December 16th 1948 to January 16th 1949

Captain Daniel Richards piloted his 'Silent Star' reconnaissance plane with smooth precision, his eyes carefully monitoring all the cockpit's readouts as the high altitude aircraft cut through the thin air at 44,000 feet. He was approaching his target, a massive prisoner of war camp the Japanese had constructed on Okinawa the previous year.

Mounted in the belly of the sleek black jet was an array of some of the most sophisticated cameras yet devised by man. The unblinking eyes of precision cameras zoomed in on pre-set targets, snapping picture after picture in a carefully designed grid pattern to capture every square foot of the Japanese facility. Clearly visible under the unfeeling gaze of the camera were row after row of freshly dug trenches and heavy equipment in the process of digging more trenches...

The chatter of machine gun fire cut the air in sudden, sharp, bursts. Hagane Ishikawa watched grimly as American, British, and Australian prisoners fell under the hail of bullets and tumbled limply to join their comrades in the trench they had helped dig. The trench, filling steadily with more and more bodies, was almost ready to be covered with dirt; having fulfilled its grim purpose. More gaunt, listless, Anglo soldiers stumbled towards the trench under the cold glare of camp guards. Surely knowing what awaited them, the men seemed resigned to their fate.

Guards lining the opposite side of the trench were busily reloading their machine guns with fresh ammunition, preparing for their next batch of death. Hagane remembered the first such slaughters, when prisoners had been herded into trenches alive and exposed to chemical weapons. Their deaths had been slow and agonizing and the Commandant had soon ordered a halt to that method. Not out of any mercy, but out of a simple efficiency. Machine gun ammunition was cheaper and more abundant than the precious chemical weapons stocks.

The slaughter had begun two days after the atomic bombing of Tokyo and Osaka and had continued ever since. Half the camp's 30,000 prisoners were already dead, buried in carefully arranged rows of deep trenches outside the camp itself. They'd made no efforts to hide the massacre, indeed the government in Tokyo wanted the

American leadership to know what was happening. Japan had other POW camps and not all of them were killing their prisoners...yet.

Hagane’s own feelings on the awful site before him were mixed. His sense of honor screamed that what they were doing was wrong...but his own family was in Tokyo and based on the rumors flying around the island he had little doubt that they were all dead. The countless murdered civilians in Tokyo and Osaka cried out for vengeance and Hagane couldn't help but hear their call. When his turn came to man one of the machine guns he would fulfill his duty and cut down the skeletal prisoners.

December 16^th 1948

The Soviet thrust towards Kiev, conducted by the powerful Ukrainian Front with its 350,000 men and 1500 tanks, has now developed into two bulges extending across the Dnieper well into German lines north and south of the Ukrainian capitol. Field Marshall Manstein, overall commander of German Army Group South, advocates a withdrawal from the city but Hitler refuses - demanding that the Ukrainian capitol “…be held at any cost”. There are political considerations.

The best part of the Ukrainian army, some 250,000 men in 25 infantry divisions, are digging deep into several concentric rings of defense around the capitol.

December 17^th 1948

In a stroke of monumental luck a German ballistic missile, one of several dozen lobbed towards London in the largest such attack in several weeks, hits the Parliament building. The powerful warhead destroys the parliament building outright and severely damages the famous ‘Big Ben’ tower as well, nearly toppling it. Luckily for the British, Parliament was not in session at the time.

In an act of symbolic revenge the British will launch a hail of their own ballistic missiles towards Hamburg over the course of several days, causing widespread but relatively insignificant damage to the city. With neither side able to sustain a real bombing campaign against the other’s heartland the slow bleeding of the missile exchange across the Channel continues.

December 18^th 1948

In direct violation of Hitler’s orders, Manstein orders the commanders of the powerful but depleted 4^th and 5^th panzer armies to begin breaking contact with Soviet forces near Kiev for a withdrawal to the west. The Soviet pincers around Kiev are now probing north and south to link up and encircle the city.

In the central Ukraine, Soviet forces are now across the Dnieper on a broad front and are charging southwest across the open Ukranian plains. The remnants of the 1^st SS Panzer Army as well as various other German, Italian, and Romanian divisions are in headlong retreat towards the Dnister River on the border with Romania. The Romanian Home Army, including Romania’s best armored and mechanized infantry forces, is already digging into positions on the east bank of the river along a broad front, as are forces from Bulgaria.

The German High Command, aware of the serious situation in central Ukraine, has begun the process of assembling reserve divisions to bolster the Romanian forces assembling along the Dnister. In addition, the 2^nd Panzer Army(presently resting and refitting in Eastern Poland), is to be sent south as fast as possible.

December 20^th 1948

Kiev, now surrounded by Soviet forces, is home to 250,000 trapped Ukrainian soldiers as well as 4 German infantry divisions assigned to turn the city into a fortress. 4^th and 5^th panzer armies, having withdrawn in good order under the cover of the now swarming Luftwaffe, are moving quickly west towards Rivne where a new line of defense is to be established in the western Ukraine. Hitler, in a fit of rage, removes Manstein from command of Army Group South, cursing him as a “weak defeatist”.

In southern Ukraine, Donestsk falls after a week of house to house fighting. Axis forces in southern Ukraine, including German, Italian, Romanian, and Bulgarian divisions, are maintaining a slow fighting withdraw to the southwest.

Further south and east, in the rugged northern foothills of the Caucuses Mountains, the Soviet offensive in that theatre at last grinds to a halt after Beria finally concedes that the Red Army can not defeat General Winter and the Mountains at the same time. Several sharp and sustained Soviet thrusts towards the mountain passes have all broke like shattered glass against the steely mountains; utterly repulsed with heavy losses by Axis forces dug into every mountain nook and crevice.

December 22^nd 1948

Italian bombers use guided glide-bombs to sink a British cruiser in the waters north of Malta. The steadily increasing capability of Axis air power in the central Mediterranean has severely curtailed Royal Navy operations there. This, combined with Italian and German submarines, has largely isolated the island-fortress of Malta. The island is only receiving supplies via air transports escorted by fighters operating out of northeastern Libya and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the flow of Axis supplies from Italy to Tripoli and Tunis via Sicily is now largely uninterrupted aside from isolated British air and submarine attacks.

December 25^th 1948

On Christmas day Romanian and Bulgarian forces, with the aid of the Luftwaffe as well as their own air forces, halt the Red Army along the line of the Dnister River near the Romanian frontier. The Soviets, with their supply lines across the Ukraine fragile and beset by numerous partisans, bring their exhausted forces to a halt – having completed the “liberation” of the entire central Ukraine.

However, to the north the German 4^th and 5^th panzer armies remain in tact and Germany still controls a swath of territory in the northwest Ukraine. To the south German and minor Axis forces have been driven back to the base of the Crimean peninsula but are now hunkered down in a strong defensive line built after the Eurasian War and reinforced over the past several months.

January 2^nd 1949

On Formosa Japanese forces have been pushed back into a pocket in the northwest part of the island. With most of the island now secured the U.S. is now flying B-31 bombers out of newly acquired air bases on massive conventional and incendiary bombing raids over Okinawa and Kyushu. Escorted by long-ranged propeller fighters equipped with drop tanks for extreme operational range, the bombers take stiff but “acceptable” losses to Japanese air defenses and fighters.

January 5^th 1949

After over two weeks of stubborn defense, surrounded on all sides and under constant chemical and conventional bombardment, Axis forces in Kiev surrender. 30,000 German and some 240,000 Ukranian soldiers are taken prisoner. The best part of the Ukranian Army has been destroyed.

January 8^th 1949

Across the Ukraine the weather has cleared and both sides surge aircraft into the air. As usual Soviet advantage in numbers balances out against German aircraft and pilot superiority but the tactical jet bombers of the Luftwaffe give Axis forces a critical edge in the air, sliding through Soviet air defenses and prop fighters to bomb and strafe anything that moves on the open plains.

January 11^th 1949

A series of desperate Soviet attacks in the southern and northwestern Ukraine over the past few days falter and come to a bloody halt after stiff German counter-attacks and constant Luftwaffe and partisan harassment of Soviet columns combine to breakup the Soviet thrusts before they can really develop. The front lines have come grinding and groaning to a halt, both sides still exchanging artillery, rockets, and local probes. Both sides are exhausted, critically short of chemical weapons stocks, and reeling from massive casualties and tank losses.

January 13^th 1949

With the situation on the Eastern front stabilizing, Hitler turns his attention to an Axis Summit meeting held in Budapest. In back rooms away from the bright lights and video cameras of the propaganda ministry, Mussolini is advocating bold action in the Mediterranean theatre, a bid to knock the British out of the war by “cutting their life veins” as the Italian dictator puts it. Hitler, impressed by the opportunity to achieve victory in the west with a relatively small commitment of forces, agrees to the plan and over the next few days the German and Italian general staffs will begin to turn Mussolini’s envisioned campaign into concrete operational plans.

January 15^th 1949

A massive 600 bomber incendiary night raid on Nagasaki destroys much of the city’s industrial heart and kills some 40,000 civilians. In the aftermath of the recent Atomic attacks the devastating raid barely registers in the minds of the reeling Japanese leadership.

January 16^th 1949

The Soviet Komet jet fighter, a copy of an early model British Meteor, makes it first appearance in combat over the skies of Moscow. The jet does well against German Ural bombers, inflicting much higher than average losses against a 300 bomber German raid on the city. This first Komet squadron is based near Moscow and dedicated to a pure interceptor role but more squadrons will join the ranks of the Red Air Force over the next few months.

The German 2^nd panzer army, combined with various other units to form the new Army Group Dnister, takes up position alongside Romanian, Bulgarian, and Italian forces to bolster Axis defenses along the Romanian frontier.

Soviet gains in the Ukraine as of January 16th 1949

January 15^th 1949

30 miles Northwest of Macau, China

It was as if he had never existed. One second Sergeant Taylor had been yelling at his squad to get under cover and the next second he was a splatter of raw meat and gore. The shell had landed right at his feet. At least, corporal Smith thought, sarge wouldn’t have felt anything. Jesus, let me go that way if I have to go.

More shells were falling and not all of them exploded with the characteristic violence of high explosives. Some of them popped with a mute gurgle and spewed forth the new Mustard-Phosgene mixture that the Japs had started using lately. The new gas combined the most lethal aspects of the two into a deadly cocktail. Luckily the American forces grinding towards Macau were well equipped for chemical warfare. The latest gas masks were hot and uncomfortable and limited your vision…but they did what they were supposed to do better than the earlier versions.

Corporal Robert Smith, suddenly in command of a platoon after the deaths of sarge and Lt. Anderson, forced his hands to stop shaking and, with sheer force of will, poked his helmeted head out over the mound of dirt in front of his fox hole. Sure enough, Japanese infantry were swarming ahead with their bayonets fixed in yet another reckless charge. The bastard in charge of the Jap battalion ahead of them was a fanatic even by knip standards. This was the fifth charge since sunrise and the previous four had been absolutely torn to shreds.

“Here they come” Robert shouted to make himself heard over the bombardment. As the Japs had done earlier in the morning they were keeping up the shelling even as their own men rushed into the target area. Crazy bastards. Lifting the field radio and cupping a hand over his mouth and the microphone to make sure he was understood, he called for artillery support on the exact same coordinates he’d given three times already.

Even before the first shells started impacting in the open field machine gun positions to Robert’s left and right began stitching death back and forth across the field in terrible arcs. Japanese soldiers fell but most ran on, hunched over in a low crouch and screaming at the top of their lungs. By the time division’s artillery began plastering the field the first wave of Japs was right on his line and the sound of bolt action rifles and assault rifles filled the air with a constant poppoppop like a hailstorm from hell.

For a terrible moment he thought the platoon would be overwhelmed and Jap soldiers were in among the line, bayonets gashing savagely. But the Americans had bayonets as well and relatively few Japanese soldiers had reached the line. Robert found himself confronted by a snarling Jap and he gutted the short man as he’d been taught back in basic. Blood splattered and smeared his face. The front of the Japanese attack was broken in a wave of blood as the platoon held. The Japs still out in the open field were being savaged by air-bursting artillery shells from which they had no protection.

As the last Jap soldiers fell or fled back to their line 400 yards to the east, Robert took advantage of the lull to light a smoke. He was far from the only man to do so. It helped calm his nerves as the medics came to carry away the screaming wounded. He’d barely even noticed that the Japanese bombardment had slacked off and then stopped altogether. The swarms of bombers overhead and thunderous rippling explosions to the east and south probably had something to do with that. The Jap artillery battery was either destroyed or moving to a new position. Either way, it was out of action. He was not surprised when division sent down the orders to launch a new attack.

January 19^th 1949

25 miles Northwest of Macau, China

The four days of relatively rapid advancing had surprised Robert. He’d even let himself start to believe that the Japanese position outside of Macau had come apart. The ambush that had killed or wounded half his platoon an hour before had dispelled any such notion. They’d ran headlong into the outer edge of the Jap’s next line of defense. And, he thought gloomily, the platoon’s new sergeant had been the first man killed and thus he found himself leading the men again.

Apparently the higher-ups didn’t want the Japs to be able to settle into their new positions because they’d sent up tanks and ordered a general offensive right into the Jap line without delay. Some of those tanks were idling in the trees behind his platoon now, their big cannons pointing southeast towards the enemy as they waited to attack.

The peninsula that the 2^nd Army was moving down to approach Macau did not offer a lot of good defensive terrain but the god damn Japs had damn sure done their best. Their line took full advantage of what little defensive cover was available, and they’d brought up a lot of forces to make what must be their last major stand outside of Macau itself. Mortar and artillery shells occasionally whined and screamed overhead but neither side seemed ready to open up a sustained bombardment. It was simply a long ranged game of cat and mouse as both sides moved their forces into position.

Corporal Robert Smith was cleaning his assault rifle when he noticed a jeep bouncing down the muddy dirt road toward his position. It was moving dangerously fast considering the slippery conditions, but moving slower would have been more dangerous. Japanese snipers would be certain to take interest if it gave them half a chance. A soldier manned a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the back of the jeep and the driver manhandled the steering wheel with what was obviously an experienced hand.

The Jeep sloshed right up to Smith’s position and, setting down this gun, he snapped off a smart salute to the four star general who stepped out from the passenger seat.

The stories regarding General Patton were legend. But the legends about his immaculately polished uniform and ivory pistols turned to be no mere myth. The general, jogging over in an absolutely immaculate uniform, approached Robert and returned his salute.

“At ease Corporal” he said, his gaze shifting to look out over the front. A Jap infantry battalion was well entrenched half a mile to the southeast but they would be hard to spot even with binoculars.

“Where’s your battalion CO” the General asked, his gaze still directed towards the front.

“Five hundred yards that way” Robert said, gesturing to the south. Patton nodded, then turned his attention squarely on Robert.

“Son, I don’t normally deliver news to Corporals like this straight to the front but since I’m here anyway and since Colonel Cunningham spoke so highly of you…”. The general reached into his jacket and his hand emerged with brand new sergeant’s chevrons.

“Congratulations Sergeant Smith” the general said. Robert accepted the insignia in shocked silence. He had half expected to make Sergeant any day now…but to have his promotion handed to him by General Patton himself!

“Thank you, sir” was all he could say. Patton nodded as he began scanning the front with his binoculars. A bursting shell a hundred yards to the south didn’t have any visible impact on Patton. He was no “lead from the rear” officer and that was for damn sure.

TO BE CONTINUED…