Pacific Alternate 01 Blitzkrieg Pacific by Max Lamirande

Author:Max Lamirande [Lamirande, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Alternative History
ISBN: 9798404617597
Google: bDrwzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2022-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

Siege battle

Assault on Singapore, April 9th, 1942

Taking a deep breath, soldier Ishiro Tanaka of the 18th Imperial Army Division wondered if he would survive this attack. It was not that he was afraid to die or unwilling to do so for the glory of the Emperor. It was just that he was human and wanted to live to see another day.

But his wish to do so was in serious jeopardy because of the assault he and his squad mates had been ordered to make. The men of the 18th that he was with were stuck in a dirty ditch in front of the Singapore defenses. The city was on an island, and for a time, it had resisted the IJA’s assault because the Allied commander had retired all his men across the body of water over what was called the Johore Strait Normal access had been destroyed by the retreating Allies when they blew up the giant causeway that linked the city to the mainland. It took time for the Nipponese forces to get organized, move the necessary artillery, Imperial engineers to make new pontoon bridges, and get the men loaded for another landing, this time directly in the island city.

As per standard Imperial procedure, they’d done so in the dead of night, but this time the Allies had been waiting for them and gave them hell as they got to the shore. The Japanese Navy continued to shell the defenses, and the air force even sent a powerful night raid. Still, it had not been enough, and Tanaka’s squad and others like it had been shredded as they’d exited the wild assortment of small transport ships and barges that the Army had assembled for the occasion. Ishiro didn’t know how many soldiers were dead on the Japanese sides of things, but he would have been appalled by the casualty rate that even high command kept well hidden even after the victorious conclusion of the battle. Over 40% of the 18th division was either dead or seriously injured from their landing.

Still, General Yamashita was happy, as first of all IJA commanders didn’t really care about casualty levels (they had so many men anyway), and second, the 18th was ashore and fighting, giving some measure of space for the engineers to make the pontoon bridges needed for the rest of his men.

Laying on his back, Tanaka watched the red tracer shells of the Imperial artillery arcing high over them to go and land into Singapore itself. The sight made him happy, and he longed for being done with the fighting and staying alive. The Japanese forces subjected the city to a non-stop bombardment since the start of the siege. While the enemy fire was unrelenting from his perspective, it had slackened in a general sense as Allied forces lost more and more men and their ammunition levels dwindled.

The whistle was blown, and the men of the 18th stirred from their muddy holes and leveled their guns at the enemy. Immediately, the Indo-British forces started to pour fire into the Jap ranks.

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