Rotation 97-10 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready. It is initially assigned to the Army's strategic reserve.

The destroyer USS Howard is commissioned in Bath, Maine and begins shakedown training before being committed to action, assigned to the Fourth Fleet in the Atlantic. The shipyard at Bath has two more destroyers (the McCambell and Mason) in the water fitting out and six more in various states of construction ashore or in the yard's drydocks.

Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team, down to four men, ambushes a pair of army Land Rovers 10km from Erskine Barracks, Wiltshrie, killing six soldiers from HQ, UK Land Forces.

In southern China, the Soviet 1st Indochinese Front has established two of its three divisions as occupying forces in the cities of Nanning and Kunming, while its Vietnamese allies have sent troops to occupy areas of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. Two Vietnamese task forces land forces in the Paracel and Spratley Islands, asserting control of the disputed islands in the South China Sea and taking advantage of their neighbor's collapse.

Private Randall Cutler is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, part of the 36th Infantry Division, as a wheeled vehicle mechanic working on the battalion's HMMWVs, CUCVs, Avengers and trucks.

The two prisoners captured the day before by Polish partisans are blindfolded and held in the group's hideout, the basement of an abandoned furniture factory.

A week after being hit by NATO nuclear bombs, 3rd Polish Army resumes its drive north out of the foothills of the Carpathians, with Polish infantry riding on the exterior of Soviet tanks of the 50th Tank Division. To the east, XI and VII US Corps withdraw another 10 km, destroying roads and bridges as they retreat behind a screen maintained by the corps' armored cavalry regiments, the 107th and 2nd.

No Soviet surface ships are available to assist the convoy attacked by the Olympia, but some ASW aircraft are called into the area. A lone Tu-142 Bear-F, two Il-78 Mays and a Be-14 flying boat all fly sorties over the area, but have little luck locating the creeping American boat.

The NATO resupply convoy arrives at the Jugoslav ports of Split and Ploce, bringing vitally needed replacement munitions, fuel and spare parts. The USS Wisconsin, accompanying the convoy, launches a volley of four Tomahawk cruise missiles against Italian logistic and transportation sites.

The John F Kennedy and America launch airstrikes on Italian naval targets, returning to Brindisi in search of the two missile boats that survived the battle on the 2nd. They are located hiding among the pleasure boats in the harbor's yacht marina; the air strikes destroy billions of Lire worth of luxury. Military Airlift Command begins routing transports from Germany and the Netherlands to central Norway, where the 197th Field Artillery brigade is moving to Orland and Vaernes air bases for transit to Alaska.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), serving as I MEF's counterattack force along the shore of the Persian Gulf, launches a raid from the outskirts of Bandar Abbas, forcing the 108th Motor-Rifle Division to expend scarce supplies and also convincing the division commander that releasing reserves northward to counter the 1st Marine Division could leave his own command in a precarious place.

[chico20854]

September 5, 1997

With the UK completely committed in Europe, the Middle East and China, Kenya appeals to the US to commit substantial forces to aid them in their fight against the various invading forces and seaborne commerce raiders. The US government, although already deeply mired in Europe and facing the specter of all out nuclear war on the horizon, decides that Kenya was too valuable an ally to lose, especially as its naval and air bases are considered essential for defending the convoys bringing supplies to the RDF and vitally needed oil to the US. The President directs the Joint Chiefs to divert units currently tasked as reinforcements for the RDF to Kenya, with the first units to be air deployed immediately.

Unofficially,

The Governor of New York places his militia forces (the New York Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the Veteran Corps of Artillery) on alert for possible civil and security duties as the nuclear conflict continues around the world.

At Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Rodney Cutler is one of 250 graduates from his recruit training company. Cutler receives orders for Brownsville, Texas, where he will be assigned to the pre-commissioning unit for the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, which is currently a mass of steel over 500 feet long and seven stories high sitting in a dusty bayou bank.

Despite hours of debate in the House of Commons and heated opposition, the Conscription Bill is passed (by a narrow margin) in the early morning hours.

The 23rd Infantry Division, surrounded in the mountains of North Korea, is attacked at dusk from all sides after another day of intense artillery bombardment. The attack is led by waves of dismounted infantry, largely the remnants of North Korean army and militia units forced into service under the guns of their so-called Soviet allies. The American infantry largely defeat the attack, although one battalion, the 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry, is destroyed when North Korean infiltrators overrun its headquarters and a night of fierce, uncoordinated actions in the dark lead to three of the companies being overrun, with the loss of over 350 men. The night's action depletes the division's ammunition supplies; while successful, the 23rd has expended so much ammunition that another attack of that scale will exhaust the supplies, rendering the division's mortars and machineguns worthless.

VI German Korps, vulnerable to being cut off by Soviet tank armies, withdraws from Lublin, setting the central city afire before departing. The main body of the American XI Corps reaches the Wisla at Tarnobrzeg as the evacuation of rear area units picks up pace. To its north VII US Corps begins withdrawing across the Wisla at Sandomierz, under the air defense umbrella provided by the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. Panzergruppe Oberdorff moves northwest, trying to prevent the 1st Guards Tank Army from cutting off the German force evacuating Lublin; the 5th Infantry Division's artillery contributes to this by striking the lead Soviet tank regiment's headquarters (located by a hovering EH-60 ELINT helicopter) with a prompt tactical nuclear strike.

The German freighter Herm Kiepe is delivered in Hamburg. It sails immediately to Canada to load munitions and containerized grain, the crew of the 13,000-ton ship eager to clear the port, a potential target for Soviet missiles and bombs.

The USAF 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron withdraws from Trapani Birgi Air Base in Sicily, returning to its prior base in Gibraltar.

Italian, Hungarian and Soviet troops along the northern Jugoslav border receive increased allocations of fuel and munitions, part of the windfall from the collapse of the Chinese front, while commanders gather at a resort on Lake Balaton to discuss the next steps in the Balkan theater.

Fifth Fleet receives reassurances from the owners of the giant drydock in Dubai that they are nearing completion of the repairs to the supertanker Starlight Gigant, damaged by a Soviet anti-ship missile in June, and that the drydock will then be available for repairs to the damaged USS Independence. The American carrier is anchored in Muscat, Oman with torpedo damage, and the dock in Dubai is the only undamaged one in the region able to accomodate the carrier. (The large dock in Bahrain was damaged by Soviet missiles in April).

In Iran, the 48th Infantry Brigade continues its spoiling attack against the 108th Motor-Rifle Division, forcing the commitment of the Soviet 285th Tank Regiment's T-74s to seal off a break in the front line between the 177th and 181st MRRs.

To the north, the Soviet 4th Army pressures the Iranian I Corps, trying to drive a wedge between XVIII Airborne Corps' dual centers, at Bandar-e-Khomeyni and Bushehr; the US 24th Infantry Division is tied down by a probe launched by the 7th Army. In both these actions, the absence of the 6th ACCB, rebuilding in Saudi Arabia, is keenly felt as the depleted 9th Air Force struggles to maintain air defense, provide close air support and interdict Soviet supply lines over such a vast theater at the end of such a long supply line, with only a fraction of the aircraft it was supposed to have available.

[Homer]

Poor 1-46 IN. First overrun at FSB Mary Ann, now overrun in North Korea. Some units can’t catch a break!

[cawest]

now you have me wondering what this AU's amphibious assault ship Makin Island is going to be. LHD-8 was not laid down until 2004. this can be so many things, that i might lose sleep over this just waiting.

[chico20854]

September 6, 1997

Canon is silent on the day. Unofficially,

The fifth R-5D hypersonic spy plane is completed and handed over to the Air Force.

At Fort Bragg, North Carolina the 4th Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group is activated, slated for a rapid deployment to reinforce the rest of its parent headquarters in Africa. It is rapidly brought up to strength with an influx of recent graduates of the Special Forces Q-course and another shakedown of the Special Forces training and administrative structure for excess personnel that can be operationally deployed.

The final British Army regular ground unit, the 3rd Battalion, The Queen's Regiment, departs Northern Ireland, leaving the province's security solely in the hands of the Ulster Defense Regiment. The UDR is supported by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft operating from Aldergrove, which is protected by a squadron of the RAF Regiment. The Queens Regiment troops are sent to Catterick in preparation for deployment to Germany as part of 5th Infantry Division.

The 23rd Infantry Division, cut off in the mountains of North Korea, is struck by multiple Soviet tactical nuclear weapons. The division's LARS rocket battery, A Battery 16th Field Artillery, is struck by a SS-21 missile with a 10-kt warhead, while the 2nd Brigade headquarters is hit by a 152mm nuclear artillery round, disrupting the already weakened brigade. An ad-hoc infantry unit composed of rear-area troops, holding a supposedly quieter section of front, is hit by another SS-21, taking heavy losses. Large numbers of light anti-aircraft guns surrounding the division disrupt aerial resupply and South Korean troops some 20 km to the south are under heavy pressure from Soviet forces. With no relief possible and Soviet commanders rallying more North Korean troops for another night of human wave attacks, the division commander surrenders his command to the Soviet 35th Army in an effort to save the lives of as many of his soldiers as possible. Scattered small groups of American troops break out on foot, heading for friendly lines.

As the Warsaw Pact assault in southern Germany continues to make progress and NATO forces give ground in Poland, SACEUR directs the redeployment of the US VII Corps to Bavaria. The first unit to start moving west is the 2nd Corps Support Command, most of which has crossed the Wisla.

The Soviet raider Ostorozhnyy, which sank a straggler from Convoy 418 two weeks ago, sinks the neutral containership Elite, which was in the central Atlantic en route to France with a cargo of foodstuffs from South America.

The Soviet Black Sea fleet establishes a pontoon pier leading to the beach resort town of Zlatni Pyasatsi, Bulgaria, 17 km north of the port of Varna, which was struck by American GLCMs in August. This allows freighters to be unloaded across the beach, greatly increasing the amount of cargo the Soviets are able to transfer into Bulgaria. (Previously, cargo movement was largely limited to shallow-draft amphibious craft).

The 1st Marine Division continues its trek across the desert, heading south largely on foot. The Marines in the division rear guard (a rotating duty, with the prior day's rearguard battalions trucked to the head of the column and the rearmost battalions assuming the duty) are able to make use of the desert's unique rock formations to strengthen their holding power against 40th Army's pursuing forces, which are having a difficult time traversing the desert terrain.

The 44th Railroad Brigade receives a complement of protective garments and nuclear reconnaissance equipment to begin its efforts to clear the site of the American nuclear strike on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The delay has allowed radiation levels to drop slightly in the blast zone, although the unit commanders are dismayed to discover the level off radiation in their own bivouac areas.

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by cawest

now you have me wondering what this AU's amphibious assault ship Makin Island is going to be. LHD-8 was not laid down until 2004. this can be so many things, that i might lose sleep over this just waiting.

I'll have more on Makin Island; it is indeed LHD-8. As part of the US industrial mobilization, shipbuilding contracts are accelerated. Here is the last US Navy shipbuilding plan prior to the post-Cold War defense drawdown; the plan was for a dozen LHDs, probably one every other year after LHD-1 and -2 in the late 80s/early 90s. To speed things up, contracts for LHD-7 and LHD-8 are awarded to two shipyards in Texas that have the space to build something that big and complex, yards that in peacetime build offshore oil rigs. As you will see in coming updates, things don't work out so well...

[chico20854]

September 7, 1997

Isolated along the western coast of Korea, the US 25th Infantry Division (Light) strikes north, linking up with elements of Chinese 31st (my 3rd) Army. The Chinese force, sustained by US and British air and sea power, holds the mouth of the Yalu River and the city of Dadong, an island of relative stability. The British 6th Division has been in the enclave since late July.

Unofficially,

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is ordered to return to its home station at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania to await a full equipment set and transportation to an overseas theater. While waiting, it is assigned a variety of disaster relief and civil support duties in eastern Pennsylvania.

Another of the organizational changes that was authorized at the beginning of the month is the issuance of select-fire shotguns in infantry battalions; the Army expands its buy of SPAS-12s, previously issued to Military Police units as well as ordering thousands of HK-CAWs built under license by Olin Armaments. The plan is to issue an initial four to each infantry company in the Army, then expand the issue until there is one per squad.

The first draft notices are sent out across the UK.

Soviet troops begin the process of disaring the remnants of the 23rd Infantry Division and processing the over 6,000 POWs. Some are attacked by North Koreans eager for revenge on their nation's hated enemy.

Private Cutler is promoted to Private E-2, reflecting his early competence (he has a gift for understanding machinery, and he has yet to join the seemingly never-ending spades game in the motor pool''s break area) and the extent that his unit is understrength - Cutler occupies a position designated for a Specialist, a rank two above his new one.

Headquarters, VII Corps sets up in the town of Sandomierz, requisitioning the city's castle as headquarters. The Corps' 7th Engineer Brigade takes over operation of two Soviet pontoon bridges that had been captured in June, as well as surveying the railroad bridge a little ways downstream to ensure that it can be used as an emergency evacuation; the Corps commander is determined to keep traffic across the river flowing as smoothly as possible and preventing any massing of troops and equipment that can present a tempting nuclear target.

NATO's Operation Group Warsaw, the command responsible for the capture of the Polish capital, orders a cessation of offensive operations into the city, diverting armored vehicles and artillery towards the eastern side of the perimeter to defend against the approaching Soviet forces.

Likewise, a concerted effort is launched by I and XII German Korps to reduce the surrounded Baltic Front before it can be relieved by the rapidly progressing Pact counterattack, and along the Baltic coast the American II Marine Expeditoary Force launches a probing attack to seek a weak spot in the defense of the greatly shrunken Gdansk pocket, where the Polish 7th Marine Division has been holed up for many months.

A French naval Atlantique 3 patrol aircraft, dispatched from French Guiana, searches for the Soviet raider that sank a merchantman en route to France the prior day. The hunt is not successful.

The damaged heavy cruiser USS Newport News, struck by a Soviet SSC-3 coast defense missile in the Baltic, arrives at the (former) Brooklyn Navy Yard to begin repairs. It is placed in the drydock next to the one containing the USS Dale, which was struck by a SS-N-19 fired by an Oscar-class sub in July.

The air defense commission from Moscow completes its review of the radar record from last week's American stealth bomber penetration of the USSR. Given the limittations of the recording they are unable to reach any useful conclusion; the commander of the relevant sector radar unit is, however, relieved of command and sent to the front as an infantry lieutenant.