On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[Ewan]

May 19, 1997

The KGB finally obtains the location of the SAS safehouse in Leningrad and calls in the Alfa Group commando team.

Hopefully they take out a good number of the Alfa Group team before going down

[chico20854]

May 20, 1997

Today is the original jump-off date for Operation Rampart, Third German Army's offensive to capture Opole and Czestochowa. Heavy spring rains force a delay.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Wichita Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The lieutentant and about half of the privates arrested at the "5th Squad" gathering over the weekend are released from jail at Fort Lee, Virginia.

Poor weather over much of the Korean Peninsula results in most Allied airstrikes being called off; the F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing, however, score a coup when they catch a train carrying hundreds of tons of munitions from the USSR rushing south between Wonsan and Hamhung; the bombers not only take out the train but the secondary explosions destroy the railbed in the rugged mountains, taking the rail line out of commission for months.

In central Poland, First German Armys advanced slows. Its rear areas are in disarray, from both Pact attacks on its supply lines and damage to the infrastructure needed to support the offensive. Parties of engineers struggle to repair damaged bridges, roads and railroad lines and develop new depots, supply dumps, helipads, headquarters and expeditionary airfields. The deployment of additional rear area security troops only adds to the logistical difficulties. The First German Army commander, General Helmut Diedrichs, also faces a strategic choice - whether to continue driving east for Warsaw, whose defenses are relatively rudimentary, or whether to attack northeast towards Bydgoszcz and the lower Wisła River valley, where the Soviet Reserve Front is still relatively intact and growing stronger every day as it absorbs both replacements from the USSR and stragglers from other Soviet units fleeing the NATO onslaught. Such a drive would also decrease the pressure on Second German Armys flank, allowing the two formations to reinforce each others efforts.

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) is declared ready for combat and is assigned to XI Corps.

Saami partisans, accompanied by Green Berets, launch their most audacious and successful attack, on the airfield located on the outskirts of their home village of Lovozero. The mortar and rocket attack on the base destroys six airplanes and three helicopters.

A portion of SACLANTs growing sea power in the Norwegian Sea is used to escort a large supply convoy to Kirkenes and Liinakhamari on the Kola. The arrival of that convoy improves the logistical situation of Allied forces on Soviet territory, although it takes weeks to unload all the ships, even using all available small craft as lighters. The convoy effort is part of an effort by SACLANT to draw elements of the Red Banner Northern Fleet out into battle, where they can be overwhelmed by superior NATO numbers and firepower and defeated in detail.

XVIII Airborne Corps resumes its slow-paced, limited advance in Iran, pushing back the remnants of the Soviet airborne and Tudeh force in Khuzestan and establishing firm links to Iranian forces.

In a 1 am raid, KGB Alfa group commandos attack the Leningrad SAS safe house. They are too late, the British having exfiltrated to neutral Finland immediately following the attack on the power facility. The KGB team takes two casualties from booby traps ("anti-handling devices") left behind by the British.

Headquarters, USAF Tactical Air Command, directs that the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) reduce its allocation of A-7D aircraft from 24 to 16. (While authorized 24, it has only 22 present following the loss of an airframe in the Rumble in the Jungle and a crash during a training flight in March).

[chico20854]

one of the things that might happen is a throwback to the ACW. Officers will be offered the idea that they buy their own sidearms as long as it is a the "right" set of calibers. maybe after it does so well that senior NCOs will get the same offer. there are a lot of small shops that can make AR platforms or 1911 clones and the like.

I think it would, at most, be on a limited basis. The main reason I say so would be ammunition/magazine compatability and spare part/maintenance availability - the weapon needs to be able to function as part of a unit that has standardized on the issue weapon. From what I have read, generals provided their own sidearms until 1943, when the Army started issuing "special" upgraded pistols to generals; upon retirement they are presented the opportunity to purchase the gun from the Army.

From personal experience, I wouldn't say never, because there are enough units, especially in the reserve components, where some rules receive "variable enforcement", that higher-ups look the other way.

The Army also had a pretty good stockpile of M1911s in Anniston, Albama following the fielding of the M9. In the mid-90s there were over 100,000 M1911s in storage, which makes the Charter Arms Bulldog purchase (on May 8th above, pulled from the v1 Small Arms Guide) a little redundant, except perhaps the Air Force felt that the Army wasn't forthcoming enough with the 1911s.

[cawest]

I think it would, at most, be on a limited basis. The main reason I say so would be ammunition/magazine compatability and spare part/maintenance availability - the weapon needs to be able to function as part of a unit that has standardized on the issue weapon. From what I have read, generals provided their own sidearms until 1943, when the Army started issuing "special" upgraded pistols to generals; upon retirement they are presented the opportunity to purchase the gun from the Army.

From personal experience, I wouldn't say never, because there are enough units, especially in the reserve components, where some rules receive "variable enforcement", that higher-ups look the other way.

The Army also had a pretty good stockpile of M1911s in Anniston, Albama following the fielding of the M9. In the mid-90s there were over 100,000 M1911s in storage, which makes the Charter Arms Bulldog purchase (on May 8th above, pulled from the v1 Small Arms Guide) a little redundant, except perhaps the Air Force felt that the Army wasn't forthcoming enough with the 1911s.

When we sent units into OEF, units bought sigs, and some other brands. to issue sidearms to more than just officers because there were not enough M9s. also SOCOM can and does buy a crazy amount of different weapons for the groups to use. its your time line, if this does not work for you... that is cool. i am still enjoying your work

[Homer]

Nice touch with MREs becoming controlled. I always thought the (relatively) easy availability of MREs or similar rations was a headscratcher in the equipment list given their manufacturing requirements, ease of use, and demand. Post-TDM they'd likely not be able to be produced. I can almost imagine MREs being signed for from a issue point and subsequently turned in if not used. Maybe there's a cottage industry reboxing loose meals into cases for ease of storage and transport (Eventually there'd be cases with nothing but Ham Omelette!). Probably any similar rations captured or "acquired" would be similarly managed.

I wonder if there'd be an attempt to produce a "c-ration like" meal pre-tdm using commercial canned goods for use by low priority, mech, or rear echelon units. I guess they could just eat more T-rations, UGR-As, etc, but I'm looking at an individual meal for when unit feeding is impractical (offensive operations, NBC, or dispersed operations). Post-TDM, this may transition to a cottage industry producing preserved food such as dried meat, dried fruit, and hardtack for local patrolling and operations with the remaining canned goods and MREs held for high priority units or offensive operations. Maybe an early harbinger of Operation Ancient Mariner was the release of MRE and canned rations to 3d German Army from depot storage

A friend of mine in a theater level unit attached to V Corps during OIF I related to me that they were on straight MREs from just before they jumped off until late June because the logistics chain hadn't been able to bring even T-rations forward due to priorities on fuel, ammo, supporting additional forces flowing in, and water.

[chico20854]

May 21, 1997

Polish intelligence receives word of Operation Rampart from a German deserter. Colonel Tomasz Piotrowski, Commander of the Polish 6th Air Assault Division, radios 1st Polish Tank Army HQ at Lublin for reinforcements, Piotrowski is told there aren't any to be sent. Undaunted, he then contacts the 4th Czechoslovak Army HQ. Defenses of Czestochowa consist of three ORMO battalions and a battalion of 30 obsolescent T-55s manned by military cadets.

Unofficially,

A quick survey of CONUS Army bases reveal that members of "5th Squad" are stationed at nearly every post. Few bases host more than 3 members, and none of the bases report any known criminal activity related to the group.

The first truck-mounted SS-23 guidance radar jammer is deployed at Bitburg Air Base, Germany.

The undamaged condition of Poznańs old city leads the government in exile to choose the town as its temporary seat of government.

At a unit formation, Polish Free Congress president Lech Walesa addresses the troops of the 10th Border Guard Brigade. The troops are welcomed and the unit renamed the 1st Polish Free Legion, and Walesa offers to release any troops that do not wish to fight for a free Poland. About 30 percent accept the offer, but are dismayed to discover that there are American MPs of the 42nd MP Group waiting nearby to take them into custody as prisoners of war.

Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) demands the arrest of the Poznań garrison commanders family; the Polish Ministry of Defense refuses, judging that it is preferable for the historic old city to be left intact and occupied by a government of Poles than to be destroyed in a pointless battle of annihilation that would result in tens of thousands of Polish deaths.

The 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) is declared combat ready in Germany. It is rushed into Poland to support the advance.

The growing NATO force on the Norwegian-Finnish border is kept supplied by convoys of civilian trucks, requisitioned by the government and largely driven by Pakistanis and Somalis. The American 10th Light Infantry Division detaches its light mechanized battalion and ground cavalry troops LAV-25s, HMMWV gun trucks and Fast Attack Vehicles to escort the convoys.

The Soviets reveal a new weapon in the skies over the North Atlantic, with the appearance of the Tu-22M2DP, an older-model Backfire bomber that has been modified into a long-range interceptor. The "new" aircraft mounts the long-range radar and missile system of the MiG-31 interceptor, while the aircraft's bombing equipment has been removed, replaced with additional fuel tankage, giving it enough range to wander over the airlanes over and south of the GIUK Gap. The fighter's first kill is a trio of C-5 transports from the 439th Military Airlift Wing and a World Airlines 767 carrying replacements to Germany.

The Sierra II-class attack sub K-336 returns to the Kola Peninsula after its long patrol in the Atlantic. It berths in the remote port of Gremikha, 350 km east of Murmansk, to avoid capture by NATO ground troops.

In the skies over Korea, 7th Air Force launches another major raid on Pyongyang, striking targets that the North Koreans had repaired or that were missed in earlier raids. The strike manages to knock out the city's largest coal-fired power plant, making electrical service even more infrequent.

The final detachments of the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) arrive in Iran from Saudi Arabia. Two combat engineer battalions (the 27th and 5th) are detached to the 9th and 24th Infantry Divisions, respectively, to support their organic engineer regiments, while the remaining battalions begin constructing infrastructure to support Third Armys concept of holding a strip of territory along the shore of the Persian Gulf, forcing the Soviets to fight in the Zagros Mountains. Several heliports are constructed for the 101st Air Assault Division and the 6th ACCB, supply dumps established and fortified and the road network along the coast and into the mountains is improved to support the additional traffic generated by XVIII Airborne Corps.

The 82nd Airborne Division completes its withdrawal from Iran, returning to Saudi Arabia to absorb reinforcements and reconstitute.

The USS Independence strikes Chah Bahar, disrupting the Soviet paratroopers there.

Further south in the Indian Ocean, the Diego Garcia base is working to put itself back together after the cruise missile attacks. SEEBEEs are en route to repair the damage, while the base's P-3s launch a frantic search for the Soviet vessels that launched the attack.

The Soviet raiding force, having expended their missiles, have looped south and east. They are en route to meet up with some Soviet fishing vessels for fuel for the Buliny before making way to Vietnam for a resupply.

The Politburo grants permission for the General Staff to direct local military commissions to initiate another round of mobilization to support troop levels at the front. Each republic, region and locality is given a number of reservists to provide within 15 days; it is up to local officials to determine who is chosen. In larger cities the call-up is based on age and civilian employment; in the regions and countryside, especially in the villages and collective farms, it is decided by favoritism and bribery.

The call-up also extends to the large population of the incarcerated. The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior meet to establish criteria for selecting prisoners from the MVD's massive labor camp system for "parole at the front".

[pmulcahy11b]

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

[Spartan-117]

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

Chewbarka loves that there is an Airborne unit named for him.

[chico20854]

May 22, 1997

Lieutenant-General Boleslav Myrec, Czech 4th Army commander, responds to Colonel Piotrowski's plea for help. He agrees to send the Czech 19th Motorized Rifle Division (6,000 men, 43 tanks) to Katowice, Poland to aid in the defense. More importantly, he sends a battery of four 130mm long range guns to help augment the defenses. At dusk the first Czech troops arrive in Katowice and the 3000 survivors of the 6th Air Assault Division head north to Czestochowa.

In response to earlier attacks on facilities in the rear area and rioting in POW cages, the first complement of SPAS-12 automatic shotguns are issued to US Army MPs in Iran.

Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Dailan Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts. It proceeds to nearby Qounset Point, Rhode Island to load its first cargo of containerized ammunition and supplies before sailing to Europe, where it will join the floating logistics train of II MEF.

The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support group begins a crash program to develop and field a "modern C-ration" composed of a cardboard box with shorter shelf life packaged and canned food items. The ration would use food processing industry capacity that can't be used for MRE production to partially replace MRE use in areas where the light weight, long shelf life and convenience of the MRE are not essential.

SACLANT shifts the reconstituted Strike Force Atlantic north to the GIUK Gap. The Saratoga, Enterprise and Eisenhower battle groups use their fighters and fighter-bombers to augment the USAF F-15 force in Iceland and RAF Tornado F3 interceptors in Scotland in patrolling the airspace over the Norwegian Sea to protect the air bridge to Europe from further Soviet attacks.

The heavy cruiser Des Moines completes its transit of the Panama Canal and officially becomes part of the Pacific Fleet. Meeting up with her battle group (composed of a guided-missile cruiser, two destroyers, a pair of frigates and an oiler) she steams for Pearl Harbor.

MVD and KGB internal security troops sweep the town of Lovozero on the Kola Peninsula, seeking those that attacked the nearby airfield. The raid results in the capture of six Green Berets, the death of four American troops and eight Saami partisans and the destruction of the villages partisan organization.

The SAS team that operated in Leningrad boards a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Brussels. They discarded their weapons and equipment in a lake outside the city.

After only a week in the UK, the 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (New York Air National Guard) is ordered to Gibraltar to provide search and rescue support to Allied forces in the approaches to the Mediterranean and in the western Med, leaving its remaining three HH-60 helicopters in the UK. (The helos are promptly reassigned to the 56th ARRS, operating from Keflavik, Iceland). Upon arrival in Gibraltar the 102nd is shocked to discover the replacement aircraft it is assigned are not new HH-60s, but Vietnam-veteran HH-3 "Jolly Green Giants" pulled out of storage in the Arizona desert and rushed to Gibraltar in a priority airlift aboard giant C-5 transports. The "new" helicopters lack the modern avionics of the squadron's prior mount, and the squadron's younger pilots and mechanics are not familiar with the aircraft, which the squadron had retired in 1992. Nevertheless, the squadron continues to be assigned missions, and headquarters justifies the move noting that the squadron's location in the western Mediterranean does not demand the latest technology to succeed.

The Egyptian government, after months of dithering, signs a contract with a large French engineering and construction firm for clearing the wreckage from the Suez Canal. The multi-million pound contract award immediately raises howls of protest about "European recolonization" from domestic firms (none of which have anything approaching the ability to perform the work, but which instead would have subcontracted the work to the same foreign firms after skimming off a healthy portion of the cost and adding delays and confusion.) The government, already under pressure from the loss of foreign aid, canal toll revenue and facing a food crisis, backs down, suspending the contract for "reconsideration".

The British 27th Brigade in Iran launches an assault on an outpost established by the 350th Guards Airborne Regiment outside of Bandar Abbas. The 14-hour assault, launched in the pre-dawn hours, culminates in a close-quarter battle with the Gurkhas fighting with their famous Kukri knives as ammunition runs low on both sides.

Six A-7s depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama for Point Salines Airport, Grenada, the first stop in their journey to the Middle East.

[chico20854]

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

I was lucky enough to have one of the 6th's (at that time a brigade) companies guarding the base I was stationed on in Bosnia. Wonderful guys, their NCOs were tough as nails and great friends. Many of the professional troops had years of experience on UN peacekeeping missions dating back to the 80s.

I'm using GDW's larger orbat for the 6th for this timeline, it reduces the effort I need to expend in re-writing the Battle of Czestochowa and I would justify it by saying that they called up recently discharged vets to beef up the force structure!

[pmulcahy11b]

I was lucky enough to have one of the 6th's (at that time a brigade) companies guarding the base I was stationed on in Bosnia. Wonderful guys, their NCOs were tough as nails and great friends. Many of the professional troops had years of experience on UN peacekeeping missions dating back to the 80s.

I'm using GDW's larger orbat for the 6th for this timeline, it reduces the effort I need to expend in re-writing the Battle of Czestochowa and I would justify it by saying that they called up recently discharged vets to beef up the force structure!

One thing most people don't know is that the Polish unit, called GROM, was the first unit ashore in OIF. They disabled an oil platform and then went ashore to disable more oil infrastructure.

[Rainbow Six]

The SAS team that operated in Leningrad boards a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Brussels. They discarded their weapons and equipment in a lake outside the city.

So they stepped onto the plane and vanished into Finnair

(old travel industry joke - seemed appropriate in this context)

[pmulcahy11b]

Chewbarka loves that there is an Airborne unit named for him.

I should have named Orlando that. He's a Shih Zsu that barks a lot and has a surprisingly loud voice for >9-pound dog!

[chico20854]

May 23, 1997

Following the issuance of SPAS-12 automatic shotguns to US Army MPs in the Persian Gulf, USAF police units in Poland and Germany receive the guns.

Unofficially,

After a month of investigation, Army CID (Criminal Investigation Division) agents are unable to determine how over 7200 40mm grenade launcher rounds disappeared from a storage bunker at Camp Dawson, West Virginia. The investigation is placed in an inactive status as the agents are assigned to other cases, including the growing investigation into the "5th Squad" gang potentially spreading from Fort Lee.

In the skies over Korea, American bombers return to northeastern North Korea, striking the port city of Kimchaek and the rail junction at Kilju, disrupting transportation from the USSR.

Continued poor weather in Poland greatly slows operations on the ground; the heavy rains wash out roads and make low-level flight hazardous. The armies take advantage of the lull to try to rest their troops and move supplies forward.

As NATO advances across Poland, a shadow war is taking place in the woods and out of the way places as special operation forces and guerillas seek out enemy weak spots to exploit. NATO rear areas are constantly on guard against pro-Pact guerillas, remnants of cut off or destroyed units and Polish civilians who, from devotion to Communism or nationalism, take up arms against the German invaders and their Western allies. Spetsnaz units, as well as their elite air assault and airborne counterparts, seek out isolated NATO troop units, communications sites or unguarded chokepoints along lines of communications. If these targets are weak enough they attack them immediately, and if not they radio in the location, to be engaged by Frontal Aviation or, more likely, surface-to-surface missile systems. Likewise, NATO has troops operating behind Warsaw Pact lines. The US has two Special Forces groups, the 10th and the 20th, committed to the Central Front, as well as Long-Range Surveillance Detachments from each corps and division headquarters. The Green Berets concentrate on supporting anti-Soviet resistance groups and encouraging Pact units to defect, as well as performing direct action missions. The UKs Special Air Service Group roams the woods of central Poland as well as safe houses in Warsaw and other cities, scouting Pact supply routes, assassinating traffic control officers, rescuing and evacuating downed airmen, notifying headquarters of advancing Pact troops and identifying targets for deep strike aircraft and systems. German Korps reconnaissance companies and the Danish Jgerkorpset also roam the Pact rear areas, seeking targets for others to attack, raiding vulnerable sites, helping downed airmen and generally causing as much disruption as possible.

The USAF 17th Air Force, responding to the advancing front line in Poland and improved security situation in East Germany, moves several units assigned close air support missions to former Soviet Frontal Aviation bases in East Germany. The bases have been released by the Luftwaffe, which has scoured them for parts and materiel that can be used to support the LSK (the former East German air force). The "new" bases don't have the amenities usually associated with a US Air Force base but reduce the transit time aircraft have to spend getting to and from the action.

With the boat secured and a caretaker crew aboard, the crew of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336 is granted a month of celebratory leave following their successful patrol in the North Atlantic.

The Red Banner Northern Fleet begins another series of mining missions, dispatching the Foxtrot-class boat B-2 to the North Sea.

Responding to the progress made by Greek engineers, Turkish F-4 fighters strike the Alexandropolous airfield with a low-level overflight scattering cluster bomblets over the field, destroying a pair of fixed-wing light transports and a UH-1 utility helicopter.

No. 35 Squadron, RAF and No. 21 Squadron fly numerous sorties with their Jaguar attack bombers in support of 25 Brigade's troops, which are keeping the paratroops of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division tied down in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

A detachment from the MVD 16th Convoy Brigade is the first to transfer prisoners to the Army under the so-called oefront parole program, releasing 45 carefully-screened prisoners to the 20th Guards Motor-Rifle Division as the unit is in reserve near Lvov.

[chico20854]

I wonder what patch the 36th Mech is wearing The RL and historic incarnation of the 36th wears the oeT patch, which the 36th brigade gave up when they folded into the 49th AD in the 90s. With an extant 36th Brigade the oeT patch would probably be claimed. Maybe the army makes a new patch, or maybe they take the interim 36th airborne patch from the 60s, the oestar patch Or maybe the 36th brigade loses their patch when they get folded into the 44th

Patches, etc. seem like small things, but unit identity is a large part of cohesion and combat effectiveness, especially in ARNG organizations or in divisions with storied legacies. Patches are one artifact of that identity.

I have the 36th ID using the "T Patch"; when the 36th Brigade is rolled into the 46th ID (where I put them as I shuffled brigades to account for the 29th ID existing) I have them swapping to the 46th Division patch. I figure that to build the new divisional identities when the formerly independent brigades are thrust into divisions together that the brigade patches go; this also helps break down intra-unit barriers in the new composite battalions (cavalry, engineer, CEWI) that are formed. And yes, Joe is going to bitch about it. It's his right!