Battlefield China

Chapter 3 Mongolia

Standing on top of the highest elevation above Ulaanbaatar, General Tony Wilde looked off to the east of the sprawling capital of Mongolia. Most of the snow had finally melted, though traces of it remained on peaks off in the distance. Warmer air was finally moving in from the Gobi Desert, drying everything out, which was good, considering his army would need to get moving soon. His grand army was spread out across a number of camps, and as he observed the men and women from afar, they looked like a well-organized troop of ants as they rushed about, completing their morning physical training. Others hurriedly worked on repairing and maintaining the immense number of vehicles and equipment needed to support such a large force. He put his hands on his hips and leaned back, straightening out his spine, admiring his soldiers like a beekeeper marvels at the inner workings of a beehive.

Turning to look back at the city, General Wilde saw the railyard. It was as busy as ever. Soldiers and local nationals steadily unloaded fuel and other necessary supplies. Next to the main yard was a series of new track lines his engineers had built, filled with flatbed train cars that were fully laden with a battalion of tanks, Stryker vehicles, munitions and fuel trucks. These flatbeds were going to be one of the key ingredients to capturing his next set of objectives.

Having seen what he needed to, General Wilde turned to his driver and signaled that he was ready to head back to his headquarters. It took them nearly thirty minutes to navigate the twisty turns of the road, and Wilde did his best not to admit that the journey made him just a little carsick.

The nausea subsided fairly quickly once he had his feet on the ground and could breathe fresh air again. He strode over to his office, a cavernous room that had been commandeered from the international airport. As he walked in the door, he was met by the familiar sight of the large map board hanging on one of the walls. On it were the outlines of the camps spread out around the Mongolian capital, color-coded supply lines, and arrows marking the most likely approaches they’d need to take to capture their overall objective, Beijing.

Next to the map stood a Dutch colonel, freshly arrived from the European front. “It’s quite the logistical challenge, isn’t it, General?” asked the colonel matter-of-factly.

Raising an eyebrow at the newcomer, Wilde replied, “That’s an astute assessment of the situation. You must by my new logistician.” The corner of his mouth curled up in a half-smile.

The colonel stuck his hand out. “Yes, Sir, I am,” he said warmly. “The name is Colonel Johan Willem, and it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard great things about the man who defeated the Indian and Russian armies of Siberia.”

General Wilde nodded approvingly. “Colonel Willem, General Cotton sent me an email a week ago about your transfer to my Army group,” he responded. “He told me you were one of the most capable officers he’d ever worked with. He said if anyone could handle this logistical quandary, it would be you.” He paused for just a moment, then his tone changed. “I’m eager to get things moving, and we don’t have a lot of time.”

The two of them turned back to the map board, and Wilde brought him briefly up to speed on what he had done up to that point.

Colonel Willem scratched his chin in thought as he absorbed the information. “If I could, General, I believe your biggest challenge is going to be keeping the Army group properly fueled and maintained,” he offered. “Armored vehicles unfortunately need a lot of love; they tend to break down if they’re not properly taken care of, and this harsh environment out here will make maintaining them a lot harder.”

Wilde nodded.

The Dutch colonel seemed to suddenly remember something. “Last night I took an unannounced tour of the railyards, and I must say I’m impressed. Having your engineers build a series of rail lines off the main line and loading them up with flat cars to move your heavy armor is brilliant. I’m not sure I would have thought of that. If I may, what is your objective with them? How do you plan on making use of the rail lines? I have to assume the Chinese are actively sabotaging them, no?” Willem inquired.

“You would be correct on that count, Colonel. I have near-constant drone cover of the rail lines, and we routinely hit small raiding parties with drone strikes. As a segment gets blown up, we replace it quickly.” Wilde sighed. “The road infrastructure in Mongolia is crappy at best. I can’t move most of my armor across these roads without further destroying it. My goal is to use the rail lines as much as possible to move my army as close to the front lines as I can.”

The general pointed on the map to the city of Baiyinchaganzhen. “Right now, my goal is to capture this city, just across the border in Inner Mongolia, China. It’s a major railhead connecting the two countries. Once we take control of this city, we’ll be able to start transporting my Army group across nearly seven hundred kilometers of empty wasteland. I’ve had Baiyinchaganzhen under surveillance now for five months — the Chinese have it garrisoned with a mechanized infantry battalion and a battalion of light infantry. I don’t believe the Chinese think we’re a threat because of how far away we are, or they would have started to build up some defenses. Heck, they haven’t even torn the railyard up.”

Colonel Willem nodded in approval. “This is brilliant, General, but how are you going to seize the railyard and the city before the garrison destroys it?”

“I spoke with General Bennet about this problem. What I need is an airborne force. Sadly, I cannot currently have any of the airborne forces from Europe or elsewhere in Asia. He’s got them committed elsewhere. However, now that the Indians have officially surrendered, he’s granting me control of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers for the mission. While he won’t let me keep the battalion for long, he said we can use them to capture the city and the railhead. My question to you, Colonel, is how should we have the Rangers capture the city? Should we have them go in overland or through a direct airborne assault?” Wilde had his own views, but he was interested to see things from a logistician’s perspective.

“Does the enemy have a lot of air assets or air defenses in the vicinity?” asked Willem.

“Nothing of note,” Wilde responded. “There’s a handful of antiaircraft guns and a couple of SAMs in the area, but we’d take them out in advance of the attack.”

“I’d do both, then,” Colonel Willem asserted. “Have some of the Rangers parachute in behind the city and set up on this ridge here. That would draw the enemy out, away from the railhead and the border. Then you can have some of the Rangers move in overland here, dashing in quickly to secure the railyard and this major road junction. If you can arrange for some good air support for them, they should have no problem holding the position long enough for additional reinforcements to arrive and relieve them. I would make sure you move one of your Stryker units to be within at least a four-to-six-hour drive of the city. The Strykers can move relatively fast, so that would be my choice of units to send in first.”

The two of them turned away from the map board and made their way toward Wilde’s enclosed office. They took seats next to each other on the chairs in front of his desk. “Colonel, keeping this army supplied, fed and fueled is going to be a nightmare,” explained General Wilde, running his fingers through his hair as he often did when he didn’t like a situation. “I’m not even sure we can do it and remain a combat-effective fighting force.”

“Hmmm,” was the only answer Willem offered at that moment.

“Despite the challenges, General Bennet and the rest of the Allies are depending on us to at least appear to be a credible threat to Beijing. If the PLA believes us to be a legitimate fighting force, then they will divert much-needed forces away from defending Beijing to confront us. The more enemy forces we can tie down in our area of record, the better chance our forces will have of defeating the main PLA Army in the east.”

“What’s my timeframe to get everything ready?” Colonel Willem asked.

“I’ve been given the order to capture the city by May twelfth. We have a little less than a month to get everything in place. Do you think you can do it?”

“It’s a tight deadline, but I think we can make it happen,” said Willem. “I’ve got a Dutch logistics unit arriving later today. These are my go-to guys. We’ll make it work.”