On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

September 17, 1997

The 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division links up with the 4th Marine Division's 4th Light Armored Recon Battalion and 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard) north of Sirjan. Its long journey out of the Yadz pocket has succeeded.

As NATO forces retreat, the Polish Government seeks out collaborators and others who did not sufficiently oppose the NATO occupation. In the town of Ciechan3w north of Warsaw, which has been used as a supply hub to support the siege of Warsaw, a battalion commander from the 6th (my 22nd) Border Guard Brigade orders most of the town's adult male population shot for aiding the enemy during their stay.

Unofficially,

The survivors of the 40th Infantry Division evacuated from Europe return to Camp Rilea, Oregon and begin forming a new division from new trainees streaming out of the training system. Supply of equipment is problematic, as the demands of worldwide war exceed American industry's ability to produce weapons, vehicles and the myriad items needed to supply a military unit.

A Soviet tactical nuclear attack on American and South Korean positions north of Hamhung permits tanks of the Bulgarian 11th Tank Brigade to break through, wreaking havoc in the Allied rear area and forcing the defenders into the city. The Freedom ship Idaho Freedom, due to depart after discharging munitions and food, is nearly overwhelmed by refugees seeking to escape the returning Communist regime; the ship eventually leaves port with nearly 5,000 people aboard, crammed onto nearly every horizontal surface aboard. (Armed guards prevent entry to the bridge and engine rooms)

German troops fall back towards the Wisla, allowing the relief of Baltic Front in the Torun Pocket. Baltic Front had been cut off for over three months, and the battered formation has sustained 70% losses in action since April.

Pact troops in southern Poland close on the Wisla as well, following the withdrawal of XI Corps, Panzergruppe Oberdorff and the German V Corps. They receive a nasty surprise in the form of numerous Atomic Demolition Munitions, losing multiple tank battalions to the remotely-detonated "nuclear land mines" as well as contaminating miles and miles of transportation routes.

A shipyard in Odense, Denmark delivers the world's largest containership, the Sovereign Mae. At over 100,000 tons, the massive ship can transport over 8,100 containers, moving at 21 knots. The ship is dispatched to Norfolk, Virginia, one of only a handful of US ports able to handle the ship's size (which is too large to fit through the Panama Canal).

NATO's Mediterranean command, AFSOUTH, dispatches another convoy to Turkey, this one carrying the remaining elements of the Portuguese 1st Mechanized Brigade.

Troops of the 1st Guards Army capture the Ghimeș Pass through the Carpathians and begin descending into Transylvania along the rail line and road against weakening Romanian resistance.

The Bulgarian 3rd Army advancing on Bucharest from the south dispatches the 16th Motor-Rifle Division to the west in a drive to cut off the Romanian capital, hoping to link up with Soviet troops from the 14th Guards Army. They are fiercely resisted by Romanian irregular forces; the Bulgarians deploy chemical weapons, sweeping away the opposition (and hundreds of civilians fleeing the city) shortly before dark.

[chico20854]

September 18, 1997

NATO tactical missiles strike Byelorussia and the Ukraine, hitting Kiev, Lvov and Odessa, severely weakening the Soviets attempts to build up the western front. The 87th (my 52nd) Tank Division, forming in Kiev, is destroyed in the attack.

Unofficially,

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

The 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, lead unit of the US VII Corps, enters action in Ingolstadt, Germany, catching the Soviet 18th Guards Motor-Rifle Divisions 278th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment off guard as it moves on Ingolstadt, Germany. The veteran cavalrymen rake the columns of Soviet BTRs with withering fire, driving the Soviets off.

Along the Baltic coast, II MEF uses a detachment of LCAC hovercraft to maintain an active withdrawal, using the fast craft and remaining helicopters of the 2nd Marine Air Wing to outflank the attacking Pact forces and disrupt their rear areas. Some of these raids also include covert supply drops or pickups of agents and sympathizers who would be at risk due to their work with the Free Polish Congress.

The lone Vulcan bomber remaining in service, No. 55 Squadron's XH558, crashes on landing at RAF Honington following a refueling mission over the North Sea. While no lives are lost the aircraft is written off as a total loss. Unrest continues in Kosovo and spreads to the ethnic-Albanian population of Macedonia. The local Orthodox population, dominant in the Territorial Defense militias and police forces, try to suppress it, while additional army brigades are rushed to the front to the north.

Soviet tanks reach Belgrade, while the Jugoslav expeditionary force to Romania is tied down fighting the Hungarians (their traditional enemy) to the northeast of the city.

Another NATO capital in the Balkans comes under threat as Soviet and Bulgarian forces link up in the town of Bolontin, completing the encirclement of the city. To the south, Turkish troops, hammered by multiple Soviet nuclear strikes, retreat in a semi-organized fashion; the withdrawal threatens to become a rout.

In Iran, the exhausted troops of the 1st Marine Division are evacuated to rest stations in warehouses near the waterfront at Bandar Abbas, where they have access to hot water, a US Army quartermaster laundry unit, fresh food and cots for the first time in months.

[chico20854]

September 19, 1997

The 184th Transportation Brigade is redesignated an infantry brigade and assigned assigned responsibility for security and distribution of foodstuffs in Federal Region III (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware).

Unofficially,

Colonel Tumanksi's spetsnaz team relocates to a new safe house, an abandoned farmhouse in eastern Hertfordshire. They make the move in a stolen van, which is abandoned on the outskirts of Hertford.

Soviet and North Korean forces subject the city of Hamhung to a furious artillery barrage, hoping to reduce the number of Allied defenders. Persistent chemical agents and nuclear weapons are not used, lest the city's remaining industry and other resources be destroyed.

With Warsaw relieved, the Polish military begins to try to reorganize the battered defenders of Warsaw. The wounded are evacuated from the various makeshift facilities under the city, while combat forces are categorized into various classes, ranging from reassign as replacement to return to support duties. One wounded riot policeman, Captain Czarny, is dispatched to his hometown of Polutsk to recover from his wounds.

In Bavaria the battle for control of Ingolstadt intensifies as the remainder of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment arrives, supported by the guns of the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, relieving the battered German territorial garrison. They face the full weight of the 18th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, reinforced with 21st Army's 211th Guards Artillery Brigade, which launch a renewed assault at dusk. The Allied force holds off the Soviet attack, assisted by the timely intervention of a flight of A-10s from the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing.

In south-central Poland Soviet troops, celebrating crossing the Wisla after hard fighting driving NATO from the outskirts of Lvov, liberate a wine cellar in the town of Sandomierz. The celebration (as many do) gets out of hand, and by midnight a fire has broken out in the historic Sandomierz Castle, heavily damaging the historic structure. The Polish civil defense and fire forces respond and extinguish the fire, saving part of the structure.

The defense of Zagreb against attacking Italian forces disintegrates as increasing numbers of troops desert or go over to the Italian side, convinced by psy-ops efforts to join the nationalist cause in fighting for an independent Croatia.

The Italian San Marino marine brigade captures the Croatian port of Rijeka; the defending 13th Corps disintegrates as Jugoslavia seems to be disintegrating; the most aggressively commanded brigade had been lured out of the city to pursue a retreating Italian carabinieri force, an Italian feint to draw the Jugoslav mechanized force into open ground where Italian artillery and airpower could tear it apart.

Operation Golden Fleece - the 29th US Infantry Division (Maryland and Virginia National Guard) and detachment from the 4th Marine Division lands near Aden, South Yemen, supported by the guns of the USS Salem, and quickly captures the international airport, while 3rd Brigade's 1/175th Infantry parachutes on the nearby Al Anad airbase, fighting off fierce counterattacks from Yemeni and Soviet airmen and South Yemeni Army troops. The attack is the 29th's second amphibious assault, having been one of the lead divisions on Omaha Beach in 1944.

The Indian offensive in the south, which has cost over 25,000 casualties, begins to make progress. The Indian high command orders its expansion to the Kashmir sector.

[chico20854]

September 20, 1997

The Soviets respond to the nuclear attacks on Kiev, Lvov and Odessa with attacks on NATO ports and command facilities. Bremerhaven and Bremen are targeted with SS-20 missiles (Hamburg has already been so heavily damaged by conventional strikes that a nuclear strike is considered unnecessary); by a fluke the warhead aimed at Bremerhaven lands 12 km northwest of the city, inflicting minor damage.

In Warsaw, the arrival of Soviet troops and lifting of the siege is followed almost immediately by a flood of refugees fleeing the heavily damaged city. Among the tens of thousands of civilians fleeing the heavily damaged city are the family of a Wisla tug boat captain, Adam Rataj, who head for the (relative) safety of Lublin.

Unofficially,

In Alaska, the Soviet offensive has slowed as supplies grow more scarce and the weather cools, with the first snowfalls on 25th Corps units approaching Fairbanks. X Corps uses the lull to try to reorganize its widely dispersed and intermixed units.

The fighting for Ingolstadt continues, with additional American and Soviet units entering the fray.

The US Army in Europe is facing a manning crisis after 10 months of combat. The training system in the US is providing nearly 4000 newly trained privates every week, which is roughly enough to make up for losses at the front, but is unable to provide adequate mid-level leaders - staff sergeants and captains and above. The training system attempts to identify soldiers with leadership potential, and units are quick to act on such soldiers, promoting them to corporal within months (or even weeks) of arrival, but such instant NCOs lack the years of experience and judgement that are the hallmark of the American NCO corps. The flow of experienced soldiers from the inactive reserve has ended, depriving units of potential mid-grade NCOs, and the pre-war ROTC and West Point cadets have all been sent to the front as lieutenants. In Europe, the 7th Army Training Command re-establishes some of its training classes at prewar barracks in northern Germany (away from Pact troops advancing through Bavaria), including battle staff NCO, air assault and combat lifesaver classes and standing up an officer candidate school for high-potential soldiers already serving in Europe, using a modified National Guard OCS curriculum. Some NCOs that distinguish themselves in action receive battlefield commissions, but many battalions still suffer from attrition in their mid-grade NCOs and officers.

The American submarine Olympia is still searching for a Soviet SSBN but it has slipped away.

F-15s of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron operating over the Norwegian Sea intercept a Soviet Tu-22M2DP southbound, shooting it down and protecting the streams of NATO transport aircraft between Europe and North America.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), launches another counterattack on the 201st Motor-Rifle Division from the outskirts of Bandar Abbas, slowing 40th Army's effort to concentrate against the Bandar Abbas perimeter.

[chico20854]

September 21, 1997

Greek and Albanian forces invade Jugoslavia, and the Jugoslav Army begins to break up. (Unofficially) The Albanians commit their 1st, 10th and 11th Divisions to capturing Kosovo while their 4th and 24th Divisions advance over the mountainous terrain into western Macedonia. The Greek A, B and C Corps move into southern Macedonia. Both nations claim their interventions are to secure the rights of their ethnic minorities in Jugslavia from Slavic oppression.

The Freedom ship Baltimore Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas. The light frigate USS Marchand is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and manned by USCG personnel.

Soviet forces secure a toehold in the outer eastern suburbs of Ingolstadt, which is subjected to near-constant artillery and air attack by VII US Corps. As the fight absorbs more and more American resources and attention, the commander of the 21st Army, Colonel General Boris Aristov, moves his tank division, the 15th Guards, to the northeast of the town, positioning it to capture the town of Neustadt an der Donau, its crossings over the Danube and Bavaria's largest refinery outside the town.

The Sierra III-class sub K-231, unable to locate an American nuclear missile submarine, consoles itself with a support target, the submarine tender Simon Lake, which is returning to Kings Bay, Georgia after supporting a SSBN in the mid-Atlantic. The area is almost immediately flooded with P-3s from nearby Jacksonville.

The NATO convoy in the Mediterranean reaches Izmir, Turkey and begins unloading the vehicles and men of the Portuguese 1st Mechanized Brigade. Ships carrying ammunition and replacement vehicles wait their turn at the city's docks.

The Pakistani Army scrambles to contain the new Indian offensive in the northern Kashmir sector. It commits one of its last reserve formations, the (at this point only somewhat mechanized) II Corps to counter a breakthrough south of Lahore. Pakistani leaders scrape together additional paramilitary troops from the poorly controlled western areas of the nation to shore up the thinning lines in the south.

[chico20854]

September 22, 1997

In an attempt to slow Warsaw Pact forces and cripple the road and communication networks, the British submarine HMS Victorious fires three of its 16 Trident II missiles at a variety of targets in Poland. One of the missiles is aimed at Warsaw - three at the city center, a fourth at Okecie airport, the fifth at the suburb of Wlochy to the west and the sixth at the southern spur of suburbs on the east bank of the Wisla. Two other warheads strike military units to the southeast of Warsaw, (unofficially: the two other missiles hit targets in and around the cities of Bialystok and Kielce. The Polish government had just begun the process of returning to the capital, reoccupying underground bomb shelters that survived the siege.)

Czech and Italian troops begin a renewed offensive in southern Germany.

Unofficially,

Soviet forces and their North Korean allies make another concerted effort to capture Hamhung, North Korea. They take heavy casualties from the American cruiser Des Moines and American carrier airpower.

Several Soviet warheads target at Tempelhof airport, Berlin, Germany, virtually destroying the US 10th Air Force's Headquarters (as well as much of what remained of the city after the Second Battle of Berlin).

The Czech-Italian offensive in Bavaria also includes the Soviet 21st Army's drive to secure Ingolstadt and the Danube crossings to the northeast. An American E-8 JSTARS radar aircraft detects the armor of the Soviet 15th Guards Tank Division massing for the attack on Neustadt an der Donau and within 45 minutes the Soviet division is on the receiving end of a hailstorm of NATO conventional and tactical nuclear bombardment. The disciplined Soviet tankers launch their assault despite the destruction of much of their supporting artillery and command structure, but the planned coup de main has become a slog.

Soviet railroad troops from around the USSR are rushed to the west to begin restoring the rail links severed by Operation Barnyard Tiger the week before as well as B-2 Stealth bomber attacks on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

The commander of the PVO (Air Defense Force) 14th Air Army, responsible for defending the skies over eastern Siberia, is shot after another B-2 incursion over the Trans-Siberian.

The attack submarine USS Olympia hears a snorkeling Soviet boat in the Barents and diverts to investigate. Only at the last moment does it discover that the noise is a decoy in a minefield.

The Albanian Army's drive into Kosovo and Macedonia makes slow progress, more from lack of competence and leadership on the Albanian's part than from effective Jugoslav resistance. (The almost-overwhelmingly Serbian territorial defense forces fight savagely, but are poorly coordinated and their rear areas under attack from ethnic Albanian guerillas).

The Italian Army is likewise unable to take advantage of collapsing Jugoslav resistance in Croatia; logistic difficulties and poor coordination between Grupo Dalmatia and command in Rome hamper any concerted drive out of the newly captured city of Zagreb.

Soviet collective and state farms are exerting a maximum effort to bring in a bountiful harvest. The increase in private plots in the spring has boosted production, but the harvest is challenging due to shortages of fuel, trucks and labor (despite the diversion of tens of thousands of Allied POWs to the fields to augment the nation's school children and pensioners sent to long days of work in the fields).

[chico20854]

September 23, 1997

Nothing in canon for today.

American authorities complete the stocking of another reserve stockpile, this one located in San Francisco's abandoned Fort Mason railroad tunnel. This is the city's second stockpile, following the covert positioning of thousands of tons of food, fuel and supplies on Alcatraz Island. These urban stockpiles are controversial within FEMA, who fear that they will be quickly discovered and looted by desperate residents.

South Korean troops from the 21st Infantry Division launch a midnight counterattack on the Soviet 30th Army, kicked off with a 20kt W-33 8-inch round fired from the USS Des Moines on the headquarters of the 266th Motor-Rifle Division's 430th Motor-Rifle Regiment, which had overextended itself in the prior day's assault on the city. The disorganized Soviet troops fall back in to their starting positions by dawn.

The US VII Corps commits its carefully husbanded reserve battalions to the defense of Neustadt an der Donau, while the German territorial command releases the 63rd Security Regiment (which had been relieved a week earlier by VII Corps) to once again bolster the defense of Ingolstadt. Soviet forces in the town gain almost 200 meters of territory in the day's fighting, while to the north the 15th Guards Tank Division is hampered by orders to leave the massive refinery complex intact and the fierce defense offered by the US 36th Infantry Division.

More generally, Pact forces in Europe begin to feel the bite from the severing of rail lines from the USSR. It has now been a week since Operation Barnyard Tiger severed the rail lines from the USSR and Soviet forces have largely expended the supplies they had on hand and that had already crossed the Nema-Bug-Dneister Rivers. Units that have not crossed the Wisla are ordered to remain in place, freeing fuel for other units and giving NATO forces temporary but well-needed breathing room.

A R-5D hypersonic spy plane, Airframe #4, is lost when one of the airplane's booster rockets detonates on ignition.

The German containership Herm Kiepe arrives in the small German port of Brunsbttel, at the mouth of the Elbe and western end of the Kiel Canal. The ship's master is reluctant to risk the ship's safety by bringing her into a larger port.

The Indo-Pakistani War takes on more and more of an early 20th century character as both sides' armor and aviation assets are attrited away. Their main arms suppliers, the UK and USSR (for India) and China and the US (for Pakistan) have no munitions to spare for their clients and their domestic industries are by no means able to make up for the prodigious consumption of the fighting forces.

[chico20854]

September 24, 1997

As the southern German offensive gains momentum, NATO forces in Poland increase the rate of their withdrawal, practicing a scorched earth policy as they fall back.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship San Antonio Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Battle of Hamhung continues to rage, with Soviet troops spending the day regrouping and struggling to contain the ROK 21st Division's assault while sheltering from the unrelenting American naval gunfire and air attacks, the North Korean air force having been swept from the skies long ago and Frontal Aviation largely diverted to European skies.

The Luftwaffe 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment is assigned to the US Marine Corps 6th MEB as reinforcements and to help defend its rear areas from Pact infiltrators.

Pact commanders scramble for trucks to sustain the offensive in the absence of reliable rail transport; Polish government authorities draft masses of civilian refugees to manually load and unload cargo from trucks into the portion of the Polish rail network that are still intact and operational. As Soviet railway troops work around the clock (the need is too high to limit themselves to night operations only) to restore or replace the bridges destroyed in Operation Barnyard Tiger they become targets for follow-on nuclear strikes, especially as combat units transiting from China and deep in the USSR and increasing masses of supplies pile up waiting to cross. Fed by satellite and aerial reconnaissance (both photographic and electronic), NATO targeting specialists dispatch additional rounds of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and deep strike aircraft; some sites are hit three and even four times.

SACEUR inquires with the Norwegian government about the availability of Army units for service on the central front. The Norwegians are struggling to recover from the losses suffered in the Kola campaign and are non-committal, although they agree to divert nearly the entire production of their munitions factories to the battlefields of Poland and Germany, having rebuilt their units' holding to a level unmatched by NATO units on the Central Front.

40th Army, having regrouped and brought forces south following the evacuation of the 1st Marine Division, launches a series of attacks on the Bandar Abbas area. The104th Guards Air Assault Division's 387th Airborne Regiment, despite being depleted by months in action, is landed by helicopter west of the city, cutting the coastal road and overland contact with XVIII Airborne Corps.

As more and more elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrive in Kenya the front stabilizes. The combat hardened American veterans, supported with a sprinkling of friendly air power and able to use advanced communications, logistics and intelligence assets, are more than a match for the hodgepodge Tanzanian and Ugandan expeditionary forces, which are suffering from months of action and are poorly led in the best of times.

[chico20854]

September 25, 1997

As 40th Army attacks the Bandar Abbas perimeter, the cruiser USS Salem is key to holding it. (Unofficially, the troops of the 1st Marine Division, after having over a week to rest and recuperate, are thrown back into action alongside 4th Marine Division and their British and Iranian allies. With overland communications to the rest of Iran cut, local transportation is forced to rely on dhows and other small craft in the Persian Gulf while Allied command scrambles for troops to break the Soviet deadlock on the coastal road.)

The Freedom ship San Jose Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the Brooklyn Freedom in San Diego, California.

A late-night fire breaks out at the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in Illinois. The fire soon detonates some warheads on the AT-4 production line, destroying the building and killing six workers; the design of the plant (with multiple buildings, partially buried and surrounded by berms, each handling a small portion of production) prevents a wider disaster from occurring.

The airbases at Sembach and Lahr, Germany are hit by Soviet nuclear strikes. The main headquarters of 17th US Air Force at Sembach is destroyed but operations continue from alternate and backup field headquarters.

West of Warsaw, Pact troops shake off the effects of the nuclear strikes and resume their attacks on the withdrawing NATO troops; the lead elements are composed the East German loyalists, now fighting as part of a single VOPO regiment. The East German communists, a strange mix of fanatics and reluctant students and workers unfortunate enough to be in other Warsaw Pact countries at the outbreak of war and drafted into the unit, are used as cannon fodder by their Soviet commanders, who question their loyalty while simultaneously afraid that they will call out the Soviet for not being "good enough communists".

Deployment of new large formation from the US has largely stopped as the war consumes men and materiel at a pace that exceeds America's ability to replace. The best that Training and Doctrine Command can manage is sending Cohort squads, platoons and, once or twice a week, companies. These units are formed at the onset of basic training, allowing unit cohesion to develop throughout the soldiers' training, and are led by experienced NCOs (often recalled retirees or the lightly wounded being returned to duty), often by freshly minted officers. These units can be "plugged into" formations that have been ravaged in combat, taking advantage of the new parent command's already existing command structure. Deployment of these units is almost entirely by air, as there are adequate numbers of requisitioned civilian airliners to fly the troops over; westbound return flights carry heavily guarded POWs or wounded

In northwestern Iran, Kurdish guerillas, guided by Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group, execute a well-orchestrated campaign to interdict Soviet supply lines. They launch multiple ambushes along the roads leading from Azerbaijan as well as guiding F-15Es of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing and A-6F bombers from VA-155, the last strike aircraft remaining from the USS Independence's air wing.

Pakistani lines across the entire front begin to buckle under weeks of relentless Indian assault. The Indian Army, sensing an opportunity, throws its last heavily mechanized formation, the XXI Corps, into action at the bulge in the Pakistani lines south of Lahore, crashing into the armored forces of the Pakistani II Corps. A massive tank battle ensues.

[chico20854]

September 26, 1997

Nothing in canon for today!

A detachment from the 1st Armored Brigade (Training) escorts the train that transports a large portion of the gold from the Fort Knox Bullion Depository to a secret, secure location.

The Soviet drive in Alaska is stalled by a poor (and deteriorating) supply situation and the increased resistance offered by X Corps, whose newly-arrived 197th Field Artillery Brigade is providing well-placed and timed heavy fire support to the front-line light infantry units facing the Soviets.

Naval gunfire support plays a key role in the defense of Allied positions in North Korea, with the USS Missouri alternating between supporting III MEF west of Pyongyang and the Chinese 31st Group Army and its American and British attacjhments holding the mouth of the Yalu. On Korea's east coast the heavy cruiser Des Moines is pulled south, off the gunline, its magazines depleted, fuel tanks running low and, most seriously, the liners of its eight-inch gun barrels in dire need of replacement. The ship heads to Pusan at top speed, its way cleared by an umbrella of American, Japanese and South Korean patrol aircraft.

With the supply of missiles becoming problematic, the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade consolidates into two battalions, 4th Battalion, 200th Air Defense Artillery with Patriots and 7th Battalion, 200th Air Defense Artillery with I-Hawks, with excess personnel transferred to other units. The brigade is assigned to XX Corps, facing the Italians in far southwestern Germany and is fortunate that the Italian Air Force in the sector is composed almost entirely of simple light attck aircraft and helicopters.

With continued NATO attacks on the rail lines into Eastern Europe, Pact logistics planners make greater use of the industry of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, taking the entire output from those nation's refineries and munitions plants and even depleting the national food reserves to feed Soviet soldiers at the front.

The NATO forces operating in southern Poland withdraw from Krakow after inflicting as much damage as possible on the industrial facilities of the nearby industrial center of Novy Huta. Their withdrawal is accompanied by streams of refugees, ordinary Poles who desperately seek a more comfortable life in the West as well as Free Polish Congress operatives and sympathisers who fear the reprisals that surely will accompany the returrn of Communist control.

The American carriers John F Kennedy and America are joined by the Royal Navy's last remaining carrier, HMS Illustrious, in the Mediterranean. The addition of the British ships's air wing (depleted as it is, consisting of 5 Sea Harriers (including two 2-seat trainers pressed into combat service) and 8 helicopters) provides additional anti-submarine and anti-surface screening, allowing longer-ranged American aircraft to range over the battlefields of Jugoslavia as the carriers remain on station at the mouth of the Adriatic.

The situation for NATO in the Balkans is grim. Both Belgrade and Bucharest are under attack by Pact troops and the Romanian and Jugoslav armies outside the capital cities are disintegrating under the weight of unrelenting Soviet nuclear attacks and increasing numbers of Soviet reservists flooding into the area, poorly trained and equipped as they are.

In Romania, the American 71st Airborne Brigade is joined by the 2nd Battalion, 6th Special Forces Group. Each airborne rifle company is paired with a Green Beret A-team and the brigade's service and support units (everythign from the air defense battery to the support battalion) is broken down, attached to individual companies as Soviet tank forces approach the 71st's positions in the Carpathians from all directions. The brigade's reserves of food, fuel and ammunition are placed in hidden caches as the final C-17 flight departs with as many of the wounded as can be crammed aboard.

Transcaucasian Front reels from the disruption to its supply lines in northwestern Iran; while doctrine calls for Soviet formations to carry 3-7 days of supplies aboard unit trucks the long distances and lack of functioning railroads mean that many units subsist only on daily supply deliveries. The KGB arrests Transcaucasian Front's deputy commander for the rear for deriliction of duty, despite his protests that the front was never provided the requisitie rear area protection division. More helpfully, the KGB dispatches several of its motor-rifle regiments to northwestern Iran to suppress the Kurdish uprising.

South of Lahore, Pakistan, a massive tank batle rages as Indian Vijayanta tanks of the 31st Armored Division clash with Pakistani Type 59s and M-48A5s. By noon the fighting has died down, as the remaining Pakistani tanks are hunted down by the numerically superior surviving Indian ones. Truckloads of Indian infantry arrive on the eastern edge of the battle area and begins streaming west.

[chico20854]

September 27, 1997

Another day without any guidance from GDW! Thanks guys! Unofficially,

The tanker Cacpon is delivered in Newport News, Virginia.

Gander Air Base, Newfoundland is struck by Soviet conventional cruise missiles launched by the Sierra-II class sub K-453; Headquarters, 170th Air Refueling Group is one of several buildings hit. Three KC-135 tankers and a transiting C-5 are lost.

The Victory ship Queens Victory leaves the shipyard in Oakland, California and loads military cargo for transit to Korea.

Another day of fierce battle rages in the eastern port city of Hamhung, North Korea. Allied forces are running low on supplies as US Naval commanders refuse to authorize merchantmen to sail through the minefields and North Korean and Soviet light craft which have arrived in the area following the departure of the Des Moines. The stream of refugees south has abated somewhat, as those most eager to flee have already left and the remaining population is too fearful to leave their shelters into an active battlefield.

The 72nd Field Artillery Brigade is pulled from the line and sent to the eastern Netherlands for rest and recovery.

Soviet troops reach the outer pickets of the US 1st Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) on the eastern outskirts of Lodz and are halted by the defenses the guardsmen have had a week or more to prepare.

A detachment from the Polish 28th Infantry Division occupies Krakow's Wawel Castle, signifying the return of the Polish Army to what some say is Poland's grandest city. NATO forces throughout Poland have uniformly fallen back from the Wisla River.

Although nearly all American Green Berets have been withdrawn from the Kola (a single B Team from 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group remains), Saami partisans continue their resistance to Soviet rule. Saami reindeer herders cautiously wander the summer's battlefields, scavenging weapons, ammunition and supplies that can be used to defend their villages when the opportunity for an uprising arises. Their American advisors work to train village militias, accompany the herders to gather intelligence, and undertake their own special missions, gathering intelligence and monitoring troop movements in and out of the region.

As Soviet tanks reach the brigade's outer positions, the commander of the 71st Airborne Brigade gives the order for the brigade to disperse into company-size units and scatter through the Romanian mountains. His order is echoed by the Romanian high command to all Romanian units remaining in isolated pockets throughout the country as Soviet and Bulgarian troops launch an armored force into the capital, siezing the refugee-packed main train station only a mile and a half from the Parliament. Elsewhere in the city, civilians sheltering in the city's metro system are panicked by the appearance of Soviet troops, who have entered the system from the city''s outskirts and are trying to use the network for concealed movement, avoiding the numerous Romainan defenders aboverground.

The German container ship Herm Kiepe completes discharge of its cargo of food, fertilizer and munitions in Brunsbttel, Germany and departs for another load from Canada, carrying 100 containers of scrap aluminum.

The Iranian 9th Airmobile Brigade disengages from fighting the Soviet 32nd Army in the central Zagros, leaving their positions to Pasdaran units, and returns to the Persian Gulf coast aboard trucks.

The gap blasted in Pakistani lines south of Lahore beccomes a hole as additional Indian infantry battalions flood the area, pushing back the desperate Pakistani units on either flank. The Indian 31st Armored Division hurridly reconstitutes its surviving tanks, concentrating them in its 54th Armored Brigade, while the Pakistanis rush troops from Kashmir south and west.

[chico20854]

September 28, 1997

The 5th US Infantry Division (Mechanized) withdraws from Czestochowa, Poland, detonating a 10kt demolition charge in the industrial section of the city.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Hurst is delivered in Savannah, GA and manned by USCG personnel.

Headquarters, 170th Air Refueling Group is disbanded, with survivors and subordinate units reporting to the 101st Air Refueling Wing.

A team from the (much-depleted) 4th Spetsnaz Brigade locates a GLCM flight from the 485th Tactical Missile Wing in the forests and rough terrain east of Cologne, Germany. It immediately attacks, but is driven off by the USAF security force. The surviving Soviet commandos report the location, and soon Soviet commandos and pro-Soviet guerrillas are streaming into the area.

All along the front in Poland NATO forces give ground, practicing the half-forgotten tactics of a fighting withdrawal under nuclear conditions that they had long planned for in the many decades of the Cold War.

Orders from the alternate headquarters, 17th Air Force call for the withdrawal of the 112th Tactical Fighter Group (Pennsylvania National Guard) and its remaining 9 A-7 attack aircraft from Tuzla Air Base, Jugoslavia as the security situation in the country takes a turn for the worse. A hastily assembled fleet of C-130s, C-23s, C-17s and even C-2 light transports from the carriers in the Adriatic begin a round-the-clock airlift to evacuate the unit's personnel, equipment and what munitions and supplies that can be hastily salvaged.

The Iranian 9th Airmobile Brigade is trucked to the Jam airport, 120 miles southeast of Bushehr, where the Iranian Army is massing its remaining utility helicopters from throughout the Zagros.

The USS Salem moves west into the Persian Gulf and, guided by US Marine Force Recon troops, begins attacking the dug-in 387th Airborne Regiment's positions.

In northwestern Iran, KGB border guard motor-rifle regiments dispatched to suppress pro-NATO Kurdish guerillas begin operations; ominously their first actions involve rounding up civilian hostages from villages near recent attacks; several prominent local leaders disappear after being detained by KGB troops.

As an economy measure, new recruits (the fall intake of conscripts has been extended to 17-year olds) and reservists aged 35-40 (the current round for mobilization) are issued Second-World War-style uniforms when new camouflage battle dress are not available. The uniform consists of either a woolen greatcoat or quilted cotton jacket, riding breeches-style trousers and a pullover tunic with faux-leather jackboots. While less comfortable than more modern uniforms, they offer reasonable performance in harsh weather.

At dawn the Indian Army releases its XXI Corps into the hole in the Pakistani lines, led by the 31st Armored Division, which has been reinforced with several battalions of truck-mobile paramilitary troops. The corps breaks through the crust of Pakistani irregular infantry that have been thrown into action and soon is arcing deep into Pakistani territory, passing west of Lahore. Indian forces in Kashmir, noting the weakening of Pakistani lines opposite them, go over on the offensive, overrunning numerous Pakistani positions, held by troops that, in many cases, arrived just hours before and in third of the strength that had previously held the sector (i.e. a company holding a battalion's frontage).

[chico20854]

September 30, 1997

In Korea, 4th (my 1st) Marine Division suffers heavy causalities from tactical nuclear strikes and retreats from the front lines along the west coast of the peninsula.

Unofficially,

The 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, in the eastern Netherlands after being pulled from the front line, reorganizes. Surviving MLRS launchers are consolidated in one battalion (4th Battalion, 27th Artillery) and, as the M110 had been out of production for many years, 4-14 is reduced to a single battery of nine guns; the excess personnel are assigned to other artillery units in Europe and the identities of the deactivated units transferred back to Fort Sill.

The Pact offensive in southern Germany is making slow progress, as the Italian war economy is not yet ramped up to full production, Pact forces are hobbled by tranport bottlenecks entering the theatre and additional NATO forces arrive at the front from Poland and Scandinavia.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia moves west into the Barents Sea.

In the North Atlantic, the frigate HMS Southerland detects an enemy submarine and dispatches its Sea Lynx helicopter to engage. The helo locates the Tango-class B-319 and sinks her with a WE-177 nuclear depth charge.

The Jugoslav high command and governmental leaders depart Belgrade in an early-morning helicopter flight, arriving at the Crna Rijeka bunker in the mountains of Bosnia.

Bulgarian troops of the 1st Guards Motor-Rifle Division capture the town of Pirot, while Bulgarian paratroops land at the Nis Air Base.

While the prior day's assault west of Bandar Abbas has reopened the coastal road and Kurdish guerillas remain active in northwestern Iran, both Allied and Soviet forces in Iran are stretched to their limits logistically. Both sides' combatants are operating at the end of very long, unsecure supply lines that are being fed by nations on the brink, exhausted by months of intense combat.

The Pakistani army along the entire front begins to give way as Indian armored and motorized formations drive deeper into the country's heartland.

[chico20854]

October 1, 1997

In the skies over Iran, the operations tempo has slowed significantly as both sides' air forces struggle to obtain sufficient fuel, missiles and spare parts.

Soviet forces recapture Brzeg, Poland and institute brutal reprisals for the citizenry's unopposed surrender to NATO in the spring and friendliness to the Allied occupation force.

Unofficially,

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

The 11th Tactical Air Support Squadron is consolidated into the 18th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Eileson Air Force Base, Alaska (east of Fairbanks).

The Soviet 35th Army in western Korea goes on the attack, taking advantage of the nuclear strike on the American 4th (my 3rd) Marine Division the day before. Allied commanders are dismayed by the sudden and unexplained withdrawal of American carrier air support, forcing them to rely on much-depleted USMC and USAF units.

Headquarters, 17th Air Force is reconstituted at Neuberg AB, Germany.

The 11th Luftjaeger Regiment, originally a Luftwaffe reserve security unit dedicated to defense of radar and communication sites is placed under Army command, converted to infantry and committed to combat. It is deployed along a quieter sector of the Czech border, bolstering NATO's defense of that long and vulnerable sector.

The battered 75th Field Artillery Brigade is withdrawn from the front in northern Poland, handing over its remaining MLRS rocket launchers to III Corps' other artillery brigade, the 212th.

In Bavaria, as the struggle for Ingolstadt drags on, Italian and Soviet forces launch a surprise strike against Danish and Britsh forces, finally capturing Augsburg (or the ruins thereof, having been fought over since early August).

XI German Korps is withdrawn from the front lines north of Lodz and directed to prepare defenses along the Oder River opposite Frankfurt-Oder. The move will alos provide the corps, battered by months of fierce combat in Warsaw, an opportunity to rest and receive replacement troops; replacement equipment is in short supply.

Despite the efforts of HMS Illustrious, the Italian Navy strikes a blow against the NATO naval force operating in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. NATO forces have permitted local fishermen to ply their traditional trade; Italy's hard-pressed government has exploited this generosity, using several of the craft to lay mines in the overnight hours. The submarine Primo Longobardo sneaks into the operating area in the darkness as well, tailing the USS America as it conducts flight operations. At mid-morning the carrier strikes one of the mines, disrupting operations and blasting a 15-foot long hole in the carrier's port side. As escorts race to assist, the Italian sub opens fire, hitting the carrier with two torpedoes as well as the destroyer Joseph Strauss. The American destroyer goes down while America remains afloat, forced to be withdrawn to Sigonella, Sicily for emergency repair.

Soviet forces on the ground in Iran continue local attacks to keep Allied defenses on alert and deny them the opportunity to rest and improve their positions unmolested.

[chico20854]

October 2, 1997

Nothing official for the day, but a busy one nonetheless!

In a debate in the German Bundestag, a member of a leftist party rises to decry the fact that the defense of Bavaria is under the command of an American general, the commander of the 4th Army. The defense minister explains that the American commander has troops of many NATO nations (Germany, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands as well as two American corps) and that the commanders of the German 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies in Poland have many American troops under their command. He also explains that the alternative, swapping out the American command for one in Poland, would be unreasonably disruptive and serve no military purpose. The member responds with his opinion that it would serve a great military purpose - motivating German troops to fight harder for one of their on commanders. The defense minister replies that such an assumption could imply that Allied troops might be less motivated (absent, of course, of any evidence to support such an idea either way, in Poland or Germany). While it is generally assessed that the defense minister prevailed in the debate, the lawmaker was able to seed doubt as to the wisdom of the command arrangement in the public mind.

Early Warning assets report a single inbound missile heading towards the UK. Once again the Government and Royal Family hastily evacuate the capital. As with the other occurrences, it is a false alarm - the missile is headed for a Dutch target.

The battleship USS Missouri provides much-needed relief to the embattled Allied forces along the western coast of Pyongyang. After a South Korean commando team operating behind the lines locates the pontoon bridges across the Ch'ongch'on River supporting 35th Army, the battleship commander, unable to get a rapid response from fleet headquarters, authorizes the release of one of the ship's nuclear-tipped TLAM cruise missiles to cut the Soviet supply line.

The missile that panicked the British government and Royal Family strikes a Dutch target - the Gilze-Rijen air base, cutting the runway and destroying most of the base's infrastructure. Three of 314 Squadron RNLAF's F-16s, protected in hardened aircraft shelters, survive the attack.

All along the front in Poland, NATO commanders shift units west, out of contact with Pact troops, to prepare defensive lines farther in the rear, to rest and to rebuild following nuclear strikes. Often the evacuation is of command and support personnel, surviving combat troops and weapons transferred to units still in contact to bring them up to strength. This shiift of units west presents great challenges to NATO rear area security units, who are charged to, among other duties, battle desertion. Some troops, their morale shattered by months of nuclear combat, seek to flee the horror; others, under legitimate orders to withdraw, lack sufficient written proof of such orders. Many local commanders throw up their hands and retain all such soldiers, forming them into ad-hoc defense units, tasked with preparing defense lines or assisting with the massive logistic support effort.

The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, surrounded by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army in northern Poland, battles its way out of encirclement, taking heavy losses in the effort. To its south, the troops of the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment dig in, surrounded by the 8th Guards Tank Army.

The commander of the Baltic Front orders his 4th Guards Tank Army to be gutted to provide replacements for the 22nd Army; the 4th GTA's units are stripped of tanks with their crews, motor-rifle companies and artillery batteries while their trucks and artillery are tasked to support the rest of the Front. The remaining command staffs absorb some of the trickle of replacements arriving in the region, aging reservists and untrained teenagers, taking the chance to form them into semi-coherent units rather than allow them to be slaughtered at the front gaining the irreplacable experience gained in the first action.

The Danish Jutland Division joins II MEF in defending the city of Słupsk from the Polish 1st Army.

Romanian troops in Bucharest rally to defend downtown, surrounding the Pact forces in the main train station. A day-long series of assaults by combined forces of Army, Securitate and Patriotic Guard units suffer horrendous losses but succeed in recapturing the station in some of the war's most intense urban fighting, on par with the fighting in Stalingrad's Barrikada Plant in World War Two.

To the south, Turkish lines begin to crumble under the weight of multiple Soviet nuclear strikes on defensive positions, artillery batteries and logistic sites.

The 78th Tank Division is brought forward from reserve positions near Tehran it had held while rebuilding since late June. It is assigned to reinforce 45th (my 32nd) Army.

In Aden, South Yemen, the 29th Infantry Division (Light) (Maryland and Virginia National Guard) secures the final portion of the city. Elements of the division's 3rd Brigade have already moved out of the city, patrolling the approaches to the city and its' all-important refinery.

As the full-blown rupture in Pakistani lines transitions into a widescale collapse of the Pakistani Army, the country's leadership makes a dreadful and desperate decision - to use the country's stockpile of nuclear weapons against India. Driving this decision is the threat posed to Pakistania air bases by advancing Indian armored formations, which threaten to overrun the runways needed by Pakistan's fighter-bombers to deliver the country's bombs.