Monroe Doctrine by Rosone James & Watson Miranda

Author:Rosone, James & Watson, Miranda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Front Line Publishing Inc.
Published: 2022-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Operation Argonaut

Kadena Air Base

Okinawa, Japan

General David Gilbert looked at the clock, not believing how fast two hours had gone by. I wonder if Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith sat through something like this before the invasion of Iwo Jima, he thought before returning his attention to the map and the information the briefer was going over.

“On July twenty-second, the NATO Task Force–Anzac will initiate Operation Argonaut—the ground invasion of Taiwan. The NATO area of operation will focus on the southeastern coast of Taiwan along the landing zones labeled Anzac-North and Anzac-South, depositing their forces in the vicinity of Taitung City,” the Marine colonel explained as he pointed to two color-shaded sections denoting the north and south landing zones.

“Anzac-North will be led by Major General Ash McLachlan of the Australian Army’s 1st Division, while Anzac-South will be led by the Italian 1st San Marco Marine Regiment, a brigade from Spanish Marines, and the 108th Commando Company of the Korps Commandotroepen that’s been detached for this invasion from the German-Dutch Division Schnelle Kräfte. The Australian 2nd Division will operate as the reserve landing force.

“As the NATO force establishes their beachheads, the Australian contingent will advance along Highway 9 until they reach the city of Chishang and the Highway 20 interchange. Highway 20 is the main supply route or MSR that connects the eastern and western sides of the island and will be one of the main axes of advance any PLA reinforcements will have to travel down if they want to interdict our forces in the south.

“The Italian 1st San Marco Regiment will advance south along Highway 9 until it turns to the west and connects here at Fangshan. This is where Highway 9 connects with Highway 26, which leads to the cities of Checheng and Hengchun along the southern tip of the island, and Highway 1, which leads to Pingtung County and Kaohsiung City and the Port of Kaohsiung along the southwestern side of the island. It should be noted this is Taiwan’s largest port facility. With five terminals, twenty-three deepwater shipping berths, and one hundred and sixteen wharfs, it processes more than ten million shipping containers a year, so this is a big facility.

“Intelligence believes if we can convince the PLA that we’re making a play to capture the port, then they’ll likely release the bulk of their reserve forces they’re holding around the capital and shift them to the south to prevent us from capturing it. If this can be achieved, that means the PLA won’t have those reserves to reinforce their units opposing the Marines when they begin to land their forces in the north and central zones between Sunday, July twenty-sixth, and Thursday, July thirtieth,” the colonel explained before someone from the Australian contingent interrupted with a question.

“Excuse me, Colonel. I’m Colonel Terry Strahan, Australian Army. About this delay you mentioned between our forces landing in the south and the US Marines landing in the north and the central parts of the country—it seems to me

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