(C-36)
2346 hours
Bad Comms, Mis-Comms, or No Coms = confusion or even Death
(Bad Communications, Missed Communications, No Communications)
General Rong Cui was getting a little mad at what he considered impudence by Colonel Wang Pu as he switched strategies, “Do you have these orders in writing? Placing you in charge of my Division, I can't rely on just your signals officer word. If this was the intentions of the the Field Marshall I would have received word too.”
“No sir I don't have written orders, the message we received was over the radio, it was encoded in the Commands code and with the proper number sequence following such a command,” Colonel Pu replied. “As you can see, what we have written down makes sense after our success today.”
With a laugh General Cui retorted, “The Americans have over ran several Commanding Officers positions today, and they can be using the codes to their advantage. As for making sense, I say you were lucky, as the Americans let you advance because they wanted to shorten their lines of defense.”
“Sir I protest, your tone of voice, it insults my dead soldiers and the wounded, in what they were able to accomplish today. Our changing tactics and working in small teams allowed us to push them back over 4 kilometers. We know where their skirmish line is, and where their first and second lines of defence are located. It may be a trap that they have set for us, but we carried out our orders with just two brigades.”
“Colonel don't attempt to upset me, I'm not saying that your units sacrifices were wasted. Yes you were successful in stopping them, and maybe forcing them back into a temporary defensive position. I'm sure they are regrouping and planning on resuming the attack, but my division will remain under my command. They will follow my orders,” looking at his watch, “in less then five minuets my first Brigade will attack from where we relieved you units. When we have punched through the Americans front line the second brigade will be ready to continue the attack and push through to their rear elements. My last brigade will then start the mop up, and the other arriving divisions can then push through to the I-80 bridges. Reestablishing contact with the few Divisions still down in the San Francisco area.
General Gobi told me that the American Militia have overextended their advance this time. Their five divisions can't hold onto such an extended line, they have made a very bad error in tactics, and we are to make them pay for that now.”
Colonel Pu shook his head as he said, “Sir, no disrespect to you or to General Gobi, but you both continue to underestimate the Americans and these Militia units they have. There attack along highway 49 where they destroyed three of our divisions and the attack at the same time on the two Divisions holding the passes had to be the work of more then five Divisions.”
“Maybe so Colonel, maybe so, I won't speculate. I will follow the orders I was given this morning and I will do my job.”
“Then it will be the death of your Division General, we switched tactics and won. You can learn from what we accomplished today and go from there.”
“Your small unit attacks had them off guard, by now they have changed their tactics. Our mass attack will take them by surprise, catching them in mid stride when they aren't ready.”
And aide to the General hands him a paper, he signs it and then hands it over to Colonel Pu, “Now these are proper orders, I relieve you of command. Please take you unit back to Sacramento
report to Corp, I'm sure they will have you rearm and make ready to assist somewhere else.”
Not waiting for an answer, General Cui turns to his G-3 (planning officer and asks, “When the second brigade arrives at 0100 hours have them march forward to take over from the first brigade as planned......”
Colonel Pu takes the orders and as he turns he hears the remark made to the G-3 and thinks, 'He hasn't listened and he's not waiting for intelligence from the success or failure of his attack, no wonder the Americans have us trapped. Our senior commanders assume to much, this isn't the same America we attacked last fall. They have lost the fat and any self doubt, they are fighting for their homes and families. Shaking his head no he whispers to himself, “We assumed to much! Myself included. The price we will have to pay will be great, even if the Americans show the same compassion like they did after World War Two, we will still pay.”
The attack of the 171st Divisions first Brigade is a disaster, the massed units are hammered by the American Artillery and when the decimated Battalion fight their way past the faked skirmish line. They come under very well aimed shots of the Militia Rifleman that are five hundred meters away in the real first defensive line.
The Chinese have to now skirmish across this zeroed in firing range, where they are the pop-up targets. Only a few hundred soldiers make it to within a hundred meters of the hidden Militia line.
The attackers or what's left of the 3,00 men that started are scattered across the whole front of one Militia Battalion, Where each of the defenders are making their shots count.
The Chinese are stopped and with the unrelenting rifle fire coming at them forced to fall back. But this is not an easy task as they are under constant fire even as they retreat and lose even more men.
The ranking officer, a Major reports back to General Cui, “The Americans were waiting for us, any future attacks will need Armor, APC's and Artillery support. I do not think it's wise to have the Second Brigade make the same type of attack that we attempted.”
Rong Cui glares at the man and his off the cuff remark, but losing a full Brigade in 30 minuets makes him reconsider his plan. He asks, “ Did you see any sign of American Armor? Any direct fire weapons, that might be anti-tank?”
“No sir, just indirect fire of artillery and mortars. Their infantry are very skilled with their rifles, the last five hundred meters, they made us pay for ever meter going both ways.”
Cui directs his G-3 to hold the 2nd Brigade when it arrives, to wait for the Armor unit that is following, “then we will show them what a combined force attack is like.”
(C-37)
Gracias a Dios, for men like this,
(Thanks be to God)
Day 2, 0035 hours
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.
~ George S Patton
“Well you’ve earned a Purple Heart son,” the Doc said, “now wait here and we will get you evacuated back up to the brigade medical station.”
That's when I said, “No way Doc I haven't got time! My buddies, they're waiting for me up at the front lines, just patch it up, and give me a shot of antibiotics.”
“Your attitude is commendable Private Williamson but your in no shape to return to the front lines, only God knows how much shrapnel there is in the back of your leg. There are six entry points, if things get bad you won’t be able to run back to the next line.”
“Sir I mean no disrespect to you, but my platoon doesn’t plan on running away, don’t take that wrong sir we aren’t out for glory. You see we are dug in on a knife ridge and the Chin’s, they can only come at us on a forty or fort-five meter wide front without climbing up over the scree.”
“The what?”
“Scree, that’s a layer of loose stones, sort of like marbles on a flat floor, and it’s on a good slopping hill with close to a sixty degree angle. The scree is over a hundred meters deep on that part of the hill. And the sides are too steep to for them to scramble up so we can pore very heavy fire into anyone coming up those side ravines. Besides they have attacked us twice and both times they failed before they could get within hand grenade range.”
“Then how do you explain your wounds then?”
“They’re from either a mortar round or a rifle grenade, I’m the only one wounded from my squad and the second in our platoon of 39 people. David Martinelle who you just treated for the wounds to his left arm was our other man, and you let him go back up.”
“I was able to pick out the two metal slivers he had in him, they were like thorns and they came right out. Your wounds are deeper and the metal is down under the muscle, if just one of them is jagged and it moves a little, it might cut deeper and damage more tissue. You need to head back to Division medical and have an X-ray, and for one of the surgeons to look at you wounds.”
“I can’t do that sir my friends need me and you did say ‘it might’ sir. If I man a grenade launcher I’ll be lying behind it and not have to move around much, just aim and shoot.”
Shaking his head and knowing he wasn’t going to change this young man’s mind the Doctor said, “I understand how you feel, but I’m going to sign the order sending you to the rear, if you’re not there when the ambulance is ready to leave you will be written up. Then I’ll have to sign those papers too, if I have time in a day or two. Then they will be forwarded up to division then back down to your brigade commander. Then he will send them on down to your battalion and from there to your company commander. Very time consuming, that process will take several days maybe longer.”
The Doctor turned to a medical box behind him as he asked, “Are you allergic to any of the penicillin family of drugs, what’s your first name Private?”
“My name is Doug sir. And no sir I’m not allergic to anything that I know of?”
Picking up a medium size plastic bottle full of pills he writes on it ‘1 tablet 4x a day, until they are used up’, a second smaller bottle he writes ‘take 1 or 2 for pain every 4 hours, not to exceed 8 tablets a day’. Handing them to the private he say’s, “Doug the larger bottle is for infection, take one with water every six hours until they are all gone. And the smaller bottle is for pain it’s just a strong aspirin, it won’t make you drowsy so you can still function. Your platoon medic has more if you run out.” With a wink after looking at his watch he said, “Now I want you to go out side and wait for the evacuation ambulance, they won’t be back for another fifteen minuets or so. That gives you time to grab some hot chow at the supply point in the tent across the gully, they also have ammo if you need any. Do you understand me and do you need anything else?”
“I understand perfectly sir, and yes I could use two magazines for my FN, when I got hit I had two in my butt pack, they both took a lot of the shrapnel and they can’t be fixed, I’ve still got ten but no spares if I need them.”
With a smile the doctor walked over to the corner of the tent and opened his Alice pack and removed two magazines that weren’t loaded, “You’re in luck I carry four spares, you can borrow two.”
“Thanks Doc, I thought a lot of you medical guys carried only pistols or an M16.”
With a laugh the Doctor retorted, “When I joined the Kansas militia ten years ago I had an AR15, almost everyone else had the FN or a G-3 clone. After shooting the FN a few times at the range and hitting the targets hidden behind the railway ties, where the 223 wouldn’t penetrate three inches, I saw the light and switched, I got me a better rifle. I still have the AR and I left it for my oldest boy to help defend the home if necessary. Glad I did too as we live just five miles as-the-crow-flies from Dan’s place. After what happened there just after Christmas our sub division started an armed neighbor hood watch program. I feel better knowing my sixteen year old is skilled with it and can be of help if needed. Enough talk son, now get out of here grab some hot chow and keep your backside down, and take your medicine.”
“Yes sir I will, and thank you.”
Soft Ground and Flooded Rice Fields (0045 hours)
Good the noise from the ZTZ96’s or 2000’s was louder, that means they are closer now. Their lead tanks had finally found the one dry tract the engineers had left intact across the flooded fields and around the drainage channels and they were moving quickly now into the kill zone.
Our few scouts that had stayed behind had reported at least a full Armor brigade of the monsters were a coming, 130 of their top of the line tanks with lots of APC’s carrying infantry, followed by at least another battalion of infantry in open trucks. Really hard to get a count in the dark, but it could be as many as 3000 troops were moving into the trap. Another slacker must be in charge, a good Commander would have sent at least a company size reconnaissance force ahead to make sure it wasn't a trap. Oh well, their mistake our opportunity.
Lieutenant Colonel Justin Miller executive officer of the 2nd Brigade 2nd Kansas Division shook his head in disbelief, he can’t understand how any commander would sacrifice unarmored troops like that. Oh well his job was to see to their destruction and the two anti-tank companies under his command and the battery of 152MM guns across the river were ready.
Watching the laptop computer screen of a live cast shot from the orbiting UAV that was 5,000 feet overhead he can see the lead scout vehicles that were now spreading out, they didn’t know they had one last major obstacle between them and the ambush. In less then a minuet the scouts got to the main drainage channel above Liberty Island and were halted by the wide and deep water. But the end of the column continues moving and closes up as they cross the bottleneck, good the back door can now be slammed shut
With a chuckle Sgt. Weiss said, “Our engineers get to count first Coo sir.”
Smiling in return he answered, “Yes they do, radio them to open the slough gates and flood that deep ditch behind the Chinese. They can be proud of all of the hard work they did today, from welding all of the gates shut on the drainage ditches from here up to Dixon and then filling both sides with tons of dirt to stop the Chinese from just blowing them open and letting the water drain from them and the fields.”
Still watching the screen he continued, “The enemies scouts will spend twenty to thirty minuets looking for another crossing, but this time they won’t find any. Once they figure they can’t move any further west they will have to turn that whole snaking file around and try another path, by that time the ditch will be flooded, but we aren’t going to give’em the necessary time.” Picking up the field phone he tells the man on the other end, “Commence firing now zone A-1 and all along the snake line.”
Five kilometers behind him eight tubes of 120mm mortars fire their pre-plotted fire mission at their designated coordinates. Firing their allotment of six Strix* Precision Guided rounds each, the battery crews know they will take out 48 targets, it doesn’t matter if they are Tanks, APC’s or trucks full of troops, as each hit vehicle will be a burning road blocker.
On the south side of the shipping channel the six captured Chinese 152mm guns start firing a Chinese copy of the Russian ‘Krasnopol-M’ rounds, in support. These rounds are very similar in capabilities to the American ‘Copper Head’ rounds, and just as deadly. Each round will home in on the inferred beams from the six special UAV that were over head and circling, when the crewman flying these remote controlled planes see his target hit he will switch to another and another until they are all destroyed. And then concentrations of infantry will be dealt with using old fashion HE and WP. ^
* Bofors of Sweden developed the "Strix" smart mortar round, which fires a single smart munition. The Strix looks much like a conventional mortar round, with tailfins that unwrap from the end of the round. The Strix has been in service with the Swedish Army since 1994, and has been ordered by the Swiss Army. The “Strix’ is a hollow-charge gliding munition that uses imaging infrared technology to find, hit and kill its target. ( information taken from http://www.vectorsite.net/twbomb_11.html#m6)
^HE High Explosive
WP White Phosphors
O247 hrs Tough Decisions
Southern Part of the Line
“Sir, the two front battalions in the second brigade are down to around 70% effective manpower strengths, that includes the walking wounded who have moved back up to the front. Another hard Chin push in the right spot and they might break through! The Chins have been using their manpower to locate and attempt to swamp our forward positions, I know they are wasting their soldiers but they are hurting us in the process.”
“We knew this might happen, send a message back to the staff include everyone from the G-1 up to G-5, have them send up half of their people, same with the AA brigade, tell John to take half of his missile battery people and make a reserve battalion in case we have to fill in a big hole fast. They are to wait at point Blue in well dispersed dug in positions.”
“Even with the people from division support we will only get back up to 85% strength.”
“Yeah that’s what I figured too,” taking his helmet off and wiping the sweat band and then his forehead with a towel he says reluctantly, “OK.” General Stoddard’s facial expressing was hard no emotion showing as he then said, “No one is going to like this, but we do the 'Grave Robber' plan.”
The G-3 looked at him in complete disbelief as he questioned, “Sir?”
“We all talked about this, Dan and all of us didn't like the idea, but it's already agreed on. Now make it happen!”
Still in a bit of shock that it might come to this he asked again, “Are you sure sir? Maybe we ought to bounce this one up to Corp?”
“Yes I'm sure, it's a tough call but one that has to be made. The order is to put the KIA’s back into the front decoy positions, take a couple of hand warmers, activate them and put them in the dead men’s front top pockets.”
“Do we really have to do it sir,” his G-3 asked again? Wondering if he had heard the General give that order..
“It’s a bad choice I know, but we have to fool the Chinese thermal scopes and make them shoot up that decoy line again and waste more Ammo and time clearing it again. Don’t look at me like I’m crazy Arron, you were at that planning session. I later talked it over with Dan, we both agreed on this as a back up plan. We have to take the pressure off of the real line, so have the men take their ground sheets and two of them can drag one of our dead men forward and place them in position. When the Chinese attack again our snipers between the two lines will be able to pick out their men firing at our dead, as those Chins will be the ones with the thermal scopes. If our men use a grenade launcher and kill them it should also damage the thermal scopes or enough of them to shift the advantage back to us.”
“But sir?”
“No butts about it, you know I mean no disrespect for our dead. The spirit is already gone but we still have a need for the body, this way our dead will save more of our men’s lives.” Softening his tone he said, “Now go ahead and issue the order Gary, I didn’t like having to give it, if there was any other way to save more on our men’s lives, I would do it.”
“Yes sir,” he answered but his voice betrayed his reluctance to pass on this order that he knew was correct, no maybe not correct but still necessary.
“And make sure the RC guys plant their special AK’s among our dead men.”
“They said they would help place our dead in the right places to cover the most likely regrouping and assemble areas. I was told that a little luck on their part that would give us results beyond any one’s expectations.”
Red shuddered a little as he said in a low voice, “It will. I know it would scare the hell out of me.”
Later that night/ early morning, after Doug returned to his unit he found out about the Chinese second attack and how his platoon was able to beat them off again. The men he was with also found out how hard it was to stay in their positions; later in the cold dark hours before first light, we could hear the Chinese wounded crying out for water, one of them must have been wounded pretty bad, we would hear his voice getting weaker and weaker as he called out, “Shui, shui,” water, water and it would sound like shway, shway. After what seemed like an hour of listening to the man’s pleas that were now getting intermittent and weaker, our Platoon leader called back up to company HQ on the field phone and asked for permission to send out a fire team to bring the wounded Chin soldier back to our lines.
The CO said no and that was an order. Because the Chinese soldier might not be wounded and it might be just a bluff to get some of our men out and into an ambush, he said his father told him about that trick being used in Korea and our platoon sergeant said the VC had used the same trick in Nam on his older brother. They were counting on the Americans compassion for the wounded, and how they would use it against us, to kill our men if we fell for it. If it really was a wounded man the Chinese didn’t care, as that was the oriental mind set of what’s another life. For us it was hard to keep from disobeying orders and not go out to help him.
After what seemed hours of hearing his plea for water the LT called in a mortar fire request for the area we suspected the man was in. Six rounds of 120mm airburst did the job, if he was a decoy we would never know now. Just before dawn Doug told his best friend, “I don’t know if I’ll ever get the sound of that wounded man calling out for help? Shui, shui, damn, war is hell.”
The Chinese attacks continue all along the line, and each one is repulsed with loses on both sides. But each new Chinese attack has less impulse; their troops are losing their courage they are afraid, tired and thirsty. Their lack of in depth logistics especially in water and food for the front line troops is taking a very heavy tole.
(C-38)
0350 hours
Spookier
Smitty asks, “You sure do a lot of praying Parson, what do you pray for?”
“I give thanks to the Lord for the time and the place son.”
“The time and place?”
“The time to live and the place to die. That’s all that any man gets,
No more, No less.”
From the movie 'The Alamo'
“This is nonsense, you know that Marshall Gobi will not accept failure, and I didn’t give any orders to fall back. I order you to tell me the name of the officer who gave that command!”
Lt. Colonel Ni Sichong answered in a forced calm voice as he tried to explain for the third time, “As I told you sir there was no order given. After we captured the Americans first trench line again, that's their fake line. As we were regrouping to push on to the second line, the troops in one’s and two’s dropped their weapons and headed back to our lines, the Company Commanders, Platoon Lieutenants and NCOs called for them to return and they wouldn’t listen. As Captain Yitang just told you when he ordered a squad Corporal and some men to go and bring them back, he could hear them arguing and soon after the Corporal came back alone as his whole squad had gone back with the other men.”
Recently promoted General Wang Pu had returned to the front line with written orders, and took over command of the decimated 171st Division, he turned and glared at Captain Yitang, “Why didn’t you go yourself?”
“I still had the majority of my company with me at that time sir, and it was almost time to begin the assault against the next defensive line.”
“And that’s when the so called ghost arrived,” General Pu retorted?
In his own defense Yitang answered, “I did not see any ghost sir, that is the words our men used to describe what happened next.”
“You said that several of the dead Americans came back to life and started firing off their weapons in the trenches hitting several of your men.”
“Yes sir, and they had been dead just a few minuets before. The one closet to my command group I had place two shots into him myself just to make sure. That was two or three minuets before he opened fire on us. When the dead American opened fire several others and I started firing at him again and we could see his body jerking each time one of us hit him. Only when a 37mm grenade ripped him apart did he stop firing. And we weren’t the only ones having to kill these corpse again, I could hear this going on all across the front.”
“And this is when the majority of your men started retreating?”
“Yes sir, I had just given the order for my medics to attend to the wounded, and ordered some men to help the lesser wounded back to our line of departure. As I was talking to my Lieutenants more of the enemies dead started shooting again and we had to dispatch these too. After that I could see that many of our men were gone and I knew they weren’t wounded. Platoon Sergeants that were still with the few remaining troops then called in and reported the men with them refused to advance. That is when I called Colonel Sichong and told him that I had lost over three quarters of my men, that they were falling back without orders.”
“That’s when I ordered my companies to start the second phase of the attack,” Lt. Colonel Sichong blurted out. “The word was passed up and down the line and the officers, senior NCOs and only a few men jumped up and moved forward, the few others they froze, the men wouldn’t get up and advance. The American snipers were shooting at the few of us exposed and we took cover and called out to the troops in the trench to advance, but they wouldn’t. So when the few soldiers with us laid down suppressive fire we fell back to the first line. Even threatening the men that still remained with death they refused, they wouldn’t advance. They’re faces were filled with fear as they were watching the few dead Americans , ones that they said had been killed twice if not three times. The word spread quickly that troops down the line were now retreating in larger and larger numbers. That's when the Americans started dropping mortars rounds, you could see the fear and terror in the faces of the few men that remained, their spirit had just melted and there was nothing left inside of them. Then in one’s and two they got up and ran back to the trucks. In my command group I had only five men with me, I knew I could do nothing, that our part of the attack was over. I did not order a retreat, but I did order for a regrouping back at the line of departure.”
“When we got there only a few of the troops were waiting, they said that others had continued on back to where we got off of the trucks. I ordered my executive officer and the NCOs to go and collect the battalion and prepare defensive position in case the Americans attacked, while I reported back to brigade. Colonel Nu said the Brigade attack was a failure and what we experienced had happened to all of the attacking units.”
General Pu shook his head in disgust as he muttered, “Superstitious peasants, what else could we expect from men who are uneducated, and without motivation. To make a Army you need more then peasants.” Looking at his officers with a hard glare, then his face turned to shame and he looked down at his map, balling his fist he says in frustration as he said in a low angry voice, “Damn this American General, he knows us better then we know ourselves.”
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