On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

July 8, 1998

The replica USS Constitution departs the Azores, its crew swelled with the addition of American servicemen (some Navy and Air Force personnel effectively abandoned there, others that escaped Eastern Europe, in an incredible saga, in Greek fishing boats). The ship is also carrying paying passengers, 40 French school girls and their teacher.

Unofficially,

Division Cuba begins the process of expanding from a motor-rifle brigade to a division. An census is performed of the military advisors and civilian technicians evacuated alongside the 7th Motor-Rifle Brigade to assess their skills and rank (if any), while the brigade commander sits down with General Femerov to discuss his subordinate commanders. A process is identified - to the extent that the advisor pool can supply qualified officers (such as motor-rifle colonels and lieutenant colonels), it will be relied on to provide leaders for the expanded unit. (The basic plan is to take the existing motor-rifle brigade and increase the size of each element - the BMP battalion, for example, will become a BMP regiment; if a suitable colonel cannot be identified the existing battalion commander will become the regimental commander, while if experienced majors or lieutenant colonels cannot be tasked to serve as battalion commanders some or all of the company commanders will be promoted to major and given the job. This evaluation is carried out division-wide.) Advisors and civilian technicians that can be assigned staff or support jobs are assigned appropriately, while the rest (such as many of the sailors from the transport fleet) are handed over to the 7th Brigade's sergeants to be trained up as motor-riflemen, tank drivers or artillery privates.

While fighting in Los Angeles continues to be intense, the troops of 63 (my XVI) Corps are gradually finding themselves outnumbered by the ever-increasing numbers of Mexican forces, while the daily deliveries of ammunition are growing smaller. While the MPs of the 221st MP Brigade and the teens of the 10th California Cadet Brigade are attempting to secure the rear area, the corps' supply columns are coming under more frequent attack.

The appearance of Soviet armor in the 47th Infantry Division's rear causes considerable distress, especially since it has been months since the war-weary National Guard division received a resupply of anti-tank weapons. Many squads are down to just a single LAW and the division's cavalry squadron, the 1st Squadron, 194th Cavalry, which has been set up as the division's anti-tank reserve, has eight TOW missiles remaining, the last ATGMs in the entire 47th. (The Canadians, composed of reserve units, are equally devoid of anti-tank weapons). The commanding general radios to Fort Lewis seeking any assistance that can be provided; in the interim the Allied troops hunker down and prepare for a siege of Prince George.

Under cover of a smokescreen laid by its escorts, the American LST USS Frederick makes a run for shore in San Diego with a load of vitally needed supplies. The attempt goes disastrously wrong, with Mexican troops ashore taking the ship's bridge under fire, inflicting massive losses on the command crew. The ship broaches, turned parallel to the beach by the waves, which then rock the ship back and forth, digging its hull into the sand. The sand kicked up by the transport's props as the chief engineer desperately tries to free the ship gets sucked into the engine's cooling water intakes, forcing the propulsion system to be cut back lest the filters clog. As the tide comes in the ship remains stuck and it takes more and more enemy fire, despite the efforts of the hovering escorts to support it.

In Duluth, Minnesota the refugees make a second assault on the downtown port's grain elevator; this time the assault force advances behind the cover of a mass of children and teenagers from the refugee camp established at the nearby state park campground. The remaining defenders are reluctant to open fire on the children, allowing the armed and desperate men seeking shelter among them to advance to within striking range. The teens, worked into a frenzy by the deceptive teachings of the camp leaders, savagely beat the remaining militiamen to death as they overrun the grain elevator.

The NATO defenders of Heidelberg try to slip away in the fog of the early morning hours, crossing the few remaining bridges before the opposing Soviets realize they are leaving.

In the Balkans, the reforming Jugoslav Army has in many cases swept Soviet occupation forces out of the mountains of Bosnia, reaching the banks of the Sava River, where they pause to distribute the vast quantities of captured and abandoned Soviet kit and integrate reinforcements. Their opponents in the various puppet armed forces are trying equally hard to increase their strength.

[chico20854]

July 9, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

Under the protection of the 36th Engineer Group (Construction) and using power from a half dozen hydropower plants in the region, one reactor of the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in eastern Tennessee is restarted. The power is carefully rationed to support food and war production and further support reconstruction efforts.

In British Columbia, the 47th Infantry Division receives partial salvation from the sky. The generals calls for help have been answered with a single sortie of a F-111A from the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing's 4007th Combat Crew Training Squadron, flying from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Montana. The bomber drops a single B61 tactical nuclear bomb on the Soviet tank regiment, disrupting its command and control as well as destroying several tanks and unprotected personnel. (The attack is widely considered the only NATO nuclear attack on Canadian territory.) The American division commander, who had no prior notice of the incoming strike, orders an immediate withdrawal, unfortunately through the fallout plume of the nuclear strike. The Soviet troops to the north and west launch an immediate attack, and the withdrawal becomes a rout, with disorganized columns of American troops streaming south, with scattered Soviet detachments in pursuit.

The Army in the United States is making progress in its rushed effort to convert training divisions to light infantry divisions. While in theory there could be a uniform process, in reality it is much more complicated. Each division, composed of basic, advanced and one-station (combined) training battalions, has a unique mix of specialties it instructs - the 70th Division turns out infantry recruits, while the 76th trains combat engineers and the 85th cavalry scouts and tankers, with appropriate allocations of training equipment and appropriate instructors. Transforming an infantry training battalion to an infantry battalion is comparatively simple, but converting an engineering training battalion to an artillery one (and finding any quantity of artillery for it to operate) is a much more complicated effort. Nevertheless, so dire is the situation that officers throughout the Army's embattled training command are putting in long hours planning and executing the conversions.

The 63 (my XVI) Corps commander takes the drastic step of limiting resupply convoys south of the Hollywood Hills to nighttime only, so intense are the ongoing attacks on them in prior days. American troops begin to retreat northward through Los Angeles County, abandoning their remaining positions south of Interstate 105, which hopefully can serve as a wide dead zone that can be covered by automatic weapons fire.

A single CH-53E flight makes it into San Diego in the early morning hours, dropping off water, 5.56mm ammo, grenades and canned food; it is to prove the last resupply flight into the embattled garrison. The surrounded Marines also attempt to salvage the supplies from the beached USS Frederick, but the open ground between the garrison's remaining territory and the beach is too dangerous to cross. The ship's crew and the Marines mutually reinforce each other but unable to establish a secure link. Brigade Ensenada has managed to expand its positions within the depot's central recruit training area, with fighting devolving into hand-to-hand struggles at ultra-short range.

The drive of the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade north along Interstate 25 towards Albuquerque has effectively come to a halt, the Mexican artillery out of ammunition and the entire force short of spare parts, fuel and ammunition needed to maneuver around the US Air Force blocking force at Truth or Consequences. The Mexican commander, well aware of the existence of the massive nuclear weapon stockpile at Albuquerque's Kirtland Air Force Base, is reluctant to exert too much pressure on the defenders lest they decide to separate him into his constituent atoms.

A group of 18 bikers from the Ataodos biker gang, offered a reward of five kilos of marijuana seized from the Austin Police Department evidence room, storm the University of Texas Tower, killing the Marine veteran snipers that have held up Mexican control of the capital city. (One of the ex-Marines is thrown over the parapet to her death).

The veteran 20th Tank Division locates and exploits a gap in the NATO line along the Main River near Frankfurt and, in one of the wars last river crossing operations, throws troops across.

The masters of the mass of miscellaneous NATO naval and merchant vessels gathered in Loch Ewe, Scotland hold a conference to determine what their next steps should be. The supply of fuel in the fuel depot ashore, which had been refilled in the weeks and months following the Battle of the Norwegian Sea, has been largely depleted, burned by the generators keeping life aboard the ships possible. The local population ashore, in one of the most remote areas of the Scottish Highlands (who were only connected by road to the rest of the UK during the Second World War), is too small to produce nearly enough food to support the sailors on the ships. The decision is reached to dispense the remaining fuel to naval combatants that are still seaworthy, reserving a portion for some of the merchantmen, which will transport the crews back home, at least one ship for each of the NATO nations and others to transport citizens of neutral countries (the many Filipinos, for example) home

[chico20854]

July 10, 1998

In the Battle in Pittsburgh, Washington Militia control of the southern portion of the city is challenged when a powerful and heavily armed marauder force under Harold Thomas crosses the Monongahela from downtown Pittsburgh on the Liberty, Smithfield, and Fort Pitt bridges. They are temporarily held up by automatic weapons fire from the heights across the river but manage at last to reach the cover of the Fort Pitt and Liberty Tunnels under Mount Washington and emerge on the south side of that steep-sloped ridge. From there, they are able to climb the slopes of Mount Washington and trap the militia defenders against the nearly vertical bluffs above the river. In a heroic stand, the outnumbered Washington Militia, under the command of former Marine Major Jason Fairbanks, hold the vastly superior enemy forces at bay into the night.

Unofficially,

The Soviet pursuit of the retreating American 47th Infantry Division falters as the supply of fuel dries up. The first contingents of the 47th Infantry Division cross the border back into American territory shortly before midnight.

The Mexican 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment disrupts the 63 (my XVI) Corps defense of LA when it appears in the San Gabriel Valley, having passed through Pomona largely unopposed. The American commander hastily redeploys the 221st Military Police Brigade to throw up a defensive line, but the MPs are short of heavy weapons and the move leaves supply convoys dangerously exposed to attack by the numerous groups of armed irregulars operating in the confused and crowded rear area. The move causes the 6th Army command, operating from a forward headquarters in Bakersfield, to divert more scarce resources away from 89 (my II) Corps to the southeast, which is secure in its positions around Palm Springs and have the eastern column of 2nd Mexican Army contained.

With the capture of the dominating Texas Tower in Austin, the Mexican attackers begin to gain the upper hand in the fighting for Texas' capital city. The Coastal Column, which is now approaching Tyler in northeast Texas, is losing focus and slowing dramatically as the flow of supplies from the rear has ceased, cut off by American nuclear strikes on the rail network and eaten up by the distance from the border.

The 8th Special Forces Group in Chiapas undertakes its first direct action mission alongside its indigenous allies. The American-led guerilla force attacks an outpost of Brigade Tapachula, a force that has already been battered by American airstrikes. The detachment also establishes a pair of observation posts along the Guatemalan border, watching for truck traffic crossing into Mexico carrying vitally needed fuel from Guatemala's refinery, one of the few remaining in operation in this area of the world.

8th Tank Army has been fed into the line south of Frankfurt, allowing 41st Armys remaining forces to pursue the retreating NATO troops from Heidelberg. 8th Tank Army's 523rd Pontoon Battalion deploys ferries, transporting the T-86s and BMPs of the 20th Tank Division's 76th Guards Tank Regiment to reinforce the dismounted motor riflemen that crossed the prior day. The border guards of the German 4th GrenzJaeger Division, lacking anti-tank weapons, break and run. The Soviets pursue, but the ferries are unable to bring more than a trickle of armored vehicles across at a time. Attempts to have the BMPs and BTRs swim across are halted after it is discovered that most vehicles have damage that defeated their watertight integrity and that watertight seals in their hulls have become brittle with age. By dark most of the divisions 70 tanks and 4500 soldiers have crossed the river, leaving the artillery regiment, rear services and most of the soft-skinned vehicles on the south bank.

[chico20854]

July 11, 1998

In Pittsburgh, a relief column from the Route 70 bridge arrives and hits the marauders from behind. The marauder forces are crushed on the south flank of Mount Washington and Thomas himself is killed. Perhaps one in ten of the attackers manage to escape back across the river, and the power of the marauder bands in Allegheny County is temporarily broken.

Unofficially,

The first five companies of Voluntarios arrive in the rear areas of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Armies. The generals are somewhat baffled what to do with the poorly trained and equipped troops. 2nd Army, having taken heavy losses in the Battle of San Diego, sends them to the front to fill out the battered Brigade Ensenada and 1st Mechanized Brigade while 3rd Army assigns its contingent to secure the ruins of El Paso and patrol the vulnerable Interstate 25 supply line that the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade is dependent on. 4th Army uses them to patrol its vast rear area, home to a hostile and heavily armed civilian population.

The 63 (my XVI) Corps position in Los Angeles is in a precarious state as Mexican troops sweep in from the northwest, as the armored cavalry seeks weak points in the 221st MP Brigade's thinly-spread hasty defense. Mexican paratroops and marines and allied irregular armed groups press forward against positions held by the 40th Infantry Division (-), driving the last American defenders north of Interstate 10.

In San Diego, the defending Marines, who are growing increasingly short of ammunition, are unable to prevent Mexican troops from crossing the Recruit Depot's hallowed Parade Deck, being driven out of many of the buildings that overlook the large open space.

The School Brigade and its local allies, the (reduced but now battle-hardened) cadets and cadre of the New Mexico Military Institute, are still located in the town of Artesia, New Mexico following their successful attack on the isolated Mexican garrison there. The Army formation expended the last of its fuel reaching the city and many of the civilian and commercial vehicles that made the trek from Fort Bliss have been nearly destroyed by the rough conditions. The brigade commander is able to make contact with higher headquarters after nearly a month without a reliable radio link; his maintainers are working with the town's mechanics to determine what vehicles can be repaired for further travel, which should be cannibalized and what vehicles in town can be requisitioned for further service. In the latter effort, the priorities are for ruggedness and off-road capability, diesel power and commonality of parts within the fleet. While the local Permian Basin is continuing to produce a trickle of oil, there are no refining facilities, so the town works with the brigade's troops to establish a crude distillation tower, which can boil crude and separate it into very rough approximations of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil.

In the early morning hours, reinforcing German troops from VI Korps take up positions surrounding the Soviet 20th Tank Division's positions north of the Main River, containing the bridgehead south of the A66 autobahn. At dawn a flight of German PAH-1 attack helicopters from the 1st Army Aviation Command, using the units last remain stocks of fuel and HOT missiles, attacks the Soviet crossing site, sinking all of the 523rd's PMP and GSP ferries. The helicopters then call in an artillery strike on the marshalling area on the south bank and the egress points on the north shore, which use the last of the 4th PanzerGrenadier Divisions stockpile of FASCAM munitions as well as significant amounts of high explosive; the strikes have the effect of cutting the forces on the north shore off from the south.

The Bulgarian freighter A.B. Buzko arrives in Cienfuegos, Cuba after transporting Soviet troops of Division Cuba to Mexico.

[chico20854]

July 12, 1998

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The inhabitants of the refugee camp at Duluth's Jay Cook State Park, Minnesota, having gained control of a grain elevator containing nearly 3.5 million bushels of grain are dismayed when the "leadership council" of the camp declares that it is assuming essentially dictatorial control of the camp and city, using the combination of the weapons captured from the town militia and the ability to grant or withhold food as their means of control.

As conditions grow increasingly desperate in the San Diego Marine perimeter, the two remaining naval combatants offshore, the light frigate USS Joyce and the Coast Guard cutter Chase, which have nearly expended their entire onboard ammunition supplies providing support, use the last of their aviation fuel supplies to fly a series of evacuation flights, bringing out the wounded, even those that would be considered lightly wounded and still fit for action. The flights bring out approximately 150 men. By sundown, the Marines have been pushed into a single building, the Recruit Training Regiment headquarters building, Lejeune Hall.

Fighting swirls throughout Los Angeles as 63 (my XVI) Corps' front line is reduced to a series of independent isolated positions unable to control territory beyond range of their guns. Patrols come under attack from an array of Mexican units, allied gangs and various bandit groups, all intent on looting the wealth of America's biggest city. In Texas, the city of Austin is similarly engulfed in widespread citywide fighting, with no front line as it becomes increasingly difficult to discriminate between attacking American (and allied) forces and fighting for plunder. North of the city, the Mexicans approach Fort Hood, which is defended by the 95th Training Division.

US Air Force security troops, reinforced with local armed civilians, attempt to dislodge the Mexican Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade from its positions outside Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The attempt fails when the Mexicans deploy mobile reserves to reinforce the threatened sector; the American troops lack fire support heavier than 81mm mortars and Mk-19 grenade launchers.

Two new Soviet divisions arrive at the front in Germany - the 122nd (my 66th Guards Training) Motor-Rifle (assigned to 41st Army) and the 106th (my 232nd) Motor-Rifle (assigned to 16th Army). Despite this, Soviet forces remain short on infantry.

21st Army, on the former East German-Czechoslovakian border, reinforces the efforts of its Czech allies to the west, launching an attack with the Category A 102nd Guards (my 254th) Motor-Rifle Division against the American XV Corps. The attack hits the outer defensive line of the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), the Soviet tanks forced to halt their advance and provide fire support to engineers called forward to clear lanes through the defensive minefields; the T-80s too valuable to be used as improvised mine-clearing vehicles.

The Panamanian bulk carrier Seaway Ace, sailing to France with a cargo of Argentinian grain, is sunk by a torpedo from the Soviet Victor III-class nuclear attack submarine 60 Let Shefstva VLKSM.

Italian recovery crews are nearly finished in their efforts to restore operation of the Sonico hydropower plant north of Verona.

In Jugoslavia, the JSAs engineering cadre (long-service prewar engineer officers and professional NCOs) of Group Vrbas have been able to locate sufficient equipment from the confused masses of abandoned vehicles and organize enough troops to repair a damaged bridge over the Sava at Bosanska Gradi!ka. The Group's infantry, who crossed over by raft in prior days, drive off the small garrison of the Italian-allied Croatian Nationalist Army

[chico20854]

July 13, 1998

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

STAVKA orders the commander of the Yalu Front to arrest the commander of the Soviet 35th Army, deciding that the recent failure of the attack across the DMZ was the result of his collaboration with Allied forces. The Front commander decides to ignore such a ridiculous order, confident that STAVKA has little recourse to his insubordination.

The first barges carrying troops of the 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) arrive in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as far along the Red River and as close as the riverways can get the unit to the rally point it has been ordered to, Fort Sill in south-central Oklahoma.

The end finally arrives for the Marines defending the San Diego Recruit Depot, with the last structure under American control, the Recruit Training Regiment headquarters in Lejeune Hall ablaze and under unrelenting attack. The 400 remaining Marines, a mix of partially trained recruits (now seasoned veterans), their drill instructors and other cadre and other staff from the base, surrender to the commanding general of the 1st Mechanized Brigade. As the guns finally fall silent, the American ships offshore turn north, heading for the nearest friendly naval base at Port Hueneme.

In northeastern Texas, the Mexican drive has come to a halt as the flow of supplies from Mexico has completely ended, a hostile local population requires large numbers of troops to subdue. While organized American resistance has evaporated, the so-called Coastal Column has spread out over hundreds of square miles of territory and, short of ammunition, fuel and replacements and is unable to undertake further offensive action.

Throughout the day, more small-scale attacks and incursions on the Soviet 20th tank Division's lines deplete the Soviet ammunition supplies, wear out the troops and force the unit to deploy its remaining armored vehicles to reinforce threatened areas, draining their gas tanks. After dark, German jaegers and dismounted panzergrenadiers slip in between the Soviet positions.

The 102nd Guards (my 254th) Motor-Rifle Division's troops breach the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division's minefields and push the 66th Tank Regiment forward, with the BMP-mounted 95th Motor-Rifle Regiment in close support, all under an artillery barrage. The resulting battle sees the brigade's tank battalion (2nd Battalion, 64th Armor, which has absorbed the remnants of the brigade's other armor battalion, the 3rd Battalion 64th Armor) and reinforcements from the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry rushed forward to halt the breakthrough, while overhead an air battle rages as both sides seek local air superiority.

JSA engineers along the Sava, in preparation for the force's breakout from the mountains of Bosnia-Hercegovina, secure two more crossings over the Sava River, at Bosanski amac and Badovinci. Both crossings are at or near pre-war bridges and follow skirmishes which have driven off local collaborationist militias.

The replica USS Constitution is intercepted in the Bay of Biscay by the French destroyer La Galissonnire; after boarding and inspection the sailing ship is permitted to continue to Brest.

In the Persian Gulf region, the remnants of the USS Independence's A-6 attack bomber fleet, consolidated in a single squadron VA-185, flies a deep strike mission. Taking off from the airfield at Bushehr in the early morning darkness, six A-6Fs fly at low level across the Zagros mountains deep into Kurdistan, where friendly guerillas have located a 7th Army logistic site. The flight, led by LtCdr Mark Winslow, drops nearly 25 tons of high explosive on the site, setting off numerous secondary explosions and depriving the Soviet force of months' worth of carefully hoarded supplies.

[chico20854]

July 14, 1998

Father Wojiech Niekarz forms the Wojsko Ludowa (People's Army) to free Poland of all outsiders.

Unofficially,

The conflict between Mexico and the US has rapidly evolved in the 32 days since Mexican troops first crossed the border. The poor logistical readiness of the Mexican Army, fierce American resistance and the nuclear strikes on the rail lines connecting the fighting forces with central Mexico have combined to starve Mexican troops of much of their fighting power. The attack on the Mexican Ministry of Defense and pinprick strikes throughout southern Mexico have further limited the amount of effort Mexican authorities can devote to the fighting in the north; the combination of all these factors as well as fatigue and declining combat power cause the struggle to take on (for both sides) a nature somewhere between conventional medium-intensity warfare and counterinsurgency. The Joint Chiefs, assessing the situation, determine that additional nuclear strikes in Mexican territory are unlikely to have a significant effect on the outcome of the fighting, and the large-scale use of tactical nuclear weapons needed to drive Mexican troops from American territory is impractical in the conditions, even if they were comfortable with the concept of using nuclear weapons on American territory. (They are not.)

In California, the center of gravity of the fighting has shifted northward with the collapse of American resistance in San Diego. (In that city, small bands and even individual Marines who survived the battle and evaded capture begin moving north and east, out of areas actively patrolled by Mexican troops and their criminal allies). It is another day of confused fighting in Los Angeles, with American troops under attack from all directions as Mexican troops and allies slip through the porous American front line.

Vicious short-range firefights rage throughout the 20th Tank Division's sector and by noon a steady stream of demoralized Soviet soldiers are fleeing back to and across the Main, abandoning their vehicles and many of their wounded or dead comrades.

The Soviet breakthrough in the US 3rd Infantry Division sector is brought to a rapid halt with the deployment of a trio of M422 eight-inch tactical nuclear rounds fired across the width of the Soviet breakthrough sector by the guns of the 209th Field Artillery Brigade. Elsewhere along the front the Soviet offensive peters to a halt in the face of rising NATO resistance.

The final Jugoslav crossings of the Sava River are initiated with the opening of ferry service at Slavonski Brod and the completion of a pontoon bridge at Sisak, Croatia.

In the wale of the prior day's airstrikes, the Soviet 7th Army instructs its subordinate units to preserve what supplies they have on hand while increasing "local provisioning", a euphemism for seizing needed food and fuel from the local population.

[chico20854]

July 15, 1998

The replica USS Constitution arrives in Brest, France and discharges passengers.

Unofficially,

A hodgepodge collection of trucks, both military and requisitioned civilian heavy vehicles (often with their drivers), is assembled in Muskogee, Oklahoma along with a fleet of iconic yellow school buses to transport the troops and equipment of the 3rd Brigade, 49th Armored Division the 225 miles to Fort Sill.

In southern Mexico, the Green Berets of the 8th Special Forces Group step up their activity levels, forcing the local military forces to expend more resources in tracking down the elusive American commandos.

The front in Germany has generally stabilized along the line Fulda-Frankfurt. Western TVD does not have the combat or logistic strength to continue the assault and behind the lines is struggling to absorb the territory it had seized, extend its supply system to reach the new front line and send what little replacement troops and equipment it receives forward. Likewise, the slapdash NATO defense has barely succeeded but has left units hopelessly intermixed and disorganized and expended most of the remaining stocks, leaving the German, British and American units in no condition to go over to the offense. In addition, the surviving NATO command staff has a more ambitious plan to drive the Warsaw Pact out of southern Germany and possibly liberate Austria.

The American 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) launches local counterattacks against the elements of the Soviet 102nd (my 254th) Motor-Rifle Division that were isolated by the prior days tactical nuclear strike along the route of the Soviet breakthrough. Isolated Soviet troops fight with a desperation seen all too often by NATO troops in Europe, taking many "fine American boys with them as they fight to the death.

The Italian-allied Croatian Nationalist Army ramps up its recruitment effort, sweeping men and boys off the streets of Zagreb and provincial towns as it furiously tries to hobble together a force sufficient to halt the advancing JSA, which is emerging from its strongholds in the Balkan Mountains and gaining strength daily as it too gathers recruits to man the weapons and armored vehicles abandoned by Soviet forces in the aftermath of the nuclear exchange.

An air assault by members of the 9th Infantry Division's 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry attacks the home base of a group of 250 marauders, mostly IPA deserters, 100 km north of Kazerun. With the support of helicopter gunships and fire by the division's artillery the attack is a success and few of the bandits escape capture by the American troops; the Iranians are arrested by a small detachment of the Iranian National Security Force while Soviets are treated as POWs and any Western deserters are placed under arrest by the battalion commander.

[chico20854]

I've had a health development that's taken me away for a while. I'm getting back in the game a little more each day, but (from experience) I know it'll take me a while to get caught up.

I did manage to do a drive-pass of several possible military targets in the southeast: Myrtle Beach and Charleston AFBs, Charleston SSSBN base, Jacksonville and Mayport Naval Stations, Jacksonville and Key West Naval Air Stations, the SSBN base at Kings Bay, Hunter Army Airfield and Forts Bragg, Stewart and Lee.

[Targan]

I hope everything's resolving itself on the health side, Chico. The joys of getting older eh (I'm right there with you). Seeing the two posts this morning immediately brightened my day!

[Claidheamh]

Hope you're feeling better, Chico -

I really enjoy these posts and the full picture of the war that you've built up.

[chico20854]

July 16, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

In southern Arizona Brigade Nogales has received three companies of Voluntarios from its home state of Sonora. The contingent includes several miners, men with great experience in using explosives, who quickly identify the potential to protect the brigade from American counterattack from the east through blocking the roads through the Santa Rita and Patagonia mountains with the careful application of demolitions. Semi-permanently blocking the handful of routes through the mountains would force the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade to either advance overland across the rugged desert terrain or undertake a long march north into the Tucson area to face the Mexican force. The brigade's commanding general gives the order for the effort to be undertaken as quickly as possible.

63 (my XVI) Corps in Los Angeles orders two simultaneous, and somewhat contradictory, orders. The main effort of the corps' defense is to shift northward, abandoning the Los Angeles basin to attempt to hold the Santa Monica mountains; the reinforcing 196th Infantry Brigade is directed to sweep eastward across the San Fernando Valley to drive the main body of Mexican troops back to Burbank, where a more defensible line can hopefully be established. Simultaneously, the corps' troops are to engage in aggressive patrolling into the Los Angeles basin, taking whatever opportunities can be found to attack isolated groups of Mexican troops and their allies.

The Soviet commander of 2nd Southwestern Front, at the western end of the long front line that stretches from the Baltic to the Rhine, orders a temporary pause in offensive operations to allow his battered command to resupply and absorb reinforcements (should any arrive) before resuming their offensive. Soviet troops and their Italian, Czech and Hungarian allies begin digging defensive positions to protect them against any NATO counterattack.

On the other side of the lines, Allied commanders are in no condition to launch an immediate counterattack. While a trickle of reinforcements and supplies are arriving in the theater, the Soviet offensive has forced the expenditure of much of the materiel that survived the long, cold winter and the relative bounty of supplies extracted from the French as compensation for their seizure of the Rhineland.

The highest intensity fighting the day sees in Europe, in fact, is between the French occupation forces and a patrol of Dutch Marines who have infiltrated into occupied Holland as part of the Dutch government's effort to demonstrate that they are not acquiescing to the Franco-Belgian occupation of significant portion of their country. The elite Dutch marines' ambush of a French patrol is masterful, as is the ambush they have emplaced to deal with the inevitable French reaction force. As is often the case in the Dutch insurgent struggle, the tide turns with the arrival of French aircraft overhead, forcing their retreat before they are able to overrun the kill zone and grab supplies, prisoners and intelligence.

The Italian 5th Corps begins withdrawing troops from the areas it occupies, turning responsibility for maintaining order to its local puppet forces - the Croatian Nationalist Army, the Liberated Slovenian Armed Forces (LSAF) and the Serbian National Army (SNA). The Italians leave a single brigade in each republic's capital to ensure the loyalty of the local puppet regimes, allowing the excess troops to be returned to assist in rebuilding shattered Italy or support the offensive in southern Germany. They provide limited logistic support, ironically, consisting of abandoned Soviet equipment as well as stocks of Jugoslav weapons that had been captured by the Italians during their conquest of Jugoslavia.

The Shiraz state munitions plant in Iran expands its production of ammunition following the reactivation of a brass shell casing press, relieving the IPA from dependence on reloading scavenged brass. It does, however, crease a need for some other source of brass, much of which turns out to be scavenged from not only the battlefield but also the civilian economy.

[chico20854]

I hope everything's resolving itself on the health side, Chico. The joys of getting older eh (I'm right there with you). Seeing the two posts this morning immediately brightened my day!

Hope you're feeling better, Chico -

I really enjoy these posts and the full picture of the war that you've built up.

Thanks guys! I'm trying to get time in front of the computer to get caught up but it's tough... much of my free time is eaten up with appointments and so on. I am gradually getting better!

[Homer]

Glad youre back!

Good to see your posts, hopefully things remain on the uptick! Best wishes for your continued improvement.

[castlebravo92]

Chico, I echo other people's sentiments. This thread has been a treasure and hope you have a quick and complete recovery.