The meeting went on for another hour as the senior officers strategized how the US was going to engage and destroy the Chinese fleet while not losing more carriers in the process. The Navy was already down three carriers and could ill afford to lose any more. Some creative strategizing was required.
The past several weeks had been absolutely exhilarating for Captain Liu Huaqing. The Wuhan had sunk eight American submarines and three destroyers. It had been a truly marvelous feat and had proved beyond a doubt that this new torpedo was not only going to change the future of naval warfare, it could shift the balance of power in the Pacific.
Looking at the map, Captain Liu contemplated whether his sub should try and go after the American aircraft carriers now or keep nipping at the edges, sinking the ships the US kept sending after them. The Wuhan only had twelve more of the experimental torpedoes left, and once they ran out, they’d have to return back to base and hope the factories had built a more for them.
Sensing that someone had walked up to him, Liu looked up and saw that his XO had joined him at the maps table.
“Trying to figure out where we should go next?” inquired his executive officer, Commander Wei Gang.
Liu nodded. “Part of me wants to sail north and go after the Japanese Navy, or perhaps the supply convoys providing men and material to the Korean Peninsula. But I also know the real battle is going to be right here, in the Philippine Sea.”
Commander Wei let out a short breath before responding, “It would be inspiring to our people back home and the men if we could sail to the West Coast of America and begin sinking ships off the coast of California.”
Captain Liu let out a snort of laughter. “That would be great, but there is no way the admirals would allow us to venture that far away from the main American fleet. I tried to argue that, if allowed to patrol the West Coast of America, we would divert resources away from the American carriers, but they insisted that our new super weapon would be the deciding factor between winning and losing this next battle.”
“Should we head toward Guam, then, and seek out the carriers directly?” offered Commander Wei.
Captain Liu traced his hand across the map, running his finger across Guam, then moved his finger to the north. “Let’s move in the direction of Saipan. Intelligence said the US Marines are doing a lot of training on Saipan and Tinian Island. Perhaps we can find their amphibious assault ships and sink a few of them.”
His XO nodded and smiled at the idea. The two of them began to plot the best avenue of approach and how long it would take them to reach their destination.
Unbeknownst to Captain Liu and Commander Wei, several thousand feet above them, a Boeing P-8 Poseidon had been sniffing around them for the past several hours. When the Wuhan changed course and began to head toward the Island of Saipan, it increased speed from its stalking speed of seven knots an hour to twenty — this change in speed gave the Poseidon just enough added noise for its incredibly sophisticated sensors to collect enough data to start narrowing down the submarine’s exact coordinates. The pilot used that data to call in additional antisubmarine warfare ships and aircraft to help them prosecute an attack on the elusive Wuhan.
An hour into their new course, Commander Wei received a call from the sonar room. “Commander Wei, we are detecting a series of sonar buoys. Probable enemy aircraft trying to guide additional enemy assets toward us,” informed his sonar chief.
A shiver of fear ran down Wei’s spine as he realized they might have been discovered. “Have you detected any possible American submarines or other surface warfare ships in the area?” he asked.
“We thought we had a possible underwater contact maybe ten minutes ago, but it’s gone. If we could slow down, we might be able to see if we can get a better bead on what we are facing.”
Wei looked for the captain and found him talking to another sailor nearby. He quickly got his attention, letting him know he needed to talk with him.
“What’s going on, XO?” Captain Lei asked.
“Sir, sonar reported a possible underwater contact and detected sonar buoys being dropped on the surface. They are recommending we slow down and try to listen for a bit to see what we’re potentially facing,” explained Wei.
Captain Lei nodded in agreement. “Do it, XO. Slow us down and let’s see what’s out there.”
In minutes, the Wuhan had slowed to a mere crawl as they listened with their towed sonar array, hoping and praying they had not been found, or worse, triangulated by the Americans. Over the past several weeks, they’d lived through this type of situation multiple times. In each case, they had been able to identify the hunters and successfully take them out. They hoped their luck would hold in this situation.
As minutes turned into hours, the tension on the Wuhan only increased. Their sonar array had detected at least one underwater contact and multiple surface contacts, in addition to a lot of sonar buoy activity on the surface. Clearly the Americans had caught their scent — now it was a matter of whether or not they could slip away. They might get lucky and sink one or more of the contacts, but in doing so, they would most certainly be fired upon.
The USS Indiana, the newest Virginia-class attack submarine, had managed to get within 2,000 meters of the Wuhan. With their outer torpedo doors opened and lined up for the attack, they proceeded to fire off two of the newest MK 48 Mod 7 torpedoes. The updated torpedoes had a significantly improved sonar and targeting capability, enabled them to effectively navigate past the current antitorpedo defensive systems and decoys.
The Wuhan would have had virtually no time to react to the sudden appearance of two American torpedoes, but it suddenly raced forward at maximum speed, attempting to escape through evasive maneuvers. With no time to obtain a proper firing solution on the Americans, and lacking the proper equipment to listen for Indiana above the noise they were generating, the Chinese never had a chance to return fire.
In less than a couple of minutes, the two American torpedoes impacted the hull of the Wuhan, sinking the vaunted terror of the seas and ending any hope the PLA Navy had of using the Wuhan in the final battle of the Pacific.
Passing the Torch
Captain Tim Long stood at attention with his company of Marines as they graduated from their final course at the School of Infantry. With nearly 50,000 new trainees graduating a month, this ceremony was certainly not unique, but Long was feeling nostalgic.
“I remember standing here five years ago myself before I became an officer,” he thought as he looked out on all the young Marines arrayed in their dress uniforms, their families looking on from the bleachers.
Up at the podium, the colonel in charge of recruit training tapped the microphone to gain everyone’s full attention. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it and give you some pep talk to make you feel good,” he began. “You Marines are going to face adversity. There’s a hostile nation bent on fundamentally changing the world and our country. It’s incumbent upon you Marines to listen to your NCOs and officers and defeat this dastardly enemy. Remember, these are the same people that enabled the North Koreans to launch nuclear missiles at our cities. This is the same nation that had a hand in the destruction of Oakland and San Francisco just a few hundred miles north of here. Never forget what these enemies have done to our nation.”