On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

March 17, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

In Texas, the 3rd Texas Regiment is engaged in large-scale skirmishing with Mexican gangs inside five refugee camps in the area between Del Rio and Eagle Pass. The guardsmen (mainly former cadets at Texas A&M University) adopt a strategy of surrounding the camps, cutting off supplies of food, water and electricity while carefully screening any of the civilians that attempt to leave the cordon.

President Munson begins issuing orders to the Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Housing, individuals that were killed in the attack on Washington in November; his staff gently try to direct him but he only grows enraged with their "insubordination".

The Canadian naval task force (three destroyers and two patrol craft) proceeds northwest across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, hoping that the Quebecois navy remains in harbor. 880 Squadron, the CP-121 Tracker squadron operating from Prince Edward Island, cannot launch a sortie today to verify the enemy position. The task force sights several small fishing craft but cannot identify them or determine if they are relaying news of the sighting to rebel authorities.

The command of the Western TVD, or what remains of it, succeeds in dispatching the first trainload of supplies to the front using the new route through Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria, following several days of manually transloading the cargo of ammunition (a mix of new-production from the few remaining operable factories and Second World War-vintage artillery, small arms and mortar ammunition of questionable reliablity), foodstuffs and an oddball collection of old armored vehicles and civilian trucks scraped up from all over the western USSR. While Western TVD would prefer the cargo go to the battered units in Poland, the efforts to restore rail links across the Carpathians between Poland and Czechoslovakia have not yet borne fruit.

After weeks of delay and frustration, the resupply convoy from Hampton Roads to AFRICOM departs. Besides the 30th Marines and a contingent of A-37 light attack aircraft, the fleet contains a small amount of fuel, supplies, spares and munitions.

The replica USS Constitution departs Cape Horn with 15 tons of electronic parts for Portugal and machinery for Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

[chico20854]

March 18, 1998

Facing dwindling stocks of fuel and fuel at the Alternate Miltiary Command Center at Raven Rock, Maryland, the remaining Joint Chiefs decides to relocate to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the assets of the US Air Force Academy, Fort Carson and NORAD headquarters can be used to sustain continued operations. They do not inform President Munson, at another bunker in central Virginia, of their decision.

Unofficially,

The Canadian Naval task force in the St. Lawrence is slowed by an engineering failure of the aged frigate Margaree, which costs the task force a day's transit.

With it looking increasingly unlikely that the supply of fuel in Europe will be sufficient to support operations of the remaining USAF Europe force structure, an inter-theater transfer of excess units is organized. Reflecting the biases of the pre-war active duty leadership, the departing units are Air National Guard and USAF Reserve - the 183rd Tactical Fighter Wing (Illinois National Guard), which is transferred to the CENTCOM area of operations, the 125th Tactical Fighter Squadron (Oklahoma Air National Guard), transferred to AFRICOM from Turkey along with the 169th Tactical Air Support Squadron (Illinois National Guard) from East Germany and the 180th Tactical Airlift Squadron (Missouri National Guard), whose C-130s have been under threat from the chaos of the Dead Zone outside the wire surrounding their base at Weisbaden Army Airfield. The entire evolution is supported by the tankers of the 134th Air Refuelling Wing (Tennesse and New York Air National Guards), which has been resupplied with fuel by a small tanker dispatched to its operating base Lajes in the Azores.

After three days of attacks on the outpost in the Carpathians, the division commander of the 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division sends a reinforcement column tobreak the siege. The column, composed of a (reduced) motor-rifle company mounted in BTR-80s, a platoon of four T-86 tanks and a pair of ZSU-23-4 air defense vehicles escorting a dozen supply and fuel trucks, is ambushed by the Romanian attack force's rear guard, who were emplaced along the mountainous road leading to the Soviet outpost to deal with just such an eventuality. Using RPGs, mines and AT-4 ATGMs scavenged from last year's battlefields the Romanians knock out the Soviet tanks and anti-arcraft vehicles before raking thte column with machinegun fire. The surrounded motor-riflemen fight valiantly, but they are sitting ducks in the remote canyon and soon are overwhelmed.

In the Far East, the Hungarian 53rd Mechanized Rifle Brigade's transit around Lake Baikal is blocked by a tunnel destroyed by an American nuclear strike, stranding it on a remote hillside above Lake Baikal.

[chico20854]

March 19, 1998

In Djibouti, the French and Djibouti forces, already pushed to the limit dealing with Somali and Ethiopian marauders and Afar rebels, are overwhelmed with tens of thousands of desperate refugees as the Republic of Somaliland collapses due to a plague outbreak killing almost half its population.

Unofficcially,

At Fort Ritchie, Maryland, the support base of the Raven Rock "backup Pentagon", the garrison marshalls all available vehicles and fuel for the evacuation of the Joint Chiefs. The vast majority of the trip to Colorado will be conducted by rail, loading at the mostly intact Frederick, Maryland railroad station. To get there, however, the Joint Chiefs and staff will have to traverse the blast and fallout zone of the nuclear strikes on Camp David and Fort Deitrich; fortunately radiation levels have dropped in the intervening months.

The Battle of St. Lawrence Gulf rages in that body of water as the Royal Canadian Navy closes in on the ragtag Quebecois fleet. The Canadian task force receives the support of 880 Squadron, RCAF with a sortie of two CP-121 Tracker maritime scout aircraft, which confirm that the main body of the rebel force remains at anchor at Sept-Zles, with a few picket boats to prevent total surprise. The Trackers sink two of the picket boats with rocket fire before turning back, but the boats manage to get word out before going under. The RCN task force closes on the town and its harbor, subjecting it to sustained gunfire. (The Canadians are out of surface-to-surface missiles). The Margaree, the Canadian frigate that suffered an engineering casaulty the day before, continues its streak of misfortune when it is caught by an improvised Quebbecois command-detonated mine which rips its stern off. The remainder of the Canadian task force stands off from the harbor, as the Quebecois fleet refuses to sortie, bombarding it from medium range with gunfire and engaging in a duel with a battery of 105mm howitzers hidden among thhe town's buildings. The Canadians manage to launch a sole CH-124 Sea King helicopter to provide spotting support, which, after a long and sloppy engagement, results in heavy losses among the Quebecois fleet, including nearly all the requisitioned ferries and the sole pre-rebellion naval craft, the auxilary minesweeper HMCS Anticosti). The Canadian victory eliminates the threat of a Quebecois amphibious landing in Newfoundland or the Maritimes absent a more overt French intervention.

The remaining elements of the battered 158th Motor-Rifle Division attempt to cross the Sava River out of Bosnia-Hercegovina. The panicked troops abandon their vehicles and heavy equipment when they discover the bridges are down, crossing the river in small boats and makeshift rafts. They are met on the far shore by a Red Army colonel, who is able to deploy a mix of shaming and informing the deserters that they need to cross over 1,000 km of enemy territory before reaching Soviet soil to rally many of them into an ad-hoc formation.

In Poland, the army restructures some of its divisions, stripping some of their vehicles (which are transferred to other understrength formations) and converting them to cavalry, using horses seized from local farmers.

Joining the exodus of aircraft from Europe, the 155th Tactical Airlift Squadron (Tennessee Air National Guard) begins transferring personnel and equipment from its operating location at Cairo West Air Base in Egypt to Moi Airbase in Kenya.

[chico20854]

March 20, 1998

Nothing for the day in canon. Unofficially,

New Mexico State Police officers are called to the remote Datil Wells State Park to investigate the deaths of several families of Mexican refugees that had taken up residence in the parks campground. The campground's other residents, all evacuees from El Paso or Albuquerque, deny any involvement with the deaths or even the most rudimentary information about the Mexicans.

After nearly a month in transit, the 27th (my 90th Guards) Tank Division has only succeeded in making way from Manchuria to Ulan Ude, where it is halted seeking a route across or around Lake Baikal. The route ahead is blocked by obstacles recently emplaced by the Hungarian 53rd Mechanized Rifle Brigade to slow pursuers the Hungarian commander presumes 1st Far Eastern Front has dispatched. (The Hungarian commander doesn't realize how serious the situation is and that the 27th (90th Guards) are being transferred to the European front, not chasing him.

The Polish government, expending carefully husbanded resources in an effort largely hidden from its Soviet allies, manages to restart production at one of two small oil refineries in the remote foothills of the Carpathians in the southeastern corner of the country. The Jaslo refinery, one of the world's first (opened in 1888), is brought back online using portable generators and manpower from the OTK Territorial Defense Troops, who remain under national rather than Warsaw Pact command. Fed by a trickle of locally produced crude, the refinery (with a maximum prewar output of 3,000 barrels a day) turns out about one sixth that, 500 barrels on its first day of production. That output, nearly 80,000 liters of diesel, gasoline and fuel oil, is enough to support a single division in the field but is but one seven hundredth of prewar national consumption.

The commander of the 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, responding to the loss of its relief convoy and increasingly untenable situation in the beseiged Romanian city of Bistrița, forms a major relief column to force the relief of the isolated outpost. Stripping the division's other outposts of troops and armored vehicles, he forms an operational manuever group built around the 294th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment. The group contains the division's reconnaissance company, two companies of T-86 tanks and two batteries of 2S1 self-propelled howitzers as well as two nearly full-strength battalions of motor-rifle troops; in all nearly half of the 97th Guards' remaining combat strength. A call to 38th Army headquarters for additional supplies, reinforcements and air support (either fixed-wing or helicopter) is denied, as is the division commander's request for army-level rocket and tube artillery reinforment. (Those assets are dug in at other firebases throughout the Army area).

[chico20854]

March 21, 1998

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have arrived in the Pittsburgh area from across the mountains, from as far away as New York City and the communities around what is left of Washington DC. Many have come all that way on foot, travelling from refugee camp to refugee camp, alone or in bands numbering a few tens or hundreds. Others come from the west. No authority in the town of Erie has any control and the limited services that had been functioning break down as the population of nearly three million taxes the available resources. There are riots over food and shelter, but there is none to be had.

Unofficially,

The nuclear-powered cruiser USS Virginia links up with the slow-moving AFRICOM reinforcement convoy in the mid-Atlantic.

Troops of the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Battalion, 325th Infantry surround a band of Soviet deserters and their Iranian allies that have been terrorizing traffic on the vital Kazerun-Shiraz road through the Zagros Mountains. The bandits respond with a heavy volume of fire, so the American paratroops position their forces out of small-arms range and pummel the surrounded marauders with mortar fire.

US and Kenyan authorities deploy their limited resources to relief in flood-ravaged areas and securing Kenya's borders against additional refugee pressure from disorder to its north.

[chico20854]

March 22, 1998

The remnants of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division, which suffered heavy casaulties from Soviet tactical nuclear strikes during the retreat from Warsaw, complete regrouping. The division is re-formed as a single brigade (the 2nd) and excess command and support troops are used as replacements for other units in Germany.

Unofficially,

The 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division launches its major effort to relieve the surrounded garrison of the Romanian city of Bistrița, which has been under attack by the resurgent Romanian army since the 15th. The massive column of over 250 vehicles makes disconcertingly rapid progress in the early part of the day - the nervous Soviet troops notice that there are no Romanian civilians out and about as the column passes under clear spring skies. Soviet engineers are brought to the front of the column twice to replace destroyed bridges, delaying progress while assault bridging is emplaced. The delays result in the column entering the most mountainous portion of the route after nightfall; the division commander decides to press on rather than bivouac for the night, minimizing the chance of the massed formation being attacked while immobile (as well as preventing wavering draftees from deserting their guard posts, presenting a double threat).

After a night of unceasing harassment fire, the troops of B and C Companies, 4th Battalion, 325th Infantry attack the surrounded bandits along the Kazerun-Shiraz road in central Iran, accompanied by a detachment of Iranian National Security Force paramilitary police. Resistance soon crumbles as the Soviet deserters try to slip away, abandoning their Iranian compatriots. The decision is a poor one, since the Soviets are fired upon from behind by the abandoned Iranians as they rush towards the guns of A Company, 4-325 AIR. The cleanup of the operation is completed by lunchtime.

[chico20854]

March 23, 1998

The Dutch 105th Recon Battalion is disbanded, its remaining troops used as reinforcements for other formations.

Unofficially,

In the Rio Grande Valley the Mexican refugee camps have become full-fledged combat zones. The 3rd Texas Regiment, reinforced with armored cars from the nearby Laughlin Air Force Base and under orders from the Governor, is ordered to shut them down and deport all the surviving inhabitants.

The Dutch authorities reassess the guerrilla campaign in the occupied territories; while the effort has inflicted a number of embarrassing blows to the French and their Belgian allies, they have not materially impaired their occupation of the territory and there is not even the remotest chance of the Dutch military being able to successfully launch a campaign to evict the occupiers. Therefore, while not calling for an end to resistance, the authorities quietly decide to reduce, and eventually end, material support to the resistance movement, directing the scarce resources to the increasingly dire situation within territory still under government control. Elite military units such as marines and deep reconnaissance units will still be permitted to spend up to 50 percent of their time operating against the French, but with an aim of vengance rather than in preparation for recapture of the lands taken by force.

In the early morning hours the trap set for the 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division is sprung when the resurgent Romanian Army springs its ambush on the Soviet unit in a narrowing river valley leading to the isolated garrison of Bistrița. The Soviet reconnaissance troops responsible for securing the high ground overlooking the main body have been unable to keep up with the road-mobile column, as the routes through the high ground are in much worse condition than the already abomidable main road (and the division commander's request for helicopter support was denied), so the main body is traveling largely blind, reliant on speed and Romanian disorganization for security. The bet is a bad one, and the Soviet formation is halted by a massive command detonated mine that blasts the road apart, blocking forward progress as emplaced and pre-registered mortar and artillery fire begins to land. The roadsides have been mined as well, restricting the Soviet troops to the road as long-distance machinegun and anti-tank missile fire rake the column. Still, the division is an impressive array of combat power, and the first Romanian assault, by dismounted infantry as darkness falls, is beaten back with massive Romanian casaulties.

A mixed merchant-military convoy departs Kazerun, Iran for Shiraz. Among other cargoes the convoy contains a trailer-mounted 250-kw diesel generator, donated by Saudi authorities, destined for use in increasing the operations of the government-owned munitions plant in Shiraz. (The plant has been in operation since the 1970s, although recently it has been limited to repair of weapons and vehicles of the Shiraz garrison and limited production of spare parts.)

[chico20854]

March 24, 1998

Nothing official in canon. Unofficially,

At the end of a brutal winter that killed as much as a third of the New England population (four million people), disease spread by unburied bodies and poor sanitation practices carries off another two million. The Mexican government receives notice of the deaths of its citizens at the Datil campground, as well as the first columns of refugees being driven out of Texas; the reaction from the Mexican authorities and public is extremely negative. Anti-American riots break out in Veracruz, Mexico City and Hermosa, targeting American expats and businesses.

In Alaska, the battered remnants of the 147th (my 261st) Motor-Rifle Divison are traveling largely on foot the hundreds of miles to Anchorage. To their rear, X Corps has consolidated its hold on the heavily damaged city of Fairbanks, rested its troops and is (finally) ready to pursue the retreating Soviet force. It dispatches the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) west along the Tanana River (a tributary of the Yukon), with orders to proceed independently, living off the land, to clear the Yukon River valley to the Bering Strait. The 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) follows the retreating Soviet force closely, while the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division prepares for a deeper raid to cut off the retreating enemy force.

The French and Belgian governments complete delivery of the "agreed upon materiel" (the term selected in lieu of "reparations", "compensation" or "payment" in order to avoid hurt feelings) into German territory. The 10 million rounds of small arms ammunition, pre-packaged combat meals and gallons of diesel fuel, 1 million gallons of aviation fuel, 100,000 rounds of 20-40mm autocannon ammunition, 100,000 mortar rounds, 100,000 artillery rounds, 25,000 105mm tank gun rounds, 25,000 120mm tank gun rounds, 100,000 tons of bulk food, 12 F-16As, 500 Sidewinder Air-to-Air missiles, 2,5000 dumb bombs and package of spare parts will allow NATO forces in Germany to remain fighting through much of the year.

The surrounded column of the 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division fights with the desperation of surrounded men facing a determined enemy. The Romanians maintain their long-range harassing fire throughout the day but do not repeat the failed frontal assault of the prior day. 38th Army headquarters desperately casts about for fire support assets to intervene, but the force is out of range of the Army's long-range guns and Frontal Aviation cannot deem the situation dire enough to release attack aircraft.

The South African Volksraad meets in Capetown to formalize a number of emergency measures put into place over the prior 18 months to disband the racist Apartheid regime. Recognizing the threat South Africa faced from Communist regimes in Angola and Mozambique as well as other hostile neighbors and the demands placecd on the already shaky economy by the World War raging around it, the Defense Ministry began demanding change early in the war. The Army needed combat troops at the front, not deployed on internal security duties in the townships, and a robust logistic structure to support high intensity operations in the field; restriciting military service to the 13 percent of the population that is white and maintaining a never-ending state of emergency was seen as unlikely to be sufficient to sustain a national war effort. The South African Defense Forces therefore began integration of existing mixed-race soldiers into combat units and expansion of existing all-Black units, as well as increasing the employment of non-White personnel in defense establishments (except for the highly-secertive nuclear weapons development and production apparatus). The Volksraad session that begins today revokes the state of emergency, authorizes multi-racial recruitment in the SASF and defense establishment and authorizes the formation of a constituent assembly to draft a new, color-blind constitution. It also provides for integration of various township tribal militias and illegal defense forces into the police forces and the recognition of ANC armed units as a preparation into their eventual integration into the SADF.

[chico20854]

March 25, 1998

Another day where canon is silent. Unofficially,

Aware of the deteriorating capabilities of 25th Corps in Alaska, Aleutian Front orders a resumption of the offensive into British Columbia which had been halted by the winter. The Soviet troops, trained with (and to a great degree, naturally equipped with) a greater tolerance for cold weather warfare, achieve surprise and overrun the outposts of the combined Canadian and American force which were established to provide overwatch of the Soviet front line.

Anti-American rioting continues in Mexican cities as the police (not considered the most diligent and honest in the best of times) make sure that only American-related sites are looted. Additional columns of Mexican reugees expelled from Texas arrive in Matamoros, Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo.

The first of three trains carrying the Joint Chiefs and their staff depart Frederick, Maryland en route to Colorado Springs.

The Polish Communist Party opens the first of several stud farms to raise draft horses for farm, industrial and transport uses. The site, located on the outskirts of the ruins of the town of Sok3łka in northeastern Poland, is secured by a small border guard force to protect the site from bandits and passing units (Soviet and Polish) that might see a use for the horses.

The replica USS Constitution arrives in Port Harcourt, Nigeria with a cargo of machinery.

[chico20854]

March 26, 1998

The spring planting begins in Nebraska after the long, brutal winter of 1997-8 when the first potato crop of the year goes into the ground.

In Alaska the war has flared up, with A Company of the 2nd Battalion, 511th Infantry making its first combat jump since the Los Banos raid in the Philippines in February 1945 from the hodgepodge of bush planes operated by the 2nd Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment. The company establishes a blocking position along the highway between the retreating 147th (my 261st) Motor-Rifle Division and a detachment of the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division dispatched from Anchorage to link up with the 147th/261st and establish defenses to the northern apprroaches of Anchorage. Far to the east and south, the 71st Tank Division commandeers local small craft and what fuel it can find in preparation for a landing on Vancouver Island from its winter quarters on Quenn Charlotte Island.

The (former East) German 18th Marine Regiment returns to its prewar garrison on Rugen Island in the Baltic.

In northeastern Poland, the Category C 144th Guards Motor-Rifle Division is disbanded, its remaining troops and equipment redistributed to other units of 11th Guards Army.

Gurkhas of the 1/6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles arrive in Bandar Abbas, Iran from Bahrain, where they have been on internal security duties, to assist the Marines of I MEF in clearing the area of bandits, deserters and marauders. The Gurkha's experience fighting a guerrilla war in the region against Soviet paratroops the prior summer proves highly valuable.

The surrounded troops of the 294th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, are low on ammunition, water and food. The regimental commander organizes a breakout towards the column's rear, but it quickly falls apart as the Romanians see the dismounted infantry get up to remount their vehicles which are frantically trying to turn around on the narrow road. The Romanians assault during the disorder and overrun the regiment.

[chico20854]

March 27, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The last large fire in Tampa still blazing after the nuclear strikes on Thanksgiving Day burns out, not due to any firefighting effort but from lack of fuel to burn. McDill Air Force Base continues to burn.

In Alaska, the roadblock inserted by the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division initially succeeds, yielding several truckloads of Soviet troops and supplies who are unawaare of the American presence in the area. In Yukon, the 13th Guards Air Assault Division and 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade begin capturing territory, advancing to within 50 km of Whitehorse.

The first resupply train reaches the rear area of the 16th Army, bringing with it fresh recruits (a mix of green students and reservists over 35), several boxcars of 122mm howitzer ammunition, manufactured in 1945 and found in semi-abandoned warehouses in Siberia, two dozen T-62s and 50 GAZ-131 trucks from collective farms in the Krasnodar region.

There are changes in the command structure of the Saudi Army following the ascension of King Badr to the throne. The King's half-brother Abdul is named Minsiter of Defense and nearly all of the brigade commanders in the Army are replaced, either by ambitious officers several years their juniors or colonels from the bloated Saudi National Guard headquarters apparatus.

Captain Christiansen of the replica USS Constitution obtains a small fortune in diamonds.

[chico20854]

March 28, 1998

The 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment has completed its reorganization. The battered unit, which lost most of its original vehicles to Soviet commerce raiders in the opening months of the war, fought the Polish campaign with one normally-equipped squadron (the 2nd) and two equipped with a motley assortment of civilian vehicles and light armored vehicles taken from USAF airfield defense units. The losses in Poland forced another reorganization, this time to a single composite squadron under the command of Lt. Colonel Dwight Bergstrom. The unit was largely equipped with M750 (Commando V-350) and Peacekeeper armored cars.

With conditions in Norway quiet, the marines of the Dutch 1st Commando Group commandeer the freighter Eemsgracht from Trondheim and set sail for home.

Unofficially,

The roadblock established by the 2nd Battalion, 511th Infantry on the highway between Fairbanks and Anchorage is subjected to a well-coordinated attack from Soviet troops assaulting from both directions - the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division from the south and the 147th (my 261st) Motor-Rifle Division from the north. The inexperienced American company commander heeds his first sergeant's advice and the paratroopers fall back to the high ground to the east, leaving mines and booby traps among the abandoned Soviet trucks they captured the prior day. While taking Soviet fire as they retreat, the enemy does not pursue, allowing the American force to keep the road under long-range fire.

Morale among the Marines of the 30th Regiment aboard the resupply convoy to AFRICOM drops. The Marines have been aboard the collection of aged amphibious ships and civilian freighters for over 40 days without any shore leave (their commanders were afraid of desertion in the weeks they were anchored off Norfolk) and the fresh food has run out. Due to the dire condition at home, the fleet was stocked with large quantities of corn meal, canned vegetables and pork and cheese powder; the shipboard cooks (some of whom are 18-year old draftees that were never trained to be cooks and had never helped their mothers in the kitchen!) have expended their creativity with the limited list of items, forcing the troops to eat endless amounts of pork enchiladas and tacos. The Marines are permitted (and, in fact, encouraged) to supplement their megre rations with fish they catch during the few hours each day they are not training above or below decks.

Chaos reigns in the countryside outside the battered Siberian city of Irkutsk as bands of deserters from the 143rd Motor-Rifle Division (which disintegrated the prior summer) clash with bandits from the former 195th Motor-Rifle Division, which mutinied in October.

[chico20854]

March 29, 1998

Hurricane Jeff strikes Florida; with no warning systems in place, over 50,000 people are killed, depopulating the coastal regions. The high-rise hotels and condos of the gulf barrier islands and the concrete and rebar foundations resting on little more than white sand and seashells collapse like card houses before the wind, their foundations literally washed out from under them by the giant waves. Major changes are created in the geography of the offshore islands: the sea reaches out and took away a billion tons of sand, concrete, asphalt, homes, palms, and people in one mad night of natural fury. The mouth of Tampa Bay with its deep water channel is almost silted shut by the same storm winds. Although depopulated by the Thanksgiving Day strikes and subsequent exodus, the area is still home to millions who are determined to stay in their homes or else. The beach area becomes a desert uninhabited by anything but crabs and gulls.

The first three months of the year have seen massive casaulties, both military and civilian, in the USSR. Fuel shortages, coupled with the extremely cold winter, lack of water and medical care, and the breakdown of civilian control have all contributed to the huge number of deaths. Over one-half of the civilian population in the Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic states, and White Russia perished in those three months. Thousands of refugees have fled the destruction of the cities and scavenged the countryside. Many try to flee to Western Europe, while others join with deserters or marauders to form enclaves of security. The Soviet Government tries desperately to maintain control, but the only real authority and order is in those areas where Soviet troops are present. Most field armies are in control of their own destinies, and even though many remain loyal to the Soviet government, many have little contact with that government.

Army Front commanders take over the role of civilian authority as well as military authority and reestablish some sense of order in the western areas of the Soviet Union, but control is very limited. The Government of the Soviet Union, now centered in Ryazan, actually only controls the Strategic Reserve Forces and still has some authority over the forces engaged in Iran. The Politburo's interaction with the forces in the west are more like dealings with foreign powers rather than their own army. The men of the Politburo begin to act more and more like Hitler had in the Fuhrer Bunker during the last days of World War II, giving orders to units that either no longer existed or no longer had any intention of responding to those orders.

Unofficially,

As the Army in Europe reorganizes, Private First Class Randall Cutler is promoted to Specialist.

The 53rd Hungarian Mechanized Rifle Brigade has succeeded in extracting itself from the blocked rail line along Lake Baikal and seizing a number of small craft and two ferries, allowing the process of ferrying the formation across the lake to begin. The brigade's rear guard encounters forward detchments from the 27th (my 90th) Guards Tank Division; after an initial clash of small arms fire the two units determine that the Soviet tankers are headed to the Western Front and not pursuing the Hungarians.

[chico20854]

March 30, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Soviet force in Yukon succeeds in driving the ragtag force of American and Canadian defenders from the territorial capital, Whitehorse.

Further north in Alaska, the main body of the 147th (my 261st) Motor-Rifle Division has passed the abortive American roadblock and linked up with the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division's forward detachment. The American paratroops have succeeded in inflicting additional casulties on the retreating Soviet force, so the effort was not in vain.

The Bulgarian freighter A.B. Buzko, which has diverted from the Mediterranean with a partial cargo of grain and iron ore, arrives at the Soviet enclave of Mariel, Cuba. It begins unloading the grain; the bewildered Soviet commander has no further orders for the ship, which is running low on fuel.

In Europe, the NATO front line consists of a series of forward outposts linked by wire communications to fortified platoon and company positions (located on hilltops, small towns or large farms). Positions are well spread out to avoid creating a lucrative target for tactical nuclear weapons, but the low troop density at the front results in some positions being so isolated that they are not able to effectively reinforce each other. They are also undermanned, assigned frontages appropriate for full-strength units rather than the actual strengths present (which for European NATO units averages 8,000 men per division, 4,000 for American divisions). Additional soldiers are diverted to civil relief duties as well.

Pasdaran guerrillas shoot down a Soviet Mi-17 helicopter with a captured SA-14 missile as the helicopter approaches the city of Esfahan's airport.

The commanders of the 53rd Hungarian Mechanized Rifle Brigade and 27th (my 90th) Guards Tank Division meet and arrange a truce between the two units. The Soviet formation agrees to assist the Hungarians in their crossing of Lake Baikal in exchange for the Hungarians agreeing to hand over the craft they are using to cross rather than sink them on the western shore.

[chico20854]

March 31, 1998

The 76th Guards Air Assault Division, which fought thrroughout the Norwegian and Kola campaigns, is withdrawn from the Murmansk area to the Leningrad area in an effort to improve the local security situation there.

40th Army, safely out of direct contact with Allied forces in Iran, reorganizes its remaining helicopter assets. It combines its four pre-war helicopter regiments (the 50th, 181st, 280th and 335th) and two independent squadrons (205th and 239th) into a single regiment, the 340th.

Following the loss of half the division's combat strength, the remaining troops of the 97th Guards Motor-Rifle Division are ordered to withdraw to Ploesti and secure the invaluable oilfields and refinery infrastructure, the largest and most intact in Europe.

Unofficially,

David Tokugawa, a highly successful salesman from Los Angeles who was gambling in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving, maneuvers himself into a position of leadership in one of the many bands of survivors who coalesced in the weeks after the Thanksgiving Day Massacre through a series of events that are poorly understood.

In the Yukon, the Soviet 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade assumes occupation duty in the recently captured capital. The brigade's hovercraft have been heavily attrited by combat and lack of spare parts, and the terrain to the south is not as favorable to their use as it was in the Arctic tundra.

The Sierra II-class submarine K-443 rendevous with the Soviet fishing flotilla which is still operating in remote waters of the southern Pacific. The fishermen have arranged makeshift sails for their craft and adapted the engines for operation with a mix of fish oil and methane generated from organic waste.