Ever since she'd seen the operations map, she'd kept a set of combat gear and her rifle in her office. She changed out of her regular uniform into the fatigues, reflecting quickly that anybody who came into her office now was going to get an unexpected eyeful. She took a quick look at herself in the window reflection as she left, webbing in place, fully armed, fully equipped. A very militant water lily she thought with smug satisfaction.
Supply Section Barracks, First Army Circle. Ban Masdit, Recovered Provinces, Thailand
Sergeant Yawd had worked wonders since everything had dropped in the pot. He'd got 43 men together, drawn a full platoon set of equipment for them, even down to the machine guns, the new rocket launchers and a radio. Even better, one of the men knew how to operate the radio and another had basic medical training. He had created a fully fledged infantry platoon out of nothing; all it needed was an officer. There was a bang as the door opened and “Men Attention! Officer on....... Ma'am?”
“Sergeant Yawd, by order of General Songkitti I am taking command of this unit and will be taking us to join the 29th Infantry Regiment. “ She looked quickly around. “Men organized and properly armed. Good job Sergeant.” Then she frowned for a second and pointed at one of the men. “Private Phom, you were the man who got that truck out of a ditch a few days back. That was well done. Glad to have you along. And you Private Voi, has your wife recovered?” The two men flushed slightly, one with pride at being praised in public, the other that this strange officer had taken the trouble to ask after his wife, recovering in base hospital after an appendix operation.
Sirisoon pulled the map out of her pocket, In the last ten minutes she'd pulled the list of names from records and noted two outstanding things she could “remember”. Now, she had to keep things moving onwards so nobody would notice those were the only two things she knew about this group of men. “Sergeant, this is the assembly area here, I have to report to the Regimental Commander and he'll use as as he sees fit.”
“Going to be a long march ma'am, take most of the day I think.”
“Won't be a march at all Sergeant, I've organized some motor transport. One squad in each truck. Me, you, our radioman and medic in the jeep. What's our weapons section got?”
“Two MG34s on tripod's Ma'am and three RPG-2 teams. Rifle squads got an MG-34 each and a couple of Mausers fitted for rifle grenades. Rest have straight rifles. NCOs and weapons crews have these” He lifted his MP40 machine pistol. I got one for our officer but you brought your rifle.”
“Give it to the medic, the Japanese don't respect the Red Cross. Sergeant, get the men mounted up, we've got to get moving.”
Ban Phra Chuap, Recovered Provinces, Thailand.
The roads were jammed, truck convoys and marching infantry heading in one direction, refugees going in the other. The backwash of a nation at war, one that had been caught completely flat-footed. It had been hard enough getting her little convoy out of the base area, there were just too many vehicles, too little space. Once on the road, they'd made pretty good time given the circumstances. The villagers were out, guarding the road, helping the army trucks find their way from one village to the next. The police were out as well, helping keep traffic flowing and listening to the invitations to come and arrest the Japanese with weary patience. All in all, it was worse than it should have been but not as bad as it could be either.
By the time her jeep pulled into the 29th Regiment field HQ, Sirisoon was coated with a fine layer of laterite dust. She found the Command section and waited for a few minutes until the Regimental commander was ready to see her. “'Lieutenant Sirisoon, Sir. Ordered to bring up reinforcements for you. Awaiting your orders sir.” The Colonel took the message and read it with relief, he had too much front to cover, too few units to do it. Reinforcements to be used at his discretion. A fully organized infantry platoon. Better, much better than nothing.
“Sirisoon, I'm attaching your platoon to 1st Company, 2nd Battalion. 219th battalion is forming up along here,” his hand moved on the map “and 1st Company is here. Report to the Company Commander for your orders. When you get there, send your trucks back here, I need them.” Suddenly he peered at the Lieutenant in front of him. “You're a woman!”
“From birth Sir.” The Colonel shuddered and looked like he wanted to say something, then changed his mind. He had an understrength regiment fighting a reinforced division and anything was better than nothing.
Sirisoon took a deep breath and climbed back into the jeep. “They're not breaking us up. We're being attached to one of the infantry companies. Not far, back on the road, about two klicks down, break right. Another two or three klicks. Then we have to send our trucks back.”
The little convoy swung back out onto the main road and set off to the designated assembly area. As they approached the main turn, Yawd looked at his new officer a bit diffidently, “Ma'am, we're going to be the newbies in an established company. You know what that means don't you?”
“We'll get the dirty jobs and be the ones who draw fire? Yes, I know that. The only thing we can do about it is to make sure we all get to be veterans fast so we can send some other poor schleps out to draw fire.”
Yawd laughed, relaxing slightly “Ma'am, I like the way you think.”
Another headquarters area, another group of officers studying maps. Sirisoon got out of her jeep and reported in. Another set of raised eyebrows, another acceptance on grounds that anything was better than nothing. In the back of her mind was a grim determination, one day, one day, people would take her assignment as a welcome bonus, not an affliction that had to be tolerated. And if she got there over a pile of dead Japanese, so much the better.
“Sirisoon.” The voice snapped her out of her reverie. “Get your people together, we need to find out where the Japanese are and in what strength. I want you to be our spearpoint. Advance down the road to Tong Klao, it’s about five klicks that way. We think the Japanese have that village already. You should meet them halfway. You've got a radioman? Well done. Cabrank frequency is channel five, our net is channel seven. Call in when you make contact.”
Sirisoon saluted and walked back to her men, already debussing from their trucks. Behind her the Company Sergeant Major spoke quietly to the commander. “Bit of a rotten thing to do sir.”
“Somebody has to do the dirty jobs. We can send a bunch of repple newbies lead by a woman or one of our seasoned platoons. Which would you rather lose?”
The sergeant major sighed. Put like that, there really was no argument. Pity though, that young lieutenant seemed quite capable. For a woman of course.
Back at the trucks, Sirisoon called her NCO's together. “We have an advance to contact. That usually means advance until they shoot us. I don't want that, bullet holes are out of fashion this year. First section, I want you way out on the left flank, second section halfway out. Third section right flank, the other side of the road. Command group and weapons section to the right of the road but between it and third. Everybody keep off that road, if the enemy have pre-registered anything that will be it. We'll move cross country for about a kilometer, fast as we can then take it slow with overwatch. The Japanese love outflanking people so First Section, keep your eyes open. The odds are pretty good if we do run into a flanker, they'll do it from their right, our left.”
“Why's that ma'am?”
“Because most people are right handed and the right is their strong hand so they instinctively think of doing things with their right. I'm hoping we won't run into a Jap who's a leftie but even if we do, it might not matter. They're conformists all of them, kids who are naturally left-handed get beaten until they use their right. So I'm betting if we run into a flanker, it'll be on our left and First, you can flank the flankers. Important thing. Everybody. If we run into small groups, keep the machine guns quiet. Rifles only. There's our militia out there and they have rifles only. I want everybody to think we're militia until they learn the horrible truth. I want to get some good ground and chew the enemy up on it before they know who and what we are. Clear everybody?”