Captain Ma glanced down at his map.
“Good, they are about to enter my kill box,” he thought.
He needed to make sure the Americans had crossed the bridge before they opened fire. His company had fifty Red Arrow 12 fire-and-forget infrared homing antitank missiles ready to hammer the Yankees. The engineers had also moved six 152mm artillery guns, which they had pointed directly at the road the enemy tanks would have to travel down. The 152mm guns would be used as antitank guns instead of traditional artillery, though he also had a battalion of artillery guns he could call upon if needed.
“When should we spring the trap?” asked one of the junior captains as he nervously fidgeted with something in his hand.
Captain Ma snorted before responding. “Patience, Yu. We want to wait until those American tanks get across the road first. Once they’re trapped on our side of the river, we’ll be able to slaughter them. When the Americans try to rush additional units over the bridge, then we’ll blow the bridge, separating them.” He was a bit perturbed that the junior captain was asking a question he had clearly been briefed on earlier.
Ten more minutes went by as the fourth M1A2 Abrams main battle tank crossed the bridge and continued to head west. Ma lifted the hand receiver to his face and depressed the talk button. “Fire on the tanks,” he said to his gun crews.
Seconds later, the first 152mm cannon fired, quickly followed by three other guns. The 152mm rounds flew quickly across the ground, traveling the nearly four kilometers before they slammed into the side hulls of the tanks. As soon as the rounds hit the tanks, all four of them exploded, sending shrapnel, flames, and smoke in every direction. The rest of the antitank guns picked off other armored vehicles in the American column, lighting them up as well.
As the fighting on the ground heated up, a pair of American attack helicopters swooped in from the sky and fired antipersonnel rockets into the jungle area where his guns were dug in. Seconds after the helicopters flew in, a series of FN-6 MANPADS shot up quickly from the cover of the jungle and headed toward the American chopper. One of them was destroyed by the MANPAD, while the other helicopter fled the scene and didn’t reappear.
At this point, dozens of American armored vehicles raced toward his positions. Rather than trying to cross the bridge as they had anticipated, the American tracked vehicles proved they could quickly and effortlessly ford the river and battle their way toward his position at the edge of the jungle, firing their own vehicle weapons at his soldiers. While the Americans raced toward them, a series of loud explosions rocked his bunker.
“Those blasted Americans — they’re already hitting us with high-altitude air strikes,” thought Ma.
Looking to his east, Captain Ma saw that three of his artillery guns had just been destroyed, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Still, the three remaining guns continued to fire away on the now quickly approaching Americans. Once they got within two kilometers of his position, the RA-12 antitank missiles raced across the field and hammered the American vehicles. In seconds, nine American vehicles were now nothing more than burning wreckage.
Ma switched his radio frequency to the two Type 95 antiaircraft vehicles he had tucked away under a lot of jungle foliage. “Turn your radars on and take out those American aircraft,” he ordered.
Less than a minute later, he heard the roar of their 25mm cannons intermixed with the swooshing noise of several of their missiles as they began to seek out and destroy the American helicopters and aircraft flying within a ten-kilometer radius.
Sadly, the two vehicles only lasted minutes before they were both destroyed by the Americans. Meanwhile, the US advance toward his position had been slowed down and then blunted altogether. There was nothing left but a burning wreck of what appeared to be an American company-level unit.
Thirty minutes later, another American unit of comparable size moved forward and advanced along the same road. Rather than continue forward or cross the river and run toward the jungle like their comrades had, they stayed back and called in a series of air strikes against Captain Ma’s positions.
The jungle his forces had built their defensive forts in was subsequently pounded for nearly an hour. Each time the Americans would send in attack helicopters, his troops would pop out of their bunkers and fire off a series of MANPADS at them. A number of choppers had been shot down this way, and it was proving to be an effective tactic.
One hour turned to five as the Americans continued to try and fight their way past his position. Each time, they sustained heavy casualties and ultimately would fall back. During the five-hour running battle, Ma’s company sustained close to fifty percent casualties, something he had never had to deal with in their previous battles. Under more normal circumstances, his forces had been relieved and not expected to fight on, let alone have to deal with having no air support or air cover.
Eventually, Captain Ma’s commander ordered his company to withdraw to the next defensive position and prepare to repel the Americans at the next major junction.
Explosions could be heard off the instance, as well as the sound of jets soaring overhead. The few remaining fighters that had survived the American aerial bombardments were doing their best to provide cover for the handful of Nanchang Q-5 ground-attack aircraft that were going after the American beachheads. During the last two weeks, Major General Hu Wei’s positions across the Philippines had been getting hammered by the Americans in preparation for the invasion.
Finally, the hour had come, and the Americans were hitting his forces all across the island. Reports were coming in from the various beachheads that the Americans had moved off the beaches and were now advancing inland.
“The question now,” he thought to himself, “is how long can we hold out with virtually no support from the Navy or the mainland?”
“General,” said one of the operations officers, “we received a communique from Major General Joko Subroto. The Indonesian 2nd Infantry Division has pulled back from Legazpi and is now taking up positions near Naga. It also appears that a large portion of his forces are falling back even further, to the Mount Banahaw area.”
“Why is he having his forces fall that far back? He’s giving up precious land that we could force the Americans to fight for. This makes no sense,” General Hu countered as he looked at the map.
“If the Indonesians give up the entire southern half of the island, how am I supposed to defend Manila?” he pondered.
Another officer replied to the general’s question before anyone else could respond. “He’s falling back to the Banahaw area because he’s afraid his division may get cut off by the Americans if they land forces behind him.”
He shook his head. There was really not much he could do. The Indonesian commander had a point, but he also didn’t appear like he wanted to fight the Americans very hard. “Send a message to General Subroto. Tell him he’s to hold his positions and not withdraw any further. His forces need to stand and fight the Americans. We’ll send him additional forces to help when we can,” he ordered. He hoped with everything in him that his Indonesian partners would do their part.
Hu turned to his executive officer. “How are the rest of our forces holding up?” he asked.