On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

Nice touch!

It's from the v1 NATO Vehicle Guide!

[chico20854]

March 20, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 21, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[pmulcahy11b]

I almost get the idea that the war would be going well for the Sovs if they didn't have to worry about the Chinese...

[chico20854]

March 22, 1997

Nothing in the canon today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

I almost get the idea that the war would be going well for the Sovs if they didn't have to worry about the Chinese...

Well, here's the distribution of Pact corps/armies:

STAVKA Reserve: 9
Western TVD (Germany, Austria and Poland): 21
Southwestern TVD (Balkans and western Turkey): 12
Northwestern TVD (Norway): 4
Southern TVD (Iran & Afghanistan): 10
Far Eastern TVD (China & Vietnam): 16
Yalu Front (Korea): 2
Aleutian Front (Alaska & Eastern Siberia): 1

So yes, if they could pull even half of those 16 armies from Manchuria and direct them to Europe NATO would have quite a problem! Plus being able to concentrate their air forces and logistic effort in adjacent regions would help, rather than dispersing their forces. (Like another situation that comes to mind...)

[chico20854]

March 23, 1997

Yet another day with nothing in the canon! Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Matt Wiser]

I see you used the Red Dawn fact file as a basis for Salem's reactivation... the same should go for her sister Des Moines.

[chico20854]

I see you used the Red Dawn fact file as a basis for Salem's reactivation... the same should go for her sister Des Moines.

Certainly! I had two thoughts... 1) Why reinvent the wheel when the Red Dawn document presented a presentable explanation of the ships and 2) the 1980s plans I saw involved removing the aft turret and fitting of Tomahawk armored box launchers, substituting these ships for the Iowas. I liked leaving the big guns in place and figured that the number of CGs, DDs, DDGs, SSNs and BBs that carried Tomahawk would be sufficient to achieve the Navy's goals, leaving the Salem and Des Moines to serve as naval gunfire support ships. I'm not going to try to find out how much ammo the Navy had in store for them by the late 80s, instead operating in a fantasy world where the ships have endless rivers of 8-inch ammo to keep spitting out at 72 rounds per minute when all 9 guns are going!

[chico20854]

March 24, 1997

Nothing in the canon today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Matt Wiser]

Well, if the Navy kept those ships in mothballs for all that time, they certainly had ammo stores available in case those ships were ever reactivated. I would love to go to Quincy, MA and visit Salem (she's the only heavy cruiser afloat anywhere) in person.

[swaghauler]

Certainly! I had two thoughts... 1) Why reinvent the wheel when the Red Dawn document presented a presentable explanation of the ships and 2) the 1980s plans I saw involved removing the aft turret and fitting of Tomahawk armored box launchers, substituting these ships for the Iowas. I liked leaving the big guns in place and figured that the number of CGs, DDs, DDGs, SSNs and BBs that carried Tomahawk would be sufficient to achieve the Navy's goals, leaving the Salem and Des Moines to serve as naval gunfire support ships. I'm not going to try to find out how much ammo the Navy had in store for them by the late 80s, instead operating in a fantasy world where the ships have endless rivers of 8-inch ammo to keep spitting out at 72 rounds per minute when all 9 guns are going!

You wouldn't have the killing power of her original 8" projos (of which the navy had about 10k rounds into the early 90s, but you would have had access to the Army's stash of 50k rounds of lighter (203lbs) 8" shells which were compatible for loading but designed to use a single powder bag to give the round a range of 40+ kilometers.

Side note, the M110 could fire the roughly 400lb gen 1 nukes because they were designed to handle the 300+ pound naval 8" shells!

[chico20854]

March 25, 1997

Yet another day with nothing official! Unofficially,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 26, 1997

Yet another day where I am forced to improvise!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chico20854]

March 27, 1997

Nothing official for today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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