An even stranger effect had taken place behind the leading front of the piston. The consuming inferno of the explosions sucked in air from the surroundings to feed their fires. For tens of yards on either side of the blast-piston, everything was sucked towards the explosion, only to be met and hurled back again by the deadly blast waves. As the targeteers had said, it was the perfect suck-and-blow. This time, suck-and-blow would blend the six lines of bombs into a single whirling phalanx of Shockwaves, fire and fragments.
The leading end of the long black line landed just over a mile away from Lieutenant Wu Si Bo, the first of over a thousand five hundred pound bombs marching westward across the jagged mountains that surrounded Myitkyina. At first, they looked like a normal series of explosions, no different from the clouds of fire and smoke that had risen over the Australian base at Myitkyina during the artillery bombardments but, as the bombs started their cavalcade of devastation across the mountains, a shining silvery-blue wall of energy, the blast piston, formed in front, hiding the horrifying carnage that was following it.
As the blast piston tore through the Chipanese position, the exquisitely beautiful Shockwave smashed through everything in its path. The few things that survived the concussion wave were shredded by the whirling hailstorm of fragments and debris or burned in the roaring mass of explosions. It took only a minute for the blue-silver wall to reach Lieutenant Wu Si Bo and, to him, it seemed to approach slowly. As it neared his position, he reached out to touch it then the world burst and turned into fire.
Central Command Post, Triple Alliance Base, Myitkyina, Northern Burma
Major Ranjit was stunned beyond words. What had once been the lush, menacing green of the jungle-covered hills was now brown and bare. The trees, even the grass and bushes had been destroyed in the roaring cascade of bombs. Nothing, neither animal nor plant, could have survived.
Even as he watched, he heard a drone of engines. A transport aircraft, one with four engines, had dropped through the clouds on final approach. As it lined up with the runway, another came through the clouds, then another. Almost at the same time, there was a scream of jets, the four delta-winged bombers flew overhead, speed reduced to subsonic, goading any surviving guns into firing at them. Ranjit doubted there were any left to take up the challenge.
As they patrolled, the big transports started landing and started to disgorge the troops they were carrying. Troops, and food, and ammunition and artillery. At first Ranjit thought the troops were Ghurkas but through his binoculars he saw the short, stubby rifles with curved magazines. Thais. No matter, after 57 days, the siege of Myitkyina was over.
Chipanese Naval Headquarters, Imperial Fleet, Tokyo, Japan
Admiral Soriva knew something had happened as soon as he entered the building. The summons had been short and to the point. He was to report directly to Admiral Tameichi Hara immediately. He'd been on leave ever since he'd been relieved from command of his battleship division, and, in truth he'd never expected to be given another position in the Navy. He reminded himself, he didn't know he was receiving a posting now, he could simply being informed of his retirement. But surely, the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Navy wouldn't concern himself directly with that? And what was going on?
As he entered Admiral Hara's office, The CinC was reading a report. He looked up at Soriva standing before him. ''You have heard what has happened?”
Soriva shook his head. For three months, he'd carefully avoided reading anything or seeing anything. He'd been trying to regain some sort of inner peace after the fiasco of his last mission. Poor Idzumo might have had a better deal after all. He was at peace now.
“After the Americans forced us to abort your naval movement, Masanobu Tsuji put a back-up plan into action. Tsuji took three divisions of the Imperial Army, including the Imperial Guard, and deployed them in Northern Burma as a purported insurgency force. There was a ragtag of local tribes with them as local color but the force was Japanese. His authority to make such a deployment was highly questionable, that is one thing that is being investigated now. One thing is not questionable. The Triple Alliance asked the Americans for help and produced proof that the so-called Shan States Army was really Japanese regulars. As a result, the Americans obliged, in return for some substantial political and economic concessions of course. The Australians had precipitated the situation, by placing a full regiment of their division where it was vulnerable to a concentration of our forces in Northern Burma. The Americans obliterated our forces with their bombers.
Soriva shuddered, his mind filled with the pictures of orange-red mushroom clouds rising over the troops. Would the same be happening to Japan? “They used nuclear weapons?”
“Not against our troops, no. As you know, the whole crux of Tsuji's plan was to create a situation where we would fight the enemy on their territory and intermingled amongst them. Under those circumstances, the Americans would not be able to use nuclear weapons on what amounted to their own territory and their own people. Tsuji was convinced that Americans would be unable to fight without using their nuclear bombers and so this strategy offered a way of beating them without risking destruction. However, it appears he fundamentally miscalculated.
“The Americans hit our troops with conventional bombs but in such numbers and with such violence that they might as well have nuked us. Few of our troops survived, those that did will never be of any use to anybody. They are all deaf, some are insane, others have had their sense of balance destroyed. The Americans did use nuclear weapons against our fighters though; a squadron of Army Kawasakis that tried to intercept the American bombers was incinerated in mid-air.
“Admiral Soriva, I can think of no set of circumstances that could do more to thoroughly vindicate the actions you took when faced by American bombers. Tsuji's rashness and arrogance throw your own judgment and good sense into sharp relief.
“His Imperial Majesty was most perturbed by news of the destruction of our forces and wrote an Imperial Rescript expressing his deep concern to Colonel Tsuji.”
“Ah so that pest is dead then?” Any officer receiving such a Rescript would commit suicide on the spot.
“Not that one. Reportedly, he denounced it as a forgery and has disappeared somewhere into Western China. In the meantime, The Triple Alliance had consolidated its hold on Northern Burma and is undoing his work there. To make matters worse, the insurgency in Vietnam and Laos grows worse by the day. Admiral Soriva, Japan is being stretched on the rack.
“Which brings us to the subject of this meeting today. I am assigning you to a newly-created post within Imperial Naval Headquarters. The post is Head of the Navy Strategic Planning Directorate. You will report directly to me. Your duties will be to examine, in great detail, the strategic position of Japan, establish our naval priorities and determine what assets will be required to meet those requirements.
“The Army is establishing a similar position to examine Army priorities and the two of you will be required to work together. Failure by either of you will be considered to be a failure of you both. The future structure of the fleet will be based upon your decisions just as the future of the Army will be based on those of your counterpart. Whatever is superfluous to our needs will be scrapped to fund our real requirements.
“I am giving you a very heavy responsibility Admiral. Do not let me down. And please, do not delay in starting this task.”
Cockpit, B-60E “Flying Fiasco” U-Thapao, Thailand
Lieutenant C.J. O'Seven looked at the cockpit of the aircraft, his stomach sinking. Had his family's fabled luck deserted him? It had all started when his grandparents had come ashore at Ellis Island. Their family name, Ossenvierneira, had been beyond the spelling ability of the Irish-American immigration officer who'd shortened it to O'Seven. As immigrants they'd done well and prospered.