' The Longest Night ' & ' Crossing the Rubicon ': The Original Map Illustrated and Uncut Final Volume (Armageddon's Song)

by Andy Farman

  Li of course knew nothing of Church but its existence had become a distinct possibility owing to events 600 miles away. Zheng and the Sentinel Sea, their position and their mission were known to NATO until a few moments after the submarine submerged and the politburo killed the downlink from their satellites, denying Church access.

  All the Chinese assets vanished from the screen at Project Church, so the fleet would have to find her the old fashioned way.

  An hour after engaging the two surface contacts in the straits the battleship USS Iowa forged past a dipping ASW helicopter at 30 knots, throwing up a huge bow wave in the narrow confines of the straits to the delight of the naked and cheering Filipino kids splashing in the shallows. The ships 16” turrets were swung out to starboard, the muzzles of her main armament now blacked as she bombarded known enemy positions. The Chinese invaders were getting a kicking and the kids cheered each shot as much as they welcomed the man-made rollers the warships wash created. Water spouts appeared to the stern of the vessel, 155mm rounds fired from two batteries in the mountains. The Iowa was saved by her speed and the incoming rounds were back-tracked on radar. Had the protagonists been two miles closer the Chinese PLZ-05 guns would have scored with every round, but ‘The Big Stick’, as Iowa was nicknamed, was just beyond range of the laser guided rounds the guns had available. USS Iowa increased speed, straining her old engines and managing 32 knots, almost her best. Her three main turrets tracked around, the muzzles of all nine guns elevated and she fired a broadside.

  The arrival of the sixteen inch shells had a devastating effect on the gun batteries and a second salvo arrived for good measure.

  Aboard the USS John C Stennis, a vessel also making quite a splash on the shores either side, the first strikes were launching against positions around Toledo but there was of course the loss of the US 82nd’s 2nd Brigade to cope with. Major General ‘Snowy’ Hills was on the secure line from Mactan where an ad hoc attempt to force both bridges had met defeat. There were pillboxes, four of them on each bridge and all were protected from missile attack by rocket and mortar netting. Artillery would be counterproductive but a counter-attack by the Chinese was just a matter of time. They could not wait for nightfall but he had another plan. The reserves would take the bridges and hold until the US Marines crossed from Toledo and relieved the airborne force. It robbed the airborne of any flexibility but they had no option. 3 Para would attack the newer, most easterly ‘Marcelo Fernan’ Bridge, and the Foreign Legionnaires of 2 REP would take the western ‘Osmena Bridge’.

  Elsewhere, the Filipinos were doing their best to delay Chinese forces that were heading to the city. 86th Mech was scattered about the island on garrison duties but if it reformed they would be hard pressed to contain it. 3rd Marines helicopter fleet was going to be busy elsewhere for a while but they had airpower on their side and USS Iowa for gunfire support to clear away opposition in the mountains.

  The deck lurched violently beneath Admiral Jackson’s feet and the lights went out in the USS John C Stennis’ CIC, to be replaced by emergency lighting.

  On shore the kids stopped dancing and waving.

  Captain Li’s wish to do what submariners were supposed to do had finally come true as Zheng’s 3M-54E ‘Sizzler’ anti-ship missiles scored on both carriers and her 533mm torpedoes struck the Iowa’s stern.

  Day 1: Operation Vespers (Airborne element)

  0713hrs.

  Much of the town of Lapu Lapu, named after the warrior who had slain Ferdinand Magellan, had been demolished to make way for barracks and more warehouses. Not all the buildings had been earmarked for destruction though and the 82nd Airborne’s 1st Brigade had just finished clearing an office building near the shore, between the two bridges. Major General Hills, Brigadier Francis Burton of the US 1st Brigade and Brigadier Ripley Hartiss of the Anglo/French airborne brigade entered the building’s rooftop machine room. The bare concrete walls were pitted with shrapnel scars and its panoramic windows blown out. Their boots sent spent cartridge cases rolling noisily across the cement floor as they found themselves a position to discretely view both bridges without attracting attention to themselves. A dead Chinese sniper lying against one wall was ignored, but the residue from hand grenades lingering, the stink of burnt almonds causing Snowy to sneeze.

  Behind them on the airfield the Royal Engineers were clearing the runway surfaces of anything that could be sucked into an engine intake or burst a tyre in readiness to receive aircraft twenty four hours earlier than scheduled. Even from their vantage a dirty haze could be seen from beyond the mountains. USS Constellation was on fire, dead in the water in the Tañon Strait where the crew were now abandoning her. USS John C Stennis was damaged but capable of air operations and USS Iowa was under tow and working to patch a rent in her hull and pump out the flooded engine room. Without electrical power her 16” guns would remain silent.

  Major General ‘Snowy’ Hills and his brigade commanders had their own battles to fight and if the navy sorted out their problems and were able to lend a hand as originally planned then fine and dandy, but the airborne were used to adapting and making do, of pulling the fat from the fire despite the odds.

  They were too far from either bridge to see the bodies of the American dead from the first attempt to take them. Smoke marred the paintwork of the bridges, the result of strikes by javelin missiles on the protective mesh of presteel bars and chicken wire in front of the block houses. The bars were welded together to defend against RPGs and anti-tank missiles, and the airborne force lacked the large stock of the missiles that would be required to reduce that barrier. The block houses only mounted light machine guns apparently, but they had proved sufficient. The US paratroopers had tried to use smoke for cover, fired from 81mm mortars, but the effectiveness was negligible as the few rounds that landed on the bridge, and not in the water, had produced a short lasting screen, rapidly dispersed by the breeze blowing along the waterway.

  GPMGs in the sustained fire role were going to provide cover, albeit of mainly psychological nuisance value for this next attempt, a simultaneous attack on both bridges with the Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles of the Blues & Royals squadron.

  Snowy Hills glanced at his watch.

  “About now I think.”

  Right on cue there appeared three of the light armoured vehicles on the approach ramps of each of the bridges, coming out of side turnings and accelerating hard to 50mph, their Rarden cannons firing mixed high explosive and armour piercing rounds in bursts of three. Sparks appeared where a round struck a steel rod but the rocket fences were ineffective against the 30mm cannon fire. Tracer arced over from the GPMGs but only a fluke ricochet had any hope of entering a gun port and doing any damage

  Chinese snipers and riflemen on the bridges added their fire to that of the blockhouses but it was having no effect on the buttoned up armoured reconnaissance vehicles. An RPG round left a trail of dirty exhaust in its wake as it narrowly missed one of the speeding Scimitars and the GPMG’s fire shifted, seeking to suppress any more of the anti-tank fire.

  The remaining troops of Scimitars followed at a far more sedate speed, that of a rapid walk, providing physical protection from small arms fire to the men behind.

  With typical national rivalry the French Foreign Legionnaires of 1er CIE, 2e Régiment étranger de parachutists, and A Company, 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment were looking over their shoulders at each other across the intervening 1,400

  Operation Vespers

  metres between the bridges and shouting to the vehicle commanders to speed up. The Legionnaires began a slow jog as ‘their’ Blues and Royals crews acquiesced. Moments later the British Paratroopers began to draw ahead. It was as well that both units were superbly fit as the men ignored the incoming small arms fire bouncing off the protective Scimitars and were soon sprinting behind them, urging the vehicles to even greater speed.

  The distance between the foot of the ramps and the defensive block houses at the two bridges was a
t a variance and the fast moving troop on the eastern bridge were therefore warned just in time that automatic weapons were not the only weaponry the blockhouses had. The troop commander’s vehicle on the western bridge was engulfed in fire as flame throwers sent streams of burning fuel a hundred metres.The crew of the stricken vehicle bailed out only to have the streams of flame played over them. In mortal agony they leapt from the bridge, falling to their deaths in the water far below.

  The remaining Blues and Royals Scimitars of those lead troops braked hard and pounded the structures with armour piercing fire, first one and then the other. A hand appeared from a gun port, waving a piece of white cloth but it went unseen or ignored, the 30mm cannons continued until satisfied that all resistance was ended. The Rarden cannons were then levelled at the second pair of blockhouses further along each bridge.

  Snowy and his brigade commanders watched the paratroopers on both bridges leave the cover of the vehicles and employ fire and maneouvre to hunt down the snipers and Chinese infantry.

  The remainder of the Anglo/French airborne brigade flooded across the bridges and began digging in on the far side.

  “Too close to call.” he said. “But those guys are going to be arguing for the next hundred years about who reached the far bank first.”

  The burning Scimitar began to blow itself apart as the flames reached the ammunition but thanks to the Blues and Royals the bridges had been taken in less than fifteen minutes.

  In Toledo the marines of 3rd Expeditionary Force were ashore and moving inland, the point section of an armoured reconnaissance platoon had forged ahead to reach the foot of the mountain road and encountered Chinese heavy armour in well concealed and sited positions.

  As a garrison guarding against, and combating, guerrilla forces, the 86th Mechanised Brigade of the Chinese 6th Army were mediocre, but engaging in conventional warfare against regular forces they were back in their comfort zone and very good indeed. The US Marine Corps had come to Cebu looking for a fight and it had found one.

  An air battle ensued north of Cebu between land based fighters from Chinese bases on Luzon and the CAP from USS John C Stennis; consequently a Sea Stallion off USS Boxer took the lengthy roundabout route from Toledo to Mactan skimming the waves of the Tañon Strait. As it rounded the southern tip it spotted tanks and IFVs being ferried across the strait from Negros. An AV-8B sank the ferry and its sisters at the Sibulan ferry dock but an unknown number of reinforcements were heading up the coast road. Garfield Brooks small group of Green Berets and resistance fighters had ambushed one armoured column at a choke point along the road, in the narrow streets of Carcar, and were already calling for help in light of the resulting street fighting. He had acquired some members of 3 Para from a shot down British C-130 and their professional help was a bonus, but Garfield’s force was seriously outnumbered.

  The marines were fully engaged and that left Major General Hills with the decision to either send some of his already depleted force or advise Garfield to return to the mountains and preserve what he still had.

  The Sea Stallion landed and unloaded thirty two bound and hooded prisoners, the survivors of the submarine Zheng, plucked from the waters of Tañon Strait after their vessel had been forced to the surface by depth charges and then sunk by gunfire. Not all the crew had made it out before it made its final dive; her captain was not among them.

  At lunchtime the first artillery rounds began to land on Mactan, targeting two buildings at first, pounding first one and then the other.

  In the newly set up field hospital in the basement beneath the old airport Departure Lounge the lights went out and darkness fell before the field generators kicked over noisily and gave the surgeons light to see again. Ten minutes later the water stopped running as the desalinization and pumping plant were destroyed.

  The first organised attacks came an hour later after the artillery switched to the 2 REP positions in the grounds of the University of Cebu, next to the bridge. Mortar fire joined in and did not lift until the Chinese infantry, supported by tanks, were themselves taking casualties. ‘The REP’ admired the training, courage and discipline of these troops but they killed them all the same.

  After a pause it was the turn of 3 Para, and the results were the same.

  The city garrison fell back and reorganised. The costly reconnaissance in force on both units positions now gave the Chinese a clearer picture of what they faced. Reinforcements from other islands began to arrival in the early evening and the shelling began of both positions before the bridges.

  Politburo, War Bunker 21, Nanking Province.

  Marshal Chang, Defence Minister Pong were the only two remaining in the chamber after Chairman Chan ordered the rest to depart.

  The Chairman had been trying to cut down but he was now chain smoking.

  “Why have the Americans led us to believe that troops from Europe were coming through the Suez Canal?”

  “To make us reinforce Singapore?”

  Marshal Chang wondered if the West was also cursed with politicians, the holders of dumbed down degrees, who somehow felt they were some kind of ruling elite by right of birth?

  Minister Pong’s answer was studiously ignored by the Chairman.

  “A distraction, or a deception plan of some kind, Mr Chairman.” Marshal Chang replied.

  “You know this for a fact Marshal?” the Chairman asked. “I don’t, and I am not afraid to admit that I don’t know that Europe’s veteran armies are coming via Suez, or if they ever left Calais for that matter?”

  The Chairman glared at them before going on.

  “We are losing submarines in the north Indian Ocean to those curry eating bastards next door, and all because you, the experts, did not recognise the signs.” His fist hit the surface of the desk. “Where are the European armies?”

  “I don’t know, Mr Chairman”

  “Does anyone?”

  Day 2: Operation Vespers Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma.

  It was the final Choir Practice, the last time the entire Choir would be gathered together and dealing with Church business.

  “So when will they be able to see us?” asked Terry Jones. “Can they see Evensong for the hoax that it was, in a week’s time or a month?”

  “Church is no longer of any use to us but they cannot see our ships either, not yet anyway.” Sally Peters assured him. “They have one great big nightmare ahead of them debugging their system before they see anything that they can trust.”

  “Excuse me for one moment while I remind you all of three things.” Terry said. “Never assume an opponent is less smart than you are, never assume an opponent is not smarter than you are, and of course never assume he will tackle a problem from the same direction that you would.”

  “It is inconceivable that they can have debugged the system in a day.” Sally protested. “No matter how smart they are.”

  “Is our system secure, Sally?” the President asked.

  “Yes sir.” She replied emphatically.

  “Then they would need to get their intelligence from someone else as a stop gap measure.” Terry stated. “It is what I would do.”

  “I don’t think that they have any friends left, and we would know pretty damn quickly if anyone started moving their stuff into orbit above the region.”

  “What about Russia?”

  “They don’t have enough left to risk losing more and as agreed they are informing us of any changes in orbit.”

  “Nothing coming south, no geocentric RORSATs to tip the Chinese as to where our ships are?”

  “No Mr President, just their Kondor-138, a photo recon bird, and they tell us it is going to be repositioned and shifted down to low orbit to watch the Spratly Islands.”

  “Seems reasonable, so let us move on.”

  The Indian and Pakistani navies had been having some success in locating and sinking Chinese submarines waiting in ambush for the convoys carrying the European armies to emerge from the Suez Canal.

  “If th
ey have not worked it out yet, they will soon, but we won’t know when that is, not anymore.” Joseph said with regret. “They will be poring over these satellite images of Ms O’Connor’s.”

  “The days of ‘Church’ were numbered once we elected to use it for Evensong, but it served its purpose well. Their 3rd Army was already having a lean time of it in Australia with our own submarines putting on the squeeze to its supply line, and now we put a hitch knot in it.” The general said. “Matins can proceed as planned, as it is too late for them to intercept the convoys now. The best they can do is to collect their 2 Corps, which was defending Singapore from our digitised phantom convoy borne army, and either reinforces Cebu or their 1st Corps in Australia”

  “Vespers is looking desperate though, particularly on Mactan. The attacks of last night were reportedly pretty much Korean War era human waves, for God’s sake” The President was looking at the casualty lists. “Those boys are surrounded by a sea full of mines on three sides and the Chinese on the other.

  “Don’t worry about the paratroopers; they are in airborne hog heaven, Mr President.” Carmine stated. “If they weren't surrounded they’d have nothing to brag about and blame the other services for, between this war and the next.”

  Day 4: Operation Vespers (Airborne element)

  1119hrs.

  Several attacks during the night had managed to get quite close to 3 Para’s positions, right up to the thickly strung coils of concertina wire, all of which had come from the Chinese own defence stores that had been earmarked for Australia. The M18 Claymore mines that had been placed in front of the wire were supplemented by Chinese Type 66 mines from the PLA 3rd Army’s supplies, and these differed from the M18 only in the idiots guide on the back being in Chinese script.