On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[Homer]

Did the 55th SRW get some indicators of heightened risk It seems interesting they disperse just before escalation to nuclear weapons. Was chemical release a trigger

[chico20854]

July 8, 1997

Am Dangerous' joy at the reunion with her brother Dain turns to rage when she finally meets her brother. Dain is incoherent and barely able to move because of almost constant palsied convulsions. It later transpires that he had been overdosed with Thorazine, and other antipsychotic drugs to which he is unusually sensitive, during his brief stay in the sanatorium. Am tries to attack the doctor, but John Blackwood manages to restrain her.

Unofficially,

A high-level delegation from STAVKA flies to Byelorussia, delivering the news of nuclear release to Marshall Slepnev, commander of the Western TVD. Another delegation is dispatched to Chita in eastern Siberia, with instructions for Far Eastern TVD to use nuclear weapons to implement a wide-ranging effort to eliminate the Chinese Army in the field and destroy China's ability to resist.

American resistance on Shemya ends, with the Cobra Dane early warning radar going down in a cloud of smoke and dust as the Air Force security force destroys it to prevent the Soviets from gaining anything of intelligence value from it.

The Far Eastern TVD establishes the Aleutian Front to control the disparate military efforts at the eastern end of the USSR. The Front's 25th Corps commands the invasion of Alaska, while the 51st Army is coordinating the defense of the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin Island. 25th Corps establishes a logistical hub in Nome.

The 11th Airborne Division (less 3rd Brigade) is deployed by air to Eileson Air Force Base, Alaska and Ladd Army Airfield, Alaska, filling out the vehicle park with requisitioned civilian vehicles and trucks from the Air Force, and immediately entering action alongside other elements of X Corps, the headquarters newly arrived from Norway.

Private Randall Cutler's barracks candy sale business is busted when he is "ratted out" by a trainee in another platoon as well as by a member of his platoon chewing bubble gum during morning physical training. A search of his platoon's barracks reveals fourteen privates with candy or pornography in their lockers.

The 147th Field Artillery Brigade (South Dakota National Guard) is detached from 8th Army, assigned to reinforce South Korean troops battering their way into Pyongyang.

The austere airfield in the Karakum Desert in western China is complete, with a skeleton staff of 150 US Air Force Personnel. A series of KC-10 tanker aircraft begin flying in to the base, discharging thousands of gallons of aviation fuel in the base's fuel blivets.

In Germany several units, some recently arrived and others reconstructing after losses in Poland, are assigned to the newly arrived US XV Corps.

With nearly 90 percent of Polish territory liberated, the lead elements of the NATO forces reach the borders of the USSR. British and German troops batter back KGB border guards on the southern edge of the Kaliningrad oblast while V US Corps and VI German Korps units relieve the last of the fallschirmj$ger companies along the Bug.

To the south, Panzergruppe Oberdorf and VII US Corps press 1st Shock Armys T-90s back over the border into Ukraine west of Lvov. NATO airpower and ATACMS missiles are reaching deeper into Byelorussia and Ukraine, dismantling air defense sites, transportation hubs, airfields and communications facilities.

In the southeast, Soviet radio intelligence units locate the headquarters of the 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard) and direct a battalion of BM-27 rocket launchers to strike it with VX nerve gas. Unfortunately, the strike takes place during the commanders nightly staff meeting, and the brigade commander, his principal staff officers and both battalion commanders are killed. The units effectiveness and morale immediately deteriorate.

1st Brigade and the Division Support Command of the US 6th Infantry Division (Light) depart northern Norway for the Netherlands. The Norwegian 6th Division disperses its forces across northern Norway, providing a strong blocking force along the Soviet border, repairing damage and undertaking internal security patrols.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, attack an isolated Soviet signal site outside the city. In a predawn raid, they overrun the outpost of the 145th Signal Regiment, capturing several automatic weapons and disrupting communications throughout the 45th (my 32nd) Army.

Helicopters from the Jarvis and Juno sink the Soviet Victor II-class submarine K-514 75 nm off Mombassa, Kenya.

[chico20854]

July 9, 1997

A momentous day...

The Red Army begins to use tactical nuclear weapons to stop German troops from advancing farther onto Soviet territory.

Unofficially,

At dawn a Mi-17 helicopter of the Soviet 65th Independent Transport Helicopter Regiment takes off from a facility outside Rechytsa, Byelorussia and flows at low level to the first battalion of the 231st Cannon Artillery Brigade. After landing, a KGB detachment brings a single 3BV3 152mm round to a 2S5 self-propelled gun. With Lieutenant-General Valeriy Khomenko, commander of the 7th Tank Army, watching, the guns crew loads the round and takes cover before pulling the lanyard. The round is fired and lands slightly more than 15 kilometers away, near the headquarters of the 228th Panzergrenadier Regiment. It explodes with the force of 2500 tons of TNT, destroying the regiments headquarters, ending the NATO offensive across Poland and taking the war to a new, deadlier, tragic level.

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

Patrols of the Native Canadian Ranger Regiment are authorized to expand their area of operations west into Siberia, and a company-equivalent is ordered to patrol the Alaskan Arctic coast.

Soviet troops engage troops of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry, assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 47th Infantry Division, who are blocking passage up the Yukon River west of Galena, Alaska, site of an Air Force detachment. The Americans quickly call on the support of a flight of A-10s from the 18th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which scatter the Soviet hovercraft from the river. The proximity of Soviet troops forces the evacuation of the F-15s of detachment 1, 54th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

The fifteen members of Private Cutler's platoon caught with contraband are informed that they will be placed on extra duty for the remainder of their training cycle and that their overnight pass following graduation has been revoked. From lights out until 1 am the "dirty fifteen" are put to work scrubbing the walls and floors of their barracks.

In Ohio, the 221st Engineer Group (New York National Guard), assigned to assist civil authorities, completes conversion of the Wood County fairgrounds to a potential evacuation site. The work consisted of converting livestock barns to enclosed buildings with heating, winterizing utility lines and upgrading the restroom and cooking facilities. The group has nearly a dozen such projects underway, intended to rapidly create refugee housing for city dwellers.

F-16s of the 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing join Japanese F-15s in fending off a Soviet counter-attack that was attempting to strike at Misawa Air Base, a facility vital to the support of Operation Repo. The Soviets launched a coordinated air and missile strike, hitting the base with a pair of conventionally-armed SS-12 Scaleboard missiles and a submarine-launched SS-N-21 cruise missile. The air attack was less successful, the Soviets losing nine MiG-29s, 11 Su-24s and three MiG-27s. Three F-16s and two F-15s are lost in the action.

The American attack submarine Olympia enters the Arctic Ocean, having passed through the Bering Strait submerged.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's ZOMO riot police company is sent back on the line, this time defending the Towarowa train station, where a cat-and-mouse hunt for the enemy rages through the burned remains of hundreds of freight cars.

The 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard), its command staff gutted in a chemical strike the prior evening, is pulled from the lines, sent to Germany to rest and recover.

The remainder of the 6th Infantry Division (Light) begins to depart Norway.

In the Mediterranean, the American carriers John F Kennedy and America begin a series of anti-surface sweeps as intelligence indicates that the Greek and Italian navies are sortieing to push the Americans back.

Ashore in Turkey, the remanants of the NATO reinforcements delivered by the ill-fated convoy depart their marshalling areas, headed for the front facing their former Greek allies in Thrace. To the north, the Turkish 1st Army batters back a half-hearted attack by the Bulgarian Second Army.

A convoy containing the Australian 1st Brigade arrives in Bandar Abbas, Iran. The Australian unit will reinforce I MEF as it tries to break out of the Zagros Mountains into terrain more favorable to use of the brigade's tanks and APCs.

The damaged American frigate Bagley arrives in port in Mombassa, Kenya. A tug is dispatched to try to round up barges cast adrift from the sunken barge carrier Cape Farragut.

The Soviet Q-Ship (raider disguised as a freighter) in the Caribbean attacks the Kuwaiti-flag tanker Al-Tahreer, carrying a load of Venezuelan crude to the St. Croix refinery. The raider's guns set the massive ship ablaze and leave the area, with the crew adrift in lifeboats.

[JHart]

In the southeast, Soviet radio intelligence units locate the headquarters of the 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard) and direct a battalion of BM-27 rocket launchers to strike it with VX nerve gas. Unfortunately, the strike takes place during the commanders nightly staff meeting, and the brigade commander, his principal staff officers and both battalion commanders are killed. The units effectiveness and morale immediately deteriorate.

"F#@K IT, we're slinging nukes tomorrow comrades! What's a little nerve gas today!"

[chico20854]

July 10, 1997

The Red Army begins to use tactical nukes against the rapidly advancing Chinese troops. The first target in the theatre is Harbin, China, recaptured just days before and a vital transportation hub.

Unofficially,

NATO struggles to respond to the Soviet tactical nuclear strike outside Brest. It takes a number of hours for confirmation of the strike to be received and verified and word passed up the chain of command to the North Atlantic Council and President Tanner. The next 12 hours are spent in consultation, shocked discussions and near-hysteria. The American Joint Chiefs pass word down, requesting SACEUR's proposed response. Existing plans for use of tactical nuclear weapons are largely useless - to the extent they are even up to date. They call for corps-level "packages" of dozens of weapons to be delivered in a "pulse" lasting 12-24 hours, largely on locations where Soviet doctrine, as interpreted by NATO planners, would indicate are likely to harbor Soviet artillery units, logisitcs sites and headquarters. Most of the plans, developed pre-war, contemplate defensive use on West German territory, and in the months of advance across East Germany and Poland, have not been kept up by overworked staffs. Theater-level plans for use of deep strike assets (F-111s, Pershing missiles, Ground Launched Cruise Missiles and theater-tasked submarine launched ballistic missiles) are also out of date, since many of the targets are occupied by NATO troops. Tanner refuses to authorize the execution of any of these plans, requesting instead a "proportionate" response of a single weapon similar in yield to be delivered on a target equivalent to the German brigade headquarters destroyed yesterday. Hours pass while the directive is passed down and Tanner consults with the other NATO heads of state.

The Soviet nuclear strike is highly classified within the Warsaw Pact. Within the Western TVD, front commanders are aware of the development but not most of their staff and subordinate Army commanders. Far Eastern TVD commanders in Manchuria likewise unaware of developments in Europe, and other TVD commanders know about the strikes. The Soviet propaganda machine continues to crank out material about the revanchist German threat and that the warmongering Americans are liable to release nuclear hellfire down on the peace loving USSR, who for decades publicly declared that the USSR had a "no first use" policy.

Upon receipt of the first NUKEFLASH message reporting the Soviet use of nuclear weapons, the commander of Strategic Air Command, at his own initiative and following long-standing plans, orders the immediate launch of the alert bomber force. Within 15 minutes approximately one fifth of America's strategic bomber force is airborne, refuelling from accompanying tankers to enable them to reach their assigned Emergency War Order targets. All leave is cancelled and all SAC personnel are ordered to return to base immediately.

The Minnesota Regiment, a state guard unit, raises a third battalion as a paper formation, composed of state law enforcement officers (state police, game wardens, prison guards and park rangers), so that they could be legally considered to be members of the military.

C Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry at Fort Jackson completes its training cycle at Fort Jackson and the privates clean and turn in their weapons and gear. Private Randolph Cutler and his compatriots spend the evening scrubbing walls.

photo
Widespread panic accompanies the outbreak of nuclear warfare in Europe and China. Roads leaving cities in the US and Western Europe are jammed with cars fleeing potential targets. Churches are packed with the frightened faithful intent on making their peace with the Lord before the man-made holocaust takes them to meet their maker. Stores are stripped bare of preserved food; civilian guns and ammunition, camping gear and many first aid supplies have been sold out for months.

Patrol Missile Hydrofoil Squadron One, composed of the six Pegasus-class missile patrol boats and the tender President Taft, departs its home station of Key West, Florida and begins its transit to Rota Spain prior to finally (after months of inaction and discussion) be committed to action in the Mediterranean. The deployment is also an admission that America has more serious concerns than containing a possible threat from Cuba.

Following the prior day's Soviet use of nuclear weapons, HM Government fully implements Operation Peripheral, with senior members of the Royal Family and the Government dispersing to a number of secret locations throughout southern England and the 11 Regional Seats of Government fully manned.

Elsewhere along the front in Poland, NATO troops continue to advance as the momentum of operations and "fog of war" keep driving the Allied offensive forward. The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) reaches the Soviet border north of Przemyśl.

The independent brigades that had served under X Corps in Norway (the 103rd and 197th Field Artillery, 111th Air Defense and 111th Engineer) begin movement out of Northern Norway.

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The American carrier USS Saratoga, operating along the GIUK Gap in search of Soviet raiders breaking out into the North Atlantic, is damaged by a SS-N-19 cruise missile fired by the Soviet Oscar II-class SSGN K-410 after its escorts and close-in defenses defeated seven other missiles. It is forced to limp into the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for repairs.

A small convoy of ferries and freighters departs Stavanger, Norway, crossing the North Sea to Eemshaven, Netherlands with the vehicles and heavy equipment of the US 6th Infantry Division (Light). Overhead, five F-15Es of the 21st Tactical Fighter Squadron, the last of the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing's original 48, transit to Eindhoven, Netherlands to join the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing's mixed force of F-111s and F-15E strike aircraft.

Companies of the 71st Airborne Brigade held in reserve in Romania begin familiarization training with Jugoslav and Romanian AK-47 clones and PK and MG-42 light machineguns as the brigade command staff grows increasingly concerned with supply. The training will open the option to convert some units to small arms that America's Romanian and Jugoslav allies can provide support for.

I MEF and XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran make slow progress in Iran. Thanks to a series of small tankers and the benevolence of the Saudi government CENTCOM has no shortage of fuel, but ammunition, spare parts and replacement vehicles and troops are in short supply.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory completes discharge of deck cargo of telephone poles and begins unloading 8000 tons of bagged corn meal to the custody of Iran Nowin government, which dispenses it to local bakeries and 1st Iranian Army's logistics staff.

Eight A-7Ds of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, retracing the flight path of their replacement AT-33Es to Beeville NAS, Texas prior to deploying to Korea.

The Pakistani counter-attack south of Lahore is decisively defeated and the Indian Army crosses the Pakistani border in strength along nearly its entire length. Intense air battles rage overhead as masses of obsolescent fighters on both sides try to defeat each other and avoid the handfuls of modern aircraft (Pakistani F-16s and Indian MiG-29s) that appear from time to time.

[chico20854]

Still working on the NATO response... hope to get caught up tomorrow!

[chico20854]

July 11, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The North Atlantic Council (composed of NATO heads of state) approves a response to the Soviet nuclear strike at the end of a marathon session that concludes in the early morning hours. A single W82 155mm nuclear artillery shell is to be fired at a Soviet regimental headquarters in the Brest area. Intelligence assets (up to and including American photo reconnaissance satellites) are tasked with locating such a target while a heavily escorted C-130 cargo plane is loaded with the round in West Germany and it is flown forward to a firing battery. The effort comes together shortly before dusk when a M109A5 of the German 215th Panzer Artillery Battalion fires the round, hitting the 261st Tank Regiment's headquarters.

President Tanner orders SAC's airborne alert to be halted, fearing that the Soviets will interpret the mass of bombers loitering within minutes of Soviet airspace as an indication that the US intends a massive and immediate attack on the Soviet homeland and respond accordingly.

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

Private Cutler graduates basic training and is allowed four hours on post with his mother and girlfriend.

A wave of panic sweeps across the UK with many people fleeing the cities for the perceived safety of rural areas; throughout the country there is panic buying of food, bottled water, and other essential supplies.

A dozen Chinese H-6 bombers launch from Dingxin Air Base in the Gobi Desert, each loaded with a single 250 kt nuclear gravity bomb, headed for cities in Eastern Siberia and the Soviet Far East. Two bombers, flying independently, each head for Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Chita, Ulan Ude, Irkutsk and Kosmolosk-na-Amure. A GRU informant in the nearby town radios word of the mass takeoff and the 11th and 14th PVO Air Armies respond by placing their forces on the highest alert. Eleven of the Chinese bombers are intercepted and shot down, and one makes it's way to its target, the city of Ulan Ude. The bomber drops its munition on the junction of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railroads on the eastern edge of the city. Set for a ground burst, the fuze on the bomb fails to operate and the Soviets capture the munition intact from the 3-meter deep crater it causes on the edge of the railyard.

To counter the threat of Soviet missile submarines, which have largely dispersed from their home ports, the Joint Chiefs authorize Operation Profligate, the all-out hunt for Soviet boomers. Carrier and surface groups have their allocation of attack submarines cut to one each (if they still had one assigned) and all available attack submarines are tasked with seeking out Soviet boomers. The escort carriers are pulled from convoy duty; the USS Langley lands its remaining Harriers and is sent to the Norwegian Sea while the Franklin and a small escort force begin patrolling northwest of Hawaii, a known operating area for Soviet SSBNs.

The Luftwaffe 2nd Luftjaeger Regiment is relieved of convoy escort duties and ordered into the siege of Warsaw, where the units flak guns with their high elevation are invaluable in striking targets in the seemingly endless rows of concrete high-rise apartment buildings on the citys outskirts. The airmen perform well, although taking heavy casualties in the urban meat grinder.

West German polizie clear the vicinity of NATO nuclear weapon storage sites of civilians, using some of the recently recalled security troops to secure the areas from refugees from the battle zone, curious hikers and hunters and anyone without a legitimate reason to be in the area.

NATO troops all along the line in Poland, Byelorussia and Ukraine slow their advance as they adapt to a nuclear battlefield. Infantry begin to dig in deeper to take advantage of the protection offered by foxholes, artillery batteries increase their spacing between guns, logistics units harden their stockpiles and disperse their vehicles and gas masks, chemical protective garments and decontamination gear are dug out of rucksacks and readied for use.

STAVKA continues to feed additional units into the Western Front. The MVD's 16th Convoy Brigade in Lvov, which operates labor camps in the region as well as commanding a riot police battalion, is reinforced with more riot troops and prisoners on parole and assigned a sector facing German troops. The Lvov sector is further reinforced by two other MVD internal troop regiments, the 1st from Kiev and the 8th Training Regiment from Donetsk. In Byelorussia, the 1st Shock Army (from the Moscow area) is reinforced with the 65th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit formed from the Ryazan Military Automobile School. The division's antiquated T-10 tanks and ISU-152 assault guns are employed in defensive fighting, mostly fighting from hidden ambush positions.

The Japanese landing force in the Kuriles masses outside the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, the largest settlement on the island of Kunashir, where the surviving defenders from the 484th Machinegun-Artillery Regiment have gathered. Scattered Soviet stragglers are on the loose elsewhere on the island, but do not present a challenge to Japanese control of the island. The first Japanese air force C-130 transport lands at the airport 10 miles southwest of the village.

The Soviet nuclear assault on the Chinese People's Liberation Army continues. Twenty devices are used, hitting infantry columns advancing towards Soviet lines, bridges and river crossings and command posts. Soviet troops, which had been retreating before the masses of Chinese infantry, halt and begin to hold ground in preparation for a counterattack.

South Korean and American mechanized units begin sending probing patrols northward beyond Pyongyang as additional South Korean infantry units arrive to take over the reduction of the North Korean capital. In the east the last defenders of the city of Hamhung are blasted out of the ruins of a block of apartments by a joint force of American marines and South Korean soldiers.

Troops of I MEF's 1st Marine Division link up with soldiers of XVIII Airborne Corps' 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry (9th Infantry Division) in the town of Firuzaba. The link-up is made easier by the Army unit's use of LAV-25s, which the marines recognize as friendly.

Workers in the shipyard in Leningrad finally are able to begin cutting away sections of steel plate from the hulk of the incomplete battlecruiser Rossiya for transfer to Nikolaev, where the plate will be used to repair the helicopter carrier Leningrad. In Nikolaev, while awaiting the plate's arrival, shipyard workers (diverted from working on the USSR's second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Orel) have put Leningrad's turbines back together (one was successfully replaced, the other was reinstalled despite being worn out), replaced one of the ship's diesel generators and reinstalled the SA-N-3 missile launchers. They also closed up the ship's sonar dome following removal of the obsolescent original system, forgoing the planned upgrade to a more modern model.

A salvage tug arrives at the burning Kuwaiti tanker Al-Tahreer in the Caribbean, but is unable to take her under tow. A HU-25 Falcon of squadron VOJ-202 overflies the Soviet Q-ship. When the radioed answers to the Coast Guard aircraft's queries seem overly suspicious the plane calls for a surface ship to conduct a boarding.

[chico20854]

July 12, 1997

The siege of Shiraz is broken (unofficially) when the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines drive back the motor-riflemen of the 406th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, 71st Motor-Rifle Division from its positions closing the road into the city. The Marines are supported by strikes from A-4 Skyhawks of VMA-131.

Unofficially,

The GRU orders all surviving Spetsnaz units in NATO countries to make an all-out effort to attack NATO nuclear weapons storage sites. Likewise, the KGB activates its surviving agent networks and "associated organizations" (such as elements of the Irish IRA, the Dutch Red Army, the Japanese Red Army, the Red Army Faction in Germany, etc.) to disrupt the NATO deployment of nuclear weapons. Largely unprompted, the peace movement in Western Europe and North America leap into action, with protests in cities, on university campuses (although most schools are not in session) and outside military bases. The latter category of protests are broken up by civilian and military police, who will brook no disruption to the war effort.

Lech Walesa, president of the Free Polish Government, makes an urgent request to President Tanner that his government be consulted prior to use of nuclear weapons in the territory it has claimed. He explains that this is to prevent the destruction of locations and items that are of importance to Polish culture, and explains that his representatives are willing to provide locations of such sites so that "no nuke" zones can be established around them. Tanner agrees to consider the idea, but does so more to humor Walesa than to give it serious consideration, assured by CIA analysts that the Free Polish government is riddled with Warsaw Pact spies and any such zones would, if established, be used as safe havens for enemy units.

Soviet propaganda trumpets the news of the prior day's NATO nuclear use to all. Warsaw Pact media goes into overdrive, declaring that the Germans and Americans are brutal barbarians that have, in their desperation to salvage a victory from their inevitable defeat at the hands of the glorious Red Army, once again unleashed nuclear warfare on the peace-loving people of the world. (The fact that the USSR was the first to use a nuclear weapon is conveniently not brought up, and in the former USSR and Warsaw Pact states the population believed that NATO fired the first nuclear shot for many decades after the war.)

Private Randall Cutler and many of the other graduates of his basic training company board school busses for the trip a mile and a half down the road to his advanced individual training course, where they will be trained as light wheeled vehicle mechanics. They spend the afternoon doing paperwork and being introduced to their new drill sergeant.

The last of the SAC airborne bombers lands and begins recovery (post-flight maintenance, refueling, securing the weapons and debriefing the crew) before being turned around to return to alert status. SAC training units (the 329th Combat Crew Training Squadron and the 330th Combat Flight Instructor Squadron) stand down from their alert status and resume training flights, although non-essential flights in other SAC units are still grounded.

Massive protests surround RAF Greenham Common and other military bases in the UK. Demonstrators demand the immediate removal of American nuclear weapons from British territory and withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland in order to avert a nuclear war.

The Chinese retaliation for the Soviet nuclear strikes continues, with a massed launch of IRBMs on a variety of Soviet cities and military facilities. The attacks on population centers are defeated by an active and efficient ABM system (composed of handfuls of upgraded SA-5, SA-10 and SA-12 missile systems), but the naval bases of Vladivostok, Mys Shmidta, and Fokino are very heavily damaged.

Soviet forces continue the savage devastation of the Chinese military, with another 24 strikes on command posts, mechanized formations halted to refuel and masses of Chinese troops. Morale in the Chinese force begins to plummet and desertion becomes rampant; Chinese commanders need to keep their units together where the few experienced NCOs and officers can monitor the masses of near-panicked recruits, but to gather them in such a manner invites a Soviet nuclear strike.

Eight A-7Ds depart Travis AFB, California en route to Korea via Hawaii and Okinawa. They are accompanied by a pair of KC-767 tankers of the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron (Hawaii Air National Guard).

The Soviet response to the NATO nuclear attack on the 37th Guards Tank Division is swift, with another nuclear artillery strike on a NATO unit. This time the target is the American 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), which has advanced to within 30 km of Lvov, Ukraine.

British troops clash with the paratroops of the 44th Guards Air Assault Division along the Polish-Lithuanian border. To the west, the German VII Korps crosses the border into Kaliningrad, facing the partially rebuilt 3rd Shock Army, while III German Korps continues its assault on Gdansk.

The battleship Iowa, set afire and without power after a Polish kamikaze strike, drifts into a minefield in the Danish straits and detonates a US-made Mk 52 mine, with 625 pounds of explosive, further adding to the ship's peril.

The day sees the first use of tactical nuclear weapons in the northern theatre, when a FROG-7 rocket from the 116th Motor-Rifle Division is used to blast a Norwegian defensive position along the Pasvik River, which forms the Soviet-Norwegian border.

In Romania, the Soviet 14th Guards Army resumes its offensive westward along the Danube plain. The lead 59th Guards Motor-Rifle Division advances 10 km in the first 24 hours, closing in on the oil center of Ploesti. The Army's commanders are told that they are to take the utmost care to avoid damage to the petroleum infrastructure, and that they will be held personally responsible for any damage done by their units.

In the Caribbean, the burning Kuwaiti tanker Al-Tahreer sinks under the stress of a hull weakened by days of fire. A Dutch patrol boat, dispatched from St. Maarten to investigate the suspicious freighter, is fired upon when it approaches what is in fact a Soviet raider. It calls for help, and within 30 minutes an aircraft from VOJ-202 has the raider under radar observation. It remains safely out of range of the raider's weapons for the four hours it takes for a strike from the Lexington to be organized, launched and arrive at the scene. The American trainers and light attack aircraft come in on the deck, rocketing, strafing and bombing the Soviet craft. It sinks shortly thereafter.

[chico20854]

July 13, 1997

The deployment of the 46th Infantry Division to Europe, delayed due to shipping shortages until this time, is further delayed by the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

The drug charges against Dain Dangerous are dropped.

Unofficially,

General Secretary Sauronski refuses to take President Tanner's call.

Hyped up over the (almost entirely imaginary) threat from "Marxist infiltrators from Mexico", the Texas civilian militias along the border begin more aggressive patrolling.

A second day of protests outside RAF Greenham Common. Demonstrators block all entrances to the base, hindering the resupply of cruise missile flights that are dispersed throughout the countryside.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team returns to three GLCM launch sites in Berkshire that they had located in February, establishing a hidden observation post monitoring each. To their east, another Spetsnaz team launches an attack on the weapons storage area at RAF Upper Heyford, initiated with a truck bomb to blast through the perimeter fences. The attack is repulsed when the WSA's guard force ties down the Soviet sabateurs long enough for a pair of Peacekeeper Armored Cars from the 620th Security Police Squadron to arrive. One of the armored cars is destroyed by a RPG-18, but the other is able to employ its machineguns to pin down the attackers while more reinforcements arrive. Two commandos surrender, while the rest of the team is wiped out.

Far Eastern TVD retaliates against China for the nuclear attacks on Vladivostok and other naval bases. SS-20 mobile IRBMs from the 53rd Missile Army strike the PLA Navy's sole boomer base at Jianggezhuang, the Jiuquan and Xichang Satellite Launch Centers, the entrance to the Yuquanshan Mountain underground command center and the headquarters of the PLA's ICBM brigades. (There are hundreds of launch sites and dozens of underground missile and warhead storage facilities, too many for the Soviets to hit).

Internally displaced persons (mostly refugees from the fall and winter's fighting in East Germany and along the Czech border) begin moving away from locations that might be targets for Soviet nuclear weapons - air bases, the Mainz Army Depot, fixed military headquarters (even though the commands based there moved to alternative and field sites long ago), munitions plants and air defense sites, joined by some locals who, despite living near such targets for many years, decide that the risk is no longer worth it. The flow of people inhibits military traffic in West Germany, especially the trickle of units into Bavaria to resist the oncoming Italian-Pact force.

Italian troops advancing from the south link up with troops of the Hungarian 25th "Klapka Gyrgy" Tank Brigade on the outskirts of Graz, Austria. The Austian government, from its wartime command post in St Johann im Pongau, calls for assistance from NATO to halt the Warsaw Pact onslaught.

The battle for Warsaw continues as the British 107th Infantry Brigade pushes south in intense fighting and the American 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) launches an attack out of the ruins of the international airport. Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are still locked in fierce combat in the Towarowa train station - they have captured and been driven out of a signal shed three times over the prior week, losing 40 men in the process.

NATO Air Forces on the Central Front drop the first nuclear bomb of the war, striking a SS-21 missile battery of the 458th Missile Brigade with a .5 kiloton B-61 bomb as it prepared to launch.

NATO forces in Northern Norway respond to the prior day's Soviet nuclear attack on the Norwegian-Soviet border. A F-16 from the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing drops a 60 kt B-61 bomb on the Kola Highway's Litsa River crossing.

The Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine building orders truck manufacturing plants (as well as a wide variety of other factories supporting the war effort) to implement industrial civil defense measures. Some manufacturing is moved to underground facilities and workers and their families are dispersed to a number of associated facilities, including resorts and rest camps, usually located within 100 km of the plant. During peacetime these provided recreation and vacation opportunities for workers; in wartime they serve as housing for employees and their families. The workers commute daily via train to the plant; if the plant is struck the workers on duty will potentially be lost but the off-duty workers and families will be safely outside the blast zone.

US Navy ship repair experts arrive in Mombassa, Kenya to evaluate the condition of the frigate Bagley.

The USS Independence battle group, in the Arabian Sea, resumes attacks on the isolated Soviet airborne force in Chah Bahar.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) shifts north as the 45th (my 32nd) Army begins a rapid retreat from the Shiraz area, pursued by the American 1st Marine Division, reinforced with the Australian 1st Brigade.

The final six A-7s of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, also returning to Texas for redeployment overseas.

[chico20854]

July 14, 1997

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The Jugoslav 5th Army launches an attack against northeast Italy in an attempt to support its NATO Allies (and recapture territory lost earlier in the century).

The Native Canadian Ranger Regiment enters combat, providing invaluable aid to the beleaguered American 47th Infantry Divisision. (Unofficially,) Nevertheless, the Soviet 25th Corps continues to make progress as it advances eastward. During the brief twilight, Soviet transports drop the lead regiment of the 13th Guards Airborne Division (the 115th Guards) on the western coast of the Kenai Peninsula, threatening the seaward approaches to Anchorage. The detachments of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic) in the area immediately respond, but they are overwhelmed by the veteran Soviet paratroops.

Unofficially,

Violence breaks out on the edges of protests outside RAF Greenham Common, with fires and scuffles with police. USAF commanders dispatch helicopters and truck convoys from other bases to sustain dispersed missile launch units, while Territorial Army units deploy to the countryside to try to secure GLCM operating areas.

Eight A-7Ds arrive at Kimhae Air Base in Korea, bringing the 127th Tactical Fighter Wing (Michigan Air National Guard) back up to full strength. The aircraft had been serving in Panama before being transferred to Korea.

The Soviet nuclear attacks on China continue, with strategic bombers following up on targets that surived the previous day's attacks as well as artillery and SSM-delivered strikes on troop concentrations.

The Chinese Army high command commits sixteen infantry divisions, many still in the process of forming, to the front and others from the strategic reserve.

The Soviet 28th Army in Vietnam begins an offensive into southern China, blasting Chinese border defenses with a trio of nuclear rounds to allow it to advance northeast along the rail line and road to Nanning.

NATO militaries on the continent scramble to secure their rear areas in the face of increased Soviet special operations and terrorist attacks. The Luftwaffe requests the return of security units serving in Poland, which is refused (some are deeply engaged in the battle for Warsaw while others are fighting the same sort of partisan and special operations battles), being offered territorial security units (many of which are assigned to guard empty depots and assembly areas that have been vacant for months) to help push the security perimeters of air bases farther away from the security fences. Anti-terrorist units (GSG-9 in Germany, the SAS in the UK and the Dutch Royal Marines) intensify their operations, striking suspected hideouts even though the intelligence leading to them may not withstand future legal scrutiny.

NATO troops at the front are forced to adjust to another aspect of tactical nuclear warfare - the near dissapearance of nearly all tactical air support as CENTAF concentrates on the ability to wage a tactical nuclear war. All nuclear-assigned units (over half of the fighter-bombers) cease conventional sorties, instead generating the maximum number of possible nuclear-armed aircraft from their depleted and battered fleets. Non-nuclear fighters are tasked to support tactical nuclear strikes, flying escort missions, suppressing Pact air defenses, flying diversionary sorties or carrying camera pods for post-strike analysis or locating targets. Tanker resources are cut back dramatically, held for support of SAC bombers or nuclear strikes. The nuclear-tasked fighter-bomber and attack fleets are dispersed to other NATO airbases (in the UK, RAF Sculthorpe, Lakenheath, Fairford, Mildenhall, Weathersfeld, St. Mawgan and Machihanish all host nuclear-armed American aircraft), and nuclear depth charges are issued to American P-3 and British Nimrod patrol planes.

Lead elements of the Italian 4th Alpini Army Corps begin the second phase of their offensive, advancing north out of Innsbruk and reaching the German border by nightfall.

The Indo-Pakistani war continues as Indian infantry batter their way through deep Pakistani defense lines. The Pakistani Army has long prepared for another Indian attack, fortifying the banks of the irrigation canals along the border and laying minefields that are over a mile deep along most of the front. Urged on by jingoistic politicians, Indian commanders resort to techniques last seen in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, sending masses of poorly trained infantry under artillery cover to cross the obstacle belt in hopes of reaching the enemy trenches. The casaulties are equally horrendous as those suffered in the 1980s as the Pakistanis' pillboxes offer sufficient protection from artillery for machinegunners to mow down attackers, and the few locations where Indian troops capture Pakistani positions are quickly recaptured by mechanized reaction forces.

[chico20854]

July 15, 1997

The Federal government begins to implement the preliminary steps towards city evacuation plans in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship New Orleans Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

President Tanner authorizes SAC to implement it's command-wide dispersal plan, spreading bombers and tankers to over a dozen other bases (mostly USAF but a handful of Army and Navy installations), making it more difficult for the USSR to destroy a significant portion of America's bomber force on the ground.

In the final major Soviet airborne attack of the war, the 13th Guards' 301st Guards Airborne Regiment is dropped at the base of the Kenai Peninsula, isolating the area and placing Soviet forces only 50 miles from Anchorage. American fighter planes from Elmendorf AFB tear through the Soviet transport fleet (already much depleted from costly landings from Norway to Iran) as it turns for home.

A massive show of police force occurs outside RAF Greenham Common. While civil and MoD police clear protestors from gates onto the base, RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police patrol the perimeter, apprehending a handful of protestors who cross the fence onto the base.

In Operation Wonton, F-111s of 27th Tactical Fighter Wing attack the major railyards near Kimchaek, North Korean, delaying North Korean reinforcements and hitting NKPA positions near Kimchaek, North Korea in preparation for a USMC amphibious landing.

On the Kuriles, Soviet resistance on Kunashir has collapsed, but the remainder of the 18th Machinegun-Artillery Division on the adjacent island of Iturup launch a fierce (non-nuclear) counterattack against the Japanese landing force. US and Japanese aircraft hammer the remaining radar and SAM umbrella emplacements on and near the island, while heavy rainfall prevents close air support.

The leader of the Dutch Red Army, Bert Kroner, is killed in an early morning raid by marines of the Special Assistance Unit.

Along the front, as both armies engage in more nuclear attacks, a struggle of reconnaissance begins. Political leaders on both sides demand useful employment of the relatively low-yield weapons. Due to those weapon's nature, accurate targeting is vital - a 1 kt warhead is lethal against tanks within 90 meters; smaller artillery-fired rounds with yields below .25 kt even shorter distances. Yet both sides' reconnaissance assets have been depleted by the months of combat across East Germany and Poland. Human intelligence - special forces, long-range infiltration teams, friendly partisans - provide invaluable eyes-on location information, but are reliant on secure communications and have to be able to evacuate the target area before the strike. NATO deep-look assets (satellite, JSTARS and TR-1 electronic surveillance aircraft as well as tactical intelligence platforms such as the EH-60) have been worn down by the months of constant operation, but are more numerous than the Soviet ELINT fleet, which has been savaged. The Soviets enjoy an advantage in humint, with millions of loyal communists in Poland and NATO unable to conceal their operations from the local civilian population and with insufficient troops to hunt for hidden radio transmitters. The Soviets are also able to exploit the passive portion of their vast radio-electronic force (their active jammers and spoofing assets having been destroyed months earlier), using radio direction-finding to locate NATO units behind the lines. Both sides, however, face the challenge of identifying targets from the flow of electronic data - is a transmission from an artillery fire direction center or a field hospital is the unit that set up in the woods a headquarters or a maintenance unit The challenge of locating and identifying targets, transmitting that information to a headquarters (in an environment with disruptions to electronic communications due to EMP), making a decision to strike it, deploying a weapon to a firing unit and having the round fired before the target has moved to another location is quite formidable, and in the first week of the nuclear exchange it proves nearly insurmountable.

In this environment, conventional operations still prove effective, as demonstrated when the British 4th Armoured Division masses its tanks against the 44th Guards Airborne Division, driving the paratroops back from Kapsukas, Lithuania and cutting the Minsk-Kaliningrad rail line.

Italian troops cross into southern Germany, capturing the German alpine resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, peacetime headquarters of the Bundeswehr 1st Gebirsjaeger Division, fighting for Torun, Poland at this time.

The evacuation of the four German fallschirjaeger brigades, battered in drops along the Soviet border, is halted. The need for infantry is so high, and the threat of infiltrators so high, that the elite paratroops are assigned to augment the jaeger battalions of German panzer and panzergrenadier divisions, one battalion assigned to each heavy brigade, ostensibly assigned to secure rear areas and rough terrain while the 9th Luftlande Artillery Battalion is sent to add to the artillery park outside Warsaw, where its 105mm howitzers add little to the overall effort.

The lead elements of the 10th Mountain Division depart Norway in a priority airlift to Germany as SACEUR demands experienced mountain troops to fight the Italian troops descending from the Alps.

Detachment 1, 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys six of its remaining F-111Fs to Moron Air Base, Spain from RAF Lakenheath.

The Turkish Army activates three armored brigades (the 20th at Burdur, the 95th at Etimesgut, Ankara and the 172nd at Şereflikohisar) to try to stop the rapidly evolving Pact offensive in Bulgaria. The brigades combine newly arrived American M-60A4 tanks with a mix of recalled reservists (many in their 30s) and partially trained recruits, led by NCOs and officers recovering from wounds and others culled from training and headquarters establishments.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) in Iran is shifted north and west, following the linkup with US Marines and IPA troops outside Shiraz. The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) Army begins withdrawing from the area around Shiraz as the IPA 3rd Armored Division launches an attack on the Soviet lines outside the city.

[chico20854]

July 16, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day!

Strategic Air Command units begin their dispersals. Among the movements are the 1st ACCS deploys to its dispersal site of Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ; 2nd ACCS deploys to Clinton County Airport, Ohio and detachment of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron moves to McChord AFB, Washington. Each of the detachments include security, support and maintenance teams; whether there are nuclear weapons stored at facilities on those bases is highly classified (although most do not have adequate secure sites for them).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency orders its Special Materials Program to complete stocking and sealing of strategic reserve stockpiles across the nation. Preliminary city evacuation plan implementation is expanded to the Pacific Northwest and the Washington, DC area.

Protests continue at RAF Greenham Common in response to the prior day's police show of force. Additional thousands of people arrive, all demanding withdrawal of American nuclear weapons that are making the UK a target.

A Spetsnaz team attacks the American communications facility at High Wycombe, which plays a key role in maintaining communications with NATO nuclear assets.

The USS Midway battle group, hunting raiders in the South Pacific, is ordered north at flank speed to reinforce the war effort in Alaska.

NATO responds to the dual Soviet strikes on the 14th with two attacks, a W79 "neutron bomb" fired by a M110 eight-inch howitzer of the American 41st Field Artillery Brigade at 5th Guards Tank Armys 306th Cannon Artillery Brigade and a Lance missiles fired by the Geman ArtillerieKommando 2 at an ammunition dump that is supplying 2nd Guards Tank Army.

Civilian contractors complete the rail line to Gora Kalwaria south of Warsaw and connect it to the bridge across the Wisla. The line is able to support much of the needs of Operational Group Warsaw and the German First Army, but further progress drops off quickly as workers quit and head west lest they become targets for a Soviet warhead.

Soviet air defense troops fire a SA-5 anti-aircraft missile with a 25 kt warhead at an American SR-71 reconnaissance plane approaching the Soviet border at high speed and 75,000 feet, downing the aircraft. It is the first SR-71 combat loss in over 28 years of operations.

Patrol Missile Hydrofoil Squadron One arrives in Gibraltar, completing its transatlantic transit. It requires a few days in port before commencing operations.

The Jugoslav attack into Italy has cut off land access to Trieste as mechanized troops of the 14th Corps reach the outskirts of Udine.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan blow up a car bomb outside local KGB headquarters, killing 13 border guards and disrupting operations for days.

While sailing southwest of Puerto Rico, the aged aircraft carrier Lexington suffers an engineering casualty and lays motionless in the water. She is soon taken under tow by one of her escorts, the destroyer John Hancock.

[chico20854]

July 17, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

The trial of the members of the Boston Megapunk band Terminal Illness related to the July 4 riot begins despite the defense's requests for more time to review the evidence, interview witnesses and otherwise prepare a coherent defense.

A female lieutenant colonel at Fort Monroe, Virginia, comes forward alleging that she was forced into a physical relationship by the (former) commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, who was relieved of command in June after multiple scandals.

Given the deteriorating situation in Europe, the decision is made to immediately deploy the 5th Marine Division, regardless of its training status.

The Army takes a different approach, dispatching individual squads and platoons from the 46th Infantry Division to Europe as replacements, to be "plugged in" to units at the front.

In the early morning hours, three protestors climb the fence onto RAF Greenham Common. They are intercepted by a USAF Peacekeeper armored car of the 501st Security Police Squadron; a jittery young airman opens fire with the turret-mounted twin MAG machineguns, killing two of the three and wounding the last protestor. By noon thousands of protestors are at the base's main gate, firing fireworks and lobbing molotov cocktails. RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police open fire as the crowd is on the verge of overrunning the gate. By sundown over twenty protestors are dead.

Mobile elements of the 18th Machinegun-Artillery Division on Iturup in the Kuriles (the mobile battalion of the 650th Regiment and the T-72s of the 110th Independent Tank Battalion) launch another counterattack on the Japanese troops, who have the garrison town and island's "capital" of Kurilsk surrounded. The T-72s succeed in breaking through the Japanese lines, but do so without their supporting infantry and are soon hunted down individually and defeated in detail.

The Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-33 sinks the small American freighter Sunmar Sky in the Aleutians as it approached the port of Dutch Harbor. The sinking of the ship within sight of the town is sufficient to scare shipping companies from dispatching any further vessels to the islands, forcing the support of the population and the 172nd Infantry Brigade to come by air and military shipping.

The Dutch Red Army announces a new leader, his deputy Jacob Ketelaar.

The first Danish reinforcements (from the 2nd Jutland Regimental Combat Team) arrive at the front in Bavaria; their deployment had been delayed by a shortage of transportation assets. The Danes are thrown into action immediately, clashing with Italian troops of the Tridentina Alpine Brigade 50 km southwest of Munich. To their east, German territorial troops are ejected from the German garrison outside Bad Tolz, but the the Italian troops are halted by fierce resistance a few miles north when they attempt to overrun the peacetime headquarters of 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group. The rear detachment, mostly composed of administrative troops with a handful of Green Berets, manages to hold two battalions of Alpini at bay for 12 hours before being driven out of the flaming ruins of Flint Kaserne.

The Soviets fire two more tactical nuclear rounds at NATO troops in Ukraine, halting the advance towards Lvov.

The 101st Air Assault Division begins a series of air assaults into the Zagros mountains. 1st Brigade captures the town of Lordegan.

US Navy experts declare that the damage to the frigate Bagley is so severe that it cannot be repaired in any shipyard in the region and that there is great risk in towing the ship back to the US for repair.

As the Lexington is under tow to the nearest drydock able to take her (at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico), orders are received to instead take her to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be easier to transport repair parts to a shipyard. The carrier's helicopters and what fixed-wing aircraft that can make it off the deck without catapults and wind over the deck take off, landing at Roosevelt Roads before returning to the East Coast for reassignment pending Lady Lex's return to service.

[chico20854]

July 18, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler learns that AIT is vastly different from basic training when the senior platoon in his company is granted an overnight pass, starting at the end of the training day on Saturday. The lone drill sergeant on duty in the company area is indifferent to whether the junior privates are in uniform or civilian clothes, fornicating or not, let alone drinking sodas and eating candy. Cutler's dream of a barracks business empire collapses without an environment of scarcity to drive demand.

The 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment is formed at Fort Bliss, Texas, taking in some of the rear detachment troops of the 3rd ACR, which deployed from the base in the fall. The regiment begins filling up with graduates of the base's basic training battalions and replacements from throughout the continental US. Equipment is scarce, with a single cavalry troop of Cadillac-Gage Stingray light tanks and two battalions of M113 APCs. The regiment's air defense battery is brought to full strenth nearly instantaneously, however, by raiding the base's Air Defense Center and School for excess soldiers and equipment.

In the predawn hours a force of police and military units overrun the "Peace Camp" outside RAF Greenham Common. Hundreds of protestors are arrested, carried off in busses, as the government declares the area within one kilometer of the base a restricted area. A notable development is that over 75 percent of the civilian police are armed with firearms.

The US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches another amphibious attack on the east coast of North Korea. Alongside South Korean marines of the 6th Marine Brigade, they land outside the industrial and port city of Kimchaek, defended by a mix of Patriotic Red Guards and remnants of several North Korean Army divisions. The heavy cruiser Des Moines provides heavy fire support, and aircraft from the carriers Nimitz and Abraham Lincoln fly overhead, clashing nearly continuously with the remnants of the Soviet 23rd Air Defense Corps from Vladivostok, a little over 200 miles to the northeast.

The American battleship Wisconsin and her surface action group locate a Soviet reinforcement convoy headed to Alaska and promptly engages it. The result is a bloodbath for the Soviets, as the few escorts (mostly aged corvettes and frigates) are quickly dispatched with anti-ship missiles fired by the American ships and their helicopters, leaving the transports at the mercy of the group's guns. The Soviet convoy scatters into the fog and Aleutian islands, but each ship is eventually located by the battlewagon's helicopters or supporting aircraft (from VP-90 near Anchorage and 407 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force from CFB Comox) and dealt with.

Jacob Ketelaar, the new leader of the Dutch Red Army, is killed by Dutch marines in a predawn raid. His term as leader lasted nearly 19 hours.

British troops fire their first tactical nuclear round, hitting a forming mass of Soviet artillery in Lithuania as the NATO forces along the Polish-Lithuanian border struggle to maintain control of the territory they have captured in the past weeks.

In Warsaw, Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are pulled from the front line, assigned to guard a food stockpile in the basement of the Czapski Palace. The light duty allows him and his exhausted and depleted command to rest and absorb new members, staff from the Ministry of Interior staff who have been shanghied into the fight.

Italian troops in Bavaria continue their advance towards Munich, overrunning the BND (West German intelligence agency) ELINT station at Alpina. To their east, Czech and Soviet troops blast their way through the second of Austria's blocking positions between Vienna and the German frontier, west of St. Polten.

The destroyer Coontz, damaged in the second Teriberka withdrawal and by Spetsnaz attack in drydock in Philadelphia, returns to sea. Its place in the drydock is taken by the damaged carrier Saratoga.

The 101st's assaults in Iran continue with a dawn landing at Sharh-e-Kord, on the eastern edge of the Zagros Mountains. By sunset the town's airport is being improved by American combat engineers to enable it to support the division's helicopters. The Soviet 1st (my 9th) Army opposing them splits, with the 147th Motor-Rifle Division falling back to the east to defend Esfahan and the rest of the Army moving north.

[chico20854]

More tomorrow....