On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[Drgonzo2011]

Great stuff

I just wanted to say I've enjoyed this project from the start, both as an entertaining work of fiction and as inspiration for my own T2K campaign.

[chico20854]

April 29, 1998

The 46th Infantry Division (Texas, New York and Puerto Rico National Guard) is ordered to move from Virginia, where it has been performing internal security and disaster relief duties since November, to Texas by road, where it will disperse throughout the eastern part of the state on anti-riot duties.

Unofficially,

The division is filled out with additional troops - sailors from the Hampton Roads area without ships or squadrons, airmen from Langley Air Force Base and freshly trained recruits from the training battalions at Forts Lee and Eustis (including an entire platoon of parachute riggers that have completed their training at Fort Lee but are unable to obtain transport to XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran). To conserve fuel and in recognition of its mission in Texas, it leaves nearly all of its remaining heavy weapons and armored vehicles behind. This move is a recognition of the significant military forces available in the Hampton Roads region from the cluster of bases there (the Army's Forts Eustis, Story and Monroe, Langley Air Force Base and the Norfolk Naval station complex, its ranks swelled by the crews of ships stuck in port and aircraft grounded for lack of fuel). It is also a reflection of the need for additional troops to secure the remaining petroleum production infrastructure of the Texas Gulf Coast.

The weather in Alaska remains snowy, windy and cloudy, delaying again the 2nd Battalion, 511th Infantry Regiment's parachute drop behind Soviet lines.

The commander of the 2nd Southwestern Front reaches out to his KGB counterparts in preparation for the release of tactical nuclear weapons in the upcoming offensive. The KGB officer demurs, citing a lack of orders from Moscow. The Army commander suspects the real reason is the KGB detachments' comfortable occupation of former Austrian and German garrisons, including Luftwaffe and US Army bases in southern Germany with highly secure nuclear weapons storage facilities; even with the electronic alarms and other sophisticated defenses disabled they provide admirable security and, more importantly to the KGB troops, more comfortable surroundings than any comparable base in the Warsaw Pact.

In eastern Siberia, the Hungarian 53rd Mechanized Brigade has reached the blockage in the Trans-Siberian Railroad caused by an American nuclear strike which obliterated the junction of the Trans-Siberian with the Baikal-Amur Mainline, the other railroad that crosses Siberia to the Pacific. The Hungarian rear guard reports sightings of the 27th (my 90th) Tank Division's advanced patrols as that unit continues its journey to the Western Front.

[chico20854]

I just wanted to say I've enjoyed this project from the start, both as an entertaining work of fiction and as inspiration for my own T2K campaign.

I'm glad you're enjoying it!!!!

[chico20854]

April 30, 1998

The American counteroffensive in Alaska has severed the Soviet's main supply route across the Bering Strait. The Soviet units are forced to live off the land and many have to break up to survive.

The first major outbreak of bubonic plague occurs in San Francisco.

In Cameroon, the Limbe oil refinery is forced to shut down when the facility's reboiler fails due to fatigue. It is the nation's sole source of refined petroleum following the collapse of seaborne imports.

Unofficially,

At a "Cabinet" meeting (nearly all of the pre-war Cabinet is dead, and nearly every department is represented by some junior official acting far above their pay grade and expertise) President Munson is presented with a report on the status of the American economy at the end of the first quarter of the year. It is impossible to even semi-accurately enumerate the state of the economy, with entire sectors (finance and insurance, most manufacturing, energy and mining) almost entirely shut down and millions not only unemployed but dead from Soviet nuclear strikes, famine, disease or civil unrest. The sliver of good news is that there are islands of stability and order from which modest reconstruction efforts are starting, and, the (Acting) CIA Director gleefully reports, conditions in the USSR are, by all reports, much worse, indicating that it is appearing increasingly as if the US has prevailed in the nuclear war. Munson, reeling from news of the horror he has just received, flies into a rage and has to be physically restrained from attacking the CIA man.

In an unusual occurrence, a F-15 of the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing is intercepted by a Soviet fighter, a MiG-23 of the 841st Guards Fighter Regiment, over the front lines south of Dezful. The American aircraft has only three missiles aboard and the Soviet one has two, and a short engagement results in the loss of the Soviet bird.

CIA agent David Hudson has covered nearly 50 km on foot since escaping the collective farm northeast of Moscow three nights ago, but has come to the realization that there is no way he will escape the USSR at such a pace. On the other hand, an exfiltration by the CIA clearly isn't going to occur, so he needs to find another way to escape the massive enemy nation.

[chico20854]

May 1, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

California authorities order the immediate quarantine of San Francisco to prevent the spread of bubonic plague. Unfortunately, issuing the orders is the easiest step to take; the State Guard is more than fully engaged just trying to keep food distribution going (and the exhausted guardsmen are less than enthusiastic about travelling into the quarantine zone and interacting with people in rat-infested warehouses), and the federal government has no meaningful assistance to lend.

The weather over X Corps' front lines in Alaska finally clears enough for 120 paratroops of the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division to drop behind Soviet lines in the hamlet of McKinley Village, blocking their supply route in coordination with scattered patrols of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon), which are blocking minor routes and other potential travel routes.

Map of front lines
In Europe, the warring armies are ready to resume active hostilities. Higher commanders have regained contact with most remaining subordinate units and the long, cold winter has given units time to rest and restructure. While supplies of food and fuel were depleted over the winter, ammunition stocks have not been used and the long quiet period gave unit maintainers time to sort through remaining spare part inventories and identify vehicles for cannibalization, restoring some vehicles to full operational status. Many formations have disbanded understrength units to bring others up to closer to full strength, resulting in brigades with two battalions or companies short of a platoon but otherwise at 75 percent of oebook strength. Additional reinforcements have been sent to front-line units after rear area support units were culled for surplus soldiers and excess air force and shoreside naval personnel were reassigned to army units.

For the first time since 1917, there is no parade through Red Square in Moscow, which is much too irradiated for most surviving Soviet citizens to dare enter.

[Homer]

The map is great! Well done.

[chico20854]

May 2, 1998

A New America expedition to ruins of Blytheville Air Force Base stumbles across an army unit busily excavating a cache of undamaged cruise missiles from a rubble-buried storage bunker. The New American commander, showing more initiative than sense, attacks the unit. His unit suffers 60% casualties, but a truck convoy with five ALCMs already loaded on board is overrun and captured. The army unit suffers light casualties and attributes the attack to marauders.


Unofficially,

The American airborne force in Alaska comes under Soviet attack as the 110th Guards Motor Rifle Division dispatches a detachment from the 558th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment to dislodge the blocking force. To the south, the combined force of the 22nd Guards Motor-Rifle Division and the 99th Guards Air Assault Division move south into British Columbia, sending scavenging parties far and wide to secure food and fuel to sustain the attacking force.

In the skies over Czechoslovakia, two RF-16Cs of the 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing collide while swerving and weaving to throw off a pursuing MiG-29 of the Czech 8th Fighter Regiment. The pilots had only flown three missions in the prior two months, none of which had included flying with a wingman. The loss of the two precious fighters shows how rapidly proficiency of fighter pilots deteriorates when pilot skills are not used.

The American freighter Gulf Shipper is attacked by pirates in small boats off the Horn of Africa while on a voyage to secure food supplies for the Iranian civilian population.

Another car bomb tears apart the downtown of a South African city, this time the provincial capital of Bloemfontein. Authorities strongly suspect that it is the work of AWB terrorists, whose compatriots still control vast swathes of the countryside despite a massive active counterinsurgency by SADF forces.

[chico20854]

May 3, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

To conserve fuel, the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron halts patrols of its 21 MGM-134 Midgetman ICBM Hard Mobile Launchers, instead stationing each at a dispersal site within 10 miles of the squadron headquarters at Desert Rock airfield, Nevada.

The 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division thrashes against the small American blocking force, pushing the paratroops off the main (and only paved) road while other division elements attempt to withdraw from the front lines under pressure from other elements of X Corps.

As part of an effort to strip precious resources from NATO troops in southern Germany, the Soviet Baltic Front launches a series of attacks on II MEF and the Danish Jutland Mechanized Division in northwestern Poland. The attacks are a welcome to the British 3rd Commando Brigade (reinforced with the Dutch 9th Amphibious Combat Group), which has just arrived in Germany after extensive service in northern Norway.

The nuclear cruiser USS Virginia turns southwest in the South Atlantic, heading for the remote Gough Island and the sealanes between there and Tristan da Cunha, seeking the Soviet fishing fleet.

South African Buccaneer light bombers attack an isolated farm 120 km northwest of Bloemfontien, which informants within the AWB have indicated is the regional headquarters for the right-wing terrorist group. Delivering a distinct message, the farm is incinerated by the napalm canisters dispensed by the low-flying aircraft.

[chico20854]

May 4, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The first case of bubonic plague is reported in Sacramento, 85 miles from San Francisco, despite the (ineffective) quarantine of the latter city.

In Mexico, the governing El Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) party is failing to alleviate the challenges of life in 1998 (as is every government in the world at this time), and the military-supported Partido Autentico de la Revolucion Mexicano (PARM) makes a move in the Chamber of Deputies to have the caretaker government (the PAN lacks a majority and elections are scheduled for June) replaced. The PARM backs up this demand with a demonstration of force by the Presidential Guard Brigade.

RainbowSix reports that Parliament reconvenes for the first time since Black Thursday as a number of surviving MPs and Peers meet in the cathedral city of Winchester in Hampshire. (They meet in the city's Guildhall). With Douglas Montgomery confirmed as Prime Minister. Parliaments first act is to pass a continuation of the Emergency Powers Act, with the military retaining primacy for law and order. Most of the surviving members of the British and Dutch Royal Families move to the Winchester area at this time, taking up residence in several country houses just outside the city, although those in the immediate line of succession to both Thrones (Prince Harry for the British and Prince Willem Alexander of Orange for the Dutch) are moved to secret locations in secure areas controlled by the military (rumours persist for some time afterwards that they have gone overseas, to either Australia or New Zealand).

Baltic Front continues its assault on II MEF's front lines. The 5th Marine Division's 27th Regimental Combat Team is brought forward from reserve positions in the town of Goleni3w, and overhead F/A-18s and Harriers of Marine Aircraft Group 14 are called in (in small numbers) to reinforce outposts that are at risk of being overrun.

[stilleto69]

May 4, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The first case of bubonic plague is reported in Sacramento, 85 miles from San Francisco, despite the (ineffective) quarantine of the latter city.

Damn, my hometown, just can't catch a break. Possible fallout from the Benicia strikes, possible ineffective leadership from gov't, now disease.

[chico20854]

May 5, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The trailing elements of the 110th Guards Motor-Rifle Division descend to the southern slopes of the Alaska Range, under pressure from troops of the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division, marking the successful eviction of Soviet troops from their strongest defensive line between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Order in much of central and eastern England deteriorates with the withdrawal of 5th Division and 19 Infantry Brigade from civil relief duties for deployment to the continent.

The last US Pacific Fleet nuclear missile submarine, the USS Georgia, returns to port at Port Hadlock, Washington, joining ten other Trident boats in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.

The heavy equipment of the 46th Infanty Division (roughly one armored, one mechanized infantry and four truck-borne infantry battalions, plus two and a half battalions worth of artillery and other divisional combat support and service supportunits) departs Norfolk, Virginia aboard the American freighters Cape Turner and Baltimore Freedom and the (captured Greek and reflagged Panamanian) Manley Falmouth.

AWB terrorists continue to control wide swathes of the South African countryside; the SADF makes the drastic decision to incorporate former ANC (African National Congress) guerillas into regular units.

[chico20854]

May 6, 1998

Canon has nothing for the day. Unofficially,

The students of the 10th California Cadet Brigade and the garrison of the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, on the southern edge of the Los Angeles urban buildup, have succeeded in planting nearly all of the 5250-acre (21 sq-km) complex. They hope that the crops, shellfish harvested from the extensive marshes and fish caught from shore and the few small boats available will be sufficient to sustain themselves. (Military authorities have stopped sending troops into the devastated Los Angeles area following the extensive nuclear strikes on refineries in December).

In Alaska, once again X Corps troops are too short of supplies to offer a close pursuit of the Soviets that they have driven out of defensive positions; what little spare food and fuel available is dedicated to relief of the airborne and scout troops that had blocked the Soviet supply lines.

The Soviet Sierra-III class sub K-231, which has been on patrol non-stop since escaping the Mediterranean in late August, is running low on provisions. The captain's orders authorize him to seek shelter in Luanda, Angola as well as giving him code information to contact a number of supply vessels lurking in remote anchorages around the world. Luanda was struck by South African nuclear weapons in December, forcing the skipper to broadcast signals to try to locate a supply ship.

In Afghanistan, the isolated Soviet garrison in Khandahar (built around the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade) finds itself in an increasingly difficult situation. It has been nearly four months since the last resupply flight arrived and over 18 months since the last ground convoy. The only reason the command has not been wiped out is that the unit provides the only protection for the townspeople against the bands of deserters (from the Red Army and the puppet Afghan DRA), bandits and mujahidin that roam the countryside. The garrison commander provides protection for the poppy farms in the region, receiving the supply of food and fuel his command needs and that can only be supplied by drug runners in this chaotic environment.

The Hungarians of the 53rd Mechanized Brigade are forced to once again abandon the trains that have transported them from China after several days of seeking a way to repair or bypass the damaged portion of the Trans-Siberian railroad in eastern Siberia. They load their vehicles with as much fuel as they can carry and light the abandoned train they are leaving behind afire.

The convoy to Kenya is ordered to hold in place as an Allied naval force is hastily assembled to deal with the Soviet naval task force that has been sighted by a rare S-3 Viking patrol flight.

[chico20854]

May 7, 1998

Another day with nothing in canon. Unofficially,

The Acting Director of the CIA, his pride wounded by the dressing-down he received from President Munson following the assessment that the US has prevailed in the nuclear exchange, begins plotting revenge.

As word of the establishment of the Ho-Chunk territory spreads, Native Americans from throughout the upper Midwest begin to travel to the territory.

In Alaska, the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) dispatches a company (B Company, 2nd Battalion, 297th Infantry) down the still frozen Yukon River to secure the river's mouth, firmly denying use of the river as a transport route to the Soviets, who still have a sizeable portion of the 6th (my 99th) Guards Air Assault Division isolated to the north.

The cruiser USS Virginia, patrolling remote areas of the South Atlantic, as well as the NSA intercept station on Ascension Island and South African naval intelligence center at Silvermine near Capetown, intercept the K-231's transmissions and the response it receives from the Soviet fishing flotilla in the South Atlantic. Coordination between the three stations, however, takes some time, but the American cruiser has turned to advance down the bearing of the submarine's transmission while the South Africans dispatch a Boeing 707 tanker/ELINT aircraft of 60 Squadron SAAF to the area as well. Unbeknownst to the Americans and their South African comrades in arms (the American government, such as it is, is still working on the diplomatic niceties of formalizing the relationship as an alliance), the K-231 has returned to depth and is moving slowly towards the Soviet fishing fleet, which is remaining nearly stationary to preserve fuel and simplify the rendezvous with the sub.

A hastily assembled task force of American and Kenyan surface combatants sorties from Mombasa to cut off the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron before it can intercept the AFRICOM supply convoy, which is off Durban, South Africa. The South African Navy dispatches a task force as well, which rushes past the slowly-moving convoy.

In the Caribbean, French forces eliminate the last holdout positions of the Dutch 3rd Amphibious Combat Group and their local militia augmentees on St. Maarten. The Dutch, out of touch with home for months, have been resisting the French invasion since January.

[chico20854]

May 8, 1998

The remaining Soviet naval forces in the Indian Ocean that had survived the nuclear strikes on Maputo and the Seychelles are destroyed by the combined efforts of the US, Kenyan and South African Navies.

Unofficially,

RainbowSix reports that James (Lord Seymour of Marston), decorated Korean War hero and former Defense Minister and Foreign Secretary and an old friend of PM Douglas Montgomery, is visited at his home, where the PM asks him to return to Government service and take up the role of Foreign Secretary. Seymour agrees at once, joining the Government at Winchester.

Soviet forces along the Oder River line launch fierce artillery and mortar barrages, commencing after sunset. One of the units, the 20th (my 16th Guards) Tank Division adds its tanks' gunfire to the barrage, using inclined earthen ramps to add to their guns' elevation.

American and South African naval commands covering the South Atlantic coordinate as well, fixing the location from which the K-231 broadcast as well as the responding station. The overflight of the former location by a South African Boeing 707 reports nothing on the surface or vicinity, and the aircraft continues to the second location. Upon arrival in the vicinity of the fishing fleet, the South African aircraft is expectantly engaged by a SA-N-7 missile, which shoots it down, although not before it is able to relay the fleet's location to shore. The American cruiser is dispatched to the location, and thanks to its nuclear propulsion, it is able to travel at over 30 knots towards the Soviet fleet.

[Homer]

May 8, 1998 Upon arrival in the vicinity of the fishing fleet, the South African aircraft is expectantly engaged by a SA-N-7 missile

This might be interesting. There's a Sovremenny out there and Virginia is headed towards it. I wonder if it has Sunburns left.