Battlefield Taiwan

The Red Storm

It had taken the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Southern Fleet several days to arrive on station not far from Hong Kong. Now the fleet would begin a 30-mile-wide circle around one of their man-made islands and Hong Kong as they prepared themselves for the opening salvos of the invasion of Taiwan.

Nearly three dozen submarines had moved forward to begin identifying and then engaging the Taiwanese navy and other surface ships that could pose a threat to the fleet. They had already identified one Australian and two American submarines that were monitoring their positions. Once the final order was given to attack Taiwan, Vice Admiral Shen would also issue the order to sink those three submarines. He was not about to let an American or Australian submarine get close enough to his fleet to do any damage.

Today was the second day since the Americans had nuked Shenyang, and Vice Admiral Shen was still reeling with anger. “The death of over five million people screams for vengeance,” he thought. “My countrymen will be marching in the streets if we don’t balance the scales of justice after America’s disproportional response to the attack on Oakland. But in a couple of hours, I will sink this Yankee fleet.”

As the Mao plowed through the calm waters of the South China Sea, Admiral Shen grew more and more impatient as he waited to receive the orders for his fleet to initiate their attack. He had been told their cyber-warfare groups were going to cause some problems for the Taiwanese, and the air force and navy needed to wait for confirmation that their attack had succeeded.

Shen reached down and picked up the glass of tea one of his aides had just poured for him. He raised the glass to his lips and took in the hot liquid, letting it warm him. After taking several more sips, Shen turned to his communications officer.

“Have we received the final orders from Beijing yet?” he asked for probably the fifth time in the last hour. His forces had a hard fix on these hostile submarines, and he wanted to sink them now, before his forces could lose track of them.

The officer was just about to say no when the printer warmed up and spat out a single sheet of paper. The officer pulled it off the printer, briefly reading it before passing it to the admiral.

“The orders have finally come,” Admiral Shen thought as he allowed a smile to spread across his face.

He stood up and made his way to the combat information center. As he briskly walked into the room, he tapped his knuckles on the wall to get his officers’ attention. “Send a flash message to our submarines and destroyers to immediately engage the Australian and American submarines. I want them sunk now,” he announced emphatically.

One of his officers asked, “Shall I send the order to the cruisers and other ships to begin firing their cruise missiles at their assigned targets?”

Admiral Shen turned to the commander who had asked the question and nodded while smiling. “Yes, tell the fleet to begin engaging our assigned targets. The airwings should stand by for orders. We are not going to launch our aircraft until the mainland has at least hit the Taiwanese airfields with a barrage of cruise missiles. They can absorb aircraft losses; we cannot,” he responded.

A flurry of activity began as his operations officers issued the myriad of orders for the fleet to begin combat operations. Within minutes of the orders being given, the Renhai destroyers in the fleet began to fire off their land-attack cruise missiles at their designated targets. The Luyang III destroyers let loose with a string of anti-ship missiles at the Taiwanese naval ships they had been monitoring, and the Jiangdao corvettes joined the fray, going after the American, Australian, and Taiwanese submarines they had been tracking. The air filled with anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles, and the war officially started.

The sky was clear, with not a cloud to be seen, and the air was relatively smooth as Major Wu’s H-20 stealth bomber flew steadily towards its launch point. Wu and his copilot watched with delight as the radar screen filled up with short-range missiles being fired from their homeland of mainland China to Formosa. A moment later, their radar began to pick up the hundreds of People’s Liberation Army Air Force fighters and fighter-bombers lifting off to head for their targets. By the time the Chinese fighters arrived over the island, all the Taiwanese air bases would have already been hit multiple times by air- and submarine-launched cruise missiles, cratering their runways and preventing the Taiwanese aircraft from being used to defend the island.

As they approached their launch points, dozens of the older H-6 bombers rose up to meet them and fell into formation with the stealth bombers. When their newer H-20 bombers fired off their Dong Hai-10 cruise missiles, they hoped to distract the US Air Force and make them believe that the older bombers had fired the shots.

“I hope this plan works and deceives the Americans,” Wu thought.

While the Americans knew of the development of the H-20, Chinese intelligence officials believed that so far, the US was still unaware that the bombers were combat-operational and being actively used. The PLAAF generals really hoped that once Formosa was secured, the H-20s would be unleashed on the American Pacific Fleet in Japan and once and for all cripple the American Navy.

As Major Wu checked and double-checked the weapon systems, the voice of their commander came over the radio. “All bombers, prepare to launch missiles on my command.”

Wu tensed up as he heard the order. His heart raced and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. As the tension grew, the minutes felt like hours. Finally, the voice of their commander broke the silence. “Fire all missiles and return to base.”

Wu toggled the safety switch off on his missiles and then depressed the red button on the side of his flight stick, firing off a missile each time he depressed it until he had expended his payload. One by one, the missiles dropped from the internal bomb bay from the rotary systems of each bomber, igniting and then flying off to hit their targets.

Each H-20 carried a total of eight cruise missiles, all of which whizzed through the air towards major Army installations and other key strategic strong points that Chinese intelligence had identified. Once the stealth bombers had fired off their missiles, they collectively turned and headed back to their base to rearm. The H-6 squadron that had joined them for the ruse also returned to base and waited to be called upon if a further deceptive plan required their services.