On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

May 9, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

In the first of several "dirty tricks" inflicted on President Munson, power is cut to his personal quarters by an unexplained electrical fault.

The Nebraska corn and alfalfa crops begin to be planted, using carefully husbanded seed and fuel. Grae adds that there is not enough hybrid seed, and much of it never gets out of the seed warehouses. In many areas fuel is too scarce for use to cultivate and herbicide and pesticide chemicals are used sparingly as farmers realize there probably will not be more forthcoming; in the end there is not enough commercial fertilizer for all the new crop. What fertilizer and herbicide there is is allocated to the highest yielding fields and crops. In the western part of the state irrigation has ceased with the cutoff of electrical power, leaving much of the land to revert to rangeland. Likewise, irrigation-supported agriculture collapses in much of California and the desert southwest, except in areas that have transitioned to specialized (or long-forgotten) dry agricultural techniques. All around the nation, the spring planting is nearly entirely dedicated to food, with less than 5 percent of the 1997 acreage of cotton planted.

Fulfilling the Soviet command's decree that the offensive be launched on the anniversary of Germanys surrender in the Second World War, Soviet troops of the 16th and 41st Armies launch a coordinated attack northwest of Munich, preceded by a brief but intense barrage that mixes smoke and chemical artillery shells, effectively neutralizing the thinly spread line of outposts in front of the main defensive line. In most cases the defenders are not able to raise the alarm, as the chemicals overcome them when their expired gas mask filters and chemical defense suits fail. Soviet motor-riflemen have infiltrated between and even behind the well dispersed defensive positions, isolating them from reinforcement. The Soviet offensive is intended to seize the remaining industrial sites and power stations of central Germany.

The American cruiser USS Virginia continues to steam southwest at flank speed, closing on the location of the Soviet fishing flotilla in the South Atlantic. Ashore, the South African Air Force readies its Canberra and Buccaneer strike fleets for an attack on the Soviets, while liaison officers coordinate for an overflight by American B-52 bombers from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who are going to conduct a separate strike on the Soviets.

North of Moscow CIA Agent David Hudson stumbles on a remote dacha (country house) occupied by a minor party official from Moscow and his family, who had fled to the retreat to avoid the (easily foreseen) destruction of Moscow. Desperate for a quicker way out of the Soviet Union, he takes the official's wife hostage at gunpoint when she is outside tending the garden and forces the family to stock the family car, a Lada sedan, with food, blankets and all the fuel (both gasoline and homemade vodka) it can hold. He then races off to the west.

The Norwegian sail training ship Statsraad Lehmkuh departs Montevideo, Uruguay with a cargo of food for its home city aboard.

[chico20854]

May 10, 1998

The replica USS Constitution calls on Lisbon, discharging a cargo of electronic parts.

Unofficially,

In southern Ohio, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang launches a mirror operation to the one their West Coast brethren pulled in January, attacking the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison, from both the inside and outside. The under-supplied and inadequate guard force fights valiantly, but after nearly nine hours of running combat inside and outside the secure area the last of the corrections officers surrender. Despite orders from the gang's leadership the guards are executed by the inmates, and soon a second bloodletting commences as the bikers purge the inmate population of those that may prove problematic in the future.

Colonel Oleg Tumanski's Spetsnaz team in western England emerges from its winter hibernation, with new orders from GRU Moscow Center. While last year's operations were largely focused on pinprick attacks on critical points to hinder the British war effort, the team is now tasked with gathering strategic intelligence about conditions within the UK. This information will hopefully enable Soviet command to assess the likely level of British contribution to the war as well as provide post-strike damage assessment to permit planners to retarget surviving nuclear weapons should the nuclear exchange resume.

In many areas of southern Germany Pact forces have overrun the NATO outpost line and closed on the main line of resistance. The Italian 4th Army Corps, which was not informed of the offensive by Soviet commanders (who were concerned about disloyal Italian officers who may harbor pro-NATO sympathies leaking word of the offensive), hurriedly scrambles to reposition itself into an offensive posture.

The skies above the battlefront are suddenly relatively crowded with aircraft. While theatre-wide daily sortie counts in April averaged approximately a dozen by NATO and six by the Pact there are over 60 NATO fighter-bombers and interceptors airborne while Frontal Aviation and the Czechoslovakian Air Force get nearly 100 flights aloft. Some minor dogfighting occurs, with the loss of three MiGs and a Luftwaffe F-4 Phantom, but the emphasis of the operations are on support of ground troops.

CIA Agent David Hudson, driving a stolen Lada sedan, takes back and side roads in his evacuation from the USSR. He skirts the towns of Kalinin (the Tsarist Tver) and Novgorod, bluffing his way past the occasional MVD or local militia roadblock. (The stash of food and vodka comes in handy for this, as well as a small stash of gold coins provided long ago by the CIA).

[chico20854]

May 11, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

Another dirty trick is played on President Munson, when the canteen manager reports that the supplies of fresh food have run out and that there are only canned baked beans and tuna to feed the staff of the Presidential Bunker. Munson, who has developed a sensitive stomach as a result of the stress of his near-impossible job, spends much of the day unable to function.

Mexico City is wracked by unrest as Army units supporting the PARM party clash with shadow paramilitary groups loyal to the PAN caretaker government or the PRI party, the traditional ruling party of the nation. Rumors swirl that the anti-Army militias contain military deserters, policemen and enforcers from the many narcotics cartels.

5th Squad, operating in northwestern former East Germany, accepts its first non-American recruit, a Canadian Army deserter from the outskirts of Toronto. He is subjected to a beating as an initiation ritual into the gang.

In southern Germany, Italian troops join Hungarians, Czechs and Soviets in attacks all along the NATO main line of resistance, probing for weak spots and trying to run down their opponent's carefully husbanded supplies. Behind the NATO lines, commanders attempt to rush replacements and supplies to the front.

A naval battle erupts in the South Atlantic when the nuclear guided missile cruiser USS Virginia blazes into contact with the massed Soviet Atlantic fishing fleet, which has been sheltering in remote waters since the outbreak of war, unable to return home but able to provide limited support to Soviet raiders and submarines. The battle finds the Soviets harboring two raiders - the Sovremmeny-class destroyer Rastoropny, thought lost in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea 18 months ago, and the Akula-class submarine K-154. Rastoropny has been sheltering with the fishing fleet for over a year after being damaged in the Norwegian Sea, but successfully breaking out and joining the fishermen. The fleet has been unable to repair the destroyer (it is now running on one shaft and has but two older-model P-80 SS-N-22 Sunburn missiles remaining) but it has recently proved itself able to defend its countrymen, having shot down the SAAF Boeing a few days prior. The fleet's Ka-26 helicopter has been grounded for many months, so early warning is maintained by a screen of picket trawlers. The Sierra-class sub K-231, which inadvertently caused the fishing fleet to reveal its location, is also in the area, en route to join it.

Virginia launches her sole SH-2G helicopter to gain visibility of what lurks over the horizon. The Seasprite's radar reveals a virtual Soviet flotilla of over 75 vessels; the Soviet force's location is relayed back to the ship and then back to South African and American commands ashore. Within 20 minutes the South African Air Force has launched another Boeing 707, playing the multiple roles of ELINT aircraft, airborne command post and tanker for the accompanying strike force of four Buccaneer light bombers armed with AS.30 anti-ship missiles. Virginia launches her three remaining Harpoon anti-ship missiles at what its commander hopes is the Soviet destroyer; during the five minutes the missiles take to arrive over the target the cruiser's crew detects one of the submerged Soviet submarines and LtCdr Hans Brupp, the helicopter pilot, is recalled to localize and prosecute the contact as the American cruiser charges at the Soviet fleet at top speed. The Harpoons close on the Soviet fleet; one hits the factory ship (a vessel that processes fish caught by other trawlers) Vasili Krennekov, one is shot down by the Rastoropny's point defense 30mm cannon and the third hits the Soviet destroyer 25m short of the bow, knocking the dual 130mm gun turret off its mounting, starting a fierce fire. The shock wave from the explosion knocks most of the destroyer's electronics offline and ruptures pipes throughout the ship.

As Virginia closes in, she engages the outlying picket ships with her 5-inch guns, concentrating fire on the trawlers' bridges to disable their ability to maneuver and communicate. Brupp is able to obtain a MAD (magnetic anomaly detector) hit on the K-154 and turns and drops a Mk-46 lightweight torpedo on the Soviet sub. The torpedo hits within 30 seconds but its 96-pound warhead is insufficient to breach the subs inner pressure hull. The helo turns back to its parent ship to rearm (it carries only a single torpedo), allowing the damaged sub to slink away at low speed.

While Virginia's helicopter is on the aft deck (halting fire from the aft 5-inch gun), the Soviet destroyer restores enough fighting capability to launch its two remaining anti-ship missiles at the American cruiser, its location being relayed by the picket ships. One of the missiles fails to lock on the nuclear cruiser and the second is hit by Virginia's Phalanx anti-missile gun systems. Shortly thereafter the South African Boeing appears over the horizon and begins verbal relays of ship locations to the American ship (there being no data link system in common between the two nations) as well as the approaching bombers. The Buccaneers launch all eight of their AS.30 anti-ship missiles at Rastoropny, five of which hit, breaking her back and making the fires aboard even worse; within four hours the battered ship slips beneath the waves.

Brupp returns to the air having rearmed with two more Mk-46 torpedoes, discarding the spare fuel tank he had on the prior flight, and attempts to re-locate the Akula-class boat. He fails to do so, Virginia's hull-mounted sonar of little use and with crude jamming of the sononbuoy relay circuit by the Soviet fishing craft. Virginia slows its rate of advance when it receives word of Rastoropny's condition, concentrating its effort on sinking the largest Soviet support ships while dispatching a motor whaleboat to capture the Soviet tanker Captain Pershin. After 45 minutes the cruiser has nearly run out of ammunition for its guns and shooting comes to a halt, allowing the gun barrels to cool as the whaleboat comes alongside the tanker. After a short firefight the Captain Pershin's Soviet ensign is struck and the Stars and Stripes flown; unfortunately the tanker's cargo tanks are nearly dry. As the remaining trawlers scatter in all directions a flight of B-52s arrives overhead; the high-flying bombers are laden with unguided munitions (all that were available in Kenya) which are of little use against the Soviet fleet. Virginia pulls alongside the fish transport ship Motovskiy Zaliv, capturing it and its cargo of 4000 tons of frozen fish. The trio of American-controlled ships soon departs, aware of the presence of enemy submarines, having sunk eight trawlers, two factory ships and the Soviet destroyer.

Nhaziern Khazi, a drug smuggler turned Pasdaran militiaman, decides to strike out on his own. He slips away from the camp at night and makes contact with an old acquaintance who he knows has contact with the communist Tudeh guerrillas. A meeting is scheduled.

The gas tank in CIA agent David Hudson's stolen Lada finally runs dry, forcing him to abandon the rugged car and resume his journey on foot. The vehicle had, however, enabled him to cover over 800 km of hostile territory in less than 72 hours, leaving him outside the town of Vuru in southeastern Estonia. Hudson sets out on foot for the Baltic coast.

[chico20854]

May 12, 1998

As food and fuel become increasingly hard to come by legitimately, Grunge McLeod, a biker in Butler, Pennsylvania and several of his associates in the Blackhawk Bike Club turn to crime for survival.


Unofficially,

Fighting continues in Mexico City between various armed groups; it is unclear who is in charge.

The Pact offensive in southern Germany rolls on, with the appearance on the battlefield of the Hungarian 1st Corps and Czechoslovakian 1st Army opposite British troops south of Nuremberg and in the former US Army training center at Grafenwohr, respectively. Rumors swirl that additional Soviet and Italian troops are moving through the rear area in Austria and occupied Bavaria.

The assessment team sent to the Sonico hydroelectric plant, located under the Gavia pass in northern Italy, completes its evaluation. The plant's subterranean control center and generator hall are intact and operable, but 1000 liters of fuel are needed to run diesel generators to restore operation before enough electrical power is delivered for self-sufficiency. Transmission lines from the plant appear intact for several kilometers down the mountains from the plant.

US Navy Seebees of the 58th Naval Construction Battalion and repair, salvage and maintenance sailors assigned to 5th Fleet begin an effort to transform the damaged guided missile frigate Samuel Eliot Morison into a stationary defense platform for Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf. 5th Fleet experts have determined that the ship, damaged by a Soviet missile in 1997, cannot be repaired in the region and that there is no reasonable expectation that it can be towed home for repair. Therefore, employment of the ship's weapon systems (chiefly its Mk-13 missile launcher with SM-1MR surface to air missiles and 76mm multi-use gun) to defend the oil processing facilities and adjacent port while the frigate's generators support critical infrastructure ashore (chiefly the pumping stations that keep a steady flow of crude oil going) are the best use for the vessel.

[chico20854]

May 13, 1998

The Dutch 1st Mechanized Division is stood down, its surviving personnel assigned to other units.

Unofficially,

The bubonic plague is spreading along the US West Coast, with new cases reported in Astoria, Oregon and Riverside, California.

In Alaska, X Corps has finally amassed sufficient food and fuel to resume its pursuit of the Soviet force retreating towards Anchorage.

Southwest of Ulm, the German town of Erbach an der Donau is held by a mixed force of Bundeswehr troops of the 10th Panzer Division and Danish reservists of the 2nd Jutland Regiment, forming the junction between the Danish Expeditionary Force and IV German Korps. The town is separated from the Pact lines by the Danube River and low-lying marshy ground between the shore and the town's built-up area; the prior days' Pact attacks have only eliminated some of the NATO observation posts on an island opposite the town. At dawn the Soviet 62nd Tank Division, a mobilization-only division from Ukraine equipped with an array of obsolescent armor (T-34s, T-10s and SU-100s) tries to force a crossing onto the island opposite the town. NATO artillery observers from the schloss (castle) overlooking the town from the far side call in effective artillery and mortar fire which strips the supporting infantry off the Soviet armor. The Soviet tanks turn back, seeking the cover of nearby vegetation. The German commander's request for air or further artillery support to eliminate the sheltering tanks is denied; no ammunition can be spared to engage enemy troops not in direct contact.

The small group of transports carrying replacement equipment (much of the heavy weapons and vehicles of the 46th Infantry Division) arrives in Bremerhaven, Germany. The vehicles aboard the Cape Turner and Baltimore Freedom can be driven off the ships' ramps, while the supplies on the Baltimore Freedom and Manley Falmouth are unloaded using the ships' onboard cranes; this allows them to be unloaded without requiring the heavily damaged port's cranes to have power and masses of stevedore labor.
The convoy's escort, the destroyer USS Stump, remains on patrol offshore.

Nhaziern Khazi meets with a Tudeh guerrilla leader, who agrees on a bounty to be paid for assistance in attacking Khazi's Pasdaran unit.

In the south Atlantic, the USS Virginia and the two ships it captured in battle two days prior have turned north. What little fuel that remains aboard the tanker Captain Pershin is transferred to the refrigerated cargo ship Motovskiy Zaliv as well as spares, lubricants and other items of value that cannot be used by the American cruiser. The upper two levels of the forward hold are fitted with bedding, and an American prize crew guards the transfer of the crews of the two Soviet ships as well as the POWs captured in April from the trawler Star of Crimea into the hold. The ship is dispatched to Norfolk, Virginia while the cruiser turns west, heading for the Pacific.

[chico20854]

Sorry folks, had to take a break to visit some target sites...

Pensacola Naval Air Station and
the impact point of the White House strike.

Hope the Battle of the South Atlantic was worth the wait!

I'll try to get caught up next week.

[chico20854]

May 14, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day.

In Yukon, a GRU technical team arrives at the Canadian Security Establishment (the Canadian counterpart to the National Security Agency) ELINT station outside Whitehorse. The team had been stationed on Shemya Island, Alaska to evaluate the various monitoring devices the US had operated there; they see some of the same equipment and are overall amazed at the relative sophistication of the electronics compared to the much more privative in use by the GRU.

The 7th Panzer Divisions headquarters is located by a Spetsnaz team from the 18th Spetsnaz Brigade, infiltrated at the onset of the offensive. The Soviet commandos relay the position to the 442nd Missile Brigade, which, in a rare feat of efficiency, has a SS-21 missile en route within 90 minutes. The nuclear-tipped missile scores a near-hit, landing within the headquarters' perimeter fence, destroying the German facility and the command staff. The nuclear attack is followed shortly thereafter with an intense but short artillery barrage, expending the last of 41st Army's chemical weapons, which is then followed by a mass assault by two of the Army's motor-rifle divisions. By nightfall, the German positions have been overrun, and scattered survivors break out northward.

The Soviet 41st Army repeats its dawn attack on the town of Erbach an der Donau, achieving the same result (no territory captured, several vehicles lost to defensive fire).

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-888, operating in the English Channel after sinking the British frigate HMS Achilles in April, is running low on torpedoes, fuel and stores. Not having sighted any Allied shipping in several days (partly due to the lack of traffic, partly due to persistent fog), the boat's commander decides to have his weapons officer deploy the remaining mines aboard (including conversion of all but one of the remaining torps to mines) before turning for home. Given the dire conditions on the Kola, he aims for the Baltic Fleet submarine base at Paldiski, Estonia.

The Marines of the 4th Marine Division have their first clash with Marine deserters, a band that calls itself the Junkyard Dawgs. The Dawgs are composed of members of a motor-transport unit that was cut off and destroyed while running supplies to the isolated 1st Marine Division in the fall; they have spent the last several months making their way south, living off the land and what they can plunder from local civilians, but find the prospect of returning to military discipline unattractive.

After a month in transit, the 106th Motor-Rifle (my 232nd Rear Area Protection) Division has reached the border of Austria and Hungary. It has expended all of its food and fuel, and made it across Hungary mostly by begging/extorting supplies from local authorities, who determine that it is better to provide the division what it needs to move on than deny it and have the unit remain where they are.

In the south Atlantic, the damaged Akula-class submarine K-154 meets up with the Sierra-class K-231 after both boats have escaped the destruction of the Soviet South Atlantic fishing fleet. K-154 transfers stocks of frozen fish to the other boat as their captains agree to strike out for Maputo, Mozambique, hoping that they will receive a friendly reception there.

[chico20854]

May 15, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The Franco-Belgian government authorizes the military to provide covert aid to Quebecois separatists; previous aid was limited to advisors to help integrate the various military, police and militia formations into the Quebec National Army; the aid is now to include providing munitions (all NATO-standard items, many from Belgian Army stocks that cannot be definitively traced back to France or Belgium) as well as food and limited amounts of precious fuel.

Members of the Ho-Chunk tribal militia turn back a group of refugees seeking entry to the tribe's territory in west-central Wisconsin. The refugees are not natives.

The Polish government makes a desperate plea to their Soviet and Czech allies for seed for the spring planting. The 1997 farming year was disastrous thanks to the war twice crisscrossing the country, with what scant reserves and the seed stock used up over the winter to sustain the civilian population (and a great deal of the Soviet forces stationed within the country).

Erbach an der Donau is hit again with another attack by the Soviet 62nd Tank Division. Inexplicably, the attack is a near mirror-image of the attack the same unit launched in the same sector just days prior. It is turned back by the mixed force of Danish and German defenders.

In South Africa, the Security Service scores a major success when radio-location units pinpoint the location of the safehouse where the leaders of the right-wing AWB terrorist group are gathered. A hastily arranged heliborne assault by troops of the 5 Recon Commando catches the plotters asleep, allowing them to be captured mostly alive.

[chico20854]

May 16, 1998

Nother day when canon is silent. Unofficially,

BMSA (Boatswains Mate Apprentice) Rodney Cutler in Brownsville, Texas is involved with another incident with Mexican citizens. He is one of six sailors who, faced with desperate refugees refusing to return to Mexico, beats the men to within inches of their lives, throwing the unconcious men into a truck along with their families before dumping them on the far side of the US-Mexico border station.

The American attack submarine USS Baton Rouge, which departed on an unauthorized patrol from Bremerton, Washington in the chaotic days after the initial nuclear attacks on the US, returns from its voyage when it sails into Pearl Harbor. It is docked alongside the nuclear attack sub USS Pargo. Baton Rouge's captain is escorted to fleet headquarters to answer for his actions in December.

The Soviet 62nd Tank Division launches a third attack on the defenders of Erbach an der Donau, using the same avenues of approach. The attack is slowed down by the need for the tank drivers to weave between the wrecks of the prior two attacks. Like the others, the attack is unsuccessful and the division is forced back to its start lines.

The Dutch freighter Randfontien, carrying a cargo of grain from South Africa, hits a mine off the Dutch coast and sinks in shallow water off The Hague.

In the early morning hours the Pasdaran militia garrison in the small village of Asmadabad, east of Shiraz, is overrun in a surprise Tudeh attack. The Tudeh commander thanks the traitor in the Pasdaran ranks, Nhaziern Khazi, who ensured that he and his cousins and friends were on guard and allowed the Tudeh rebels into the village prior to the confused massacre.

The prior night's raid on AWB leadership has a devastating effect on the ongoing rural terror campaign. The leaderless movement finds itself adrift, and resistance to government authority rapidly begins to fade as the government tightens control of food and fuel distribution.

[chico20854]

May 17, 1998

Yet another day where I'm on my own! Unofficially,

After over a week of perilous travel along the frozen Yukon River, the troops of B Co., 2nd Battalion 297th Infantry (part of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon)) secure the USAF forward operating base at Galena, Alaska, which the Air Force was forced to abandon the prior summer.

The defense of Erbach an der Donau finally comes under pressure, not from the now-daily frontal assault by the 62nd Tank Division on the same entrenched defenders with artillery support on call but from Soviet forces advancing along the north bank of the Danube from the city of Ulm, which fell under Soviet control several days ago.

Days after departing its last patrol station in the English Channel and successfully avoiding Belgian naval patrols and Danish minefields, the Kilo-class submarine B-888 passes through the Kattegat, the narrow sea that forms the mouth of the Baltic. Ignoring the long-compromised idea of Swedish neutrality, the Soviet boat traverses Swedish territorial waters. Its passage is noted by a bottom-mounted hydrophone array, and the Swedish Navy dispatches a former Coast Guard C-212 maritime patrol aircraft to investigate. The plane's observer sees the submerged boat, and the plane circles overhead while patrol boats with depth charges are sortied. (The Kilo's periscope-mounted surface-to-air missile system has been out of missiles for over a year). After several hours of hunting and evading, the Soviet boat, damaged and with dead batteries, surfaces for the crew to abandon ship before being scuttled. Swedish sailors board the boat and secure the seacocks before it can be sent to the bottom; the boat is taken under tow to the nearby naval base in Goteborg.

CIA Agent David Hudson, after spending five nights walking through rural Estonia, arrives at the small fishing village of Vuiste on the coast of the Gulf of Riga. He makes contact with a "CIA contractor", a local fisherman whose father was shot by the Soviets after their recapture of Estonia in 1944-5 (a not uncommon occurrence). The fishing boat captain is still willing to continue his long-standing service for the CIA (and MI6), in exchange for Hudson's remaining gold coins. After dark the captain's fishing boat sets sail, taking his passenger out of Soviet territorial waters.

[chico20854]

May 18, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

President Munson is "extremely frustrated" when his phone calls are nearly drowned out by a high-pitch squealing on the line, making communications with his far-flung subordinatesd nearly impossible.

The commander of the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron orders the initiation of an effort to harden the dispersal sites of the 21 Hard Mobile Launchers his squadron possessed.

The defenders of Erbach an der Donau pivot their dwindling reserves to the town's northeast approaches as their Soviet opponents advancing from Ulm send a dismounted detachment northwest to encircle the town. The commitment of reserves to that flank causes the burden of turning back the day's daily frontal assault by the 62nd Tank Division to shift to the Luftwaffe, which commits some of its scarce close air support aircraft to the skies overhead. A pair of Alphajets overfly the treeline that the Soviets have attacked from repeatedly, each dropping two BLU-23B napalm bombs, enveloping them in flames and disrupting the Soviet armored formation. As they turn for another pass with their onboard 27mm cannon they are bracketed by fire from the Soviet division's anti-aircraft guns (the mobilization-only division never received surface-to-air missiles). One of the light bombers is downed by a 57mm hit, while the other heads back to base trailed by a thin line of smoke.

A Swedish naval Super Puma helicopter overflies the captured B-888 and disembarks several intelligence and signals officers on the partially flooded Kilo-class sub's hull. They head below immediately, headed for the sub's radio compartment.

Dutch authorities launch a rescue and salvage operation to retrieve as much of the grain cargo aboard the mined freighter Randfontien which is aground off The Hague.

Nhaziern Khazi and a small group of friends and cousins strike out on their own, one of hundreds of marauder bands wandering the no-mans-land of central Iran.

CIA officer David Hudson spends the day at sea as the small fishing boat he is a passenger on transits the mouth of the Gulf of Riga past the destroyed remains of Soviet Naval coastal defense radars, observation towers and gun and missile batteries.

[chico20854]

May 19, 1998

President Munson suffers a nervous breakdown.

The newly-reformed 40th Infantry Division arrives at Camp Roberts, California and begins battling armed bands as the authorities struggle to maintain order. The unit had to take a long route from Oregon to avoid the quarantines of San Francisco and Sacramento.

Unofficially,

Mexican officials spread word among the masses of refugees huddled around Matamoros about the abuse of their compatriots inflicted by US Navy sailors over the border in Brownsville.

In Mexico City an armed standoff has settled in between the Presidential Guard, which has declared loyalty to the PARM party, a nascent militia composed of various military deserters and police that is loyal to the ruling PAN party, and a coalition of narco traffickers that are taking advantage of the disorder.

The bandit gang of US Army deserters in the former East Germany forms a subordinate gang. Led by a cousin of 5th Squad "Drill Private Major" Malcolm Green, 5th Squadron (led by "Vice Airman No Class" Aubrey Green) is composed largely of US Air Force deserters. 5th Squadron heads for territory to its south, hoping to prey on traffic transiting the roads between the ports on the former West German North Sea coast and the front lines east of the ruins of Berlin.

The German and Danish defence of Erbach an der Donau begins to crack. After the prior day's loss over the town, the Luftwaffe is unwilling to commit additional aircraft and artillery and mortar ammunition is running short; the defense's last reserves have been committed as Soviet forces threaten the routes out of the town to the north and west. The 62nd Tank Division tries a different approach from the full-scale frontal attacks it has tried for the past several days; instead the unit's obsolescent T-54 and T-34 tanks stand back under the cover of the burned-out forest and wrecked vehicles of previous attacks and pound NATO defensive positions with precision fire.

The small Estonian fishing boat carrying CIA officer David Hudson reaches the central Baltic and continues sailing west towards the Swedish coast.

[chico20854]

May 20, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

Following Munson's breakdown, the Secretary of State is sworn in as President of the United States. Munson is escorted out of the bunker in south-central Virginia to a comfortable home at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station outside Newport News, where he can rest.

In Colorado Springs, the Joint Chiefs and FEMA managers agree that to maximize the utility of the limited trickle of fuel available for transportation, that maximum use is to be made of rail and river transportation. (A gallon of diesel can move 59 ton-miles by truck, 202 by train and 514 ton-miles by barge).

Erbach an der Donau finally falls to Soviet troops, with scattered German and Danish troops slipping away through the woods and hills outside the city. The Soviet victory has come at great cost and the NATO defense has held up the advance of the entire 41st Army.

The Estonian fishing boat carrying CIA agent David Hudson arrives in view of the Swedish island of Gotland. The CIA man makes radio contact with the acting CIA station chief in Stockholm and is instructed to land and surrender himself to the local defense force.

The Dutch salvage team aboard the freighter Randfontien reports that nearly half of the ship's cargo of grain is still dry and undamaged but that the ship cannot be refloated, such is the damage inflicted by the mine the ship detonated six days prior. Unloading the ship, however, will require a stream of barges and construction equipment, since the ship is listing at an angle that precludes use of its onboard cranes.

In Shiraz, Iran, the state munitions plant brings online its second production line, turning out track pads for the IPA's small but useful fleet of Scorpion light tanks. The British-educated chief engineer hopes that once the plant's workers before proficient in the Scorpion pads that they can expand to other track sections for the Scorpions as well as pads for the plethora of other tracked AFVs in use by Allied forces in Iran.

[chico20854]

May 21, 1998

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The new American President, the former Secretary of State, is briefed on the myriad challenges the nation faces, including over 30 percent casualties from the nuclear attacks and aftermath, a collapse of the economy, what is looking to be a poor spring planting and petroleum production of approximately 25 percent of a year earlier.

The Joint Chiefs' logistic coordinator, the J-4, issues a directive that civilian rail and river transportation is to be organized along military lines. Regional military commanders are ordered to propose strategic rail and river corridors where remaining assets are to be concentrated.

The Freedom-class freighter Rhode Island Freedom, en route unescorted to Pusan, South Korea with a cargo of replacement vehicles and foodstuffs for 8th US Army, strikes a mine while traversing the Kanmon Straits (separating the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu). While taking on water the captain radios for help; Japanese tugs respond but are unwilling to approach the ship, afraid of striking additional mines. The ship settles in as the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force dispatches a minesweeper to clear a way for the tugs.

CIA officer David Hudson lands on Gotland Island in the mid-Baltic and is nearly immediately taken into custody by Swedish coast defense troops.

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-888, captured by the Swedish Navy, arrives in the port of Goteborg, where the boat is rushed into a drydock for repairs. The intelligence officers that were flown aboard disembark, while the crew are hurried off to special facilities for interrogation before being transferred to POW camps.

Italian salvage experts complete their assessment of the Mese hydropower plant. Like the team at the Campore Basso plant, they determine that the underground facility has survived the nuclear exchange nearly intact and will require extensive repairs to the grid connections but can be fairly easily restored to operation.

[chico20854]

May 22, 1998

The Secretary of State, President Munson's successor, suffers heart failure and is replaced by the Secretary of Energy, June R. Flaherty. Flaherty is the United State's first woman president.

Unofficially,

The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force minesweeper Takashima arrives in the Kanmon Straits and begins searching for Soviet mines near the damaged American freighter Rhode Island Freedom. By nightfall they have identified two additional devices on the seabed.

Pact forces are forced to pause their offensive in southern Germany while they consolidate their gains and await the arrival of another train carrying supplies from the Ukraine via the circuitous route through Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria.

A Dutch Navy salvage team begins scouring port facilities for barges and tug boats that can be used to support the salvage of the grounded freighter Randfontien. The team aboard the ship off The Hague's beach tries to secure the vessel to slow its deterioration as it is battered by waves and wind.

The Australian Navy dispatches the transport Jervis Bay and survey ship Cook, loaded with reinforcements (freshly trained recruits) for the Australian Mechanized Brigade fighting in Iran, from Sydney's HMAS Waterhen naval base. The small convoy is escorted by the frigate Torrens.