10am Brussels General Murdock was not a happy man he had spent his life training to command tanks in battle and it was looking increasingly likely that war would break out. While this war could destroy civilization but as a soldier who spent his life preparing for war to be sitting behind a desk was anathema to him. Now it looked like Colonel Delacroix was being given command of one of the newly formed brigades. He was now one step closer a commanding a brigade in battle. He then asked Col Delacroix to com to his office. Col. Delacroix arrived in General Murdock’s office, the general did not look very happy and then he spoke, **You’re one lucky son of bitch, NDHQ is giving you the 3rd Brigade. I wish it was me going but you are, I wish you all the luck I can and congratulations for your new command. ** Then the General came around his desk and shook Col. Delacroix hand. ** Now let’s go tell the rest of the staff and you can go home and pack. I’ll have my secretary set up a flight home on the first available flight. That is as soon as your packed.
10AM Paris
The Minister of Defense arrive to brief President Mitterrand and he was pleased with the information but he stated he wanted all the divisions had numeral designations. He did not want a member of the Press asking a question like the divisions numeric designations. That could cause a moment of embarrassment for the President so while he was happy about the plan in general it needed a bit more work. The Minister of Defense nodded his head and he told the President that he would have a list of the new divisions before 2pm. That would allow the President to go before the Press and make his announcement today.
3PM Paris The President of France had the Press gathered for a press conference and he gave a short speech, announcing the Formation of an Airborne division the 25th Paratroop division and then a mountain division the 28th Mountain division. Finally, the five new infantry divisions, 2nd ,18th ,21st ,22nd and finally the 152nd divisions. The press where very impressed with the announcements and as long as the press did not dig to deeply into how unbottle ready the new divisions were. But senior French military officers were quite firm that they would make every effort to have the divisions ready for battle.
6pm London The news reports from France had caught the British Army and the Thatcher Government by surprise. The leadership of the Army that the only good thing about the announcement was that Thatcher had made other commitments. That meant she could not order meeting to demand action tonight. But they decided to put a plan together tonight. Then they would have something laid out for the PM or there would be hell to pay and they would be the ones paying.
9AM New York In the UN news about the Politburos failure to make a decision on the conference did not go down well. The Soviet Ambassador as well as the ambassadors from the various Warsaw Pact nations as well as other allies of the Soviet Union. Vietnam, Cuban, Nicaragua, North Korea and other allies of the Soviet Union around the world were finding themselves on the wrong side of the Nonaligned Nations. What was ironic was that some of the countries were members of the nonaligned movement. The weekend was going to be a very uncomfortable for the diplomatic staffs of the Soviet Union and its allies. For once the American ambassador to the UN Jean Kirkpatrick was keeping her mouth shut. The truth was she was enjoying watching the Soviet ambassador to the UN catching hell.
10am NDHQ Ottawa The response from the US military had arrived and it was quite heartening, thirteen m-109’s would be provided but no more could be justified. The request for three hundred and fifty M-113’s of all variants was approved. The M-113’s would be sent from stockpiles and new production. But the Canadians would have to provide the engines and the flatcars cars carry out the movement. Also pointed out that American artillery units could be attached to the new brigades. The unit would be the 209th Field Artillery brigade, the brigade was now training at Fort Drum so the travel time it would take to move the brigade to Valcartier would not be overly long. They pointed out that way the brigade with its two well trained National Guard artillery battalions could easily attached and by training with the Canadian Mobile Force. Then the brigade could become use to the command structure and procedures used by the Canadian Mobile Force. That offered had to be relayed to the political leadership for a decision.
Later that day the announcement of the formation of two new brigades. With a list of the selected units was announced. While the Mobile Force announced that additional troops levies would be taken from other Militia units would be carried out to fill out the two new brigades. But that levy would be made up of volunteers. The announcement was received with hostile questions from the press. But the responses from the briefers made it quite clear that the decisions had been made and the orders had been sent.
Then a member of the press who had been talking to some members of the Liberal Party who had been briefed on the Soviet move to fully mobilized there forced asked a question. It was short and to point, ** Is this decision have anything to do with the fact that the Soviet Union has mobilized every unit it has adding upward of two million troops and twenty to thirty thousand tanks to the Warsaw Pact order of battle? **
The question caught the briefers a little off guard but not totally surprised. Some news stories had appeared on some minor publications. The attitude had been that if the question had been don’t lie and when asked tell the truth. The response was short and to the point, **Yes, the unprecedented mobilization of the Red Army had caused the Canadian Mobile force to organized additional units. ** But the briefers refused to say more. In a way the question to the minds of the voters of Canada off of the mobilization of two new brigades. Now the discussion was that the latest mobilization of additional Soviet troops and tanks. Not to mention not telling anyone about what the Soviet Union had done this over a week before.
4pm Washington
The Secretary of the Treasury came in the brief the President on various matters regarding the economy. Also, the movement of the US gold and silver reserves was still on ongoing a steady stream gold was going to an abandoned salt mine in Kansas was still ongoing. Half the gold and three fifths of the silver reserves was going into the salt mine. While about a half of the Gold reserve and two fifths of the silver reserve had been put into storage at the US Black Hills Army Depot. The hope was that by doing that the Soviet Union would not realize what they had done. The treasury department using the Department of Agriculture for cover a story had been put out in the area that a stockpile of foodstuffs was being locate at the depot.
They were shipping in food to but not in the quantities that the semis would indicate. But a stockpile of food would be there. They were using the size of the stockpile of food and the condition of the site as an excuse to locate a battalion of MP’s as well as battalion of engineers to do necessary maintenance to the bunkers and aid in any recovery of the United States. Very few civilian personal, where assigned to the facility.
Reagan considered what he had been told and he commented, ** You do realize that if a war happens and the people protecting the gold and silver will be more worried about their families than protecting all that gold and silver. I think you should allow the troops and other personal to bring at least their wives and families to the Depot. ** Regan, considered the idea and then he nodded his head, **That would give at least some of the troops a very good reason to stay at the depot. I will look into the idea. **
8pm Johannesburg South Africa Alan was in a good mood Erica had told him that Conrad was back in town. She also commented that he knew that Alan had been looking for him earlier in the week. He had invited Erica and Alan to dinner at his favorite restaurant. After dinner and a little small talk, Conrad asked what was up. Alan leaned forward, **Bougainville could have started World War Three at Guadalcanal. Now the President wants to remind the NIS that we don’t want any problems. I imagine the NIS has already heard from the CIA. But the state department wants you to hear it from state department. **
Conrad frowned for a second and he replied, **We already got that message from your CIA, so why repeat it. ** Alan replied, **We don’t want any misunderstandings, you see the State Department feels that with the CIA you’ll get a wink and a nod with the lecture. We just want it be known that no matter how understanding the no matter what the CIA says about how the United States will react don’t count on it. The is a lot more at play and the President wants peace not war. **
Conrad considered what Alan had told him, it was true that the CIA was a lot more supportive of the South African government than the rest of the United States government. But they were no more trusted by the South African government than the American State Department. He also knew that some in the NIS were looking forward to a war breaking out. With the rest of the world at war, the South African government could then take what some called necessary measures to deal with the kaffir problem.
While Conrad sympathized with their attitudes. But he was not so sure that a full scale nuclear war would in the long run be a good thing for anyone on the planet. But on the other hand, it would allow the South Africa government to explore new and more decisive options in dealing with certain problem elements. Finally, Conrad replied, **I will tell my superiors what you said. ** Alan relaxed a bit and he smiled, then he asked, **Would you like another glass of wine? ** Conrad nodded his head and the three of them had another round of wine placed in front of them. Conrad commented to Erica, **Erica I would appreciate if you did not talk about what was said. ** Erica nodded her head, she had relatives in the security services and they had told tales about overly talkative people and where they ended up.
Then Erica went off to the bathroom, Conrad decided he had an opportune moment to reveal a bit of information the Americans would kill for, **A bit of information was received by our operatives and it relates to a Soviet ship that docked in the port of Lobito a day ago. A submarine came in with it and it received supplies from the ship and then it left port. Going back on patrol I imagine. Well our operatives sent a message to our intelligence center in Windhoek Namibia. We just received the information but so far, the NIS has not decided whether to tell the CIA or not. But you might let your superiors know about that submarine but tell them not to make a big deal about it. After all you don’t want to get a friend in trouble. ** Alan smiled but at the same time he was on his guard Conrad did nothing to just be nice. He was up to something but the odds were the information was indeed correct. Well Jake would get an earful tomorrow and if the State department scooped the CIA on a bit of information so much the better.