Rhodope-Vidin War (1983: Doomsday)

The Rhodope-Vidin War is a war between Rhodope and Vidin that has been operating as a defensive line battle along the Vidinite borders for much of the last decade, with Rhodope being fairly successful at bottling up Vidin forces inside Vidin Province. They have been attempting to gather the heavy artillery to breach this line since early in the decade. However, recently the acquisition of the artillery - and its successful movement to the defensive lines - means the war has entered an entirely new phase.

Background
After Doomsday, several parties of surviving officials from the Bulgarian government fled the capital. A group of more hard-line members fled northwards, ending up in the city of Vidin. At the same time, a more moderate, even reform-minded group went in more of a southward direction, ending up in the city of Smolyan. These groups created the Bulgarian states of Vidin, and Rhodope, respectively.

Both had issues with surviving Soviet forces in the area, who had gone rouge after the destruction of Doomsday. While Rhodope managed to fight one group off, another one ended up becoming the "power behind the throne" in Vidin, following a relatively bloodless coup. Following a meeting on the outskirts of the Sofia ruins in the mid-nineties, in which a large firefight occurred, the two nation-states have been fighting a war throughout most of what was once Western Bulgaria. As of late, Rhodope, with it larger population and better, more modern, weapons, has had the upper hand. Following an invasion attempt of Vidin by Rhodope in 1997 - which was ambushed and dealt many losses - significant reorganization and change on the part of Rhodope led to their advancing to Vidin again in 2000, only find extensive defense lines in place, which they would need heavy artillery to get through. No real attempts to go around the line were made, as to avoid antagonizing Macedonia on one hand, and out of the recognition that Vidin could counter it.

Fighting by guerrilla forces, either rebels or Vidinite troops, have been attacking Rhodope troops besieging the line ever since. However, this has been slacking off in recent years, as Rhodope has been guarding any villages they find in parts of the region, and installing small garrisons along the route between Rhodope and the lines. However, this has not translated into any real control, and will not until the war ends.

Several attempts to gain the artillery have occurred over the last decade, resulting in spectacular failures, for varied reasons, such as the Sicilians, rebels, and even a small avalanche in the Rhodope Mountains causing the artillery to fall off a cliff at one point. Now, however, they have gained them, and the war will commence in full force once again.

August 2nd
The long-awaited heavy artillery and tanks acquired by Rhodope in late June finally arrived at the Vidin defense line today. The Rhodope army commanders quickly moved them into the pre-assigned positions, where they plan to use them to breach the defensive lines and press onward until they reach the defense lines believed to be established around the cities of Vidin and Belogradchik, where they are to wait for the artillery and assault the cities.

The Vidin soldiers have waited this with dread. However, given the situation, if they show the least hesitation, they will die at the hands of the lunatics in charge. The commanders, however, estimate the assault will occur within days.

However, the Rhodope Army, unbeknown-st to them, has other plans - the bombardment will occur starting an hour before dawn, and then at dawn, in an old-fashioned creeping barrage, the troops will advance.

Rhodope scout planes have spotted a large convoy rushing from Vidin to Belogradchik, which is believed to be those who will command a siege of that city.

Vidinite forces have managed to repair one of the two EMP-fried missile launchers they had managed to obtain, and are rapidly working on the second, though it does not look good for them. However, they plan to obliterate the Rhodope planes as soon as is possible - the first will come when the assault does.

August 3rd
As planned, the Rhodope Army commanders began their barrage before dawn. It was 20 minutes late - a last-minute attack by rebels slowed down the messengers with the orders - but the attack went forward, minutes before dawn, as planned. Some small casualties occurred at one of the three breakthrough points, especially when one of the bombardiers, still sleepy, miscalculated his aim slightly.

Other than that, however, the assault went well. The Vidinite commanders had not expected it so soon, and all were surprised by the attack; apparently, the Rhodope commanders had clandestinely managed to shuttle the artillery shells over the previous while. Supported by the tanks - one at each attack point - the soldiers preceded to roll up the line in both directions and force the Vidin Army to retreat in those sectors. The Rhodope soldiers, largely due to the atrocities committed by communists against Rhodope in the past, made a habit out of shooting the most of the officers - and especially doing it to the political commissars. Despite official protests about this from the government, no officers have attempted to put an end to it, and likely will not in the future.

As soon as the breadth of the disaster reached the Vidin Soviet, an order was given to the surviving commanders along the line to slowly pull back - even the now-largely-insane membership of the Soviet could recognize that not doing so would mean their troops were surrounded and likely finished, even before their "plans" could come to fruition.

By the end of the day, the Vidin forces had begun to pull back, leaving booby-traps behind them. This rapid pullout would mean the defense line was breached even more, allowing some of the rank-and-file to be surrounded and captured.

The assault had gone better than Rhodope had expected - and much worse than Vidin had thought. Yet, as the Rhodope Army began to run into the traps and small ambushes, the belief that this would not be easy was reassured.

The missile weapons were moved around, with the repaired one being sent to Belogradchik with the convoy, along with some of the engineers who repaired it - the logic being that it would be attacked first - and the remainder staying with the one being repaired in Vidin. It will be fired when Belogradchik is surrounded by troops and the plane is nearby and at a low height.

August 4th
Due to the pullback, this day was fairly uneventful. The Vidinite soldiers, shielded by their rearguard and the traps left behind, were able to pull back fairly safely to Belogradchik, where those who were to stay entered the fortress-city, while the others continued slowly towards Vidin.

The Rhodope Army finished mopping up the remnants of the defense line, and began to push for Belogradchik, as well as attacking along what was believed to be the western borders of the enemy state, to try and prevent any escapees. Discovering that the roads were well-mined, they have begun marching through the vineyards along either side instead, which has allowed them to avoid most of the mines, though caused an increase in the amount of ambushes.

Rhodope now plans on advancing to Belogradchik, and then surrounding and besieging the city with a third of their forces. The rest will continue the pursuit towards Vidin. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Belogradchik will likely be surrounded by the middle of the next week.

August 10th
Today, the city of Belogradchik was finally completely invested by the Rhodope Army, slightly ahead of schedule.

It has been decided, however, because of intelligence received by Rhodope Army Intelligence that indicated the higher leadership of Vidin was in Vidin while the lower levels were the ones that had been sent to Belogradchik, to send the majority of the tanks and artillery on ahead to Vidin.

The Rhodope forces not tasked with the investment of Belogradchik have been marching towards Vidin, within sight of the roads but purposely avoiding the roads where possible, due to a belief that they are extensively mined. Teams following the main body of the army clearing mines have confirmed this.

Unfortunately, this is something that the Vidinite Army has noticed, and they are planning on mining the countryside more heavily now as a result, while leaving the roads fairly unmined, and organizing more ambushes along the way.

The missile in Belogradchik is being prepped, and will be launched at the plane often seen circling the city in the morning. The other missile in Vidin now has its detonation sequences and parts repaired, though the propulsion and targeting devices are only being started on.

Rhodopian forces expect to pass the site of their last invasion of Vidin, about 15 miles from Vidin itself, around midday tomorrow.

Forces near the perceived border of Vidin to the west have also come into contact with a Macedonian patrol, which has agreed to keep a keen eye out on its side of the border for fleeing Communists - and they will be forcefully removed from existence, for they have no great love of the Vidinites either.

The Vidin Soviet, while slightly alarmed at the progression of the Rhodope Army, still believes in their radiation-induced insanity that they will win, though this is something that an outsider would consider highly unlikely.

August 11th
At dawn, the Rhodope army was handed its first major setback in the campaign - one of their scout planes, which had been circling the city of Belogradchik met with a most unfortunate end. A small heat-guided missile was launched from the top of the city defense wall, making a direct hit upon the tail end of the plane and causing it to spiral out of control.

To make it even worse, the site where the plane crashed, by sheer coincidence, happened to be the spot where the commander of the besieging forces had erected his headquarters tent. In the short period of confusion which followed, a short company of Vidinite soldiers went over the wall, fleeing westward. Witnesses claimed to have seen them heading towards the famous rock formations in that direction.

As if things could not get worse, a series of anti-personnel mines, set to detonate as one, destroyed one of the heavy artillery pieces on the road to Vidin. The unit then had to use one of their tanks to haul it off the road to allow them to pass it. This took several hours, but they were eventually able to get on their way again. Thus, instead of reaching 15 miles at midday as planned, it was late afternoon. The Rhodope Army expects to arrive at Vidin itself, despite an increase in both mines and guerrilla attacks on the advancing troops, in time for Mass on Sunday morning, rather than the previous evening as planned originally.

The Commander of the Rhodope Army was shocked to hear of the plane being shot down, and of the horrific crash. Demanding to know why they had been surprised like this, the head of the intelligence section meekly told him that he had received a report that Vidin did have a pair of them in their possession, but also one that said there was no chance it could be repaired by the relatively incompetent engineers of the Vidinite Army. And in this, he was obviously wrong.

Now, luckily, the pilot of the plane had managed to relay the needed information before being shot down. However, the intel reports showed that the other missile was likely also in Belogradchik, so they could continue to scout ahead of the Army.

The shooting down of the plane led to a much-needed boost in morale for the defenders of Belogradchik, though even they could recognize it did little to help their situation.

As the day finally came to a close, the soldiers of both armies could not help but wonder - what would the next day bring, and where would it take them?

August 12th
Forces from the Rhodope Army continue their advance towards Vidin.

Today is marked by their capture of the town of Kula, is the western part of the area, near the old border. The site of a small garrison prior to their breakthrough, the Rhodopian troops entered the town, and found it to be essentially empty of its garrison, for the most part. What little they could find of the regular army garrison, consisting of a platoon or so, headed by a sergeant, seemed to be pinning some sort of opponent in the local police station. Upon contact, they willingly surrendered themselves to the Rhodope troops. They explained their activities - apparently the group forted up in the station consisted of Red Banner Guards, and a few of the more radical members of the army, along with most of the officers that had been present in the garrison. The remainder of the Garrison, unlike the sergeant and his platoon, had decided that they did not want to die in a losing cause, but believed too much of the propaganda of the regime about Rhodope to surrender to them. The sergeant, having been in the old Army before 1983 and recently pressed back into service, knew otherwise and had managed to convince most of his platoon to his view. His lieutenant, however, had felt otherwise and led the forces westward, where they planned to set up some sort of state, as warlords, in the former Yugoslavia. The sergeant and hos platoon had stayed behind, and bottled up the guards in the station since - some three days had passed.

The officer in charge of the Rhodope troops quickly got on his radio and informed his commanders, who had something in mind for the renegades - they contacted their counterparts in the Macedonian Army, who given prior experiences with the Vidin state and what it stood for had no qualms with radioing their patrol and ordering them to be on the lookout for this renegade, and to shoot them on sight - no surrender.

The main body of the Rhodope Army reached a point ten miles from Vidin today, on track for Sunday morning, when they plan to hold services within easy earshot of the city defenses.

Vidin is happy with how the retreat is going - exactly as planned, past the first few rough days. They expect to see the Rhodopians at their gates sometime on Sunday, where they plan on destroying them and killing their morale, leading off with the remaining missile being launched at the other scout plane. The engineers have now pronounced it ready, though they are definitely unsure, as the job on this one was much more hasty than the other one.

In a repeat of a plan used against Russian troops in the 1980s, command has decided, using captured uniforms, to land a small amount of disguised soldiers from their boats in the river, whenever the main assault gets underway - intel currently says the heads of the soviet are still in Vidin, and they would love little more than to capture them alive to put on trial - in an attempt to capture the leadership before something happens to them.

August 13th
Today the Rhodope government received notice from their Macedonian counterparts that during the night, their patrols had run into the renegade Vidinites, and had slaughtered them in hand-to-hand combat.

Yet, the most important event to occur during the day were other matters - advance units of the Rhodope Army today came into sight of the city of Vidin itself, ending the day only a kilometer and half from the city "walls".

In past days, attacks by Vidinite elements on the troops have been increasing, and casualties have been mounting, though not on anywhere near a scale that would be needed to break the iron will of the Rhodopians in this effort to stamp out the barbaric communist state.

Currently, they expect to arrive outside the city in time for a late mass on Sunday. This is planned to occur within sight of the garrison, in what will more or less be a taunt.

Supplies in Belogradchik are beginning to run low - the Rhodope breakthrough had occurred slightly faster than expected, so a fair portion of their supplies did not arrive in time, and have since been captured by Rhodope soldiers. Mutterings of opposition are beginning to occur in some quarters.

Much like they had been doing in the region between Vidin-controlled and Rhodope-controlled territory, the Rhodope Army has been rounding up what few civilians remain and forting them up in camps lightly garrisoned by their troops, in order to cut down on any supplies that could be used for guerrillas drastically.

The anti-air missile has been moved into its firing position, and prepped to fire on arrival of the army, where the engineers hope to repeat the spectacular success from Belogradchik, despite their confidential belief that it will likely not even fire - and that if it does something bad is likely to occur.

August 14th
By 11am, it finally happened - the Rhodope Army finally arrived at the gates of Vidin. Using a system of loudspeakers, a priest from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, conducted a divine-liturgy, within easy hearing range of the defenders, somewhat demoralizing them. The priest, having suffered at Communist hands in the past, as well as livid at them for their destruction of churches, gave a sermon full of fire and brimstone, at the top of his lungs.

The remaining Rhodope scout plane was at the time circling the soldiers on the ground, listening to a broadcast of the sermon. At the climax of the sermon, by sheer coincidence, the Vidinite engineers, in an attempt to counter its effects, were ordered to fire their missile at the plane.

However, their earlier fears were quite quickly proven justified. In their hurry to repair it, while the electronics had been fixed, they had made one crucial error - one little circuit, which was supposed to launch the missile, had instead been mis-routed to the warhead itself - and it started its timer. Within ten seconds of the misfire, the engineers had noticed the activation of the warhead - but it was far too late to do a thing about it. Ten seconds after it had been "fired", it exploded, taking out much of the wall around it with it.

The sermon had largely had to deal with the anti-religious aspects of the Vidinite-leadership. Its climax, according to the tale that quickly spread in the region afterwards, supposedly went like this: "And, Holy Father, we pray that you may smite downs these heathens, for all their treachery against your people and your works." And, at that instant, is when the explosion occurred. Thus, a "miracle" occurred. Deviating from the rest of the sermon, the priest shouted for the troops to rush into the city, and take it back from the Communist scum.

While the defenders were able to reorganize themselves fairly rapidly, this stroke of apparent fortune from God not only broke their morale, it also allowed the Rhodope Army much easier entry into the city than planned. As of darkness, they controlled about an eighth of the city, in an arc around their opening, which is slowly being expanded.

Slightly dumbfounded, the commander of the Rhodope forces had to rapidly alter all of his battle plans - they had expected to have to use their heavy weapons to break in the city, and spend a week doing it. Now, however, they were inside by virtue of what they knew would eventually be called a miracle - and a definite sign that god favored them and that they were right in what they were doing.

The assault that had been planned for later in the week on the government headquarters by the special units was changed, for Tuesday morning, and the heavy weapons that they were going to use to batter down the walls were promptly sent back towards Belogradchik, except one of the artillery pieces and a tank, which would used on roadblocks or fortified structures it is inside the city.

This news, overall, was devastating to the leadership of the Soviet. Several of its members even shot themselves over it, though for the majority, in their radiation-induced madness, it meant nothing - and they were beginning to make ridiculous orders, on the level of those made by Hitler in the latter part of the Second World War.

Troops marching north from Kula, traveling through extreme terrain, are making excellent progress as well - they were actually able to see the Danube at times during the day today. Of course, they do not expect to actually get to it for a few days, despite this.

The Rhodope Government has also received word that the Transylvanians will increase their patrols drastically near Vidin territory, and will be sending a couple of their Danube river patrol boats to just outside the city as well. While they are not intervening in any great detail and refuse to admit it, this is clearly a desire on their part to partially revenge Vidinite execution of refugees attempting to flee to Transylvania along with keeping and possible communist rebels out of their territory.

August 15th
Rhodope forces around Vidin today have continued both their advance into the city, and into the remnants of what was once the outskirts in an effort to finish surrounding the city walls.

The remaining heavy weapons have been shifted to one small point on the northern portion of the defense wall, to play some sort of role in the forthcoming special assault on the location of the Soviet, within the ancient fortress of Baba Vida, near the river's edge.

Rhodope forces advancing further into the city in house-to-house fighting have lost the value that had been given them by the the shock of yesterday, though it is still going at a steady pace - they do outnumber the Vidinites, after all.

The advance is going down the main western road leading into the city, and fanning out from there. By dusk, they had moved inside the sports complexes to the north of the breakthrough point and were engaging in heavy, confused fighting there.

August 16th
During the night, a Vidinite counterattack in the sports complexes drove Rhodope soldiers out of most of their defensive positions. However, by the end of the day they had forced the Vidin soldiers out completely, for they had expended too much in their counterattack.

Forces advancing on either side of the main road, using explosives to blow up barricades along the way, today crossed the first main north-south thoroughfare under covering fire from a tank, taking up defensive positions some 7 blocks beyond it at dusk.

To the south, which is less defended by Vidin troops, a rapid advance today brought Rhodope troops to the walls, when they pinned and forced the surrender of the defenders covering the suburb of Nov Pat. The few holdouts in the suburb were then pummeled into submission. With this, the outer walls became completely surrounded.

Heavy artillery on the northern side of the city, near the beach, began to lob random shells into that area of the city, drawing off units from elsewhere to counter a perceived attack there. In reality, this is a distraction that will cover the dawn raid.

When they looked through the documents captured at the wall, Rhodope Army Intelligence discovered documents which seemed to indicate that contrary to what the Macedonian government has been telling them, they really had been supplying the Vidinites with arms. This was soon reported to he government, who as of midnight were still discussing how to deal with the revelations.

In other news, Rhodope troops finally arrived at the Danube, northwest of Vidin, today. They met up with Transylvanian soldiers and between them slaughtered the few soldiers that had tried to cross the river.

August 17th
Shelling continued throughout the night, ending just moments before the attack on the castle commenced.

The special forces had come ashore during the night in rowboats, under cover of darkness, to the south of the castle, where the defenses had been slightly weakened.

Using their uniforms to pass as Vidinite Troops, they were able to infiltrate to the region around the castle. From there, they were able to slip inside, and take the majority of the membership of the Soviet captive.

After radioing in their success, the bombardment commenced once again, only this time it came down on the wall itself - and broke through it. An assault, deigned to merely distract the enemy, then commenced.

It achieved its purpose - with all of the shells falling, and guns firing, not only was there a fair amount of chaos north of the castle, but enough sound to block out any sort of shots being fired in the area. With that, the Rhodope troops quickly shot their way out of the castle, and made their escape to the river. The armed boats of the Rhodope Military were there waiting for them, to provide covering fire for their escape. Realizing that the whole endeavor had been a ruse, the Vidin soldiers pursued. Despite this, the majority of the Rhodope soldiers and their captives were able to make it to the boats as the sun rose.

The forces from the distraction assault then pulled back, after success at the castle had been radioed in from the river, and returned to their earthworks, to wait out the coming counter-assault. With support from the artillery, they were just barely able to beat it off, though it cost them dearly.

The prisoners consisted of most of the Soviet that had been left in Vidin, with two major exceptions: the major had not been found, and the Council Chairmen had not been there either. Apparently, one had went to Belogradchik to head up the defenses there, while the other had been trying to reassure the ministers left at the government buildings in Vidin that they would prevail.

Upon interrogation, it was discovered from the soviet leadership that the documents found the day before had been fakes, designed to provoke a war with Macedonia so that Vidin could beat Rhodope. The Macedonian government was quickly informed of this. Luckily, it had been discovered before anyone did anything rash, as some Macedonian arms had been found being used by the Vidinites - but these had been gained from rouge Serbs, who had stolen them from Macedonia in the first place.

Elsewhere in Vidin, Rhodope forces continued to advance towards the city center, as well as into the City Markets. Their goal is to link up and surround a large pocket of troops sometime tomorrow. Another body of troops is also heading north from the sports complexes.

With Vidin concentrated on defending Vidin itself, the armored convoy returning to Belogradchik is finding itself under less frequent attack, and will now arrive there in less time than it took them to get to Vidin in the first place.

At Belogradchik itself, the minimal artillery left there has been bombarding the town, randomly lobbing shells into parts of the city. Morale inside is crumbling.

The Soviet Major was able to slip away during the firefight on the beach, and is now leading the Vidinite troops, unbeknowst to Rhodope, from the front lines.

August 18th
During the night, Vidinite troops launched a local counterattack near the sports complexes. While successful in driving Rhodope troops backwards, it also likely weakened another part of the front lines, as if a fool of a commander had "robbed Peter to pay Paul", as the High commander of the Rhodope Army was heard to say. Sightings of a commander in the area who seemed to be "raving and jumping around like a mad lunatic," in the words of a Rhodope soldier, were reported as well.

As the day went on, it became very apparent that the forces used in the counter-assault had been moved from the northernmost areas of the front inside the western areas of the city.

Forces attacking northwards were able to reach the strong-point in the walls of that sector of the city by nighttime, as a result, and settled in defensive positions around it for the night.

Forces counterattacking in the area taken during the night were able to reclaim the area taken, as well as clear out the rest of the area in and around the complexes.

The attack pincers continue to pierce into the heart of the city, and Rhodope commanders hope to close them sometime in the next couple of days. The pincer attacking into the market has been meeting tougher resistance, however, as the far side of the market is very close to the Port of Vidin.

Vidinite troops who managed to escape the city of Belogradchik earlier in the month, when the plane went down, today launched a hit-and-run attack upon the artillery there, and while they did not succeed in destroying it, were able to take out some of its personnel and ammunition, which will mean a slacking off of shells being lobbed at the city itself.

Rhodope forces in Vidin are beginning to notice something very odd - they are encountering many less civilians that they had expected. The few that they do encounter, however, speak of the Vidin military forcing the majority of them to move somewhere else in the city once word came of the Rhodope breakthrough, though they know not where.

August 19th
Most of the day's efforts given by the Rhodope Army in the northern part of the line was given to the taking of the western defensive strong-point, which had been surrounded late of the 18th. With the aid of the artillery, the Rhodopians were able to break into the strong-point, and kill most of the defenders. What remained had barricaded themselves in the armory, and their commander threatened to blow the gunpowder sky-high unless they were allowed to leave. The Rhodopians quickly evacuated most of their troops from the structure, and had told the Vidinites they would be allowed to leave. But, someone set of the powder anyway, and destroyed the building. It seems that the commander had decided to set them off anyway.

The troops around the sports complexes advanced slightly outwards, consolidating their positions.

Both pincers managed to advance further towards the meet-up point, and to most it would seem obvious what their plans are.

However, the Soviet ex-major in command of the Vidinite troops refuses to acknowledge that this is what Rhodope intends to do. In fact, he insists that it is a "diversion" to allow them to attack elsewhere, or even that it is merely an attack directed at the port. He is so insistent on this that he has has his own personal troops execute several officers who disagreed with his judgment on the matter.

Once the pocket is caught, and surrenders, the main Rhodope objective will turn to taking the port region. They plan to use it after capture to offload supplies, as the supply line to the Army Headquarters is getting to be harder to use, due to rubble, though it is secure. Their sights will turn northwards after that occurs, with the likely goal of capturing more of the northern half of the city.

Gunfire from the town center of Belogradchik was heard in the night, though it is not known what the cause was.

August 20th
Troops besieging Belogradchik today woke to discover a half-dozen corpses hanging off of buildings near the walls, with obvious gunshot damage. What ever these were from, it was obviously the source of the shots the night before.

What it had actually been was that a small number of Vidinite troops had gone and complained - loudly - about conditions inside the city. The commander of the Vidinite troops, after their call for surrender, had ordered them shot. And it was done almost immediately.

Inside Vidin itself, forces finally closed off the pocket from the rest of Vidin, though narrowly. As soon as they met up, counterattacks began by Vidinite troops to get inside, but they have not been unsuccessful as of yet. Artillery was them moved into place and used to fire into the pocket, to try and make them surrender.

Near the sports complexes, Rhodope forces consolidated the lines, shortening them, so more troops could be sent to more critical regions of the front lines. Specifically, this means the northern portions, near the blown-up strong-point, and to the forces holding the pocket shut.

And, near what used to be the strong-point, troops expanded the security zone around its remains. Rubble is now being cleared from the strong-point, in the hopes that the gap now partially open there can be used for shuttling reinforcements and supplies into that sector of the front better.

August 21st
The majority of the action today inside Vidin occurred around the site of the "Baba Tonka" pocket. Rhodope troops fighting to keep it closed had to fend off many attacks from Vidin troops attempting to break into the pocket, or out of it. They also expanded the point where the pincers had met up, both into the pocket and main body of Vidin troops, after attacks had failed. As a result, the weakest area was expanded from just over a city block, to closer to ten of them. Loudspeakers have been set up calling for the soldiers in the pocket to surrender, though this has been refused at this time. It is estimated that between five and ten thousand Vidinite troops have been caught in the trap. There has also been reports of the same raving lunatic as reported in the night attack on the 18th seeming to be in charge as well. Unfortunately, no Rhodope troops have been able to hit this commander as of yet, though, rest assured, they are trying.

Intelligence now believes this person to be the Soviet Major, and that he still believes, despite evidence to the contrary, that Macedonia will save them somehow.

In other areas of the city, the pullout of Vidinite troops to try and relieve the pocket has allowed Rhodope soldiers to straighten out their lines somewhat, easing the shortage of troops becoming a factor in those sectors, as troops are moved to keeping the pocket in the south closed. However, small-scale offensives are still continuing, and will do so until the pocket is eliminated, especially at the northernmost areas of the line.

An erie quiet has descended upon Belogradchik, with only the occasional shell fired into the city.