Thump,
Thump, Thump. Pause. Thump, Thump, Thump. The hollow sound of outgoing mortar
shells filled the air in alternating bursts of fire. Below his hilltop position
the Americans huddled in Taihoku as mortars fell among them. The Americans
had taken the largest city in Formosa. They had paid for it at a very high cost
in blood. That had surprised him, the American courage and tenacity. Toshiki
Kaifu was not used to being surprised. He’d thought he understood the world and
his place in it. Now he wondered, often.
He
was more experienced now, and so he was not surprised when the American
artillery began crashing all around him, his unit, all the hills in every
direction and on to the end of the world as far as he knew. The Americans loved
artillery; they spent shells as if they grew on trees. For all Toshiki Kaifu
knew they might very well be growing them on blossoming trees, in the gardens
of death. There were so many of the Americans and they had so much of
everything. Stopping them was like stopping the sun from rising or the waves
from crashing upon the shore. And yet,
stop them they must. The emperor demanded it.
For
a minute the shelling continued and then for five minutes more as Toshiki
stared at his watch. Time stretched out. He prayed to his ancestors for a quick
death if the emperor demanded it. Some of the incoming shells traveled through
the air with an odd, but familiar, gurgling sound. Tendrils of rolling yellow
smoke soon confirmed his fears. Applying the gas mask pained him greatly; it
was an unusually warm day for November and the gas masks were uncomfortable
even under the best of circumstances. The consequences of not wearing the mask,
however, did not bear thinking of. With his mask snugly on, Toshiki resumed
watching the city below through a haze of yellow, grey, and white smoke.
High
in the sky to the northwest a spec moved lazily through the sky. Although he
didn’t notice the fast approaching American strike bomber he did notice the
sudden eruption of anti-aircraft fire from positions in the hills to his
immediate right. That meant only one thing, a low level air attack. Sky
Raiders! They terrified Japanese soldiers more than any other weapon of war. No
death was more horrible than the melting fire the Americans rained from the sky
and no aircraft dropped more melting fire than the feared and hated Sky
Raiders.
Two
thousand feet over the hills of northern Formosa Lyndon B. Johnson aggressively
piloted his A-1 sky raider through a hail of Japanese flak. He’d been loitering
over Taipei when the call came for an attack run. The Japs maintained control
over some of the hills around the city and they were lobbing mortar shells and
giving the ground-pounders down there a real headache.
“Tex, this is EyeSky. Target is indicated by
smoke. Repeat, target indicated by smoke. Take em out, over” the forward air
controller said, the voice crackling with static but audible. Lyndon brought
his strike bomber into a steep roll as he keyed his mike to respond.
“Acknowledged,
EyeSky, target is smoked. Making attack run on target grid now. Tex out” he
said as he spotted the plume of orange smoke rising amidst the hills. Tracers
rose from those same hills and for each tracer he saw there were many more
bullets and shells filling the air. He gritted his teeth and angled in for the
attack.
The
ground leapt up to meet him as he descended rapidly and streaked over the
Formosa hills at nearly three hundred miles per hour. One great thing about
napalm was that you didn’t have to be super accurate. He dropped the bomb at
what he reckoned the right time and then began a series of violent turns to
dodge the Jap flak, taking advantage of his suddenly lower weight. A pulse of
heat and a sudden shockwave confirmed that many Japanese soldiers had just died
horribly by his hands. Looking over his shoulder he could see the oily orange
fireball towering up from the hills.
“This
is Tex, target naped. Returning to my loiter position, please advise if another
run is necessary, I’ve got rockets, over”.
“That’s
a negative Tex, we’ve got five more just like you angling in. EyeSky out”
Toshiki
Kaifu thanked the ancestors for sparing him the painful fate of death by melting
fire. The heat from the multiple napalm attacks had been enough to singe the
hairs on his arms but none of the napalm bombs had landed quite close enough to
burn him. Others had not been so lucky. Some of the very unlucky ones were
screaming now, some loud enough to be heard over the ongoing artillery barrage.
Suddenly, death or maiming by exploding metal fragments didn’t seem quite so
bad. In the cauldron of war even death was relative.
November 16th 1948
The convoy war on the high seas has reached a new low point for Britain. German submarines, aided by long range maritime patrol and attack aircraft, have sunk an estimated 4.1 million tons of Alliance and neutral shipping(some 749 ships sunk) since May - mostly in the eastern North Atlantic but also in the South Atlantic and even in the Indian Ocean. The situation on the British Isles is becoming dire as the British government considers announcing another series of ration cutbacks. Alliance anti-submarine warfare techniques are improving but the newer German submarine models and the long range Sea Ural maritime aircraft have achieved amazing success as of late. German submariners have taken to describing their present success as the “Happy Time”.
November 17th 1948
The British launch operation ‘Steel Vengeance’ with the launch of some 300 Goddard V ballistic missiles into several cities in the industrial Ruhr valley over the course of a single night. The target cities are in the outer limits of the Goddard V’s range and the damage is light and very scattered. The evening marks the beginning of a sustained British ballistic missile campaign against northwest Germany – a retaliatory campaign for the punishing and long lived ‘Rain of Steel’.
{* You will note that Britain and Germany have both developed a capability to launch large numbers of ballistic missiles in relatively short periods of time. This was made possible by the development of true rocket mass production as well as various command and control innovations. Germany still has the edge in this area as they have truck and rail mobile launchers that the British are still working towards *}
November 21st
1948
In a major surge German and Italian bombers begin pounding British supply lines east of Benghazi as their fighter escorts battle British fighters to a stalemate over the region. At the same time two Italian armored divisions, painted to look like German divisions from the air and using fake German radio traffic, begin rolling up the coast towards Benghazi along with several German panzer grenadier divisions and Italian infantry in support. The British command, seeing what it believes to be a major German panzer force rolling up the coast towards Benghazi, begins moving its powerful armored forces to block and then destroy the attack.
November 22nd
1948
Fierce armored clashes south of Benghazi erupt as Italian and British armor come into contact and fight a series of fierce battles. The Italian thrust is shattered in two major engagements as the British Centurions are vastly superior to the Italian Mk. IV’s and British tank crews are simply better trained. However, just as British intelligence is realizing that the thrust was largely Italian in nature the main body of 8th panzer army, centered around two German panzer divisions and elite panzer grenadiers, strikes north and east in a rapid dash.
November 24th
1948
Italian armor and German anti-tank infantry fight off a British counter-attack south of Benghazi thanks to the fact most of the British armor strength is heading east to confront Rommel. The main 8th panzer army attack is proceeding rapidly as Rommel drives his panzers around British strong points and heads for the Mediterranean coast.
November 25th
1948
Under the cover of a convenient blizzard, which has grounded all aircraft in the theatre, the Soviet Union launches operation ‘Dauntless’. Thirty Red Army divisions plunge south and east, their goal nothing less than the “liberation” of the Ukraine. The Germans, aware of the Soviet buildup but unaware of the timing of the coming offensive, are caught by surprise as Soviet tanks rumble out of the swirling snow to cut into their lines across a broad front. The Soviets have set aside their standard doctrine by electing to maintain surprise by avoiding a preparatory bombardment. In the initial hours of the attack the shift in Red Army tactics pays dividends and by noon four German infantry divisions have been surrounded or smashed into headlong retreat.
November 26th
1948
In a series of sharp and bloody armored engagements east of Benghazi the British smash Rommel’s leading panzer division, sending it fleeing south in disorder. With his left flank turned Rommel is forced to call a general withdrawal to the south back towards his original lines.
In Benghazi, meanwhile, another operation is just beginning to unfold. Over the past several days, under the cover of the recent Luftwaffe and Italian air surge, nearly 10,000 Italian and German marines have come ashore. The joint Italian-German marine division is about to see its first combat. These forces, freshly arrived from Sicily, are to be the tip of a spear driving directly south.
November 27th
1948
In the pre-dawn hours Army Group Africa expends most of its remaining artillery shells in a massive artillery bombardment against British, Indian, and Australian infantry entrenched south of Benghazi. As the two hour long bombardment ends, the remaining mechanized forces of Army Group Africa, along with the freshly arrived Italian and German marines, throw themselves south with a fury. At the same time, Axis forces south of Benghazi conduct their own smaller artillery barrage and then renew their attack north. This last element of Rommel’s plan to save Army Group Africa comes as both sides struggle to keep aircraft in the air over the theatre.
Far to the north another struggle is raging. The Soviet Winter offensive into the Ukraine is grinding ahead steadily but most of the pocketed German divisions at the front are fighting on stubbornly and the Soviet advance is beginning to fall behind schedule as they are forced to slow down and crush the small pockets of resistance at their point of attack. The 1st SS Panzer Army, exhausted and depleted as it is, has taken up a mobile defense – trading land for time and avoiding direct engagement with the oncoming tidal wave that is the Red Army.
November 28th 1948
Near Manila, in the Philippines, the SBC has activated its first combat-ready B-34 squadron after it completed a series of shakeout exercise missions. The assembled officers of the squadron, anxious to do their part in the war, sit calmly while Army Air Force intelligence officers brief them on operation ‘Thunder Stroke’ – the surprise atomic bombing of Tokyo and Osaka. The mission is set for December 2nd, weather permitting.