On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

April 15, 1998

The 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) drives west to Kayukak, cutting the Soviet direct supply line across the Bering Strait. Now 25th Corps is reliant on supplies delivered by air, seized locally or (no longer existing) flown in from home.

Unofficially,

Rainbow Six reports that, unable to deploy troops from the mainland to bring the situation back under control, General Sir Clive Smith orders an airstrike on the three prisons which is carried out by two RAF Tornados, causing a heavy loss of life amongst the prisoners. Several hundred prisoners manage to escape, quickly scattering across the island.

He also reports that the bulk of British forces are withdrawn from Norway. Whilst most of the 3rd Commando Brigade is attached to the US 2nd Marine Division along the Baltic coast on the German-Polish border, the remnants of the British element of the Allied Mobile Force are brought back to the UK.

In the Arctic, the storm that has prevented the mutinous sailors of the Barrikada from moving for several days ebbs, leaving behind bitterly cold temperatures and over two dozen dead men.

[chico20854]

April 16, 1998

A combined American-Kenyan task force drives the Tanzanian forces from the city of Kisumu on Lake Victoria.

Unofficially,

Mexican government officials once again issue perfunctory demands for an investigation and accountability for the death of their citizens. Unfortunately, the few remaining American embassy staffers in Mexico City (many were killed in anti-American riots or drifted away in the chaos of post-nuclear Mexico) are out of contact with authorities back home, the State Department secure communications system not yet restored as the Joint Chiefs establish a new headquarters in Colorado Springs.

MI5 recruit Martin Russell wraps up his affairs (such as anyone in post-nuclear Britain has affairs to attend to!) and begins a period of intense training to impersonate the late GRU Colonel Piotr Bulganin.

As recruits arrive in Soviet formations all along the line in Germany, it falls upon the surviving leaders of the recipient units to train them. Even before the war, the Red Army did not run centralized Basic Training for new recruits (it did, however, operate training divisions to create "instant NCOs" from high-potential recruits), delegating that responsibility to individual units, who typically spent a month on turning civilians to soldiers able to follow orders, although lacking most skills needed for survival in combat. In 1998, many Soviet units have few leaders left to train raw recruits, leading to haphazard, at best, training for the thousands of shanghaied men appearing in the rear of 1st and 2nd Southwestern Fronts in preparation of the upcoming offensive.

The surviving Ukrainian mutineers from the Barrikada reach a wide stretch of open water and board the life rafts they have brought from the submarine. Unfortunately, blowing ice during the fierce blizzard has punctured the rafts (their material lacked the proper coating, being diverted by the manager of the mill in Byelorussia that manufactured it), but the desperate men (who can see the other side of the open water) pile in, hoping to make it across before the raft sinks. That turns out to be a poor decision, and the Ukrainians perish as they become trapped in the fabric of the collapsing, sinking raft.

After a week of dealing ashore, the captain of the Norwegian sailing ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl is able to secure a trade in Montevideo, Uruguay. In exchange for the ship's cargo of pipes, machinery and electrical parts, a local trading house is willing to provide 500 tons of canned beef.

[chico20854]

April 17, 1998

Another day with nothing in canon. Unofficially,

Members of the Ho-Chunk tribe turn back a Wisconsin State Patrol officer sent to investigate rumors of disruption to the area's roads.

The 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division and 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) send dismounted patrols into the mountains overlooking their positions, seeking a weak point in the Soviet lines.

Only eight Russian mutineers remain, the last survivors of the crew of the Barrikada. They now have adequate clothing (having stripped the dead of theirs) but are short (ironically) of water. The group is discovered by a pack of polar bears, who are driven away by gunfire from the group's pistols.

Having begun to somewhat organize his headquarters, the Jugoslav high command's surviving leader, Colonel General Petar Simatović, orders the creation of regular forces to eject the Soviets, Italians and their Pact allies. The new forces are to be formed from the remnants of the Jugoslav National Army (the pre-war Army and its reserves) and Territorial Defense (local defense forces under command of regional governments), unified under a new name, the Jugoslav Free Army (abbreviated JSA in Serbo-Croatian).

[chico20854]

April 18, 1998

The Scottish Nationalist Party (the SNP), which had declared Scotland to be an independent country in February, establishes the Royal Army of Scotland - the RAS. This force is instrumental in maintaining a semblance of peace between the various Scottish towns, and the SNP convinces many people that the real problem lies with the various marauder groups operating by that time.

Unofficially,

The Dutch 1st Commando Group's elite marines launch their first raid on the Franco-Belgian occupation force, sinking the Belgian minesweeper Breydel in harbor in Vlissingen.

Two of the remaining sailors from the Barrikada collapse and are left behind by the remaining mutineers.

Conditions in Yemen outside the bubble of control maintained by the 29th infantry Division (Light) around Aden have descended into total chaos. In some towns the dominant tribes and clans enforce order, and in northern Yemen the Houthi tribe succeeds in establishing a harsh order in the rural areas under its control.

South African authorities announce the conclusion of a raid on a safehouse of the AWB, a Afrikaaner neo-nazi terrorist group, in which eight men linked to the recent bombing in Pretoria are killed.

[chico20854]

April 19, 1998

The town of Meadville, Pennsylvania suffers from food riots after its population, swelled by refugees, runs out of food following a period of reduced rations.

Unofficially,

Recently promoted Specialist Randolph Cutler suffers a minor injury when he checks on his reheating MRE. His lit cigarette ignites the hydrogen gas given off by the MRE's flameless heater, inflicting minor flash burns to his face. (In later years he will grow a beard to conceal the scars from the burns.)

The polar bears return to the small group of Russian sailors from the Barrikada in the early hours (there is midnight sun by this time) and attack. The lone awake sentry is killed, and only one of the sleeping sailors escapes.

RainbowSix reports that the remnants of the British element of the Allied Mobile Force arrives in South Shields aboard the DFDS ferry "Princess of Scandinavia", from where they move to Catterick to refit and rebuild.

Thousands of Afrikaaners supporting the neo-nazi AWB right-wing movement turn out in protests in Johannesburg, South Africa to protest the death of eight of their comrades in a police raid. Many of the men are armed.

[chico20854]

April 20, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day.

The Wisconsin State Patrol returns to the area near Hatfield, Wisconsin in force, determined to reassert the state government's authority. A fierce firefight ensues, in which three troopers are killed and two captured by the Ho-Chunk tribe's militia (composed of well-armed veterans).

The scouts dispatched by X Corps in Alaska return, reporting that the Soviet defensive line through the pass in the Alaska Range is thinly supported, with little artillery or rear area installations. They report that there was minimal traffic to the Soviet forces, implying that they may be poorly supplied.

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The British Army command staff, responding to the heavy losses suffered by BAOR in the 1997 campaign, surveys the military units and garrisons under its control for armored vehicles, even obsolescent ones, to send to Germany. The survey turns up contingents of Ferret armored cars, Saracen and Humber APCs and even two batteries worth of Abbot self-propelled howitzers, as well as small quantities of more modern armor from training detachments and research and testing facilities throughout England.

Third German Army orders the disbandment of remaining KDA (Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse) East German paramilitary militia units in the former East Germany, returning the workers to the economy and turning their weapons over to the Army. Some of the most useful weapons freed up are the KDA's light anti-aircraft artillery; the KPV and DSHK heavy machineguns and 23mm and 37mm light anti-aircraft guns are brought forward to harden the increasing numbers of bunkers and fortifications along the Oder River.

As the reinforcement convoy headed to Africom rounds Cape Horn into the Indian Ocean, the nuclear-powered cruiser USS Virginia departs, its skipper deciding that, absent orders, it should remain in the Atlantic.

In the early morning hours, downtown Johannesburg is turned into a battle zone when armed AWB extremists attempt to take over government buildings. Mixed-race police units are nearly overrun and respond with live ammunition as well as tear gas, and within a few hours SADF troops are on the streets as well, reinforcing the police and hunting down bands of right-wing terrorists.

[chico20854]

April 21, 1998

Another day on which canon is silent. Unofficially.

At its new base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the 301st Port Security Unit is completely reorganized and absorbs a large number of personnel from other services, as well as police and federal agents. The reformed unit is flagged the 701st Maritime Rifle Regiment and is tasked as a waterborne military police formation.

Reflecting both the loss of industrial and military capability on the part of Frontal Aviation as well as the near-extinction of NATO interceptor coverage over the front line, a trio of Yak-52 light trainer aircraft, hastily modified with a pair of 57mm rocket pods, attack German positions north of Gorlitz on the Polish border.

The final survivor from the Barrikada, a scared 20-year-old steward from Perm in Siberia, wanders the pack ice of the Arctic. He does not know which direction he should be headed and escaped the polar bear attack without gloves or mittens.

The US Navy formally disbands the crew of the carrier USS America. The ship was abandoned and destroyed in Sicily following irreparable damage and the crew evacuated. After several weeks of indecision, they were brought to Germany to serve as replacements for depleted Army formations. Senior officers are assigned to corps- and army-level headquarters as additional watchstanders and technical experts assigned to 7th TAACOM to help maintain US Army Europe's battered equipment. Sailors that can't be used in their ratings are cycled through 7th Army Training Command's Basic Infantry Substitute Course (BISC), a four-week course to transform experienced servicemen (and women) into infantry replacements. (The training is a far cry from its pre-exchange conversion counterparts, since there is little ammunition, fuel or equipment to be spared for training use). The graduates, referred to as "Bisquicks", are welcomed to the depleted formations of III and V Corps in reserve positions behind the lines.

AWB extremists throughout South Africa rise up against the government in a (vain) attempt to halt the rollback of apartheid policies. Rail and road traffic is disrupted by blockades of heavily armed men (the AWB's right-wing beliefs also include that women should be passive and submissive) and government and military facilities, as well as airports and power stations, come under small arms fire.

[chico20854]

April 22, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

Graebarde reports that the harvest of the winter wheat crop, which had already been in the ground prior to TDM, fairs better than expected given the situation. Strenuous efforts are made to get the crop harvested. Fuels are made available for the transport of combines and trucks necessary to do the harvest, and the slow process begins in Texas. (The harvest will move north as the weather warms).

RainbowSix reports that GCHQ Bude, a satellite ground station on the north Cornwall coast operated by GCHQ, the British Signals Intelligence Service, is abandoned by the Government, with personnel relocating to Plymouth Naval Base together with what equipment they can carry.

Pleased with the prior day's successful sortie over German front lines along the Oder, the trio of Yak light trainers (operated by the 74th Guards Shturmovik Regiment), this time accompanied by a single Su-25, return to the skies over the Oder River. The mixed flight is greeted by a hail of anti-aircraft fire, but they press the attack on NATO troops (the 4th Battalion, 34th Armor, part of the US 8th Infantry Division). The driver of one of the American tanks (named "the Pink Cadillac"), SSG Kent Venters, on watch in the commander's position, scores a lucky shot with the vehicle's .50 caliber machinegun and the Su-25 goes down. The Yaks turn back after discharging their rockets in the general direction of the American positions, themselves scoring a lucky shot that destroys the Headquarters and Service Company's NBC LMTV truck.

Local Italian authorities in the northern part of the nation begin planning efforts to restore operations at the clusters of hydroelectric power plants along the southern slopes of the Alps.

The near civil war in South Africa continues. The SADF rallies its formations in garrisons throughout the nation and orders the 73rd Motorized Brigade back from the frontier facing Mozambique to supplement beleaguered police and local security troops. The first roadblocks leaving towns outside garrisons are removed by the application of firepower, in some cases augmented by strikes from the SADF's fighter-bombers and armed helicopters.

[chico20854]

April 23, 1998

Nathan Snyder, a 31-year old corporal in the 42nd Infantry Division (New York National Guard) on internal security duties in Manhattan, deserts from his unit, taking his M16 rifle and ammunition with him.

Unofficially,

In Alaska, X Corps organizes another effort to leapfrog over Soviet resistance. Once again, the plan calls for the 2nd Battalion, 511th Infantry to be parachuted behind the enemy lines from from the bush planes of the 2nd Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment, where they will link up with scouts and other light forces infiltrated around the Soviet positions.

In British Columbia, the last of the Canadian Army forces resisting the 76th (my 71st) Tank Division's assault on Victoria Island is withdraw by small craft, leaving small detachments behind to report on enemy activity in the occupied territory.

Despite the loss of a Su-25 in the prior day's operations, the 74th Guards Shturmovik Regiment dispatches more Yak-52 armed light trainers across the Oder. This time they are intercepted by a F-16A from the 313th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which has a difficult time attacking the low- and slow-flying aircraft with the fighter's guns. After several minutes of weaving and circling, one of the trainers is shot down and the remaining pair split up, running for the relative safety of friendly lines and their haven at the Drawsko Pomorskie Airbase in northwestern Poland. That base is visited after dark by a flight of four F-16s from the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing, which catches the defending gunners unaware. With a single pass the American fighters dispense eight CBU-58 and eight CBU-71 cluster bombs on the Polish airfield, which blanket the Polish airfield with almost 10,000 bomblets. (One of the units fails to open and only breaks apart on impact with the ground 300 feet below). Half of the bomblets explode on impact, while the others detonate randomly in the minutes, hours and days that follow. The runway receives only superficial damage, but the Yak trainers, Su-25 attack aircraft and ground installations and vehicles (all in individual revetments scattered around the air vase and its perimeter, ironically built by USAF engineers in 1997) are all peppered by bomblet fragments. One of the Yaks survive, as do three of the regiment's remaining Su-25s.

The last survivor of the Barrikada mutiny succumbs to the elements.

The JSA issues orders on the organization of its subordinate units. Given the rough terrain and poor communications, the JSA leadership orders a simple initial plan of operations: formations are to descend from the high country into one of the valleys of each of the major tributaries of the Sava River and sweep downstream, engaging any Pact, Italian or puppet troops they encounter and linking up with other JSA formations, preserving as much of the supplies, industry and other infrastructure of the valleys as possible.

[chico20854]

April 24, 1998

The town of Titusville, Pennsylvania is flooded with refugees seeking the relative safety and security of western New York.

In west-central Alaska, the 6th (my 99th) Guards Air Assault Division finds itself cut off on the Seward Peninsula by the X Corps counterattack to its south.

Unofficially,

The Sturgeon-class nuclear attack submarine USS Pargo arrives in Pearl Harbor at the conclusion of a long patrol that took it in search of Soviet naval and merchant shipping throughout the western Pacific.

After a quiet and restful winter supported by the fruits of successful raids on Allied supply dumps in the fall, the deserters of 5th Squad resume their activity in the wooded region of northwestern East Germany. Their first ravaging of the year is a group of German civilian refugees traveling on foot from the coast inland in search of suitable land to farm.

RainbowSix reports that, with BAOR in dire need of reinforcement, the 5th Division embarks on the Princess of Scandinavia and a number of smaller ships and sails from South Shields for Bremerhaven, in what will be the last major British reinforcement of the war. Following their departure, responsibility for local security passes to a number of Territorial battalions based in the area.

In South Africa, Army troops have been able to restore movement along the rail lines and major highways between the major cities - Durban, Capetown, Johannesburg and Praetoria, while riot police have restored order to the city centers. Many rural areas and back roads remain impassible, however, due to AWB roadblocks, and many citizens of smaller towns and cities remain afraid to leave their homes. The South African Air Force deploys its aircraft in reconnaissance sorties, looking for terrorist roadblocks.

[chico20854]

April 25, 1998

In light of the dire condition of BAOR, 19 Infantry Brigade in the UK is relieved of disaster relief and internal security duties in England and ordered to prepare for deployment to the Continent.

Unofficially,

An emissary from the Acting Governor of Wisconsin arrives at the border of the Ho-Chunk nation under a white flag. He desires to discuss the return of the captured state troopers.

The commander of 2nd Battalion, 511th Infantry reports his command ready for its airborne assault on the Soviet rear area south of the Alaska Range. The infiltration of scouts from the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) is still ongoing, however, so the date of the assault is postponed until they are in position. To tie down the Soviet defenders (the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division), X Corps permits some of its remaining mortar ammunition to be expended in harassment fires. (X Corps fired the last of its howitzer ammunition in February during the Battle of Fairbanks).

Frontal Aviation ground crewmen at the bomb-scarred Drawsko Pomorskie Airbase in Poland are able to clear the runway, taxiway and other paved areas of the base of undetonated cluster bomblets using the water cannon on a fire truck requisitioned from the Polish city of Bydgoszcz. Two men are killed, however, when a time-delayed bomblet located in a grassy area detonates, and time-delayed bomblets force the base to remain largely locked down as the Soviets hope the last of the timers have run down.

The convoy to AFRICOM is forced to reduce speed to a paltry 8 knots in order to reduce fuel consumption. While the move all but assures there will be sufficient fuel to reach port in Kenya, the flotilla's supply officers are concerned about the dwindling food supplies aboard the ships, especially those packed with troops. Marines are ordered to redouble their fishing efforts from the ships' decks, which, while bringing in precious protein, is insufficient to feed the thousands of troops and sailors.

[chico20854]

April 26, 1998

After hiding in an abandoned building in New York City and dodging patrols of his erstwhile compatriots, deserter Nathan Snyder joins up with an Upper East Side marauder gang called Hell's Own.

Of prewar population of Silesia of 3m, less than 100,000 survive, felled by bombings, invasion, nuclear strikes, famine and plague.

Kenyan and American forces drive the last organized Tanzanian units back to the border, forcing them back to their start lines.

Unofficially,

X Corps in Alaska is awaiting confirmation that the remaining infiltrators from the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) have crossed the Alaska Range and are overlooking the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division's supply lines.

Soviet troops approach the Yukon-British Columbia border after linking up with friendly forces (the 22nd Motor-Rifle Division) that have crossed the coastal mountains from Skagway, Alaska.

In Lithuania, Party officials, rebuffed by the commander of the 1st Byelorussian Front, dispatch an emissary to the commander of the Reserve Front to beg for the removal of the renegade Colonel Skrebys from Trakai Castle.

[chico20854]

April 27, 1998

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

After two days of talks, the representative of the Wisconsin state government and the chief of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Henry Red Cloud, agree to release the two captured state troopers (less their weapons and equipment) and the bodies of the three killed in exchange for recognition of the tribe's sovereignty and an agreement to not interfere in the tribe's territory.

In Alaska, the scouts from the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) are in place near the lone road supplying the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division but the weather is too bad for the bush planes available to X Corps to locate the drop zones. (The requisitioned civilian aircraft are largely reliant on visual navigation, lacking military navigational equipment).

The 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, an A-10 Warthog unit that fought throughout the 1996 and 1997 campaigns in Central Europe, launches its first sorties in many months from its new station of Neubrandenburg, (former East) Germany. The wing (down to eight operable aircraft) launches two aircraft to attack suspected Polish Army artillery positions identified by US Marines southeast of Szczecin.

The USS Virginia, operating independently in the South Atlantic, encounters the Soviet trawler "Star of Crimea" fishing some 375 miles southwest of Capetown, South Africa. A short chase results in the capture of the Soviet craft (the crew being wise enough not to scuttle the ship, knowing how slim their chances of survival in this remote patch of ocean are). The crew are taken prisoner, the trawler's catch of frozen fish transferred to the cruiser's depleted freezers and the ship's officers interrogated, its logs examined, communications gear seized and ship's conditions examined by US navy engineers. The logs are encoded and the trawler's crypto gear was destroyed before the boarding party arrived, but the crew confirms that there is a largely idle fishing flotilla extant in the southern Atlantic, providing support to Soviet Navy raiders and submarines. The engineering crew notes that the trawler has been burning fish oil and that two of its fish meal tanks are carrying oil instead; they speculate that the fishing fleet is relying on the catch to provide oil to keep the ships operating. The Virginia takes the fish oil aboard to run its emergency generators if needed, then the boarding party opens the seacocks and sends the trawler to the bottom.

David Hudson, a CIA agent who has been operating undercover in the outskirts of Moscow (reporting on scientific developments in the many research institutes and high-tech production centers) since he was infiltrated in during 1996, requests permission to evacuate. He reports to his supervisor (operating from Camp Peary, Virginia) that he has been evacuated to a collective farm northeast of Moscow and that following the nuclear attacks on Moscow he has been unable to re-establish contact with any sources and he doubts that the research institutes are operating. His handler agrees that the information Hudson can gather is unlikely to be of sufficient value to justify his continued presence and authorizes him to evacuate to friendly territory as he best sees fit.

In Australia, the Ned Kelly gang launches another raid, this one on a remote farm near the town of Goombargana in southern New South Wales. They make off with several cattle, a generator and two farm trucks loaded with feed and fuel. The station manager calls for help from the Main Force Patrol, but the police force is currently engaged in an extended struggle to capture a motorcycle gang leader known as "The Night Rider".

[chico20854]

April 28, 1998

Ammunition stocks in Kenya have been run down significantly in the fighting and further operations must wait until a second convoy arrives from the US. As a result of the ammunition shortage and the flooding the Somali and Sudanese invaders still retain a small foothold in northern Kenya.

Stuart Harris, leader of a gang of armed Scottish raiders, forms an alliance with two other armed gangs that are operating nearby, with the intention of controlling the Scottish countryside. He calls the group the Tartan Army and calls for other groups to join his alliance.

Unofficially,

Conditions over X Corps' front lines between Fairbanks and Anchorage remain overcast, delaying the airborne assault for another day.

A detachment of the Soviet 22nd Guards Motor-Rifle Division reaches the Yukon-British Columbia border.

A 5th Squad scouting group encounters another group of heavily armed men wandering the NATO rear area, these a motley group of German Army deserters and wayward stragglers, and a firefight breaks out. Three 5th Squad men are killed as are four Germans.

The first contingent of Italian engineers, escorted by a Carabinieri detachment, departs Turin to evaluate conditions at the Campore Basso hydropower plant.

In the early morning hours CIA agent David Hudson slips away from his shared bunk in the tractor barn ion a collective farm northeast of Moscow, bringing his radio, a supply of food and a Stenchin machinepistol with him.

[chico20854]

Caught up finally!

Of course, I'm shutting down the PC for the weekend, so I'll be playing catchup on Monday...

Enjoy!!!!