3e REI was effectively split in two by the Kourou River with its regimental headquarters near Cayenne airport and one of its two infantry companies at Regina, a few miles inland and in easy reach of the Brazilian border. These retained the regiment’s small air detachment of a Puma troop carrying helicopter and a small Gazelle for reconnaissance and communications (the Colonel’s taxi).
North of the Kourou, the legionnaires’ assault engineers and anti-aircraft detachments guarded the space centre with the remaining infantry company, although a militia-like reserve company made up of former Legionnaires had a platoon in Kourou and two more in Cayenne.
The marines were even more divided, working out of company and sometimes just platoon locations that were dotted along the border. They were completely independent and self-contained sub units though; they walked into the jungle and survived on what they carried on their backs and caches dropped by their own river patrol’s rigid raiders.
However, despite their abilities as jungle fighters, they were severely limited in their mobility having no air support and also a rivalry with the Legion that precluded their ever asking for assistance or support from that quarter.
The marines numbered five infantry companies, a Riverine Squadron and a heavy weapons company but they were not set up to quickly react to situations occurring outside their individual companies immediate areas of operations.
Between the small Chinese force and the shore were of course at least one suspected minefield and four surface threats in the form of a pair of D’Estienne D'Orves class ASW corvettes and two L'audacieuse offshore patrol boats which could make life interesting.
A flight of two Breguet Atlantique IIs had been stationed at Cayenne airport which would likewise serve to keep boredom at bay.
“My task of getting you close enough to launch your submersibles has changed little in real terms, but you are now light one third of the manpower and equipment required to complete your mission.” He looked at the soldier and smoothed out the map.
“You are the resident expert on anything that causes blistered feet Captain and I am but a humble squid, as the Americans say.” He tapped the map. “As I see it we have more targets than troops now, and for your information we have precisely three hundred miles worth of diesel fuel remaining so I am open to any suggestions you have on our completing the mission as well as a safe withdrawal that precludes walking as a means of escape and evasion.” He ended with a grin.
Captain Huaiqing smiled a little smugly.
“We foot sloggers think on our feet even when we are sitting on our arses…it is already done.” he removed from inside his shirts breast pocket a sheet of A4 sized paper with the brief outline of an alternative plan.
“It will, I promise you, require only that your delicate navy feet carry you up to your conning tower, and should you choose to stretch your legs on shore then that is up to you.”
Li’s eyebrows rose, intrigued, but he let the soldier continue.
“You will still endeavor to penetrate the minefields between the old French penal colony islands?”
Li nodded. “The ironically named Islands of Salvation; Royale, St Joseph and of course Devils Island…yes, it is impossible to mine the waters there. The tidal race would unseat mere weighted anchors even if it were deep enough to mine. But at high tide your submersibles have an hour’s window to get on the landward side of the islands where it is also unfriendly waters for mining operations.”
Li paused, glancing at the SF commander-by-default.
“Can you split your remaining forces and still complete all three primary goals?”
Jie Huaiqing shook his head.
“That would be highly unlikely, if not impossible.” He said emphatically.
“But, if Bao’s detachment attacks the Soyuz pad as planned and I take ten men to attack the Ariane and Vega pads and that leaves eight soldiers that the navy can carry into the mouth of the Kourou to the dock. They blow the bridge as planned and you torpedo the Fliterland and burgle the Paris Fire Brigade so we can all go home.”
Li coughed in surprise. “Paris?…what?”
“Health and Safety laws in the EEC decree that certain facilities be served by firefighting equipment and personnel of a very exacting standard. Those facilities are Class A international airports, fuel storage sites holding more than a quarter million cubic square feet of storage space for flammable gases and liquids, and…space ports.”
Li still had a blank expression on his face, clearly not getting the connection and wondering what in the hell Jie was jabbering about EEC regulations for?
“The Paris Fire Brigade was geographically the closest French firefighting unit to meet the strict requirements so they have a fire station at Kourou Space Port and a storage tank of high grade diesel fuel for their appliances at the docks because the local stuff cannot be relied upon.” He looked very smug as he continued.
“You really can’t have rockets blowing up because the fire engine broke down on the way because of dodgy diesel.”
Li shook his head. “I bet you were bullied at school for being a swat, weren’t you?”
“It was in the intelligence briefing we had back in April.” said Huaiqing waving a well-thumbed notebook.
“That doesn’t mean you had to write it down.”
“I had to…the snoring from all the naval officers was making it too hard to memorise.”
All armies have to have a structured method of passing on orders in a way that gets the information across in a logical fashion. Everyone has to know the ‘What’, ‘When’, ‘Where’ and ‘How’, and who does what, and when, and how.
‘Why’ does feature, but far less than a career civilian would expect.
Jie had written headings in his notebook, the Chinese military’s equivalent of ‘Ground’, ‘Situation’, ‘Mission’, ‘Execution’, ‘Service Support’ and ‘Command & Signals’ with sub-headings to those headings along with sub-headings to the sub-headings. The British call this ‘a set of orders’ and the process of briefing troops from them is known as an ‘O’ Group. China trains its leaders to brief troops along fairly similar lines.
‘Execution’ is all about who does what, and when, and this is a fairly comprehensive section. It includes a sub heading entitled ‘Actions on:-‘ which is meant to cover all eventualities, all possible scenarios that may occur and endanger the successful execution of the mission.
A further hour put finer detail onto the plan and they both agreed that fueling the two submarines before withdrawing to a safe distance and putting a pair of shallow set torpedoes into the Fliterland was a long shot, but Dai had a good chance of getting the bridge demolition team ashore and sinking the freighter at its moorings.
Li pursed his lips, frowning and looking at the map, folded to show the coastline from Kourou to the border with Suriname. It had been far easier being second-in-command, he decided as he tried to think of alternatives.
Jie reached across and unfolded the map fully.
“I find that looking at the big picture helps me put the little picture into focus, and the only truly accurate way to do that is for you to put yourself in the enemy commander’s shoes.” A big green mass with few roads once you got ten miles from the coast was what the map represented.