One of the bright spots for the defenders was the sudden and unexpected arrival of the Americans on the scene within minutes of the attack. For the Americans it was fortunate that the Chinese had so severely suppressed Taiwan’s defenses — without the initial damage and confusion, the Americans probably would have suffered heavy casualties from “friendly” fire.
It was noon. The Curtis Wilbur was now anchored just outside Kaohsiung Harbor’s northern entrance. The Germantown, waited for clearance to go into the harbor and off-load anything of use for the Marines on shore. In the meantime, a steady stream of helicopters shuttled Marines, excess sailors rescued from the other ships, wounded, and supplies on shore. Normally, the safest place in a combat situation would have been on board ship. However, another Chinese missile attack was highly likely so the shore seemed the safer bet.
With the two Harriers out spotting for the Curtis Wilbur the ship’s captain decided to go back to the CIC. From there he could track the radioed location of the aircraft and direct any missile attack onto hostile shipping. At 1203 hours the “Mark One Marine early warning and targeting system” found its first target.
“Dragon Two Three to Red Lance, over,” it was First Lieutenant Snake Gilbert the late Captain Hill’s wingman.
“This is Red Lance,” a petty officer Fire Controlman responded.
“Red Lance, I see two large ships. They look like commercial ferries. Do you have a good azimuth to my signal? I read yours as two seven degrees. Over.”
“Roger. Wait one on the azimuth, over.” Electronic warfare technicians locked onto the Harrier’s line-of-sight FM transmission and calculated its azimuth. They reported back to the Fire Controlman.
The petty officer was grinning ear-to-ear. This was his idea in action. “Dragon Two Three, we confirm. We have you at two zero six degrees. We’ll split the difference. Do you have a distance? Over.”
“Roger Red Lance, my INS (inertial navigation system) says I’m two three point three nautical miles out. Distance to target is about three miles dead ahead of me. I need to get a closer look to get a positive ID, over.”
“Roger Dragon Two Three.”
Commander Meade paced in the muggy CIC. The missile attack also crippled much of the ship’s electrical power and air conditioning capabilities. “Tell Dragon Two Three that we’ll fire on his positive ID.”
The Fire Controlman radioed back, “Dragon Two Three, as soon as you give the word, we’ll launch, over.”
High above the Harrier and 11 miles to the west, two squadrons totaling 20 Chinese J-6 fighters were running escort for the invasion fleet. They expected to encounter light resistance from ROC Air Force fighters that may have survived the E-bomb attack nestled deep within their bunkers. They didn’t expect a USMC Harrier acting as a forward observer for a U.S. Guided Missile Destroyer.
The USS Curtis Wilbur contained 90 Mk 41 VLS (Vertical Launch System) tubes. Of these, 24 held Tomahawk cruise missiles (all designed for land attack) leaving 66 tubes for the SM-2 (MR) (Standard Missile-2 [Medium Range]) anti-aircraft/anti-missile missile. With a range of up to 104 miles, the SM-2 (MR) is what makes it so deadly for hostile air to approach a U.S. task force protected by the Aegis air defense system. The E-bomb burned out the radar receivers on the ship, however, so, except for the small Phalanx radar, all other radar transmitters were turned off. Between the Curtis Wilbur’s lack of radar emissions and the heavy anti-ship missile attack a few hours before, the PLAN admirals figured the American warships were resting peacefully and harmlessly at the bottom of the ocean.
“Red Lance, Red Lance, this is Dragon Two Three, over!” First Lieutenant Gilbert was checking in.
“Go ahead Dragon Two Three,” the petty officer on the Curtis Wilbur replied.
“Red Lance, I’ve got at least 16 inbound bogies six miles off. I haven’t gotten a positive ID on the ships yet. Over.”
Commander Meade leaned over the Fire Controlman, “We can’t fire on the ships yet, they could be civilian. The bogies are another matter; anytime 16 aircraft fly in a mass, they’re military. I wonder whose?” The skipper smacked his right fist into his hand. “Damn!”
The young petty officer looked at his commander, “Sir, the Aegis radar receivers are gone but the transmitters work. We could try to illuminate the targets and launch our missiles using the Harrier’s general coordinates. With luck, the missiles will home in on the targets and hit some. We can’t control them individually so a few aircraft might get hit by more than one missile. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we can do.”
“Two good ideas in one day! Great job sailor,” Meade was beaming, “Tell the pilot what we’re going to do and tell him to get on the deck when we fire. I’ve just decided those are hostile aircraft.”
“Dragon Two Three, we’re going to target the bogies. We can illuminate them with the radar and hope the missiles home in on the reflected signal. Give us your best guess of where they are, over.”
“Roger…” replied the lieutenant.
Within a minute the Curtis Wilbur’s CIC had designated a box some three miles wide by five miles deep by one mile tall some 30 nautical miles away. This was the target box. The captain decided to volley 20 missiles into the box. What the ship’s missiles didn’t kill, the Harrier could. Then, with the enemy aircraft out of the way, the inbound ships might be IDed and attacked if found to be enemy.
Missiles rippled out of the bow section of the destroyer. They shot straight up then rapidly tipped over at almost a 90-degree angle and headed west. By now the Harrier was only 100 feet above the water, shielded from powerful radar’s beam by the curvature of the Earth.
Overhead and now to the east, Snake Gilbert saw trails of black smoke come falling out of the sky. He grinned, called the Curtis Wilbur, ran a mental calculation on his fuel burn and gunned the Harrier to engage the remnants of the enemy force before he ran so low on fuel that he wouldn’t have time to return and inspect the unknown ships.
As Lieutenant Gilbert thought might be the case, his radar picked up four aircraft heading towards him. Mothers, I’d run away too if I just got my ass wiped by a blind cripple. Still configured for ground attack, Gilbert only had two Sidewinder air-to-air missiles at his disposal. He always wanted to shoot another aircraft down — something a Harrier pilot wouldn’t be expected to do. Still, there were those ships to check out. “Red Lance, Red Lance. We still have four bandits aloft (since they turned back towards Mainland China, it was now a safe bet they were enemy). They’re about ten miles closer than they were the last time. They’re headed west. I don’t have the missiles or the time to deal with these guys, can you take ‘em down for me? Over.”
On board the Curtis Wilbur the skipper nodded. The petty officer called back, “That’s a wilco. Missiles on the way.”
Less than two minutes later Gilbert saw three aircraft going down in flames. The last one won’t be a problem today. He edged higher and flew towards the two ships that were now about five miles away. Only 20 seconds later he was certain these ships were part of an invasion force. His targeting radar picked up five smaller ships operating as a picket for the two larger ones.