On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[Homer]

I like how the Cutlers are just a couple of yinzers. The IC was a nice touch!
And now hes at reception. I wonder if the issues in TRADOC are going to include him Given how he turns out in cannon, I wouldnt be surprised if he starts in TRADOC. And Pittsburgh- I wonder if Rodney is going to end up out in Monroeville

I never thought about it, but most MEPS arent that big. With conscription, they need to expand along with the training base. Do they get the extra personnel from reservists, or drafted civilians themselves Facilities seem like the east part.

[chico20854]

June 5, 1997

The Soviet 132nd Tank Regiment abandons roughly $750,000 of gold plundered from the surrounding area and captured from the Germans, hidden under the town of Kartuzy, west of Gdansk.

The Battle of Czestochowa continues, with the German 90th PanzerGrenadier Brigade attacking overnight and gaining a foothold on north side of town.

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The 4th (GDW has the 1st) Marine Division conducts an amphibious assault against Bandar Abbas, Iran. The assault is led by the 24th Marine Regiment and a battalion task force from the 1st Marine Division's 1st Marines, landing from amphibious shipping, and the 1st Marine Division's 5th Marines, landing from helicopters that have ferried the troops across the Persian Gulf. The troops land on the west end of the city, fighting to gain control of the port and nearby airfield from the dug-in defenders of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division.

Unofficially,

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

The 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam AFB, Hawaii receives its 12th and final KC-767 tanker, dispatching the last of its KC-135R aircraft to Japan to serve with the new 301st Air Refueling Squadron.

Private Randall Cutler is one of 300 privates beginning basic training with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry. He gets "smoked" for the first of many times, forced to do push-ups until he collapses as punishment for not moving quickly enough.

Combined Forces Korea goes on the offensive, exploiting the weakness of the North Korean Army after months of battering against Allied defenses. IX Corps commits the 23rd and 2nd IDs to the effort, while I Corps puts the 7th and 25th IDs on the attack, holding the 163rd ACR in reserve to exploit any breakthrough.

V US Corps continues its anti-armor raids into Lodz, continuing to meet stiff resistance.

On the south of the First German Army sector, the VI German Korps, recovered from the battle for Poznań, drives east against light resistance through Kalisz, Piotrk3w and east towards Radom, exploiting the gap formed when Polish and Soviet troops withdrew into Czestochowa and Ł3dź. The Germans slam into 1st Guards Tank Army's blocking positions outside Piotrk3w.

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The Czechoslovak 15th Motor-Rifle Division is subjected to a third day of carpet bombing by American B-52G bombers, each aircraft dropping over 220,000 pounds of bombs on the division.

The reconstituted Strike Fleet Atlantic crosses the GIUK Gap into the Norwegian Sea. It is composed of the American aircraft carriers Enterprise, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and Saratoga and the British light carrier Ark Royal. (Illustrious, the other surviving British carrier, is supporting the amphibious force). The carriers air wings are much depleted, averaging 52 aircraft each for the Americans while Ark Royal operates 11 Sea Harriers and a handful of helicopters. Nearly half of the American fighter and attack aircraft are older model F-4s, A-4s and A-7s brought out of storage to replace more modern aircraft lost in December. The fighters are short of modern air-to-air missiles, and attack aircraft rely overwhelmingly on unguided bombs. The battleship Wisconsin and an escort force cobbled together from the remaining elements of NATO fleets accompany the carrier force. The American ships are heavily loaded with land attack cruise missiles, displacing surface-to-air missiles (which are in short supply following the Battle of the Norwegian Sea) in the vertical launch cells of the most modern units.

The 14th Army in Romania reaches the transport hub and industrial city of Buzău. The Soviet's first foray into the town is repulsed with heavy losses when the mechanized force is ambushed by People's Militia units operating from higher floors and basements of the city's buildings.

A wave of executions continued in Khabarovsk as mutinous officers from the 294th Motor-Rifle Division are punished for their disloyalty. A second penal battalion is formed as the first one is loaded onto boxcars for the front in China, just a few hundred kilometers away. The 73rd (my 192nd) MRD begins loading back onto trains for transit south to the Vladivostok area.

[chico20854]

I like how the Cutlers are just a couple of yinzers. The IC was a nice touch!
And now hes at reception. I wonder if the issues in TRADOC are going to include him Given how he turns out in cannon, I wouldnt be surprised if he starts in TRADOC. And Pittsburgh- I wonder if Rodney is going to end up out in Monroeville

I never thought about it, but most MEPS arent that big. With conscription, they need to expand along with the training base. Do they get the extra personnel from reservists, or drafted civilians themselves Facilities seem like the east part.

I'm glad you enjoyed the "local flavor"!

I figure the MEPS would be augmented by civilian hires and maybe some recalled reservists and retirees who are medically unable to deploy. Plus the occasional lucky draftee who wins the assignment lottery!

[Homer]

Great post as always!

Good to see Relaxin' Jackson in there! I guess the stress cards were done away with when the war started

I wonder if we'll see Cutler get pulled in to the 5th Squad organization there. The bust happened at Lee, and Lee gets its BCT grads mainly from Jackson...

Interesting to see how the CFC counteroffensive plays out. IRL 2ID was one of the last units in the Active Army to keep the M728 CEV because they needed the demo gun to clear obstacles. It wasn't until the obstacle reducing round for the M1A1 came out that they got rid of them. Going north requires breaching two sets of obstacles: the rock drops, blocks, craters, and mines the CFC has put in and then the NK system. Add in the DMZ is probably the most mined place on earth- most of the mines aren't even registered anymore because they've moved around so much in floods or freeze/thaw cycles. It can be done, especially with the T2K model force which benefitted from continued defense spending and training. But it may well slow up the tempo of the offensive. The ROKs may want to go faster, but at this stage they were still dependent on US long range fires and engineering for their counterattack/reunification plan.

One of the reasons 2ID had a unique force structure in the late 80s and 90s was it's role as the centerpiece of a CFC counteroffensive. They were supported by enough CH47 lift to conduct a brigade sized air assault in support of a river crossing. They had either 2 tank/2 mech or later 4 tank/3 mech for defensive ops or to provide a heavy counterattack force. Most of the USFK assets (bridging, lift, etc) were geared toward supporting the counteroffensive mission.

[chico20854]

busy week IRL, not sure I'll be able to get anything up. Stay tuned!!!!!

[chico20854]

I'll try to get caught up the next few days...

[chico20854]

June 6, 1997

In Czestochowa, the 256th Infantry Brigade (Louisiana National Guard), 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and 27th Fallschirmjeager Brigade have fought their way to the base of Jasna Gora by sunset. The Polish 12th Tank Division and 2nd Motor-Rifle Division are withdrawing up the Wisla River Valley in good order.

Unofficially,

Peace talks in New Delhi drag on, with no meaningful progress. An effort to discuss more technical aspects, such as a ceasefire timeline and methods of enforcing compliance, is rejected as secondary to the main question of terms for terminating the conflict.

The assessment team in Philadelphia reports that the passenger liner SS United States has been largely stripped to the bare bulkheads, poorly maintained and will likely require 18 months or more of intense shipyard work to restore to service and convert to a high-speed troop ship.

At Fort Dix, the Inspector General team has received 17 reports of abuse from female trainees and four reports from male trainees.

The Allied attack in Korea continues. Progress is slow, at least initially, as the attacking force must demolish some of the obstacles which it itself laid just months earlier to halt the North Korean attack. It is slow, detailed work, with engineer detachments, in many cases, traveling forward on foot accompanied by protecting infantry, to wire individual obstacles with demolition charges. In spots where armored vehicles can operate, demolition is carried out by M728 Combat Engineer Vehicles or, where available, M-48A5 and M-60 tanks firing HEP squash-head rounds dragged out of dark corners of ammo depots around the world.

Most of the American carriers depart the Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea, leaving the Abraham Lincoln as the sole carrier providing Close Air Support to Allied forces ashore.

Advance patrols of the British 9th/12th Royal Lancers reach the outskirts of the Polish capital, where they are halted by a fiercely defended obstacle belt. The British force is hemmed in by the swamps of the Kampinos Forest to the north and rough terrain to the south. To their west, V Corps troops spend another day preparing for a siege of Lodz, raiding the city's outskirts.

The commander of the remnants of the 15th Czech 15th Motor-Rifle Division surrenders to the US 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), which is extending its sector east as Third German Army advances through Poland.

American, Canadian and Norwegian troops slip into forward positions along the Litsa River on the Kola Peninsula.

Soviet troops of the 14th Army surround the city of Buzau, cutting the most efficient transport routes between Bucharest and the Black Sea Coast. The Black Sea Fleet's 810th Independent Marine Brigade, evacuated from Burgas, Bulgaria, makes an amphibious landing between Mangalia and the port city of Constanta, forcing the collapse of the front along the eastern portion of the Bulgarian-Romanian border as Romanian troops rapidly withdraw before they are cut off.

The fighting in Bandar Abbas rages as Marines and paratroops struggle in intense house-to-house fighting on the western end of the city. The flow of 4th Marine Division units to the beachead slows as the specialized amphibious ships are emptied and the commercial-type vessels are forced to unload in stream. 1st Marine Division tries to make up the difference with companies landed by helicopter, but the lightly equipped troops and heavy Soviet anti-aircraft fire make even that effort perilous. The defenders score a coup when the frigate USS Nicholas comes close inshore to provide gunfire support and gunners of the 884th Independent Rocket Artillery Battalion catch the frigate in the sights of their BM-21V. The launch 36 rockets at the warship, 25 of which strike, setting it ablaze. The American crew takes heavy casaulties in the attack and are unable to get the fire under control and the ship drifts out into the straits, where a civilian salvage tug and other warships from the Salem group attempt to put out the fires and rescue the surviving crew.

Troops of the Pakistani paramilitary Mujahid Force cross into Indian-controlled territory in Kashmir and establish a patrol base.

[chico20854]

June 7, 1997

Today is the final day of Battle of Czestochowa; the NATO assault on the Jasna Gora begins at 0100 and by 0430 American and German troops have reached the top of the hill. After a discussion with the American commander about a parlet, at dawn the Jasna Gora monastery is demolished. The Polish 6th Air Assault Division is destroyed as 300 survivors break out to join the 12th Tank Division and 230 Polish paras surrender. The Polish commander dies of his wounds and Major Filipowicz, CO of 6th Engineer Battalion, is wounded in explosions.

On the Kola Peninsula, the long-awaited NATO drive on Murmansk commences. (see details below).

Unofficially,

The commander and command sergeant major of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix, New Jersey are relieved of their duties as investigators uncover widespread trainee abuse in the unit's basic training companies.

The 301st Air Refueling Squadron on Okinawa reaches full strength, with eight KC-135R tankers assigned and six more tankers attached from Strategic Air Command units stateside. The SAC tankers are available to support tactical and airlift missions in Northeast Asia, but if needed for nuclear missions they will be instantly pulled, despite the potential loss of other command's aircraft if a mission is abandoned mid-flight.

Adding to the fighting in Asia, the Chinese People's Liberation Army infiltrates hundreds of small, squad-size groups through the Red Army's widely spaced positions along the thousands of kilometers of front line, while in Korea the slow, grinding Allied advance continues.

The Des Moines surface action group departs Pearl Harbor, bound for the Korean theater.

Further to the west, the US Pacific Fleet (and its allies) begins a major offensive against Petropavlovsk, the (First) Battle of Kamchatka. The American carriers Midway, Constellation, Kitty Hawk, Nimitz, and Stennis move toward the Kamchatka Peninsula with the twin goals of attacking airfields and Soviet naval units operating in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. The Soviets are much less suicidal in this battle compared to December's Battle of the Norwegian Sea, and loses are comparatively light. The Soviets primarily rely on hit and run tactics, with many attacks from all directions throughout the day, and these tactics disrupt flight operations enough for many Soviet ships to retreat to safety. The carrier USS Constellation is sunk by a successful coordinated attack by missiles and aircraft from the carrier Varyag, the Slava-class cruiser Oktyabrskskaya Revolutsia, the Victor III-class submarine K-305 and the Oscar II-class submarine K-456. The Nimitz, Kitty Hawk and several cruisers are damaged, with the Bunker Hill, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, as well as the nuclear-powered cruiser USS Bainbridge and missile cruiser USS Gridley sunk. Four destroyers and three frigates are also sunk, with several more damaged, and two attack submarines, USS Drum and USS Omaha, are lost. The Soviets in turn lose four cruisers, including the battlecruiser Yuri Andropov (leaving the Frunze as the only ship of the class remaining afloat) and the Varyag. The light carrier Minsk escapes with heavy damage (later destroyed when Fokino was nuked by China) while the Oktyabrskskaya Revolutsia escaped to Fokino with no damage (later sunk by the Japanese submarine Arashio, while trying to retreat north to a base on the Okhotsk Sea), as well as several destroyers and frigates sunk or damaged, and at least nine submarines are lost, including the K-305 and the K-456, responsible for sinking the Constellation. The battle ends pretty much as a tactical US marginal victory, but considering the strategic objectives, the Soviets can rightly claim a decisive strategic victory.

Polish defenders turn back yet another attack by the German 1st Panzer Division along the Hel Peninsula. The final units of the 2nd Guards Tank Army are evacuated from the Gdansk Pocket and troops from the Polish 1st Army follow.

In the NATO rear area, the 220th Military Police Brigade (US Army Reserve) crosses into Poland and joins other NATO rear area security units in escorting supply convoys, hunting down anti-NATO partisans and Soviet Spetsnaz teams, evacuating prisoners of war, rounding up NATO deserters and fighting black market activity, especially the sale of supplies to the civilian population.

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Operation Reindeer II, the NATO attack on the Murmansk area, starts ashore and at sea. Ashore, the offensive opens with an artillery barrage and limited air strikes against the Soviet air defenses, followed by an attack by British and American infantry (the US 6th Infantry Division, reinforced by the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets) on the Soviet salient west of the Litsa River. The initial assault is rebuffed by dug-in Soviet troops of the 76th Guards Airborne Division and 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, and a few hours later and 10km to the south the Norwegian 6th Division crosses the Litsa and climbs the hills defended by the 77th Guards MRD. A planned landing by heliborne troops from the US 6th Infantry Division is called off after Soviet BM-30 oeSmerch rockets strike the Luostari air base, riddling the massed transport helicopters with thousands of holes. (The 66th Anti-Aircraft Divisions heavy guns, which have been brought forward, would have wreaked havoc on the slow-flying helicopters had they attempted to overfly the front.) Soviet jamming units disrupt the communications between the attacking American troops and their supporting artillery battalions. While the American infantry units use advanced SINCGARS radios with frequency hopping, their supporting National Guard artillery batteries are equipped with 1960s-era single-channel radios, vulnerable to jamming. When the Litsa line was static, this limitation was overcome by use of wire communications, but the advancing infantry carry manpack SINCGARS radios. Northwest TVDs electronic warfare regiment sets up powerful transmitters that disrupt the Allied communications, forcing attacking American troops to string wire behind them or use couriers to coordinate fire support.

US X Corps receives a new commander, kicked off his permanent replacement, Major General James Collins. Collins has previously held a staff position at the Pentagon (he had commanded 4th Infantry Division in 1994), where he had criticized X Corps oelackadaisical sashay on to Murmansk; his appointment is the result of political pressure in the capital.

Further south, Norwegian troops cross the border into Finland in a bid to bypass the Soviet defenses along the Litsa. In Helsinki, the Norwegian ambassador requests a meeting with the Finnish government, timed for ten minutes before the NATO incursion crosses into Finnish territory, in order to present Helsinki with a fait accompli while still attempting to maintain some goodwill with the token warning. (It is also calculated that initial crossings by Norwegian troops would be less of an affront than American troops; hence Prince Jungis force leads Brave Sleigh while Norwegian border troops kicked off Stiff Elf). The Norwegian drive through northernmost Finland, Operation Brave Sleigh, advances from Karasjok, through Inari and into Soviet territory. Prince Jungi is in the lead Leopard I tank as the dragoons crosses into Finland, sweeping aside the token guard force on the border. A secondary drive further south moves east from the border hamlet of Angeli. From there it is a short distance to the crossroads at Inari and the airport at Ivalo. The Norwegian force covers that distance in a little less than 12 hours, culminating in an assault on the airport. Prince Jungi detaches a battalion to guard the village and block the highway to the south, sending the 8th Brigade northeast into the USSR. To the south, Operation Stiff Elf, the American-dominated effort, enjoys similarly rapid initial progress. The token Norwegian Army element, a company attached to the American 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, is quickly overtaken by other units of the 10th Mountain Division as the American force rushes parallel to the Swedish border and east across Finland, determined to quickly strike into the USSR before the Soviet 26th Corps can mass enough troops to halt the lone division. 10th Mountain uses its remaining helicopters to land troops in advance of its forward units, securing crossroads and bridges that otherwise would have to be captured at great cost.

Offshore, Strike Fleet Atlantic sails east for its long-planned assault on Murmansk. The Wisconsin surface action group merges with the much-battered amphibious force moving along the coast while the aircraft carriers travel in a mass 150 miles/275 km offshore Hammerfest, consolidating behind the remaining escorts. Land-based aircraft from 12th Air Force and RAF launch raids to suppress Red Banner Northern Fleets ships and shore bases. Naval Aviation reconnaissance aircraft and Soviet satellites track the oncoming fleet, keeping Northern Fleet commander Admiral Popescu informed of the NATO forces progress. The submarine pens along the coast empty and small attack craft disperse to inlets and bays along the coast. A detachment of heavy anti-aircraft guns from the 66th Division emplaced near the coast tears through the American minesweeping helicopter force; their losses force NATO units into narrower lanes through the Soviet minefields.

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The carrier force launches a massed air strike on Red Banner Northern Fleets anchorages and bases in the Kola. It is a disaster, the fleet taking huge losses from the reinforced PVO air defense force (missiles, guns and interceptors), losing over 60 percent of the attacking aircraft. While damage is done in the strike, at the end of the day Red Banner Northern Fleet has more facilities surviving than it needed for its remaining ships, while NATOs vaunted Strike Fleet Atlantics air fleet has been shattered.

The iron ore carrier Berg Nord completes its delivery voyage, over six weeks after leaving the shipyard in Korea. The massive ship was forced to avoid the Suez Canal and is too large to transit the Panama Canal, resorting to traveling through Indonesian waters, transiting the Indian Ocean and rounding Cape Horn to enter the Atlantic.

The defenders of the Romanian city of Timisoara surrender as food supplies for the civilian population of over 300,000 are exhausted. The Romanian government scrambles to move additional troops to the country's southeast, where the open, flat terrain favors the more heavily mechanized Soviet force.

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Soviet aviation attacks the amphibious force off Bandar Abbas, forcing the abandonment of the rescue effort for the stricken frigate Nichols. The bombers also strike the transport Sea-Land Explore when Soviet missiles targeting the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood lock onto the containership. Ashore, the 350th Guards Airborne Regiment launches a counterattack, riding their BMD Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicles into the Marine's lines. The paratroops blast through the front-line battalions but soon bog down in more house to house fighting as every building becomes a potential ambush site hiding a Marine with a LAW or grenade launcher.

The KGB and MVD troops in Khabarovsk complete "processing" the mutineers of the 73rd (my 122nd Guards) and 294th Motor-Rifle Divisions. Both divisions are disbanded, their colors returned in shame to Moscow. Every officer over the rank of captain is executed and 1500 surviving enlisted men are sent to the front in penal battalions, to be expended in mass wave attacks on the Chinese. The only men who remain are nearly 250 KGB informants from the two divisions, who are rewarded for their loyalty with a week's leave, two liters of vodka and an assignment to the 70th Border Guard Brigade as replacements for those lost in the fighting. The last elements of the 73rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division depart the city, returning to garrisons west of Vladivostok to once again rebuild.

Indian border guards discover the Pakistani infiltrators and move to evict them. Gunfire soon erupts, and by sundown a full-fledged battle is raging.

[chico20854]

June 8, 1997

Bandar Abbas airfield comes under Allied control as the Soviet paratroops are increasingly worn down by the American marines.

Medical students from St George's Medical University administer first dose of vaccine for "the Flu", the local term for Grenadan Hemorrhagic Fever.

Unofficially,

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

The MGM-124 Midgetman missile system is declared operational by the US Air Force.

The lead elements of the US I Corps reach the first prewar positions along the Demilitarized Zone, the pre-war dividing line between North and South Korean territory. In other areas progress has been much slower, and Combined Forces Command orders I Corps to continue to clear up to the prewar border but not cross it in force.

Additional Chinese infiltrators cross through Soviet lines after dark. Far Eastern TVD requests the return of MVD and KGB troops that had been diverted to battle mutineers in Khabarovsk to improve rear area security, but the KGB troops are not yet available, recovering from the "celebration" that followed their victory and interrogating the city's citizenry to identify collaborators and sympathizers.

V US Corps plans for an assault on Lodz for dawn are foiled once again by the clever Polish commander. At midnight the NATO assault force is subjected to a fierce mortar bombardment and an assault by the Polish territorials, seizing the initiative. Simultaneously, Polish tanks lead a breakout to the east, breaking through the thinly spread pickets of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. By dawn over 80 percent of the defending force has evacuated to the town of Rawa Mazowiecka, over 30 miles to the north. V US Corps, in disarray and with its supplies in the new dumps rather than loaded for an offensive, is unable to offer effective pursuit.

Panzergruppe Oberdorff pauses to regroup after the fierce battle for Czestochowa. Patrols round up Polish stragglers, identify areas that can be safely passed through and sites for NATO logistics sites to support the offensive.

In the NATO rear area, contractors and engineers continue their efforts to repair damaged Polish roads and rail lines.

The training center in Kauteniko, Norway training Saami anti-Soviet partisans closes down. While the Green Berets withdraw, the smoldering fire of Saami militancy does not die out with their departure.

The American force attacking Finland is reliant on a single road from Norway for all of its support, and 10th Mountain Division's support command is hard pressed to keep the advancing forces supplied. Light transport aircraft are able to ferry in additional supplies after the Kittil$ airport is captured; the Finnish airport also provides a forward operating base for the division aviation brigades helicopters. The American force requisitions the airports stock of aviation fuel and supply officers seize diesel fuel from the handful of gas stations. (The US Embassy in Helsinkis effort to pay for the supplies seized by the division is rebuffed by the Finnish government).

At sea off the Kola, the remaining elements of the Soviet fleet launch a quick counterattack in the immediate aftermath of the failed NATO air strike. Naval Aviation sorties its remaining bombers from their bases near Leningrad immediately, heavily loaded with anti-ship missiles. Small combatants and submarines sortie from their dispersal areas, picking off NATO escorts and maintaining constant pressure on the Allied fleet. Coast defense missile regiments ashore and the remnants of Red Banner Northern Fleet launch a coordinated strike, and Strike Fleet Atlantics ships pay a terrible price. Americas most modern cruisers and destroyers have packed their vertical launch cells with land attack cruise missiles at the expense of scarce air defense missiles, and many of the short range air defense missile launchers are only partially loaded after the massive expenditures earlier in the war. While the carriers multi-layer defenses stop most of the incoming missiles, Enterprise and Eisenhower are both set ablaze, the British Ark Royal is sunk and many escorts are lost. The Allied fleet takes even more losses as Red Banner Northern Fleets surviving submarines descend on their ships.

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Observing the mayhem offshore, General Frisvold, commander of NATO Forces in the region, sees an opportunity for the amphibious landing force to slip in and restore the momentum in the coastal drive. The amphibious force splits into two task groups, with a British-led element heading for Ara Bay (18 miles/30 km west of the Murmansk Fjord) and an American one with an objective of Ura Bay (3 miles/5 km closer to Murmansk). The battleship Wisconsin fires her big guns on the coast defense positions while the American marines rush ashore and the skies are filled with helicopters from the fleets supporting amphibious carriers. The initial landings are successful as the marines and paratroops surprise the third-rate local defense troops and naval base staffs, but the battleship and other naval units offshore are unable to suppress the coastal defenses. Air support from Strike Fleet is not available, limited to Illustrious few remaining Sea Harriers and the USMCs land-based fighter-bombers operating from bases in Norway.

The US 3rd Fleet, which commanded the raiding force off Petropavlovsk, orders a general retreat towards the Aluetians, allowing the massed but depleted carrier force to regroup and resupply.

The Turkish V Corps suffers another day of heavy losses, as Southern Front commits the 5th Guards Army to overwhelming the Turkish force in Bulgaria. Adding to 1st Turkish Army's trouble, the Greek forces in Thrace launch an attack on the Turkish covering force, diverting reinforcements and supplies from the Bulgarian front. The Turkish high command is growing increasingly concerned with dwindling reserves of heavy weapons, munitions and vehicles.

In Bandar Abbas, Marine Corps C-130s begin to ferry in troops of the 1st Marine Division as the last troops of the 4th (GDW's 3rd) Marine Division land on the beaches on the west end of town. As dusk arrives, the massed CH-47 helicopter force from XVIII Airborne Corps arrives, landing over a thousand troops and tons of supplies at the airport.

In the South China Sea, the Echo II-class submarine K-35 returns to action, sinking the Liberian tanker Crystal Magnus, sailing unescorted with a load of Indonesian crude oil to Japan.

Despite ambushes and small firefights on a nearly daily basis, the Army Chief of Staff decides that the 71st Airborne Brigade, a recently formed unit from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, is best deployed not in Central America containing Nicarauguan communists, but in Romania, facing Warsaw Pact troops. Ideally a heavier unit would be sent, but the airborne force has the advantage of being airmobile, allowing it to arrive weeks before a unit deploying armored vehicles by ship would.

Both India and Pakistan throw additional companies of troops into the ongoing battle on the Line of Control dividing their nations in Kashmir.

[chico20854]

June 9, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The peace talks in New Delhi continue, largely fruitlessly. At the end of the day, the lead Soviet negotiator (an experienced diplomat with decades of experience negotiating arms control agreements with the Americans) is recalled to Moscow.

The NATO Nuclear Planning Group decides to transfer weapons withdrawn from Italy to Turkey; if the front in Jugosalvia and Romania stabilizes enough to support American custodial units then those countries will be reinforced with tactical nuclear artillery shells, rockets and bombs.

The 347th Strategic Missile Squadron loads its vehicles (a mix of soft-skinned trucks and HMMWVs, M-750 armored cars and four Hardened Mobile Launchers) onto train cars for transit to Nevada from Gowen Field, Idaho, where it had been training for several months.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army launches a general offensive along the entire front line. Dug-in Soviet artillery batteries are attacked by infiltrators, and anti-Soviet partisans launch hundreds of attacks on Soviet supply convoys throughout occupied Manchuria. An air raid by F-16s of the American AVG II drops the bridges over the Sungari River at Harbin using Paveway laser-guided bombs, cutting the rail line supporting 1st Far Eastern Front.

Panzergruppe Westhoven, consisting of the 5th Panzer Division, 26th Panzergrenadier Division, elements of the US 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment and several West German jaeger divisions, breaks northeast through the scattered Polish detachments left behind by the retreating Soviets and captures Tomaszow. The lead elements report no enemy troops to the front.

Along the Baltic Coast, 1st Polish Army begins establishing a defensive line on the east bank of the Wisla. The 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) starts moving eastward, continuing Third German Army's conquest of Silesia.

Prince Jungi's mechanized force in northern Finland continues moving east, crossing over into the Soviet Union on a lonely gravel road. His detachment struggles to maintain its progress, relying on the handful of poor roads with an improvised logistic force. His tanks, which consume vast quantities of fuel, tear up the roads and require extensive maintenance support while proving vulnerable to ambushes while road-bound in the forested swamps of Lapland.

To the north along the Litsa, Allied troops make little progress. Each attack is met with furious resistance, bolstered by massed fire from mortars, artillery, rockets and anti-aircraft guns, burning through 18th Armys stocks of artillery ammunition while 18th Army's deputy commander for the rear calls every contact he has in Leningrad, Murmansk and Moscow seeking more. The 116th and 77th Guards MRDs hold against the advancing Norwegians, with battalions from the reserve regiment launching local counterattacks whenever the NATO troops capture one of the hilltop outposts. Dug-in troops from the 76th Guards Airborne and Division Polyarnyy likewise turn back the American 6th Infantrys attacks from the relative comfort of their fighting positions.

As the battered Strike Fleet Atlantic withdraws to the western Barents Sea, the surviving aircraft manage to sink the last operational Northern Fleet capital ship, the Admiral Lobov, finally achieving the prewar strategic goal of suppressing the Soviet fleet.

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The Soviet Kilo-class sub K-871 sinks the British frigate HMS Kent in the North Sea.

Soviet troops once again are forced to slow their advance in Romania as their tanks and vehicles run low on fuel and their artillery digs deep into their reserve stocks of ammunition. The Romanian government throws additional troops into the effort to halt the Soviet advance, while Jugoslavia dispatches its 37th Corps to reinforce the effort along the Danube.

In Iran, the Battle of Bandar Abbas continues even as the flow of American reinforcements continues. The defending Soviet paratroopers keep the airport and piers at the city's port under mortar fire, disrupting the effort the use those facilities to support and reinforce the Allied effort. Soviet troops have taken to sheltering in the city's buildings and the division headquarters moves to a location between a mosque and a hospital, limiting the ability of the USS Salem's big guns to attack it.

Flights of C-141 and C-5 transports arrive in Honduras to load the paratroopers of the 71st Airborne Brigade for immediate deployment to Romania.

[chico20854]

June 10, 1997

In Czestochowa, Poland, Major Filipowicz (former commander of the 6th Engineer Battalion), wounded and suffering from a confused mind, locates the body of Colonel Piotrkowski (the last commander of the 6th Air Assault Divison) and buries him in a sarcophagus under the Jasna Gora, gathering bodies of his troops to form an honor guard for him and the Black Madonna.

Unofficially,

In New Delhi, the peace talks are paused while the Soviet delegation awaits its new head.

The US Navy's Military Sealift Command notifies the Naval Sea Systems Command that it does not have a requirement for a high-speed troop transport such as the SS United States, ending the effort to reactivate the ship.

Following the killing of an unarmed Mexican immigrant while he broke into an elderly couple's home in San Antonio, Texas, a self-appointed militia forms and deploys to the Mexican border.

As American and South Korean troops continue to advance to the DMZ, the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade launches the first substantial attack across the border, landing in the prewar "peace village" of Panmunjom. The Japanese troops are reinforced by the air assault troops of the US 2nd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.

The Chinese offensive makes progress in overrunning Soviet front-line positions, unfortunately by using human-wave attacks to overwhelm the outnumbered Soviet defenders. Soviet artillery, under attack in their battery positions by infiltrators, is unable to support the motor-riflemen, and tank battalions reap a wide swath through Chinese infantry until American-supplied Assault Breaker systems douse them with submunitions.

The pocket around the cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk is isolated from the rest of Poland when III US Corps reaches the Wisła and an Apache helicopter sinks the ferry at the mouth of the river.

Shortly before dusk, German troops of Panzergruppe Westhoven capture the road junction at Gr3jec, 40 km south of Warsaw.

The American 10th Mountain Division confronts its first real resistance at Sodankyl$, 300 km into Finland, when the lead elements hit the Lapland Jaeger Brigades defensive positions on the eastern shore of the Kitinen River overlooking the downed bridge. Two infantry battalions from the divisions 1st Brigade move into the town but are cut off when Finnish troops destroy the highway bridge west of the town, cutting them off. Finnish troops emerge from the forests and isolate the halted American battalions strung out along the road to the west.

Outside Murmansk, the Soviets respond to the landing fleet with a hail of gunfire from surviving defensive guns, sinking several transports and escorts, while the marines ashore are subjected to a relentless barrage from an ancient railway gun. The battleship USS Wisconsin shifts her fire to the big Russian gun and silences it, but the remnants of the Soviet surface fleet and Frontal Aviation once again sweep in, striking the stationary NATO fleet, sinking several more transports and escorts. Finally, Northwestern TVD orders the 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup to move north from the 26th Corps area to contain the landing.

The ore carrier Berg Nord completes loading its first cargo, 220,000 tons of iron ore for German steel mills. It is too slow to travel in a convoy (and so large that a single torpedo or missile is unlikely to sink it), so it travels the North Atlantic unescorted.

Soviet Naval Infantry troops of the 810th Independent Marine Brigade enter the port city of Constanța against light resistance. Once in the town, however, the elite marines find themselves responsible for the management of the city of some 300,000 people, most of which are hostile and thousands of which were armed by the now-absent Romanian regime. The brigade commander makes a desperate plea for KGB or MVD troops to relieve his force and assume control of the city, but is dryly informed that such forces are not available and the commander is told "You're a good comrade! I'm sure you will figure out how to use the resources the Party has given you well."

The USS Salem retires from the "bombardment operating area" off Bandar Abbas to replenish its dwindling supply of ammunition. To the north of the town, British Gurkha troops of the 27th Infantry Brigade link up with the American marines as the Soviet 350th Guards Airborne Regiment withdraws into the city's environs.

[chico20854]

June 11, 1997

In a move to bolster security within the US, the Army assigns several units local security and food distribution duties. the 184th Transportation Brigade (Mississippi National Guard) is assigned responsibility for security and distribution of foodstuffs in Military Regions II and III (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware), while the 228th Signal Brigade (South Carolina National Guard) is assigned local security duties around Fort Meade, Maryland and the 194th Armored Brigade at Fort Knox, Kentucky is assigned disaster relief and security missions in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Unofficially,

The new head of the Soviet delegation to the peace talks arrives in New Delhi. His identity shocks the rest of the delegation, for Colonel General Oleg Kolesnikov has a reputation within the Red Army as a hothead, and the West had previously called for him to face war crimes charges for the conduct of his command in China in 1995 and 1996.

The British Prime Minister reaches out to his Australian counterpart to encourage Australia to consider increasing its troop commitment to the war waging around the world. He notes that Australia's sole ground combat force in action is approximately one half of the 28th ANZUK Brigade and that in 1942, when Australia had a much smaller economy and population, the nation raised 11 infantry and three armored divisions.

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

Headquarters, XV Corps is activated from the 81st and 121st ARCOMs at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Lieutenant General Richard Davis commanding.

The US Army Training and Doctrine Command, as part of the effort to assist civil authorities, tasks subordinate units with developing plans to suspend training and provide civil relief and security duties, using the assigned student body, teaching cadre and administrative and support staff in the event of an emergency.

The first four production MGM-134 Midgetman missiles are flown to Nellis AFB, Nevada and mated to the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron's Hard Mobile Launchers.

The 105th Engineer Group (Combat) (North Carolina National Guard) is detached from the Charleston Port of Embarkation and assigned to provide engineering support to FEMA as the nation reacts to the threat of nuclear war.

The third day of the Chinese PLA's offensive in Manchuria sees Soviet lines wavering. Group Army (equivalent to Western Corps in size) commanders commit their mobile forces to exploit breakthroughs, and their Soviet counterparts respond in kind. The resulting armor battles rival in scale to those fought in Kursk in the Second World War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and those being fought in central Poland every day.

In Korea, the North Korean command exhorts its citizens and soldiers to defend every centimeter of the homeland from the barbarian warmongers that wish to re-colonize the nation. The allied airborne force in the Panmunjon village comes under furious attack from troops occupying bunkers and fighting positions along the prewar border.

Third German Army continues its offensive out of Silesia, after pausing for four days to allow the formation, exhausted and with its supplies depleted after the battles for Czestochowa and Katowice, to rest and recover. The pause allowed the remnants of the Polish Second Army to retreat down the Wisła valley in good order.

The Danish government completes stocking a third underground strategic cache, at the M,nsted limestone mines (supposedly the world's largest, which had been in operation for over 1000 years before ending commercial production in 1978).

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At dawn 2nd Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment enters G3ra Kalwaria on the western bank of the Wisla. The commander of the Polish 1st WOW Brigade (an Internal Troops command), Colonel Janusz Malinowski, declares for the Free Polish Congress and admits the American unit under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Malinowski, his second cousin. American and German troops pour across the three bridges in the town, advancing north and east on the far side.

The surrounded American force in Sodankyl$, Finland digs in, awaiting relief, while the 10th Mountain Division brings its heaviest brigade, the 3rd, forward along the highway, slowly driving the Finnish light troops back off the road.

Throughout the theater, Northwestern TVD carries out a series of coordinated counterstrikes to disrupt the NATO offensives logistics. The Spetsnaz team outside Kirkenes attacks the harbormasters home and the dormitory used by contract stevedores; the loss slows the ports throughput by 40 percent. The jetty at Liinakhamari further east is subjected to a mortar attack, which briefly disrupts operations and diverts a company of combat troops from the front in a futile hunt for the attackers. The Tana bridge area is hit by a Scud missile that disperses a persistent chemical agent that temporarily closes the area to traffic, reducing the resistance faced by the razvedchiki in the raid that follows.

Northern Fleet assigns a diesel submarine to patrol off Kirkenes, successfully sinking two arriving transports carrying supplies to sustain the offensive before being sunk by an American ASW helicopter.

A patrol from the KGBs 82nd Border Guard Brigade ambushes a supply convoy moving ammunition forward to the US 6th division. The attack destroys nearly 40 percent of the division artillerys reserve supply, and soon the American units guns are ordered to limit offensive fire support, prioritizing the remaining stocks for defensive fires.

With his amphibious fleet in flames, little prospect of support from Strike Fleet Atlantic and the landing troops ashore only barely hanging on, General Frisvold orders the landing force outside Murmansk to withdraw.

The American aircraft carrier Coral Sea, operating in the North Sea, finds that the front line in Poland is moving ever farther away from its position. The commander requests permission to move the carrier south, closer to the action.

The first companies of the 71st Airborne Brigade (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas National Guards)'s 1st Battalion, 142nd Infantry (Texas National Guard) arrive at Turnisor Air Base in the mountains of Transylvania.

Transcaucasian Front commander Suryakin calls on the commanders of the 34th and 73rd Air Armies (his aviation commands) to see what they can do to assist the beleaguered 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. The aviators explain that their organic fleet of transport aircraft is small, and that to deliver significant quantities of supplies he needs to appeal to Moscow, which controls the airlift fleet. His operations officer suggests an offensive along the front line in the Zagros to divert Allied support from the effort to eliminate the isolated airborne division.

A flight of six F-20s and an accompanying 747 tanker depart Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia bound for Iran. The fighters will replace some of those lost by the Iranian Air Force in the past few months.

[chico20854]

June 12, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

Colonel General Oleg Kolesnikov, head of the Soviet delegation in New Delhi, delivers what is best described as a tirade to the shocked group of British diplomats and generals negotiating on behalf of the Allied forces. He states that the USSR is no longer willing to accept the continuing assaults on its territory and allies and that if NATO and its allies refuse to immediately cease their attacks and begin withdrawing to prewar borders "they shall suffer the most severe of consequences."

The troop ship General Walker is activated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to the ship's slow speed and the efficiency of air transport, the ship is not put into use as a transport; instead it receives an advanced communications fit and is fully stocked, then anchored in Penobscot Bay, Maine as a floating backup government headquarters by FEMA, with a partial crew aboard.

RAF Mildenhall is struck by additional Soviet conventional cruise missiles, rendering the US headquarters complex there inoperable. Most of the Third Air Force command staff survived the attack, as British early warning radars gave adequate time to seek shelter in the deep bunker under the complex. The surface facilities of the base are ravaged by fires.

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Soviet lines in Manchuria begin to buckle. In the eastern sector, the 3rd and 28th (my 5th Group) Armies drive eastward through the mountains towards the Yalu River, positioning them to drive up the Yalu valley and stem the flow of supplies from the USSR to the DPRK. In the center, the 27th Group Army drives north from Baicheng, threatening to recapture the transport hub of Qiqihar, defended by the MVD's 7th Operational Division, while the adjacent 11th Group Army and 1st Armored Group Army press forward towards the oil center of Daquing. The attacking Chinese formations are able to exploit the border between 1st Far Eastern Front's 5th Army and 2nd Far Eastern Front's 15th Army as their infantry-heavy forces are better able to operate in the swampy ground along the Nenjiang River than the road-bound Soviet forces.

Additional American and South Korean troops arrive at the prewar DMZ as they force the North Korean army back under relentless attack, supported by the massed airpower of South Korea, the US 7th Air Force, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, the 4th (my 3rd) Marine Aircraft Wing and the USS Abraham Lincoln's air group.

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The lead troops of the US 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) clash with a defensive line thrown up by the Soviet 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, part of 8th Guards Army (rebuilt after being savaged in May in western Poland). The Soviet units, short of ammunition and understrength, put up a short fight before retreating to the next in a series of weak blocking positions. Nonetheless, Panzergruppe Oberdorfs advance is slowed.

On the Hel Peninsula, German troops launch yet another bloody assault on the mixed bag of Polish defenders, advancing nearly 500 meters.

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North of Warsaw, a predawn airborne assault by the British 44th Airborne Brigade secures the northern end of the aged wooden bridge at Wyszogr3d. With a capacity of only 20 tons, the bridge is lightly defended by Polish OTK troops. The paratroops are reinforced immediately with Saxon APCs and light armor of the 1st Infantry Brigade.

The drive through northern Lapland, Operation Brave Sleigh, bogs down. Finnish irregulars raid Norwegian supply lines, forcing Prince Jungi to dedicate some of his infantry force to escort supply convoys and patrol the sole road that supports his force. His tanks are less than useful in countering the Soviet opposition in the swampy wooded terrain of the central Kola, while his troops face some of the highest quality troops in the Northwestern TVD, the veteran Amazons of the 1077th Guards Ski Regiment and the KGB 82nd Border Guard Brigade. With the snow largely melted, the two Soviet formations adopt motti tactics from their Finnish neighbors, operating from the deep forests to strike behind enemy lines and at the least expected time and location. Behind the light Soviet troops is a defensive line manned by the motivated but green troops of 26th Corps 115th Motor-Rifle Division, who have had several weeks to establish strong defensive positions behind the border. The Norwegian drive comes to a halt when its tanks hit the Soviet blocking position on the northern shore of Lake Notozero, and it is unable to pass enough firepower forward to blast through the Soviet defensive line.

As more flights carrying American paratroops arrive, the lead battalion of the 71st Airborne Brigade heads west on a mix of American and Romanian trucks to reinforce the embattled garrison of Deva, which is under attack from the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army.

The Victory ship Marshfield sails from Jacksonville unescorted with a cargo of bagged cement for the CENTCOM AOR.

The worldwide shipping crunch slows Allied military operations. Convoy 147, composed of many of the ships that had sailed in the massive Convoy 140 and 142 in May, is still at sea returning to North America while the globe-crossing deployment of the 4th Marine Division has gobbled up more shipping. CENTCOM's allocation of ammunition and parts is partially diverted into the maw of the European battlefront rather than sit on docks awaiting transport to the Middle East. In Poland, offensive operations continue, at the cost of a bare-bones support structure behind the lines and widespread hardship for the civilian population of liberated Poland.

Soviet forces in Iran begin preparations for spoiling attacks to force Iranian and US Army formation to consume ammunition and fuel that otherwise would be consumed by the Marines battling in Bandar Abbas. That fighting continues, with the 4th Marine Air Wing establishing an operating base on nearby Qeshm Island to provide rapid turnaround air support alongside the carrier USS Independence.

In the Pacific Ocean, 3rd Fleet orders the consolidation of remaining aircraft after the Battle of Kamchakta onto the nuclear carriers Stennis and Nimitz, recalling Midway and Kitty Hawk to the US naval base at Yokohama, Japan to await replacement aircraft.

Indian troops in Kashmir launch an assault to drive the Pakistani force that infiltrated the prior week out. The Pakistanis have built up a fairly extensive network of trenches and covered fighting positions and repulse the Indian attack with heavy losses. (The Indian commander underestimated the number and dedication of his enemy and overestimated the skill of his troops).

[chico20854]

June 13, 1997

Nothing official for today!

As UK Lieutenant General Sir Robert Owens, head of the British delegation at the peace talks in New Delhi, gingerly rues the apparent setback in the status of the negotiations (which had at least acknowledged the need for some sort of negotiated change of status of territory in areas around the world), he is rudely interrupted by Colonel General Oleg Kolesnikov, who swears at the Brit and yells "Allowing you and the Yankees on the European Continent is enough of a concession from the USSR! Given your insolence, I cannot see why the communist world should continue to tolerate capitalist imperialism any longer!" before storming out. The peace talks have ended.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Cincinnati Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the container-barge carrier Lhasa Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama.

The 347th Strategic Missile Squadron begins its deterrent patrols with MGM-134 Midgetman missiles on the vast Nellis AFB Range-Nevada Test Site complex, an area of over 6,000 square miles.

Colonel Oleg Tumanski's Spetsnaz team launches another attack, once again targeting a convoy of replacement troops on their way to the front. They ambush a pair of buses en route to RAF Brize Norton, killing 27 recruits and losing another one of their commandos.

Soviet commanders in Manchuria try to simultaneously hold their stretched line while identifying the Chinese main effort in various sectors; they are torn as to how to best deploy their megre reserves - en masse to smash a Chinese breakthrough, or piecemeal to prevent breakthroughs from occurring. Either way, they send increasingly desperate calls to Moscow for reinforcements and additional tanks, ammunition, helicopters and aircraft.

The OTK and WOW garrisons (internal security troops) of Krak3w, faced with NATO mechanized troops, abandoned by the Warsaw Pact high command and having seen the destruction rained on Opole and Czestochowa, declare Krak3w an open city and lay down their arms. General Beck, Third German Army commander, permits the OTK to retain their small arms and, under the close supervision of Free Polish Congress representatives, act as the police for the liberated city.

The bridgehead over the Wisla at Wyszograd is secured, permitting CG, II British Corps General Ramsay to put 28 Amphibious Engineer Regiment onto the bridgehead. Within hours they have M2D ferries in service, transporting 1st Infantry Brigades Chieftain tanks and the Warrior IFVs and Challengers of the 20th Armoured Brigade to the far shore. Pact resistance is light, with most Pact mechanized units still on the other shore of the Wisła, and the Western TVDs reserve front, the 1st Byelorussian, only partially mobilized and largely positioned on Soviet territory.

The first M-1A2D tank is deployed to Europe. The tank, initially developed for export sale and to boost tank production beyond the ability of American industry to produce gas turbine engines and sophisticated composite armor, fits a diesel engine, a different fire control system (built using otherwise idle manufacturing capability) and an alternative armor system that offers protection comparable to early model M-1s from the early 1980s.

SACLANT, despite the losses his carrier force has sustained in the past week, approves the movement of the Coral Sea and her battle group into the Baltic, although limited to the area off the East German coast, where it is protected by the Danish archiplego and the minefields that were laid at the onset of the war and are still actively patrolled by the Danish Navy's submarines and patrol boats.

In Finland, the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade continues to grind its way forward against strong Finnish resistance. The division's advance is partly limited by the long supply lines, which limit how much ammunition can be brought forward. Elsewhere in the northern theater NATO's advance is slow at best.

American ground forces engage their Soviet counterparts in Romania for the first time, when the Weapons Platoon of B Co., 1st Battalion 142nd Infantry (Airborne) (Texas National Guard) fires a Tankbreaker missile at a T-74 of the 224th Tank Regiment, part of the 17th Guards Tank Division. The Soviets respond with artillery fire, which is ineffective thanks to the poor communications between the Soviet tankers and their supporting guns.

To the south, the situation of the Turkish 1st Army is becoming more desperate as Soviet, Bulgarian and Greek troops press from all sides. The Turkish command keeps feeding a steady stream of recalled reservists into the theater, but they are armed with small arms as the nation's war reserves of vehicles, heavy weapons and ammunition are rapidly being depleted.

The fighting in Bandar Abbas continues as the Marines and Gurkhas make slow progress, driving the hardened Soviet desantniki east through the city, building by building. The USS Salem has returned to the line, providing invaluable firepower, capable of eliminating a Soviet strongpoint with a single round.

In beseiged Shiraz, a armored task force of the IPA 3rd Armored Division makes a surprise breakout, cutting through the lines of the surrounding 45th (my 32nd) Army to wreak havoc in the Soviet rear before returning to the city.

MVD troops of the 141st Seperate Special Motorized Battalion (a specialized riot control unit) surround the garage occupied by striking truckers who are refusing to depart for the war zone. After being given an ultimatum, which about a dozen drivers accept and leave the facility, the troops storm it, using tear gas and truncheons to avoid damaging the trucks or repair facility. All the remaining strikers are arrested (four are killed in the scrum, one from a heart attack, one from the tear gas and two from the beating they received).

[chico20854]

June 14, 1997

The headquarters of the 3rd Marine Division joins the 1st (my 4th) Marine Division on the beachhead at Bandar Abbas.

Warsaw is surrounded by NATO forces, including the British 1st (my II British) Corps; the city begins to prepare for a long siege.

Many inhabitants of the town of Wieliczka, east of Krakow, flee the fighting, seeking shelter in the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine, an incredible complex of hand-cut tunnels and chambers.

Unofficially,

The Australian National Security Committee holds a secret emergency meeting to consider the request placed by the British for greater contribution to the war effort. The leader of the opposition party is also in attendance, and the committee decides to commit a second Army brigade to action as well as extending Australia's assistance in supplying and supporting other combatant nations.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Istanbul Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.

At Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Seaman Recruit Rodney Cutler is the recipient of a late night "blanket party" after one of his peers notices his missing flashlight in Cutler's locker. When a dazed and crying Cutler reports that he has been attacked, the entire company is awoken and made to run laps around the barracks until dawn, then carry out their training day as scheduled.

The Des Moines battle group arrives in the Straits of Tsushima between Japan and Korea. It is directed east to provide fire support for Allied forces ashore.

The 4th Guards Tank Army attacks south out of the Bydgoszcz and Torun bridgeheads, overrunning the outer pickets of the German 1st Gebirgsjaeger Division and capturing the city of Inowrocław within hours. The counterattack continues south, threatening the rail line and highway running through Konin and Koło. The advance south is protected by lakes on either flank, but the Soviet tanks reach a German blocking position 40 km north of Konin. The German mountain troops are forced to retreat, setting up blocking positions to try to slow the armored assault and dispersing into small units to take advantage of rough terrain.

German First Army commander General Diedrichs commits his final light formation, the 25th Fallschirmj$ger Brigade, with a helicopter-borne assault on the towns of Wyszkow and Pultusk, capturing bridges over the Bug and Narew Rivers.

In the Kola, the 2nd Spetsnaz Brigade scores its biggest victory of the campaign, when a team from its 329th Special Forces Battalion (the same team that had attacked the Kirkenes stevedores barracks a few weeks earlier) locates and attacks X Corps forward command post. The brief and furious firefight between the elite Soviet operators and the platoon of Italian Alpini guarding it sees both forces wiped out, and the corps commander General Collins killed. Command of the corps switches, after a confusing interlude of three hours, to the main command post in Nikel and the corps deputy commander, Brigadier General Robert Bryant.

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The USS Coral Sea battle group undertakes an hours-long replenishment at sea prior to entering the Baltic Sea. All of the groups' ships are refuelled while helicopters buzz overhead landing provisions on helipads and open spots on deck.

As the final flight carrying the 71st Airborne Brigade arrives in Romania, the brigade S-4 (supply officer) scrambles to get ahold of the supplies needed to sustain his unit in action. His hosts assure him adequate food and fuel (although not of the type and quality that the troops are used to), but his formation requires spare parts, higher-level maintenance and ammunition that no other unit for hundreds of miles has or uses.

The engagement between the airborne unit and the 17th Guards Tank Division continues to grow, as both sides feed additional units into the narrow valley of the Mureș River. The American units (and their allies of the Romanian 5th Mountain Brigade) retreat to the high ground overlooking the valley, taking advantage of the Soviet tanks' limited elevation and the Soviet formation's sparse motor-rifle contingent to inflict disproportionate losses on the Pact troops. The American commanders are also able to rely on close air support from the A-7s of the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania National Guard), which have been operating from Jugoslav bases since January.