Branson sighed before continuing, “The issue is, they are keeping a large force near Brussels and the French border. It is as if they are already anticipating losing Germany and working on their next line of defense.”
“General Wade, what are your thoughts?” asked the President. General Wade, the SACEUR Commander in Brussels, was also attending the briefing via the 3D holograph.
“Sir, General Branson summed it up well. The Germans are fighting ferociously to keep the Russians out of their border along with the Dutch, but the rest of the EU forces, mainly the French, Belgians and Spanish, are digging in a secondary defensive line along the German/French, Belgian and Dutch borders. I’m having a hard time getting Chancellor Lowden to release the French, Belgium and Spanish Armies. They are also holding the Spanish forces in northern Italy, despite their needs up north.”
“What about the British, are they able to commit any forces to the continent?” asked the President curiously.
General Wade sighed again and said, “Unfortunately no. They have already committed three armored divisions with 70,000 troops. They have 25,000 soldiers in Iceland right now, and their main focus is on protecting the North Atlantic, Greenland-Iceland gap. The Russians have made numerous naval attempts to break through, but thus far have been repulsed. Their ground force is only about 250,000 soldiers. They have another 250,000 in training but it will take time before they are ready. Right now their main concern is defending their Island and the fighting in Norway — not the continent.”
President Stein knew this was going to be a problem long before the war started. “Generals, we knew this was a possibility; the EU army does not have a history of working together or being ready to defend their homeland. General Wade, how long can your forces hold out?” asked the President.
“If the Russians do not push hard, we can hold for a while longer. The problem we are facing is that the warm weather of summer almost certainly signals a new Russian offensive; once that happens we will most likely have to fall back. I believe we can make a stand at the French border, but there is no way we can hold all of Germany if the Russians really come at us,” General Wade responded, knowing this may not have been the answer the President wanted to hear.
“Thank you for your candor. I’m going to place a call to PM Blair and see if I can convince him to commit some additional forces to help you out. In the meantime, I want you to plan on a delaying defensive action if you do have to retreat through Germany. Make sure they pay for every yard, and then hold the line in France if that is what it comes down to. As you know, we have millions of men and women in training. We will have the force necessary to recapture whatever they take in time. I also want you to try and override the Chancellor and get those French and other forces into the fight. Remind them that they are part of NATO, and those forces fall under NATO Command and control, not national command and control,” said the President forcefully. “If I have to get involved, I will, but I would like this to get sorted out at the NATO level without me having to threaten them in order to get them involved in the war.”
General Branson saw the President was clearly getting incensed with the EU Chancellor, and wanted to change topics quickly before the President went down one of his anti-European tangents. He quickly changed the holograph maps to display the North Pacific, with a number of areas highlighted on it. “Mr. President, moving to Asia — the Chinese are nearly ready to make their move on Alaska. The intelligence we have seen from our sources and drones in Japan have identified six of their supercarriers and hundreds of additional ships and transports. At this point, it is only a matter of time before they set sail for Alaska. It’s about a two-week journey by sea once they leave. At present, the Navy has strung some of the approaches with mines, and we are mining all of the potential harbors and landing zones.”
The invasion of Alaska was a near certainty; the question had been when it would occur. It now appeared that the invasion would take place sometime in May of 2041, which meant that the Chinese would want to try and complete their operation before the end of the summer season. The President knew that if the Chinese were able to establish a secured foothold throughout the winter, then they would use it to launch their next offensive down into the rest of the country in the spring of ‘42.
The President had ordered nearly 400,000 troops to Alaska over the past four months to get them ready for the invasion. “What is the status of the defenses?” asked the President, curious to know how ready the army was.
“We have a two-pronged strategy for our forces in Alaska. The first is to meet them at the beach. As we identify the shores they will hit, we will shift forces to meet them. We are already readying the potential landing locations and fall back positions. This first strategy will bloody them, and prevent them from having an easy landing. We’ll give them a warm American welcome. The likely beaches are already being fortified with defenses, which will be heavily reinforced once it becomes clear where the Chinese are going to commit their forces,” Branson said while showing various images of the defenses under construction.
“The second strategy is for us to fight a continued delaying action of attack, a counter-attack strategy. We will stay in near constant contact with them, but continue to fall back. Our units will rotate troops in to the frontlines and various fall back positions, allowing them to gain some rest while the enemy is constantly having to fight. We are going to bleed them dry in Alaska,” General Branson said as he read off the talking points from his tablet.
“When the winter comes, we will continue to fight. The war will turn a bit more asymmetrical during the winter, and we will employ a lot more sniper operations, but they will get no reprieve during the winter. The guys at DARPA have come up with some sort of new sniper drone we plan to test in Alaska. I only bring it up because if it works, this will be a great addition to every infantry company to have on top of the existing surveillance drones. Come spring of ’42, we will have one million more troops ready, another 3,600 Pershing tanks, and an additional 2,500 Wolverines.”
“Do not forget the new Raptor suits; those are going to make a huge difference for our guys,” the President said, eager to start getting more of the newer tech involved.
General Branson added, “We take possession of the first 50,000 Raptor suits in June; we have the troops identified and are starting their initial training. These troops will be ready for combat in August.”
Director Rubio of the CIA interjected, “It’s going to be a tough fight, Mr. President. The intelligence we are getting from those mini satellites are really starting to pay off. We are seeing a massive troop movement in Russia as well; they are moving their invasion force into position. It truly is disappointing that we do not have the naval power to go after these fleets. There are hundreds of transports and other ships involved in this invasion, and we just do not have the naval capabilities to attack them.”
Admiral Juliano the Chief of Naval Operations spoke up, saying, “I have ordered nearly all of our submarines to the North Pacific. The British are also sending four submarines as well. Everyone knows the Swordfish drones are still in production. There is only so much that the Navy can do right now. The two Swordfish drones that we have are already proving their weight in gold, but we only have two. We have three new attack submarines being completed in July; we’ll have another five more completed by the end of the year. We have to remember it takes close to two years to manufacture a submarine.” The Admiral spoke in a defensive tone.