The thunder of the explosions was something Sirisoon could never have imagined. It surrounded her, pressing in on her, driving the air from her body and the feeling from her limbs. Dully, she heard the fragments flying overhead and her instructor's voice. “Close support is no use unless it’s close. Very close. So when you call for it, get down and stay down. Or you'll be as dead as the enemy.”
Then it faded and she lifted her head. She knew the mathematics well enough. The standard close support weapon was a 250 kilogram bomb, equivalent to five rounds from a 150mm gun. Each Ostrich carried six and there had been six Ostriches. That meant the infantry company attacking them had just been hit by the equivalent of 180 heavy artillery shells. More than an artillery regiment could fire. Yet, mathematics hadn't conveyed the full impact of what had happened, the stunning, enveloping noise, the waves of pressure, the shaking of the ground. The Ostriches had dropped their bombs very close to the inner safety limit, the point at which they'd become as dangerous to friends as enemy. Very close support indeed.
And mathematics couldn't have told her the effect of the bombs. What had been a scene of beauty in the bright afternoon sun, green grass, blue sky, even the khaki of the Japanese infantry and the splotchy brown-green of their tanks had gone. A pall of black heavy smoke, shot with red and crimson, was boiling into the sky, turning the sun, dimly seen through the shroud, into a dull orange ball. The ground was invisible, no, that wasn't quite true, Sirisoon realized she could see the ground, it was just she couldn't see where the ground ended and the smoke began. Then, out of the chaos in front of her a tank, the only survivor of the three, emerged. White streaks of smoke streaked out from her positions. The RPG-2 wasn't that accurate and two of them missed but the third exploded square on the frontal armor.
Sirisoon was awed at the sight of more infantry, emerging from the smoke and dust of the bombs. The airstrike had been bad enough from her positions, out of the immediate danger area and dug in. What must it have been like in the midst of the bombing? And yet the Japanese infantry were coming on. The explosions from her 60 millimeter mortars yapped amongst them, the explosions seeming inconsequential after the earthquakes of the 250 kilogram bombs.
The tank was moving again, shrugging off three rifle grenades that hit it. Then the RPG gunners fired again, their launchers reloaded at last. One hit on the side of the turret, one over the top, another in the ground and yet it was that one, a miss, that stopped the tank at last. It broke a track and the tank spun to one side before stopping. The crew tried to bail out, obviously the tank was burning even if nobody could see it yet, but a burst from an MG34 cut them down.
The Japanese infantry was pinned down, they'd been relying on their armor to get them through and it had failed. China had done the Japanese Army no favors, she thought. They'd learned all the wrong lessons there. They'd learned that infantry wouldn't stand in front of tanks, that a few rounds of artillery would disperse a defense, that a few light bombs from an aircraft would cause panic. Above all, they'd learned, or thought they had, that fighting spirit was more important than weapons and in China that probably had been true. Only, this wasn't China and here relying on fighting spirit meant pitting flesh and blood against machine guns and explosives.
Time for another lesson. “Fix bayonets.” Her order went out and there was a rattle as the long sawbacks were drawn and fixed in position. In China, the Japanese had viewed themselves the masters of bayonet fighting, a claim the Chinese had never contested. Now, the Japanese were finding themselves matched, bayonet for bayonet with an enemy who relished its use as much as they did. And had a much better bayonet, Sirisoon reflected smugly. “Attack! Follow me!”
The Thai platoon poured into the Japanese unit throwing it back in confusion. Sirisoon fired once from the hip, dropping a Japanese sergeant, then engaged a private. She parried his thrust but that left her out of position for a thrust of her own so she kicked him in the groin instead. He victim doubled up and she thrust the bayonet into his shoulder, right where the neck started. Twist and pull, the sawback ripping the flesh as it was withdrawn. Another soldier coming in from the right, another parry and this time a superb thrust to the stomach. She was just withdrawing her sawback when there was a terrible blow in her side.
Sirisoon sprawled on the ground, her rifle out of reach. Over her, a Japanese soldier stood, bayonet poised for the downthrust. That's how it ends she thought. Like Taeng-Onn, knocked down then stabbed on the ground, over and over again. Just as her stomach muscles contracted to resist the killing blow, she saw the Japanese stagger and fall, red flowers on his chest where Yawd's MP-40 had sprayed him; A hand grabbed her shoulder and helped her up.
It was over, the Japanese were done. “Get me Channel Seven.” There was a pause. “Strisoon-Actual here. We stopped them. Permission to advance to Execute? Very Good Sir.”
She looked around her unit was falling back into a skirmish line, ready to either hold or advance. “Forward, we have to take the ridgeline. Sergeant, casualty count, soon as you can. Medic, look after the wounded. And watch the Japanese, their dead might not want to stay dead”
First Army Circle Headquarters, Ban Masdit, Recovered Provinces, Thailand
“Damned politicians. Even Her. They're screwing around and its costing my boys.” General Songkitti's aid looked surreptitiously around as if the King's Ambassador-Plenipotentiary would suddenly appear in the room, breathing fire. On the other hand, the general's frustration was understandable. He'd wanted to hold back until the 11th and Second Cavalry divisions were in place so he could launch a full strength counter-attack and destroy the Japanese invaders. Only, just after dawn, the word had come down from the Ambassador herself. 'Go today with what you've got. Feed the units in as they arrive.'
As a result, the two advances along the river were going much more slowly than they should have been. What was intended to be a massive pair of converging thrusts that would cut off the Japanese advance and encircle it was turning into a even push all along the front. The 12th Cavalry Regiment was moving slightly faster but that wasn't much. At best the push was at walking pace. The only bright spot was that the Japanese were falling steadily back and the area of their riverhead had shrunk dramatically. The 9th Division had advanced some ten kilometers in the same number of hours and their lead clement should be in sight of the river soon. 211th Regiment was already on the river, pushing along its banks narrowing the frontage of river held by the Japanese and threatening their bridges.
Better news was that the Japanese fighter effort over the area had subsided at last. The sudden appearance of their fighters over the battle area early in the morning had been a disaster. They'd bled the ground attack units badly and only the commitment of Second Wing had restored the situation. In two days, the Air Force overall had taken a pounding. Fifth Wing had virtually gone, mostly destroyed on the ground at Laum Mwuak Airfield. Fourth Wing had lost about half its effectives, most of the losses being in the vital Ostrich squadrons. Third Wing, a pure fighter outfit with F-72s and F-80s had lost a couple of aircraft but was virtually unscathed otherwise. And it had decimated the vaunted Japanese Laylas in the air battles that morning. Still, with three wings out of seven involved, almost half the Air Force was committed to this one battle and about half of that had been lost. In two days.
Three divisions out of seven committed, three air wings out of seven already in the battle. Only the Navy wasn't being sucked into this “border incident” and they didn't really have much to offer. If the fighting spread, there simply wouldn't be enough in the way of available forces to counter it.