*****
“Submarine command center, fire full torpedoes towards the frigates,” continued Colonel Patterson calmly. He had a fantastic view of the battlefield below and around his position, all the way over to the Global Terminal. “They are coming about and will pass in front of you about 400 yards out in 50 seconds. At that range, they should be sitting ducks with all their attention on the north side. I believe that you will only have one chance to take out both ships, sailors, because our boys are taking one hell of a pounding up there. Snipers, commence firing! The cat is out of the bag. Artillery, I want you to wait for the more powerful destroyers and keep your sights on them as they enter under the bridge. They are only a mile away and are at full steam coming in with their guns blazing hot. Shit, there are aircraft readying for take-off from the aircraft carrier. Don’t they know they can’t take off in a strong side wind? It must be a 20-knot wind out there.”
He watched in wonder as the first fighter left the carrier, its pilot totally inexperienced with any form of carrier take-offs other than perfect ones, and his aircraft left the forward part of the deck, flipped over and dove right into the sea. The second pilot, a quick learner, managed not to get his wing pulled over by the breeze and slowly wobbled his aircraft into the air. He was too close to the bridge as the third one also took off and followed the second one up into the air in a wobbly ascent. The second aircraft flew between the destroyers and directly under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, where there was a Mutt waiting with a TOW. It blew up and crashed into the water.
The third fighter tried hard to turn before the bridge and slammed into the pylons in the middle of the bridge under full power, with exploding debris flying in all directions on the roadway before tumbling and hitting the water. The fourth pilot dove into the water like the first one.
*****
The Chinese Air Force commander on the carrier stopped the final aircraft from taking off, and the chairman pulled out a pistol he had in his belt and shot the man in the forehead. He did not like his orders being interfered with.
The frigates pounded the northern area, and smoke poured from the area as the destroyers reached the bridge and stopped firing at the shore. Suddenly both frigates lit up and rose out of the water like lighted candles as torpedoes hit each of them from end to end, immediately blowing up their fuel bunkers and ammunition holds. Nobody aboard had even had time to sound the alarm as the torpedoes came in fast and accurate. The two most modern frigates of the Chinese Navy slumped back into the water and disappeared within seconds, only their very top towers standing out above the water level. The destroyers had already changed course and headed into the area.
*****
“All Howitzers, submarines, fire at will. Spotters, help the submarines, they are pretty blind. South shore anti-aircraft guns and missiles, get the rest of those fighter aircraft. They are incoming from the south and looking for trouble. The carrier is still a quarter of a mile from the bridge and still incoming. All aircraft get your asses off the ground—we need air cover in ten minutes!”
Suddenly, the colonel couldn’t hear himself speak as every gun around the harbor threw whatever it had at the two destroyers, both at full speed at about 30 knots and blowing holes into anything they thought deadly. The colonel watched as dozens of white tarpaulins had been pulled away from the howitzers, and as in a ballet, they all turned together to face the destroyers that were broadside to many of them and the air below him completely filled with lead.
There were dozens of guns on each ship, and everything they had lit up to fight back. The 155mm rounds began hitting the sides of the ships, and some were so close that they went into the hardened armor and one of the destroyers lit up like both of the frigates had done and literally rose into the air, her bow leaving the water for a split second and then crashing down. It kept going, explosions erupting from every part of her, and she went straight down and keeled over showing her hull.
Colonel Patterson directed the fire onto the second destroyer as the aircraft came over for a second sweep, and several big guns blew up on the south side in the park—two of the aircraft never made it out of their dives and went straight in, killing many soldiers.
He could only see three remaining aircraft, and they were heading south and coming in for a third run when he looked over towards the aircraft carrier. She must have had her engines in reverse, as mountains of water was rising up her rear end, but she was still coming forward at about 15 knots, now only 200 yards from the bridge.
The colonel looked back into the harbor area, telling the engineers with the explosives on the bridge to get ready. The second destroyer was plastering the south shore as he saw three torpedoes head in her direction. They were aimed towards her aft and she nimbly turned to face the area and the torpedoes passed her by.
The next two torpedoes were side by side, and 100 yards behind the first three. She sprayed the water area around the shoreline with fast antisubmarine guns. There was a large balloon of water as one of the submarines must have taken a direct hit before the destroyer herself leaned horribly over as the two torpedoes hit her on her starboard bow area. Both torpedoes had come from the submarine she had just hit and they opened up her bow like a can of sardines. This time, there was no explosion. She just slowed and began sinking from the bow, her tail lifting out of the water. She slid most of the way into the water before she stopped—her bow must have touched bottom.
The aircraft carrier’s bow slipped under the bridge several hundred feet below Colonel Patterson, still moving forward at three to four knots, her engines still in reverse. Slowly she was being brought to a halt.
The last fighter, desperate to remain alive, tried to come in from the east onto her aft deck. The sprays of water literally lifted the aircraft up and threw it 100 feet forward onto the deck, where it exploded into a ball of flame. This set off a massive explosion where the supplies had been placed on the deck and a second, even larger explosion sent shock waves all the way up to where Colonel Patterson calmly watched.
There wasn’t much left to do, apart from looking at the aircraft carrier trying its best to get into reverse, but even though the engines were working at full power, it took a lot of time for a ship of that size to change direction. The smoke from the area was everywhere, and all of the firing from the big guns had stopped.
Colonel Patterson asked about aircraft. Their own F-4s were now overhead, and two of the pilots stated that they were already forcing one of the enemy aircraft down into Newark and there were two more, empty of weapons, that needed guidance and they wanted to collect. Preston came on the air stating that he, Carlos and Martie had one aircraft between them and were working on forcing it down into JFK. The third gunship came on line a few seconds later saying that it was being helped by Blue Moon to show a third pilot the way into Newark. The F-4 pilots stated that theirs was now down—one of the F-4s was flying on top of it so that it couldn’t take off again, so the other two screamed up to search for any remaining aircraft.
This was all happening while Colonel Patterson kept his eyes on the aircraft carrier and his ears glued to the radio announcements. Suddenly the aircraft carrier’s smaller guns started blasting away at the aircraft in the sky, tracers going up from the forward area inside the harbor and its rear guns outside the harbor mouth. It took another three seconds before the massive tower of the aircraft carrier towered directly under the middle of the bridge. Its forward movement stopped, and it slowly, inch by inch, started moving backwards, back out to sea.