“Very well. Noon tomorrow be acceptable?” Rokossovsky nodded.
“This arrangement is unacceptable to us. We must demand that all Swedish nationals be repatriated to us without delay. If you accuse any of crimes then it is for you to present your evidence to our prosecutors who will pursue the matter. If they feel the evidence warrants it.”
Rommel and Rokossovsky locked eyes over the table. It was going to be a long, hard day.
Part Three - Necessity
Chapter One Demands
Operations Center, Laum Mwuak Airfield, Thai/Japanese Indochina Border
“Have you seen these latest exchanges? And the last Japanese reply?” Flight Lieutenant Usah Chainam ruffled through the papers in his hands and pulled out the last flimsy. “And if we do not receive a positive response to our proposals, things will proceed from that point.”
“I think that's a threat.” Wing Commander Luang Chumsai's voice was thoughtful. “And the Japanese have a long history of starting things without advance warning, [f the book from that American historian is right, they were even planning to do the same to the Americans back in '41.”
“Might have saved the world a lot of trouble if they had.” Usah's voice was equally thoughtful. Both men were running the situation around Laum Mwuak around in their heads and calculating forces and dispositions. “Then the Americans would have turned Japan into a smoking hole as well. Some sort of large-scale incursion across the border? Won't be a full-scale, the Americans won't stand for it. They've made it quite clear what'll happen to anybody who starts launching wars of conquest.”
Luang's face was expressionless, his fingers drumming his desk. The peace agreement with the French in May 1941 had stipulated that the border between Thailand and French Indochina ran along the Mekong river from the Chinese highlands in the north to the sea. Then French Indochina had become Japanese Indochina and problems had started to emerge. One of them was the Mekong Delta.
The original interpretation of the agreement was that the border ran through the largest of the arms of that delta, splitting the area neatly in half and putting Saigon on the border. Now, the Japanese were claiming it ran along the southernmost arm of the delta. They had another claim, an even more outrageous one. Under international law, when a river was stipulated as marking a border, the actual frontier ran along the median line down the center of the river. The Japanese were claiming that the border wasn't just the Thai bank, it was the westernmost extreme of the watershed that fed the river. A claim that, if allowed, would put most of the Recovered Provinces and a big chunk of Northern Thailand into Japanese hands. It was, in fact, the same land-grab the French had carried out in the forty years from 1868 onwards.
“Order an alert. For the next seven days, pilots and ground crews are to sleep near their aircraft. Park the aircraft on the runways, ready for immediate takeoff. Pilot Officer Somsri's airfield defense company is to man a full perimeter. We're too close to the border here to take chances, if the Japanese do try something; this airfield is the prime target.”
The airfield, Luang thought sadly, not the aircraft on it. Khong Bin Noi Thi Haa was supposed to have three squadrons, two of fighters, one of dive bombers. One of the fighter squadrons was at Don Muang, converting from its old Curtiss Hawk Us to the new F-80 fighters the Government had just bought. The fighter squadron here had twelve single-seat Curtiss Hawk Ills and the dive bomber squadron a dozen two-seater Vought Corsairs. Both of the old biplanes had done well against the French back in 1941 but types were horribly obsolete now. Military re-equipment programs had been on life support for years now while the Government poured money into building the country's infrastructure. Decisions like that were a gamble and this one looked like coming up on the short end.
“I want a detachment, ten men with a machine-gun, over by Ta Luak. Their job is to hold the back door open. Get everybody who isn't on the perimeter or with the aircraft, that includes the families, digging fortifications around the golf course. That'll be our last redoubt, if we can't hold the perimeter, we'll fall back, burning the base as we go and make our last stand there. If we can't hold the golf course, any survivors can try and get out through the jungle. Oh, and send a message to the police, warn them as well.”
“You think it’s that bad?”
“I think it’s worse. But that's the best we can do.”
Police Station, Laum Mwuak Village, Thai/Japanese Indochina Border
Why anybody had suddenly decided to post a guard was beyond Police Private Songwon. The other nineteen police officers assigned to this area were all safely asleep which was where all civilized people should be at 0400. He paced around and blew into his hands, everybody who didn't live here assumed that it was hot all the time but that was a sad mistake. The pre-dawn chill could be enough to make the bones ache. Then he stopped, he had heard the sound of gunfire from around the town hall and the telegraph office. Was it anything to worry about? Probably not, it was nearing the Loi Krathong festivities, it was amazing how people could interpret floating a bunch of flowers down a river as firing guns into the air but they did. Then, Songwon knew he was wrong for there were shadowy shapes moving through the darkness towards the police station.
As he watched, one of them became less shadowy, resolving itself into a Japanese soldier walking up to the front door of the police station, waving a piece of paper at Songwon. The policeman was confused, bewildered, could not understand what or why Japanese soldiers were trying to give him orders. In any case, he didn't read or understand Japanese so it didn't really matter. He had orders to let nobody into the police station, so his duty was obvious. He refused to let the soldier in.
That's when the aggravated soldier made a fatal mistake. In Thailand striking somebody in the face is a deadly insult and the Thai police were notoriously sensitive about their dignity at the best of times. When the soldier hit Songwon, the police private was infuriated and appalled that anybody would take such liberties. Instinctively he did two things, he took a step back and he dropped his Lee-Enfield rifle to an approximation of the “guard” position. Sensing he'd gained an advantage, the Japanese soldier took a step forward and literally walked onto the point of the leveled bayonet.
Songwon was shocked by how easily the long triangular bayonet slid through the Japanese body. Less than a kilogram of pressure, he thought remembering a long-ago lesson on using his bayonet. That's all it took to run a man through with a pig-sticker. The Japanese made a little sigh and crumpled as if he was an inflated balloon and somebody had let all the air out. As he slumped around the bayonet, Songwon remembered something else from the long-forgotten lessons. He pulled the trigger, the recoil from the shot yanking the bayonet out of the body. The Japanese immediately responded by opening fire on the police station. Songwon took a horrified look at what had started and dived for cover.
To a man, the sleeping policemen inside the station thought that a thunderstorm had started when the hail of gunfire hit their building. The sergeant in charge took a careful look through a window and saw no lightning in the sky but a fair equivalent of it along the treeline a hundred meters or so away. He also saw a single figure break cover and sprint for the barracks door. It opened briefly and Songwon dived through. “Japanese” he gasped, “the Japanese are attacking the town.”