Invasion USA 3 - The Battle for Survival (51 page)

“We realized that if we didn’t destroy the whole army, they might continue to attack us as we continued north. It seemed that their main task was to control the river, so I placed 50,000 men on each side of the river on the western end and attacked the entire length until we reached the eastern end on the coast. It took us three weeks to cover about 30 miles. At one point we were down to one mile a day. I believe we killed around 12,000 Chinese, but nobody really counted. We just kept attacking and killing. I knew you would want us to head north as fast as we could, so as soon as we reached the eastern shore, we immediately counted our men, fueled up our vehicles and headed north. We gathered weapons and trucks as we attacked each of their command centers or camps. I gave exact orders to try and not fire on the vehicles as they are very new and very modern.”

“How many men did you lose?” asked Alberto.

“They were dug in and we were the attackers,” continued Pedro. “We got into a system but during the first few days we lost over 3,000 men. We had no time to bury them as the fighting never seemed to stop. Once we got into a rhythm of attacking from their flanks first, followed by a direct attack, our numbers of dead decreased significantly. I believe that we lost nearly 21,000 men in those three weeks, but we have picked up over 5,000 new soldiers on our march north. We even have several women who are fighting alongside their husbands and have their older children armed with weapons.

So what is your troop count, Pedro?” asked Manuel.

“Around 87,000 out of the 102,000 I started with,” replied Pedro blankly.

“An unfortunate occurrence,” responded Manuel. “There was no way we knew the Chinese army had taken control of the canal. Also they might get mad about the loss of their men, but who would they blame? They don’t know that we are the Calderón Cartel and I doubt they would follow us so far north. We had better look out for more soldiers when we return. We are going to have to recruit hard to get our numbers back to over 100,000; a number I think will give us a chance in America. When we get there, I’m hoping to double our numbers by recruiting the gangsters and families we do business with, but we cannot contact them until we reach the Rio Grande. Come my brothers, let us spend a day counting our weapons, ammunition and then go and destroy the Mexican army once and for all.”

Three days later, the Mexican army was attacked from three sides at dawn. Manuel expected that the Mexican Air Force would provide air support and he wanted to do as much damage as possible before any attack aircraft appeared. The first attack lasted two hours before the Mexican army, having heavy losses, began to retreat northward along same roads Manuel and Alberto had retreated south on only a couple of weeks earlier.

As the sun rose over the horizon the Calderón brothers attacked with everything they had to throw at the encamped army. Over 200 mortars, 150 Chinese missile launchers and 100 other forms of rocketry rained down on the waking troops. Within the first 30 minutes over three thousand bombs and rockets pockmarked the ten hilly acres where the Mexican soldiers were encamped.

Then there was a pause as the invading troops were organized to charge the enemy camp’s southern border. Twenty thousand men rushed in to the Mexican camp only a couple of hundred yards away which Manuel, Alberto and Pedro learned was still well dug in for an attack.

Several dozen dug-in machine gun posts erupted with rapid fire and several tanks and dozens of armored vehicles ensured that the invading forces got no further than the outer perimeter set with razor wire.

A second attack of 10,000 men from Pedro’s forces then charged in from the western side of the camp while the first attackers retreated back to the safety of the dunes, and mortars began pounding the machine gun positions.

A third attack went in from the eastern side twenty minutes later, as the second attack was repelled by the Mexicans with heavy losses on both sides. Then, another attack was ordered from the south where the Mexican machine guns had taken a beating. This time both attack forces reached further into the camp, but were again beaten back by an inner-group of machine gun nests.

“The commander of this army was well disciplined in the art of war,” stated Manuel to Alberto, seeing everything from a camouflaged position 800 yards behind their forward troops.

“We still have enough mortar bombs for another attack,” replied Alberto looking at their retreating forces through high-powered Chinese binoculars.

“The inner-machine gun posts are heavily fortified,” replied Manuel. “Our mortars are not doing much damage. I think an attack from all three sides and a mortar barrage onto the machine gun nests will help our men get through. They have also backed up their armor to the northern area and I think will fire on us if we don’t attack again soon. Alberto, tell the mortar teams to keep their bombs away from any ammo dumps they can see. Tell them not to aim for them, or any vehicles, we will need to resupply once this battle is over.”

The next attack, the largest so far, erupted from all three sides at the same time. Thirty minutes of heavy bombardment on the firing positions deep inside the camp got the invading troops to the outer perimeter’s dug-in areas, where the men would be protected. Both areas, inside and outside the razor wire, were now virtually cut up and flat and strewn with bodies.

For the first time heavy fire was returned by artillery stationed somewhere behind the Mexican camp and Mexican soldiers could be seen scurrying for more protected places on the northern side of the camp.

Manuel shouted in his radio to cease fire and a silence hung over his troops, much like the dense smoke slowly rolling several feet over his position in a southerly direction.

He radioed Pedro to find out where he was. He responded that he and his men were safe in the trenches of the camp’s western boundary. Alberto suggested a last and short bombardment and a rush with the rest of their men, en mass, to scare the Mexicans into retreat. Manuel agreed and the necessary orders were radioed to the section commanders.

As the Mexican tanks and armored vehicles trundled forward from the rear to try and displace the enemy in their dugouts, Manuel allowed his men in charge of the Chinese ground-to-air shoulder missile launchers, to fire off a volley to intercept the armored vehicles. At the same time, Alberto shouted charge over the radio and the rest of the men who were held in reserve erupted over the dunes and towards all three sides. That was when the first jet came screaming in from the north with cannons flaming and dozens of men fell in straight lines.

“Men with the Chinese ground-to-air missiles, fire at the incoming aircraft from the north!” screamed Manuel over the radio as the first aircraft passed low overhead, nearly deafening him. A second very modern jet was seconds behind and he saw three of the Chinese captured heat-seeking missiles rise quickly up to the second aircraft which exploded as the first of its cannon rounds tore into his advancing men. “There is a third one after that one, get it!” shouted Manuel as he saw the minute black spot of a third incoming jet.

This pilot had seen the sudden demise of his fellow pilot and began to turn away as two more missiles were fired and screamed away in his direction. He went vertical and his afterburner lit up as he tried to out-fly the incoming missiles. They followed him and they all disappeared into the blue sky.

Manuel shouted over his radio for spotters to look for more incoming aircraft and looked again at the camp half a mile in front of him. Things had changed during the minute he had concentrated on the air attack. A Mexican tank was in flames as were a couple of armored vehicles. His men had reached the outer perimeter and the first wave of men was running into the inner-perimeter dugouts and trenches.

He looked up hoping to see an explosion from the third aircraft, but there was none, he must have outrun the missiles.

The first aircraft had also disappeared and he wondered where the Mexican Air Force got such modern jet-fighters, and how many they had.

It had taken two hours, but the Mexican army was heading further and further north, and there weren’t many moving troops left in the camp apart from maybe a few in the northern trenches. It would not have been necessary for the Mexican commandant to dig in on his northern border if he had armor to protect him.

The firing slowly died down as Manuel got into his jeep and headed towards the southern boundary where his men were in control. He had ordered all of his transport vehicles to stay hidden under netting until told to move forward.

One by one the Mexican soldiers fired their last rounds and disappeared over the ridges to the north. Manuel wanted to hound them and he knew that an ambush of sorts would be getting ready for his advancing troops. The land around the camp was quite flat and he decided to divide his men.

Alberto could take an army and head overland as far as he could go and then rejoin the 190 highway when he needed to. Pedro could take a third of the men and head after the retreating Mexican army.

Manuel gave both his brothers strict orders not to deploy all their men in one place, but go slowly and have flanking troops a mile or more on either side of them to rush in behind any ambush. He would stay behind and see if the aircraft returned and collect any vehicles or arms. There must be thousands of rifles and machine guns still in the camp. As his brothers headed out in different directions, Manuel shouted to them to stay within radio range, around forty to fifty miles apart, no more.

For the rest of the day his troops counted close to 2,700 of his men dead or wounded in and around the southern borders of the camp. Several were badly wounded and these he had shot, his army had no medical personnel. His men knew this; they were ordered to shoot him if he was of no use, and one of his brothers would take over.

The losses reduced his numbers and he worried about this more than anything. Happily, they counted over 8,000 Mexican dead or wounded and the wounded were also given an end to their misery. Each man still had some sort of weapon with ammunition and these stocks filled four empty troop transporters. Over thirty machine-gun placements were counted in the camp with twenty of the guns in perfect order, and wooden boxes full of ammo everywhere.

Several jeeps had flat or bent tires and these were quickly replaced from Manuel’s spares. They all had bullet holes here and there, but beauty was not important; if it ran it was useful. Three fuel tankers were intact behind broken trucks and they were quickly placed behind the transporters full of weapons.

Manuel then checked the crash area of the fallen aircraft. It was a mass of still-burning pieces, but he did notice a Chinese emblem on part of the tail, still intact.

“A Chinese aircraft taken down by Chinese missiles,” he stated smiling to his second-in-command. “Those brave pilots didn’t hang around long, but they’ll be back. How many of those ground-to-air missiles do we have here and with my brothers, Luis?”

“We have sixteen missiles, Señor Calderón. Alberto has a dozen and I think Pedro has the same. We each have two missile launchers; two others were destroyed in the battle.”

“We need aircraft spotters at either end of our convoy with one of those launchers close by.”

“Si, Señor,” Luis replied.

They finally finished collecting anything of value as nightfall closed in around them. It was a pretty good tally. Hundreds of Mexican rifles, three full fuel tankers, nine jeeps with holes, but in reasonable condition, two troop transporters with their tires replaced, and a 100-mm howitzer artillery piece and a truck full of 100-mm rounds that were found untouched and in perfect working order. Also twenty machine guns and another truck full of ammo and the odd RPG and mortar also had been found undamaged. He had several, modern Chinese artillery pieces now behind vehicles he hadn’t even used in the battle, but he still kept everything, even guns sixty years old.

Manuel radioed Alberto; he was still in range and about thirty miles north. He was finding the going slow but felt safer off the main asphalt. Pedro was nearly fifty miles north, on the edge of the retreating Mexicans and had several skirmishes with them during the afternoon. His radio contact was getting bad and Manuel told him to stop until he caught up. Pedro was sure the Mexicans wouldn’t stop knowing that advancing troops were on their tail.

Two hours before dawn Manuel’s tired soldiers caught up with Pedro. Many, used to the non-stop movement, had caught a couple of hours of sleep in the slow-moving vehicles. He needed to refuel, and an hour before dawn Alberto radioed that he was coming in because there were several large mountains in front of him, and it was a waste of time to travel off-road.

An ambush was possible and Pedro’s men, who had managed to get a little sleep, moved out to the rocks and hills around the road while Manuel’s men refueled.

“I hear a spotter aircraft,” stated Luis as the last of the vehicles were filled an hour after dawn. “It is coming in from our north and I think along the road.”

“Good,” replied Manuel. “Get the launchers and missiles ready. I’m sure they will see us and we will be visited by those Chinese jets again. We can kill two aircraft at one time, the spotter aircraft and whoever it wants to invite to the fight.

As the aircraft flew over at a couple of thousand feet it saw the main army on the road in full sight. Alberto was still five miles out in an easterly direction and he had been told not to put up any dust to show his presence. He was crawling along at ten miles an hour and had been warned to ready his missiles in case they had visitors. Manuel watched as the small aircraft veered away to its right to get out of harm’s way. Its pilot must have heard about the missile attack.

Manuel gave the aircraft a minute to fly west of them and told a launcher to aim and fire a heat-seeker. He did and within twenty seconds the little Cessna was an exploding fireball in the sky. The poor aircraft had no chance to escape the speed of the missile nor did the pilot ever know that he was toast.

“I hear a jet approaching,” stated Alberto several seconds later. “No, there are two and they are about three miles to the north of us. Shall I try a missile?”