World War 1990: Anzacs by William Stroock

Author:William Stroock [Stroock, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

Haiphong, Beach Red

General Bosch was not pleased, first the late news about the American B-52s now this crisis. ‘Talk fast, Colonel Jenkins.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Jenkins was about to defend his decision to send a flying column north against the airport but several machineguns cut him off.

‘Don’t let those machineguns trip you up, Colonel,’ said General Bosch.

‘Well, Captain Baker…’

Bosch wasn’t really listening. Instead he bit his lower lip in consternation. Both the 1st Armoured and 2nd Cavalry Regiments were busy deploying. Indeed all around the two officers were tanks, APCs, artillery pieces and NCOs screaming at their men to get moving and get off the beach. Tobruk had already disembarked while the pair of Malaysian and Singaporean assault ships were preparing to raise their ramps and steam out to the fleet.

‘…Captain Baker was very persuasive.’

General Bosch said, ‘And you agreed?’

‘I just didn’t want to be caught here on the beach when the airport was wide open.’

‘But the airport isn’t open, is it, Colonel?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Certainly not judging by that machinegun fire,’ General Bosch said. ‘Those are Vietnamese guns, not ours,’ Bosch chastised. ‘And now you’ve lost this….what do you call it?’

‘Task Force Baker, sir.’

‘Four tanks and four jeeps are lost.’

‘Well, they’re out there someplace.’

‘Someplace?’

Colonel Jenkins said nothing.

‘Summon your executive officer.’

‘Lt. Colonel Dawson, yes, sir.’

As Jenkins got his XO, General Bosch pondered the supreme stupidity of the situation and determined to try to find a way out of it himself. He walked over to Jenkins’ APC and ordered the radioman to raise Task Force Baker.

‘I have them, sir.’

General Bosch took the receiver. ‘Get me a map,’ he said to the radioman.

‘Right here, sir.’

Bosch sat down and spread the small map over his knees. Quickly he located his position and the airport.

‘Task Force Baker, this is Bosch.’

‘General Bosch?’ Baker said on the other end. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Where are you?’

Baker relayed the grid reference.

‘Do they know where you are?’

‘I don’t think so, sir.’

‘Good. You are lucky. Find a place to hunker down and laager. We’ll come to you. Bosch out.’

General Bosch gave the receiver back to the radioman. He stood outside the track, hands on his hips and thought. The loss of a reinforced squadron would be a disaster. He planned to consolidate and gather his strength for one strong push against the airport. But that wasn’t possible now. And General Grey would want an update. Telling him that he’d lost a squadron was out of the question. He had to act.

By the time General Bosch made up his mind, Jenkins returned with Lt. Colonel Dawson.

‘Ah, good, Colonel,’ General said. ‘Colonel Jenkins, you’re fired!’

‘But…’

‘Get on one of those assault ships and get out of here!’

Jenkins stood stunned for a moment.

‘Now, Colonel.’

Jenkins saluted and left.

‘Lt. Colonel Dawson, you now command this regiment.’

‘Yes, General.’

‘Get organized and ready to advance. You have fifteen minutes.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘And get to Task Force Baker.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Lt. Colonel Dawson saluted and ran down to the beach to get the last of the APCs deployed.

Bloody Hell, General Bosch thought. We need to get moving now or this is going to be a bloodbath.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.