Winter Kill 2 - China Invades Australia

by Gene Skellig

  About a third of the men actually put up a fight, but were poorly coordinated and not supported by their fellow soldiers, and failed to organize an effective resistance.

  The final third, hearing the talk of surrender and seeing the confusion within their ranks, panicked. They had been terrorized by rumors of a massive assault of US Marines, and believed that the advancing formation was part of this terrible American force. Others had been effected by the stories of soldiers finding poisonous snakes and spiders in their equipment just when battle begins, a tactic that had been used to good effect in a number of small battles, and had been too afraid to enter their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. These panicked men ran, on foot, for the presumed safety of Gladstone.

  With the Australians mopping up what little resistance there was in Biloela, and the highly disciplined PLA security forces at Gladstone ahead of them, the panicked soldiers were soon unarmed and exposed on the long stretch of highway 60 to the coast. When they heard the rumbling of the advancing Australian armor they dove to the ground at the side of the road, expecting to be mercilessly gunned down.

  As it was, they were not harmed. The Australians waved at them in a strangely friendly way, as if to thank them for not fighting. Could it be true? We will be treated kindly? Some of them thought as they sat watching the Chinese armored vehicles they knew so well being operated by these strange Australians advancing towards the coast.

  At Gladstone, a highly disciplined brigade of the 121st Regiment, 41st Group Army had begun to mobilize their defenses. They were not entrenched, other than the base’s security perimeter and military police post, as they were so far removed from the front lines as to be beyond any risk of attack. But they had considerable firepower available to them and a one hour warning.

  All they had to do was hold out long enough for General Ma to send down a regiment from Rockhampton, just one hundred kilometers up the coast, to relieve and support the 3rd Brigade.

  But an hour was a long time when faced with Aussie Rules offense, they soon found out.

  The Australians appeared to be about to drive right at their lines, but then swerved to the right on the Bruce Highway, and carried on to the east to the coastal town of Tannum Sands.

  “Shit! They’ve cut us off to the south!” the operations officer informed his Colonel.

  “What do you mean, along Kirkwood road?” asked the PLA Colonel.

  “No, Sir, they bypassed us altogether, and now hold the intersection at Highway A1 and the coast road, Highway 58, into Gladstone.”

  The major had no sooner given his report when new intel came in from the perimeter.

  “Sir. It gets worse. It now appears that another element has swung to the north, up Callope River Road. That cuts us off from General Ma and Rockhampton. We are entirely surrounded now.”

  “Don’t’ panic, Major. Let’s get some solid information. What else are we getting from the perimeter? What unit is it, the First or the Second Division?”

  “That’s just it, sir. We don’t know. There are reports of this guy from the 371st Regiment of 42nd Group Army who surrendered at Mount Isa now transmitting on UHF Channel Six, encouraging guys to surrender. It looks like they must have surrendered in Biloela, or else how could the enemy have come this far so fast?”

  “Doubtful. But they could have bypassed Biloela.”

  “No, sir, we would have still had comms with Colonel Chen and 2nd Brigade. They’re off the air, so they have fallen. But there’s more. Remember that action up in Emerald, Sir, that started an hour ago? Turns out it is the US Marine Corps, the MAGTFA. They’re supported with air power! The brigade in Emerald has been ordered to withdraw towards Port Mackay.”

  “You kidding? Why not to Rockhampton?” the Colonel fumed. “What the hell is going on here, how big is this thing, anyhow?” The colonel leaned over to examine the map closely. His command post was abuzz with a panicky tone that he did not like. But he took the time to plot what was known of enemy units and their disposition. “Look here, Major. Is this about right?” he asked his Ops O, indicating the map symbols he had drawn with grease pencil.

  “Yes, Sir, and we now know that the Australian force surrounding us is the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division, that unit that was supposed to be stuck in the snow near Charleville.”

  “So what do we have, a US Marine force driving east at the remnants of the 372nd Regiment at Emerald – what are they down to now, Brigade size now, right? And we have the Australian 3rd Division already here on the coast. Where is their 1St Division going to strike? Shit, this is a Corps sized formation we are up against, if not larger. That’s where all those Australian men in Queensland have disappeared to – they’ve been force generating quite an army, I’d say. They are attempting to – have in fact already done so – cut us off from the rest of Army Group North. They’ve cut our forces into two, for fuck sake! The question is, do we try to hold off here, or try to fight our way out of this box? If so, which way, to the south? – to join with the rest of the 41st, or try to the north? – to help protect General Ma, in Rockhampton?”

  “I don’t know Sir, but we need to act swiftly. The longer you delay giving the evacuation order, the more the enemy will be able to entrench. I say we go south, try to link up with the rest of the 121st Regiment down in Childers.”

  “What is Division saying now?”

  “They want our sitrep, but also advise that there is a risk of a major allied offensive in our sector.”

  “Great timing, as always,” Colonel Guo said, turning his attention to observing the mood in the Command Post.

  So far, there were no reports of enemy firing. It was as if the enemy had already achieved their tactical objectives, and were waiting for his next move. Should we fight our way out, or are we cut off now like the German Sixth army in Stalingrad? Who am I kidding? I’m just the Commanding Officer of a single Brigade, and would still just be a major if it were not for the assassination of Colonel Luo. Thinking back on that day, Colonel Guo still had not shaken the notion that the allies had ordered Colonel Luo’s assassination to coincide with the absence of the Deputy CO, Major Yuan. Major Yuan and Colonel Luo were birds of a feather, entirely committed to General Bing’s global ambition, and excessively brutal to the local population. With Yuan away, General Ma had elevated Major Guo to Acting CO, likely to hold the post until Major Yuan returned. But then Major Yuan was also killed, in an enemy ambush out on the highway. It had always seemed to be more than a coincidence. Perhaps fate, or some other grand design, but it was as if someone wanted him to be in command of the 3rd Brigade at this precise moment in history.

  As Colonel Guo thought about the decision he had to make, he observed the way the Command Post staff were listening to the loudspeaker, where the repeating broadcast from the soldier from the 371st Regiment continued on and on, calling for his brothers to surrender, promising fair treatment and calling on the men to turn their arms against their officers.

  Hope they don’t turn on me, Colonel Guo thought. And then he explored the possibility of surrender. Certainly, he knew, his role as the Commanding Officer would put him at risk of being held accountable for the war crimes. Guo knew them to be war crimes, what some of his men had been forced to commit under Colonel Luo’s orders.

  Then he explored the idea of running the gauntlet through enemy lines, probably to the south as the Ops O had suggested. But that would be like the Falaise Pocket, Guo knew, where his men would be picked off by the Australian tanks just like the retreating German 7th Army had been picked off by the Polish tanks that had taken up firing positions on a hilltop overlooking the only escape route. It had been a massacre, and a turning point in the war with the destruction of the German 7th and 5th Panzer Armies.

  Colonel Guo was about to give an order, when the phone rang. It was strange, and startled many in the CP. The phone was a local phone, part of the pre-war telephone network that still worked in some towns. In this case, the only person who could be calling would h
ave to be his closest friend in the PLA, the CO of the 3rd Brigade, in Biloela.

  Picking up the phone, Guo felt some powerful forces at work. “Guo here,” he answered.

  At first he barely recognized his old friend, the man was speaking in such a rapid, panicked manner. But it did not take long to be certain that it was Chen. But the reason for the call was simply unbelievable.

  Chen was sitting in his CP in Biloela, surrounded by Australian and American military personnel, and apparently a few Chinese-speaking allies who Guo could hear conversing in English and Chinese in the background. Of course, both Chen and Guo could both speak perfect English, so he switched to English as much to ease the situation for Chen in Biloela as to keep his side of the conversation at least somewhat private in his own CP, where almost none of the personnel spoke very much English.

  “Are you serious? How could they know that about us?”

  Colonel Chen told Gou that the allies knew that Chen and Guo had been classmates when they attended university in America, both having been ordered by the PLA to pursue Bachelor’s degrees in American Cultural Studies before resuming their careers in the Army. Part of a program of “know your enemy”, the degree had taught both men a great deal about the western way of life.

  Chen went on to say that the allies had a dossier on each of the Chinese commanders, and were compiling evidence for War Crimes Tribunals that had already begun to take place. Each and every captured commander would be held accountable for his actions, with swift justice in the form of a firing squad or hanging for the most ruthless perpetrators. But for others, who had surrendered their forces and fully cooperated with the Allied authorities, amnesty had been given in a number of instances. At least that was the story being fed to Colonel Chen, who was inclined to accept the allies at their word based on what he had seen of how the Chinese community in Seattle were treated.

  The notion that the Allies were holding those behind the global war accountable, but not directly attributing the madness to the Chinese people, rang true for both men. The same discussion had been taking place in private within the PLA, ever since the war had started. A great many PLA officers were uneasy with their role in the repugnant war, the attempt to reduce the human population by 95% and to have the new world under Chinese control. Guo and Chen discussed the situation for a few moments longer, until Chen was instructed to press Guo.

  “So what do they want, exactly?” Colonel Guo said, getting out his notepad.

  “I don’t know how the men will respond, quite frankly. If I do as you ask, what assurance do I have that the Allies will keep their word?”

  After a long discussion at the other end, Colonel Chen got the answer back to Guo.

  “Well, if that is their assurance, it is good enough for me, I suppose. I will put it to the men and let them decide. I will call you back with our answer in under an hour,” Guo said, and then hung up the phone as if it weighed a ton.

  “Men, listen up. I have just been informed by Colonel Chen that many of his men have surrendered. Those who did not were quickly defeated and the Colonel himself and his command post staff were captured. The allies are offering amnesty to any of our military personnel who will surrender,” Guo paused, to gauge the effect that this had on his personnel. They seemed to be pleased to hear of the option, as if relieved that surrender, unimaginable only a few weeks prior, was a good option.

  He went on. “There’s more. They also offer Australian citizenship to all personnel of any formation that switches sides, and engages in combat against PLA units loyal to General Bing that refuse to surrender.”

  The CP erupted in argument, with some saying that it was just a cheap trick, psychological warfare, no more. But from the serious expression on Colonel Guo’s face, many of his staff understood that he was seriously considering the offer.

  There was a long history of rebellion in Chinese military history, most of the men knew, and even as recently as the Tiananmen Square crisis of 1989, officially known as the ‘June Fourth Incident’, when an entire Army Corps had refused to move in on the pro-democracy protestors. Those soldiers had actually considered intervening to protect the civilians from the crackdown ordered by the Communist Party of China hardliners and Premier Deng Xiaoping. Guo imagined for a moment what China could have become had the nascent pro-democracy movement been taken up by the military. Perhaps this foolish war would never have begun, he thought.

  He knew that his decision would have far-reaching consequences and that he would most likely be killed one way or the other. With nothing to lose, he went with his conscience.

  “Men, we have been given a choice. As your Commanding Officer, I could make that choice for you, however the implications of this choice are very personal and profound. We are being asked to mobilize our forces, and engage the enemy. The question is, which one? Is the allied force that now surrounds us, the Australians and Marines who we have been fighting for three years now, are those our enemy? Or is General Bing and his command structure our enemy? Are they the traitors who have put China into the role of monsters, wrecking the world and utterly destroying China’s reputation? We are being offered Australian citizenship and amnesty if we engage General Ma’s formation, strike at his Army Group Centre’ headquarters up in Rockhampton. Alternatively, we are offered amnesty but not citizenship if we simply surrender in place. The third option is to remain loyal to the cause of General Bing and his war. I believe that you all know me, and can guess at my answer. But you are free to express yourself on your own. Will all of you who wish to stand and fight for General Bing, go to the east side of this command post. Those who wish to surrender in place, come into the center of the CP. The rest, come and join me on the west side of this CP, and work with me on putting together a plan for an assault on Rockhampton. You have twenty minutes to decide.” Guo concluded, and then made his way to a map table on the west side of his command post.

  Pandemonium broke out in the CP, with everybody raising their voices to be heard over one another. With such din in the CP, nobody achieved very much verbally, however their body language made it immediately clear what the consensus was. Within two minutes, nearly everybody had migrated to Colonel Guo’s side of the CP, with a small number standing uncertainly in the middle of the CP.

  There was nobody on the east side of the CP.

  News of the allied offensive spread like wildfire. Accompanied by incredulity and confusion in the PLA command network, the effect on the Australian population had been quite the opposite. After three years of Chinese occupation and brutal reprisals for any transgression, any attempt to interfere with the Occupation Authority and the PLA units in their towns, the remaining Australian population of Queensland now had hope. Most understood that now was the time to implement long dreamed-of actions which, on their own, would not have caused all that much trouble for the occupying forces. But now, with their forces cut in two and reeling in confusion, the PLA was vulnerable and very much afraid.

  Rumors that an entire Army Corps formation of US Marines had landed in Darwin and were moving east to recapture Cairns had put fear into the hearts of the men of the 42nd Group Army.

  In the Combined Joint Task Force Command Post in Katherine, General Adams and Colonel Ferebee discussed the altered battle space with the success of the Aussie Rules campaign and the capture of Gladstone. From intelligence reports it appeared that the Marines had been successful in their efforts to carefully nurture this belief by gradually increasing the amount of radio chatter, spoofing the PLA intelligence analysts into believing that a much larger force of US Marines had deployed into Northern Territory and were even now moving closer and closer to the front.

  This had been a major operation of deceptive tactics, inspired by similar operations used to misguide the Germans prior to the Allied invasion at Normandy. Unlike World War Two, however, there was no massive allied force in the region.

  The objective of the deception was to dislocate and confuse PLA forces and to pave the way fo
r the assault on Emerald, where the Marines could settle an old score with the 42nd Group Army while contributing to the Australian objective of cutting right across Queensland to the coast, just north of Brisbane. The real fighting force was provided by just two Australian divisions that were involved in the assault through Biloela to Gladstone.

  It was a desperate move – and one that would end in utter catastrophe if General Ma and his Army Group North realized that there were no follow-on forces to worry about. However, if the Marines had done an effective job in the deception campaign, creating the legend of a larger force of US Marines bearing down on what was left of the 42nd Group Army, and with the prospect of the four regiments of the Australian 1st Division to worry about, General Ma would have come to the conclustion that his forces were spread out far too broadly to hold on to all of eastern Queensland in the face of such a large offensive. Once he realized that the allies had cut him off from Army Group South by having captured Gladstone, he had no choice but to pull back his outlying units to concentrate his forces – abandoning all of the inland towns in order to hold on to a much smaller pocket along the north east coast, from Cairns to Rockhampton.

  The allied assessment of the re-allocation of PLA units in Queensland was that it would leave only a single regiment of the 121st Division in the extreme south of Queensland, south of the Biloela – Gladstone area now held by the Australians. As long as General Sheung was unwilling to reinforce the 121st, they would be unlikely to attempt to counter-attack at Gladstone and more likely to hunker down and try to hold on to the Maryborough sector. If so, then they could be tackled by the Australians once additional militia forces were raised from the liberated towns inland. That would leave just the PLA 364th regiment, now entirely cut off and isolated several hundred kilometers inland at Charleville, for the Australian 1st Division to deal with. Without resupply and so far inland, the 364th would be forced to starve or to surrender. If that could be achieved the bulk of Queensland would be liberated, and the Chinese would be on the defensive, at least in the northern part of the country.