On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[Matt Wiser]

Problem with George Washington's air wing taking F-4s. The ship was not built with a bridle catcher, and the last ship to have one was Carl Vinson (she was built with one on the bow). With the retirement of the F-4, RF-8, and EA-3Bs-all of which used cat bridles, they were viewed as unnecessary, and were removed from carriers as they went through SLEP overhauls.

There might be one or two sitting in a warehouse somewhere....

[chico20854]

May 30, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The peace talks in New Delhi have an added sense of urgency and seriousness following the cruise missile attack on Maine but make no progress.

The Victory ship Occidental Victory and freighter Leslie Lykes complete their reactivations in Oakland, California and move to the adjacent Army terminal to load cargo for Korea.

The junior members of the "5th Squad" gang at Fort Lee, Virginia have their Article 15 non judicial punishment proceedings concluded. Most are found guilty of assorted minor offenses. The men are washed out of their training courses at the base and cycled into various infantry and artillery training courses around the US, sending each soldier to a different base to complete their training before being sent to combat.

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a working-class suburb of Pittsburgh, the twins Randall and Rodney Cutler begin 36 hours of drunken partying in preparation for their upcoming induction into the military on June 1. They procure four cases of Iron City beer (known as 'Arns) and several cans of spray paint. The 25 year-olds are accompanied by their latest girlfriends and their buddies to "enjoy their last few hours of freedom."

The US 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized), in Bremerhaven and loading on railcars for transport to southern Germany, is diverted to Frankfurt-Oder to deal with the Soviet air assault force.

The US 2nd Armored Division, relieved in Northern Poland, is withdrawn to Germany for rest and reconstruction.

For internal security duties, the Polish command commits ORMO militia troops, ZOMO anti-riot troops, three WOW brigades and three WOW regiments, as well as activating OTK units in most cities. These units are under the command of the Polish government, rather than the Warsaw Pact high command, and they are, to the extent possible, kept out of the front lines since they lack heavy weapons and modern anti-tank systems. The call up of these units further slows the already strained Polish war economy, but with NATO troops occupying the western third of the country and a rival government claiming sovereignty over the entirety, the Polish government feels it is more important to maintain control.

Western TVD command commits the Soviet 230th Rear Area Security Division to securing the bridge crossings over the lower Wisła while the KGB converts its Border Guard Brigades on the Polish border to KGB Motor-Rifle Regiments, operating on both sides of the border against oeanti-Soviet terrorists and criminals. On the NATO side, the unified German government authorizes the deployment of border guard and territorial troop units in areas loyal to the Free Polish Congress. This action coincides with the effective cessation of pro-Soviet guerilla activity in the former East Germany, to a level that the civil police authorities, local militias and military units internal guard forces can suppress without outside assistance.

General Diedrichs, commander of the German First Army, after consulting with SACEUR following the Battle of Chojnice, decides to continue to advance east, peeling off I German Korps to guard the armys northern flank against another counterattack from the Soviets to the north. V US and II British Corps move east, the British through Konin, Koło, and Kutno and the Americans through Kalisz, Sieradz and bypassing Ł3dź to the south.

A single TLAM (Tomahawk Land Attack Missile) is launched by the battleship Iowa in the Baltic Sea at the Soviet Jēkabpils Air Base in Latvia. The strike is in retaliation for the previous day's attack on Bangor International Airport, Maine, and it destroys the base' control tower and main maintenance hangar.

In the fighting in Bulgaria, 26th Army (a composite force of Red Army and Bulgarian soldiers, Bulgarian internal troops and sailors and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet's 810th Naval Infantry Brigade) finally overwhelms the Turkish XV Corps defenders, with several Turkish units abandoning their positions after over a week of nonstop artillery and infantry attack. In southeastern Romania, 14th Guards Army's drive on Foscani is slowed by repeated attacks and ambushes in its rear area by members of the Romanian Patriotic Guard, forcing the Soviets to divert significant combat power to securing its supply lines.

The USS Salem battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea, remaining out of sight of land.

There is further unrest in the POW camp outside Ganaveh, Iran when the supply of cigarettes for the prisoners runs low. Military authorities had not planned for the number of smokes consumed by their Soviet charges (who were excited to be able to get ahold of "premier" Western cigarettes rather than the inferior Soviet ones they were used to) and had diverted supplies for sale to American troops. This diversion was halted when the Third Army Command Sergeant Major went to the PX trailer and couldn't buy any cigarettes. The guard force at the camp demonstrated the rapid fire capability of their new shotguns but the prisoners were seething about the reduction in their nicotine supply.

The Echo II-class cruise missile sub K-35 arrives at a remote Indonesian port facility, secretly owned by the GRU following its attack on Diego Garcia. The crew is granted three days of liberty on the tropical island, their first time ashore since departing Polyarnyy in December. When they return to the boat the job of restocking her for her next patrol will commence.

Venezuela dispatches another round of tankers to Soviet allies in the Third World. The Miguel Hidalgo is dispatched to Nicarauga and the Jose Felix Ribas departs for Angola carrying loads of crude oil. This maintains Venezuela's self declared neutrality, offsetting the daily shipments of crude to NATO-controlled refineries in Aruba, St Croix and the US Gulf Coast.

The pressure on the rebels in Khabarovsk increases under the weight of the full 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division and KGB and MVD loyalist troops. (Additional MVD riot control troops have arrived to augment the 65th Training Regiment.) Isolated surrenders of rebel individuals and small units and dwindling ammunition, food and water stocks begin to sap the mutineer's fighting strength as the perimeter shrinks.

[chico20854]

Problem with George Washington's air wing taking F-4s. The ship was not built with a bridle catcher, and the last ship to have one was Carl Vinson (she was built with one on the bow). With the retirement of the F-4, RF-8, and EA-3Bs-all of which used cat bridles, they were viewed as unnecessary, and were removed from carriers as they went through SLEP overhauls.

There might be one or two sitting in a warehouse somewhere....

I had no idea! I'm going to go with the warehouse theory, which also adds to the delay getting her back to sea.

[.45cultist]

An armor unit made up of the prototype M1A2 Giraffes and LAV75s and 5TH Mech survivors from "Going Home" would be a cool scenario!

[Homer]

oeThis diversion was halted when the Third Army Command Sergeant Major went to the PX trailer and couldn't buy any cigarettes.

I see what you did there. POWs probably had their hands in their pockets too!

[chico20854]

May 31, 1997

The 107th ACR (Ohio National Guard) enters combat in Poland, screening the northern flank of Third German Army.

The US Naval Academy's class of 1998 is commissioned directly as ensigns, a year early, and assigned to the fleet. Likewise, the US Air Force Academy and West Point commission their third-year students, and as the summer break arrives the remaining students are dispersed into various training commands for an accelerated month of exposure to "the real military" in action.

Unofficially,

86th Brigade, 50th Armored Division (Vermont National Guard) completes Rotation 97-9 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania the Cutler twins spend their day drinking and as night falls head into the city of Pittsburgh to pick a fight. In the Oakland neighborhood they encounter a pair of fraternity brothers from the University of Pittsburgh and get out of their pickup to confront them.

A team of naval architects arrives in Philadelphia to assess the condition of the passenger liner SS United States, which has been out of service since 1969.

No. 55 Squadron, RAF adds one nonstandard aircraft to its tanker fleet, XH558, the last remaining flyable Vulcan bomber, which has been converted back to the tanker configuration it last flew in active RAF service as. The "new" aircraft is put to work in a refueling track over the North Sea supporting NATO aircraft transiting the area.

Allied tactical airpower struggles to support the advance as the front lines moved further and further east. With some exceptions (RAF Harriers and Jaguars and USAF A-10s), NATO aircraft are largely tied to airbases in West Germany, with their mile-long smooth concrete runways. Airfields in East Germany, both LSK (East German Air Force) and Soviet, have been hard fought over, and the recovery effort on both is slowed by the need to carefully salvage material, desperately needed to support operations of the former LSK, which is cut off from replacement parts from the USSR. RAF Harriers follow the advance, their landing sites along short stretches of road protected by troops of the RAF Regiment. Likewise, the USAF pushes A-10 units forward onto captured Pact airbases, often using taxiways and fragments of runways that had been cut by earlier bombing raids. In many cases Pact air forces had established emergency airstrips on stretches of highway; these are used to the extent that their closure did not impair army resupply efforts. The USAF dedicates two wings of C-130 transports to the resupply effort, one supporting USAF A-10 units and one moving high priority Army cargo. In most cases, however, NATO tactical aircraft generate fewer sorties over or beyond the battlefield due to the increasing distance between their home airfields and the front.

USAF Air Rescue units helicopters, vital to the rescue of downed airmen and support for special operations teams behind Pact lines, also move forward, using LSK emergency airfields as well as the remains of the Danish airfield on Bornholm Island, demolished by a Pact amphibious raid in March.

The Czech 4th Army launches an attack on Third German Army, sending the 15th Motor-Rifle Division from the south while the 19th MRD attacks to the west.

The Norwegian frigate Stavanger detects the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-2 snorkeling while headed to lay mines in the North Sea and attacks, sinking the submarine with a volley from the ship's anti-submarine mortar.

The Turkish XV Corps commits its reserve, the 41st Infantry Brigade, to slow 26th Army's assault out of Burgas. Nonetheless, the relief of Burgas allows Southern Front to press its counterattack, committing 1st Guards Army in a drive from the northeast to slice west into the Turkish rear.

Six A-7Ds, formerly of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico National Guard) arrive at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, reinforcing the 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard).

9th Air Force dispatches a C-130 of the 317th Tactical Airlift Wing to Almaza Air Base, Egypt to load a priority cargo of Egyptian cigarettes, which are promptly flown to Ganaveh airport in Iran and distributed to the Soviet POWs in the camp there.

Loyalist troops in Khabarovsk succeed in splitting the rebel forces into two pockets, one in the city center (itself still surrounding the MVD headquarters) and one in the city's main power plant and adjacent flour mill.

[chico20854]

oeThis diversion was halted when the Third Army Command Sergeant Major went to the PX trailer and couldn't buy any cigarettes.

I see what you did there. POWs probably had their hands in their pockets too!

I'm a NCO.... been many years but it can't be undone!

[Homer]

According to a friend of mine his squad leader had his wife send him a vacuum sealer and desiccant pouches then spent his free time in Kuwait individually vacuum sealing stateside (cardboard can) Copenhagen and cigarettes. When asked why since he didn't use tobacco, he said "vitamin N" would be better than cash in Iraq! Apparently he was able to trade for things like an air conditioner, hot food, and laundry service with other folks who weren't as prepared.

[Homer]

In addition to the lack of suitable airfields, as the front moves east supplies are going to be harder to move. I could see forward depots being established near the kasernes in East Germany. Maybe one way this is supported is by US Army and allied railroad units. Training rail crew at Fort Eustis is a part of the mob tasks for the 84th division. I believe the British also maintained a military rail capability. I'd hate to see the state of the roads if the entire nato offensive plus it's supporting logistics we're pushed one them.

Another thing nato could do is rebalance assets by shifting units forward from more distant bases in the UK or Netherlands. Basing in Jutland or the Rhineland will extend the range of F-111s, Tornado's, etc. F-16s, Alphas Jets, etc could move forward to fields closer to the IGB. Any way you cut it though, airfields will become crowded, even with wartime only and civilian fields utilized. And, supplies of fuel and ordnance will have to be pushed forward as well.

Another double edged sword is intelligence access, particularly for technical collection. Rolling back the air defenses as NATO moves east may allow Airborne platforms to "see" deeper into the east. At the same time, fixed ground based systems like those found at Chicksands, Bad Aibling, and elsewhere will lose some of their collection ability. There's also the blow to NATO intelligence with the "loss" of Hellenikon and Iraklion in Greece and San Vito, Aviano, and Sigonella in Italy and their air or ground based collectors.

There is also a logistics issue of evacuating prepositioned warstock material at Camp Darby and Aviano, NATO tasked nuclear weapons from Ghedi and other bases, and fleet stores from Souda Bay, Naples, and La Madelinna. There's a lot of logistics going on in 96-97.
,

[chico20854]

June 1, 1997

The 46th Infantry Division (Puerto Rico, New York and Texas National Guards) is declared operational and begins movement to Virginia for deployment to Europe. Shipping to move the division has not arrived yet, most of it still tied up in European ports as Convoys 140 and 142 are unloading.

Opole falls to Panzergruppe Oberdorf when the commander of the city's OTK (Territorial Defense) regiment surrenders rather than see his beloved "Venice of Poland" destroyed by German artillery. The Polish 12th Tank Division falls back to Gliwice, while the Czech 19th Motor-Rifle Division is recalled back to home territory when the Czech high command receives word of the assault by 4th Army. Panzergruppe Oberdorff's restrictions on artillery use, imposed by the Free Polish Congress, are lifted.

Unofficially,

Map of front lines in Poland.

The container-barge carrier Taiyaun Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts.

The 157th Air Refueling Wing relocates its headquarters to Boston-Logan International Airport to facilitate the refueling of USAF aircraft heading to Europe from the southern US.

The troop ship General Pope is activated in Oakland, California and begins loading nearly 5000 replacements for Korea.

The freighter Elizabeth Lykes re-enters service from layup and moves to the Oakland Army terminal to load more cargo for Korea.

In Pittsburgh, the Cutler brothers, who have been drinking for over 30 hours, begin chasing two fraternity brothers they have found while looking for a fight. Campus police intervene before the students need to be hospitalized, and the twins flee the scene. The running men are apprehended a few minutes later by the Pittsburgh city police. The arresting officer is a friend from high school, and the men spend a few hours resting and sobering up at the district station before being dropped off at the Military Entrance Processing Station downtown in the morning to begin their military service. Rodney scores poorly on his assessment test and is assigned to the Navy, while Randall, taking advantage of the skills he learned in a prior job at a quick oil change store, is sent to the Army and sweet-talks the assignment official into assigning him as a light vehicle mechanic rather than to the infantry or artillery.

Impoverished Mexicans continue to cross the border, drawn by the tens of thousands of jobs abandoned by American draftees. Unlike WW II, there's no Bracero guest laborer program (conservative state governments shoot down the idea, fearing an influx of pro-communist Mexican agitators).

The Czech 15th Motor-Rifle Division is locked in fierce combat against the German 4th PanzerGrenadier Division and unable to disengage. In northern Poland III German Korps captures Lebork and continues to gain ground, moving towards the port and naval base complex of Gdynia, Gdańsk and Hel. In central Poland, American and British forces pass north and south of Lodz, respectively, as the NATO armored thrust continues and Allied commanders seek to avoid built up, fortified areas.

American aircraft from Turkey and the carriers John F Kennedy and America, operating from the Mediterranean south of Turkey join Turkish Air Force fighter-bombers in strikes on the advancing Soviet 1st Guards Army, trying to disrupt the Soviet rear area and slow its drive to cut off the Turkish V Corps, which is still holding firm against the Soviet 58th and Bulgarian 2nd Armies in the mountains to the northwest. The Turkish high command dispatches a levy of 1500 recalled reservists, equipped with LAWs, M1919 machineguns and G3 rifles, to XV Corps to reinforce its battered infantry battalions. In Romania, the Romanian and Jugoslav defenders of Timisoara strike to the south, bashing a hole in the Hungarian border guards' defense line and closing nearly half the distance to friendly lines held by the Jugoslav expeditionary force.

photo
The 101st Air Assault Division detaches its CH-47 battalion (the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation) to Third Army. The battalion's 24 helicopters ferry to Khasab Air Base, Oman, on the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz. Upon arrival there, they discover that they are joining a large mass of US Marine medium and heavy-lift helicopters at the base, as well as 6th ACCB's CH-47 company, G Company, 149th Aviation (Texas National Guard) and the 18th Aviation Brigade's 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation with 32 CH-47Ds, bringing the total CH-47 force at the base to 69 Chinooks.

photo
The Independence battle group resumes its strikes on Soviet targets in southern Iran, striking the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division's artillery and reserves. The group also detaches the cruiser Jouett to join the Salem battlegroup, improving the surface action group's air defense potential as well as adding another 5-inch gun to the group's shore bombardment capabilities.

In Khabarovsk, the MVD troops join with the 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division's 371st Tank Regiment in reducing the southern pocket. The T-62 tanks are brought in to reduce rebel strong points, and by nightfall the power plant is ablaze but nominally in government hands. A plea from the commander of the 294th MRD (in the southern pocket) for help from the troops of the rebel 70th (my 122nd Guards) MRD in the northern pocket is ignored, the 70th/122nd's commanding general replying "I have chekists enough to deal with."

Another series of fierce artillery battles erupts along the Pakistani-Indian frontier. The Pakistani Prime Minister authorizes the mobilization of 15,000 additional troops.

[chico20854]

June 2, 1997

As the flood of broken young men and women from the world's battlefields continues, the VA hospital in Bay Pines, Florida is designated as the east coast reception and treatment facility for those from the European, Atlantic and Middle Eastern theatres suffering from PTSD. Patients suffering only from physical wounds are transferred to other VA medical facilities.

Unofficially,

Another scandal rocks the Army Training and Doctrine Command, already shaken by the "5th Squad" gang at Fort Lee, Virginia. A brigade duty NCO making a random check in the middle of the day discovers a male drill sergeant "conducting an unauthorized personal hygiene inspection" of his all-female platoon at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The sergeant first class is in the open shower with his entire platoon.

The Cutler twins are separated and sent off to basic training, Rodney to Great Lakes Naval Station and Randall to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, each arriving at their respective bases around midnight.

The Des Moines surface action group arrives in Pearl Harbor from the Panama Canal. The group begins a hurried period in port, undertaking minor repairs, replenishing depleted stores and refueling after the long voyage.

Ships carrying the 631st Field Artillery Brigade (Mississippi National Guard) arrive in Pusan, South Korea and begin unloading.

Allied aircraft over the front in Korea continue their assault on North Korean supply lines. F/A-18Ds of the USMC's VMFA-225(AW) oeVikings, in a nighttime sortie, intercept a NKPA truck convoy travelling in the darkness and rake it with gunfire and bombs. The convoy was carrying the rations and fuel for the NKPA's VII Corps, which has been engaged along the DMZ for many months.

Dutch police and marines ambush a Dutch Red Army strike team as it leaves Amsterdam for another attack. Two members are killed and two survive, interrogated by military and civilian authorities.

V US Corps 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment links up with British corps reconnaissance units south of Lowicz, beginning the siege of Ł3dź. The city is defended by a WOW brigade, a regiment-sized task force from the 11th Armored Division, the 9th Border Guard Brigade and a scratch force of OTK troops, ORMO militia battalions and Soviet and Polish stragglers that have been swept up by army patrols, mustering about two divisions in strength overall. The NATO force encounters field fortifications and minefields arrayed in depth starting nearly seven miles outside the citys outskirts, defended by well-motivated militia.

Along the Baltic Coast, the 1st Panzer Divisions 17th J$ger Battalion breaks through the Polish defenses and cuts off the base of the Hel Peninsula. Fighting along the peninsula, which varies from 100 to 300 meters in width, is fierce, the Germans facing a mixed force of OTK troops, a NJW battalion (that usually protected the Communist Party leadership complex on the peninsula), Polish naval personnel from the base facility and ships stuck in port as well as stragglers from the Polish and Soviet armies.

The Czech 15th MRD is cut off by troops of the German VIII Korps airlanded between it and the Czech border, then subject to unrelenting attacks by helicopters of the German 3rd Army Aviation Command and the American 11th Aviation Brigade. By sundown the division is low on surface to air missiles, leaving vulnerable as all night long the unit is subjected to NATO air attacks.

photo
A quartering party from the 11th PanzerGrenadier Division is fired on by Polish troops in the woods outside Szumirad, east of Opole. They call in a nearby panzergrenadier company, which soon finds itself in a firefight to overrun a complex protected by three concentric barbed wire fences. The arrival of a Leopard II tank platoon soon turns the tide against the defenders, and by sunset German troops are at the door to a large bunker complex. The brave troops descend in the darkness below, clearing several floors with grenades and submachinegun fire. The elimination of the defenders inflicts considerable damage, but soon military intelligence specialists are poring over the complex, which is identified as the headquarters of a Soviet Front.

The Sierra II-class attack submarine K-534 locates the USS Independence battle group's supporting supply ship, the USS Wabash, and follows it to its rendezvous with a support squadron, where the American oiler takes on a load of ammunition, parts and fuel to replenish the carrier group.

photo
Fighting in Khabarovsk rages again, with fierce fighting all along the perimeters of both rebel pockets. Unbeknownst to the rebel troops in the northern pocket (largely from the 70th, my 122nd Guards Motor Rifle Division), their commander is negotiating with the authorities and at dusk he surrenders the last territory held by the remnants of his division. He disappears into the headquarters of the 70th Border Guard Brigade, greeted like an old friend while his troops are arrested and disarmed by the KGB troops. The southern pocket (held mostly by the 294th MRD) is reduced to holding the grain elevators in the flour mill, under constant tank and artillery fire.

The US Air Force flies another R-5D hypersonic spy flight over the USSR, noting the buildup of trains along the Trans-Siberian Railroad as it remains blocked at Khabarovsk.

[chico20854]

In addition to the lack of suitable airfields, as the front moves east supplies are going to be harder to move. I could see forward depots being established near the kasernes in East Germany. Maybe one way this is supported is by US Army and allied railroad units. Training rail crew at Fort Eustis is a part of the mob tasks for the 84th division. I believe the British also maintained a military rail capability. Id hate to see the state of the roads if the entire nato offensive plus its supporting logistics were pushed one them.

Another thing nato could do is rebalance assets by shifting units forward from more distant bases in the UK or Netherlands. Basing in Jutland or the Rhineland will extend the range of F-111s, Tornados, etc. F-16s, Alphas Jets, etc could move forward to fields closer to the IGB. Any way you cut it though, airfields will become crowded, even with wartime only and civilian fields utilized. And, supplies of fuel and ordnance will have to be pushed forward as well.

There is also a logistics issue of evacuating prepositioned warstock material at Camp Darby and Aviano, NATO tasked nuclear weapons from Ghedi and other bases, and fleet stores from Souda Bay, Naples, and La Madelinna. Theres a lot of logistics going on in 96-97.

There certainly are! As NATO advances east into Poland, increasing numbers of rear-area troops (and third-party civilian contractors) are pulled into the support effort, driving trucks and repairing the rail lines and roads (which in pre-EU Poland were pretty poor). XI Corps is sitting nearly immobile in East Germany, its trucks shanghied to move supplies in Poland (an echo of the fate of US air defense and tank destroyer units in the summer and fall of 1944). The USAF doesn't even pretend that air supply will make a dent in the truly amazing demand for fuel and ammunition that so many mechanized formations consume. An issue that is already starting to pop up at this point is that the stockpiles are getting run down and industrial production and transatlantic transportation are not able to keep up with demand; NATO (and the Soviets) had for decades looked at nuclear weapons and determined that the Third World War was going to be a "come as you are" conflict; the way the war actually turned out was quite different and both sides' soldiers pay in blood for the failure of their leaders to adequately plan for mobilizing industrial production.

The nuclear weapons were flown out of Italy when the Italians withdrew from NATO... see my article on the GLCM wing based in Sicily for more details. Some of the other war reserves get evacuated from Greece and Italy, some gets seized, mirroring the German government bureaucracy's effort to prevent French and Belgian depots from being emptied (by refusing to grant hazardous cargo permits, allowing the Bundeswehr to allocate the supplies for their own use).

[Homer]

Missed that piece on the nuclear weapons coming out of Italy. Good read! The West Germans apparently had some pretty arcane safety regs that played havoc with peacetime movements.

With the war continuing on conventional lines longer than forecast I wonder if the belligerents will adjust their nuclear reserve force posture enabling the withheld dual capable assets to make up for some attrition Or to begin recalling some dispersed strike and recovery assets like SSBNs and tenders for maintenance and refit

Interesting to see the t2k TRADOC has some of the same disciplinary issues as it's real life 1990s counterpart. No doubt these are exacerbated by the demand for personnel and the expansion of training cadre.

[chico20854]

June 3, 1997

Colonel Piotrowski rallies the defenders of Czestochowa with an inspiring speech. NATO troops are 20km outside the city and begin a massive artillery barrage prior to dusk.

The US 36 Infantry Division (Mechanized) enters action in Poland in the Battle of Sulechow. (see below)

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Boston Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Long Beach Freedom in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Executive Officer of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix signs the drill sergeant arrested the prior day for inappropriate conduct out of the post MP station. There is no documentation to record how the NCO ended up on a C-141 transport plane that departed the adjacent McGuire Air Force Base three hours later, bound for Saudi Arabia.

Private Randall Cutler begins two days of doing paperwork at Fort Jackson before beginning basic training.

A series of nightime flights by USAF MH-60 Nighthawks of the 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron deposits patrols from I Corps' Long-Range Surveillence Company (C Troop, 38th Cavalry) on hilltops in the North Korean front line corps' rear areas. (Each of the hilltops had previously hosted North Korean anti-aircraft guns; Allied artillery and airpower had erased those units, leaving them vacant to be exploited by the American recon troops).

In Poland and Germany, all CENTAF airfields and NATO command posts at Corps level or higher have deployed truck-mounted SS-23 guidance radar jammers.

In western Poland, the elite Soviet 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade is surrounded in the town of Sulechow, with American mechanized forces on all sides. After a furious artillery barrage, two of the 36th's armor battalions, 1st Battalion, 803rd Armor (Washington National Guard) and 1st Battalion, 632nd Armor (Wisconsin National Guard), rush the town from opposite ends, their M1 Abrams blasting the Soviet BMDs. American mechanized infantry in M113s soon follow, and after 12 hours of intense house-to-house fighting the town falls in the 36th Infantry Divisions first combat action since the Battle for Castle Itter in Tyrolia in the last days of WW II (where a combined US-Wehrmacht-French force defeated attacking Waffen SS troops).

V US Corps launches a series of armored probes of Lodz's defenses, which, while somewhat successful in penetrating the outer defenses, are each met by an aggressively led and pursued armored counterattack. The V US Corps commander, General Albert McKenzie, reports that the siege will be a long and bloody battle. The corps two artillery brigades begin digging in and the corps supply troops begin dumping large quantities of supplies (chiefly ammunition) into hastily established new depots before sending their trucks back to the railheads to the west to pick up more.

Second Western Front begins evacuating 2nd Guards Tank Army from the Gdansk Pocket. In the rear area in the south, 1st Guards Tank Army establishes a series of blocking positions outside Piotrk3w.

The aerial assault on the isolated Czech 15th MRD intensifies when the division is subjected to a day's attention from the 416th Bomb Wing's B-52s as well as other NATO airpower.

The 51st Coastal Defense Missile Regiment, transferred from the Black Sea Fleet to the Northern Fleet, begins combat operations in Severomorsk. NATO naval activity is increasing as Allied forces try to clear passages through the Soviet's defensive mine belts along the Kola coast; the coastal efforts are opposed by shore-based artillery and missiles as well as tactical aircraft.

In the Balkans, the Pact advance continues. The force that had broke south of Timisoara is cut off by counterattacking Soviet tank units and destroyed piecemeal, while 14th Army has finally cleared its rear area and continues its advance southeast, making progress as it drives for the Danube River. In Bulgaria, the Turkish 1st Army orders V Corps to withdraw from the Balkan Mountains while XV Corps is still able to protect its eastern flank.

Dawn brings the sound of gunshots to downtown Khabarovsk after nearly 10 hours of peace following the collapse of the northern rebel pocket. The shots are the KGB executing the officers of the mutinous 70th (my 122nd Guards) MRD as well as those enlisted men identified as the ringleaders of the mutiny. On the south side of town, the MVD and Army troops of the 73rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division continue to bombard the rebels holed up in the grain elevators of the flour mill. Additional rebel troops slip away in the lulls in the bombardment, arrested by surrounding MVD and Army troops.

[chico20854]

June 4, 1997

Panzergruppe Oberdorff lifts its artillery barrage of Czestochowa at dawn. The German 361st Panzergrenadier Brigade and US 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) begin their assault on the city.

US Naval forces arrive off the coast of Iran; SEALS and USMC Force Recon units execute sabotage missions while naval gunfire from the reinforced USS Salem surface action group pounds Soviet parachute units in and around Bandar Abbas.

Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Dalian Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama.

The Victory ship Marshfield is activated in Jacksonville, Florida, where it loads a cargo of bagged cement for transport to the CENTCOM AOR.

Inspector General and Army CID agents arriving at Fort Dix, New Jersey to interview the accused drill sergeant are dismayed to discover that he is no longer on the base and that the brigade S-1 (personnel officer) has produced orders dated a month prior transferring him to the 7th Transportation Brigade in Saudi Arabia. Two female trainees in another battalion approach their commander about abuse by their drill sergeants.

Private Randall Cutler is issued his uniform at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

Along the Baltic coast, the Battle of the Hel Peninsula continues. In a repeat of the 1939 Battle of Hel, the Poles use weapons removed from damaged ships to defend the naval base and ordnance from the naval bases bunkers as large mines, blasting a ditch across the peninsula that the Germans are forced to use engineers to cross. The Pact command is able to periodically resupply the garrison, running a series of hovercraft, helicopters and wing-in-ground-effect ekranoplans in, mostly at night, evacuating wounded and civilians on the return trips.

V US Corps raids the outskirts of Lodz, hoping to deplete the defenders fuel reserves and identify weak points for the assault to follow. Corps artillery and attack helicopters are on call to counter the Polish tanks as they counterattack, but the Poles use built up urban routes whenever possible, limiting the effectiveness of the anti-armor effort.

II British Corps reaches the Wisła at Płock. The Polish defenders destroy the bridge across the river before the British troops can capture it, although the British main effort remains Warsaw. The British commander, General Sir John Ramsay, directs that the corps MLRS artillery regiments attack Polands largest oil refinery at Płock, slowing ongoing recovery efforts following repeated NATO airstrikes that had halted production in early February.

The Czechoslovak 15th Motor-Rifle Division is out of fuel and anti-aircraft missiles as the 416th Bomb Wing returns to the skies overhead, carpet bombing the division's positions from altitude.

In northern Norway, X Corps commander LtGen William Hammond suffers a heart attack brought on by months of stress and the exhaustion of continuous operations which forces his immediate evacuation. Initially his Chief of Staff replaces him. The 6th US and 6th Norwegian Divisions bring their reserve battalions forward while the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade and 3 Commando Brigade embark on amphibious shipping.

Pact troops in Romania continue to take ground. Lead elements of 6th Guards Tank Army reach the city of Deva in Transylvania, entering the mountains.

XVIII Corps troops in Iran hold their defensive positions as CENTCOM allocates a large portion of its transportation and supply assets to I MEF to the south.

In the Arabian Sea, the Sierra II-class attack submarine K-534 attacks 5th Fleet's supply train. Low on torpedoes, it launches a spread at the mass of ships before dashing away. One of the fish strikes the oiler USNS John Ericcson while two hit the supply ship Ambassador.

In Indonesia, the Echo II-class cruise missile submarine departs its secret resupply port and slinks north into the sealanes between Indonesia and the Philippines.

Rebel resistance in the Khabarovsk Flour Mill ends, the last 700 men of the 294th Motor-Rifle Division laying down their arms. To the north, executions of mutineers of the 73rd (my 122nd Guards) MRD continue as KGB investigators review the conduct of each rebel soldier; those judged "less rebellious" are transferred to a penal battalion.