On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

August 31, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day! Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Santa Fe Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The area of responsibility of the First Maritime Defense District (formerly the First Coast Guard District, under command of Rear Admiral Scott MacDowell) is adjusted to encompass the area from the Rhode Island-Connecticut border to the Canadian border.

In Alaska, the 99th Motor-Rifle Division follows up on its earlier landing with a successful attack on Juneau. The attack is opened with a tactical nuclear strike on the command post of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (located in the town's high school), which leaves the defense in disarray. The veteran Soviet arctic troops are able to sweep aside the defenders, composed of the remnants of the 172nd that survived the battles outside Anchorage, the 4th battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon), cut off from its headquarters, as well as a hodgepodge of policemen, state guards, coast guardsmen and local volunteer militia. The surviving defenders evacuate into the hills overlooking the town, where they form the core of a partisan movement which hampers the Soviet occupation force for many months to come.

A C-5 airlifter of the 75th Airlift Squadron unloads the first two PAMSS - Palletized Armored Shelter Systems - at Osan Air Base in Korea. The systems are standard 20-foot cargo containers, reinforced with Kevlar armor, converted to serve as headquarters shelters, with diesel generators, climate control and a NBC overpressure system, intended for lighter units that do not have M577 or M4 armored command posts. The PAMSS is transported by an armored M1074 PLS truck and intended for battalion and higher headquarters in light divisions as well as towed artillery battery headquarters and fire direction centers. Development was extended due to (idiotic) bureaocracy within the Pentagon, who argued that fielding the PAMSS would impact the deployability of light divisions despite the fact that nearly all of the Army's light divisions have already been deployed. The prototype PAMSS are headed to the 1st Brigade, 7th Infantry Infantry Division for field testing; production of additional systems continues at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama.

As the troops of the 11th Panzergrenadier Division, part of V German Korps, begin to crumble after days of ceasless attacks from the Polish 3rd Army, Third German Army orders a nuclear attack to break the Polish momentum and disrupt their supply lines. A flight of Luftwaffe Tornado strike aircraft drop 60kt B-61 bombs on the massed guns of the 120th Artillery Regiment, the narrow road leading north through the Wisloka River valley and, for good measure, the town of Jasło, with its small oil refinery and transport links.

Convoy 418 from Oman arrives of the southeastern US coasts, dispatching its surviving 37 ships, including the Victory ship Wayne Victory, to Jacksonville, Florida, Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina.

As nightfall comes, Marines along the northern edge of the Yadz perimeter begin to fall back, abandoning their positions. Overhead, Navy and Marine Corps EA-6 jamming aircraft shut down 40th Army's command-and-control radio network, and a F/A-18 of VMFA-323 drops a B-61 tactical nuclear bomb on the headquarters of the 210st Motor-Rifle Division's 395th Motor-Rifle Regiment, which is blocking the southern approaches to Yadz. The 1st Marine Division's 5th Regiment goes on the offensive, overwhelming the veteran Soviet troops. 1st Marine Division's breakout from the Yadz pocket has begun.

British intelligence receives word of the impending court martial of the naval commando. It seeks verification before ordering the SAS team to stand down its hunt.

[chico20854]

More next week! Enjoy the weekend!

[Homer]

Awesome update!

The PAMSS sounds like an interesting idea. Assuming it's an ISO 20 foot container, it can deploy on C-5/C-17 and move intratheater on a C-130 with handling kit. The issue would be tactical movement since the PLS truck isn't on the L series MTOE for light/airborne/air assault infantry/artillery battalions or infantry brigades at this point. The division MSB has 9 PLS trucks, almost invariably managed as division assets and anecdotally ending up spending NTC/JRTC/BCTP events dropping skids of ammo to support DIVARTY, dropping skids of barrier material and mines to support the engineer obstacle plan, or helping to jump the DIV Main/AVN Assembly Area or BSA/DSA. If additional PLS are fielded with the system, they will require the fielding of suitable recovery and maintenance assets and personnel in the FSB and BDE/BN HHC/HHB, change the fuel and POL resupply requirements (PLS and HEMMT vehicles seem to drink oil and fluids like there's no tomorrow!) and will change the transportation equation (a PLS can't be slung under a chinook or flown in a C-130) for air assault and air mobility operations.

However, there are 5 ton M1087 expando-vans with mobile, plug and play type shelters. The M1086 LWB MTV is also made to move up to an ISO 20 foot container and has onboard MHE and winch (M1085 is base LWB). The MTV is already organic to DISCOM, DIVARTY, AVN, and the DIV base, so assets could be reallocated, or additional systems supported relatively easily. There are also shelter options for the LMTV and HMMWV (s-250/s-788/SICPS, etc). As designed they're soft, but some have the ability to provide GPFU/over pressure, EMP isolation, and accept ballistic panels. However, dismounting ISO based shelters in a field environment requires dedicated MHE not present at any echelon in the Division.

They do need something considering the average light infantry bn TOC of the era is a few SICP tents moved around in the back of the S-3 shop's LMTV and set up with mapboards hung on the wall, radios mounted on tables and broadcasting with OE-254s. The TOC personnel were housed in poncho hooches around the perimeter roughly aligning to their defensive sector. Camo nets were hung over SICP tents and associated vehicles (All HMMWVs parked with hoods up and mirrors turned in!). Easy to hide, but exceptionally unsurvivable, time consuming to move, and a cramped and miserable smelling place to work in at night with the sides of the SICPS tents down! Just being able to crank vehicles and drive away in an emergency would make a huge difference to TOC survivability.

Digging the "Escape from Yazd"! "Death of a Motor-Rifle Division" handout to follow

[chico20854]

September 1, 1997

Nothing official today! Unofficially,

map of front lines from the Baltic to Pakistani border

The 199th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys a detachment to the Pacific Test Range Facility airport at Barking Sands, Hawaii. This remote location will spare the squadron from the nuclear attack on its home station of Hickam Air Force Base in November.

The 22nd Motor-Rifle Division reaches White Pass, on the border between British Columbia and Alaska, and clashes with a small RCMP detachment.

New equipment authorizations (Tables of Organization and Equipment) for US Army units go into effect, taking into account the lessons of the past year's battles and developments in American war production. Two of the changes include authorizing the M1-A2D as a substitute standard tank for armor battalions and armored cavalry squadrons and creation of an engineer section within the service battery of towed artillery battalions, equipped with four Small Emplacement Excavators - Unimog light trucks fitted with a dozer bucket and backhoe to dig gun emplacements and fighting positions.

The so-called "Shangri-La" Air Base in far southwestern China, the US Air Force launches its first operational mission, receiving a KC-135 tanker of the 117th Air Refuelling Squadron (Kansas National Guard) after it drained its tanks into a B-2 bomber that made the flying wing's first penetration into the Soviet Union. (more below).

The South Korean 2nd Armored Brigade launches an attack against Soviet covering forces in an attempt to break through to the surrounded American 23rd Infantry Division. The skillful Soviet defenders of the 192nd Motor-Rifle Division use minefields and artillery fire to channel the ROK tanks into a narrow valley approach route, where dismounted infantry equipped with AT-4 anti-tank missiles, artillery and the attack helicopters of the 364th Helicopter Regiment are able to inflict heavy losses on the Korean force, pushing them back to their start lines by dusk.

At the urging of the commander of NATO's NORTHAG, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force assigns the remnants of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing's A-10 force (17 aircraft) solely to support the embattled V US Corps. Based at the former Polish Air Force base at Powidz east of Poznan (and associated highway strips nearby) , the wing quickly establishes a standing patrol of tank-busters over the American force. The aircraft see nearly constant action countering Soviet attacks or trimming back outlying positions along the corps' flanks.

The situation of NATO troops in northeastern Poland is growing increasingly perilous as three NATO corps (the III US, II British and VII German) with eight divisions in total try to cover a nearly 170-mile front against superior numbers of Soviet troops (18 divisions). The NATO force is operating at the end of a very long supply line, one plagued by poor rail and road links, near-constant partisan attacks and limited numbers of support and transport troops.

Ships carrying the first contingent of the Portugese 1st Independent Mixed Brigade (the support battalion, air defense battery, one of the motorized infantry battalions and the engineer company) arrive at the port of Antalya and begin unloading. Due to the uncertain situation, the brigade's troops have to negotiate with the local army units and civil authorities, who are not expecting the unit and are already under considerable stress from the reverses suffered in the north.

The battleship Wisconsin, entering the Adriatic, pounds Greek coast defense positions on Corfu, protected against anti-ship missiles by the Aegis destroyer USS Barry, trailing 500 meters behind the battlewagon.

The 1st Marine Division evacuates the Yadz pocket, having held off the Soviet 40th Army for several weeks. In their departure the Yadz Airport and a smaller expeditionary airfield constructed by American engineers are thoroughly destroyed to prevent their use by the enemy. The American force is moving relatively slowly, with several battalions of troops on foot, the force's vehicles loaded down with supplies to sustain the withdrawal. Their progress is challenged by the remainder of the battle-hardened 201st Motor-Rifle Division, veterans of Afghanistan, which throws its two remaining motor-rifle regiments at the Marine's flanks while raking the American column with artillery fire. Marine helicopters and tactical aviation seek out the Soviet guns and the Marines cover seven miles of the the distance to Bandar Abbas.

To the north and west, the 1st (my 9th) Army settles into field positions surrounding Shiraz, while the 45th (my 32nd) Army is too exhausted to press an attack on the 101st Air Assault Division, which holds the town of Dakali, blocking an exit from the Zagros onto the coastal plain along the Persian Gulf.

The US Strategic Air Command launches its first "Golden Spike" mission to slow the flow of reinforcements from the Far Eastern Front to the fighting in Europe. A lone B-2 bomber crosses the Altai Mountains (where China, Mongolia and the USSR converge) after dark, weaving between Soviet air defense radars to remain out of their detection ranges and soon heads east, on a track parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. At a pre-determined point it turns on its AN/APQ-181 radar, searching for a troop train spotted heading west, and soon locates it. The bomber waits for the train to reach a bridge (over the Uda river, a tributary of the Yenesi) drops a single B-61 tactical nuclear bomb fitted with a modified JDAM guidance unit. The blast leaves the bridge over the Uda a tangled mess, tosses the locoomotive into the river and rips the loaded railcars apart; the surviving contents are lit on fire. The B-2 continues down the line, seeking additional troop trains or SS-24 rail-mobile ICBMs. Finding neither, it turns north for egress over the Arctic, launching a trio of SRAM II missiles with 200 kt nuclear warheads at three air defense radar stations generally along its exit route. Once over the North Pole the aircraft refuels from a waiting SAC tanker and returns to its home base, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.

[bash]

This thread reads like a nuclear armed version of Red Storm Rising. The Google maps are fantastic. Such good work.

[chico20854]

September 2, 1997

Transcaucasian Front's offensive (coupled with a lack of supplies arriving from home) has largely pushed Third Army back to it's original starting positions.

Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler and his peers graduate from Advanced Individual Training. Because of the serious situation on the ground in Europe, the class is bussed to Shaw Air Force Base 30 miles away, where a chartered 767 awaits to fly the newly trained light wheeled vehicle mechanics to Germany as replacements. The plane has just finished flying the last remaining excess command and support personnel from the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) home from Germany after the division was pounded by Soviet nuclear weapons near Warsaw in August.

In Alaska, X Corps stands up a new unit, the 2nd Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment, to provide additional transportation support to the embattled corps. The battalion is formed by mass requistioning of Alaska's fleet of bush planes and conscription of their pilots, a move that is not without considerable controversy, especially among the pilots and owners of those aircraft (often the same people). Company A is equipped with Twin Otter aircraft, adding to the Alaska National Guard's small fleet of the type, Company B is equipped with DeHavilland Beaver floatplanes (ironically, many of which are former US Army aircraft), Company C with Cessnas and Company D, the heavy lift company, operates six Grumman Goose flying boats and a like number of DC-3 transports. The new formation is based at Fort Wainwright, but it operates over the vast state, much as the aircraft did as commercial bush pilots.

A warning is received that Soviet missiles and bombers are inbound towards the UK. The Royal Family and Prime Minister are rushed onto helicopters and are over the outskirts of London when word is received that it is a false alarm, and they quickly return.

The Soviet 35th Army diverts much of its remaining artillery from the front lines facing the Americans, Commonwealth and South Koreans to firing missions against the surrounded and isolated American 23rd Infantry Division. A break in the weather allows a handful of helicopters to slip into the surrounded unit's enclave, dropping off ammunition and food and evacuating several dozen wounded.

The 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) arrives aboard Air Force and civilian transport aircraft at Kimpo Air Base, Korea.

Third German Army's order to withdraw to the vicinity of the Wisla River is mirrored by the Second German Army in northern Poland. All effort is to be made to restore contact with First German Army's V US Corps to the south, as 7th Tank Army has severed contact and, despite the nuclear strikes in Bialystok, is making progress towards Warsaw.

In Munich, the commander of the Italian forces holds a conference with the commander of the 1st Southwestern Front, Marshall V.I. Avdeev, to try to formalize what has been heretofore an ad-hoc effort to coordinate the invasion of southern Germany. Bundeswehr stay-behind troops launch an unsuccessful ambush on the Italian commander as he leaves the Soviet command compound in an upscale area of the Bavarian capital.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia detects a coastal convoy running along north Russian coast and closes on it. The Soviets score a rich prize when a Tu-22M2DP interceptor stumbles across the weekly ferry flight of new-production A-10Bs (accompanied by a KC-135E of the 191st Air Refuelling Squadron) from the US to Europe. The converted Soviet bomber is able to down three of the four attack aircraft as well as the tanker (the survivor diverting to Keflavik, Iceland), escaping back to Severomorsk unscathed.

The carriers John F Kennedy and America launch another round of air strikes on Italian military positions along the Adriatic coast. At dusk a S-3 Viking patrol aircraft from the America spots a squadron of Italian missile craft sortieing from Brindisi; it remains on station as the carrier strike group responds. The two F/A-18s from the SURCAP (anti-surface combat air patrol) are the first to arrive, followed by four additional F/A-18s launched from Kennedy, and the destroyer Caron is dispatched at flank speed to engage with its two 5-inch guns. By 2200 hours the missile boat force has been broken up, with eight of the ten Italian craft sunk or sinking and two fleeing the area at high speed.

The Soviet military reacts to the prior day's Golden Spike airstrike on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A commission from Moscow is dispatched to the headquarters of the 39th Air Defense Corps in Irkutsk to evaluate what the raid looked like to the defenses. The Railroad Troops dispatch the 44th Railroad Brigade to repair or replace the damaged bridge and clear the remains of the train off the line before restoring it to service.

[chico20854]

This thread reads like a nuclear armed version of Red Storm Rising. The Google maps are fantastic. Such good work.

Glad you're enjoying it!!!!

[chico20854]

Septmber 3, 1997

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

The survivors of the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) returned to California are granted two weeks of leave to recover before reporting to Camp Rilea, Oregon to begin forming a new division.

FEMA begins to restock the Defense Logistics Agency storage depot in Pontiac, Michigan, which has been largely emptied of its reserve of machine tools.

As casualties mount on the continent, the House of Commons introduces a conscription bill.

The air over China is the clearest it has been in years as combat operations wind down. The American Volunteer Group II, sucessors to the Flying Tigers of World War Two, are disbanded, surviving aircraft, ground crew and pilots joining USAF and US Naval air units in the Korean Theater. Their Soviet opponents are transferred west, mostly to European skies, although a few aircraft are directed to the skies over Iran.

Pro-Communist guerrillas remain active behind the lines in Poland. Outside the Polish city of Wegrow east of Warsaw a band captures two American soldiers who were travelling (against standing orders) in a lone vehicle, a M1009 CUCV Blazer. The prisoners are Father (Major) John Burroughs, chaplain for 2nd Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, and his assistant, Specialist Karl Cray. The vehicle is hidden in a nearby grove and the prisoners rushed away.

The US Army orders the transfer of the 197th Field Artillery Brigade from USAEUR to Alaska. The formation, in reserve since July, have become experts in Arctic warfare and will add badly needed firepower to X Corps' effort to halt the Soviet offensive in Alaska.

The Olympia attacks the Russian coastal convoy, sinking the corvette SKR-29 with a Harpoon missile and the freighters Bratsk and Kuloy and icebreaker Dikson with torpedoes. The minesweeper RT-350 and the small tanker Imant Sudmalis escaped, radioing for assistance.

The battleship Wisconsin engages Greek coastal positions with its massive 16-inch guns as the resupply convoy enters the Adriatic with a vital cargo of supplies and munitions for the NATO effort in the Balkans. Aircraft from Sixth Fleet carriers patrol overhead, easily dealing with the feeble effort of the Greek Air Force to interfere with the ships' passage.

Private Randall Cutler and 179 other recently graduated support soldiers arrive at Rhein Main Air Force Base in Germany. They are rushed onto busses to a nearby Bundeswehr Kaserne where Army personnel staff assign them to units as replacements.

Pro-Soviet Kurdish partisans launch an attack on the Batman Air Base in southeastern Turkey. When Turkish security troops respond to the truck bomb they use to breach the perimeter fence, a Spetsnaz team from the 15th Spetsnaz Brigade slips over the perimeter fence on the far side of the base. They attack several hardened aircraft shelters, capturing three of them (at the cost of 17 men), one of which contains a F-16 of the 149th Tactical Fighter Group. They destroy the aircraft and grab what documentation they can before withdrawing; thankfully the Batman base is not one of the six Turkish air bases that host American tactical nuclear weapons.

The 1st Marine Division continues its movement southward towards the Persian Gulf; the division commander, Major General John P. Leonard (proceeding on foot most of the way), describes the effort as "continuing the attack, just to our south". The command takes the unconventional decision to travel across the barren Dasht-e-Lut desert, which is much more lightly patrolled by the Soviet 40th Army. The Marine's native guides, provided by the IPA, identify underground qanat aqueducts that the command can use; when those have been left behind the command is reliant on what water is already aboard the division's vehicles and what is flown in by the nightly resupply flights from the coast.

The lead company of the 44th Railroad Brigade reaches the site of the Golden Spike nuclear strike in eastern Siberia by truck. The company commander reports that residual radiaition in the area is still at a high level. When the brigade commander orders him to have his company don their protective garments and conduct a site survey and begin work the young senior lieutenant is forced to tell the colonel that his unit was never issued protective garments, the unit's prewar stocks diverted to China in 1996 and never replaced.

[chico20854]

September 4, 1997

Nothing official today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Cook Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas while the Albany Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) completes Rotation 97-10 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready. It is initially assigned to the Army's strategic reserve.

The destroyer USS Howard is commissioned in Bath, Maine and begins shakedown training before being committed to action, assigned to the Fourth Fleet in the Atlantic. The shipyard at Bath has two more destroyers (the McCambell and Mason) in the water fitting out and six more in various states of construction ashore or in the yard's drydocks.

Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team, down to four men, ambushes a pair of army Land Rovers 10km from Erskine Barracks, Wiltshrie, killing six soldiers from HQ, UK Land Forces.

In southern China, the Soviet 1st Indochinese Front has established two of its three divisions as occupying forces in the cities of Nanning and Kunming, while its Vietnamese allies have sent troops to occupy areas of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. Two Vietnamese task forces land forces in the Paracel and Spratley Islands, asserting control of the disputed islands in the South China Sea and taking advantage of their neighbor's collapse.

Private Randall Cutler is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, part of the 36th Infantry Division, as a wheeled vehicle mechanic working on the battalion's HMMWVs, CUCVs, Avengers and trucks.

The two prisoners captured the day before by Polish partisans are blindfolded and held in the group's hideout, the basement of an abandoned furniture factory.

A week after being hit by NATO nuclear bombs, 3rd Polish Army resumes its drive north out of the foothills of the Carpathians, with Polish infantry riding on the exterior of Soviet tanks of the 50th Tank Division. To the east, XI and VII US Corps withdraw another 10 km, destroying roads and bridges as they retreat behind a screen maintained by the corps' armored cavalry regiments, the 107th and 2nd.

No Soviet surface ships are available to assist the convoy attacked by the Olympia, but some ASW aircraft are called into the area. A lone Tu-142 Bear-F, two Il-78 Mays and a Be-14 flying boat all fly sorties over the area, but have little luck locating the creeping American boat.

The NATO resupply convoy arrives at the Jugoslav ports of Split and Ploce, bringing vitally needed replacement munitions, fuel and spare parts. The USS Wisconsin, accompanying the convoy, launches a volley of four Tomahawk cruise missiles against Italian logistic and transportation sites.

The John F Kennedy and America launch airstrikes on Italian naval targets, returning to Brindisi in search of the two missile boats that survived the battle on the 2nd. They are located hiding among the pleasure boats in the harbor's yacht marina; the air strikes destroy billions of Lire worth of luxury. Military Airlift Command begins routing transports from Germany and the Netherlands to central Norway, where the 197th Field Artillery brigade is moving to Orland and Vaernes air bases for transit to Alaska.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), serving as I MEF's counterattack force along the shore of the Persian Gulf, launches a raid from the outskirts of Bandar Abbas, forcing the 108th Motor-Rifle Division to expend scarce supplies and also convincing the division commander that releasing reserves northward to counter the 1st Marine Division could leave his own command in a precarious place.

[chico20854]

September 5, 1997

With the UK completely committed in Europe, the Middle East and China, Kenya appeals to the US to commit substantial forces to aid them in their fight against the various invading forces and seaborne commerce raiders. The US government, although already deeply mired in Europe and facing the specter of all out nuclear war on the horizon, decides that Kenya was too valuable an ally to lose, especially as its naval and air bases are considered essential for defending the convoys bringing supplies to the RDF and vitally needed oil to the US. The President directs the Joint Chiefs to divert units currently tasked as reinforcements for the RDF to Kenya, with the first units to be air deployed immediately.

Unofficially,

The Governor of New York places his militia forces (the New York Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the Veteran Corps of Artillery) on alert for possible civil and security duties as the nuclear conflict continues around the world.

At Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Rodney Cutler is one of 250 graduates from his recruit training company. Cutler receives orders for Brownsville, Texas, where he will be assigned to the pre-commissioning unit for the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, which is currently a mass of steel over 500 feet long and seven stories high sitting in a dusty bayou bank.

Despite hours of debate in the House of Commons and heated opposition, the Conscription Bill is passed (by a narrow margin) in the early morning hours.

The 23rd Infantry Division, surrounded in the mountains of North Korea, is attacked at dusk from all sides after another day of intense artillery bombardment. The attack is led by waves of dismounted infantry, largely the remnants of North Korean army and militia units forced into service under the guns of their so-called Soviet allies. The American infantry largely defeat the attack, although one battalion, the 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry, is destroyed when North Korean infiltrators overrun its headquarters and a night of fierce, uncoordinated actions in the dark lead to three of the companies being overrun, with the loss of over 350 men. The night's action depletes the division's ammunition supplies; while successful, the 23rd has expended so much ammunition that another attack of that scale will exhaust the supplies, rendering the division's mortars and machineguns worthless.

VI German Korps, vulnerable to being cut off by Soviet tank armies, withdraws from Lublin, setting the central city afire before departing. The main body of the American XI Corps reaches the Wisla at Tarnobrzeg as the evacuation of rear area units picks up pace. To its north VII US Corps begins withdrawing across the Wisla at Sandomierz, under the air defense umbrella provided by the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. Panzergruppe Oberdorff moves northwest, trying to prevent the 1st Guards Tank Army from cutting off the German force evacuating Lublin; the 5th Infantry Division's artillery contributes to this by striking the lead Soviet tank regiment's headquarters (located by a hovering EH-60 ELINT helicopter) with a prompt tactical nuclear strike.

The German freighter Herm Kiepe is delivered in Hamburg. It sails immediately to Canada to load munitions and containerized grain, the crew of the 13,000-ton ship eager to clear the port, a potential target for Soviet missiles and bombs.

The USAF 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron withdraws from Trapani Birgi Air Base in Sicily, returning to its prior base in Gibraltar.

Italian, Hungarian and Soviet troops along the northern Jugoslav border receive increased allocations of fuel and munitions, part of the windfall from the collapse of the Chinese front, while commanders gather at a resort on Lake Balaton to discuss the next steps in the Balkan theater.

Fifth Fleet receives reassurances from the owners of the giant drydock in Dubai that they are nearing completion of the repairs to the supertanker Starlight Gigant, damaged by a Soviet anti-ship missile in June, and that the drydock will then be available for repairs to the damaged USS Independence. The American carrier is anchored in Muscat, Oman with torpedo damage, and the dock in Dubai is the only undamaged one in the region able to accomodate the carrier. (The large dock in Bahrain was damaged by Soviet missiles in April).

In Iran, the 48th Infantry Brigade continues its spoiling attack against the 108th Motor-Rifle Division, forcing the commitment of the Soviet 285th Tank Regiment's T-74s to seal off a break in the front line between the 177th and 181st MRRs.

To the north, the Soviet 4th Army pressures the Iranian I Corps, trying to drive a wedge between XVIII Airborne Corps' dual centers, at Bandar-e-Khomeyni and Bushehr; the US 24th Infantry Division is tied down by a probe launched by the 7th Army. In both these actions, the absence of the 6th ACCB, rebuilding in Saudi Arabia, is keenly felt as the depleted 9th Air Force struggles to maintain air defense, provide close air support and interdict Soviet supply lines over such a vast theater at the end of such a long supply line, with only a fraction of the aircraft it was supposed to have available.

[Homer]

Poor 1-46 IN. First overrun at FSB Mary Ann, now overrun in North Korea. Some units cant catch a break!

[cawest]

now you have me wondering what this AU's amphibious assault ship Makin Island is going to be. LHD-8 was not laid down until 2004. this can be so many things, that i might lose sleep over this just waiting.

[chico20854]

September 6, 1997

Canon is silent on the day. Unofficially,

The fifth R-5D hypersonic spy plane is completed and handed over to the Air Force.

At Fort Bragg, North Carolina the 4th Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group is activated, slated for a rapid deployment to reinforce the rest of its parent headquarters in Africa. It is rapidly brought up to strength with an influx of recent graduates of the Special Forces Q-course and another shakedown of the Special Forces training and administrative structure for excess personnel that can be operationally deployed.

The final British Army regular ground unit, the 3rd Battalion, The Queen's Regiment, departs Northern Ireland, leaving the province's security solely in the hands of the Ulster Defense Regiment. The UDR is supported by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft operating from Aldergrove, which is protected by a squadron of the RAF Regiment. The Queens Regiment troops are sent to Catterick in preparation for deployment to Germany as part of 5th Infantry Division.

The 23rd Infantry Division, cut off in the mountains of North Korea, is struck by multiple Soviet tactical nuclear weapons. The division's LARS rocket battery, A Battery 16th Field Artillery, is struck by a SS-21 missile with a 10-kt warhead, while the 2nd Brigade headquarters is hit by a 152mm nuclear artillery round, disrupting the already weakened brigade. An ad-hoc infantry unit composed of rear-area troops, holding a supposedly quieter section of front, is hit by another SS-21, taking heavy losses. Large numbers of light anti-aircraft guns surrounding the division disrupt aerial resupply and South Korean troops some 20 km to the south are under heavy pressure from Soviet forces. With no relief possible and Soviet commanders rallying more North Korean troops for another night of human wave attacks, the division commander surrenders his command to the Soviet 35th Army in an effort to save the lives of as many of his soldiers as possible. Scattered small groups of American troops break out on foot, heading for friendly lines.

As the Warsaw Pact assault in southern Germany continues to make progress and NATO forces give ground in Poland, SACEUR directs the redeployment of the US VII Corps to Bavaria. The first unit to start moving west is the 2nd Corps Support Command, most of which has crossed the Wisla.

The Soviet raider Ostorozhnyy, which sank a straggler from Convoy 418 two weeks ago, sinks the neutral containership Elite, which was in the central Atlantic en route to France with a cargo of foodstuffs from South America.

The Soviet Black Sea fleet establishes a pontoon pier leading to the beach resort town of Zlatni Pyasatsi, Bulgaria, 17 km north of the port of Varna, which was struck by American GLCMs in August. This allows freighters to be unloaded across the beach, greatly increasing the amount of cargo the Soviets are able to transfer into Bulgaria. (Previously, cargo movement was largely limited to shallow-draft amphibious craft).

The 1st Marine Division continues its trek across the desert, heading south largely on foot. The Marines in the division rear guard (a rotating duty, with the prior day's rearguard battalions trucked to the head of the column and the rearmost battalions assuming the duty) are able to make use of the desert's unique rock formations to strengthen their holding power against 40th Army's pursuing forces, which are having a difficult time traversing the desert terrain.

The 44th Railroad Brigade receives a complement of protective garments and nuclear reconnaissance equipment to begin its efforts to clear the site of the American nuclear strike on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The delay has allowed radiation levels to drop slightly in the blast zone, although the unit commanders are dismayed to discover the level off radiation in their own bivouac areas.

[chico20854]

now you have me wondering what this AU's amphibious assault ship Makin Island is going to be. LHD-8 was not laid down until 2004. this can be so many things, that i might lose sleep over this just waiting.

I'll have more on Makin Island; it is indeed LHD-8. As part of the US industrial mobilization, shipbuilding contracts are accelerated. Here is the last US Navy shipbuilding plan prior to the post-Cold War defense drawdown; the plan was for a dozen LHDs, probably one every other year after LHD-1 and -2 in the late 80s/early 90s. To speed things up, contracts for LHD-7 and LHD-8 are awarded to two shipyards in Texas that have the space to build something that big and complex, yards that in peacetime build offshore oil rigs. As you will see in coming updates, things don't work out so well...

[chico20854]

September 7, 1997

Isolated along the western coast of Korea, the US 25th Infantry Division (Light) strikes north, linking up with elements of Chinese 31st (my 3rd) Army. The Chinese force, sustained by US and British air and sea power, holds the mouth of the Yalu River and the city of Dadong, an island of relative stability. The British 6th Division has been in the enclave since late July.

Unofficially,

The 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is ordered to return to its home station at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania to await a full equipment set and transportation to an overseas theater. While waiting, it is assigned a variety of disaster relief and civil support duties in eastern Pennsylvania.

Another of the organizational changes that was authorized at the beginning of the month is the issuance of select-fire shotguns in infantry battalions; the Army expands its buy of SPAS-12s, previously issued to Military Police units as well as ordering thousands of HK-CAWs built under license by Olin Armaments. The plan is to issue an initial four to each infantry company in the Army, then expand the issue until there is one per squad.

The first draft notices are sent out across the UK.

Soviet troops begin the process of disaring the remnants of the 23rd Infantry Division and processing the over 6,000 POWs. Some are attacked by North Koreans eager for revenge on their nation's hated enemy.

Private Cutler is promoted to Private E-2, reflecting his early competence (he has a gift for understanding machinery, and he has yet to join the seemingly never-ending spades game in the motor pool''s break area) and the extent that his unit is understrength - Cutler occupies a position designated for a Specialist, a rank two above his new one.

Headquarters, VII Corps sets up in the town of Sandomierz, requisitioning the city's castle as headquarters. The Corps' 7th Engineer Brigade takes over operation of two Soviet pontoon bridges that had been captured in June, as well as surveying the railroad bridge a little ways downstream to ensure that it can be used as an emergency evacuation; the Corps commander is determined to keep traffic across the river flowing as smoothly as possible and preventing any massing of troops and equipment that can present a tempting nuclear target.

NATO's Operation Group Warsaw, the command responsible for the capture of the Polish capital, orders a cessation of offensive operations into the city, diverting armored vehicles and artillery towards the eastern side of the perimeter to defend against the approaching Soviet forces.

Likewise, a concerted effort is launched by I and XII German Korps to reduce the surrounded Baltic Front before it can be relieved by the rapidly progressing Pact counterattack, and along the Baltic coast the American II Marine Expeditoary Force launches a probing attack to seek a weak spot in the defense of the greatly shrunken Gdansk pocket, where the Polish 7th Marine Division has been holed up for many months.

A French naval Atlantique 3 patrol aircraft, dispatched from French Guiana, searches for the Soviet raider that sank a merchantman en route to France the prior day. The hunt is not successful.

The damaged heavy cruiser USS Newport News, struck by a Soviet SSC-3 coast defense missile in the Baltic, arrives at the (former) Brooklyn Navy Yard to begin repairs. It is placed in the drydock next to the one containing the USS Dale, which was struck by a SS-N-19 fired by an Oscar-class sub in July.

The air defense commission from Moscow completes its review of the radar record from last week's American stealth bomber penetration of the USSR. Given the limittations of the recording they are unable to reach any useful conclusion; the commander of the relevant sector radar unit is, however, relieved of command and sent to the front as an infantry lieutenant.