Our Next Great War

by Martin Archer

  “Tell them up another fifteen hundred meters and left nineteen hundred. Fire another ranging round,” I said after conferring with Jack.

  “There it is. Close enough. Down one hundred and left one hundred and eighty and fire for effect,” Brigham shouted over to me.

  I repeated the adjustment to John. “Have Carpenter suggest to General Chernenko that he make that correction and have each of his tubes fire three HE rounds for effect. Tell us when he shoots.”

  “Shooting orders going out now. Standby.”

  Everyone in the room is holding their breath and looking at the screen. Jack Brigham has a pencil point at the target area. There are cheers all around when the area around the pencil point was suddenly covered in flashes. We waited impatiently to see the results.

  “Jesus General,” someone said as the smoke cleared from the target area. “It worked.”

  “John. It worked big-time. Please tell General Chernenko our observer reports his artillery really tore up a bunch of the North Korean pontoon boats. And keep the lines open. I’ll have more targets shortly.”

  “Also please tell him our observer reports that a number of his shells fell way off the target area.”

  ******

  Using a separate line I called Danovsky with the good news that we could use our ‘observer up in the hills’ to direct Chernenko’s artillery. I also reminded him that next time the North Koreans bring their bridges up they’ll probably hold them out of range so that they’d have to be hit from the air.

  On the artillery control line Colonel Lindauer reported Chernenko and his staff were ecstatic about the pontoon boats being destroyed. They think it will seriously delay a Korean attack if their artillery can hit enough of them. They want to know if our observer sees anything else they can hit.

  “I’ll ask him.”

  Then, while Jack and his men feverishly searched the satellite downloads for more pontoon boats and other targets, we got to work on fixing the artillery problem revealed by the initial shoot. It seems that some of the Russian 122s were not properly synchronized with the other tubes in their batteries.

  The fix was simple but time-consuming. Working through Colonel Lindauer talking to Major Carpenter, we had each of Chernenko’s 122 tubes separately fire a phosphorous round at the Korean pontoon park. Any hits Jack Brigham and his men could see landing outside the target area meant they were coming from an artillery tube that was not properly synchronized with the rest of its battery. And where each errant shot lands told us how much that particular cannon tube needed to be adjusted.

  It took a while before Chernenko’s artillery finally got each of its tubes sighted in and ready for more fire missions. While Brigham watched the individual hits and called in corrections if they were needed, the other members of his team gathered around the screen with the NSA downlink and searched for targets. The Russians were low on ammunition so we’d wait to shoot them until we could make every round count.

  There was good news in that two or three of the ammunition trucks on the Kuznetsov were thought to be loaded with pallets of 122mm shells and more were on the supply trucks of the two divisions moving here from the Chinese front.

  The bad news was that even after all the additional shells arrived, Chernenko would still only have enough for a couple of days of periodic firing. In other words, we needed to get an airlift going and quickly.

  Unfortunately, an airlift was going to be a bitch to organize because we would have to pick up the shells from wherever the Russians had them and carry them in some kind of roundabout route to avoid the Chinese interceptors coming off the captured airfields of Irkutsk and Angarsk.

  ******

  General Talbot was pleased and relieved to hear that Carpenter and Hurlburt were safe and that the North Koreans have been temporarily stopped about half way between the Korean border and Vladivostok. And my description as to how we are using the satellite photo feeds to call in artillery strikes on the other side of the world seemed to greatly interest him—he asked a lot of questions.

  A couple of hours later Tommy Talbot called back and said he was flying over an observer team to learn more about our targeting fix. I told him they’d better hurry because the Russians were running out of ammunition. I also told him the team should be no more than two or three men due to our lack of space. Then I left Charlie Safford and Jack Brigham in charge of the shooting and drove home for dinner and some sleep. It was meatloaf night.

  Jack and his guys were like kids in a candy shop. They had better be; they were gonna be up all night. Charlie Safford is going to stay with them. He’s been taking the night shift ever since I got back and things heated up. Lonnie is going to stay around the clock in case an interpreter is needed. He’ll blow up a rubber mattress and sleep on my office floor.

  ******

  Everything at The Detachment was alive and operational when I get back just before dawn. According to Charlie, Jack and his guys have been hammering the North Koreans all night despite periodically losing communications.

  When I arrived, Lieutenant Basilof was on the line sitting in for Colonel Lindauer at Chita and Vern Hurlburt seems to have taken over from Jerry at some point during the night. Otherwise we were still in business and going strong.

  The only other thing of significance at the moment was that Talbot’s observers were due to land at Riems about now. Gunny Robinson took a couple of civilian cars to the airport to meet them and bring them back.

  We were in the middle of a shoot and I was leaning over Lonnie’s shoulder to see the satellite picture when out of the corner of my eye I see Charlie Safford and a brigadier and a couple of colonels standing in the doorway. I motioned them in without taking my eyes off the monitor. We were all, as usual, wearing informal civilian clothes, Jeans and tee shirts mostly.

  “Recommend down two hundred and fire for effect,” intoned Master Sergeant Roosevelt who had taken over Jack’s chair a couple of hours ago. Jack was curled up on the floor snoring. Major Adams, standing next to him, nodded his agreement.

  “Tell Basilof to drop two hundred and fire two rounds of anti-personnel from every tube,” I ordered Lonnie.

  Lonnie rattled away in Russian and held up his hand. “Shooting,” he announced a few seconds later as he dropped his hand. Then every eye in the place turns to the monitor and the point of the yellow lead pencil where Adams is touching the screen.

  We wait anxiously for about thirty seconds. Then the telltale flashes lit up all around the pencil point.

  Master Sergeant Roosevelt spoke for us all when he pushed back his chair and with a great deal of satisfaction in his voice murmured “that’ll learn them motherfuckers.”

  Our visitors were greatly impressed and spend the entire day watching and asking questions. They seemed amazed that we had come up with the idea and begun implementing it within the space of an hour or so. I get the impression the Pentagon has been trying to come up with something similar and didn’t have much to show for it despite years of RFPs and expensive consulting contracts.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Questions are raised.

  “Can we really defeat both the Russians and the North Koreans at the same time?” asked the little man at the end of the table. Everyone’s eyes swivel back to me. Such a foolish question. It’s time for you to retire, Peng Jie.

  “Of course we can. But that is neither our plan nor our intention, Comrade Peng. At the moment the Russians and the North Koreans are fighting each other and everything is proceeding as we expected in our efforts to recapture our stolen lands. And there is no doubt that we have fooled the Russians to our great advantage. They are moving troops towards the Koreans and towards the Khabarovsk Front as we speak.”

  “And the bridges, Comrade Chairman? I am told the damage is far greater than we first were told. Is it true that our armies have been cut off from their supplies and reinforcements?”

  “Of course you are somewhat correct, Comrade Peng, and your concerns are appreciat
ed. Some of our bridges have indeed been damaged by the enemy. But they will soon be repaired. And, as you might remember, we really don’t need them. Perhaps you have forgotten that General Wu assured us that our forces in front of Chita are already more than strong enough to get over the Amur and destroy the Russians.”

  I took a puff on my cigarette to give me a time to come up with the right response, and then continued.

  “But why take chances? That is why we are waiting for the Russians to finish moving troops away from what they will soon learn is the main battlefield.” I will talk to the others about your growing forgetfulness, Peng. I know it is deliberate, but who put you up to these questions and what is their plan?

  ****** General Evans

  We walked into the village for dinner—Ann and me, the kids, and our two wonderful au pairs. The Hotel du Rhone was having its usual Tuesday Special which, of course, we all knew meant chicken with mushrooms and truffles as it has been every Tuesday evening for some years. It was always delicious.

  We exchanged friendly greeting with at least half the people in the place and the kids immediately ran outside to play with their friends from school. I am, “Monsieur le Major” as I have been since I first arrived here years ago. They know of my current rank and position, of course, but no one has ever mentioned it. It is a French village, after all, and everyone must get along.

  Sitting next to our table were a couple of American men, strangers in business suits. Expensive business suits. After they finished complaining about their hotel rooms they began chattering away about contracts, the use of satellites for military purposes such as controlling aircraft and artillery, and how they intended to get more change orders. Tomorrow, it seems, they were going to get information from the army clods at some nearby army base and use it as an excuse to once again revise their Pentagon contract.

  I leaned over towards Ann and the two au pairs and, in French, made a request.

  “please only speak French so the two morons sitting next to us don’t know we can understand them.”

  They all immediately looked over at the men, of course, but the suits didn’t notice. When the kids came back I quickly announced, in French, “Tonight is a French language night. The first one who speaks English has to wash the dishes for the rest of the week.” They giggled and played along. The chicken with mushrooms and wine sauce was superb as always.

  After dinner we walked back home and I called the Seventh Army’s Judge Advocate General, got patched through to him on a secure line, and described the situation without telling him what I was doing at The Detachment or anything about it. He proposed a course of action and I agreed. I think calling the officers running the program "army clods” upset him more than their publically revealing classified information and their plans to defraud the Pentagon.

  ******

  The next morning I once again get up before dawn and arrived at The Detachment early to see how things are going. The latest satellite feeds and intercepts were encouraging. The North Koreans were obviously confused. After failing to silence the Russian artillery with counter-battery fire, they had begun pulling their units back out of range. According to the latest NSA intercepts the North Koreans were convinced there were Russian artillery observers hidden in the snow covered mountains overlooking the North Korean Army.

  Things were not going nearly so well in front of Khabarovsk. It was only a diversion, but the Chinese were continuing to take heavy casualties and move forward.

  ******

  Sure enough. It was a little after nine in the morning and here came the two suits from the restaurant. They flashed their Pentagon IDs at the Marine guard at the gate who knew they were coming and let them enter and pulled into The Detachment’s parking lot in a rental car.

  They walked in as if they owned the place and officiously presented their business cards and Pentagon IDs to Gunnery Sergeant Robinson, who was sitting at the reception desk for the occasion, and announced that they are there to meet with the Director of the Satellite Targeting Program.

  “Do you have an appointment, Sir?” Gunny Robinson asks.

  “Just tell the Program Manager we’re here, Sergeant.”

  “Certainly Sir. One moment please.”

  A couple of minutes later the Gunny returned.

  “He’ll be with you shortly, Sir. But first I have to see your identification. Passports, drivers licenses, Pentagon IDs, Company IDs, Insurance cards—everything including your wallets and credit cards. The usual.”

  “Thank you. I’ll copy these and be right back.”

  An hour later and the two men were getting increasingly anxious and constantly complaining to the PFC who has taken Sergeant Robinson’s place at the reception desk. That was when three cars full of FBI agents from the Paris embassy and half a dozen MPs in plain clothes marched into the reception area and took them away.

  “Arrested for leaking military secrets and off to be questioned, are they? Well I guess they won’t be needing these,” Gunny Robinson commented with a smile as he dropped their wallets and everything else they’d given him into a shredder.

  Then I called Tommy Talbot—and Brigadier Owens, the project officer who visited us yesterday, and explained what I’ve done and why. Interestingly enough, both of them say they neither informed the civilian contractors nor authorized them to obtain information about what we were doing. Uh oh. Someone’s got a leak somewhere.

  ****** General Evans

  Both the Korean Front and the Ussuri Front were quiet today. The North Koreans had pulled back slightly, apparently to wait for the marshes and the shallow river to finish icing up. That way precious wood wouldn’t have to be wasted building new pontoon boats.

  What the North Koreans didn’t know, the NSA report suggested, was that the Chinese were relocating four of the divisions they had on the Ussuri Front so they would be in a position to attack the Koreans; what the Chinese didn’t know was that Danovsky knew why the Chinese on the Ussuri River have stopped attacking the three Russian divisions facing them.

  The Chinese also didn’t know that Danovsky had decided to take a calculated risk. Less than a quarter of Chernenko’s current force would be left as a screen in front of the North Koreans with one of his major generals in command.

  Cherenko's 122s, whose ammunition resupply may or may not be on the way to Valdivostok by air, will stay with them. The rest of his troops that had been confronting the North Koreans, plus two of the three divisions now in front of the Chinese, plus the under-strength division now unloading from the carrier Moskova II, will all head to Chita with General Chernenko in command—if the railroad is still open. They will be followed by the troops and armor coming in on the Russian helicopter carrier Leningrad II and its escorts.

  Danovsky’s decision to move Cherenko's troops to Chita was a real gamble because it would leave the defense of the port to an assortment of military odds and ends and whoever shows up on any new ship arrivals. On the other hand, the Russian navy had a lot of ships offshore and some of them, particularly the older destroyers and frigates, could provide artillery support if the Russians are forced to pull back to the port area and the city.

  Radio contact had already been established with the ranking naval officer, an Admiral on one of the carriers. His ships, he reported, were standing by for fire missions. He seemed rather enthusiastic about the idea.

  ******

  The Chinese Army’s most recent order to all its units around Vladivostok, including the handful of men left of the 114th Division at Bikin, was to leave the railroad open until they were ordered to close it. But to remain alert as a closure order might come at any time, particularly if the Bikin radio reported that the Russians were moving trains north instead of south.

  So far so good. The deception was working. The Chinese still hadn’t wised up to the fact that Danovsky was sending mostly empty “reinforcement” trains south from Kharbarovsk during the day and then running them and as many as possible trains loaded with
reinforcements back north at night in the dark past Bikin. He was, in effect, pulling the same deception he'd been using between Chita and Kharbarovsk to fool the Chinese observer in the hills.

  “Supposedly,” said Colonel Lindauer, “arrangements have been made for a Russian missile cruiser to fire a salvo of cruise missiles the next time the Chinese radio at Bikin comes on the air. If the missiles knock out the radio, the Russians might be able to keep sending reinforcements north through the Bikin battlefield until the Chinese wised up and cut the railroad.”

  The bottom line was that Chita needed all the troops and armor it could get as reinforcements and Danovsky had ordered Chernenko to try to get them there.

  Chernenko, in response, had decided to load as many trains as possible and send them out in the dark every twenty minutes night even if the Chinese radio was not knocked out. If the line is found to be cut, the engine drivers will put the engines pushing the flatcars in reverse and back up all the way to the port. It’s a ballsy plan and I’m an optimist—I gave it about one chance in three of succeeding.

  If the trains do get through Bikin they’ll continue on all the way to Podovsk without stopping and wait there as needed so they can go past the Chinese observer in the dark.

  ******

  Vern and I were riding with one of the regimental commanders, Colonel Ikunin of the 14th Guards, in the first troop train heading north with the troops being withdrawn to form Chernenko’s army. It was a very small train with a coal burning yard engine and three flat cars of loaded with three BMDs, a Russian Jeep, and a couple of companies of freezing and shivering naval infantry tucked down behind sand bags.

  Why were we on the train freezing our asses off? Because General Evans said to let him know as soon as possible if the line through Bikin was still open. We had a Russian radio Jeep on board for communications and whatever shelter and heat it might provide.