Brigadier McCoil hobbled over to the window of the building his headquarters staff had taken over and watched as row after row of paratroopers continued to descend in and around the airfield. More and more of his force was finally arriving and starting to get formed up, which was reassuring considering how the operation had started. He spotted several large packages being dropped directly on the runways. It appeared the Americans were dropping off his Jackal 4x4 vehicles ahead of schedule, which was fine by him.
“Brigadier,” called out a new voice. Colonel Jacques Vidal of the French 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment had just walked into the building. The Legionnaire quickly walked up to him rendering a quick salute. “Brigadier, I’m proud to report the remainder of my force has officially landed and we’ve secured the road junction at Xiangshanzui and the surrounding area. My men are working on turning the area into a veritable fortress as we speak,” he proclaimed proudly.
General McCoil smiled for the first time in hours; he couldn’t be happier to hear this news. He’d been extremely concerned when the company of Legionnaires had been shot down early on and unable to secure the site earlier. If any PLA tanks or other armored vehicles were going to attack his position it’d most likely come from the highway interchange at Xiangshanzui or Huqiu to his north, at least until the Gurkhas arrived and moved to the area.
“Glad to hear it, Colonel,” said McCoil. “When the ERC armored cars arrive, I’ll send half of them to your command. It’s imperative that your men hold that junction. Make sure your men have plenty of antitank rockets and missiles ready to deal with the PLA when they do start to show up. My guess is we’ll start to see some heavy PLA resistance before the day’s out and certainly by tomorrow.”
Colonel Vidal nodded. “I believe you’re right, Brigadier. I had my men jump with twice as many antitank weapons as they normally do. We’ll be ready for the PLA, and when the ERCs show up, it’ll only strengthen our position,” he said confidently. “If I may, when will our artillery support be available?” he inquired.
McCoil turned to look for one of his operations officers. “Major, when will 7 RHA be operational?” he asked.
The major walked over to them, explaining, “They just landed. It’s going to be at least an hour to get them unpacked and moved to their firing locations. If the guns are needed right now, they probably could be made ready, but I’d like to get them moved to their firing location and out of the way for future drops.”
“That’s fine, Brigadier,” the French colonel responded. “I don’t believe we’ll need their support within the next hour. I just wanted to make sure they’ll be operational by evening, in case the enemy does start to show up.” With that, the two officers shook hands, exchanged a few more directions and then parted ways. The French had a critically important area to secure, and McCoil didn’t want to keep the colonel stuck here with him any longer than he needed to.
“Now, if only my Gurkhas could get organized and ready,” he thought.
A few minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Ganju Lama walked into the building. As soon as he spotted Brigadier McCoil, he headed over to him. “Sorry for my tardiness, Sir. It appears a few Chinese soldiers wanted to greet my arrival,” he said with a half-smile. “My men are now on the ground and getting formed up as we speak. Is there any change to my orders or am I still to proceed to Jiangsu National Forest Park?” he inquired.
“It’s good to see you, Colonel,” said McCoil as he held out his hand to shake Lama’s. “My condolences on your company of men that didn’t make it. It was a terrible tragedy, what happened with our air support.” He paused as if giving a moment of silence for the departed. “As to your original orders, I want you to continue with the original plan. Your battalion must hold that position at all costs, even though the PLA is going to throw everything they have at you to get at this airbase. You’ll have artillery support and as much help as I can give you from here, but we’ve got to keep our claim on that position. When the rest of 3 PARA arrives, I’m going to send another company of soldiers over to help you as well. Do you have any further questions on your orders, Colonel?”
“No, Sir,” Lieutenant Lama answered. “We’ll get that place turned into a real nice fortress. You can count on that.” A wicked grin spread on his face.
With his orders in hand, the Gurkha commander turned and left the building to go form up with his men. They had a couple kilometer road march to get to their position and they needed to get set up and ready to defend the area as quickly as possible. Nobody knew when the PLA forces in the area would get organized enough to launch an attack, so it was a race against time.
Like an expectant father in a hospital, General John Bennet paced back and forth in the operations center as he waited for confirmation that the second wave of his joint British and French airborne force had made it to their drop point. He had been livid when he’d found out the Navy, who was supposed to provide fighter escorts for them, had lost half of the transports they were charged with protecting during the first wave. It had nearly cost them the entire operation.
He had placed a three-way call to Admiral Lomas and Admiral Richardson and thoroughly dressed them down over the loss of 700 paratroopers and those critically important transports. He replayed the conversation in his mind.
“It’s not just that we lost those soldiers, which would be horrible enough — we needed those transports to keep ferrying men and supplies behind enemy lines,” he’d explained. “Let me clear this up for you. In no uncertain terms, if another loss like this occurs during the airborne operation, I will relieve you both on the spot.”
They had assured him that this wouldn’t happen again. Admiral Richardson said he’d ordered two additional carrier airwings to beef up air cover for the remaining transports and told him he’d ensure the ground commander had at least one full air wing available for air support until they were relieved by the ground forces from the ports. Still, General Bennet was worried. He continued pacing.
Finally, Bennet went to find his J3, and spotted him standing next to a bank of radios and computers. When he finished making his way over to them, he simply asked, “Did they make it?”
His J3 looked up and nodded, a smile spreading across his face. “Yes, Sir! We just spoke to the pilot of the last transport. They all made it and the paratroopers are on the ground. They’re turning back to base now.”
Several soldiers exchanged high fives at that news. General Bennet allowed himself to relax a bit, although the wait wasn’t totally over. This operation had been a huge gamble, and it wasn’t totally in the bag just yet. They still had to get a third wave of transports in to finish off the PLA forces, and then another wave to land their extra ammunition, water, medical supplies and everything else the 9,000-man force would need to hold their ground for the next ninety-six hours.
“Excellent work,” Bennet allowed himself to say. “I’m glad to see my talk with the Navy had the desired effect. Now to the ports — how are operations going there?”
His J3 signaled for Bennet to follow him over to the map board he had set up on the wall. “The Royal Marines have secured the entire island and port facilities of Yangshan with few casualties. I think we caught the PLA by surprise when we landed forces there because they had a very small garrison of soldiers for what is truly a prize target. With the entire port facility in our control, the Navy’s gone ahead and pushed the security perimeter out and brought in the roll-on, roll-off ships and heavy transports.