There were only three ships left in his task force that had missiles able to reach the pursuing Chinese ships. They were Dragon and Daring escorting Prince of Wales, which each carried Multi-Mission Tomahawks, and then Argos Fire, which still had 32 Long Range ASM’s. The shot he had just ordered over his shoulder used up 16 Tomahawks, without any confirmed hits. That now left him with a total of 64 missiles that he could use in any ranged combat with the enemy. After losing the TF Vengeance, he also had 64 Naval Strike Missiles, but the fight would have to be inside 100 miles for those.
We carry on, he thought. We cover the mission to occupy the Seychelles, and make that a Royal Navy base for the duration of this bloody war. I can only imagine what the headlines on this scrap will be like in London tomorrow. We’ve just had our Isandlwana here, but by God, Anson has given us our Roark’s Drift.
Chapter 11
Captain MacRae might have known what Wells meant with that thought, as he had been explaining it all to Elena just before they suddenly found themselves literally swallowed by the famous hill of Isandlwana, which delivered them right into the history he had been pontificating on.
The battle had been a disaster, but the heroic defense of the mission and supply station at Roark’s Drift, where 120 men held off 4000 Zulus, was trumpeted by the London press. The government lavished Victoria Crosses on more men than in any other battle in British history. Would Anson’s stunning reprisal be enough to tamp down the hue and cry over the losses the fleet had sustained?
The blow had been a hard one, but Admiral Wells pressed stoically on towards his objective at Victoria, and every mile the Chinese fleet followed him took them further from their support bases in East Africa.
If you were to ask someone where the Seychelles were, they might respond that you could find them on many beaches, thinking you had asked about sea shells. The islands were nearly a thousand nautical miles from East Africa, and seldom in any news cycle. That was the way the locals liked it, living their quiet lives on a little island paradise… until war came.
The Royal Marine landing on the main island of the Seychelles at Victoria would be swift and painless, or so it was believed. The country had no military to speak of, a force of about 400 men tasked with maritime security and anti-piracy operations. Their “order of battle” included six BRDM-2 APC’s and six M-43 82mm Mortar Carriers, all unserviceable. Their lone RPG-7 rocket launcher wouldn’t work, nor would any of the SA-7 Strela air defense missiles. Their navy had a handful of small patrol boats donated by other countries, and their air force had eight planes, mostly for maritime patrol, with no combat role. The single battalion they fielded included a few troops of the so called Barbaron Commandos, but on the 20th of November, at the appointed time of 20:00, they were scheduled to make the acquaintance of real commandos, Number 47 Commando, the Royal Marines Raiding Group.
The threat to the landings would not come from the locals, but from the Chinese. Intelligence had discovered that, as with many of their bases, the Chinese had placed SAM and SSM batteries on the islands. These batteries had to be destroyed before the Royal Marine Commandos could go in, and they would be the primary targets of the remaining TACTOM missiles in the opening duel for possession of Victoria.
Frigate London would pound the SAM sites, but in the resulting counterattack, the YJ-12 Coastal SSM’s would put a missile into that ship, and add to the heavy losses already sustained. As a last hurrah, the Chinese had a pair of Type 22 missile boats in the harbor, and the crews were running along the quays to get to them and cast off as the air raid sirens wailed. Before they could reach their boats, they heard the roar of missile engines, and saw two Tomahawks come racing in over the water to strike their war steeds, and blow them to smithereens.
It was a small consolation for the loss of the Type 26 Frigate London, the ninth warship lost in this battle, but Wells saw it as the fortunes of war. He might have used his Tomahawks at greater range, but the fact was that the YJ-12 could reach out 215 miles, and both sides had been in range of one another for many hours as the fleet approached the Seychelles. The Chinese fired their last two SSMs, hit nothing, and that little disagreement was now over. The SAM’s had been destroyed, and the way was clear for the helicopters to start bringing in the Marines.
47 Commando was part of the British 3 Commando Brigade, and the landings would be led by the 539th Raiding Squadron, and then followed up by Number 4 and 6 Squadrons off HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark. Knowing the British were going to the Seychelles for a good reason, Admiral Sun Wei ordered the last two J-31’s there to rig out for an air ferry operation to Mombasa. The three helicopters at the airfield had come off a ship to get there, but none had the range to reach the African coast, and so they would be prizes of war.
The night raid was therefore underway right on schedule, at 20:00, and it would not be opposed. The helos thumped in, moving quickly to the airfield where they would find no more than 60 Chinese military personnel who were there as service crews for the few planes that had been operating from the island. These men surrendered without a fight, for they were not soldiers and had no combat training at all.
Thirty minutes after the landings, the Commandos radioed Prince of Wales that the Union Jack now flew over the harbor and airfield at Victoria. The island had first been discovered by the British East India Company in 1609, and had been claimed by both France and Britain over the next 200 years, while largely remaining uninhabited. It had gained independence in 1977, but now the British were back, and the main island would be declared a protectorate for the duration of the conflict… spoils of war.
By the time he had consolidated his scattered fleet, Admiral Sun Wei had ten destroyers, including three Type 055, and two frigates. All the other frigates, and the two fleet oilers, had been sent home to Mombasa and Dar es Salam. He stood on the bridge, arms folded on his chest as he thought.
We have done well, he mused. Tactically, our ships defeated the British with little difficulty. Their opening strategy of using their fighters to strike us with small munitions was a good one, and it drained many SAM’s from the targeted ships. After that, I knew I had to get inside 300 miles, and engage immediately with our YJ-18’s. This forced the British to use their fighters defensively, but our attacks were so strong that we hurt them very badly. Now I, too, can claim that I have sunk an enemy carrier. Were it not for that unfortunate submarine attack, our victory would have been overwhelming, in spite of the loss of our base in the Seychelles. All things considered, this is victory, without question, and the loss of the Seychelles is of little consequence.
Now I sit 700 miles from the African coast, and the British are moving northeast. I will not catch them, and they have opened the range between our fleets to over 300 miles. So I will sail to Andrakaka harbor on the northern tip of Madagascar. It is just 300 miles to reach that port. There my ships can refuel, and rearm with any missiles in the ammo bunkers.