part0013

In November of the year 2019, an aging old diplomat, Henry Kissinger, warned that the trade war between the US and China had put the two great nations in ‘the foothills of a Cold War’ that could easily escalate, even over a minor incident, into a conflict worse than the wars of the last century. He was correct….

Admiral William J. Pearson, Royal Navy Command Singapore, was alerted just after 08:00 on the 18th of November. The satellites had seen an alarming congregation of Chinese naval assets in the south China Sea, and they appeared to be heading his way. He wasted no time in calling a war council with the senior fleet officers present.

The Royal Navy presence in Singapore had a long history, a bastion in the east that Churchill called his Pacific Gibraltar. In this history, he had relieved General Percival after his timorous treatment of the situation in Malaya following the Japanese landings, and instead sent a man who would later be called “The Rock of the East,” Sir Bernard Law Montgomery. Under Monty’s generalship, the Japanese Army was fought to a standstill on Singapore, and eventually forced to withdraw. It was only after they abandoned that siege, taking units to bypass Singapore and land on Java, that the British saw their position there as untenable, and retreated to fight the Japanese elsewhere. The Dramatic eruption of Krakatoa soon followed, and in time, Montgomery was recalled to North Africa to join the fight against Rommel.

After the war, the British settled back into their long held nest at Singapore again, roosting at Changi Naval Base with a permanent Far East Squadron. It was composed of the light carriers Illustrious and Invincible , each with a dozen new F-35B’s and numerous helicopters. Three destroyers, including two Daring Class, and ten frigates were in support, along with one older Trafalgar class sub, the lead boat in that group. These fifteen warships held the fort, and for a long time there was no direct threat to Singapore, until the Chinese began to move south.

China had long ago mended fences with Vietnam, gaining access to the harbor at Cam Rahn Bay and the airfields at Da Nang and Tan Son Naht, which were in a perfect position to support all the small outposts they had built on the reef islands. They had also cut elaborate infrastructure deals with the Philippines to gain access to the long archipelagic province island of Palawan, which stretched like a great stone wall between the main islands of Mindoro and Luzon, and Malaysia on the big island of Borneo. Anchored by Taiwan in the north, Chinese outposts and military bases stretched south through the Batanes Islands, to Manila, and across Palawan. There they set up radars, and SAM and SSM sites to hold the outer perimeter of their South China Sea.

By 2025, with the US having to resort to bases it maintain further east on the so called “Second Island Chain,” there was no question as to who really dominated the South China Sea. It was a Chinese lake, seeing 80% of that nation’s commercial traffic pass daily, all mostly coming through the great southern bottleneck of the Strait of Malacca. In that region, the Chinese had then worked to put a cork in that bottle, making great efforts to obtain a presence in the Riau Archipelago. They negotiated with Indonesia to get basing rights at Ranai AFB on the main island there, and that bastion formed their southern anchor.

“Gentlemen,” said Admiral Pearson. “We have a situation developing. It seems the Chinese have moved strong naval elements south, mustering here, near the Island of Riau. Royal Navy Intelligence is of the opinion that this may be a prelude to, or the advanced stages of, an operation aimed at Singapore. We all know that most everything they ship into China passes within eight miles of our watch here. It’s as if every ship coming to Britain had to check in at Shanghai first. We are, and have been, the gatekeepers of the Malacca Strait since Sir Stanford Raffles established a port here in 1818. Yet I will note that in the 150 odd souls that first established his shore party here, 30 were Chinese.”

It was commerce that brought the British to Singapore, for all the traffic from British India passed through the Strait of Malacca, including the opium traffic to China. And it was commerce that kept Britain there for the next two centuries. Aside from a temporary eviction by the Japanese, Britain had sat there, inviolate, for over 200 years.

“I don’t have to tell anyone here just how important this watch is,” said Pearson. “As things have already gone to hammers and tongs with the Chinese in the Med, Whale Island has put us on a full alert war footing. We are to sortie this morning and maintain a strong fleet presence in the Natuna Sea, east of Singapore, and we are to prevent any advance or passage of Chinese naval forces in those waters. After Malta, gentlemen, I don’t have to tell you things may get disagreeable rather soon. This is a vital maritime outpost, and one the Chinese will dearly want to dominate. We simply must not let that happen. Questions?”

“Admiral Wells has brought the entire Mediterranean Squadron south to Durban, and with Prince of Wales . But that fleet is presently 5000 miles away. I’m told Queen Elizabeth is putting out to sea, but gentlemen, any force from the UK is between thirteen and sixteen thousand miles away from us as we speak here. So we mustn’t count on that in the foreseeable future. More to the point, we do have Ark Royal, and frigates Brazen and Kenya at Diego Garcia, but that force has been part of the Anglo-American TF there, and Whale Island has tasked it for a potential move north to Oman. The situation in the Middle East is presently what this is all about. It’s why Admiral Wells is entering the Indian Ocean. Sea control, gentlemen, sea control. We cannot move forces necessary to deter Iraq unless we first control the seas that will carry them there. In that instance, here at Singapore, we’re on our own.”

“Ah yes, our friends from Down Under are with us, but they’ll be huddling on the scrimmage line with the Yanks at the moment. The US carrier Roosevelt is at Darwin, and if we do get any help, that’s where it will come from. Until then, we put out to sea this morning, standing to, and we’ll show the flag proudly. If they see us in strength, we just might dissuade them from any real move on the Strait of Malacca. Anyone else?”

Admiral Wu Jinlong was a careful man, particularly when he was now facing battle. He had received his orders days ago from South Seas Commander, Admiral Yang Kai Yong, and he knew this was a most important mission. Thus far, the war was going according to plan, but with mixed results. The operations aimed at the Ryukyu Islands had taken the enemy by surprise, and led to the swift occupation of all planned objectives. The first Island Chain was now completely under the control of the Chinese Navy.

Then the thrust towards Iwo Jima had been parried by the Americans, and with the loss of the big fleet carrier Haishen . That was an embarrassing defeat, he knew, though he could not ever characterize it that way to other fleet officers.

He had subsequently learned that it was a Siberian ship that had sunk Haishen , which raised more than one eyebrow in the General Staff, for no one knew this ship even existed! A few heads would roll in the Naval Intelligence Division, for how could the Siberians hide a ship that size? It was therefore determined that this ship had to have been built by the Soviet Union, and then sold to Siberia, but this remained an inexcusable and unaccountable intelligence lapse. That it was followed soon after by the surprise attack of the Siberian Army across the Amur River was salt in the wounds.

Yet that flood tide has now become a stagnant pool, thought the Admiral, a matter for the Army to worry over. That said, we have been forced to relinquish Haishenwei, Vladivostok, and that clearly was not part of the general war plan. No matter, we rendered that port useless to the enemy, and our Korean ports still allow us to project power throughout the Beihai region.

The Siberians… Always a problem, he mused, and then turned his thoughts to the most recent engagements. Operation Wildfire in the Med had been a great success, in spite of inevitable losses. The fleet there has disrupted commercial traffic from Gibraltar to Suez, destroyed the British bastion at Malta, and then it made a well-coordinated exit through Suez and the Red Sea to reinforce the Indian Ocean. All our West African assets have been withdrawn there as well, for the Indian Ocean will surely be a decisive battle zone in the days ahead.

The Admiral was a determined man. His given name, Jinlong, meant “Golden Dragon,” and he was very pleased when the navy named one of its newest Type 055 destroyers by that same name.

Yes, he thought, we have moved a considerable portion of our South Seas Fleet under my command for operation Dongmen , the Eastern Gate. That is as good a name for Singapore as any. This is far more significant than my earlier operation with the Thunder Gods. There I was largely in a supporting role for the invasion of the Ryukyus, here I become the tip of the spear. Do we have the strength to prevail?

He ran down the list in his mind. He had his flagship, Zhendong , the only carrier that could be spared. In support, there were twenty more fighting ships, which included six in the squadron from Viet Nam. That group makes up the bulk of our destroyers, but can they fight? Those ships were all acquired from the French, and Viet Nam is an odd bridge between east and west. They maintained good relations with their old colonial masters, and now they have been wise enough to forsake their enmity with China and become our ally.

We shall soon see. If not, I still have five destroyers, including two of the new Type 055’s. The rest are frigates, twelve in all, and then there are three submarines. Will it be enough? Will I have enough air cover to protect the invasion group?

There were many questions in Admiral Wu’s mind, for all of this was a great unknown. This initial mission with the Thunder Gods had been the first time any of the ships and crews under his command had been in combat. Now he was sent to engage the Royal Navy, and their reputation cast a long shadow over his thoughts, which he tried to dispel.

They are new to war here as well, he told himself. Yes, they may have experienced officers and sailors, but Great Britain has not fought naval engagements since the last war… until we faced them in Operation Wildfire. What did they do? We destroyed Malta, but for that, we have abandoned the entire North African Coalition. All our bases there were left unguarded, Oran, Algiers, Bizerte, Tunis, Sfax, Benghazi. Egypt was the only place we held firm, but that was with ground contingents and air units, not naval assets. Then the Royal Navy hounded us out of the Atlantic, and chased us from all our West African bases. The General Staff says this was all in the plan, but I think otherwise.

That much is patently clear to me. We could not hold. So now I face the entire British Far East Fleet, and with the Americans dangerously close at Darwin. This will be a decisive engagement, and I must not fail. China needs a great victory here, but can I deliver it?

Air support will be a concern. Cam Rahn Bay is 600 miles from Singapore, so fighters there can only cover our initial move south. The same can be said for our forces at Miri airfield in Malaysia, also 600 miles from Singapore. I must then rely on our base at Ranai, with 30 fighters, including 18 J-20’s. To these, Zhendong adds my superb squadrons of J-31’s—25 more excellent stealthy fighters to confound the British. Let us see what they can do.

That patrol was a pair of F-35’s off the light carrier Invincible , and their first order of business that day was to get after the Chinese AEW plane, a KJ-200 orbiting about 70 miles south of the main island of Riau. Unseen by the Chinese radars, they would move into range and put a pair of meteors out after the plane, Britain’s long range lance, with a 75 mile range. Yet that flight had not seen three Chinese J-20’s off Ranai AFB, and the moment they fired they were detected. This quickly saw them come under attack by the best missiles the Chinese had, the PL-15.

In the ensuing duel, each side would lose two planes, and when two more F-35’s off the Illustrious came charging in to the fray, the missile fire coming from a different direction was enough to convince the last surviving Chinese pilot he was outgunned. The J-20 turned and went to a thousand knots, running for home, but the brief engagement had been the tripwire on the impending battle. Soon more fighters were revving up their engines on both sides, roaring off the decks of the three carriers involved.

Aboard HMS Invincible , Captain Henry Hargood was a 30 year veteran, all his time spent with the carriers. He had been among the most vocal supporters of Britain’s carrier fleet, arguing that these smaller ships could provide valuable fleet support in far off outposts where a big deck carrier was not present. He liked to think that he had a good deal to do with the fact that Illustrious and Invincible were still afloat, when Parliament had tried to sell or scrap them twice in the last ten years. He fought the good fight to save them, and now his ships had to return that favor.

“Except for frigates Newcastle and Sheffield , sir. They have the new American LRASM, 24 each. That’s our main punch with any range. In fact, those frigates hit harder than any of our destroyers.”

“We might, sir, but there are a lot of defending assets out there, and when those frigates have their say, then we’ll have to hold our peace until the range closes to within 100 miles.”

The Captain nodded. “At the moment, we’ve got to see if we can get air superiority out here. It’s a bit of a draw with this first butting of the heads. Let’s get more fighters up, Mister Russell.”