INVASION USA (Book 2) - The Battle For New York (57 page)

“Everybody keep down. I want the carrier in if we can. Snipers, hold your fire. How far out are the container ships from docking? Over.”

“The first one is entering the enclosed water now,”
reported the command center by the Cargo Terminal. They were stationed in one of the massive cranes that the engineers had spent three days getting to work again.
“They have formed a line and seem to know where they are going. The third ship is about 700 yards directly behind the first one, and the second one is aiming herself towards the south wharf to her left. The fourth one is beginning to follow her. Over.”

“Comrade Wong, get waving. Let’s welcome in the bastards!” smiled Colonel Patterson.

The waiting was becoming tense. Slowly, the fighters landed back on the carrier’s deck as the second dozen circled at a couple of thousand feet above her. The destroyers were already halfway to the bridge, and it looked like they had slowed slightly to give the much larger ship time to catch up.

Colonel Patterson looked through a powerful telescope he had brought for the occasion—far more powerful than his binoculars— and he saw pallets of what looked like missiles and pallets of cannon rounds being brought up to her flight deck via several elevators. He counted nine aircraft on her deck area and three more helicopters. One had its rotor running and it took off as he watched.

Several minutes later, the carrier was moving slowly towards the bridge and the helicopter came directly towards him only a mile away. “Do we have any more Mutts with TOWS?” he asked into his radio. “I have another helo coming in over the sea.”

“We have two Mutts with TOWS 100 yards further north of the last ones, but no more on the south side,”
somebody replied.

“Take out the helo in 30 seconds and run for cover. Anti-aircraft weapons on the north side only open fire on any incoming aircraft once the Mutts explode, but not before, and make your first shots count. The aircraft will turn your area into a disaster zone if you are slow. Over.”

“Roger that,”
said several voices.

Thirty seconds later, everybody saw the stripes of light head towards the helicopter and it turned into a white blaze of fire as it disappeared from all radar screens. The ships were waiting this time, and several seconds later the whole area around the two old deserted jeeps erupted into flames and their metal lives quickly came to an end.

Colonel Patterson knew that he had at least another 40 of these vehicles around the harbor, but very few that could shoot at the seaward side of the bridge.

The fighters peeled away from the carrier and came into the area in a single line, throwing missiles into every building surrounding the latest cloud. Over 50 guns and missiles immediately returned fire, and three of the first fighters, not expecting retaliation of this magnitude, exploded only a couple hundred yards from shore. A fourth went straight into a ten-story building and blew up inside. Slowly the whole structure collapsed into itself.

The remaining eight fighters turned in all directions to escape the enemy ground fire, and another was hit at a low altitude as it turned sharply to the north and directly over the shoreline.

*****

“Get the ships to terminate that whole area,” screamed the chairman, as he watched the destruction of his valuable aircraft. “Get those others into the air! Kill the Americans!” he screamed at the Air Force commander.

“They can’t take off until we turn north to south—the wind is too strong for a side wind take-off,” replied the Air Force commander.

“I don’t want to hear excuses—get those last fresh aircraft off now,” ordered the chairman.

“I can’t, Comrade Chairman, they will be destroyed!”

“Must I do everything myself, you stupid man?” replied the chairman as another aircraft exploded going into the area north of the bridge and all four warships opened up their large guns. He grabbed the handset out of the shocked commander’s hand and ordered every aircraft off his aircraft carrier, or they would be fired at by the guns aboard the ship. Engines immediately began to whine as he threw the handset down and again surveyed the scene.

*****

“Submarine command center, fire full torpedoes towards the frigates,” continued Colonel Patterson calmly. He had a fantastic view of the battlefield below and around his position, all the way over to the Global Terminal. “They are coming about and will pass in front of you about 400 yards out in 50 seconds. At that range, they should be sitting ducks with all their attention on the north side. I believe that you will only have one chance to take out both ships, sailors, because our boys are taking one hell of a pounding up there. Snipers, commence firing! The cat is out of the bag. Artillery, I want you to wait for the more powerful destroyers and keep your sights on them as they enter under the bridge. They are only a mile away and are at full steam coming in with their guns blazing hot. Shit, there are aircraft readying for take-off from the aircraft carrier. Don’t they know they can’t take off in a strong side wind? It must be a 20-knot wind out there.”

He watched in wonder as the first fighter left the carrier, its pilot totally inexperienced with any form of carrier take-offs other than perfect ones, and his aircraft left the forward part of the deck, flipped over and dove right into the sea. The second pilot, a quick learner, managed not to get his wing pulled over by the breeze and slowly wobbled his aircraft into the air. He was too close to the bridge as the third one also took off and followed the second one up into the air in a wobbly ascent. The second aircraft flew between the destroyers and directly under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, where there was a Mutt waiting with a TOW. It blew up and crashed into the water.

The third fighter tried hard to turn before the bridge and slammed into the pylons in the middle of the bridge under full power, with exploding debris flying in all directions on the roadway before tumbling and hitting the water. The fourth pilot dove into the water like the first one.

*****

The Chinese Air Force commander on the carrier stopped the final aircraft from taking off, and the chairman pulled out a pistol he had in his belt and shot the man in the forehead. He did not like his orders being interfered with.

The frigates pounded the northern area, and smoke poured from the area as the destroyers reached the bridge and stopped firing at the shore. Suddenly both frigates lit up and rose out of the water like lighted candles as torpedoes hit each of them from end to end, immediately blowing up their fuel bunkers and ammunition holds. Nobody aboard had even had time to sound the alarm as the torpedoes came in fast and accurate. The two most modern frigates of the Chinese Navy slumped back into the water and disappeared within seconds, only their very top towers standing out above the water level. The destroyers had already changed course and headed into the area.

*****

“All Howitzers, submarines, fire at will. Spotters, help the submarines, they are pretty blind. South shore anti-aircraft guns and missiles, get the rest of those fighter aircraft. They are incoming from the south and looking for trouble. The carrier is still a quarter of a mile from the bridge and still incoming. All aircraft get your asses off the ground—we need air cover in ten minutes!”

Suddenly, the colonel couldn’t hear himself speak as every gun around the harbor threw whatever it had at the two destroyers, both at full speed at about 30 knots and blowing holes into anything they thought deadly. The colonel watched as dozens of white tarpaulins had been pulled away from the howitzers, and as in a ballet, they all turned together to face the destroyers that were broadside to many of them and the air below him completely filled with lead.

There were dozens of guns on each ship, and everything they had lit up to fight back. The 155mm rounds began hitting the sides of the ships, and some were so close that they went into the hardened armor and one of the destroyers lit up like both of the frigates had done and literally rose into the air, her bow leaving the water for a split second and then crashing down. It kept going, explosions erupting from every part of her, and she went straight down and keeled over showing her hull.

Colonel Patterson directed the fire onto the second destroyer as the aircraft came over for a second sweep, and several big guns blew up on the south side in the park—two of the aircraft never made it out of their dives and went straight in, killing many soldiers.

He could only see three remaining aircraft, and they were heading south and coming in for a third run when he looked over towards the aircraft carrier. She must have had her engines in reverse, as mountains of water was rising up her rear end, but she was still coming forward at about 15 knots, now only 200 yards from the bridge.

The colonel looked back into the harbor area, telling the engineers with the explosives on the bridge to get ready. The second destroyer was plastering the south shore as he saw three torpedoes head in her direction. They were aimed towards her aft and she nimbly turned to face the area and the torpedoes passed her by.

The next two torpedoes were side by side, and 100 yards behind the first three. She sprayed the water area around the shoreline with fast antisubmarine guns. There was a large balloon of water as one of the submarines must have taken a direct hit before the destroyer herself leaned horribly over as the two torpedoes hit her on her starboard bow area. Both torpedoes had come from the submarine she had just hit and they opened up her bow like a can of sardines. This time, there was no explosion. She just slowed and began sinking from the bow, her tail lifting out of the water. She slid most of the way into the water before she stopped—her bow must have touched bottom.

The aircraft carrier’s bow slipped under the bridge several hundred feet below Colonel Patterson, still moving forward at three to four knots, her engines still in reverse. Slowly she was being brought to a halt.

The last fighter, desperate to remain alive, tried to come in from the east onto her aft deck. The sprays of water literally lifted the aircraft up and threw it 100 feet forward onto the deck, where it exploded into a ball of flame. This set off a massive explosion where the supplies had been placed on the deck and a second, even larger explosion sent shock waves all the way up to where Colonel Patterson calmly watched.

There wasn’t much left to do, apart from looking at the aircraft carrier trying its best to get into reverse, but even though the engines were working at full power, it took a lot of time for a ship of that size to change direction. The smoke from the area was everywhere, and all of the firing from the big guns had stopped.

Colonel Patterson asked about aircraft. Their own F-4s were now overhead, and two of the pilots stated that they were already forcing one of the enemy aircraft down into Newark and there were two more, empty of weapons, that needed guidance and they wanted to collect. Preston came on the air stating that he, Carlos and Martie had one aircraft between them and were working on forcing it down into JFK. The third gunship came on line a few seconds later saying that it was being helped by Blue Moon to show a third pilot the way into Newark. The F-4 pilots stated that theirs was now down—one of the F-4s was flying on top of it so that it couldn’t take off again, so the other two screamed up to search for any remaining aircraft.

This was all happening while Colonel Patterson kept his eyes on the aircraft carrier and his ears glued to the radio announcements. Suddenly the aircraft carrier’s smaller guns started blasting away at the aircraft in the sky, tracers going up from the forward area inside the harbor and its rear guns outside the harbor mouth. It took another three seconds before the massive tower of the aircraft carrier towered directly under the middle of the bridge. Its forward movement stopped, and it slowly, inch by inch, started moving backwards, back out to sea.

*****

With the dead body of his Air Force commander slumped on the floor of the bridge, the chairman took over the battle. He had ordered the frigates to fire into every building around the harbor area and destroy every visible building. Again, it was under his orders that the two destroyers went in under full power a few seconds before both frigates erupted into massive explosions. Then he ordered the aircraft carrier to full steam ahead to catch up with the destroyers. The admiral tried to intervene and suggest that the carrier stay outside until the battle was over, but he was told to shut up. Then, the frigates and a minute later the first destroyer blew up and a couple of his fighters dropped into the harbor a mile or so away. It was then that the chairman realized that he might not be competent to fight a battle such as this one, and ordered the admiral to take over.

The admiral immediately ordered the carrier’s engines into full reverse and the chairman shouted into his radio for all the troops on the container ships to get off and kill everybody they saw.

They did that, and hundreds of Red Guards came down the sides of the ships on ropes only to be mowed down by the waiting American troops. Their falling bodies turned the water red around the first four ships.

*****

The two American destroyers had approached as the second Chinese destroyer, whose captain hadn’t even seen the two old World War destroyers firing shells into her as fast as their nine 105mm guns on each ship could. It wasn’t only the two torpedoes that blew his modern destroyer apart, but well over 70 rounds from the rapidly firing guns on the old destroyers that went into her before she sank.

The last container ship was not yet docked, and she had her engines in full reverse when the nearest destroyer fired a round into her bridge, killing everybody there. The engineers below deck closed down her engines as they felt the vibrations of the explosions vibrate badly through the whole vessel.

The vessel was still moving and now out of control. Ropes were shot over her bow and stern by the destroyers and the few soldiers on board who tried to shoot back were mowed down by several heavy machine guns on both American ships. Once the crew realized that they had no chance, they waved white flags and secured the ropes as the destroyers, acting as tugs, slowly stilled the massive ship 20 times bigger than they were.