On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

April 4, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 5, 1997

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 6, 1997

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 7, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 8, 1997

Nothing official for today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 10, 1997

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 11, 1997

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

Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

April 12, 1997

Eritrean rebels, with USAF and USN long-range air support, seize Asmara and Massawa, capturing or sinking portions of the Soviet and Ethiopian fleets based there. The remnants escape to the Dahlik Islands.

Unofficially,

Explosions (later identified as from a medium mortar) on delivery ramp of Sikorski helicopter plant in Stratford, Connecticut, destroying ten brand new UH-60s.

The 2nd Brigade, California State Guard is deployed on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley to restore order after two nights of rioting and widespread property damage.

1st Brigade, Washington State Guard is stood down from its enhanced patrolling around SeaTac Airport and McChord Air Force Base as the airlift of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) concludes.

The Luftwaffe 2nd Luftjaeger Regiment is formed from airbase defense and light anti-aircraft units of the 2nd Luftwaffe Division. With the threat to its air bases in Bavaria receding as Soviet Frontal Aviation disappears from the skies over southwestern Germany, the division releases most of its security troops for service behind the lines in Poland. The regiment, mounted in trucks (including a large contingent of gun trucks from the flak companies), provides convoy escorts for NATO logistic traffic in the rear area, a task that NATO commanders are quickly discovering will consume substantial numbers of troops.

F-111s and Tornado strike aircraft reach out again over central Poland, striking the Jedlicze refinery and starting a large fire.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-359 begins another slow voyage to the North Sea, its hull packed with mines to disrupt NATO shipping.

The Echo II-class nuclear cruise missile submarine K-35 is ordered to wrap up its replenishment from the fishing fleet in the South Atlantic and to make its way into the Indian Ocean, keeping at least 150 nm from the South African coast to avoid maritime patrol aircraft.

The Norwegian-owned tanker Forward Pride is set afire and set adrift in the Suez Canal by Naval Spetsnaz troops from the Caspian Sea Flotilla.

[chico20854]

April 13, 1997

The Iranian government, under pressure from Soviet forces and Tudeh infiltrators, declares martial law.

Bostonians are rudely jarred from their apathy by news of the sinking of the Universe Carolina, a supertanker bound for Boston Harbor. The military authorities place the residents on notice that gasoline and heating oil rationing are imminent. The local press leaps upon the local government and military officials, trying to find out why the loss of one tanker (albeit a giant one) could trigger such massive fuel rationing. They are met with stonewalling by the officials.

Unofficially,

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

1st Brigade, 40th ID (CA National Guard), completes Rotation 97-7 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA and is declared combat ready, while at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, Louisiana the 45th Infantry Brigade (Oklahoma National Guard) is declared combat ready after completing Rotation 97-7.

In San Francisco, the cargo ship Reliance is brought into service from reserve and begins a short coastal voyage to Long Beach to load cargo.

RAF Menwith Hills (a NSA ELINT facility in North Yorkshire) is heavily damaged in a cruise missile attack, launched over the Baltic Sea by Tu-95 Bear-H bombers. The raid leads to a significant loss of the capability to intercept Soviet and Pact strategic communications.

On the Kola Peninsula, the Soviets attack along the Litsa line. 18th Army tries to drive NATO out of the USSR. The 76th Guards Airborne Division, having had a week of rest to replenish and absorb replacements, leads the assault across the Litsa, supported by the combined artillery fire of the armys divisions and Northwest TVDs 2nd Guards Artillery Division, which has not seen action since November, and the guns of the 66th Anti-Aircraft Missile-Artillery Divisions forward regiments firing in indirect fire mode. The attack catches the NATO defenders off guard; with most units positioning one third of their troops on the front line, two thirds of Allied infantrymen are sitting in garrisons in the rear area. All the Soviet divisions along the front launch local attacks to tie down X Corps troops, while the 76th Guards Airborne Division concentrates at the Kola Highways bridge over the Litsa, launching an assault using its BMDs across the still-frozen river. The KGB lands a detachment from the 82nd Border Guard Brigade from light helicopters three miles behind the line, which sets up ambush positions along the highway. The airborne troops break through the US 6th Divisions front line, and the Soviet commander throws the 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment into the breach. The motor-rifle force, the size of a small division with six battalions of motor-rifle troops and tanks with a nearly full artillery regiment in support, has its engineer company lay assault bridges across the Litsa, executes a textbook exploitation and links up with the KGB force, advancing six miles within the first 12 hours of the offensive, while the paratroops deploy north and south to guard the flanks.

Aircraft from the aircraft carriers America, John F Kennedy and Enterprise, supported by USAF tankers operating and F-16s of the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing operating from Spanish air bases, launch a series of preparatory airstrikes on Libyan air defense targets.

The 180th Motor-Rifle Division arrives in Varna, Bulgaria, having lost most of its engineer battalion and half of its anti-aircraft regiment to NATO airstrikes in the Black Sea.

3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) clears the ports and moves inland to serve as a mobile reserve force. The final contingent of aircraft carrying the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) begin arriving in Saudi Arabia, as do the final transport ships.

B Squadron, Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta dispatches its first team into Manchuria from its operational base at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines. The elite of the elite are tasked with locating Soviet communications, logistic and headquarters facilities, striking the most important and calling in the others for attack by other assets.

[chico20854]

April 14, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

Unofficially,

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

Headquarters, XII US Corps is formed at Fort Meade, Maryland from the 79th and 97th ARCOMs, assigned training support, support to civil authority and oversight of the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team fires its mortar at the ICI chemical plant in Runcorn, Cheshire. The attack releases a cloud of poisonous chlorine gas, which drifts across the Manchester Ship Canal and down the River Mersey, headed for Liverpool.

British Harriers are re-tasked to close air support of I British Corps' advance into Poland. This time they have a new weapon in their armoury, Brimstone, a millimetre wave radar guided variant of the proven Hellfire. The carefully husbanded stocks of Brimstone prove exceptional in eliminating individual tanks as the Harriers provide close air support.

On the Kola Peninsula, Allied forces struggle to contain 18th Army's assault across the Litsa. X Corps scrambles to contain the Soviet attack. While infantry battalions scramble to return their troops to the front rapidly without presenting a lucrative target for enemy air and artillery attack, 12th Air Force is called in to slow the assault. The first to respond are the A-10s of the 917th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying from Kirkenes, while OV-10s of the Marine Corps VMO-1 and the USAFs 27th Tactical Air Support Squadron seek out Soviet gun positions. The A-10s blanket the bridge crossing site with cluster bombs before turning their guns to Soviet armored vehicles. American and Norwegian F-16s concentrate on suppressing Soviet anti-aircraft guns and missiles (assisted by X Corps artillery), allowing the 35th TFWs surviving F-15Es to blanket the hostile artillery, massed on the sides of the Kola Highway on the east side of the Litsa, with cluster bombs. The US 6th Infantry Divisions remaining Cobra attack helicopters follow the A-10s, plinking BMDs with gunfire, TOW missiles and rockets. The Soviet 66th Divisions heavy guns quickly shift fire, ravaging the low-flying NATO aircraft. Both corps artillery brigades pound the Soviet bridgehead, assisted by fire from the Canadian-led force across the bay to the north. The Canadians also detach the Luxembourg battalion and the last remaining company of Italian Alpini to the US 6th Division, which go to reinforce the northern side of the bulge. 6th IDs 1st Brigade, its heaviest brigade, reinforced with the divisional cavalry squadron (4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry), occupies reserve defensive positions along the Kola Highway halfway to the Titovka River. The arrival of British troops, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets (assigned to 3 Commando Brigade but not landed in Teriberka) strengthens X Corps defensive line. On the opposite side of the lines, 18th Army is unable to rally additional reserves to reinforce the advance and a massive traffic jam arises on the Kola Highway as reinforcements (the sailors of the 72nd Naval Infantry Brigade, mounted in Murmansk city busses), resupply vehicles and supporting artillery batteries all crowd onto the single-lane paved road, with ambulances and trucks of wounded rushing east. NATO artillery fire adds to the chaos on the roads, and soon the Soviet advance peters to a halt. The Soviet troops dig in, and X Corps cannot muster sufficient force to drive them out. The Soviet counteroffensive in the High North has come to an end.

Air attacks on Libyan targets continue as Task Force 61 makes a predawn sortie from the harbor in Gibraltar carrying the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

The Iranian National Emergency Coucil makes an offer to the nearly destroyed Pasdaran, offering it seats on the NEC and the integration of Pasdaran armed units into the IPA chain of command. The Pasdaran accept (although the splinter anti-Satanic Army refuses and continues to fight all non-Iranian forces) and their forces are absorbed into the Iranian army.

The Sierra II-class sub K-534 makes its first kill in the Persian Gulf, sinking the Liberian tanker Neve Hampton.

[chico20854]

April 15, 1997

Advent Storm deep strike aircraft attack the State Chemical Establishments at Dwory in Silesia, setting it ablaze.

Unofficially,

Troops from the 56th New York State Guard Brigade, guarding the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie, discover explosives on the bridge. A quick-thinking NCO pulls the blasting caps while the police bomb squad was enroute.

The cargo ship Reliance arrives in Long Beach to load vehicles and heavy equipment of the 40th Infantry Division.

photo
The troop ship Barrett is reactivated in Baltimore and moves to the Norfolk Port of Embarkation to load troops for Europe.

The 214th Field Artillery Brigade, an Active-duty unit at Fort Sill, Oklahoma with a single MLRS battalion and a Pershing II intermediate-range missile battalion, is placed on alert for possibly deployment to Germany.

The 164th Engineer Group (Combat) (North Dakota National Guard) is declared combat ready for Germany and begins movement to the front in Poland, ready to support the offensive. In the German Second Army area, the troops of the US 1st Infantry Division (now fully located on the east bank of the Oder) link up with the amphibious landing to the north.

US Navy Rear Admiral Thomas M. Lowell is promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and assigned to US Naval Forces, Europe in London as the Deputy CINC.

Operation Sand Storm commences, with airstrikes from the Kennedy, Enterprise and America's air groups. The air strikes are quickly followed by an amphibious landing in Tripoli, Libya. (While the landing force was headed to the beach the Marines spontaneously began singing the Marine Corps Hymn, with its line about "the shores of Tripoli"). The landing is guided in by SEALs of Seal Team Four, landed from the submarine Hyman G Rickover.

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

The Soviet submarine K-534, operating in the Persian Gulf, attacks the Saudi corvette Hitteen, which was hunting for it following the attack on the Neve Hampton the prior day. The small Saudi ship disintegrates over the explosion of over 250 kg of high explosive. Patrol aircraft of VOJ-204 search for the Soviet sub; the Gulf's shallow waters make visual searching less futile than it would be in the open ocean. The squadron's HU-25 and Fokker F-27 aircraft have limited ASW capability, and ultimately the wily Soviet boat slips away, back out of the Gulf.

In the South China Sea, the convoy carrying the 28th ANZUK Brigade is located by a Soviet Tu-95 Bear recon aircraft flying out of the partially repaired Cam Ranh Bay airbase. The Soviet scout plane vectors the destroyer Vol'nyy on to the Allied force.

The Victor I-class sub K-469 sinks another bulk carrier headed into the Guinean port of Kamsar. The ship's loss is the final straw; the Guinean prime minister meets with the Soviet ambassador to inform him that Guinea will cease selling bauxite to warring nations. The presence of Soviet naval and air units in the city (and their lack of activity to quell the recent rioting) had a similarly telling effect on the prime minister.

[chico20854]

April 16, 1997

In Boston, an enterprising reporter gets an anonymous source to do a live interview. The woman details how the area refineries had been instructed by the federal government to crack all processable crude into the highest possible proportions of naval light fuel oil and aviation fuels for shipment overseas. The result is that reserves of heating oil and civilian fuels (which were to be replenished by the supplies on the Universe Carolina) are now very short. The area is moving into summer, and the heating oil shortage will not be severe, but the sudden shortage of automotive gasoline and diesel fuel causes considerable unrest. While the rest of the nation can drive where it wanted, New England feel discriminated against. Conditions remain fairly calm everywhere but Boston.

Convoy 214 arrives in Ulsan, Korea, carrying troops and equipment of the 45th Infantry Division.

The fire at the Dwory State Chemical Works near Oswiecim results in a cloud of deadly fumes from the destruction that kills or drives off much of the region's original population and kills much of the local wildlife.

Unofficially,

The tanker Salomonie is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service as the USNS Salomonie, T-AOT-206.

XXIII Corps Headquarters is activated at Fort Snelling, Minnesota from the the 86th and 88th ARCOMs.

In Poland, troops of the German VII Korps make progress along the junction between the 1st Polish Army and 2nd Guards Tank Army, which is facing the Germans to its northwest and the British to its southwest. The Pact troops fall back, leaving the town of Chojna to be captured by the 27th Panzer Division.

Advent Storm deep strike aircraft return to the Pokoj Steel Works in Bytom, Poland. Polish anti-aircraft guns down a pair of British Tornado strike aircraft from No. 16 Squadron.

Operation Sandstorm continues in Libya. Ashore in Tripoli, American marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade make a concentrated push to the leadership compound on the southwest side of the city, bypassing most of the city's urban area. The M1s of the accompanying C Company, 2nd Tank Battalion quickly blast holes in the compound's formidable defenses, fiercely defended by fanatical loyalists. Helicopters bring in more troops, and Harriers operating from the assault ships offshore (and naval gunfire by escorting destroyers) help the advance. By dusk the surface and buildings of Colonel Qaddafi's palace has been overrun, but the leader and many of his most loyal lieutenants have slipped away into an extensive tunnel network that stretches underneath the teeming city. Offshore, the American sub Hyman G Rickover hits a mine after inserting a SEAL team in the Gulf of Sidra. The sub is forced to head to NS Rota, Spain for repairs. The escorting attack submarine USS Batfish is sunk by a Libyan patrol boat in the Gulf of Sidra.

The 180th Motor-Rifle Division enters the lines in central Bulgaria, facing Turkish troops in the rugged Balkan Mountains.

The helicopters of the 9th Infantry Division's Aviation Brigade conduct their first post-voyage shakedown check flights.

Soviet Naval Aviation Tu-22Ms and Frontal Aviation MiG-27s attack one of the two drydocks in Middle East capable of docking an aircraft carrier. The raid on the Arab Ship Repair Yard in Bahrain is successful in destroying the gates, flooding the dock (with a mine-damaged tanker inside it, which flooded as well, preventing the fire which started aboard from spreading ashore).

An artillery duel erupts along the Indian-Pakistani border in Kashmir. A Pakistani round strikes an Indian command post, killing a colonel, three of his staff officers and 14 soldiers.

The Soviet destroyer Vol'nyy, in the South China Sea, is ordered to attack Allied shipping located by the Tu-95 the previously day. The captain is given the number of enemy ships (12), their plotted location, course and speed but is pointedly NOT told that five of the dozen ships are escorts. Capitan Second Rank Frolov waits until sunset to begin his aged ship's high-speed approach to the ANZAC-escorted convoy, pressing his chief engineer to squeeze every know of speed from the 40-year old turbines. Cranking an impressive 31 knots (sending up a long cloud of dense black smoke), the Soviet destroyer closes on the Allied task force. An alert watchman aboard HMNZS Canterbury sees the smoke cloud and a SH-2G Seasprite helicopter is launched to investigate. The helo's radar immediately locates the Soviet destroyer and the contact information is shared amongst the escorts. The convoy commander orders an immediate missile attack, and within five minutes four Harpoon missiles are in flight, while flight deck crews scramble to fit anti-ship missiles to the frigates' helicopters. That proves unneccessary, as the ship-launched missiles are enough to tear the aged Soviet destroyer apart. The helicopters instead are launched to rescue survivors. Four of the eight destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk on March 10 are still at large.

[chico20854]

April 17, 1997

Nothing official for today! Unofficially,

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

The 81st Infantry Brigade (Washington National Guard) completes Rotation 97-7 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready. The brigade's troops load the unit's vehicles aboard trains for transit to the east coast.

VII German Korps occupies the town of Chojna and begins sending patrols along its flanks to link up with the bridgeheads of III US Corps to its north and II British Corps to its south. Elsewhere along the front progress is slow; the series of defensive lines, mutually reinforcing and with armored reserves close at hand, makes achieving a breakthrough impossible for the moment.

Tonight is the first night of several with NATO air raids targeting military industry in Katowice, Poland.

The Victor I-class sub K-469 is ordered to cease the blockade of Conakry, Guinea and transit to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to disrupt the flow of raw materials and war supplies flowing from Canada to Western Europe.

A Soviet submarine (never identified) sinks the crude carrier Mediterranean Orion heading to the refinery in St. John, Nova Scotia. The loss of the tanker makes the fuel shortage in northeastern North America even more severe.

With loyal Libyan army units heading towards Tripoli and Colonel Qaddafi's escape, the Marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade begin their withdrawal. The fighter-bombers of the three carrier battle groups offshore have a field day with the masses of Libyan armor that clog the roads leading to Tripoli.

Two of the surviving Soviet destroyers in the Pacific arrive off of Midway and begin shelling the installations there. The island, however, has diminished in importance since the Second World War, being used mainly as an emergency diversion landing spot for civilian airliners and as a weather observation station; most of the island is a wildlife refuge with minimal military presence even in wartime. The park rangers there nonetheless call in the attack.

The commander of the Far Eastern TVD reports to STAVKA that only half of his losses from last month's Chinese offensive have been made whole. The high command responds that the situation is serious on all fronts and that he will have to make do. The Far Eastern TVD loses its priority for supplies and replacements, and the flow of supplies to other regions increases proportionally. (The Transcaucasian Front, for example, receives an allocation for the following week that is a 25% increase. Marshall Suryakin immediately plans to resume the offensive against the battered Iranians.)

The Indian Air Force responds to the prior day's artillery strike along the border in Kashmir by striking the Pakistani Chandhar Air Force Base. The Indian MiG-27s of No. 29 Squadron strike the base's control tower and fuel dump, inflicting moderate damage.

[chico20854]

April 18, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today.

Exploiting resentment of the Soviet government's decades-long effort to Russify and settle the semi-nomadic Saami people of the Kola, American Special Forces troops open a training camp in Kautokeino, Norway to train Saami that slipped over the borders as anti-Soviet partisans.

A checkpoint on New York Route 9 stops a car carrying a Soviet spetsnaz team heading into New York City. The commandos kill three state guardsmen as they escape.

Troops of the German 27th Panzer Division move over 10 kilometers to the north and south, while making minimal forward progress. The US III Corps commits the 1st Cavalry Division to action in Poland, taking the northern portion of the bridgehead gained by the 1st Infantry Divsion over the prior few weeks.

NATO airpower returns to skies over Katowice to continue working over military industry in the city.

In the Mediterranean, Operation Sand Storm winds down with the predawn evacuation of the last marines. The carriers America, Enterprise and John F Kennedy provide cover for the withdrawing amphibious force as they move west, heading to Gibraltar for reconstitution. Libyan coastal defense units strike the American frigate Miller with a SS-C-3 Styx cruise missile as the American task force retreats, sinking the ship.

The Independence battle group in the Indian Ocean turns north, heading back towards the Iranian coast.

Third US Army reports that the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) has cleared the ports and is combat ready. The Army's G-4 (Logistics Officer) reports that shipping allocations are being cut back in favor of moving supplies to Europe, which will slow the buildup of supplies needed for Third Army to sustain combat operations.

The pair of Soviet destroyers that struck Midway retreat at high speed, heading west until over the horizon, then turning north to raid the shipping lanes following the Great Circle Route from the US west coast to Asia. They plan to link up with their sister the Vertkiy in the Aleutians so they can strike the major American air base at Shemya, with its complements of F-15 fighters, P-3 patrol aircraft, early warning radar and spy planes. The commander of the US Third Fleet dispatches a carrier task force composed of the carriers Constellation and Midway to hunt down the raiders.

Air strikes by the USAF 24th Tactical Air Support Squadron, guided by an A-Team of the 1st Battalion, 8th Special Forces Group, hit a large FARC base in the jungle in northwestern Colombia.