“The battle winners of yesteryear if flagrantly used today will only assist the enemy in his quest to find you first and kill you. A popular defence in nature is to be bigger and louder than the other dinosaur, wolf, bear or tiger. The less ferocious and less large just get out of the way faster or hide a lot better.” Dave had smiled at the captains’ analogy.
“The big guys hog the top of the food chain while the small but sprightly and the better at hide-and seek are hardly likely to become masters of the universe are they?” Signalling for refills for them both he had looked at Dave with an ironic smile.
“Yet here we are, king of the hill, top of the food chain, call it what you will, but the way we stay alive is to be quieter than the other guy and have smaller, more compact weapons of war with which to bash each other over the head with. It’s all rather un-natural really isn’t it?” Those had been possibly the only reasonably friendly words the captain had spoken to him.
The complex system he was sat before was powered down when the detour began. Not that power was a problem, the USS Commanche’s power plant could run a small town, but with no point in continuing the readings
It was just one extra piece of unnecessary noise.
Another vessel abroad on those frigid seas was crewed by a retired English couple whom had sold their home and sailed from the UK in a 30’ Ketch to visited kin in Australia and New Zealand. They had topped up their supplies in a small fishing village near the northern tip of Japan two days before. Homeward bound (ish) via a few dozen places they had never seen before. Their next stop was Alaska where they would then turn south for the Panama Canal via Canada, California and Mexico.
Captain Hong surveyed his domain for the first time from the bridge of his country’s flagship. Having only arrived four hours’ before he had been busy sorting out the chaos of getting his equally newly arrived crew into their quarters before the business of their training by the relatively small Russian crew began. Even though he was his county's most experienced destroyer captain, this was going to be something like going from roller skates to the steering wheel of a juggernaut overnight. He felt the ship heel over slightly into the wind and turned to look aft over the bridge wing. A twin engine Antonov transport aircraft could just barely be made out by its landing lights turning behind the ship on its approach. This would be his pilot’s first experience of a carrier landing… and none of them were behind the controls. He watched, as the aircraft seemed to stagger and then recover as its Russian pilot earned his keep staying on the correct glide path. If he had believed in God, Captain Hong would have thanked Christ that he had arrived by rotary wing means and not fixed!
Hong knew that he had only eight days after which time they would be at war with a country with six carrier groups in the Pacific. The Russian Admiral Kuznetsov carrier group was already in Chinese waters and they were due to join with the Mao in four days for a joint exercise but he had grave doubts that the time they had to prepare would be enough to match America’s years of carrier expertise. If, and it was a big if, the bombs at Pearl Harbour, San Diego, Sasebo and Yokosuka caught any of the US carriers and their logistics vessels at anchor, then they would only have three carrier groups to tackle. Land based airpower would sink the remainder if they attempted to intervene in the invasion plans of Japan, Taipei and the Philippines. The PLAA had 4000 combat aircraft in place to support the operation. Three regiments of Backfire bombers purchased from the Soviet Union just before the fall of their regime, were all nuclear capable and they were earmarked for carrier hunting. He was banking on those aircraft to cover his ships until they were capable of competent air operations. Which in reality was likely to be several weeks after the first shots were fired despite his having the best sailors his Navy could offer?
Once the US Seventh Fleets teeth were pulled China would have free rein to do as it wished. Travelling by rail was the never activated reactor built for the Ul’yanovsk before her untimely visit to the breakers. Plans were now in hand, using the Ul’yanovsk’s blue prints to begin building another carrier for the PLAN, but it would be two years at the earliest before she would be launched.
“Do you approve of your new command comrade?” Hong turned to face Vice Admiral Putchev.
“Pardon me for not welcoming you aboard but we are short-handed and there was a problem in engineering.” Said the Russian who had a smudge of oil on the side of his neck and wore under his greatcoat a pair of coveralls that had seen much service.
Hong kept his face from showing surprise, firstly the man’s command of his language was very good and secondly no command level officer in his navy would ever consider getting his hands dirty on such a task.
“I was unaware that you were a qualified ships engineer comrade Admiral?” He received a broad grin in return.
“I am baffled by the workings of my daughters motor scooter engine Captain. My engineering staff required extra muscle rather than genius and I happened to be passing.” And that would definitely never happen on a PLAN warship.
Twisting to peer at his new home, Lieutenant Fu Shen was aboard the second Antonov carrying pilots to the ship. The young officer was actually thrilling at the prospect of his first landing on a carrier, unlike his squadron commander, Major Lee who was sat bolt upright in his seat and looking neither left nor right. His knuckles were white where they gripped his knees. After a nightmare journey just to get this far they would have a few hours’ sleep before flying off in the early hours’ to practice carrier landings on a very forgiving military air station. The Russian Naval Air Station runway was equipped with arrester wire gear on the coast near Ust’-Kanichtsk. Whilst the Mao group sailed in circles for four days the brand new air group would train. They had two days in which to become sufficiently skilled at landing in both day and night in the relatively safe surroundings of the rock steady practice ground on land before practising the same thing on the Mao.
The Antonov lurched in the air as the unpredictable updrafts toyed with it. Lt Fu Shen clapped his hands with glee whilst opposite him Major Lee closed his eyes and wished he had joined the infantry.
No matter where you are in the world, if you are in the British Army and not already engaged in some actual work, 0815hrs means muster parade. At 0810hrs the tuneless bellow of
“Right then… Get-outside-and-get-fell-in!” will reverberate through barrack rooms. The sick, lame and lazy, as all those on restricted duties are known, are also required to be there unless they have a ‘sick chit’ from the MO, medical officer, expressively excusing them. WO2s, the Company, Squadron and Battery Sergeant Majors ‘Call the Roll’ and lord have mercy on any latecomers and those absent without reasonable excuse! Christmas day is the WOs tonsils only day off.
At this official start of the Army’s working day all matter of business is dispensed, from soldiers being shouted at and reported for ‘dirty boots’ (not polished and buffed in the past 15 minutes) to the verbal notification of the day’s events. ‘Postings Out’ and courses are also announced despite the fact that all of the above will have been posted on the Company/Squadron/Battery notice board outside the Company Office the previous afternoon in Company Orders/Daily Detail.