The First Year 1901- Febuary 1903
‘“Here they come!” shouted our Sergeant throughout the trench, pointing in the direction of the mainland as he did so.
An entire fleet floated out between Hianan and the Chinese mainland, almost entirely small vessels conscripted from the local villages to ferry hundreds of thousands of Chinese across the Gulf. What the Sergeant was pointing too was the wave of Chinese pushing up from the beachhead, where a good hundred thousand Chinese were already milling about.
Our guns all along the trench opened up, Avalon and Vickers MGs letting out their dragons stutter, scything men like wheat. A nearby Lisbon Zipper added a constant underscore to the barrage of noise. Over the racket we could hear the booms of artillery, before they were confirmed by the plumes of fire and dirt that tore the Chinese ranks to shreds. They kept pushing though, firing back with antique muskets, weapons we would have put out of commission back in the ‘40s. For all their numbers, the Chinese rounds rarely connected, not to say they never hit, but we had few fatalities on my section of the line.
Their numbers also weren’t enough to ever help them get into melee range with us, the piles of dead from days of battle littered the way up to our trench line long before the Chinese had even half offloaded, still though, they kept coming. They just kept pushing, pushing toward a position they couldn’t hope to obtain. I don’t know what pushes men to do what they did; it couldn’t have been bravery at that point.
By the time the last Chinese had offloaded there was still well more than a hundred thousand of them milling around on the landing zone, it was then that our navy sprung its trap. It took the better part of a day but when the cruisers appeared on the horizon you could almost see the Chinese begin panicking, and when those same cruisers formed up in a blockade of the straits they lost it. I think the higher ups had thought they would surrender at that point, but what they did instead was throw themselves at our lines in one massive wave.
All our guns opened up, artillery smashing squads like twigs, machine gun and rifle fire tearing men to shreds, naval fire from our cruisers striking like angry gods, and still they grew ever closer to our lines. I and everyone man around me fired as fast as we could, the barrel of the machine gun beside me glowing cherry red, still they came.
They got within five yards of our trench, not one step closer. The wall of dead that was built there eventually reached nearly ten feet, where our artillery didn’t smash it. Blood soaked us up to our knees as it poured into our trenches, and painted the grass and the coast red. When they finally stopped coming it took us more than a minute to realize it, that we had been firing at nothing but corpses and air. All I can think of when I remember that was that it wasn’t a battle, it was slaughter.’
Memoirs of Cap. James Harriot, 1st Brunei Guard
The First Year 1901- February 1903
The M.S.S.C would not be going to war with Asia alone. Quebec, Paraguay, and Portugal sided with the Confederacy immediately, and Operation Setting Sun was put on the sidelines when Japan joined in as well.
Which left the map of Asia looking something like this.
As soldiers began the trip from Area M-11 toward China they received news of the M.S.S.C. expedition being the first to reach the North Pole. This was interpreted as a sign of the M.S.S.C.s supremacy and the soldiers treated it like a blessing.
Early battles between the M.S.S.C.N. and the Chinese Navy confirmed this blessing, with a large portion of the Chinese navy being destroyed in a pair of engagements.
The devastation wrought on the Chinese navy bought time for the landings in the North to go smoothly, but only a few days after the they landed, the landing forces were engaged by many Chinese units that poured in from the countryside.
While in the South, Operation Longcloth hit its first major battle, only a few days out of the gate the area MR-9 forces ran into a significant Kutch, Sikkim, Chinese combined force during the occupation of Sittwe.
By May the battle around the landing zone was still ongoing, with reinforcements arriving for both sides.
But the Northern arm of Operation Crab was still barely holding on, especially as Chinese armies continued to pour in from across the country. The only reason the North units were not driven back into the sea was the timely arrival of forces from Area MRE-1.
While at home things started going downhill, with the public beginning to grow dissatisfied with the long work days and low pay, which was necessary to keep the factories moving and the labour done.
Out at sea the M.S.S.C.N. continued to hunt down the Chinese navy, breaking them at every turn.
In the North, Chinese continued to pour into the landing zone.
And theories about the tank, which there was no satisfactory working design in existance, were being produced by the military, focusing on the idea of using the tanks to punch holes through lines.
Sentiment toward the idea of a renewed democracy, thrown out less then two decades ago, was slowly rising back at home, and a large rally for elections was put down with police intervention.
By September the battle in the North continued to rage, but now a rear rest area had been established for units rotated off the initial front.
And by October, the Southern end of Operation Crab, which had until this point been uncontested, was attacked by a large amount of Chinese forces. The M.S.S.C.N. held off on closing the straits until significant Chinese forces had crossed, trapping multiple hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops on the island.
By November the battle in Sittwe had begun to wind down, even with forces from nearly every member of the Asian Coalition present, they could not dislodge the Metis army from the mountains.
And as the year rolled to a close the first working tank designs, designated the Avalon Mk VI's, were ready for mass scale production, the first units would hopefully reach the front by fall of 1903.
The battle in Hainan came to an end in late February 1903, with the plan to trap the Chinese forces working perfectly.
‘“Here they come!” shouted our Sergeant throughout the trench, pointing in the direction of the mainland as he did so.
An entire fleet floated out between Hianan and the Chinese mainland, almost entirely small vessels conscripted from the local villages to ferry hundreds of thousands of Chinese across the Gulf. What the Sergeant was pointing too was the wave of Chinese pushing up from the beachhead, where a good hundred thousand Chinese were already milling about.
Our guns all along the trench opened up, Avalon and Vickers MGs letting out their dragons stutter, scything men like wheat. A nearby Lisbon Zipper added a constant underscore to the barrage of noise. Over the racket we could hear the booms of artillery, before they were confirmed by the plumes of fire and dirt that tore the Chinese ranks to shreds. They kept pushing though, firing back with antique muskets, weapons we would have put out of commission back in the ‘40s. For all their numbers, the Chinese rounds rarely connected, not to say they never hit, but we had few fatalities on my section of the line.
Their numbers also weren’t enough to ever help them get into melee range with us, the piles of dead from days of battle littered the way up to our trench line long before the Chinese had even half offloaded, still though, they kept coming. They just kept pushing, pushing toward a position they couldn’t hope to obtain. I don’t know what pushes men to do what they did; it couldn’t have been bravery at that point.
By the time the last Chinese had offloaded there was still well more than a hundred thousand of them milling around on the landing zone, it was then that our navy sprung its trap. It took the better part of a day but when the cruisers appeared on the horizon you could almost see the Chinese begin panicking, and when those same cruisers formed up in a blockade of the straits they lost it. I think the higher ups had thought they would surrender at that point, but what they did instead was throw themselves at our lines in one massive wave.
All our guns opened up, artillery smashing squads like twigs, machine gun and rifle fire tearing men to shreds, naval fire from our cruisers striking like angry gods, and still they grew ever closer to our lines. I and everyone man around me fired as fast as we could, the barrel of the machine gun beside me glowing cherry red, still they came.
They got within five yards of our trench, not one step closer. The wall of dead that was built there eventually reached nearly ten feet, where our artillery didn’t smash it. Blood soaked us up to our knees as it poured into our trenches, and painted the grass and the coast red. When they finally stopped coming it took us more than a minute to realize it, that we had been firing at nothing but corpses and air. All I can think of when I remember that was that it wasn’t a battle, it was slaughter.’
Memoirs of Cap. James Harriot, 1st Brunei Guard
The First Year 1901- February 1903
The M.S.S.C would not be going to war with Asia alone. Quebec, Paraguay, and Portugal sided with the Confederacy immediately, and Operation Setting Sun was put on the sidelines when Japan joined in as well.
Which left the map of Asia looking something like this.
As soldiers began the trip from Area M-11 toward China they received news of the M.S.S.C. expedition being the first to reach the North Pole. This was interpreted as a sign of the M.S.S.C.s supremacy and the soldiers treated it like a blessing.
Early battles between the M.S.S.C.N. and the Chinese Navy confirmed this blessing, with a large portion of the Chinese navy being destroyed in a pair of engagements.
The devastation wrought on the Chinese navy bought time for the landings in the North to go smoothly, but only a few days after the they landed, the landing forces were engaged by many Chinese units that poured in from the countryside.
While in the South, Operation Longcloth hit its first major battle, only a few days out of the gate the area MR-9 forces ran into a significant Kutch, Sikkim, Chinese combined force during the occupation of Sittwe.
By May the battle around the landing zone was still ongoing, with reinforcements arriving for both sides.
But the Northern arm of Operation Crab was still barely holding on, especially as Chinese armies continued to pour in from across the country. The only reason the North units were not driven back into the sea was the timely arrival of forces from Area MRE-1.
While at home things started going downhill, with the public beginning to grow dissatisfied with the long work days and low pay, which was necessary to keep the factories moving and the labour done.
Out at sea the M.S.S.C.N. continued to hunt down the Chinese navy, breaking them at every turn.
In the North, Chinese continued to pour into the landing zone.
And theories about the tank, which there was no satisfactory working design in existance, were being produced by the military, focusing on the idea of using the tanks to punch holes through lines.
Sentiment toward the idea of a renewed democracy, thrown out less then two decades ago, was slowly rising back at home, and a large rally for elections was put down with police intervention.
By September the battle in the North continued to rage, but now a rear rest area had been established for units rotated off the initial front.
And by October, the Southern end of Operation Crab, which had until this point been uncontested, was attacked by a large amount of Chinese forces. The M.S.S.C.N. held off on closing the straits until significant Chinese forces had crossed, trapping multiple hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops on the island.
By November the battle in Sittwe had begun to wind down, even with forces from nearly every member of the Asian Coalition present, they could not dislodge the Metis army from the mountains.
And as the year rolled to a close the first working tank designs, designated the Avalon Mk VI's, were ready for mass scale production, the first units would hopefully reach the front by fall of 1903.
The battle in Hainan came to an end in late February 1903, with the plan to trap the Chinese forces working perfectly.
