Galen stood, put his chow residue in the trash bag by the vestibule. “Good for us. That Mandarin armored division is here to relive us.” Galen pointed at a Mandarin general, a two-star, seated at the table facing the situation screen. Three more Mandarin officers, a Colonel and two Majors, stood to his left. They peered at the screen. “A quick handoff brief, a passage of lines and then we’ll be on our way.”
Tad removed his rain jacket and hung it on the back of his chair. A layer of sawdust covered the dirt floor of the TOC extension, the ground beneath a bit spongy. Tad faced the general and rendered a proper hand salute, “Sir, at your convenience.”
The general stood and returned the salute, nodded. “The sooner the better. It will be dark in an hour.” The general sat.
Galen grabbed some fold-up chairs from inside the track and set them up, gestured for the other Mandarin officers to take their seats. They sat. Tad said, “Allow me to direct your attention to the screen.”
Galen moved to the display control and switched to a theatre overlay.
Tad said, “During the past two weeks, the Mosh have managed to capture more than two thirds of Cherry Fork. Mandarin regular infantry units have done a fine job of defense, but to control losses, have been trading ground for Mosh casualties. Your Third Infantry Corps has reached its breaking point and has to be relived. Eighth Infantry Corps is in position to re-take the city, with your support.”
The general said, “Today is the day.”
Tad said, “To the south, the Mosh have halted forward movement and have concentrated their offensive operations on attacking Cherry Fork. I think their aim is to pull Mandarin into a slow, grinding battle of attrition, forcing Mandarin to send all its reserve forces to fight over this city. On a tactical level, the Mosh seem foolish to keep attacking here. But on a strategic level it makes sense to bleed you dry. The only way to counter that strategy is through conservation of forces, make them lose more than they expected while minimizing your own losses. So far so good, but the Mosh are learning.”
The General said, “I understand.”
The Mandarin Colonel stood, pointed at the screen. Galen zoomed the map in on the area around Cherry Fork. The Mandarin Colonel said, “Our corps artillery will begin a general bombardment of the area west of the city, and then our air defense assets will lock down the airspace above Cherry Fork. Our first armored brigade will then advance along a westerly axis along the southern edge of the city while our second armored brigade circles wide around the north. Our heavy tank and assault gun companies will push directly into town, accompanying the 97th infantry division. We’re counting on you to provide supporting fires from your current positions, and while that is happening, our third tank brigade and armored infantry battalion will move up directly behind your positions. As soon as we’ve encircled the town and crushed meaningful resistance, our units will relieve yours. From there, your responsibilities in this operation are complete.”
Galen stood, waved for Tad to take his place at the display controller. Galen said, “Gentlemen, it looks like a good plan.”
The General stood, Galen saluted, the General returned the salute, and the Mandarin officers left the TOC extension.
Tad said, “I’m not too sure about this.”
Galen said, “The Mosh are tired of butting their heads up against us. They’ll be glad to see us go. I doubt they’ll do anything fancy until we leave. Besides, we’ll have the Interceptors circling nearby to cover our withdrawal.”
“You didn’t tell the Mandarins that.”
“None of their business.” Galen stood and went outside. The rain was torrential, like someone was holding a garden hose directly above his head. But it was warm rain, just warm enough to make a person sweat if they wore a rain jacket. Many troops didn’t, chose to just get wet. Galen was one of them. He climbed up on his command tank and lifted the hatch and dropped down in quickly and closed the hatch. The climate control vents circulated warm, dry air over him and gave him a bit of a chill. Soon his uniform would be dry enough so that he could put on his combat suit. He’d have to step out on the turret to do that, decided to wait until the rain slacked up.
The artillery of two Mandarin infantry corps fired. First they fired an assortment of chaff and metallic flake rounds, to interfere with Mosh sensors. Then they fired volleys of point target rounds, along with dual purpose and high explosives. And smoke, good old fashioned smoke rounds. Plus countermeasure warheads, to make Mosh sensors and detectors unreliable. The countermeasure rounds may have been unnecessary. The most effective exchanges of the past two weeks had been mostly dumb bombs or direct fire weapons, as each side quickly learned how to defeat more sophisticated weaponry with countermeasures. The bombardment lasted half an hour and then began again after a ten minute pause. The second bombardment was less intense, with fewer known targets. There were also larger no-fire areas, caused by the forward movement of Mandarin armor.
The exhausted artillery of Third Infantry Corps had withdrawn during the lull, the artillery units of the Eighth Infantry Corps taking their old positions. The first tank brigade made its way beyond the southern edge of Cherry Fork and met only light resistance. It turned north and made a line, the tanks parking in the hundreds of available bomb craters. The artillery masked them in a dense cloud of smoke and metal flake. The second tank brigade circled wide around the north of the ruined city, a barrage of artillery leading them along. They moved far enough to link up with their first tank brigade and also went to ground.
Some Mosh armor came from the mountains and tried to cross the twenty five kilometers of open ground to reach the city, but the tanks of the Jasmine Panzer Brigade picked off their lead elements. They retreated.
The 97th infantry division pushed into the city to the right of the exhausted Mandarin defenders and cleared the outer edge of the city first, taking full advantage of the fire support offered by the first and second tank brigades. They worked their way around, block by block, to leave only a single city block in the middle of the city for the Mosh. Then they asked the Mosh to surrender, received an adamant refusal, and then let their supporting assault guns blast through the city block. Then an engineering company came through and buried any openings, bulldozed rubble into them, and even poured concrete into the storm drains. They fought all through the night and into the next day and took thirty percent casualties. There were two Mandarin infantry companies that were completely wiped out. But compared to the one hundred percent losses suffered by the Mosh in the city, it seemed like a bargain.
Near sunset, the Mandarin third tank brigade pulled forward to occupy the positions of the Jasmine Panzer Brigade. Galen waited near the egress point and watched as the various convoys of his units left the area. First there came a long line of wheeled vehicles, nearly six hundred cargo trucks, a consolidated Brigade TRAINS. All the expendable cargo and supplies had been off-loaded and left for the Mandarins earlier, to make room on the trucks to carry Capellan Marines. The trucks strained under the load, their cargo beds stuffed to capacity with Marines in medium battle armor, standing room only.
He saw that his unit was near its breaking point. Diodes and capacitors and magnetic rails and electronic modules worn out, loose track tension, some vehicles short-tracked to remain mobile despite the loss of an idler or road wheel. The first armored convoy was the Hellcat tank battalion, nearly a third of its tanks pulled by another, tow bars connecting them. The end of that convoy had an armored recovery vehicle towing two tanks, one right behind the other.