On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[pmulcahy11b]

Was the Twilight War ever a declared war, by anyone

[chico20854]

Was the Twilight War ever a declared war, by anyone

According to the v1 Referees Manual:

"On July 1st, Greece declared war against the NATO nations, and Italy, in compliance with her treaty obligations, followed suit on the 2nd."

but according to Howling Wilderness:

"Vice President Pemberton, after identifying herself, issued a proclamation of the existence of a state of war (only Congress has the power to declare war, and that body was not in session), and ordered retaliatory strikes on the USSR."

So a mixed bag...

[chico20854]

June 19, 1998

The remnants of the Greek government/Army (unofficially, in actuality, a cabal of leftist field-grade officers that asserted control of the military in the chaotic last weeks of 1997, in no small part due to the intervention of a KGB hit team that eliminated various rightist or centrist generals and politicians) issues a declaration directly annexing the Jugoslav republic of Macedonia.

The 106th Guards Air Assault Division is ordered to the Ryazan area from its reserve positions near Grodno, Byelorussia.

Unofficially,

In the wake of the evacuation of the military facilities in San Diego literally thousands of seamen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen are brought to the San Francisco Bay Area. The fighting for control of the city's military bases continues, with troops from Brigade La Paz arriving on the front lines. Elsewhere in the city the population (many of which returned home over the winter, realizing life in an unpowered home may be preferable to that in a desert refugee camp) is suffering from lack of water and widespread fires that are burning unchecked. The final navy combatants and auxiliaries depart the harbor, taking minor damage from long-range Mexican small arms fire and taking the last noncombatants out of the perimeter.

East of San Diego the Mexican drive is encountering its first serious resistance as forward patrols of Brigade Mexicali clash with the 177th Armored Brigade's forward reconnaissance screen. The American commander has ordered his troops to maintain an active mobile defense while 89 (my II) Corps tries to scrape together enough ammunition and fuel for 1st Brigade, 4th Armored Division to join his command. The Mexican commander is able to begin shifting additional troops to face the Fort Irwin Contingent as Brigade Hermosillo begins arriving in the area and taking over the roadblocks on Interstate 8.

The Mexican 3rd Army, in the Battle of El Paso, is nearing a crisis. While a trickle of supplies is beginning to arrive, the School Brigade and its allied and Texas State Guard augmentees have fought Brigade Ciudad Juarez to a halt and, the Army commander, General de divisi3n Jose Gonzalez, fears that his command is vulnerable to an American counterattack if reinforcements do not arrive. (He is unaware of the dire situation on the cantonment area of Fort Bliss, where ammunition, food and fuel are all reaching critically low levels).

With Brownsville behind them, the so-called Mexican "Coastal Column" makes progress moving north, with parallel columns on highways 77 and 281 and forward detachment capturing the Kingsville Naval Air Station. The airfield is deserted, the aircraft having been flown off over a week ago and the garrison evacuated, taking everything of value along or burning what they couldn't carry. Many ranchers in the area are fleeing ahead of the Mexican Army, although others remain and defend their land. (These encounters rarely end well for the outnumbered and outgunned Texans). Some of this resistance is out of patriotism; for others it is a matter of survival, as the Mexican Army and refugees both are slaughtering their livestock at an alarming rate in order to survive.

South of San Antonio, skirmishing continues between Mexican Army and US Air Force contingents, the Mexican 4th Army rushing additional formations north as quickly as the ragtag transportation net can feed them.

RainbowSix reports that Faisel Khan, an immigrant to Leicester that in the years prior to the war had been a very successful businessman and charitable benefactor, has become the city's de-facto leader. This feat is not out of any desire to become a leader but instead the natural evolution that occurred as Leicester threatened to fall apart and descend into chaos and anarchy. Khan finds himself thrust to the forefront, bringing calm first to the Asian community and then to the city in general.

An odd truce reigns along the Rhine River between the German-Italian lines south of Heidelberg and the American-Italian lines opposite Strasbourg. The French Army has been maintaining active but low-key patrolling in the so-called "Dead Zone" opposite French territory. Those patrols are now running into Soviet-allied Italian troops; French commanders issue orders identical to those on the Italian border in southeaster France: correct relations, no assistance, and minimal cooperation, oriented towards deconfliction of space in an attempt to avoid NATO accusations of re-entering the conflict on the Pact side, which would raise the possibility of NATO nuclear retaliation.

The isolated guns of the 1048th Assault Gun Regiment are circled together in the rear of the US Marine's 6th Marine Regiment, low on fuel and ammunition, fight tank-hunting teams. The designated exploitation force that is supposed to advance through the hole in the lines the guns blasted, the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, remains largely immobile, its officers unable to motivate their troops to leave the safety of the forward trenches to advance on the American positions.

[chico20854]

June 20, 1998

In Cuba, Major General Femerov, after several days of consideration, accepts the Mexican government's offer and begins preparing his troops for movement to Texas. (Unofficially, he has no amphibious shipping but a motley collection of shipping of various types; he is hoping the Mexican offer to transport his command to the combat zone involves sufficient shipping, his Cuban "allies" unwilling to part with any of their small fleet.)

Unofficially,

The Mexican supply situation begins to improve as the hastily reorganized supply and transportation effort begins to show results; the railheads are getting organized and regular convoys of requisitioned civilian 18-wheeler trucks are being dispatched into captured territory. On the other hand, the Mexican Army's pre-war structure, emphasizing internal defense, is increasingly hampering operations as maintenance on the many disparate weapons systems and vehicles comes due. The support structure is oriented towards maintaining vehicles from permanent facilities in garrisons throughout Mexico, often with contract or civilian staff; the brigades in combat lack the necessary mechanics, tools, spares and expertise to performs maintenance above the operator level. For unarmored vehicles this shortcoming is partially rectified by seizing similar vehicles from Americans in the occupied zone, but commanders are reluctant to send lightly damaged armored vehicles hundreds of miles south for repair, opting to keep them in action until they break down completely.

The 49th Armored Division's G-4 (supply officer) informs the commander that there is insufficient fuel and heavy trucks available to convoy the entire division to Oklahoma by road. (The tracked vehicles need to be moved by truck; they are so maintenance intensive that the few vehicles that could complete the drive to Fort Sill would need an overhaul upon arrival). There is a possibility, however, to make use of the many barges and towboats tied up along the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois Rivers to transport the division to Muskogee, Oklahoma, about 225 miles from the division's rally point at Fort Sill, via the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. The Commanding General approves the plan and within hours troops are seizing tugs and barges along the rivers.

The lead battalion (the 5th Battalion, 37th Armor) of the 1st Brigade, 4th Armored Division, equipped with a full complement of IPM-1 tanks (the stock maintained at the National Training Center for units rotating through), arrives on the front lines north of Palm Spring California. To its west, the scout platoons of the 40th Training Division are attempting to identify clear routes through the post-nuclear chaos of the Los Angeles basin to reach the front.

In southeastern New Mexico, the resistance offered by the cadets of the New Mexico Military Institute runs its course as ammunition supplies run out after several days of fierce urban fighting in the town of Carlsbad. At dusk, Brigade Chihuahua resumes its advance and by midnight a forward detachment has arrived in the town of Artesia.

The crisis in the 3rd Mexican Army zone is avoided when the first reinforcements from the Mexican interior arrive at the front in El Paso - the 17th Motorized Cavalry Regiment from the Torreon Brigade and the 50th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment from Brigade Durango. The cavalry's ERC-90 armored cars add much-needed firepower to Brigade Ciudad Juarez's tired and depleted infantry. As more Mexican troops (Brigade Monterrey and the 51st Infantry Regiment from Brigade Monclova) arrive on the front line south of San Antonio, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn from contact with the city's American defenders and resupplied.

The Mexican Air Force has largely faded from the skies over the front following American raids on its bases and as shortages of fuel, spares and munitions begin to bite. Similar shortages also force the US Air Force to scale back its activity over the front.

The B Team from 1st Battalion, 8th Special Forces Group has completed its transit of Guatemala and crosses over into southern Mexico. A Drug Enforcement Agency field agent (a former Army Military Intelligence warrant officer) links up with the Green Berets to act as a local guide and to introduce them to some of the local indigenous leaders.

A contingent of Dutch Marines that remained with the American 2nd Marine Division score a victory against the guns of the Soviet 1048th Assault Gun Regiment, disabling the last remaining SU-130 with a well-placed Carl Gustav shot to the behemoth's engine compartment. Several other guns have been destroyed as well; in two of them the crew remains inside, continuing to fire back with small arms.

Along the front in Southern Germany, Soviet troops have paused their attacks as they await additional supplies of ammunition as well as the (likely vain) hope for replacement troops, weapons and vehicles to replace their losses in the advances to date.

Reflecting the poor condition in many navies around the world, the ammunition ship USS Mount Shasta is destroyed by a massive internal explosion while at anchor in Okinawa.

Sudanese and Somali forces in Kenya begin a general retreat under pressure from the combined forces of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 30th Marines and Kenyan forces.

[chico20854]

June 21, 1998

The Albanian Army, always a reluctant ally, protests the Greek annexation of Macedonia.

Cape Cod is completely under UBF control. The USCG and naval commands in the area, as well as the 43rd MP Brigade, have their plates full dealing with multiple crises in other areas and are unable to take any action.

Headquarters, 63 (my XVI) Corps issues orders redesignating the 40th Training Division (less 1st Brigade) back to an infantry division, as well as ordering its reinforcement with a hodgepodge of armored vehicles. Accompanying these is a directive for it to proceed south to halt the Mexican invasion. Orders are also issued to the 221st MP Brigade to move south, and (unofficially) for the 91st Training Division to provide trained troops to the 40th and 196th Infantry Brigade to allow those units to move south; the 91st is also to assume the internal security and disaster relief duties that the 221st and 196th had been performing. The 91st, which has been training locally-drafted troops continuously since the nuclear exchange, has excess troops that are available for these duties, although weapons and vehicles are in short supply.

Unofficially,

Mexican troops of Brigade Ensenada cut off the narrow corridor between the San Diego Naval Base and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot to the northwest, taking heavy losses in the effort as Mexican Marines advance under heavy fire across the runway of the heavily burning Naval Air Station North Island, former home of the Pacific Fleet's helicopter force.

Brigade Mexicali and Brigade La Paz's 160th Infantry Regiment launch a frontal attack on 89th (my II) Corps' positions north of Palm Springs; the American armored force easily turns back the largely dismounted attack.

3rd Mexican Army pauses offensive operations for the day to allow its exhausted troops a chance to rest and to allow the rapidly evolving support organization time to resupply the widely-scattered units. The day also sees the arrival of the first infantry companies from Brigade Durango arriving in El Paso.

Farther east in Texas, a task force built around the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and Brigade Monclova's 47th Infantry Regiment (motorized with captured vehicles) strikes out north from the former Hondo Airfield west of San Antonio, the beginning of an effort to bypass American resistance in the city. The column is attacked by an ad-ho force of Texas Rangers and armed civilians as it enters the hilly terrain, but beats the resistance back with machinegun and mortar fire. The so-called "Coastal Column" dispatches its first scouting parties into the ruins of post-nuclear Corpus Christi.

The Mexican Navy begins mobilizing a motley collection of ships and craft, dispatching them to Cuba to pick up the Soviet "Division Cuba" and its equipment.

The Soviet 2nd Southwestern Front begins planning the next wave of tis offensive, the effort to capture Frankfurt.

After assessing the situation in Byelorussia, the Byelorussian Military District commander, Colonel General Vitaly Ragozin, directs the conversion of one of his last remaining uncommitted forces, the cadre and student body of the Minsk Higher Military-Political Combined Arms School, to the 138th Motor-Rifle Division with the incorporation of any number of stragglers as well as men from the ages of 16-55 in refugee camps in the district. Equipment is appallingly short, but since the division is intended for internal duties the shortages are not crippling.

[Homer]

Great stuff. Keep it up!!

[chico20854]

June 22, 1998

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The thousands of volunteers who have signed up for service with the Mexican Army are being processed, trained and formed into units. Nearly half are sent home for various reasons (health problems, addiction, criminal history or family responsibilities), and the rest are formed into over 80 independent companies of "voluntarios", volunteers. They are given training in basic first aid, marksmanship and small unit tactics; due to a general shortage of modern G3 and FAL rifles most are armed with M1954 bolt-action rifles.

Scout teams from the 40th Infantry Division identify three routes through the Los Angeles area that can, with sufficient troops, be secured for the unit's passage. The command elements of the teams return north to relay the route information to command, establishing observation posts in the Hollywood Hills and other high ground to maintain surveillance over the routes.

The Mexican 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment has transited the Temescal Valley on Interstate 15 into the town of El Cerrito, giving wide berth to the feared glowing remains of March Air force Base, which was nuked by the Soviets in December. The Mexican Marines have pushed the remaining defenders of the North Island naval station into the warren of (nearly entirely empty) ammunition bunkers in the southwest corner of the base, while another Marine detachment secures the western abutment of the Coronado Bridge; sailors defending the other end detonate demolition charges which drop the 1,880-foot long central span into the harbor, blocking the channel. Mexican paratroops have continued their advance north along Interstate 5, clearing the suburban areas between the city and Camp Pendleton of organized resistance. The rear areas in San Diego County are increasingly patrolled by armed Mexican street and criminal gangs allied with the Mexican Army, relieving combat troops for duty fighting the remnant American defenses; additional gang members are active throughout Orange and Los Angeles Counties, attacking small isolated American military units, interdicting supply routes and scouting for enemy troops.

North of Palm Springs the Mexicans adopt a defensive posture while sending small teams of dismounted infantry overland to try to interdict the supply lines supporting 89th (my II) Corps' troops in the Morongo Valley. To the east, the 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment has mostly reformed at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona and begins drawing armored vehicles and supplies maintained for units rotating through the base for training. Ammunition and fuel are in short supply.

Brigade Chihuahua resumes its advance as the eastern and northern pincer of 3rd Mexican Army's double envelopment of the garrison of Fort Bliss, leaving the Pecos River behind and turning west into barren desert terrain for Alamogordo and Holloman Air Force Base. The School Brigade launches a combined-arms counterattack across Fort Bliss, with the infantry of the 3rd Battalion, 56th Air Defense Artillery and its attached battery of 12 Diana self-propelled AA guns driving back troops of the Ciudad Juarez Brigade across the parade ground into the southern portions of the cantonment area.

As the reinforced 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment continues its offensive sweep west of San Antonio, Brigade Monterrey launches another series of spoiling attacks to hold down the city's defenders. Adding to the American challenge, Brigade Saltillo has crossed Interstate 37, the highway connecting San Antonio and Corpus Christi, protecting the dead zone between the forces attacking San Antonia and the Coastal Column. That formation's advance on Corpus Christi continues, with forward parties of 2nd Mechanized Brigade's 67th Infantry Regiment probing the defenses of the Chase Field Naval Air Station.

1st Czech Army renews its attacks on I German Korps as it attempts to continue its drive north out of Bayreuth. The fighting is confused as Czech-built T-72s battle the Soviet-built T-72s of the 29th Panzer Division in the dense woods and hills of the border region.

The sailing ship Statsraad Lehmkuh returns to its homeport of Bergen, Norway with its precious cargo of canned beef from Uruguay. After much celebration the task of unloading the ship (it has no cargo handling gear) begins.

A survey of available airfields in the CENTCOM AOR has identified three candidate airfields for CVV-10, the USS Independence air wing, to practice carrier landings. A US Navy SH-3 helicopter is made available to the wing staff to inspect conditions at each of the sites.

[Drgonzo2011]

Nuking Mexico

Great stuff as usual. Wondering if you plan on addressing what always seemed like a hole in canon - why the US doesn't just flatten Northern Mexico with nukes. Even with the weapons expended and destroyed, there should be enough to wipe out Mexican supply and transportation centers. In my campaign, I solve this by having far fewer nukes used in general and with the Soviets (who are more active in the Mexican invasion) threatening a tit for tat exchange if the US bombs Mexico. I don't recall GDW ever addressing this (although I could be wrong). Anyway, looking forward to more of your posts.

[chico20854]

Great stuff as usual. Wondering if you plan on addressing what always seemed like a hole in canon - why the US doesn't just flatten Northern Mexico with nukes. Even with the weapons expended and destroyed, there should be enough to wipe out Mexican supply and transportation centers. In my campaign, I solve this by having far fewer nukes used in general and with the Soviets (who are more active in the Mexican invasion) threatening a tit for tat exchange if the US bombs Mexico. I don't recall GDW ever addressing this (although I could be wrong). Anyway, looking forward to more of your posts.

Thanks for asking! Spoiler alert: it's coming. The Soviets already took out nearly all of Mexican oil refining with strikes in December. I have Division Cuba pretty much completely out of contact with STAVKA and their deployment is a strictly local arrangement.

The US hasn't released any of its tremendous remaining nuclear arsenal on Mexico for somewhat technical reasons... delays in command and communications, the lack of target intelligence and loss of nuclear weapon mission planners, even things as basic as knowing where the railheads are. (Once that is known then weapons need to be allocated, targeting information developed then sorties planned. SAC took a direct hit during the TDM, seriously depleting its ability to plan strikes. The prewar SAC planners didn't maintain the detailed information on Mexican targets, so that needs to be gathered... Tomahawk cruise missiles, for example, use radar terrain matching guidance. The US doesn't have the detailed terrain mapping in the form needed to feed that guidance system and needs to do radar mapping first, which is easier said than done at this point of the war.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that the US nuclear response is delayed but building...

Thanks for your patience and allowing me to explain my reasoning!

[chico20854]

June 23, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The Joint Chiefs, seeing the continued success of the Mexicans, especially in Texas, order planners to develop options for use of nuclear weapons to slow or halt the invasion. The G-3, operations staff, requests a day to determine what will be needed for such planning to occur, since it is not an area that the Joint Chiefs have previously been involved with. (Strategic nuclear planning had been the purview of the Joint Strategic Planning Staff at SAC headquarters before the TDM, while theater and corps commanders planned theater and tactical nuclear employment).

As Mexican marines clear up the last pockets of resistance at Naval Air Station North Island the commander of the Mexican 2nd Army requests they launch an amphibious assault across the harbor, landing on shores of the international airport and advancing through that complex to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. The marine commander refuses, referring the Army commander to the Naval Ministry in Mexico City, which directs his operations rather than the Ministry of National Defense, which commands the Army and Air Force. Although it has taken over 40 percent casualties, Brigade Ensenada continues its assault on the San Diego naval base, making progress in reaching the harbor between the base and the massive shipyard, which has now been burning for several days, destroying the destroyer Harry W. Hill, cruiser Mobile Bay and the under-construction replenishment ship Conecuh as well as an unnamed Freedom-class freighter.

The Mexican command issues a strongly-worded directive to the commander of Brigade Nogales, urging him to continue his brigade's forward progress towards Tucson, progress that has been largely halted since the initial days of the invasion. The brigade commander replies with a request for reinforcements for his isolated command, noting the presence of the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade to his east and the reports from his scouts (and criminal gang allies) of a coherent defense of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on the city's southern limits.

The Battle of El Paso drags on, with inconclusive fighting raging throughout the day. To the west of the city, Mexican trucks are replenishing the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade, reinforced with cavalry regiments from Brigade Durango and Brigade Torreon, while the Chihuahua Brigade brings its troops together for an assault on Holloman Air Force Base. The brigade's concentration means that the long supply line back along the unit's route of advance is secured solely by allied civilian gangs, who are more often than not more interested in pillaging than patrolling for American infiltrators or counterattacks.

2nd Mexican Army forces the commander of the San Antonio garrison to decide whether to abandon the city, its military bases (including the large Medina Regional Security Operations Center ELINT station) and population, or to subject it to a costly siege. His calls for assistance to the commanders of the nearby 46th Infantry Division and 95th Training Division are rebuffed by those generals, who plead that their troops are overwhelmed by their ongoing civil relief and rear area security duties and noting that what ammunition and fuel they can spare have already been sent to the city.

The First Regiment of Thirds (which will soon become known as the "Big Bad One") is raised in Florida as part of the City of St. Petersburg Militia. On the other side of the state, the commander of the Jacksonville-Mayport Naval Base and Naval Air Station has formed the sailors from the bases as well as the crews of the various ships and squadrons stranded in the area into a relatively efficient fighting force. The city fathers have by this time requested extensive assistance from the Navy; the action of the naval force has allowed the Jacksonville area to remain an island of stability in the general chaos that is post-nuclear Florida.

All of the 1048th Assault Gun Regiment's vehicles have been disabled, although four of them continue to harbor crewmen that continue to resist. Two of the ISU's main guns are still functional, forcing the surrounding Marines to avoid their limited arcs of fire. The surviving Soviets are effective in covering the blind spots of the other vehicles, and over 40 Marines have been lost in close-in anti-tank actions to neutralize them.

SOOCCENT (Special Operations Command Central, CENTCOM's special operations headquarters) reaches an agreement with XVIII Airborne Corps to allow special operations troops to use the newly established airborne school at Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia. SOCCCENT agrees to provide a small training cadre to establish a HALO course at the school, supplementing the school's basic parachutist, jumpmaster and pathfinder courses.

[Homer]

Pathfinder

Somehow, I think pathfinder might be the most practical application of the school. Mass tacs are probably a thing of the past given aircraft availability and fuel, but ensuring aerial delivery of high priority supplies and equipment, establishing HLZs and DZs, controlling the few remaining attack helos and medevacs, or ensuring the safety of loads slung under the precious remaining rotary wing aircraft are probably all valid skills.

OTL many maneuver companies and troops have the 92Y30 supply sergeant billet coded for the F7 (Pathfinder) ASI. A fact which has frustrated many a "high-speed" LT badgehunter who wanted to go to "Badgefinder" rather than focus on being good at LT'ing as they see the flatliner, tabless supply sergeant earn his pathfinder torch!

[chico20854]

June 24, 1998

With Greek troops remaining in Macedonia and beginning the process of annexation, the Albanians withdraw from the temporary alliance between the two nations. Albanian units are directed to cease cooperation with adjacent Greek units.

photo
The Soviet Division Cuba begins movement out of Cuba on Mexican transports. (Unofficially) The hastily-assembled Mexican fleet is insufficient to haul the entire force, so the Soviets press some of the various friendly vessels in port into service, including the Bulgarian freighter A.B. Buzko, which arrived in Cuba in March, the Polish bulker Orlęta Lviv and the Greek Paraguay Express, which sought shelter in Cuban waters when Greece entered the war against NATO in June, 1997. Most of the tanks (export-model T-72 originally intended for the USSR's Caribbean allies, never delivered when war broke out, the Soviets planning to return them home for Red Army use but never confident in their ability to move them securely) are loaded aboard the Soviet Ro/Ro ship Skulptor Golubkina.

Unofficially,

The G-3, Operations officer, for the Joint Chiefs reports his staff's preliminary assessment of the request for nuclear strike options to halt the Mexican invasion. First, political guidance is needed as to the type of targets to be considered - population centers, military bases, command and control facilities, transport hubs, industrial facilities, or something else, as well as the levels of damage assurance and tolerance for civilian casualties. The Joint Strategic Planning Staff was destroyed in the attack on SAC Headquarters in Nebraska in November, and the mobile small staff that survived does not have target information for Mexico, so a reconnaissance effort will be needed. Soviet strikes and the subsequent months of disorder has severely disrupted communications with remaining units equipped with nuclear weapons; while many have been concentrated in "safe" havens, those havens are not necessarily located alongside the delivery systems. Coordination with the G-4 (Logistics) and G-6 (Communications) staffs will be required to develop implementation plans.

In addition to considering nuclear options, the Joint Chiefs attempt to identify additional conventional forces that can be sent to the fight in the Southwest. Noting the impressive performance of the Marine recruits in San Diego, the ongoing resistance offered by the School Brigade at Fort Bliss and the heroic stand of the cadets of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas as well as the general breakdown of conscription in CONUS, they condsider it appropriate to convert training formations to combat units. Consequently, they direct the Army Chief of Staff to proceed with converting the many training brigades and divisions in the US (10 divisions and over a dozen brigades) to combat formations.

The fighting in San Diego drags on for another day, although resistance in the burning naval base is beginning to crumble as ammunition and food supplies dwindle and losses mount. The Mexican 1st Mechanized Brigade makes an assault on the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, advancing under the cover of the urban sprawl to within a quarter mile of the Marines' perimeter. Advance patrols from the Mexican 2nd Army and US 63 (my XVI) Corps are independently scouting conditions in the urban waste of Los Angeles and Orange Counties; the Mexican patrols cooperating with the Los Amigos motorcycle gang.

Brigade Chichuahhua's movement out of the Sacramento Mountains to the town of Alamogordo and the adjacent Holloman Air Force Base is delayed by a salvo of MLRS rockets which rips through its leading formations. This is the first time the Mexican unit has come under enemy artillery fire, and it is a sign that they are within range of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Field Artillery, which is covering the 214th Field Artillery Brigade's retreat from the area. (The formation had been operating at White Sands Missile Range since early in 1997). There is no sign of the American artillery beyond the smoke trails in the sky overhead, the brigade commander wisely deciding to keep his vulnerable command at at least stand-off range. The brigade's other battalion, the 3rd Battalion, 9th Artillery, is concurrently on the road north, headed for the relatively safe haven of Canon Air Force Base 250 miles away with its 36 Pershing II intermediate-range missiles.

The School Brigade in Fort Bliss withdraws back north across the parade ground, now a torn-up field of craters and debris, taking cover in the ruined buildings on the northern perimeter, where fighting positions have been created for the brigade's anti-aircraft guns. The open area presents an excellent killing ground for any Mexican frontal attacks; Brigade Ciudad Juarez has begun shifting troops east to attack the post cantonment area through the airfield on the east end. On the northern outskirts of town a patrol from the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade captures a small group of stragglers from the Texas 9th State Guard Brigade, which has been smashed over the last few weeks' fighting. The group contains the unit commander, a 68-year old colonel (who incidentally had left the Army in 1971 as a 1st Lieutenant after a combat tour with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam).

The Mexican 4th Army in Texas continues its relentless advance as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment crosses Interstate 10 and has Highway 281 north of San Antonio under fire, leaving Interstate 35 as the only major road out of the city. To the east the Coastal Column begins bypassing the ruins of Corpus Christi to the west, with the 2nd Mechanized Brigade capturing Chase Field Naval Air Station following a day and a half long battle against the base security detachment, a battle in which all surviving aircraft were either flown off or burned by he defenders.

The Boeing Skyfoxes of the 198th Tactical Fighter Squadron return to the skies over southern Mexico once again, striking the gas processing facilities at Reforma on the Yucatan. Taking advantage of Mexico's complete lack of air defenses, the counterinsurgency aircraft are able to attack a target usually allocated to advanced medium bombers or fighter-bombers; the strike disables 40 percent of Mexico's remaining natural gas production.

X German Korps, guarding the Rhine frontier near Heidelberg, and XII German Korps, stationed along the Rhine northwest of Frankfurt, are ordered onto the lines south of Frankfurt.

Behind Soviet/North Korean lines, supplies are pushed forward to front-line units, while many Soviet divisions begin to call in more dispersed detachments that have been spread out through the country maintaining order, concentrating near the front lines.

[chico20854]

June 25, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

After an overnight session discussing options, a dialogue usually held by the nation's highest political leaders, the Joint Chiefs respond to their G-3's request for orders. Having ended debate with "Let the historians 50 or 100 years from now debate whether or not this is the right decision. We don't have the conventional forces to stop the invasion. Nonetheless, this effort will be to halt offensive operations, not kill millions of Mexicans. We've got to live with these people after the Recovery, after all." GEN Cummings, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, directs that American nuclear forces are to strike the headquarters of the Mexican Ministry of Defense in Mexico City and the logistic/transportation hubs in northern Mexico that are supporting the invasion. The minimal possible yields required to neutralize the targets are to be used, minimizing civilian casaulties and, hopefully, fallout over American territory. Cummings realizes that the transport hubs are relatively "hard" targets, likely requiring fallout-creating ground bursts, but decides that the tradeoff is one that must unfortunately be made.

One of the 40th Infantry Division's observation posts in the Hollywood Hills, taking advantage of the disappearance of smog over the Los Angeles area with the death of LA's automobile culture, observes the green fields of the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in the vast field of ruins that was LA. The observation is relayed up the chain of command and the division's Aviation Brigade is tasked to dispatch a patrol to examine it. The main body of the division's 2nd Brigade departs Camp Roberts, headed south, behind a screen established by the 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry (-). To the east, the 1st Brigade, 4th Armored Division has sent another battalion (the 3rd Battalion, 51st Infantry) to the front, bolstering the flank security as 89th (my II) Corps prepares for an armored counterattack to drive Brigade Mexicali back from the Imperial Valley.

It is an inauspicious day for the American defense of the Southwest, with the collapse of resistance at the San Diego Naval Base and the evacuation of key assets from San Antonio as the commander of Lackland Air Force Base prepares to surrender his command to the Mexican 4th Army. Fires rage at the Merida Annex as the intelligence operators destroy their sensitive signals intelligence equipment and burn years worth of records, while their supply specialists hurriedly rush to issue them all uniforms grabbed from Lackland's Air Force basic training barracks, allowing the intelligence specialists to blend in with the new recruits. Meanwhile, the commanders of the major military hospitals in the city, which have been an island of calm and comfort for some of the most severely wounded survivors of battlefields around the world, address their staffs and prepare them for the oncoming reality of life under Mexican occupation, offering them the opportunity to abandon their patients and evacuate; few do.

To the north, the commanders of Army units that have seemingly done their level best to avoid preparing for the upcoming battle are rattled out of their stupor by the impending fall of San Antonio. The 46th Infantry Division dispatches six companies, from six separate battalions, to the south to contain the oncoming Coastal Column; the division's heavy weapons and armored vehicles were sent to Europe as replacements earlier in the year and the division has not been able to replace its B Companies, which were sent overseas as replacements in the fall as well. The 95th Training Division at Fort Hood forms a reaction regiment, formed around the three battalions of trained tanker privates that graduated training earlier in the year but remained assigned to the division after transportation system breakdown stranded them at the base; the privates are assigned tank commanders from among the division's drill sergeants and recovering wounded located on and near the base. The formation tries to wrangle enough fuel to try platoon and company-level manuevers in the hodgepoddge of training tanks the division maintains as part of its mission to turn out replacement tank drivers and loaders.

The bad news for the American defenders of the Southwest continues, with the Chihuahua Brigade overrunning Holloman Air Force Base in central New Mexico. With news of the base's capture the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade launches its portion of 3rd Army's double envelopment of the Fort Bliss garrison, striking north along Interstate 25 through uncoordinated Texas State Guard roadblocks.

The diversion of troops and supplies from rear areas in Germany to the front creates opportunities for many of the armed bands roaming the country's interior to intensify their ravaging of the country. Along the northern portion of the former Inner-German Border, 5th Squad and its allied group 5th Squadron begin establishing semi-permanent control of rural areas.

Unloading of the sail training ship Statsraad Lehmkuh in Bergen, Norway has been completed and the ship is moved to the shipyard for minor repairs following its long voyage to South America and back.

The carrier USS John F. Kennedy, damaged by a mine off the Greek coast, limps into Marsaxlokk Bay on the southeastern end of the island of Malta, accompanied by its escorts. The local authorities object to the entry of combatant warships into their neutral port - legally they are obligated to intern the ships and their crews for the duration of the conflict if they remain beyond 24 hours, and international law (the Hague Convention of 1907) limits combatant vessels to three in any single port, while the Kennedy is accompanied by three escorts and the oiler USNS Lenthal. The carrier's commander is claiming the right to refuge while repairing the ship to a seaworthy state, and offers to order some of his escorts to sail to Valetta, the capital, to comply with the limitation on vessel numbers.

3rd and 4th Marine Aircraft Wings, operating from a number of fields in and around Bandar Abbas along with a rear reserve base at Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE, is able to maintain its aircraft better than nearly any other combatant air formation in the world thanks to the support it receives from the advanced maintenance detachment on board the aviation maintenance ship SS Curtiss, a US government-owned, civilian manned freighter outfitted with a large helipad and extensive containerized workshops and spare parts stores. The converted merchantman is semi-permanently moored in Bandar Abbas, servicing helicopters onboard while a detachment ashore overhauls fixed-wing aircraft at Havadarya airport, adjacent to the port.

The 27th (my 90th) Tank Division, loaded on a series of six steam-powered trains, reaches the Volga River at Zelenodolsk, where the railroad troops have repaired one of the two spans of the bridge which was destroyed by an American B-2 bomber in December. The division's locomotives are replenished with additional coal from semi-abandoned river barges tied up nearby, giving them enough fuel to continue their journey west.

[chico20854]

That's all I've got for a little while, folks. Family in town for the next week or so, I'll be back around late next week.

[chico20854]

I was remiss in not crediting Matt Wiser and Webstral for the General Cummings quote. Thanks Guys!!!