A few moments later, several landing craft reached the beach, and then suddenly, as if appearing from thin air, there were hundreds of PLAN infantry in their exoskeleton combat suits rushing towards the American soldiers with superhuman speed and agility. SSG Allen felt his stomach drop through his knees. “Everyone, engage the Chinese on the beach! Kill them all!”
The M2s and M134s began to traverse back and forth across the beach, decimating the ranks of the PLAN. As the one-inch diameter rounds of the .50 hit their targets, they severed arms and legs, and absolutely shredded the Chinese body armor. Soldiers were literally being ripped apart. The miniguns were devastating the remaining Chinese soldiers rushing the beaches. The volume of fire was awe-inspiring for the defenders as they could see entire squads of Chinese soldiers simply cut apart by the two Miniguns working in tandem. The soldiers manning the trenches began engaging the enemy infantrymen as quickly as they identify a target.
Several of the sergeants manning the various claymore anti-personnel mines started to detonate them as small clusters or groups of enemy soldiers started to coordinate their attacks against the American positions. Across the beach and trench line, there were airburst explosions from artillery and rockets throwing shrapnel everywhere. The cacophony of high explosives, machine guns, grenades, missiles and rockets was numbing.
SSG Allen tapped one of his heavy machine gunners on the shoulder and pointed towards a target. The gunner moved his gun towards a landing craft just as the front door dropped and opened fire. He quickly walked his stream of bullets through the entire landing craft as Chinese soldiers were desperately trying to crawl over the sides of the craft to get away from the slaughter. Within seconds, the machine gunner had killed nearly everyone in that landing craft before setting his sights on the next closest Chinese vehicle bringing more soldiers to the beach. While one soldier began to reload the M2, another soldier began to pour a bucket of water slowly across the red hot barrel. They did not have time to change the barrels, so they needed to cool the gun so it wouldn’t melt and become unserviceable.
Dozens of Chinese soldiers were getting bogged down in the concertina wire and the various anti-personnel obstacles that the engineers had placed in their paths. Several PLAN soldiers were trying to cut a hole through the wire when an artillery round exploded ten feet above the ground, throwing shrapnel and body parts everywhere. Despite the enormous losses the Chinese were taking; SSG Allen could see the enemy was starting to get off of the sandy beach and move inland. He was starting to get a little nervous. The Chinese appeared like a plague of locusts, consuming and destroying everything in their path.
Trying to remain positive, Paul continued to relay calming words of encouragement to the men and women in his platoon. It had been nearly twenty-five minutes since the first Chinese soldiers landed on the beach, and it was a bloodbath.
SSG Allen could see on his HUD that eight soldiers of his fifty-two-man platoon had been killed; another eleven more were injured and currently being treated by the medics. A couple of the wounded were being moved back to the second line of defense, while the others were being treated and thrown back into the fight. Near Bunker 34 (the machine gun bunker SSG Allen was directing his platoon from) was a steel door that led to a tunnel that went to the second trench line 500 meters behind them. Every fifty meters, the tunnel made a short right or left turn, preventing the enemy from being able to fire down the entire tunnel or shoot a rocket down it. If it appeared that their position was going to be overrun, this would be the tunnel where the platoon would attempt to make their great escape. When the last soldier closed the door, there were several heavy bolts that would lock the door in place, and at the end of each tunnel section there was a charge that could be detonated, imploding that portion of the tunnel and preventing the enemy from being able to use it.
While SSG Allen was watching the medics move two wounded soldiers to the rear, he looked up and saw the third wave of landing craft heading towards their position. Paul contacted the company commander on his HUD, “Captain Shiller, this is SSG Allen; the Chinese are continuing to bring in additional landing craft. We need an air strike or additional artillery support to help take them out!”
“Copy that Allen. I will try to get some air support, but artillery will be our best option.”
“I’m not sure we can hold up against a third wave, Sir,” Paul responded. “We more or less stopped the first wave at the beach. The second wave has made it past the beach and is nearly at our current position. A third wave will likely overrun us…”
“A platoon of Pershing Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and several armored personnel carriers are moving up to your position. Hold the line; support will be there soon!”
Sergeant John Porter moved his Pershing MBT right behind Bunker 34 as he was directed to and immediately began to engage the landing craft and amphibious vehicles heading towards the beach. Porter could not believe his eyes; the horizon was covered with landing craft. He took a deep breath, then turned to PFC Higgins, his tank operator. “It’s time for us to start engaging targets; as I call them out, you begin to fire.”
“Roger.”
Porter keyed his sights in until he identified an amphibious assault craft. “Fire!” he commanded.
“Firing,” Higgins responded.
In quick succession, Porter’s tank began to engage one craft after another, destroying them swiftly. In just moments, they had taken out twelve landing craft before they could get to the beach.
Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked a nearby location, filling their chests with the reverberation of the sound vibrations. Once Porter had recovered from the shock, he grabbed his scope and saw that to their left, Sergeant Louis’ Pershing had exploded from a direct hit.
Several more blasts rocked Porter’s tank as Chinese destroyers began engaging his tank. Porter was about to give the order for them to reposition when the tank was impacted with a direct hit. In an instant, the cabin was on fire. Sergeant Porter just could not get the hatch open fast enough… the tank exploded.
SSG Allen’s bunker shook as the battle tank near them exploded. Additional ship and artillery rounds began to hit their bunker, rattling everyone in it. He was amazed at how many landing vehicles and amphibious vehicles had been destroyed by the tanks within just a few minutes of their arrival; it was tragic that they were destroyed so quickly. Fortunately for SSG Allen and his team, none of the rounds from the naval guns were flying at a flat enough trajectory to hit the gun slits in the bunker. The PLAN infantry had also made several attempts to hit their position with RPGs, but they had not gotten lucky so far.
PFC Gomez turned from his scope to provide an update, “SSG Allen, the third wave is getting ready to land, it looks like our tanks took out a few dozen of the larger landing crafts before they were destroyed.”
“Private Gomez, shift fire from the beach to those landing craft that are heading towards Bunker 33,” SSG Allen ordered.
“On it, Sergeant!”
Gomez shifted the .50 back to the water and fired a stream of rounds into one of the amphibious vehicles that was closing in on the beach. After firing a few dozen rounds into the vehicle, it exploded, killing all of its occupants. Gomez redirected fire to the next landing craft as it started to exit the water, driving up on the beach. Just as the vehicle dropped the rear ramp, it exploded; several PLAN infantrymen came running out of the vehicle on fire. Gomez quickly gunned them down.
As the third wave of naval infantry hit the beach, they quickly began to join their brethren, who had hunkered down behind anything that would stop a bullet. Suddenly, a massive surge of infantry began to rush Bunker 33 and the trench near it. SSG Allen saw a rather brave Chinese soldier jump up with an RPG7 and fire it at Bunker 33. His shot was perfectly aimed, and it hit the gun slit, exploding into the bunker. Within seconds, there was a small explosion inside of the bunker and the guns went silent. At that moment, SSG Allen yelled at Gomez, “Shift fire! Lay into them before they reach the bunker and trench line.”