On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

June 15, 1997

The canon is strangely silent on today's goings-on! Unofficially,

The Polish Free Congress, meeting in Poznan, adopts a resolution rejecting the 1944 treaty between the USSR and the Soviet puppet Polish Committee of National Liberation and seeking the restoration of the Polish-Soviet border in the east to its pre-World War II position. This is a massive claim, encompassing Vilnius (capital of the Lithuanian SSR), Belorussian territory up to and including Baranovichy and Ukrainian territory to east of Ternopol, an area of about 179,000 square kilometers (69,000 square miles).

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

The civilian militia on the Texas border has grown to 50 men, hosted by local ranchers who are tired of Mexican immigrants traipsing across their land.

FORSCOM establishes a new subordinate command, Strategic Reserve Command at Fort Carson, Colorado. STRAC is made responsible for command and readiness of Army forces that have been declared ready for combat but have not begun movement to overseas stations. Many of these forces are leant by STRAC to FEMA and other agencies or assigned security duties. The Army also provides a personnel to SOUTHCOM to stand up Headquarters, US Forces, Puerto Rico at Fort Buchnana to coordinate all services' activities in and defense of the island.

Headquarters, 3rd Air Force relocates to RAF Upper Heyford following the extensive destruction of RAF Mildenhall in a cruise missile strike last week.

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade, part of III MEF, makes an amphibious landing south of Wonsan, North Korea. The arrival of the USS Des Moines and its rapid-firing 8-inch guns comes as a considerable surprise to the North Korean coast defense troops as the aged heavy cruiser rapidly reduces position after position to rubble. The landing is supported by aircraft from the USS Stennis, which has returned to the Sea of Japan following the Battle of Kamchakta.

Convoy 236 departs San Francisco, bound for Honolulu and Guam, where it will split into 236.1, going to Okinawa and Korea, and 236.2, heading for Subic Bay, Singapore and eventually the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. The formation contains the cargo ships Elizabeth Lykes, Leslie Lykes, Occidental Victory and the troop ship General Pope, all bound for Korea.

front lines
German troops of the VI German Korps reach the Wisła at Dęblin, forcing a crossing of the river against scattered resistance that includes the faculty and cadet corps of the Polish Air Force Academy as well as staff from the nearby airbase. Unbeknownst to NATO intelligence, the Polish Communist Party prepares a southeastern redoubt, garrisoned by the remnants of the Polish 2nd Army and the Polish 3rd Army, a formation made up of mobilization-only divisions, understrength and equipped with obsolescent tanks. Taking advantage of the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, the Polish troops plan a last-ditch defense of the last portion of southeastern Poland. (And most importantly to the Polish leadership, it offers the chance to remain on their own territory rather than seeking shelter from, and ultimately subservience to, the USSR).

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18th Army launches a counterattack along the Litsa. Forgoing the traditional artillery barrage, the Soviet attack comes under cover of a series of bombing sorties from the remaining bombers and fighter bombers available to the Northwestern TVD, followed by expenditure of the armys small stockpile of chemical weapons. The 77th Guards and 116th MRDs launch local probing attacks against the Norwegians. Those that show the most promise are reinforced with follow-on forces, first the divisions reserve regiment and then with further reinforcements. The 77th Guards takes temporary control of the 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup, released from the coast following the NATO marines withdrawal, and by the end of the day they have driven the Norwegian force back across the Litsa River and placed troops on the opposite bank. Further north, Division Polyarnyy and the 76th Guards Airborne Division push the Americans across the delta of the Litsa, while the 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment waits in reserve in Zaozersk.

The USS Coral Sea battle group makes a high-speed nighttime transit of the Skaggerak (the strait between the north tip of the Jutland Peninsula, Sweden and Norway) and by dawn is well on its way south. Keeping close to the Danish shore to avoid visual detection from Sweden, the task force's progress is watched over by Danish Home Guard troops called out to prevent any shoreside interference. By sundown the group has progressed into the Great Belt, the chain of islands that form eastern Denmark.

Romanian troops in Transylvania are forced back by the Soviet 28th and Hungarian 5th Armies. The town of Zalău falls and Soviet tanks rush towards the city of Dej. Taking advantage of the light opposition overhead, Soviet Long-Range Aviation sweeps in, striking the Romanian airbase at
Cmpia Turzii (the country''s most modern), damaging the runway and bursting one of the base's buried fuel tanks, setting it afire.

The Freedom class ship Maine Freedom is sunk by a mine as it departs the Dutch North Sea port of Eemshaven. It takes nearly five hours for the ship to sink, giving enough time for the crew to be evacuated by helicopter. (No boat captain is willing to sail into a now-known minefield).

The main body of the 1st Naval Construction Regiment begins arriving in Bandar Abbas. The "Fighting Seebees" begin work on restoring the port facilities even as they take fire from the Soviet paratroops just a few kilometers away.

The Soviet Naval high command authorizes the salvage of steel plate from the burned-out battlecruiser Rossiya for transfer to Nikolaev to be used to make the helicopter carrier Leningrad operable.

[chico20854]

June 16, 1997

Nothing official for today.

With the collapse of the peace talks in New Delhi and continuing NATO successes, NATO heads of state endorse the Polish Free Congress' territorial claims and authorize NATO troops to cross the Soviet border to support the restoration of those borders.

Private Cutler and his fellow trainees in Company C, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry in basic training have their scheduled session throwing a live grenade cancelled as a result of a fatal "incident" the day before, when a trainee from another battalion froze after dropping the grenade at his own feet.

South Korean troops link up with the Japanese and American troops holding the border town of Panmunjom. Allied troops have driven the North Korean Army out of nearly all South Korean territory.

In Manchuria, Soviet forces have some success in slowing the Chinese assault. Nearly all the reserves have been committed and the Soviet troops took advantage of their superior firepower but are unable to eject the Chinese troops from the territory they recaptured.

Raids across the Netherlands strike ten Dutch Red Army safe houses; 75 are arrested and held.

The NATO logistic system is reaching the breaking point. Within Poland and East Germany, transportation infrastructure has improved following the use of large numbers of engineer units (Army, Naval and Air Force, in most cases) from the NATO nations active in the theater, supplemented by civilian construction firms using highly-paid labor forces from neutral nations. (Typical is an Irish or Swiss engineer overseeing Brazilian construction foremen, with Filipino, Bangladeshi and Kenyan laborers). These efforts restore the bridges over the Oder and Warta rivers and open two railroad lines, from Frankfurt-Oder to Kutno and from Gorlitz to Gliwice. Locomotives and rolling stock remain in short supply, and NATO militaries no longer maintained railroad operations units or the labor units and equipment to load and unload railcars. POWs and additional contract laborers are tasked with those duties, but efficiency is low and the rail lines also are being called upon to support the needs of the civilian population of liberated Poland. Polish roads had been atrocious (by Western standards) before the war, and the battles and subsequent continuous heavy truck traffic that followed reduced many of them to gravel. Less effort is placed in restoring them than the rail lines, since the railroads are expected to handle much greater tonnages; the continued poor conditions, however, increase wear and tear on the truck fleet. Much of the long-haul truck fleet supporting the effort is requisitioned civilian trucks, which were designed for use on smooth paved roads; the dozens of different makes and models of trucks in use make maintenance a challenge, especially when, in Poland, improvised or captured repair facilities are used. Captured airfields are, where possible, brought back into use, but often Pact defenders have used massive cratering charges (made up of stacks of excess bombs and missile warheads) to cause severe damage to runways. Air Force squadrons use repaired air bases as forward operating locations, but the captured bases are, in general, too damaged and too far beyond the reach of the NATO transportation system to be used as main operating bases. Airlifting supplies is of limited utility, since the amount of tonnage delivered is actually quite small given the level of effort involved, especially since the USAF is reluctant to commit its heavy lift aircraft to landing in the forward combat zone.

Back in Germany, prewar depots are nearly empty and ports are under strain. Prewar planning had called for the use of the massive port complex in Antwerp, Belgium and the pipelines, roads and railroads leading from the English Channel through Belgium into Germany. With French and Belgian withdrawal from NATO, those routes are closed, forcing resupply from the UK and North America into Dutch and German ports. Rotterdam had been struck early in the war by Soviet missiles and the German ports on the North Sea have been subjected to repeated rounds of air and missile attack. The French and Belgian governments closed their borders to military supplies but permit civilian items, in controlled quantities, across. Those governments take a conservative view as to what constitutes civilian items, deeming diesel fuel, preserved foodstuffs and construction materials as military in nature. While by no means comparable to the situations in 1918 and 1944-5, the war impacts the daily life of the German population.

Panzergruppe Oberdorf reaches the Wisła at Sandomierz. The Polish defenders blow up the railroad bridge outside the town, but Soviet officers forbid demolition of the road bridge (as well as a pair of pontoon bridges) until it was too late, allowing the NATO force across the river.

German and British armored units of First German Army link up with the German paratroops of the 25th Fallschirmjaeger Brigade, cutting off the last route in and out of Warsaw.

The Soviet 11th Guards Army launches a counterattack on the left (northern) flank of Panzergruppe Westhoven that is halted by the commitment of the German 217th Panzergrenadier Division and heavy NATO artillery and tactical air support.

Northwest TVD scours the Murmansk area for additional armed troops to send to the front; the scattered security platoons, groups of recuperating sailors, stragglers from 6th Army and MVD guard detachments are too small and scattered to form into a new unit but are shipped to the front anyhow, fed into the units on the line as replacements. X Corps commander General Bryant commits what reserves he holds to buttress the deteriorating line along the Litsa. He commits the 111th Engineer Brigades combat engineer battalions to plug the gap that is threatening to open between the two divisions, reinforcing the engineers with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment and the Luxembourg battalion, hastily transferred from the Rybachiy Peninsula. These forces, combined with sorties from the remaining close air support aircraft and the Soviets dreadful supply situation, slow the retreat from the Litsa but cannot halt the loss of territory.

The USS Coral Sea, (relatively) safely ensconced in the protected waters between the Danish islands and the northern German coast, resumes flight operations over Poland, supporting NATO troops of 2nd German Army.

In Thrace, the situation for the Turkish 1st Army borders on disaster as the Turkish withdrawal towards Turkey's border with Bulgaria threatens to become a rout. The 41st Infantry Brigade, covering the withdrawal of XV Corps, is surrounded by Soviet and Bulgarian troops south of Sredets, Bulgaria, and repeated desperate attacks are unable to break the grip of the Pact troops.

In the Persian Gulf, the Soviet 7th and 1st (my 9th) Armies attack the American and Iranian forces opposite them. The effort is successful in diverting aircraft from the battle for Bandar Abbas, but is a half-hearted effort that captures little ground in the plains of Kuzestan and the rugged Zagros.

The Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-35 in the South China Sea succeeds in sinking another ship, the Liberian-flag tanker Laughlin Ace carrying a load of diesel to China.

[chico20854]

June 17, 1997

As the threat from North Korea recedes, a handful of military dependents and civilian businessmen return to South Korea.

Unofficially,

An inspector general investigation of trainee abuse at Fort Dix makes the preliminary finding that abuse of female (and some male) trainees at the base is rampant, especially in the base's 5th Training Brigade. The IG has received reports of over 75 incidents from trainees present at the base in the last 15 days; additional witnesses will be interviewed by IG investigators at bases and units around the globe of soldiers that have departed Fort Dix in the last eight months.

The admirals in Washington overseeing Naval Aviation struggle to allocate their available resources. The fleet has lost four carriers (the Constellation, Forrestal, Vinson and Washington) and massive numbers of aircraft and pilots. Replacement aircraft have been slow to arrive (less than four squadrons of F-14s, three squadrons worth of A-6s and 15 A-12s, for example) and the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona nearly emptied of useful aircraft. Adding to the difficulty, advanced munitions are increasingly scarce, with prewar stockpiles depleted and production slow to ramp up.

In Manchuria, several lower-readiness Soviet divisions are on the verge of collapse, their older weapons lacking the technological edge over their Chinese opponents and requiring more maintenance. The "Fraternal Socialist Allied" divisions from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria are slowly withering away, as the flow of replacements from home has halted and Soviet war industry prioritizes providing for the Red Army.

Panzergrenadiers of VI German Korps cautiously continue their advance towards Lublin, aware that intelligence has reported sizeable uncommitted Soviet reserves and that there are no friendly units for miles on either side.

V German Korps, operating on the south bank of the Wisła, continues to move east, capturing Wieliczka and Bochnia before encountering resistance. With only two divisions and an unguarded flank to its south, the corps halts its advance and shifts its forces to the south, allowing XI US Corps to pass through and resume the offensive.

Outside Warsaw, the 329th Engineer Group (US Army Reserve) is detached from 7th Army command, assigned to the newly formed Operational Group Warsaw.

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NATO Northern sector commander General Frisvold and his staff realize that it is unlikely that Reindeer II is going to succeed. Certain Santa along the coast has not only failed to force a crossing of the Litsa but is now losing ground that had been held for months. The two drives through Finland have ground to a halt. The amphibious landings have failed, Strike Fleet Atlantic has been dealt a fatal blow and Allied air forces are fading from the skies. Red Banner Northern Fleet's bases have been damaged, its capital ships sunk and its ammunition dumps emptied, but the capture of Murmansk is farther away than at any time since the collapse of 6th Army in December. Strategically, the war has moved on and Red Banner Northern Fleet can no longer threaten the North Atlantic sea lanes, themselves less important than earlier in the war when they were the avenue for transit of American divisions to the front in Central Europe. Northwestern TVD, while successful in defending Murmansk and notwithstanding 18th Army's counterattacks, offers no credible threat to Norway. The Soviet SSBNs remain pierside in the Murmansk area bases, and the campaign has destroyed many of their other bases. After consultation with AFNORTH and SACEUR, Reindeer II is called off.

Two Foxtrot-class subs return to Severomorsk from mine laying voyages.

A NATO convoy of fast transports and cargo ships, accompanied by a strong covering force, forms in Rota, Spain and Gibraltar in an attempt to run the Greek blockade to the Turkish port of Izmir. It carries a large quantity of ammunition and a variety of equipment, supplies and troops (including a Spanish motorized infantry battalion, a US field artillery battalion, a Dutch Patriot battery and a Portuguese heavy truck company) to reinforce the beleaguered Turkish Army. The decision is made to send the 487th Tactical Missile Wing, so that it will be in a useful location if the war goes nuclear and to provide a meaningful, visible sign that NATO's nuclear umbrella extends over Turkey. As a protective measure, the 487th is loaded tactically in the convoy, with each flight shipped complete with all of its vehicles and equipment on board a separate ship, with the headquarters and support units spread among all seven ships. The convoy has a strong escort force, including the escort carrier USS Langley.

In Leningrad, workers begin dismantling the burned out hulk of the incomplete battlecruiser Rossiya, set afire by a SAS team in May. It will take over a week just to clear the wreckage of cranes, hoses and cables draping the deck.

The Great War of Africa drags on, increasing the misery of millions of innocents.

In Kashmir, the Indian Army has improved the roads leading towards the Pakistani encroachment enough to allow tank transporters to bring forward several platoons of Vijayanta tanks to deal with the Pakistani emplacements.

[chico20854]

June 18, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The 301st Port Security Unit, a USCG reserve formation rebuilding after seeing action in the Netherlands, moves north from Cape May, New Jersey to Boston following the discovery of a Communist cell working to sabotage port facilities in Massachusetts. The personnel and assets are dispersed throughout coastal New England to aid forces in place in their efforts to provide security for ports and other critical facilities. The intent is to complete the training of the new PSU personnel with on the job experience before sending the 301st to Korea.

The North Korean Army along the DMZ in the east begins to fall apart. Allied air attacks and the marine landing at Wonsan have largely cut the supply lines, leaving the troops low on ammunition and out of food - vulnerable to the psychological warfare efforts of the South Korean Army. Ignoring the exhortations of their officers, increasing numbers of troops slip away to the south in the darkness or remain behind as units begin to gradually move north.

The situation on the Hel Peninsula becomes even more desperate as the defenders have been under relentless attack for over two weeks, while the 1st Panzer Division's panzergrenadier and jaeger battalions have all spent multiple spells at the front line, locked in fierce and intense close-quarters combat.

Inside the Warsaw perimeter the Polish command has a sizeable garrison. The city defense forces contain an entire division of OTK Territorial Defense troops, a NJW guard brigade as well as an East German Communist unit, the VOPO Regiment Mitte, which is used to augment ZOMO and WOW troops in suppressing support for the Free Polish Congress. The ORMO militia can muster another 15,000 combatants. Army forces that had retreated from Ł3dź, consolidated into the 11th Armored Division and 9th Border Guard Brigade, gradually withdraw back into the city under American pressure, and most of the Soviet 11th Guards Army is also isolated in the pocket. Finally, the Warsaw area contains dozens of noncombatant facilities, headquarters and administrative formations staffed by trained soldiers, who the Polish command form into infantry units.

One complication the city defense force faces, however, is divided command. The Soviet troops report to Baltic Front headquarters, located outside the pocket to the northeast, and the 11th Armored Division and border guards report to the Polish 2nd Army, itself subordinate to the Soviet 1st Western Front and ultimately the Soviet Politburo. The city garrison and miscellaneous units are under command of the Polish Ministry of Defense, which coordinated with the Soviet Ministry of Defense but is not subordinate to it. The situation in Warsaw reflects the situation across the whole front as the Warsaw Pact retreats across Poland. The defense of the country is divided between the Warsaw Pact, subordinate to the Soviet Politburo, and the forces of the Polish Internal Front, subordinate to the communist Polish government. Units from both commands are intermixed and while coordination is done at the local level, in the event of divergent goals resolution is reached at the Ministry of Defense level. Soviet commanders are unsure of the loyalty of Polish units as a result of the defection of units to the Free Polish Congress, despite the presence of political officers in each Polish company, battalion and regiment. Polish commanders likewise resent the priority given to Soviet units in transportation, resupply and replacement equipment and the perception (mostly justified) that Polish units are being sacrificed to permit Soviet units to escape. The Polish Ministry of Defense and the Polish Internal Front, moreover, perceive the strategic goal of their forces as the preservation of the Polish people and its communist government.

In southern Poland, the American 46th Engineer Brigade's 109th Engineer Battalion (Bridge) takes over operation of two Soviet pontoon bridges over the Wisla at Sandomierz, discovering that their own pontoon bridges are copies of the Soviet design.

Soviet troops cross into Finland along three axes. The northernmost is southeast of Lake Inari, where troops of the 115th Motor-Rifle Division and 1077th Guards Ski Regiment pursue the retreating Norwegians, maintaining heavy pressure on them as they fall back along their route of advance. The second axis is from the 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Divisions garrison at Alakurti, across the border to Kemij$rvi, a rail and road junction that leads towards the Americans retreating from Sodankyl$. The 64th Guards Motor-Rifle Division further south launches a third assault, heading for Kuusamo, which is defended by the Northern Jaeger Brigade. This drive is intended to divert Finnish reinforcements from the other two sectors, and if needed this axis can be reinforced and expanded to drive west, cutting Finnish Lapland off from the rest of the country. The KGB commits the 5th Motor-Rifle Regiment to maintain security in captured territory, while the 101st Border Guard Brigade remains in its positions along the international border to guard against Finnish infiltrators and to hinder desertion from Army units.

Along the Barents Sea Coast, the American X Corps continues to be pushed back. To slow 18th Army, the NATO commander General Frisvold orders the amphibious force ashore, the British-Dutch brigade into Kirkenes and the Americans in Liinakhamari.

In Romania, the standoff outside Deva is broken when the Soviets, blocked by the troops of the American 71st Airborne Brigade and the Romanian 5th Mountain Brigade, deploy forest fire as a weapon. Long-Range Aviation bombers pass overhead at low level dispersing hundreds of small incendiary bombs and napalm tanks, followed by a barrage of white phosphorus mortar and artillery rounds from 6th Tank Army. Within minutes entire hillsides are ablaze and the NATO troops are forced to withdraw from the danger zone. The Soviet armored vehicles below are able to advance over 5 km along the valley floor, where they are stopped by the next NATO blocking position. Their supporting supply trucks are unable to run the gauntlet, however, limiting the extend of the Pact advance.

In the city of Constanta, Romania the Soviet Naval Infantry commander is becoming increasingly desperate as the challenge of being mayor of a city of 300,000 hostile citizens mount. A flood of refugees flees the city for friendly lines, but the need for food and restoration of electrical power and municipal water and sewer service threatens to overwhelm the small Soviet force's capabilities. The Bulgarian government is pressured to free up troops to assist, but the nearest available unit (the 2nd Internal Troops Regiment) claims to be tied up securing the nearby town of Mangalia (and thoroughly looting it, according to KGB reports).

Transcaucasian Front continues to maintain pressure on Iranian and American units along the front in the Zagros Mountains, launching numerous company-sized attacks. Offshore, the USS Independence battle group is forced to temporarily disband one of its F/A-18 squadrons, VFA-174, after continued losses over Bandar Abbas reduces the carrier's light attack force to 8 aircraft and 14 pilots. Their space on board is handed over to the "Cowboys" of 4th Marine Air Wing's VMFA-112, flying older A-model F/A-18s.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Muscat, Oman with cargo of 8000 tons of corn meal and a deck full of telephone poles for Iran.

[chico20854]

June 19, 1997

US 43 ID becomes active under VII Corps in Poland.

Unofficially,

Members of Congress schedule a hearing on "the command and service climate in the US Army's training base".

USAF leaders grapple with the same challenges facing their Navy counterparts - losses of aircraft and pilots that exceed the nation's ability to replace them. A partial solution is to replace aircraft that can survive in a modern air defense environment that are deployed in lower-risk areas (such as the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing's F-16s in the Philippines and the A-7s of the 156th Tactical Fighter Wing in Panama) with less capable models, freeing those more modern aircraft for service where they can be best used.

Convicted New Mexico traitor Autumn Lotus (convicted of aiding the Spetsnaz team that attacked Sandia National Lab) sentenced to death; carrying out the sentence is automatically stayed pending appeal.

The Australian Army announces the formation of a second brigade to serve overseas. The 1st Brigade headquarters at Darwin will deploy the 1st Armoured Regiment, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, 8th/12th Medium Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery 1st Combat Engineer Regiment and 161 Reconnaissance Squadron (Aviation).

The South Korean III Corps breaks through the fragile North Korean line 20km north of the DMZ. It sends a task force from the 12th Infantry Division and 703rd Special Assault Regiment to link up with the US Marines of the 1st MEB south of Wonsan.

On the Kola, US X Corps receives warning of 18th Army's oncoming attack from American satellite intelligence and begins preparations to evacuate Soviet territory. Support units and headquarters evacuate Nikel and Pechenga, the airfields at Kautokeino, Luostari and Nikel are evacuated and their facilities rigged for demolition and the few nonessential supplies evacuated, either overland to Kirkenes or by sea through Liinakhamari.

The Norwegian 14th Brigade is halted at the prewar border, where it begins to rehabilitate the defenses that had been destroyed at the onset of the Norwegian campaign the prior November. The 2nd MEB's first elements are on the heights between the Titovka and Litsa Rivers by dusk.

The ore carrier Berg Nord arrives in Rotterdam, carrying 220,000 tons of iron ore destined for German steel mills. As massive as that cargo is, it represents just one quarter of the nation's iron ore imports for the week.

Having partially settled in aboard the USS Independence, the fighters of VMFA-112 fly their first sorties from the carrier, striking Soviet paratroops still battling in Bandar Abbas.

III MEF releases the CH-47 force to XVIII Airborne Corps, as the situation at the Bandar Abbas airport and seaport have stabilized enough for C-130s to make "hot unloads" and smaller craft to dash into the harbor to unload.

The Echo II-class submarine K-35 once again expends its missile load, this time striking the Chinese port of Ningbo. The missiles succeed in hitting the marshalling area in the port, destroying over 125 new Japanese trucks which had just unloaded from the ro/ro carrier Bul Pride, which is also struck and set afire, sinking at the berth after rolling over onto the dock.

The Indian tanks that arrived in Kashmir are put into service supporting an infantry assault on the Pakistani fortifications. The attack quickly falls apart when the Pakistanis use their HJ-8 anti-tank missiles to defeat the Indian armor force. The Indian Army responds with artillery barrages on Pakistani headquarters and logistic facilities all along the line of control, accompanied by aggressive feints by masses of fighter aircraft all along the border.

[chico20854]

June 20, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

Headquarters, XV Corps begins a two-week long wargame command post exercise at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.

The commander, XO, two battalion commanders, three sergeants major and the personnel officer of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix, New Jersey are relieved, based on the inspector general's preliminary findings released three days ago.

At Camp Lejeune, North Carolina the 5th Marine Division sends the first of its regiments, the 26th Marines, to Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms in California for large-unit pre-deployment exercises.

The USAF uses wartime emergency authority to requisition Boeing's Skyfox subsidiary, which owns over 120 T-33 trainers, several dozen of which have been converted to light strike aircraft as well as the facility in Mojave, California that rebuilds the obsolescent derivatives of the 1945-era P-80 Shooting Star fighter into a counterinsurgency plane.

F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing destroy the bridge at Khasan in the far northeastern corner of North Korea, the sole rail connection between the USSR and North Korea.

Allied forces on the western side of the Korean Peninsula go on the offensive across the DMZ, with massive support from remaining airpower and the big guns of the USS Missouri and USS New Jersey lurking close offshore.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army continues to make progress; the 28th (my 5th) Group Army reaches the North Korean border near its mouth at Dandong on the Yellow Sea.

US Green Berets continue to support pro-NATO guerilla bands in areas still under communist control, but many of the bands have either been wiped out or linked up with regular NATO forces.

XI US Corps advances through Brzesko before hitting resistance at Tarnow.

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The Public Affairs Officer from the HQ, 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) brings a team of local reporters from the division's home state on a tour of areas in Poland the division has recently been operating in, including a bridge destroyed by retreating Russian troops and the replacement bridge that the division's engineers erected to replace it.

The search for Soviet stragglers by KGB troops at the Finnish-Soviet border begins to choke 26th Corps supply efforts, as each empty truck driver returning to Soviet territory to reload is subjected to ruthless interrogation, forced to prove that he or she is not fleeing the battlefield.

To speed the advance through Finland, the Northwestern TVD approves the wide-scale use of chemical weapons against Finnish and NATO troops; in one of their first uses the 3rd Battalion of the 36th Brigade collapses when its positions west of Kuusamo are blanketed by BM-21 chemical rockets, immediately followed by tube artillery fire on the brigade chemical defense companys decontamination site.

42 Commando, Royal Marines are on the line along the coast early in the day while the marines helicopters and hovercraft transport the stocks of munitions and fuel aboard the amphibious ships, which to not only their own units but the beleaguered divisions of X Corps.

Turkish forces in Thrace manage to contain the Greek offensive, forcing the Greeks to pause their offensive action to build up supply routes over territory thoroughly devastated by retreating Turks. The pause gives the Turks time to dig in for the anticipated resumption of the Greek attack. To the north, V Corps has withdrawn parallel with XV Corps, both forces holding the city of Yambol. (V Corps on the west and northwest, XV Corps on the east and northeast).

SEEBEEs and Navy salvage crews continue their effort to clear Bandar Abbas harbor of obstructions. The Gurkhas of 27 Brigade reach the center of the city, having driven the Soviet troops out of the overlooking hills and the northern portion of the city. Transcaucasian Front's offensive peters out, without any territorial gains.

In an ironic development, the truckers in Smolensk who were arrested for striking after refusing to carry cargo into Poland are released from captivity and returned to their duties transport food and goods around the city. The city Party committee has received too many complaints that having a significant portion of the city's truckers locked up has been disrupting the production of materiel for the front.

Fighting continues all along the Indo-Pakistani line of control in Kashmir.

[chico20854]

June 21, 1997

Bandar Abbas declared secure; 101 Air Assault Division, 9 ID & 6 ACCB begin drive towards Esfahan; 24 ID begins moving northward towards Ahvaz.

Unofficially,

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

At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Private Randall Cutler discovers a business opportunity while on night-time fire watch with another private. The private agrees to watch for the drill sergeant while Cutler uses his calling card to call his girlfriend on a pay phone in the platoon area; when done with his call, the other private offers to pay Cutler to use his card and they agree on $1 a minute. (Use of the phone is severely limited, and Cutler's performance is poor enough that he is rarely granted permission).

American, Korean, ANZAC and Japanese troops continue to blast their way through North Korean border defenses. Rather than clear the remaining bunker complexes (many have been blasted by airpower and artillery over the preceding months), Allied troops seal the entrances and hope that they don't harbor hidden exits that would provide opportunities for attacks from the rear.

The 24th Grenzjaeger Regiment, a veteran former East German border guard formation that distinguished itself in December's Battle of Berlin, absorbs fresh conscripts and is committed to action in Poland as a specialist urban warfare formation, securing the city center of Bydgoszcz before being committed to the siege of Warsaw.

XI US Corps pauses for resupply before beginning a grinding assault southeast against fierce Polish resistance.

The Finnish 1st Army Corps begins withdrawing south, garrisoning a line from the Swedish border at Pello, through Rovaniemi to Pudasj$rvi. (From there the Finnish 5th Army Corps takes over the front line). Some of the Soviet mechanized forces are able to surge forward, limited by their aged trucks and the increasing distances back to the Soviet border.

The NATO convoy in the Mediterranean departs Gibraltar, headed to Turkey with a load of reinforcements and supplies.

Soviet forces in Transylvania surge forward once again. The forest fires west of Deva have diminished enough for unarmored Soviet vehicles to advance, 6th Guards tank Army's lead formations advancing another 10 km. To the northeast, the town of Dej is surrounded, presaging another situation where Soviet forces are insufficient to capture the town but the Romanians are too weak to break the blockade around the city.

Greek forces in Thrace are slowed for a second day as heavy rain turn the area's dusty roads into muddy quagmires that slow supply convoys. The infantry at the front rejoice in the misery and the chance to rest.

In Iran, the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) screens XVIII Airborne Corps' eastern flank, coordinating with the IPA II Corps, while the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) covers the gaps between XVIII Airborne Corps units and the IPA I Corps.

In Colombia, Marxist guerrillas detonate a car bomb in the center of the port city of Buenaventura.

[chico20854]

June 22, 1997

Canon is silent on the day's activities. Unofficially,

The third R-5D hypersonic spy plane is delivered in Palmdale, California.

The court martial of the Fort Lee, Virginia drill sergeant, accused of being a member of the "5th Squad" gang, is concluded with the sergeant's conviction on six counts. He is reduced in rank to buck private and, as a result of his impassioned pleas to be given "long, hard time at Leavenworth" is ordered to the front in Poland as an infantryman.

The torpedo factory in Nestor, England near Liverpool, resumes full production after being attacked by a Spetsnaz team in March.

Allied troops in Korea move north through more of the DMZ fortifications. Many of the emplacements had been used for artillery or anti-aircraft guns rather than being designed for infantry use. In the east, III ROK Corps has completed its linkup with the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade. While the Koreans continue up the coast, the Marines begin a drive inland to further disrupt the North Korean defense.

The Polish 3rd Missile Brigade, assigned to Baltic Front headquarters, fires a salvo of Scud missiles at the NATO crossing point over the Oder River at Kołbaskowo, south of Szczecin. The strike causes significant disruption to the traffic crossing the bridge, inducing panic among the foreign civilian contract drivers, although the missiles miss the bridge.

Outside Warsaw, the NATO effort is dedicated to shoring up the NATO lines around the city to prevent a breakout or relief as well as positioning troops and building supporting supply infrastructure. XI German Korps, composed mostly of territorials and border guards, both East and West German, moves to the northwest sector outside the city. The US commits XXIII US Corps, composed of the 3rd, 35th and 40th Infantry Divisions and the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (now a full regiment, although with two squadrons of improvised vehicles scraped together in Germany), as well as a sizeable contingent of artillery and engineer brigades, mainly from the southwest and west. Much of the east section of the perimeter is held by British troops.

In Finland, the 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division finally clears the Finnish defenders from its path and makes contact with the rear guard of the American 10th Mountain Division, which is trying to make an orderly withdrawal to Norwegian territory.

The damaged USS Enterprise arrives in Belfast, Northern Ireland and enters the drydock at Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic in 1912.

To distract Soviet naval efforts from the convoy headed to Turkey, 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches three separate raids along the eastern Libyan coast under cover from the aircraft of the USS John F Kennedy and USS America. Each strikes a radar or air defense missile installation.

Outside Bandar Abbas, small groups of paratroopers, numbering around 1000 (mostly from the division's , make their way on foot northward. They are the sole survivors of the once-mighty 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. Behind them, in the ruined city of Bandar Abbas, the two Marine divisions, Gurkha brigade and assortment of support units begin the grim task of building a semblance of order.

[chico20854]

I'm finally caught up! Yay! Only took a week and a half...

[Homer]

Small groups of paratroopers or Little Groups Of Paratroopers

[Targan]

I expect we'll see a significant uptick in the use of chemical weapons in the coming weeks of the thread.

[Ewan]

I expect we'll see a significant uptick in the use of chemical weapons in the coming weeks of the thread.

Do the tactical nukes not start to be used in Poland at the end of June

[chico20854]

Do the tactical nukes not start to be used in Poland at the end of June

July 9!

[chico20854]

June 23, 1997

Nothing for today in canon. Unofficially,

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

Private Randolph Cutler requests fire guard for the night so he can sell use of his phone card to other privates in his basic training platoon.

The last recorded incident of draft resistance in Canada, a burning of conscription notifications, occurs on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

A USAF contingent arrives in Mojave, California, to begin rapid certification of the Boeing Skyfox and its pilots. The effort is greatly assisted by the team's familiarity with the T-33, small numbers of which remain in USAF and US Navy service in various support and test roles.

1st Australian Brigade's subordinate units begin moving to port facilities as the government and the American Navy scramble to direct shipping to the appropriate ports. American heavy-lift aircraft begin to assemble in Darwin to move the brigade headquarters.

I and IX US Corps both move north into North Korean territory, accompanied by their allies. They have broken through the hard "crust" of North Korean emplacements along the border and are able to restore a measure of mobility to the battlefield. Offshore, support is provided by the carriers Abraham Lincoln (in the Sea of Japan), Stennis and Nimitz (in the Yellow Sea) as well as Harriers from the amphibious fleet.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia is ordered to pass through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean.

The German 23rd Missile Brigade fires its first shots in anger, launching a SCUD-D missile at the Polish border guard training school in northeastern Poland, in retaliation for the prior day's attacks on the Oder crossing.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade overruns the Babie Doły air base north of Gdynia.

British engineers (and contractors) select a woodwork plant on the outskirts of the town of Ciechan3w as a supply depot to support the siege of Warsaw. The town has a convienient location at the junction of several highways and rail lines.

In Finland, a confused melee erupts between the US 10th Mountain Division and the Soviet 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division. The American divisions 2nd Brigade has been leapfrogging battalions westward, each tasked to hold its position for 12 hours before falling back through the next two battalions and establishing a new defensive position. The front line battalion is provided cover by artillery and the divisions remaining Cobra attack helicopters, now limited to firing rockets and their 20mm cannon. Ammunition supplies are running low and the American divisions troops are ordered to abandon broken down vehicles, requisitioning civilian vehicles if needed. Finnish troops attack isolated Soviet and American units while Finnish fighters make dashes along both sides supply routes seeking targets of opportunity. The 16th Guards commander pushes his poorly trained and equipped troops to launch repeated human-wave attacks on the American defensive lines. Time after time the American infantry machinegun the green Soviet troops until they run out of ammunition and fall back behind the next defensive line, where another battalion awaits to repeat the exercise.

Soviet irregular forces cut the highway back to Norway in five separate spots, blocking the American divisions supply route back to its rear support base at Koutokeino. The Americans re-direct their retreat to Skibotn in Norway, following the Norwegian 13th Brigade, scavenging food and fuel from the Finnish civilian population, supplemented by limited airdrops of ammunition to support the fight at the front.

The crew of the Sierra II-class attack submarine K-336 are flown back to the remote Gremikha naval base in the far eastern end of the Kola Peninsula following a month's leave.

XVIII Airborne Corps attack in southwestern Iran makes slow progress. Many of the Soviet units are initially in disarray, caught strung out in passes in the Zagros Mountains, but quickly recover. The rough terrain limits the American forces' freedom of manuever.

CENTCOM releases most of the amphibious shipping needed for the Bandar Abbas landing. 5th Fleet retains the Belleau Wood group for use in the region.

In Nikolaev, Ukraine a ceremony is held to commission the Soviet Navy's latest missile cruiser, the Riga. The Slava-class cruiser immediately begins a voyage to Sevastopol, where the crew (a polygot assortment of draftees, retirees and survivors of ships sunk around the world) will begin completing the vessel (the ship was delivered without many items, including the main antiaircraft fire control radar) prior to commencing training voyages to forge the crew into a fighting team. The shipyard workers turrn towards completing construction of the next Slava-class ship, the Sevastopol, which is nearly 75 percent complete.

[Milano]

Thank you again Chico for doing this. It is SO cool. I like the forest fire.