On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

May 5, 1997

Amazingly, nothing in the canon for today.

32nd Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (Wisconsin National Guard), completes Rotation 97-8 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. The 92nd Infantry Brigade (Puerto Rico National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready.

The Victory Ship Wayne Victory is unloaded of returned Argentinian munitions, which are sent to various locations for inspection, refurbishment (if needed), disposal or further issue.

The Air National Guard's 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii receives the first operational KC-767 tanker transport. The aircraft has received preliminary type approval from Air Force Systems Command; the new aircraft increases the squadron's ability to support aircraft transiting the Pacific. Boeing continues to deliver new airliners for conversion at its Wichita, Kansas plant.

Regular Army troops (the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers) begin moving from Northern Ireland to England, in preparation for movement to the war zone in Poland.

British troops of the 6th Armoured Brigade capture Gorz3w Wielkopolski, Poland as Pact troops begin to withdraw (rather than fighting to the point of ineffectiveness, which had been the case for the prior four weeks).

In an overnight raid, the headquarters of the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division is plastered with bombs from a flight of F-15E Strike Eagles. Command and control of the division is disrupted and the unit is paralyzed. By dawn the Soviet unit is encircled and the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment is on the outskirts of Wrocław, with elements of three German divisions close behind.

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Soviet commanders attempt to close the gap in the lines with artillery fire, but the loss of the ammunition train a week ago means that the near-constant interdiction fires are instead sporatic and uncoordinated.

The 82nd Airborne Division gains the upper hand in fierce combat against the Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division. To their south the 105th Guards has largely disintegrated, while the 103rd Guards continue to dig in at Bandar Abbas. Despite repeated calls for help, Red Army units to the north seem to be making little serious effort to break through Iranian lines to relieve them. (Actually, their logistics situation is atrocious thanks to Allied interdiction and the overburdened Soviet war economy; commanders are barely able to hold their positions, let alone advance).

The RAF stations the Buccaneer attack bombers of Nos. 12 and 208 Squadrons at the airbase in Mosjoen, Norway. The planes are primarily assigned with naval strike duties but perform sporatic interdiction strikes, carefully flying around Swedish and Finnish territory.

The Turkish offensive in Bulgaria gains steam, advancing over 2 miles from their start lines. The first group surrenders begin, with individual squads and the occaisional platoon dropping their weapons.

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The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) begins loading onto ships in Philadelphia, Norfolk and Wilmington, Delaware.

The USS John F Kennedy and USS America carrier battle groups finish clearing the remnants of the Soviet 5th Squadron from the Eastern Mediterranean and begin rotating ships in for replenishment in Alexandria, Egypt. The damaged destroyer Stethem is under tow back to Gibraltar.

In Berdichev, Ukraine, the 62nd Tank Division begins mobilizing. The unit, the second "shadow" division to be hatched from the 117th Guards Training Tank Division. The 62nd takes most of the training unit's students, which are nearing the conclusion of their course of study. Like other mobilization-only tank divisions, it is equipped with 1940s and 1950s-era T-34 and T-10 tanks, Su-100 assault guns and an assortment of aged howitzers and APCs.

[chico20854]

May 6, 1997

After three days of heavy fighting Soviet paratroops begin to withdraw from the Bandar-e-Khomeni area, a battered, but still cohesive fighting force. The 82nd Airborne Divison is ordered to hold its positions until the 24th Infantry Division can relieve them.

Unofficially,

The tanker Guadalupe is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service, with the hull number T-AOT-209.

In New Orleans, the Victory ship Wayne Victory begins loading a cargo of bagged corn meal destined for war-torn Iran.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps completes its command post exercise/wargame at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The staff there noted the corps' exceptional performance and recommended its immediate deployment overseas.

The Bundeswehr forms the 2nd Military Police Command to coordinate support and operations for three territorial military police battalions that had been operating independently under direct command of Territorial Command Ost, the Bundeswehr liaison command in the former East Germany.

Along the Polish Baltic coast, amphibious forces (the German 18th Marine Regiment and elements of the US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade) establish a lodgment on the coast west of Kolobrzeg. Allied troops all along the front continue to push back defending Pact forces.

The first graduates of the Saami partisan training course in Kautokeino, Norway, are armed with small arms and ammunition abandoned by the Red Army in the retreat from Norway and cross the border back into Soviet territory.

Turkish troops continue to capture Bulgarian territory, reaching the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains overlooking the wide Danube Valley. The Romanian border is less than 100 km to the north, and an advance to it would cut the lines of communication between Bulgaria's capital and the Black Sea Coast.

Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic assembles the largest convoy of the war to date, Convoy 140. The convoy will bring an entire armored division (the 44th (my 20th), roughly two-thirds of the 36th Infantry Divison and the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment to Europe under unprecedented escort. It departs Jacksonville, Florida at sundown, with five ships loaded with the 1169th Engineer Group (Alabama National Guard) as well as over a dozen ships carrying munitions, fuel and supplies.

In the Indian Ocean, the Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, makes its first strike in many weeks. A GRU source provided information about the at-sea rendevous of two ultra-large bulk carriers, the Rio Leonard and the Rio Lawrence, for the Leonard to transfer a spare part to the Lawrence. When the two massive ships (each capable of carrying over 175,000 tons of Australian coal to Europe) meet the Soviet destroyer is not far away and pounces. The ships' massive size makes them hard to sink, but the Buliny eventually does so - by sending boarding parties aboard to place demolition charges against the hull.

The Leningrad SAS team feels confident to resume operations, sending out a two-man team to observe conditions and begin assessing targets.

[chico20854]

May 7, 1997


The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with 101st Air Assault Division and begins mopping up scattered remnants of the 105th Guards Air Assault Division.

Unofficially,

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The treason trial begins for Autumn Lotus, the New Mexico woman accused of sheltering a Spetsnaz team earlier in the year; she unleashes a rant in court about the government's oppression of the proletariat, the evils of capitalism and the war profiteering that is occurring. She is removed from the courtroom; her public defender tries his best to offer a coherent defense.

The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (a Territorial Army unit from Chorley), is activated and assigned to 3rd Infantry Brigade.

At Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, the tanker task force maintained for many decades using tankers rotating in from throughout the Air Force on temporary assignments is designated as the 301st Air Refueling Squadron. The new squadron maintains control of its assigned rotational aircraft, as it is currently only assigned a C-12 liaison transport aircraft, with a KC-135R en route from Hawaii. (The KC-135 was released by the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron in Hawaii as that squadron receives the new KC-767 tankers).

The Luftwaffe forms the 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment from airfield defense units assigned to the Luftwaffes 3rd Division (which flew strike aircraft from northern German bases). The regiment is committed to action in Poland, augmenting the RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police in defense of captured air bases and highway strips in Poland and East Germany.

Along the Baltic Coast, NATO starts landing elements of the Danish Jutland Division near Kolobrzeg. The Soviet Western TVD commander is forced to commit 22nd Army, from his reserve force in the northern half of the front, to prevent the landing force from overrunning the Polish port and naval base. (NATO deep strike ATACMS missiles, sea-launched cruise missiles and tactical aircraft have a field day on the hundreds of Soviet tanks that break cover and rushed to the coast, although the Danish, German and American troops had halted their advance and dug in in anticipation of the Soviet assault). German troops also break through the Second Western Fronts lines east of Szczecin.

The heavy cruiser Salem completes 45 days of post-commissioning workups and is dispatched to the Persian Gulf. It receives a complement of Army 8-inch ammunition to augment the Second World War-era high explosive and armor piercing rounds, including 10 tactical nuclear rounds.

The Bulgarian Second Army, weakened by having its 2nd Motor-Rifle Division and 11th Tank Brigade in China, commits its reserve 104th Tank Training Regiment and a regiment of construction troops from the 18th Construction Division, to try to slow the Turkish advance. Preceding the Bulgarian counterattack is an airstrike by L-29 trainers of the 2nd Combat Training Regiment; the trainer's 7.62mm machineguns and 57mm rockets do little to slow the Turks. When the T-55s arrive in range of the Turkish M-48 tanks the slaughter begins in earnest. The construction troops, equipped with 19th-century-vintage M95 Mannlicher rifles, DP-27 LMGs and 82mm mortars but no anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, are swept from the field while the tank regiment takes heavy losses from Turkish tanks firing from the flanks of the wide valley they are advancing up and a platoon of Turkish AH-1 anti-tank helicopters.

The escort carrier Shangri La and eight freighters carrying equipment and vehicles of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) join Convoy 140 as it sails up the US East Coast. The group also includes the Dutch cruise ship Maasdam, packed with nearly 4000 National Guardsmen.

Given up for lost two weeks ago, Rifleman Goreng Nassang rejoins his unit, complete with the GPMG he had refused to abandon.

In Leningrad, a MI6 operative obtains a workers pass for the Baltic Shipyard.

American carriers in the Pacific shift south, their aircraft reappearing over the front line in Korea.

The USS Independence continues to provide air support to IPA forces in Iran - American troops are too far north in the Persian Gulf for the carrier's F/A-18s to reach, and 5th Fleet refuses to permit the carrier group to operate in the Gulf. As Soviet troops retreat inland, the Independence group regains the destroyers it had detached to provide naval gunfire support.

In the Mediterranean, the John F Kennedy and America battle groups sortie from Alexandria, Egypt and sail north. Once in the area north of Cyprus the carriers plan to fly long-range strike missions in support of the Turkish offensive, adding their bombs to those being dropped by the USAF's 112th Tactical Fighter Group.

A second Atlantic Fleet carrier, the USS Enterprise, joins the effort to protect Convoy 140. Returning north from the vicinity of the Canaries, Enterprise sends fighters and ASW aircraft to sweep ahead of the growing formation.

[chico20854]

May 8, 1997

The US Air Force places an order for thousands of Charter Arms Bulldog .45-caliber revolvers to equip Reserve Security Police Squadrons, as the demand for base security detachments in Europe and Saudi Arabia grows.

Unofficially,

1st Battalion, The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment departs Northern Ireland, returning to the UK for further service in Poland.

The Dutch Red Army detonates another car bomb in an attempt to destroy the NATO fuel terminal at Rijnwoude.

Intense combat rages along the entire front line in Poland as Pact troops try to halt the NATO offensive. NATO deep strike aircraft roam over central Poland, seeking out columns of reinforcements that have been identified by electronic reconnaissance aircraft and photographic satellites.

The Western TVD's radio-technical warfare officer is relieved of his post following the debacle that his wide-spectrum jamming plan caused. He is demoted to Senior Lieutenant and assigned a motor-rifle company in the disintegrating 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division.

USAF Strategic Air Command leaders "permit" the deployment of two wings of B-52Gs, their oldest and least effective bombers, to support conventional operations. The SAC commander "reserves the right" to issue nuclear war orders to the aircraft if he is ordered to execute his war plan. The move releases the 320th Bomb Wing to PACCOM and the 416th Bomb Wing to European Command. Two other bomb wings, the 42nd at Loring AFB, Maine and the 43rd in Guam, remain dedicated to naval support missions.

Allied commanders in northern Norway and the Kola use the pause inflicted by nature to repair the damaged front line and prepare for the upcoming offensive. The Norwegian Army makes some changes to its force structure. In the 6th Division, the 14th Brigade had suffered most severely from the battles of the prior months. Soldiers that had been in action fewer than four months are reassigned to other brigades in the division as replacements, while more veteran troops and the command staff are withdrawn to southern Norway for reconstruction and rest. The 7th Brigade, a fresh unit from southern Norway, takes the 14th's place in the line.

Turkish troops attempt to advance through the remnants of the Bulgarian Second Army but are hampered by lingering pockets of resistance which make moving supplies forward on the narrow, winding and poorly maintained mountain roads nearly impossible. The Soviet Southern Front begins redeploying troops to deal with the potential breakthrough, bringing forward the 58th Army's 82nd Motor-Rifle Division and re-routing a supply convoy from Odessa into Varna, bringing additional supplies and troops to the area. 58th Army also takes command of the Bulgarian 4th Border Guard Regiment, throwing those well-motivated but only moderately equipped troops at the Turkish flank.

The Coast Guard cutter Gallatin, two tankers, the troop ship State of Maine and eighteen additional cargo ships join Convoy 140 as it passes New York. The convoy gets its first overflight from its escorts, when a pair of F-4s from the USS Saratoga passes overhead.

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Headquarters, XXIII Corps loads aboard aircraft at Westover AFB, Massachusetts for deployment to Germany.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron arrives in Iran, dispersing between several small airstrips while the squadron headquarters joins the 22nd Tactical Fighter Wing Headquarters at Shahid Asyaee Air Base.

The US 55th Special Operations Squadron is moved to Shiraz, Iran to better support Allied forces in the country.

The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) moves into Iran, arriving in Bandar-e-Khomeni to relieve the paratroops of the 82nd Airborne Division. The 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) begins to arrive in Iran, its equipment ferried across the Persian Gulf in landing craft.

The 101st Air Assault Division begins moving northward into the Zagros Mountains; a dawn landing of the division's 2nd Brigade secures the town of Dalaki 50 miles inland from the Gulf.

The Soviet raider Buliny is located on radar by a P-3B Orion from VP-60, operating from the Cocos/Keeling Islands. The American aircraft is armed with anti-submarine weapons, not anti-surface weapons, and when another aircraft arrives on station armed with bombs and rockets the Soviet ship has disappeared.

[chico20854]

May 9, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

SACLANT is surprised by the absence of Soviet SSBNs in northern waters. Contrary to prewar expectations, when American and British attack submarines start scouring the White Sea and under the Arctic ice pack for Soviet SSBNs, they mostly find emptiness, livened by traps set by the Red Banner Northern Fleet such as minefields with a noisemaker in the center and the most advanced Soviet attack subs lying in wait for them. The USSRs political leadership, in fact, has decided that keeping the SSBN fleet in harbor (those based in the Litsa Fjord were evacuated to bases farther east) ensures the strictest control of their fearsome nuclear arsenal and minimizes the chance of inadvertent launch.

1st Brigade, 50th Armored Division (New Jersey National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

NATO tactical airpower, reinforced with additional units from the USAF Reserve and Air National Guard and the USS Coral Sea air group operating in the North Sea, shifts its emphasis from close air support to battlefield interdiction, cutting Pact supply lines to the front. Polish and Soviet units all along the front start a gradual, orderly withdrawal, destroying roads, railways and bridges as they retreat. NATO mechanized units bypass isolated Pact garrisons, leaving them for follow-on units to surround and reduce.

A joint SEAL Team 3 - Special Boat Service team attacks the Soviet submarine base at Gremikha-Ostrovnoy. Satellite imagery (through a rare break in the clouds and fog) reveals that nearly a third of the Red Banner Northern Fleet's nuclear missile submarine force is there, sheltering from the NATO forces threatening Murmansk. A fierce firefight occurs between the NATO special operators and the security troops of the 313th Coastal Defense Battalion, a specialist anti-frogman unit.

Troops of the Turkish 8th Infantry Division enter the town of Popovo, Bulgaria. The town's capture cuts the rail line between Sofia and the Black Sea Coast as well as the most direct road connection. The country is not yet cut in half, relying on circuitous road and rail connections through the town of Ruse on the Romanian border, which is under periodic artillery fire from Romanian long-range guns.

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Troops and equipment of the 32nd Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Wisconsin National Guard), the last brigade of the 36th Infantry Division, arrive at the ports of Davisville, Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts and Portland, Maine to load onto ships for Europe.

Convoy 140 is joined by a flotilla of six smaller freighters which sailed from Great Lakes ports, carrying additional supplies and the 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve). The USS Saratoga battle group continues to provide cover to the convoy.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, ambush a small, isolated Soviet convoy, destroying two Zil-131 fuel trucks, a Ural-375 supply truck and an escorting UAZ-469 and capturing a useful stash of military-grade weapons and supplies to sustain the rebel band.

An overland convoy of the 101st Air Assault Division, escorted by TOW HMMWVs of the 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry (Oklahoma National Guard) arrives in Dalaki, Iran, linking up with the air assault troops that landed the prior day. The division then leapfrogs the 1st Brigade to the town of Kazerun, another 25 miles deeper into the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. The American troops there link up with rear area troops of the II Iranaian Corps.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534, which has been hiding under a disused offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf, resumes its interdiction of Allied shipping, launching another trio of SS-N-21 conventionally-armed cruise missiles at the port facilities in Jubail, which XVIII Airborne Corps is using to ferry troops and equipment into Iran. The attacks succeed in disrupting operations at the port, sinking the US Army small transport MG Charles P. Gross as it loaded equipment. The second missile's warhead (one was shot down by a patrolling Saudi F-15 interceptor) detonates above massed vehicles of the 3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, damaging many of them and disrupting the brigade's orderly loadout.

The 255th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Moscow Military District, is called up in Kursk. Equipment for the division is short, with no APCs, no anti-aircraft regiment, anti-tank or SSM battalion and with a single battalion of SU-100 assault guns in lieu of a tank regiment. Wisely, the formation is mostly used as a source of semi-trained manpower for rebuilding units that have been shattered at the front.

The Soviet raider Buliny races southward to escape the operating radius of American patrol aircraft that had located the destroyer the day before. Once confident of its relative safety the commander, Captain Second Rank Mikhail Mischenko, slows down to a sedate 10 knots to conserve fuel.

[chico20854]

May 10, 1997

The French FAR completes the movement and reception stage of its deployment to Mauritania and Senegal.

Unofficially,

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

Supply officers at First Army headquarters deny the supply request submitted by the commander of the MP guard company at the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp. The commander there requested nearly a battalion's worth of armored vehicles, including four M-1A2 tanks, to "support his mission guarding high-value Pact prisoners".

1st Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment is withdrawn from Northern Ireland and returned to the UK prior to redeployment to Poland.

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Troops of the 28th ANZUK Brigade are on the receiving end of one of the last North Korean assaults of the 1997 campaign, when the 20th Motorized Infantry Division attemps to bash a hole in the Allied lines. The Commonwealth troops, operating in difficult terrain, contain the desperate North Korean assault, assisted by artillery fire from the South Korean 4th and 7th Field Artillery Groups, which break up the North Korean troops massing for each wave attack.

Gliwice targeted by NATO airstrikes, receiving heavy damage like its neighboring towns. NATO forces under command of the Third German Army advance up the Oder River valley against scattered Pact resistance, composed largely of ORMO, OTK and ZOMO units that lack adequate artillery and air support. Polish forces, however, have held the city of Wroclaw. The NATO commander, General Rudolph Beck, orders the city pounded into submission, committing the German 23rd Artillery Brigade, the US 209th Field Artillery Brigade, the artillery of his subordinate formations and the B-52s of the 416th Bomb Wing into reducing the city.

Saami anti-Soviet partisans attack a Soviet supply convoy travelling the main road to Murmansk, destroying a dozen trucks carrying supplies to 18th Army.

The Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot, damaged by a Soviet mine in the North Sea in March, emerges from the shipyard in Bremen.

The escorts of Convoy 140 intercept and sink the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-4 as the aged sub ran shallow, running its diesels through its snorkel to recharge its batteries.

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Southern Front commits the 58th Army fully to containing the Turkish drive in Bulgaria. The 82nd Motor-Rifle Division's 36th Tank Regiment, equipped with T-64s, attacks west through the foothills on the southern edge of the Turkish salient, with the Bulgarian border guards riding atop the tanks. Simultaneously, the Bulgarian 9th Tank Brigade, released from the 1st Bulgarian Army, attacks the base of the salient from the west, while Soviet Long-Range Aviation commits three regiments of bombers to carpet bomb the roads leading out of the mountains. The attack is successful in cutting off the Turkish lead division, the 8th Infantry. The Bulgarian border guards dismount the tanks and, having been liberally supplied with RPGs by their Soviet commander, hold their blocking positions against Turkish counterattacks from both north and south.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps arrives at Berlin-Schonefeld Airport, Germany.
Convoy 142 forms in the Gulf of Mexico, heading to Europe. A follow-on to Convoy 140, it will carry the 32nd Infantry Brigade, the 118th Field Artillery Brigade and the lead elements of the 50th Armored Divison.

The ships carrying the vehicles, guns and heavy equipment of the 434th Field Artillery Brigade arrive in Saudi Arabia after a nearly month-long voyage from New Orleans around the southern tip of Africa and through the Indian Ocean.

The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is moved into Iran, landing in Khorramshar to reinforce the 24th Infantry Division in pursuit of the retreating 104th Guards Air Assault Division.

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The 101st Air Assault Division takes the next leap into the Zagros, sending its Third Brigade to secure the town of Ardakan.

[chico20854]

May 11, 1997

Wroclaw falls to NATO forces after being pounded nearly into rubble by artillery and B-52 bombers.

Unofficially,

In New Orleans, the Victory ship Wayne Victory completes loading of 8000 tons of corn meal and a deck cargo of telephone poles and departs, bound for Iran via the Cape of Good Hope.

The 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards performs another secret nighttime transfer, this time of the Bank of England's gold reserves.

The Danish government stocks a second supply cache, at the Thingbk mine. (Only the highest levels of the Danish government are aware that the cache is less than 1500m from the bunker that will shelter the Government and Royal Family in the event of a nuclear alert.)

Troops from No. 15 Squadron, RAF Regiment secure the former Soviet Frontal Aviation base at Kąkolewo, southwest of Poznan and within hours a truck convoy arrives with munitions, fuel and spares to support RAF Harrier jump jets.

II MEF's 2nd and 5th Battalions, 10th Marines pound a pair of air defense missile sites east of Kolozbreg, one Soviet (the 325th SAM Regiment) and one Polish (the 26th SAM Brigade) with artillery. Both sites had been struck multiple times by NATO air defense suppression aircraft but managed to quickly restore operations. The command's 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company strikes air defense facilities further east, hitting a SAM site and air defense radar site outside Ustka. The Marines were landed from the destroyer Mitscher, which made a high-speed dash east in the Baltic.

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After flying the prior day's missions over Wroclaw, the B-52G bombers of the 416th Bomb Wing begin operations from a forward operating location at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, west of London.

The German government (on behalf of NATO) signs the first of several contracts with commercial firms to support the Advent Crown logistics effort. The contract is to a Dutch-owned company to provide trucking of fuel and general supplies (not explosives) from German and Dutch ports, depots and factories to locations in East Germany located out of artillery range from the front. The contractor must procure trucks and drivers (2 per truck) and maintain the trucks. Other contracts under negotiation include repair of roads, bridges and railroad infrastructure, construction of temporary/semi-permanent group housing (as billets, housing for refugees or POWs), installation of communications infrastructure and repair of East German water treatment and electrical systems. The total mobilization of German and Dutch economies results in large numbers of workers from non-combatant nations being recruited to work on these contracts.

In Finnmark, the weak border guard force in Karasjok is replaced by fresh troops from Oslo - the newly formed Kings Guard Regiment, an elite combined arms formation led by the Kings brother, Prince Jungi of Trondheim.

The destroyer USS Stethem, damaged by a Soviet missile strike, reaches Gibraltar, where the heavy lift ship Super Servant 5 is waiting to take it aboard for transit back to the US.

The Turkish 8th Infantry Division launches an all-out effort to break through 58th Army's blocking positions. It is assisted in this by V Corps' 105th Artillery Regiment and a northward thrust by the 3rd Armored Brigade towards Popovo. The attack is mostly successful, breaking through the Bulgarian and Soviet lines and allowing over 60 percent of the Turkish troops to escape being cut off. The effort, however, exhausts V Turkish Corps' supply stockpile, and the momentum of the Turkish offensive has been lost.

MPs of the 16th Military Police Brigade establish a large POW camp outside Bushehr to hold the thousands of Soviet troops that have been captured over the preceding few weeks.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with the Iranian garrison at Bandar-Deylam, en route to linking up with the 24th Infantry Division and 82nd Airborne Division to the northwest

The beachhead at Bandar-e-Khomeini is targeted by a concentrated effort by Southern TVD to disrupt the flow of American reinforcements into Iran. The area is hit repeatedly by conventionally-armed short- and intermediate-range surface to surface missiles, Su-24 bombers, fighter-bombers and cruise missiles launched by strategic bombers flying over the Caspian. The day-long attack overwhelms the ability of the divisions' air defense battalions and the forward deployed Corps Patriot missile battalion (3rd Battalion, 43rd ADA) to protect the unloading areas. Luckily, the Soviet weapons accuracy (and the crew's training) is so poor that many of the hits that do occur miss the intended target and, at day's end, the reinforcement effort has been set back by two days at most.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534, still hiding under a disused oil rig in the Persian Gulf, attacks the Panamanian supertanker World Prime as it departs Kuwait with a load of crude oil for Japan.

The USS Independence battle group shifts its day's efforts from supporting the Iranian II Corps to attacking the Soviet paratroops of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division, who remain ensconced in defensive positions in and around Bandar Abbas.

The trio of convoys carrying the 4th Marine Division depart Pago Pago, American Samoa, after a two-day stop to resupply and perform minor repairs. The island remains under a communications blackout imposed two days prior to the fleet's arrival.

[chico20854]

May 12, 1997

The canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Macau Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts. The craft, while civilian manned, is assigned to the US Navy's Military Sealift Command to support amphibious operations since it is designed to deploy barges from its open stern.

2nd Brigade, 50th Armored Division (New Jersey National Guard) completes Rotation 97-7 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready.

1st Battalion, The Royal Welch Fusiliers departs Northern Ireland for the UK, again in preparation for service in Poland.

Colonel Oleg Tumanski's spetsnaz team in the UK attempts a raid on the RAF airbase at Coltishall in Norfolk, England, home of the Jaguar attack aircraft force. Unfortunately, most of the Jaguars are deployed to Germany or Oman, leaving behind a robust security force composed of RAF Regiment "Rock Apes" and augmentees from the base's command, administrative and support staff. The team succeeds in blowing a hole in the perimeter fencing, but loses the first three men though the gap to well-placed machinegun fire. The remaining members of the team retreat, leaving the dead men in the breach.

Because the B-52s arsenal does not include antiradar missiles, USAF planners use the brute-force approach. Nine B-52s from the 320th Bomb Wing conduct near-simultaneous cluster-bomb attacks against three major North Korean radar facilities defending the western approaches to Pyongyang. The explosions from 88,000 orange-sized bomblets shredded and silence each site.

The Dutch 2nd Marine Combat Group launches another raid on the Dutch Red Army, killing another six terrorists.

German panzergrenadiers of the First German Army arrive on the outskirts of Poznań, where resistance is fierce. The garrison of the city consists of officer cadets from the Armored Forces School, OTK, WOW, ORMO and ZOMO militia and many of the fixed elements of the Polish Armys support structure as well as the remnants of the 9th Mechanized Division, reinforced with BMP-2s fresh off the production line at the factory next to the airport on the western edge of the city. Overhead, Chorzow's military industry is targeted by NATO airpower.

The 1169th Engineer Group (Combat) (Alabama National Guard) is declared operational in Germany and is initially attached to 7th Army, assigned to improve the infrastructure needed to sustain the NATO advance into Poland.

In the Balkans, the Turkish V Corps pauses to regroup, transferring the battered 8th Infantry Division to a reserve position to rebuild. On the other side of the line, the Soviet 58th Army pauses to reorganize, while the Bulgarian high command rushes construction units to restore the road and rail lines that the invading Turks had overrun.

The 101st Air Assault Division establishes a continuous, somewhat secure ground route between the shores of the Gulf and its forward brigade in Ardakan. The division's patrols are mopping up the last remnants of the 105th Guards Air Assault Division and their Tudeh allies, and the division's mobility and position northwest of Shiraz present a threat to the Soviet troops closing on the Iranian capital.

All along the front, Transcaucasian Front launches attacks to try to secure ground before XVIII Airborne Corps can consolidate its positions and link up with their IPA allies.

The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) begins screening operations, sending mounted patrols out north from Khorramshahr to secure the approaches to the northern Persian Gulf.

Convoy 140 continues its transit of the North Atlantic. The USS Enterprise carrier battle group appears on the horizon to the south of the convoy, while the Saratoga battle group sails ahead to the northeast and the Dwight D Eisenhower battle group, steaming at 25 knots, gains on the convoy from the southwest.

[chico20854]

May 13, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The Federal government rests its case in the treason trial of Autumn Lotus, the accused helper for the Soviet spetsnaz team operating in New Mexico; the defendant has been removed from the courtroom every day of her trial.

The US XXIII Corps headquarters moves into Poland, assigned to First German Army. It will gain units as they arrive in the country.

The British II Corps bypasses Poznan to the north and continues east while the US V Corps passes to the south, leaving VI German Korps to overrun the city's garrison, by now cut off.

Troop ships and transports carrying the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (California National Guard) arrive at the Dutch ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Vlissingen after a long transit through the Panama Canal. The division's vehicles will be transported to the front on civilian trucks augmented by NATO tank transporters.

Saami partisans demolish two bridges on the Kirov Railroad (which connects Murmansk with Leningrad and the rest of the USSR) near the village of Magnetity, south of Murmansk.

Greek engineers replace the damaged rail and road bridges near Alexandropolous, allowing the resumption of easy overland support to the Greek D Corps fighting in Thrace. The engineers next focus on the city's airport, which the Turks had cratered the runway and extensively damaged.

In the Mediterranean, the America and John F Kennedy battle groups shift their focus to the Bulgarian and Soviet garrison of Burgas, which has been under attack since January by Turkish troops. The city's port has seen a steady influx of supplies and reinforcements, preventing the Turks from capturing it.

The two Ranger battalions which had dropped alongside the 82nd Airborne Division begin withdrawing to Saudi Arabia to serve as a theatre reserve.

3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division resumes its deployment to Iran following the cruise missile strike on its marshalling area at the port of Jubayl on the 9th; the attack forced the delay while replacement vehicles and supplies were drawn from the meagre theater reserve stocks.

Outside Bandar Abbas, the British 27th Brigade intercepts a camel caravan (organized and partially staffed by Tudeh rebels) carrying over 20 tons of ammunition to the isolated 103rd Guards Air Assault Division in the city below.

The USS Independence's air wing shifts its attention to the 94th (my 57th) Guards Air Assault Brigade in Chah Bahar, striking the formation's air defense battery in preparation for further strikes.

The B-52s of the 320th Bomb Wing establish a forward operating location at Kadena Air Force Base, Japan. The base has a long history of supporting B-52s, hosting the bombers for missions over Vietnam from 1968-70.

MI6 provides the SAS team in Leningrad with forged workers passes for the Baltic Shipyard.

Nearby, the 3rd Guards Artillery Division begins the mobilization process as the situation on the Kola Peninsula grows more critical. The division pairs officers and NCOs from the Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command School with recalled reservists from the Leningrad area. They all are dismayed to discover that the divisions equipment set, which should have been sufficient to fully equip three howitzer regiments and a rocket artillery brigade, instead consists of 48 ancient ML-20 152mm guns and 24 Second-World War Katusha rocket launchers mounted on trucks that have not been maintained in decades that no amount of mechanical magic will ever be able to make move again.

[chico20854]

May 14, 1997

Third German Army forms Panzergruppe Oberdorf, assigned the 21st Panzer Grenadier Division, the 27th FallshirmJaeger Brigade, the US 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment, with 120 guides from the Free Polish Congress.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Manhattan Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Chicago and Mobile Freedoms are delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

German troops make slow progress in the battle for Poznan against fierce Polish resistance.

The former Western TVD radio-technical warfare officer is killed when his command BMP is struck by a German HOT missile outside Namyslow, Poland.

NATO deep strike aircraft are ordered to halt their campaign to cripple Polish war industry as it becomes increasingly likely that ground troops will overrun the factories. (Added to this is that the damage caused by bombing creates more defensive postions for Polish defenders to hide in). The interdiction aircraft instead shift their efforts to halting the flow of Pact reinforcements and supplies to the front.

X Corps in northern Norway directs the 111th Engineer Brigade to detach its construction engineers to southern Finnmark to construct temporary staging camps near the village of Kautokeino, assisted by 10th Mountain Divisions engineer regiment and two infantry battalions to provide security and manpower.

The 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (New York Air National Guard) is withdrawn from the Faroe Islands to Dover, England to provide search and rescue support over the English Channel and North Sea while the squadron awaits replacement aircraft after the losses it suffered over Norway and the Norwegian Sea.

photo The semi-submersible heavy lift ship Super Servant 5 completes loading the damaged American destroyer Stethem and sets sail from Gibraltar. The American frigate McCloy accompanies the ship to protect it and its valuable cargo.

A stream of Air Force transports and requisitioned civil airliners begin moving troops of the 36th Infantry Division to Europe. The Air Force aircraft land at German airports, while the civilian ones land in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Upon landing, the troops are transported to the ports in busses escorted by German territorial troops.

XVIII Airborne Corps continues to move troops, equipment and supplies across the Persian Gulf into the lodgement it has established. The effort is hindered by damage to Iranian port facilities and the shortage of shipping assets. The USMC's 1st Division, further south in Bahrain and Qatar, has enough amphibious lift to move less than a battalion, such is the demand for amphibious shipping to move the 4th Division, now crossing the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia.

The two remaining Soviet raiders in the Indian Ocean, the Echo-class submarine K-35 and the destroyer Buliny, rendezvous 350 nm south of Diego Garcia.

[chico20854]

May 15, 1997

Nothing official for the day.

The defense rests in the treason trial of Autumn Lotus; the defense counsel attempted to question the legitimacy of evidence collected by the military and its admissibility in court.

map of front lines in Poland
No. 58 Squadron, RAF Regiment seizes the Soviet airfield at Powidz, Poland. The British troops, they are startled to discover, are actually several miles ahead of friendly units in an area that, thankfully has few Pact defenders present to resist the unit's heavily armed (but unarmored) Land Rovers.

Third German Army pauses to reorganize and replenish supplies in preparation for PanzerGruppe Oberdorf's drive.

NATO deep strike aircraft roam along the Warta, Oder and Wisla River valleys seeking out masses of Soviet and Polish vehicles bunched up waiting for river crossings. They are assisted in this hunt by USAF TR-1 and E-8 surveillance aircraft, now orbiting over liberated Polish territory.

The German government begins releasing some territorial security troops from active service, allowing the German economy to partially recover from the withdrawal of most of its adult male workforce. The economy is still, however, struggling from the burdens of repairing battle damage in both East and West, the cutoff of energy supplies from the USSR and worldwide economic turmoil caused by the war.

A SH-60 helicopter from the USS Deyo, part of the escort of Convoy 140, sinks an unidentified Soviet submarine. (Surviving Soviet records list a number of boats that lost contact in mid-May in the North Atlantic.)

The American heavy cruiser Salem and her battle group arrive in Ascension Island in the South Atlantic for a brief stopover to collect mail, discharge a handful of wounded sailors and receive intelligence updates and a consignment of high-priority parts.

In Iran, Rifleman Goreng Nassang further distinguishes himself. Back with his unit (the 1/7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles) outside of Bandar Abbas, he successfully hits a Soviet captain and his radio operator with his trusty GPMG at a range of over 1600 yards.

The two Soviet raiders in the Indian Ocean, the Echo II-class sub K-35 and the destroyer Buliny launch a cruise missile strike on the American base at Diego Garcia. Using targeting data from one of the USSR's last remaining RORSAT (ocean radar recon) satellites, the destroyer dashes towards the American base and launches its five remaining SS-N-22 cruise missiles at the ships in the lagoon. The submarine fires its four SS-N-12 cruise missiles at the airfield, hoping to strike the tank farm, runway and any aircraft parked on the apron. The strike is a success; the American destroyer tender Acadia is struck and sunk, while the tanker Mount Washington is set ablaze, sinking at dusk. The air base is also damaged, with two fuel tanks burst (the fire put out after herculean efforts of the base firefighting team), two P-3s of VP-4, two C-141s of the 172nd Military Airlift Wing (Mississippi Air National Guard) and a KC-135 of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron lost.

The SAS team in Leningrad uses the fake passes and a substantial bribe to obtain access to the nuclear battlecruiser Rossiya, under construction at the Baltic Shipyard. They manage to start a fire belowdecks and escape before the fire brigade can arrive.

[chico20854]

May 16, 1997

As forward elements of the 24th Infantry Division move into the Bandar-e Khomeyni-Khorramshahr area, the 82nd Airborne begins withdrawing to Saudi Arabia. As the 1st Brigade, 24th Infantry is moving into its' positions, the Soviets strike back. A battle group built around the 217th (my 337th) Guards Airborne Regiment and several Tudeh guerrilla companies launch attacks in the Ramshir-Shadegan area. The 1st of the 24th use their firepower well. The attacks are beaten back. The Soviets, however, are able to withdraw in good order.

German Third Army commits seven divisions to the capture of Silesia. They face three battered Pact divisions - the Polish 12th Tank and 2nd Motor-Rifle and the Soviet 35th (my 93rd) Guards Motor-Rifle, and various workers militia and ZOMO riot police battalions.

Unofficially,

The tanker Suwanee is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service.

The jury reaches a guilty verdict in the treason trial of Autumn Lotus, who provided transportation, food and shelter to a Soviet Spetsnaz team operating in New Mexico.

US Forces Korea launch a co-ordinated air campaign against North Korea. Recent POW interrogations have revealed that the North Korean People's Army has largely expended its stocks of food, fuel and ammunition at the front and that great efforts are required to keep the troops supplied. Some supplies are coming from further north, while others are being provided by the DPRK's Soviet sponsor. Consequently, USFK implements an all-out interdiction campaign designed to halt the North Korean transportation system. The 320th Bpmb Wing's B-52s hit Pyongyang, jamming the remaining air defense radars while the bombers attack the capital's rail yards. US Navy aircraft from the Kitty Hawk and Nimitz carrier battle groups (and conventionally-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from some of the escorts) pound other targets in the city, while the F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing and the Stennis and Abraham Lincoln battle groups pound Wonsan on the east coast.

The 631st Field Artillery Brigade (Mississippi National Guard) arrives at the Oakland Port of Embarkation for transit to Korea.

III German Korps links up with the amphibious lodgment and isolates Kolobrzeg on the Baltic Coast.

Anti-Soviet partisans on the Kola rescue the pilot of a USMC F/A-18 fighter-bomber who was shot down attacking air defense sites south of Murmansk.

Convoy 140 arrives off the southwest coast of the UK, having taken a more southerly route to avoid Soviet submarines that had ravaged Convoy 136 a few weeks prior. The escort carrier Shangri La departs the convoy, joining the westbound Convoy 143.

The "Rumble in the Jungle" erupts in Colombia when Colombian national police commandos, accompanied by American advisors of the 8th Special Forces Group, launch a helicopter assault on the guerilla-controlled hamlet of El Moral (east of Cali), carried by American UH-1s of the 3rd Battalion, 228th Aviation. The town conceals the headquarters of the ELM-L, a splinter group of the larger ELM marxist guerrilla group. The battle that follows is fierce, with two helicopters and a A-7 attack jet of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) shot down by SA-7s, likely supplied by Cuba, making their first appearance in Colombia. By sundown the police and their American allies have gained control of the town but find themselves under siege by hundreds of guerillas and armed peasants and townspeople.

[chico20854]

May 17, 1997

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

American and Allied planners face growing shortages as simultaneous offensives occur around the world. Prewar stockpiles have largely been depleted, and while Western industrial production is turning out ever increasing amounts of war materiel it is not enough to offset the voracious appetite of global war. Shipping is in short supply with three major convoys at sea moving troops and months of Soviet commerce raiding. Logistics planners try to better manage the supplies they have - substituting when possible and allocating scarce resources to the most pressing needs. One policy change US planners implement regards MREs, where supplies are rapidly dwindling as troops in the field consume them and other users want them to add to emergency stockpiles. The new policy limits MREs to one per day for troops beyond the rear of brigades in action and prohibits further transfer of MREs into CONUS stockpiles. Trainees in the US will be issued prepackaged perishable foods. In response, FEMA buys up the remainder of the year's production from the country's three biggest suppliers of dehydrated camping food as well as massive quantities of canned food. Similar changes occur in many other areas of supply.

Engineers at the US Army TACOM complete the design of a SS-23 guidance radar jamming system that can be truck mounted. After testing against SS-23s transferred from the NVA at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the system is ordered into emergency mass production.

The 196th Infantry Brigade is formed at Fort Ord, California as part of the wartime expansion of the Army, assigned a mix of draftees, recalled reservists and retirees and a smattering of reassigned active-duty NCOs, including the entire peacetime Army recruiting command staff on the West Coast who are medically fit for deployment. Due to the demands of the war the oeChargers Brigade does not receive its complete complement of specialist troops and is issued WW II-era howitzers and converted civilian vehicles for training purposes.

The 214th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma is stood down from alert, informed by the Joint Chiefs that it will remain in CONUS as part of a small strategic reserve, especially since the deployment of additional Pershing II missiles to Europe could be seen as escalatory.

US Forces Korea's air campaign against North Korean transportation infrastructure continues with more F-111, B-52 and naval strikes on Pyongyang and Wonsan. NSA signals interception teams record a call between Kim Jong Il and Soviet General Secretary Sauronski in which the North Korean leader begs for modern Soviet air defense missiles and PVO interceptors to cover his nation; Sauronski rebuffs the North Korean, explaining (accurately) that he has none to spare and refusing to divert PVO forces from defending the USSR.

The lead squadrons of the US 1st Cavalry Division enter Szczecinek.

The Luftwaffe 4th Luftjaeger Regiment is formed as the threat to airbases in West Germany (from Spetsnaz or saboteur attack or Warsaw Pact air raids) recedes. The regiment is tasked with providing security for NATO supply convoys and logistics sites in Poland as NATO advances towards the Soviet border.

Troops of the Hungarian Sopron Border Guard District detain a group of eight men crossing into Hungary from Austria. (The border is one of only two Warsaw Pact borders that is not seeing war; the other is the Soviet-Finnish broder). Hidden within the group's cars are several M-16 rifles, explosives, detanators and sophisticated communications equipment. They do not identify themselves and are not heard from again in the West. (The group was a CIA paramilitary team attempting to infiltrate into the USSR via Hungary; the Department of Defense thought the plan was foolish and denied the CIA's request for assistance.)

Behind the screen maintained by the Kings Guard in northern Norway, the Norwegian 8th Brigade and the S,r-Norge Mechanized Brigade move into the area around Karasjok, forming a division-sized force.

Ships from Convoy 140 arrive in Bremen, Hamburg and Bremerhaven, Germany and begin unloading the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized), the 107th ACR and 44th AD as well as thousands of tons of ammunition and supplies. The massive escort force allowed the convoy to arrive unscathed, despite the numerous objections of US Navy Admirals to their vaunted carrier forces being "wasted escorting a bunch of merchant tubs wallowing along at 7 knots".

POWs in the hastily established POW camp outside Bushehr riot, demanding better rations and an end to the overcrowding. The rioters nearly overwhelm the MPs guarding the camp's perimeter, saved only by the arrival of an Iranian infantry battalion. Over 300 POWs are killed in the disorder. The 24th Infantry Division and 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) pursue the retreating Soviet and Tudeh forces, advancing 5 km towards Ramshir and Shadegan. In Leningrad the fire aboard the battlecruiser Rossiya, lit by a British SAS team two nights before, is extinguished.

The "Rumble in the Jungle" continues, with American and Colombian transport planes dropping supplies to the surrounded troops. At sundown another air assault is launched, delivering two companies of Colombian Army infantry, equipped with heavy machineguns and moertars. Throughout the day, as the battle rages, the government troops are supported by further waves of American attack aircraft, moving fast and low to avoid guerilla MANPADS.

On the other side of the world, a Pakistani Army patrol clashes with Indian border guards along the disputed border west of Srinagar. India claims the Pakistanis were on Indian territory and that the patrol was escorting Muslim rebels into the disputed region of Kashmir, which both nations claim.

[chico20854]

May 18, 1997

Nationwide conscription begins in Canada. Initially, there are some "card burning" rallies held by people opposing Canadian involvement in the war in Europe and by those resisting conscription.

Unofficially,

Outside Fort Lee, Virginia, MPs are called to a low-budget hotel in the early morning to break up a rowdy gathering of trainees. When the MPs arrive there are over 25 soldiers (mostly privates but including one staff sergeant and a lone, female, second lieutenant), ample alchohol, cocaine and six unregistered firearms. All the soldiers are brought to the base confinement facility.

The final major secret transfer of precious objects out of London takes place under the careful watch of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards. This final consignment includes the second copy of the Magna Carta kept at the British Library.

A third day of airstrikes on North Korean transportation sites continues. The USAF long-range aircraft are supplemented by F-16s of the 16th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing, forward deployed to Kangnung Air Base, Korea; the F-16s carry precision-guided munitions to target bridges and tunnels along the rail lines approaching the DMZ, while ROKAF and USAF A-10s search roads and rail lines for convoys and trains to attack.

VII German Korps advances on Walcz and Piła while III German Korps, assisted by more amphibious landings (often in battalion size), takes Koszalin and Slupsk. The Soviet 3rd Shock Army, battered by a month of intense action and at less than 25 percent strength, is withdrawn to the Kaliningrad oblast for rest and reconstruction.

As the Polish Free Congress discovers the challenges of governing recaptured territory, 7th US Army offers the assistance of the 42nd Military Police Group (Customs) in battling smuggling and black market activity.

The contractors hired by the German government complete their first job, emergency repairs to the railroad bridge over the Oder at Krosno Odrzańskie, which had been damaged by RAF Tornadoes in January.

Logistic difficulties slow the American counterattack in Iran as the limited reserves of ammunition and spare parts in Saudi Arabia are depleted. CENTCOM's limited transportation resources for moving things across the Persian Gulf are nearly fully committed to sustain the forces that have already been moved to Iran, leaving the US Marine's 1st Division, the 434th Field Artillery Brigade and many of XVIII Airborne Corps' support units stranded in Saudi Arabia.

In Leningrad, the British SAS team launches what will turn out to be its final attack. They infiltrate the Vostochnaya electrical substation and attack the control center. The subsequent damage to the control center severely disrupts the life of the city, cutting off power to 40 percent of the city, shutting down much of the metro system and the main water treatment plant as well as massive portions of the city's industry.

In Colombia, the battle of El Moral comes to an end as the guerrillas, battered by mortar fire and two days of nearly nonstop air attack, melt away into the jungle. They take their dead and wounded with them, leaving the government forces in control of the town and its hostile population. Government losses approach 150 dead and over 300 wounded.

[chico20854]

May 19, 1997

NATO airstrikes destroy the road and rail bridges across the Raba River in Bochnia, 40 km south of Krakow.

Unofficially,

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

With the end of the school year, the governor of Texas orders the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets to active duty, splitting its remaining membership (those contracted to ROTC have already been deployed) into two regiments. The 3rd Regiment (unofficially known as oethe 1st Aggies) leaves its College Station home to augment the Border Patrol in guarding the Mexican border, operating out of a ranch on the outskirts of Eagle Pass and from Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio. The regiments cadets are armed with a hodgepodge of M16s from Air Force and National Guard stocks, M14s and M1s from the State Guard, shotguns from the factory in Eagle Pass and civilian weapons owned by the units members or donated by alumni. Its sister regiment, the 5th Texas Regiment, is assigned "special missions" from the governors office.

The MP investigators at Fort Lee, Virginia discover that the party they broke up the night before was a gathering of the "5th Squad", a gang formed by trainees at the base, mostly attending the fuel handler advanced individual training course. The exclusively African-American gang had started out as a harmless social organization but over several months had evolved into a criminal organization, moving drugs onto the base. Witness interviews revealed that the weekly graduation parties (to celebrate the graduation of the members of the training company's senior platoon) frequently involved assault, rape and drug abuse. The investigators forward their finding to the JAG and to the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

The B-52s of the 320th Bomb Wing shift to northeastern North Korea, alarming Soviet air defense commanders in the Vladivostok area. The bombers instead hit transportation and industrial facilities in Chongjin, North Korea's third largest city. 7th Air Force withdraws its remaining A-10 force from the interdiction effort over North Korea, alarmed at the loss of five of the increasingly hard to replace aircraft in the first day's operation to North Korean anti-aircraft artillery fire.

The Poznan airport is captured by panzergrenadiers and the factory floor of the BMP-2 plant is torn apart by artillery and mortar fire. The German commander offers to permit the garrison to surrender before the artillery turns its guns on the old city. The garrison commander stalls for time, allowing the bridges over the Warta and the switches and repair shops in the citys railyards to be demolished, before accepting the offer.

To the north of Poznan, the Polish 10th Border Guard Brigade, its commander killed in a partisan attack, declares in favor of the government in exile, the largest unit to date to declare for NATO.

The American heavy cruiser Des Moines completes 45 days of post-commissioning workups at Naval Station Mayport, Florida and is ordered to the Pacific. It will be assigned an escort force from the Pacific Fleet when it completes its transit of the Panama Canal.

The CIA station chief in Pakistan meets with a group of Afghan Mujahadin leaders who are demanding the resumption of American weapons shipments, which have been curtailed because of the war. The CIA officer explains that the worldwide war has prevented him from being able to obtain additional Stinger missiles, Soviet-caliber small arms and ammunition and explosives. He reinterates the CIA's continued financial support of the Afghan rebels and the provision of small numbers of Lee-Enfield rifles and ammunition, and the departure of most of the Soviet 40th Army to fight in Iran, leaving only small garrisons to hold the cities. The guerrilla leaders reject his call for the resistance to shut down the Afghan road network to the Soviets and their DRA allies.

Authorities from naval headquarters in Moscow judge the hulk of the battlecruiser Rossiya a total loss, fit only for scrap. The KGB finally obtains the location of the SAS safehouse in Leningrad and calls in the Alfa Group commando team.

Additional clashes break out along the Indian-Pakistani border in Kashmir. There are three separate firefights between patrols and artillery duels disturbing the night. Leaders of both nations are silent, resisting calls both to de-escalate the tensions and hawkish calls to respond with overwhelming force to force the other side to back down.