by James Rosone
With that, General Gardner picked up his secured smartphone, left the room, and began to call General Branson.
General Branson was not keen on the idea of using the limited supply of X59 scramjet cruise missiles to hit the port facilities on the West Coast. “Gardner, you have to understand,” he explained. “The US is still in short supply of these missiles--the manufacturers only produce between ten and fourteen a month. The President has been wanting to build up the inventory of them to launch a massive cruise missile attack against the Chinese ship building industry in order to cripple the PLA’s ability to replace the losses in the PLAN fleet. So far, we have managed to build up a supply of about eighty-seven missiles, but President Stein directly expressed that he was reluctant in using them against the ports.”
General Gardner shared some not-so-choice words with his compatriot. Branson shrugged it off though. “Look,” he said. “The new American Carrier Strike Group is going to be entering the Pacific soon. At that point, CSG12 could secure the ports in a week, two weeks at the most, and then we can use the cruise missiles to cripple the PLAN and starve their forces in Alaska.”
Clearly, General Gardner’s mood did not improve after that phone call.
Fall Back
26 December 2041
Corona, California
Near the Junction of Highway 91 and Highway 71
Captain Thornton’s company had been fighting all out for the last five hours, and they had finally pushed the Japanese to the canyon entrance leading to Anaheim Hills and Los Angeles. The combat had been brutal; just as they thought they had mopped up the remnants of a Japanese infantry company, dozens of helicopters landed nearly 400 additional Japanese Marines not far from their position. As they moved to engage the new arrivals, seven Japanese main battle tanks also showed up, providing direct fire support. This forced Thornton to have to order his men to disperse and try to find a way around the enemy positions so they could destroy the tanks from the rear. His company was taking heavy casualties, but they continued to press on.
It took them close to two more hours, but they were finally able to force the Japanese to fall back to Anaheim Hills. Despite numerous requests for air support and artillery support, none was available. This lack of assistance meant they were not able to get around the heavy tanks and the two additional companies of Japanese light infantry. Thornton’s men were now facing close to 800 troops and seven main battle tanks along with two dozen light armored support vehicles. His men were busy using their anti-tank missiles and rockets, slowly grinding down the number of enemy armored vehicles.
Lieutenant Colonel Lee had called Thornton for about the third time, trying to get a status update. “Hey Thornton--has your company broken through the lines yet?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Sir, but without air support, we are stuck. The Japanese are not going to bust through our position, but we do not have enough men to overwhelm the enemy force.”
Lee attempted to encourage him. “I understand, honestly, but do whatever you can to try. The Army has an armored Calvary division arriving later in the day. Tomorrow, you will have heavy armor support.”
Thornton didn’t care about tomorrow; his Marines were dying now, and they needed more support. Unfortunately, none was coming at least until tomorrow. “What was it they used to tell us in Boot Camp? Ah, yes. ‘Semper Gumby’ Marines.”
A Man, A Plan, A Canal--Panama!
28 December 2041
Panama Canal
As the USS New York exited the Panama Canal, the ship moved to join the rest of the battlegroup. The remaining three ships of the group were set to pass through the canal over the next few hours, and would join their fellow sailors as they prepared themselves to meet the joint Chinese and Japanese fleets sailing south from California to meet them. The naval battle that was brewing up along the Pacific coast of Mexico was gearing up to be the largest sea battle between modern naval forces since World War II.
Captain Baker approached Admiral Stonebridge in the Combat Information Center (CIC) to get his attention. “Admiral, we have the latest intelligence on the enemy fleet. The Chinese and JDF are merging their fleets and starting to make their way towards us. With both fleets moving towards each other, we will be in striking range of them with our anti-ship lasers and railguns within three days. Our fighters will be within range of each other in two days.”
Placing his coffee cup down on the table as he looked up at Captain Baker. “How long until we are in range of launching our cruise missiles?” asked the Admiral, wanting to be the one to draw first blood.
Baker smiled before responding, “We will be in range in about eight hours; then it’ll take the cruise missiles close to three hours’ flight time before they hit the fleet.”
Thinking about his strategy for a minute, the Admiral had an epiphany that it might be better if they did not attack first. Maybe they should draw the enemy in closer, let them expend their cruise missiles against his superior defenses, and then cut them apart. “Hmm, on second thought,” he said, “I want to wait to launch the cruise missiles until tomorrow. I want more time for our subs to get in range before we launch them. Then the submarines can launch their attack once the enemy fleet is fully engaged with their own cruise missiles; hopefully this will give us an opportunity to overwhelm them,” Stonebridge said as he pointed at a few sections on the map of where he wanted his ships to be when the attack began.
Captain Baker mulled over this change in strategy for a moment. “Sir, if we launch the cruise missiles tomorrow at 2100 hours, they will arrive around 0100 in the morning. Close to half of their fleet will be asleep; this will also put us in range to use our attack drones. We can also have our aircraft attack at the same time the cruise missiles and submarines are hitting them.” As Captain Baker spoke, he moved a few aircraft, submarine and cruise missile icons around on the map to illustrate his idea.
“The one thing I do not like about this scenario is that we are going to get hit first,” the Admiral said.
“We will, but we also know what direction the missiles are going to come from. We can move our destroyers and cruisers forward to act as a picket screen and have the battleships move in front of us. When we do spot the missile launches on the satellite readouts, we can scramble our fighters to go missile hunting as well.”
Thinking for a minute and taking a long sip of his coffee, the Admiral surveyed the map, trying to calculate how much damage his fleet would possibly sustain. It was hard to determine if it was worth the risk of waiting to let the enemy strike first so that he could launch a three-pronged attack.
“I generally do not like the idea of letting the enemy get the first punch in. That said, our attack against their fleet is going to be a lot more effective if we hit them with all three elements as opposed to using a piecemeal approach. If we are going to do this, then let’s have the fleet move to their battle stations and be ready to repel the attack when it comes. I need to send a message to the Pentagon and let them know what we are going to do. Admiral Juliano said we have to keep them fully appraised of any changes from our original strategy.” Stonebridge was not happy about the thought that others, several thousand miles away from him, could potentially override his tactical decisions.
Tung and Shinzo
28 December 2041
Port of Los Angeles
Japanese Command Center
Major General Hidehisa Shinzo was starting to feel overwhelmed in his role as the operational ground commander of the invasion of California. Nearly half of the units he landed with four days ago had either been killed or captured by the American Marines rushing towards the city from the Marine Base at Twenty-Nine Palms, and now they were having to deal with the Army airborne units as well. The port would have been lost a day ago, if they had not unloaded that PLA heavy tank brigade and the aviation unit that came along with them. A battalion of Pershing battle tanks nearly broke through their lines in Anaheim Hills.
In the last ninety-six ho
urs since the start of the invasion, they had offloaded nearly 98,000 soldiers, 1,200 armored vehicles, and 800 main battle tanks. The Japanese Air Force and PLAAF had ferried over 620 fighters and ground attack aircraft from Hawaii to the various airports in and around LA. However, their foothold in the city was still tenuous at best; the Marines were still pouring in like water around every strongpoint they had established around the city. Fighting was fierce and constant in most of the suburbs. So far, they had managed to keep the Marines away from the ports, but it was only a matter of time at this point.
He had watched President Stein address the nation a couple of days ago, saying the entire American Third Army was heading to California and would soon throw the invaders back into the sea. This is what General Shinzo had warned his superiors about; if they did not get enough reinforcement into the city before the American Third Army arrived, then the invasion was doomed to fail. Another 60,000 soldiers were going to be offloaded today at the port while 15,000 more flew in by commercial air. It was a race to see who could get more troops to LA. Tomorrow, the first wave of transports from Indonesia and India would start to arrive. General Shinzo had not fought alongside soldiers from either of these nations before, so he did not know how well they would fair against the Americans. Time would tell.
Seeing General Shinzo deep in thought, General Zi Tung of the People’s Liberation Army walked up to him and bowed. “General Shinzo, are you all right?” he inquired.
General Zi Tung had just arrived; he was supposed to take over command from General Shinzo. Tung had fought against General Gardner in the Middle East before being wounded and flown back to China. That was several months before the Chinese were defeated by General Gardner. He was then given command of a PLA Corps in Alaska and had helped lead the PLA in capturing Anchorage. Now he had been transferred to California and was going to be the joint forces commander for the Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Indonesian forces in California. This was a great honor, and not one Tung took lightly. If he failed, chances were that he would be executed or at least placed in exile; if he won though, he might be able to secure a position on the ruling committee as one of the great Chinese generals.
“Ah, General Tung, it is great to finally meet you in person. Yes, I am quite well. I am looking over the maps and the intelligence we are receiving, trying to figure out what General Gardner is going to do next and what we can do to stop him.”
Tung nodded before responding, “General Shinzo, you have done a superb job leading the invasion up to this point. I know you feel as if you have betrayed the Americans, but they turned their backs on Japan and the rest of the world when they committed genocide against the Muslims in the Middle East. The collapse of America is for the betterment of mankind, not the end of it. Japan is on the right side of history in this war,” Tung said, praising Shinzo.
Then he let the hammer drop. “General Shinzo, I am here to take over as Commander for all Axis forces in California. I would like to know if you would be willing to take over as the ground commander for the joint Chinese/Japanese First Corps once they are fully unloaded and ready to move?” General Tung was trying not to insult his counterpart; he knew that General Shinzo was probably the best ground commander in California, and he wanted to use his skills to his advantage.
The Joint First Corps was going to be a 45,000-person armored and mechanized infantry unit. To counter the American Pershing tanks, the Chinese and JDF had developed a new tank round for use by the Type-29 JDF main battle tank and the new PLA Type-43 main battle tank. Both tanks used a 135mm main gun, but the new projectile incorporated the same armor component that the Pershing tanks used into a penetrator. Essentially, the new tank round was a glorified lawn dart that was made of the same armor as the Pershing tanks, traveling at speeds of 4,000 feet per second. Once it hit the Pershing, it would punch right through its armor and bounce around inside, killing the crew. Or it would blow a hole right through the Pershing so fast it that would cause a massive vacuum, collapsing the lungs of the crew members inside. The advantages that the Pershing had had up to this point were its range and its armor. However, in a close-in city and urban warfare fight, the Pershing would not have a range advantage, and the new penetrator would remove any advantage from the armor. The leader of the Joint Corps was bound to witness some marvelous victories.
General Shinzo was swelling with pride. “It would be my honor to lead the joint force in attacking the Americans,” he said. Then his face changed to a somber expression, “…I do hope you understand, General Tung, that our time to beat the Americans is slowly coming to an end, so we have to act quickly.”
Somewhat stunned by General Shinzo’s pessimistic attitude but willingness to fight on despite it, General Tung asked, “What did you mean by that statement? I would caution you not to express such defeatist statements in front of the men.”
“General Tung, the Japanese do not view talk like that as defeatist; it is a statement of fact to spur us on to the action needed to win before it is too late. What I mean is that the American President announced two days ago on television that the entire American Third Army is heading to California to ‘throw the invaders back into the sea.’ The American Third Army consist of 1,300,000 soldiers. That is significantly larger than our invasion force. It will still take them several days for most of the units to arrive, but once they do, they will push us into the sea if we are not able to secure enough of the strategic points in the valley leading into Los Angeles County. There are currently 90,000 Marines at Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Base, not more than sixty miles from here.”
“One of my lead tank elements reported they encountered a battalion from the 2nd Cavalry Division earlier this morning. That division had been in Colorado three days ago; now they are in California. I need your help in marshaling the needed forces to re-capture these areas and reinforce them so we can hold the valley while reinforcements continue to arrive. I also need our air forces to attack the columns of enemy tanks and armored vehicles driving to California. No matter how many aircraft we lose, we need to attack them while they are on the road and destroy the streets and rail infrastructure heading into California,” General Shinzo explained. He spoke with conviction as he pointed to several different locations on the map.
General Tung thought to himself for a moment before responding, “They were right about General Shinzo; he is a very smart and astute military commander. Perhaps I should keep him here with me.”
Tung acknowledged, “General Shinzo, you bring up some great points. I can see why the military leadership believes you to be one of the rising stars in the JDF. You are smart, and clearly see the second and third order effects of decisions. It also seems that you anticipate the enemy well. I have also fought against General Gardner in the Middle East, so I know what it is like to go up against him (as well as General Black); both commanders are tough and smart adversaries. The battle for California will not be easy, and it will cost both of our nations a lot of men. But it is just one part of the greater global chess game being played. We need to continue to bleed the Americans dry of forces and material. Especially here in California.”
“I want you to take command of the First, and the Second Corps and implement the strategy and plan that you just discussed. I will coordinate with our reinforcements, the PLAAF and PLAN to bring in the support and supplies you need to win. You need to deliver though. The PLA does not accept defeat, and it is imperative that we hold our gains here in California.” Tung spoke with a toughness in his voice.
“If you can get the PLAAF to attack the American reinforcements and specifically destroy the rail and highway systems leading into California, we can hold our ground,” Shinzo said with determination in his eyes.
Analyze This
29 December 2041
Ft. Meade, Maryland
US Cyber Command
Admiral John Casey was pouring over the intelligence information reports from the previous night and comparing them to the global picture of the w
ar. Three of his best contractors (who specialized in military operations) and his two most trusted intelligence officers were also sifting through the information and the maps, trying to piece together the bigger picture of what was going on with the worldwide conflict.
One of the contractors blurted out, “This doesn’t make sense. Why would the Chinese stop attacking in Alaska? They have the upper hand there.”
Another contractor said, “Think about it for a second. Look at the units in Alaska. Over the last month, they have rotated out some of their best frontline units and moved them to support the California invasion. All of the new Chinese units and reserve units are being sent to Alaska, and their combat veterans are being redeployed to California. The forces in Alaska are clearly meant as a distraction at this point to tie down our resources and troops. They control everything of value; now they just need to make sure we continue to think they are going to pose a threat,” he explained, pointing to charts and maps as he spoke.
A smart young major from the Marines interjected, “My concern with these unit rotations is not that they are all going to show up in California, but that some of them may be used to invade Washington State.”
The room erupted in grumbles and murmurs, as others clearly disagreed with his assessment.
“No, hear me out. The Russians just moved all their amphibious troop ships to this point here in Alaska. My money says they are loading up troops and will ferry them down to Seattle. Think about it…we have very few forces in Seattle, and now with the invasion of California, what forces we have in Seattle are being sent to California to try and retake the ports in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area.”