On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

March 20, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 21, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 22, 1997

Nothing in the canon today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 23, 1997

Yet another day with nothing in the canon! Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 24, 1997

Nothing in the canon today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 25, 1997

Yet another day with nothing official! Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 26, 1997

Yet another day where I am forced to improvise!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 27, 1997

Nothing official for today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 28, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 29, 1997

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 30, 1997

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 31, 1997

A really busy day considering that there is nothing in the canon!

TF 40.1 (the Lexington and her escorts) is ordered north to counter Soviet raiders operating out of Cuba.

In Oakland, California the Victory Ship Hannibal Victory exits the shipyard and moves to the commercial terminal to load bulk food for Korea, while the freighter Joseph Lykes moves to the Concord Naval Weapons Station to load ammunition for Korea.

The Vol'nyy, one of the Skory-class destroyers which broke out of Petropavlovsk earlier in the month, reaches the Philippines and finds cover in one of the thousands of islands, where it meets up with the Soviet fishing tanker Ust-Karsk, which has been hidden since the outbreak of the war.

Over Poland, a second night of NATO airstrikes, on a smaller scale than the night before, continues the effort to disrupt the Polish transportation network and attrit Pact formations close to the front.

Command arrangements for the forthcoming offensive into Poland are finalized. Nine NATO Corps are split between the three German armies (four corps in First German Army, three in Second and two in the Third), with each supported by an additional corps of German regulars, territorials and border guards in East Germany providing support). Logisticians limit the advance to 21 divisions, the most that the road and rail network can sustain. Engineer and artillery units are detached from the supporting German corps and brought to the front to support the assault across the Oder.

A retired Bundeswhehr Feldwebel, Wilhelm Schoenbohm, begins working on a design for an expedient 90mm anti-tank gun, using stored ordnance retired in the 1980s.

The final German jaeger divisions are formed: the 5th and 7th Grenzjaeger and the 11th, 14th and 15th Jaeger Divisions. The units are formed from the myriad regiments and brigades of territorial and border guard troops. Light on armored vehicles, artillery and heavy weapons, they will fight in close and built-up terrain and perform rear area and flank security roles.

Soviet forces raid Bornholm Island in the southern Baltic. The garrison is composed of three infantry battalions (two with trucks), an artillery battalion and a tank battalion with M-41 light tanks, mostly younger recalled reservists and conscripts due to Bornholm's strategic position in the eastern Baltic. The combined Soviet-Polish force (the Polish 7th Marine Division and the Soviet Baltic Fleet's 336th Guards "Belostok" Marine Brigade) craters the runway at the airport and demolishes the tower and control center of the electronic intelligence facility on the island's southeastern coast. Naval spetsnaz troops of the 4th Naval Spetsnaz Regiment (landed by hovercraft from Baltiysk) attack the Danish command's communications facility and jam their mobile radios, allowing the Pact force to withdraw before the Danes can mount a coordinated counterattack.

The British amphibious force south of Teriberka force masses and overruns the Soviet outposts, but is soon rocked by a mechanized counterattack by the 76th Guards Airborne Division, supported by their contingent of BMD armored fighting vehicles, sweeping in on the southern flank, nearly cutting the road. Under pressure, the Royal Marines wheel and drive the Soviet paratroops back from the road, calling up the US Marine's mechanized vehicles, laden with the Dutch battalion. NATO artillery and airstrikes break up the Soviet force's integrity, but when the American armored vehicles arrive the sun has gone down, forcing an all-night hunt for individual vehicles, a hunt complicated when heavy American tanks bog down when they leave the road. Soviet artillery rains on the American armored force, and while the position is held NATO's momentum is lost and the front freezes in place, in a mirror reflection of the stalemate to the west along the Litsa.

Dutch naval minesweepers clear the area around the damaged Norwegian bulker Star Hansa outside of Rotterdam, and clear three more mines that had been laid earlier in the month by a Soviet submarine. Following the clearance, tugs are able to tow the damaged ship into port.

Additional Dutch minesweepers, in cooperation with their British counterparts, sweep the path of the Coral Sea battle group as it transits the North Sea. (The carrier's squadrons make their combat debut in the evening's airstrikes over Poland).

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-177 sinks the German-owned cargo ship Trina as it approached Mersin, Turkey. The Trina was carrying 200 containers of food, ammunition and parts from Israel.

A Soviet raider sinks the American transport Margaret Lykes in the North Atlantic.

Seventeen General Staff officers are shot by the KGB for insubordiantion.

The Victor I-class submarine K-469 arrives off the port of Kamsar, Guinea and nearly immediately sinks the (Japanese-owned but) Liberian-flagged Massy Phoenix, departing with over 35,000 tons of Bauxite aboard.

[chico20854]

April 1, 1997

Nothing official today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 2, 1997

A big day...

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

NATO launches Operation Advent Crown, the invasion of Poland. The plan calls for the Second German Army to strike along the Baltic Coast with Kaliningrad and Grodno as the ultimate objectives, advancing through Szczecin, Slupsk and Gdańsk. The First German Army, with I British Corps will advance through central Poland, with the objective of reaching the Soviet border in the vicinity of Brest, capturing Poznań and Ł3dź and bypassing Warsaw. The Third German Army is tasked to take Silesia and southern Poland, ultimately reaching Lublin and Lvov in the Ukraine, advancing through Wrocław, Gliwice, Katowice, Krakow and Rzeszow. On the flank, Seventh US Army will gradually extend its area of responsibility eastward as additional National Guard divisions become available from the United States.

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 3, 1997

The Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is airlifted to Korea, assigned (at the insistence of the Japanese government) the mission of clearing the DPRK's ballistic missile complex in Wonsan.

The last British troops in Kenya depart to join the MEFF in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Iran.

Unofficially,

The offensive into Poland continues. Progress is slow as Allied combat engineers are brought forward to clear the minefields protecting the main Pact line of resistance, while NATO and Soviet artillery engage in a nonstop game of cat-and-mouse, firing endless series of short barrages and displacement before counterbattery radar and orbiting ELINT aircraft locate the firing batteries.

Advent Storm continues in the skies over Poland. ELINT aircraft and satellites maintain coverage of Poland, watching for movement of Pact reserves that attack aircraft can swoop down on. Deep strike missions are flown against lines of communication, while the close air support tasking is fraught with danger because of the massive amounts of artillery rounds in flight over the front line and the attentions of Pact anti-aircraft weapons that had been concealed along the main line of resistance.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Beijing Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

On the Kola Peninsula, Allied marines continue to try to advance towards the Severomorsk bomber base against Soviet paratroops. The fighting is intense in the open, snow-covered terrain of the Arctic tundra.

The 177th Armored Brigade, the opposing force at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, receives its first platoon of T-90 tanks and BMP-3 IFVs, captured in the Battle of Germany. Army intelligence had completed their initial technical assessment and passed some of its contingent on to the NTC's OPFOR to better prepare deploying units for the opposition they will face.

The Soviet destroyer Vol'nyy attacks the US transport Virginia Freedom, sailing independently with a cargo to USN and USAF bases in the Philippines, sinking it with gunfire.

Troops of the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) follow their compatriots from the 1st Brigade in loading onto airliners for transit to Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron begins its ferry flight to Iran, following the route used by the rest of the wing in March.

The Tango-class submarine B-290 fires its last torpedoes at the Turkish vehicle carrier Und Transporter in the Arabian Sea, sinking her. The carrier Independence dispatches a series of S-3 Vikings to the area to try to locate the Soviet boat, unsuccessfully.

No mention is made by TASS (or any other Soviet news outlet) of the NATO attack on Poland or the labor unrest around the country. Instead, there are additional exhortations to resist revanchist Germany and their capitalist allies by increasing efforts to support the brave Soviet and fraternal socialist troops defending the motherland.