It was not until the fifth day of the arrival of the Chinese invasion fleet that the soldiers of the 32nd Division started to see the first sign of a potential landing force. Several Chinese destroyers moved into the bay of Anchorage and sailed to within a mile of the shore to start providing more direct fire against some of the heavier fixed American defenses. The Reds started sending out a few smaller vessels ahead of the group as bait; as the Americans would fire on the ships, the Chinese were quickly identifying the camouflaged gun emplacements and counter-attacking those targets.
As the destroyers moved into position and began to open fire, several 155mm artillery guns that had been leveled to act as shore battery guns opened fire, engaging the destroyers. A handful of 20mm railguns also joined the fray, adding their own firepower to the short engagement. From a distance it looked like a laser show as the tracer rounds, missiles and explosions shook both the land and ships. The ships being shot at were quickly becoming riddled with holes and began to sink quickly as the railguns cut right through their armor igniting ammunition stores and fuel. In less than ten minutes, three of the five Chinese destroyers had been sunk in the shallow waters, while the other two destroyers limped back to deeper waters and the rest of the fleet. When the Chinese invasion fleet did make their move on Anchor Point, they were going to have to fight through a well-established fortress at the head of the bay of Anchorage.
By the end of the sixth day, the PLA had successfully landed and secured most of the Kachemak Bay State Park and began to set up hundreds of 152mm artillery pieces and a variety of rocket artillery. It was at this point the artillery duels began in full force, with the Chinese firing thousands of artillery and rockets at Homer and Anchor Point while the American artillery did their best to conduct counter-battery fire. The PLAAF had also established nine small airfields along the Aleutian Peninsula, ferrying in hundreds of fighter and bomber attack drones from Mainland China. With the defeat of a large portion of the American fighter and bomber drones at Eielson AFB in Fairbanks during the first day of the invasion, the Americans were slowly losing control of the skies over Homer and Anchor Point. With the air war starting to tilt in the Chinese favor, they began to conduct more precision bombing of Anchor Point, hitting a number of the artillery and heavy gun emplacements and some of the Pershing tanks. It would not be long now until the Chinese launched their landing force.
In the early morning hours of the seventh day of the invasion, the PLA, PLAAF and PLAN launched a massive artillery, missile, naval and air bombardment at the Anchor Point peninsula. The assault lasted for several hours; as dawn drew near, the PLA shifted their attacks to hit the peninsula with hundreds of smoke rounds, adding a heavy layer of dense visual cover to the moonscape defensive lines. The American commanders on the ground knew this was probably when the PLAN would launch their amphibious landing and begin to secure the peninsula for the eventual assault and capture of Anchorage. Despite the heavy smoke bombardment, the American commanders could see right through it; dozens of miniaturized surveillance drones were launched into the air, feeding the data collected by their thermal cameras to the displays in their helmets.
Using the cover of smoke and the bombardment, the PLAN had maneuvered dozens of cruisers, destroyers and frigates into the channel to provide cover fire. Now hundreds of landing craft and thousands of amphibious assault vehicles were swarming towards the beach. As the commanders saw the images of the sea vessels headed their way, they quickly grabbed their coms, “The Chinese are in full-out landing assault pattern. Be prepared to engage!”
As Paul sat inside of his command bunker eating an MRE (Meals, Ready to Eat), he couldn’t help but admire the beauty in his surroundings. Despite the beach in front of his position being ringed with concertina wire and other obstacles, you could still see the mountains off in the distance across the bay. The waves were lapping against the gravel shore and the seagulls were squawking as they flew around the coastline. Soon this area would be turned into a cauldron of death, but for right now, it was peaceful.
As he munched on the jalapeno cheese sauce and crackers (his favorite part of the meal), his blissful reflection was interrupted. His HUD suddenly became a loud barrage of instructions being barked at him. He shoved the remainder of his crackers and cheese into his pocket (he wasn’t about to waste those, he had traded for them in the first place), and sprang into action. His platoon was to man the two heavy machine gun nests and the one hundred meters of trench line that connected them both. After receiving his orders, he started handing out instructions of his own. “Listen up, platoon! The Chinese are headed our way. Time to man the battle stations! Stop whatever you are doing, grab your gear, leave the bunkers and get to your assigned position now!”
His platoon had four .50 M2 machine guns in each of the two bunkers and two M134 7.62mm Miniguns. Two of the M2s were aligned to the right of the bunker, providing a ninety-degree arc of covering fire along the beach and the second bunker his platoon manned. The other two machine guns covered the left side of the bunker with the same ninety-degree arc covering the other machine gun first platoon manned and part of their trench line. In between both M2s was the venerable M134 Minigun. The M134 was a belt fed, electrically operated rotating six-barrel machine gun that could be set to fire between 2,000 and 6,000 7.62mm rounds a minute. Both of these machine guns were old in comparison to the more advanced M5 AIR, but their rate of fire and ability to defend the beach were all that mattered. All of the bunkers had been designed to provide each other interlocking fields of cover, so as the landing craft got near the beach they could engage them. Then, as the enemy came ashore, they would rake the beach with heavy machine gun fire. In the rear of the bunkers were built several magazine holds for all of the ammunition for the heavy machine guns. There were 750,000 rounds for the M2 and nearly 2,500,000 rounds for the M134. Despite several days of heavy bombardment, the bunkers were still intact-damaged albeit, but still functional.
SSG Allen continued handing out orders, “Those of you manning the trench line — keep your heads down until the Chinese land the first wave of troops. There is no need to expose yourselves until absolutely necessary. The bunkers will draw most of the enemy fire until the soldiers in the trenches have to engage the troops coming ashore.”
SSG Allen was standing in one of the bunkers, watching through a spotter scope as the wind blew most of the smoke away from their view of the water. Suddenly, he saw hundreds of landing crafts and vehicles heading towards the beach to his front. “Echo Five, this is Bunker 34. We have visual of hoards of Chinese landing crafts headed our way. Requesting immediate fire support, over.”
“Bunker 34, this is Echo Five. We copy. Fire mission on its way.”
Within minutes, artillery and mortar rounds started to hit numerous predetermined points in the water several hundred meters in front of the beach. Some of the landing crafts exploded as an artillery or mortar round scored a direct hit; others were sloshed around by near misses.
As the landing crafts neared the beach, SSG Allen ordered, “Soldiers with the .50s — time to open fire. Start taking them out.”
“FGM-148 Javelins, start firing!” came the next call. The Javelins were fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles, with a longer range than the venerable AT6 rockets. They were guided missiles, which gave the soldiers the power to correct their flight path if needed.