Lieutenant Colonel Reed knocked on Nate’s office door. ‘Come in,’ Clark said.
‘We’re ready with an operations plan, sir.’
‘Sit down. Walk me through it before we go in to the others.’
Reed gave Clark his private briefing.
‘The road tracks the Songhua, which will protect their right flank unless the Chinese put gunboats on the river. The Songhua runs through a fairly wide valley. The road is out of small arms’ range of the hills on the opposite bank. The Twenty-Fifth’s trucks and Humvees will be vulnerable, however, to pre-registered mortars and artillery. We’ll fix them with tactical acquisition radars, then suppress and destroy them with helicopter gunships. But the dominant terrain all the way down to the 101st are the hill masses to the left side of the road. That road’s cut through miles and miles of jumbled hills, slopes and meadows. Nothing else is trafficable in the area.’
‘Sounds like good country to defend,’ Clark commented — worried.
‘Well, the risk of them enfilading those soft vehicles on that roadway is huge. We’ve got to push the Chinese back from the road at least to the skyline — about 700 yards — the whole way down. We’ll try to reduce lodgements on commanding ground with intense air attack. But if we want to go fast, there’s no way around mounting clearing operations. Luckily, the terrain is covered in thick stands of pine. And there are lots of knobs and finger ridges to screen maneuvering. Good tactical commanders will make short work of Chinese bunkers. But it’ll be exhausting and bloody work. They’ll be fought out in four to six hours. We’ll have to rotate those battalions constantly. We’ll have to use them up, General Clark.’
Nate nodded slowly. ‘What kind of defenses do you expect the Chinese to have waiting?’
‘There are a few huts along the road that’ll have to be cleared. But our best bet is we’ll find hastily constructed, bunker-centered strongpoints on the forward slope protecting mortars on the reverse slope.’
‘Do the infantrymen in those trucks have any cover around the road?’
‘Where the road’s cut into the hill there’s cover on the shoulder. They’ll be pretty exposed on the river’s side, but there are some draws they could use if they’re not flooded with run-off.’
Clark nodded — frowning. ‘Okay, give me the plan.’
‘They can muster one battalion of armor and one of mechanized infantry,’ Reed replied. ‘We’ll put a company of tanks in the vanguard to blast their way through roadblocks. We’ll distribute the remainder down the length of the road column for local direct fire support. They’d have armored bulldozers so they can widen the road, fill in holes, and push vehicle hulks over the side. The mech can be used for attack on level ground. We’ll use the light infantry to go up the hills.’
‘What about our artillery?’
‘We’ll disperse it. But we’ll make sure the vanguard and rearguard are within range of all active batteries. They’ll leapfrog, with half the batteries always ready to fire on calls. We’ll have six batteries ready to repulse an attack or prepare an objective at any given time. And we’ll sprinkle the division’s senior officers around to organize local action if the column gets segmented by a Chinese attack. That’s the main risk — segmentation. The Chinese can move along parallel valleys and punch at our flanks. If they break through, they could destroy the column piecemeal.’
Nate took a deep breath. ‘What’s the Chinese population along that road?’ he asked.
‘Sparse,’ Reed replied. ‘Maybe thirty, maybe fifty thousand people.’
Nate nodded. ‘I’m going to… to lift all restrictions on the fire controllers,’ he said. Reed looked at the floor. He nodded.
Nate could think of nothing to say. Nothing that wouldn’t betray the knot of bile he felt rise in his stomach.
Night had just fallen, and Harold Stempel was quickly drifting off to sleep. It had been a quiet day. They had taken the luxury of building a small fire. With their boots to the heat and wearing cold-weather gear, the spring night was reasonably comfortable.
‘All right!’ came the loud voice of the platoon sergeant. Stempel and several others groaned when they looked up. The NCO arrived with the rest of the platoon in tow.
‘Gather around!’ came the command of their platoon leader. ‘Hope you girls don’t mind if we crash your campfire.’ A new arrival tried to take Stempel’s place by the warm fire. Stempel kicked him, and muscled his way to the fireside. There was jostling among the cranky men as the lieutenant took his place in the middle. He held in his hand a sheet of flimsy paper. ‘I’ve called this platoon meeting ’cause we just got The Word.’ There were groans and some loud curses, which were followed by threats from the NCOs. ‘As many of you may have heard, there are some good guys holed up in a valley about a hundred clicks south of here. It was the mission of Third Corps’ main heavy forces across the Songhua to relieve them. The 25th was providing their flank security.’
There was muttering over the subordinate role. This time, the NCOs remained silent.
‘I say was because we just got this!’ He raised the piece of paper in the air, then held it up to the campfire to read. ‘ “Today’s date. From: Nate Clark, Commanding General of UNRUSFOR. To: Soldiers of the 25th LED. I was with many of you at Birobidzhan in the most awful first days of this war. The battle there was one of the most brilliant displays of defense in all of military history. Now, however, I must ask you to do the same on offense. I must ask you to go win this war.” ’
The young lieutenant looked up. There was no noise from the thirty men. Stempel looked around to see all eyes raised.
‘ “A brigade of the 101st and a battalion of the 75th Rangers were inserted into a valley one hundred miles south of you. Their mission is critical. Holding that valley means a successful conclusion to this war. But they have endured a week of ferocious assaults. The worst began late last night. The Chinese launched a full-scale attack from the south and their situation is desperate. They cannot hold much longer. The 25th is the division closest to that valley. The 25th is now the main attack force. I am calling upon you to relieve those troops. UNRUSFOR will support you with everything it has. I have every confidence you will now prove your greatness and I will forever be in your debt. Good luck, and God speed.” ’
The lieutenant folded the message carefully, and put it into his pocket. ‘There are s’posed to be some trucks down on the road. Gather your gear and prepare to move out.’ Stempel rose, packed his gear and shouldered his load. There was no discussion. Nobody commented on the unfairness of the orders. The desire for respect was a powerful force. They each accepted the mission in silence.
There was a disturbance. Andre Faulk drowsily opened his eyes. Running in pairs along the ceiling of the inflated polyurethane aid station were rows of bare fluorescent tubes. Andre looked at the station’s entryway. An officer was arguing heatedly with two doctors and a crowd of nurses. The outnumbered man vigorously shook his head. He spun from a doctor, to a nurse, to another doctor. The medical personnel all had their say, but in the end the officer won.
Andre figured it was another hasty move. They’d packed up twice since he’d arrived at the aid station. He’d not been carried on a litter but had used a crutch. Both times the fighting had sounded much closer than it should.