by James Rosone
This news managed to elicit a glimmer of a smile from President Hung.
“There was something else we discussed during the meeting,” Chang said, the corners of his mouth curling up in such a ridiculously devilish grin that Hung chuckled.
“Oh, and what was that, Chen? Do not keep your president guessing,” she said lightheartedly.
He leaned in closer and said softly, “The prospect of a future united China…” He sat back as the President’s smile began to grow.
Bigwigs
Seoul, South Korea
US Forces Korea Headquarters
Yongsan Garrison
Secretary of Defense Jim Castle was in a foul mood as he surveyed his senior military leaders. He scowled at the US Pacific Commander, his new Marine Corp Commander for Asia, and the US Forces Korea Commander, who were present for this secretive meeting along with several other generals. While it was a risk for so many of the senior military leaders to meet in Seoul, it needed to be done if Jim was to meet with everyone at the same time. None of these men could afford to fly back to Washington to meet, or even to travel to Hawaii; they were all needed at the front, so Jim had made the decision to travel to them.
He furrowed his brow. “What the hell is going on along the Yalu River and why have we not captured Vladivostok and the rest of the peninsula?!” shouted Castle using his former Marine General voice. His eyes darted between General Bennet, the US Forces Korea Commander and his new Marine Asia General, Roy Cutter.
General John Bennet saw Cutter look at him with uncertainty, so he spoke up to try and help his friend out. “I instructed General Cutter to keep his Marines focused on the ground war in northeast Korea until we could stabilize our lines along the Yalu. When the Chinese lines fell apart, I pressed forward, trying to keep them on the defensive. We now know that was a deliberate trap and I fell for it. I should have been more cautious and not charged into China until we had our entire position in North Korea stabilized,” Bennet explained.
Jim wasn’t buying it. Cutter hadn’t captured Vladivostok because he was waiting until he had more troops and fighter support. “That may be partially true, General, but Cutter has known since the outset of this war that his forces are to stay mobile — hit an objective, secure it, and transfer it over to the Army, so you can keep your forces on the go. Instead, Cutter, you charged ahead when you saw a fleeing enemy army, as if you didn’t want to be left out. While I’m not going to admonish you for being aggressive, you failed to listen to your orders,” he barked, clearly incensed. “Now the brunt of your force is bogged down at the northern border and unable to break contact until General Bennet here can send you reinforcements. By the way, he can’t send you reinforcements because he charged forward into China seeking a quick and easy victory.”
Jim paused for a second, needing to calm down for a second before he kept talking. “Look, things happen in the fog of war,” he conceded, “but I need you guys not to get carried away like that. We need to close off the Russian Pacific bases and begin to encircle China. We can’t do that unless both of you are working towards that goal. What I need to know now is how soon can your forces secure Vladivostok and the rest of the Russian Far East strategic objectives?”
General Bennet leaned forward in his chair. “Secretary Castle, until I can get more reinforcements to Korea, there’s no way I can detail off enough forces to relieve General Cutter’s Marines. Our hold on the Yalu has been tenuous at best. It’s only been through the massive bombing and air support we’ve received that the Second Korean War hasn’t played out like the first. The irony of how things are turning out right now isn’t lost on me either. I will win, but I cannot do it if I’m not given the support I need.”
Jim snapped back, “General Bennet, it is now February 10th. This is going to be the first full month the military starts to graduate some 90,000 infantry soldiers a week. I have to prioritize where to send them, and right now, that has been Europe. We are gearing up for a major offensive at the start of the summer, and we need to get those troops in place and prepared. The best I can do right now is to send you roughly 15,000 army soldiers a week, and of course, you’ll start to see 30,000 Marines arriving each week. That’s the best we can do until we reach the troop levels we need for Europe.”
General Cutter broke in at this point. “These new soldiers and Marines were supposed to start arriving a month ago — what’s caused this delay?”
That had been the million-dollar question a lot of the senior military leaders in Europe and Korea had been asking. Jim had been getting hounded about that issue by nearly everyone from the President on down. Castle sighed, knowing he owed these guys an explanation, especially since he was there in person.
“We have had a heck of a time getting qualified recruits through the draft. Nearly a third of the young people being drafted fail to meet either the physical or the medical standards to join. Between being too obese and having a host of chronic illnesses like diabetes, the failure rate has been horrific. When you lose a little over a third of your draftees each week because they can’t pass the physical fitness standard, it slows up our ability to fill the ranks. After this happened for four straight weeks, we increased the draft size each week by 35 %, and we seem to have finally solved that problem. Starting next week, we should be back on track with expanding the armed forces,” he said, almost feeling guilty that this problem had ever developed. Despite knowing there was a war going on and a desperate need for soldiers, he was unwilling to lower the military physical standards just so they could fill the ranks.
Laughing at first, General Cutter retorted, “You have to be joking, Sir — you’re saying that nearly 35 % of the people between the ages of 18 and 26 are unfit for military service?”
Jim stared daggers back at Cutter, whose smile disappeared. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Cutter.”
Castle allowed a moment for the reality of that to sink in before he changed topics. “Now, General Cutter, I want a definitive timeline for when you are going to secure your objectives and extricate yourself from the cluster mess you’ve entangled yourself in.” He spoke in a stern voice, not letting his newly appointed Marine Commander off the hook just yet.
His demeanor once again serious, Cutter responded, “You said I should start to see 30,000 new Marines each week starting next week. If that’s the case, then I should be able to start moving on the Russian objectives by the end of February. That should give me enough time to gather my reinforcements and get them in place with the Navy to start hitting them.”
He continued, “As to my forces already engaging the Chinese, I will work with General Bennet on how best to extract them from the border region before the end of the month. Will that suffice, Sir?” he asked.
“I sure hope that will be enough, because I don’t know what other options I have,” Cutter moaned to himself. “I didn’t anticipate my forces getting bogged down at the Chinese, Korean and Russian border, but that’s exactly what happened. Now I have 63,000 Marines I can’t disengage from the enemy and no Army reinforcements to fill in the positions I’ve already secured. My forces have sustained such heavy casualties, far heavier than I thought we would have in such a short time.”
Castle thought about Cutter’s timeline for a minute, finally nodding. “One month, General. Unscrew yourself and get those objectives captured, or I’ll find someone who will. I need you to start preparations for our invasion of China next fall, and that can’t happen until you finish securing your assigned objectives.”
Jim then turned to face the Pacific Commander, Navy Admiral Harry Fenton. “Now let’s talk about the naval situation. What are your forces doing to counter the PLA Navy’s anti-ship missile swarm attacks, and how soon will your forces be able to defeat the Chinese fleet down in the South China Sea?”
All eyes turned to look at Admiral Fenton, who had so far survived the President’s leadership purges. Everyone knew that if he didn’t get things sorted out in the Pacific soon, that w
ould change.
Fenton was almost always calm and organized, even to a fault. “Let me address your question in parts, Mr. Secretary. With regard to the South China fleet, we have surged seventeen submarines to the Philippines to interdict Chinese naval forces from attacking the Philippines. We’ve also redirected twelve submarines to the Taiwan area, and soon they’ll begin to attack any and all surface ships ferrying troops and equipment to or from the island. Until we can achieve some semblance of air superiority over Korea, northern China and the Russian Far East, I can’t afford to move my carriers down south. Right now, their air power and the Aegis systems are in continuous need. If we can move the Atlantic Fleet carrier strike groups to the Pacific, I believe we can finish the Chinese navy off within the next sixty days. Then, it’ll just be a matter of time until they have to surrender Taiwan and we can continue to harass their entire coastal line and industrial centers.”
Castle sighed. To him, this was probably the most frustrating part of the war thus far. They had already lost two supercarriers, and a third had taken heavy damage. These weren’t ships the US could just crank out in a few months like a tank; they took years to build, even with round-the-clock operations.
“Admiral, here’s what I would like to see happen,” the SecDef began. “Keep the pressure on the Chinese with your submarine force. Keep your carriers focused up north here for the time being. Until General Cutter finishes securing his Russian objectives, I’m going to need you to hold that fleet in the area to support him. As to the Atlantic Fleet carriers, I will speak with the President about having them moved to your theater of operation. They will most likely be needed in the summer, but for the time being, we can put them to better use out here in the Pacific.”
Jim paused for a second, surveying the faces before him. “Look, I know it’s been a tough war, and we’ve taken a lot of losses,” he acknowledged. “It hurts, and we’ve all lost a lot of friends and people we’ve known and served with for years. All I can tell you is that the President and I are both incredibly proud of you and your service. We are doing everything we can to get you the men, ships and aircraft you need to win. I can’t guarantee you’ll have everything you want in the next couple of months, but make no mistake, gentlemen — the President has turned the economy loose on producing the materials and equipment we need. In the very near future, we’re going to be producing more aircraft, missiles, tanks, and ships than we’ll know what to do with.”
Jim turned to each leader. “John, you’ve got to do what you can to slow the pace of the war down in Korea. Hold the line at the Yalu, but don’t go looking for a fight. I need you to stabilize the front until the Navy and Air Force are in a better position to help you. Admiral, until I can get you those additional carriers, do what you can, but don’t lose what remains of our fleet. I can’t do anything to help replace your losses until probably the end of the year or early next year. Roy, you’ve got to secure the Russia Far East. We have a major operation going on in the summer, and your piece of the puzzle has to be in place before that operation starts.”
The meeting went on for a few more hours as they ironed out the various details of how the war with China was going to be fought. One thing was clear — nothing substantial was going to happen for at least six to nine months.
Battle in the Atlantic
North Atlantic
The weather was terrible this time of year in the North Atlantic. The waves were larger, and the winds were stronger. The winter storms made flying nearly impossible. The constant rolling and pitching of the decks of the destroyers and icing made it difficult to run continuous anti-submarine warfare operations like they needed to. While the Allies had sunk fourteen Russian submarines in the Atlantic since the start of the war, there were three Oscar II-class submarines that were wreaking havoc on the supply convoys. The introduction of the SSN-26/P-800 “Strobile” anti-ship missiles had come as a rude shock to the US Navy.
While they had known of the missiles’ existence, they had assumed the Russian Navy would have stuck with their older P-700/SS-N-19 “Shipwreck” missiles. The older missiles carried a significantly larger warhead, but their guidance and targeting system was also easier to spoof, which was why they had been phased out. While the SSN-26s carried a smaller warhead, their hit rate hovered around 40 %, and the fact that they could engage a convoy from as far away as 600 kilometers made them incredibly hard to counter.
Following the opening salvos of the war, the three Oscar IIs had strung themselves across the most likely sea lanes the convoys would travel and then waited for their prey to arrive. When the targeting satellites identified a convoy, the Oscars would maneuver themselves to the flanks of the convoy and then engage them once they had entered the kill box. Because each Oscar could carry seventy-two missiles, they could likely score between 80 and 90 hits against the convoy. Until the Allies could increase the number of ships protecting the convoys and intercept the barrage of cruise missiles, the losses would continue. The only saving grace was the fact that once the Oscars had launched their attack, it would take them close to three weeks to rearm and get back on station to repeat the process.
* * *
As the Churchill slid down the trough of yet another large wave, Captain Gilbert expertly shifted his hand to ensure that not a single drop of his Calle San Juan Costa coffee would go to waste. Lifting his mug to his mouth as they rode the next wave up, he savored the sweet-toned Costa Rican java.
“I’m going to miss riding the waves in a destroyer when the Navy does finally retire me,” Patrick thought.
The others on the deck appeared more like they were holding on for dear life as they crested yet another large wave. At least the weather report said things should be clearing out of the area shortly; they just had to ride out a few more hours of rough weather.
After the first two NATO convoys had been savagely attacked, the Navy had seen fit to give Captain Gilbert command of twelve escort ships: seven American, one French, two Canadian and two British frigates and destroyers. Now that he had a proper security detail, he had also been given a World War II-sized convoy to protect. His twelve escorts were now protecting 107 tankers, freighters, transports and other heavy roll-on, roll-off ships, which were transporting the tanks and other heavy armored vehicles needed for the war effort. The US and NATO were gearing up for a big action in Europe, and that meant the NATO supply convoys were going to be busy.
Lieutenant Commander Tiffany Brewster, Gilbert’s second-in-command, was really looking forward to their next port of call. The end destination for this particular convoy was Antwerp, Belgium. She was bent on trying one of these famous Belgian beer tours.
“There may be a war going on, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find something to entertain ourselves with,” she thought as she entered the bridge.
She needed to speak with the captain about the approach to the English Channel. When she entered the bridge and saw the captain showing off his skills by drinking coffee on choppy seas without losing a drop, she chuckled.
“He’s such a ridiculous coffee snob,” she thought with a smile, “but at least he shares his good coffee.”
When they finished cresting the wave, she got his attention. “Captain Gilbert, we just received a message from one of the P-8s flying out of England. They said they have a possible contact at bearing 133, fifty-two miles. They are requesting that we send a ship to check it out.”
“You could have just called the bridge to let us know that; no need to make a special trip up from the command information center,” he replied.
“If I did that, Sir, I wouldn’t have been able to witness how a true coffee connoisseur balances his java between the troughs,” she replied with a wry grin. “Plus, I needed to stretch for a minute—”
As she was about to say something further, a message came in from their lone French ship, the D654 Auvergne. “Bridge, CIC. We just received flash traffic from the Auvergne of a possible underwater contact at bearing 257, ten miles f
rom our current position,” the voice from the command information center announced.
Lieutenant commander Brewster immediately turned around and ran back to the CIC. Captain Gilbert turned to the watch officer and ordered, “Set Condition One! Man battle stations for possible underwater contact.”
A couple of the destroyers and frigates nearby converged on the possible enemy contact.
A few seconds later, Captain Gilbert heard LCDR Brewster’s voice over the intercom. “Bridge, CIC. We have multiple torpedoes in the water. Auvergne has reported they are engaging the underwater contact.”
* * *
On the K-560 Severodvinsk, Captain Rubin Malahit’s hand involuntarily shook a bit from nerves as the NATO convoy continued to approach their ambush. Two days ago, the joint Russian-Chinese RORSAT had tracked the projected path of the convoy, giving a high probability of crossing their current positions. Russian naval command had immediately looked at the current locations of their submarine force and begun to move the various subs into place to maximize their chances of really hurting NATO. The Severodvinsk had immediately been ordered to trek 243 kilometers to the position they currently found themselves in.
Looking at the map of the current NATO positions, Rubin could see the hour of attack was nearly upon them. He looked up briefly and saw his executive officer approach him.
“Sir, the other submarines should be in position to launch their attacks shortly,” he said, confirming what the captain already knew.
Several Akula submarines would attack the convoy escorts to distract and move the escort ships towards them, while Captain Malahit and the captain of the other Yasen-class submarine were ordered to slip inside the convoy and begin to deal the real damage. Of course, the attack was also supposed to be coordinated with the Oscar ships that were also operating nearby.