Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

Crash Course

Gunnery Sergeant Thornton had just finished cleaning his M5 AIR when one of his junior sergeants walked into the tent with a handful of new replacements. “Sergeant Thornton, I was on my way back from headquarters when I was told these ten Marines were our replacements. This is Corporal Lewis; he’s the senior guy with the replacements. The rest are outside the tent, if you want to speak with them,” Sergeant Miller said, introducing the corporal to his new platoon sergeant.

Sergeant Thornton sat there for a moment, looking over the corporal and trying to mentally assess him. “Corporal Lewis, have you or any of the other guys with you seen any combat?”

“No, Sergeant. I’m a reservist; the rest of the guys are either fresh from boot camp or were working some sort of non-infantry positions before we were all shipped out,” Corporal Lewis said, knowing that was not the answer Sergeant Thornton was hoping to hear.

“I appreciate your candor Corporal. Take a seat and I’ll bring you up to speed a bit before handing you off to one of the other sergeants. I’m going to filter you replacements evenly among the squads. I’m not sure if you know or not, but our platoon had a 63 % casualty rate. We were part of the first wave to hit the Suez, and then we spent the next three weeks fighting the IR north of Eilat.” Corporal Lewis’s face looked nervous, and a bit scared. Sergeant Thornton remembered that same look on his own face, right before they left the troop carrier for the Suez.

“The most important thing that I can tell you is to stay alert and listen to those who have been here longer. These IR guys are not taking any prisoners, and neither are we. They attack in massive human waves when they do attack, so be ready when that happens. Now they say we are facing the Chinese. Well, I’ve never fought the Chinese before, so I can’t give you any words of wisdom with them. Just remember your training; fight like a man possessed, and remember, there is no surrender. They will crucify you,” Sergeant Thornton said in an icy tone. He could see on the face of Corporal Lewis that he was still digesting what he had been told and did not care for it one bit.

“Word has it we are going to be moving back to the frontlines around midnight. There is supposed to be a possible Chinese assault sometime tomorrow, so they want us to reinforce the Israeli positions. Once you get to your assigned squad, get your fire team ready for action and try to grab a couple of hours of sleep. If you have any further questions, ask your squad sergeant; he’ll provide you with whatever information he knows,” Sergeant Thornton concluded. He dismissed the newly arrived Corporal, who was still in a state of bewilderment.

By 0500 the following morning, Gunnery Sergeant Thornton’s platoon had been filtered into a short network of trenches and foxholes that the Israelis were using. His group of fifty-four Marines had been integrated into an Israeli company holding this part of the Eilat line in the ruins of Aqaba (most of the city of Aqaba had been turned into rubble with the back and forth fighting between the Israelis, Marines and IR forces). When the Chinese had attacked, the allied forces fell back to the ruins and turned them into a defensive network and trap to prevent the Chinese from moving into Eilat or the rest of Southern Israel.

At 0530, the Chinese began to bombard the ruins of the city and the allied positions with artillery and rocket fire. The explosions were kicking up a storm of dust and smoke; however, through the haze, Gunny Thornton could see Chinese infantry units moving forwards towards their lines. When his eyes focused a little harder, he could make out that the advancing infantry was fortunately not equipped with the new exoskeleton combat suits; he breathed a sigh of relief knowing that at least they were going up against the regular PLA infantry. Those suits would have given the advancing horde a huge physical and technical advantage over the Allies; luckily, only a limited number of the Chinese Naval Infantry units had them, and so far they had only been used in the Pacific. Gunny Thornton found himself wishing that he had an exoskeleton suit; rumor had it that the Army and Marines were going to be bringing their own suits to the fight soon.

Thornton began issuing orders to the rest of his men. “Standby to engage the enemy. We need to wait until the new targets have been acquired in our HUDs.”

The Gunny linked the images his heat imaging scope identified with his HUD so that the rest of the platoon could see what he was seeing.

Grabbing the attention of the appropriate Israeli counterpart, he instructed, “There is a pending infantry attack. Follow our lead when we start to engage the enemy; since you guys don’t have the HUDs; we will be showing you where the targets are.” Although the IDF was starting to receive the same HUD and M5 AIRs that the US was using, not all of the units had them yet.

“Acknowledged,” was the only reply. This particular IDF fighter was not exactly the conversational type.

There were a few tense moments of waiting. As the Chinese infantry came to within 200 meters of their positions, Gunny Thornton shouted, “Open fire!”

Within seconds, 60+ Chinese infantry collapsed dead in their tracks. The M5 Advanced Infantry Rifle (AIR) was an incredible killing machine; it had a range in excess of 2,000 meters, and fired a .25mm projectile at speeds of Mach 5. It was the only tactical infantry railgun rifle in the world. The power pack (which was attached to the buttstock of the rifle) could provide enough power to fire 2,500 projectiles, or ten magazines, and had a digital number counter on it that could help a solider keep track of when the battery pack needed to be replaced. The projectiles travelled at such a high speed that they were able to penetrate all forms of body armor and lightly armored vehicles.

Once the Marines opened fire, the Israelis joined in, adding their own weapons to the fray. While dozens of Chinese soldiers were being mowed down, half a dozen light drone tanks started to move forward from around the rubble of what used to be the Radisson Blue hotel. The tanks stopped briefly, and began to fire high explosive rounds at the Marines and IDF, while more Chinese infantry moved forward.

Gunny Thornton saw in his HUD that several of his Marines were killed by one of the light drone tanks. “Someone get those Anti-Tank 6s or AT6s, and take out those tanks!” yelled Thornton to his anti-tank team. The AT6 was the sixth generation of anti-tank rockets used by American infantrymen; it was three feet in length and fired a one shot, High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rocket. It could destroy most main battle tanks, and was extremely effective against light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. It was the perfect anti-tank weapon for the light infantry.

Wooossshhh… three rockets raced away from the Marine lines and headed straight for the Chinese light tanks.

BAM!.. Boom!

All three rockets struck their targets, and the tanks immediately began to explode as their ammunition started to cook off.

Red and green tracers and thousands of bullets were flying through the air, crisscrossing back and forth between the Marines, IDF and Chinese as the infantry continued to advance. Slowly and steadily, the Chinese soldiers pushed forward until the two groups were within fifty meters of each other, throwing grenades and shooting each other up close and personal. While the Marines and IDF soldiers were heavily engaged with the Chinese soldiers to their immediate front, a massive human wave of soldiers was forming further behind the Chinese lines.

The whistling of artillery could be heard as the Chinese began to land additional high explosive rounds amongst their own soldiers in an attempt to kill more Marines and Israeli soldiers. Their horde rushed forward. Somehow the Marines and Israelis had managed to recover from this latest round of attack; they started killing off the remaining Chinese soldiers in front of them. Before another minute had gone by though, they looked up to see a massive swarm of new soldiers screaming at the top of their lungs, headed right for them.

Thornton immediately got on the radio. “This is Gunny Thornton. We need artillery and mortar support now! Engage in predetermined pattern Bravo.” He shouted to the Company’s artillery LNO.

Hitting the button on his BH, he switched over to address his men, “Engage them from maximum range, and be prepared for hand-to-hand combat if necessary.”

Just as the Chinese got to within 200 meters of the Marines position, dozens of artillery and mortar rounds started to land all around the Chinese soldiers, decimating their ranks. Bodies were being flung around like rag dolls as 155mm artillery rounds and 81mm mortar rounds continued to rain down on the Chinese. As the fighters got closer to the Marine positions, it quickly became apparent they were really going to have to fight them hand-to-hand.

During the equipment refit several weeks ago, the Marines had been issued World War I style trench knives, which amounted to brass knuckles with a six-inch blade for close quarters fighting. The trench knives were strapped to the left or right boot of the Marine, depending on which hand was dominant. Some Marines even carried one on each boot. As the Chinese neared their positions with their bayonets fixed, the Marines parried their lunges and reached for their trench knives. The fighting quickly devolved into primal bloody combat as the Israelis and the Marines grappled for their very lives.

After nearly three hours of fighting and ten minutes of hand-to-hand conflict, the Chinese fell back to their old positions under the cover of a short artillery barrage. Up until now, the PLA had not fought against a well-trained and determined enemy. They were starting to find out just how tough the Americans and Israelis really were as thousands of their fellow countrymen lay dead, wounded and torn apart all across the ground between their positions and the Americans.

By the time the battle was over, Gunny Thornton could see he was down another nine Marines killed and nineteen injured. Of the nineteen wounded, twelve had to be moved back to the aid stations and would not be returning. His platoon had just gone from fifty-two Marines to twenty-four. He reported his losses to headquarters and requested additional reinforcements or a replacement platoon be sent forward. The Israelis still had close to a hundred able bodied soldiers, though they had taken close to ninety casualties as well.

Gunny Thornton’s platoon was ordered to fall back to battalion headquarters with the rest of the company. Another platoon was moving in to their position. One of the three remaining officers in the company had been killed, while another had been wounded, leaving the newest officer (a second lieutenant who had only been with the company for five days) in charge.

As Thornton was sitting with his platoon cleaning their weapons after the morning fight, he saw a major walking towards him. Then he noticed the man was his old lieutenant, Jack Lee. “Sir, it’s good to see you. Congratulations on the promotion. A major now, eh?” Gunny Thornton said with a warm smile and a handshake. No one dared salute an officer near the frontlines, it identified them as someone important and made them a target for snipers.

“It’s good to see you to Joe; I’m glad you’ve made it through all of this. Our company has taken so many losses since we arrived here last month,” Major Lee replied.

“It has been rough, but we are still here. What brings you over to my platoon?” asked Thornton.

“Well, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?” asked Major Lee.

“Ah. Give me the good news. I’ve had plenty of bad news lately.”

Smiling, Major Lee said, “Congratulations, you’ve been given a battlefield commission. You’ve officially been promoted to 1^st Lieutenant.

With a look of surprise, and eyes wide as saucers he managed to stammer, “What? I was just promoted to Gunnery Sergeant.”

Knowing Thornton might not be happy with a commission, Lee went on to explain the decision. “The Marines have taken some terrible losses, and you know that as well as anyone else. We’ve also lost a lot of Marine officers. Your company is a case in point. You should have five officers in your company; instead you only had three, and all were replacements. Now you are down to one, and he’s a brand new guy fresh out of officer training school. You are a damn good Marine Thornton. When asked who I would promote to officer out of your company, you were top of my list. That is why you are being promoted to 1^st Lieutenant. You will be taking over command of the company. I’m also promoting two more senior NCOs in the company as well. We need more officers and NCOs… right now we are short on both,” Major Lee said. There was just a hint of sternness in his voice, enough to convey that he did not have a choice in the matter.

Joe could see that Major Lee might just be a little annoyed at him for not being more excited about this promotion. He had probably stuck his neck out to get him moved up the ranks, and now it might appear that he was wrong. Joe moved to correct the direction of the conversation. “Thank you for the promotion sir. I did not mean to come across as ungrateful; I was just a bit surprised.”

Major Lee was relieved Thornton was not going to make a bigger issue out of this and continued, “It will be an adjustment, but I am confident you will rise to the challenge and lead your company. You will need to make sure you attend the daily command briefings or send someone in your place. I’m transferring a senior first sergeant to your company to help you out with the administrative part. He knows you’ve just been promoted, so you do not need to explain anything to him. I also wanted to let you know that you have been awarded three medals: A Silver Star for combat action during the battle for Be’er Sheva, a Bronze Star for action during the capture of the Suez Canal, and the Purple Heart for that shrapnel you got in your arm during the battle for Be’er Sheva. We will try to hold a ceremony for everyone being awarded medals in the near future.”

“Wow, thank you Sir, I am not sure what to say to that, other than I was just doing my job, and so were my Marines,” 1^st lieutenant Thornton replied.

“A lot of Marines did their duty, and a lot of them are going to be recognized for it. Before I leave I have one more piece of bad information I need to give you. Our battalion is being moved to the rear to be reinforced. Once we have received our replacements, we will be shifting positions and moving north as an anti-tank unit to support the armor as they fight the Russians.”

“Well, it’s not as bad as I thought — fighting Russians or fighting Chinese does not really matter. Either one can kill you just the same,” Thornton said, resigned to their fate.

With the business of promoting Thornton done, Major Lee moved on to find the other two NCOs he was turning into officers as well. The Marines had lost close to 5,548 personnel and another 12,321 were too injured to fight since the start of the war in Israel. Senior NCOs and officers were in short supply, which was why battlefield promotions were being awarded quickly as new replacements continued to arrive. Lieutenants who showed promise and initiative were being promoted to take over companies, or in Jack Lee’s case, his battalion.