Battlefield Korea

A Marine War

The Second Korean War was now four days old, and just as bloody as everyone had imagined it would be. The casualties continued to pour in by the hour, but progress was being made as US and ROK Forces continued to force the Korean People’s Army to retreat.

The Allies were now at the outskirts of what was once Pyongyang, when suddenly, large swaths of the KPA simply began to surrender. With no political or military leader in charge, the local commanders began to take matters into their own hands and started to capitulate in mass. Most of these units were running low on ammunition, water, food, and other essential supplies. They had also been mercilessly bombed by aircraft and artillery for four days straight. For them to fight on at this point meant certain death, and they knew it.

General Bennet walked over to the digital map displayed on the wall of a 72-inch LED touch screen, and looked at the overview of the entire war. There was an interactive, high-resolution image of the Korean Peninsula on screen, which several operations staff members kept updated with various allied unit positions, special forces team whereabouts, and enemy troop locations. If he wanted greater detail or information on a particular area of the map, he just needed to touch that area and it zoomed in, providing an additional layer of information. He could see all the way down to the battalion level if he chose to look that deeply.

As he studied the map, the area that concerned him the most was the northern part of the country that butted up to China. The Chinese had moved tens of thousands of soldiers across the northern border on the second day of the war and now they were moving those forces down the peninsula towards his troops.

The frontlines were continuing to move forward at a decent clip now that the US and ROK forces pushed through the first ten kilometers of the KPA’s defensive line. It certainly helped that the further they moved into enemy territory, the more enemy soldiers were surrendering (especially once they learned that Pyongyang had been destroyed).

The landing force of 65,000 US and ROK Marines that had been scheduled to invade near Pyongyang was being moved around the Korean peninsula and would conduct an amphibious assault at Hamhung, on the Sea of Japan. It was hoped these forces would catch the remnants of the KPA off guard and potentially force the remainder of the Korean soldiers there to surrender. It would also provide the allies with a strategic strongpoint as the main Chinese force continued to advance down the peninsula. The US Air Force had been pounding the living daylights out of the Chinese ground forces as they made their way down the Peninsula, destroying vast numbers of tanks and other armored vehicles. By the time they would reach the Allied forces, they were going to be thoroughly demoralized, or so it was hoped.

General Bennet was done surveying the map. There was no substitute in his mind to one-on-one human interaction. He eyed the group around him and walked over towards his Special Forces LNO to see if he had spoken with any of the units directly about their progress on reaching the DPRK capital. “How close are our forces to the outskirts of what’s left of Pyongyang?” he asked.

Colonel Franklin, who had taken over as General Bennet’s operations officer, replied, “A brigade from the 2^nd Infantry Division is starting to approach the outskirts now. They have been told to not get too close to the epicenter of the blast until it has been determined by the chemical warfare guys as being OK to approach. That should happen before the end of the day.”

The general and others in the room nodded at that. Very little of the city was left standing after the US dropped a 340-kiloton nuclear warhead on it. What was left were burnt out hulks of buildings. Until they could confirm the level of radiation still left in the blast area, they were not going to have any US or ROK units operate near or in it.

“How close are the Chinese?” Bennet asked his Special Forces LNO. 1^st Special Forces Group (1^st Group) had inserted several SF teams near the Chinese border to begin observing troop movements and to call in air and cruise missile attacks as targets presented themselves.

“The last team reported in a couple of hours ago letting us know the Chinese Army is roughly sixty miles from our most forward units. As you know, I’ve moved SF teams to a number of locations along the most likely routes they will use to engage our troops. When an aircraft comes available to provide an airstrike, they hit them hard. I reckon we’ve probably cost the PLA close to 5 % to 10 % casualty rate since they crossed the border,” the SF colonel said with a satisfied grin on his face.

General smiled at that knowledge. He only wished they had more aircraft from which to launch airstrikes. With the war still raging in Europe, the amount of aircraft the US could send to Korea was extremely limited. Bennet turned to his Air Force LNO, a Colonel Sutherbee, and asked, “How are we doing suppressing the enemy’s air defense units?”

Colonel Sutherbee had been a fighter pilot in charge of his own fighter wing in Germany when he had been injured during the surprise cruise missile attack, catching a piece of flying shrapnel in his left eye. He was lucky that he had not lost his eye or his sight, but he did have to fly back to Bethesda Hospital to have the shrapnel removed. After a couple of weeks of recovery, he was sent to Korea to become General Bennet’s Air Force LNO. He couldn’t fly anymore, but the Air Force deemed him as more than qualified to be the senior Air Force LNO to Allied Forces Korea.

“Better than we were yesterday,” Sutherbee answered. “We flew 67 weasel missions yesterday and lost nine aircraft. We thinned out the enemy air defense in this sector here,” he said, pointing on the map to an area near what was left of Pyongyang. “Right now, we are focusing our efforts on these two sectors, where the Marines are getting ready to land their forces. It’s also the last place where intelligence showed a sizable North Korean military element remaining.”

Sutherbee pointed at several places inside China next. “The issue we are running into now is along these areas in China. The PLA Air Force is starting to make a concerted effort there to intercept our aircraft in the Yellow Sea and in Northern parts of Korea. Our F-15s and F-22s are starting to tangle it up more and more over this section of the DPRK,” he explained.

“Are you going to be able to contain and defeat the Chinese Air Force going forward? I have a feeling the Chinese are only just getting started here in Korea,” said General Bennet.

Colonel Sutherbee sighed before answering, “It’s going to be tough, General. I won’t lie. Right now, it looks like the brunt of the Chinese air force is down south, beating the tar out of Taiwan. The Taiwanese are faring better than I thought they would, but that will only last for so long. Once they’ve secured Taiwan, those aircraft are going to shift North, and when that happens, we are going to be heavily outnumbered.”

“So much for ending this war quickly, this war is going to drag on for a long time…” Bennet thought to himself.

“What additional aircraft do we have coming from the States?” he asked.

“We have one squadron of F-22s and two additional squadrons of F-16s, due to arrive within the next week. Those are unfortunately only going to replace our losses, not increase our actual force. We lost a lot of good people and aircraft when Kunson was lost. The additional aircraft we were hoping to get from Australia are having to beef up our defenses in Guam, so we can’t rely on any additional help from the Aussies on this one,” the Colonel said glumly.

Another Captain walked up to the General. “Sir, the SecDef is on the video conference for you,” he said pointing to a computer monitor.

Bennet walked over to the desk and sat down in front of it. “It’s good to see you, Sir. What can I do for you?”

Jim Castle leaned in, which made his face appear larger on the computer screen. “I’ll get right down to it John. How soon can you mop up operations in Korea?”

General Bennet sat there, not sure what to say for just a moment-that question had kind of caught him off guard. “That is hard to say right now. I have over 80,000 Chinese soldiers moving down the Peninsula, and we still haven’t finished off the North Koreans yet,” he replied, knowing that wasn’t exactly the answer the SecDef was looking for.

“How many prisoners have you taken in the last five days?” Jim asked.

“Last count was somewhere around 162,000. I can’t tell you for certain how many of them are left. We wiped a lot of them out during the ‘Shock and Awe’ campaign, and then a lot more when we nuked them. The Japanese are moving 65,000 ground forces to our new beachhead at Hamhung once its established. That will strengthen our position there as we move to sever the country in half.”

Bennet took a quick swig of water and then continued. “The ROK is moving the vast majority of their forces to meet the Chinese head on. My plan is for US Forces to support the ROK while they lead the way in battling the Chinese. How many reinforcements are coming my way, and when will they arrive?”

Jim Castle leaned back in his chair. “John, I don’t have any reinforcements I can send you right now. Nearly everything we have is heading to Europe. The Russians are throwing everything they have at NATO right now, and we are so close to turning the tide of that war. The President wants me to focus all of our efforts on finishing off Russia; then we can pivot everything to the Pacific.”

“The President said the Pacific was going to be a Marine war. When will additional Marines start to arrive? Will I stay in command of ground forces in the PACOM area?” asked General Bennet, hoping to get some good news this time.

Smiling for a second, Jim replied, “In January, the first batch of 20,000 Marines will start to arrive. Once they do, 20,000 more will arrive each week from then on. You are going to remain the overall commander for allied forces in Korea. We’ll be appointing a new Marine Commander to take over as the PACOM Commander. As the President said, the Pacific is going to be a Marine war, at least until the war in Europe is finished,” he said with a smile on his face.

“The Marines are coming,” thought Bennet with a smirk. “God help the Chinese once the new Pacific army is fully formed up.”