Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 26
“I admit, that is a difficult problem. There is no room for a conventional helicopter hangar on those corvettes without the removal of necessary weapons, considerable expense for the reconstruction, and many months out of service.
I have been told that a retractable fabric hangar is being designed that would be pulled over the helicopter when it is not in use.”
“So essentially, we will be putting a tent over the helicopter while it is tied down onto the landing pad, Almirante?”
“Si, Capitaine. It may not seem like something that would provide much protection. However, I have been told that it will use a very strong fabric like Kevlar in multiple layers to provide sufficient protection. The fabric will be on a metal framework that can be deployed and retracted very quickly. While it may not be completely waterproof, the enclosure is said to be very protective against the worst seas, however.”
“These little helicopters sound very interesting. Perhaps we should build a few extra so that we can station them onboard La Argentina? I certainly could think of some utility with them operating from my carrier’s flight deck.”
“I see your point, Capitaine. These little helicopters aren’t very expensive either. I will consider increasing the number of them that we procure if the testing and evaluation process doesn’t uncover any major problems that we cannot overcome.” Mauricio replied with a broad smile.
“I would like that very much. Por favor, Almirante. I know that the new frigates will have arrived here in very good condition. But what about the corvettes that we purchased from Spain? They doubtlessly have materiel issues due to their age that we must deal with, don’t they?”
“Si, Capitaine. I’m afraid that you are right. While we have purchased four of these warships from the Spanish, our technicians have admitted that we will probably not be able to operate more than three of them. The fourth ship will likely remain tied up at the pier to provide parts for the other three.” Almirante Ricardo admitted.
“I am not surprised, Almirante. But I will take every new hull and every aircraft that I can get in support of my carrier.”
A few moments later, Amirante Ricardo’s aide swiftly walked up and saluted before delivering a message.
“Perdona, Almirante. We have just received an urgent message for you from El Presidente. You are ordered to proceed immediately to the Presidential Palace to meet with in.” the lieutenant quickly explained.
“I’m afraid that I must cut short my visit here. We have made great strides in the modernization of our navy. Of course, there is always more work and improvement yet to be done. Perhaps Presidente Guitierrez will have something important for us to do that will improve the stature of our navy to the Argentine people. That is always good for convincing the legislature to provide us with more funding.”
“Si, Almirante. I look forward to hearing from you about what you have learned. It was good to see you again. Buenos Dias.”
“Don’t be surprised if we see each other again soon, Terrance. We may indeed be asking you and the rest of the Navy to conduct a real-world operation soon. I can’t yet say anything more. But I have heard some hints from very high levels. Be ready, my friend.” Mauricio said before turning and leaving the aircraft carrier.
Chapter Thirty:
Argentine Army Headquarters
Buenos Aires, Argentina
February 12, 1999
General Hector Perez smiled when he saw that his old comrade in arms Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Aguirre walked through the door into Hector’s office. First, they saluted. But then, the two men hugged as old comrades in arms.
“I am very pleased to see you again, Manuel. I’m afraid that our jobs now prevent us from seeing old friends. I have to spend far too much time around politicians too. That alone is very upsetting at times, I must admit.”
“Perhaps you should come down and shoot with my men at the firing range. I have always found it very relaxing to fire my weapon there at the paper targets. Perhaps you can imagine some of your least favorite politicians being the bullseye of the targets that you are shooting at, El General? I know if I were in your shoes, I would enjoy that very much.” Manuel replied with a loud laugh that Hector quickly shared in.
“You are probably right, Manuel. Anyway, I wanted to say that I’m sorry that I was unable to observe your paratroopers conducting their latest parachute exercise. Unfortunately, another function took priority that day.”
“I would have loved to have you with me on the transport as we jumped, El General. The new European turboprop transports have assisted us greatly. I was very pleased when the Air Force decided to purchase the new four-engine turboprop transports.”
“Yes, they consulted with the army closely when picking a design. We could not choose an American or Commonwealth design for obvious reasons. But the consortium between Dassault and Aeritalia had produced a most interesting four-engine turboprop transport that was slightly larger and fifty knots faster than the Lockheed Hercules transport aircraft. It was also very impressive that they could carry up to thirty metric tons of cargo inside.
Since this transport was already in serial production for several European air forces besides France and Italy, the unit cost had dropped sufficiently for use to purchase a squadron of twelve aircraft to replace our aging fleet of aerial transports.
Of course, these aircraft have to perform multiple missions for us since they also have to work as aerial tankers for the rest of the Air Force in addition to being troop transports.”
“Si, El General. I understand. But they are so much larger and more capable than the old Dakotas that we used to jump out of only a few years ago. But I also understand that we must share with the Air Force to be able to play with their ‘toys’.
“I hope that you and your men appreciate all of the new toys that we have recently purchased for them. They include many of the newest German assault rifles, machine guns, and support weapons.”
“Si, El General. They are indeed far superior to the ancient weapons that we have been using for perhaps the last fifty years. I know, the Norte Americano M2 fifty-caliber heavy machine gun remains an excellent weapon. But so many of the other infantry weapons were literally worn out despite our local factories’ efforts to remanufacture and refurbish them.”
The two senior officers continued to talk about weapons and old battles for a while until the phone on the desk suddenly rang. General Perez picked up the phone on his deck and spoke quietly for a few moments before putting the phone down and looking back toward him.
“Por favor, Colonel. I must leave for an urgent meeting. I would like to resume this meeting in a few hours, perhaps at four in the afternoon. Would that be a problem for you?” Hector said with a grimace on his face.
“No, El General. I can easily return here at that time. What is the problem that requires you to leave so suddenly?”
“I can’t speak about it at this moment. I hope to be able to say more upon my return though, Colonel.” Hector quickly replied as he picked up the phone again and called his aide to arrange for transportation.
“I look forward to meeting with you again this afternoon, El General.” Manuel replied as he picked up his hat and prepared to leave.
“Buenos Dias, Colonel.” Hector politely said as he and Manuel exchanged salutes before the latter turned and left the office.
A few moments later, Hector picked up his hat and left to go to the Presidential Palace as he had been ordered.
Just after four in the afternoon, Hector rushed back to his office. He found Colonel Aquirre standing there by the door waiting on him.
“Hola, El General. I take it that your meeting took somewhat longer than you had anticipated. Where did you have to go?”
“I just returned from a private meeting with Presidente Guitierrez. Our exercise in the vicinity of the Malvinas is going to continue. But we will definitely not be receiving an order to launch the invasion.”
“After all of the training and materiel procurement that we have invested into our military, why did El Presidente decide to call off the Reconquista of our Islas de Malvinas?”
“El Presidente called me into his private office along with Amirante Ricardo, the commander of the FAA Generale Fidel Morone and the head of our intelligence services. Then, El Presidente asked Senor Alejandro to brief us on recent developments.
It appears that our intelligence has learned that the British have significantly reinforced their forces there in the past week. They have landed an entire reinforced battalion of troops, supported by artillery, armored vehicles, several tactical antiaircraft vehicles, and even a medium-range surface-to-air missile battery.
The airstrip at Port Stanley now has twelve RAF Goshawk fighter-bombers and fourteen other aircraft parked there. There are also reports that the Royal Navy is running an exercise with HMS Ark Royal and several escorts about two hundred kilometers northeast of the Malvinas.”
“How did all of those reinforcements get to the Malvinas so quickly? Had our plans been somehow compromised?”
“If our plans had been compromised, I have no idea how it might have happened. We kept the actual plans for the invasion within a very small circle of personnel. Virtually all of the military personnel involved knew nothing more than they were going to be involved in a military exercise for an amphibious landing.
My first indication that something was wrong was when we received news reports that a pair of those massive Cavill Industries Wing in Ground Effect transports had arrived at Port Stanley and began offloading troops and equipment. They were followed by several Goliath heavy transport aircraft who dropped off even more troops and equipment.”
“That had to be one hell of a shock, El General.”
“Si, Manuel. It was. But I was still confident that we could succeed. But when our head of military intelligence told us about all of the other actions that the British had undertaken to reinforce their defense in the Malvinas, I had to agree with El Presidente that we would be leading our troops into a slaughterhouse.
I would not want the blood of so many of our young brave men to be on my hands for a failure, even a very patriotic one.”
“So why are we wasting our time with all of these preparations still, El General?” Manuel asked.
Hector then began to explain about the secret agreement that Argentina had made with Indonesia. He also explained that it was the source of the funding for so many of the new warships, aircraft, and weapons that Argentina had purchased over the past few years.
“So we are going to break our agreement with the Indonesians, El General? That would be very dishonorable on our part.”
“Not exactly. We were supposed to divert British forces to the South Atlantic so that they could not move to assist Australia. The assumption was that the diversion would require us to actually invade and retake the Malvinas.
El Presidente has decided that we are still going to mobilize our forces and play it up as though we really are going to invade the Malvinas. But we are going to stop just short of entering what the British consider their territorial waters. Once we have already succeeded in drawing down many British forces. El Presidente has decided that we will have satisfied our part of the agreement and therefore have fulfilled our honor.
While we still wish to reclaim our land there, it will have to wait another day when we can truly take and hold the Malvinas against anything that the British and their Commonwealth allies can throw at us.”
“I truly longed for the honor of reclaiming the Malvinas for the Argentine people, El General.”
“I know. We all do. But perhaps you will still have that honor someday, Mi Amigo.”
Chapter Thirty-One:
Cavill Family Home
Derby, Western Australia
February 27, 1999
Judith, James, and Sarah sat together as they discussed the various issues that they had been dealing with over the past week. They tried to meet together for dinner at least once a week, especially now that their children were either grown or in university. Today’s family dinner was more raucous than normal due to what had been happening recently. The sentient artificial intelligence named Mike had recently presented an assessment that had led to differing views among the three Cavill siblings that remained on Earth.
“Mike has me completely convinced that Indonesia is about to invade New Guinea.” James insisted.
“You know that no machine, or for that matter, no human being can be always right. You know, that’s exclusively God’s realm.” Judith countered.
“Name me one time that Mike has been wrong about anything that he has told us. Besides, we have no idea just how much information that he has gained access to ever since he gained access to the general InterWeb.” James retorted.
“You know that computers are like people though. It’s all about the quality of the information that goes in. You know what they say. ‘Garbage in, garbage out…’ We just don’t know the quality of the information that Mike has been looking at. “Judith replied.
But she knew inside that if she was being honest with herself, she would have to admit that so far Mike had been one hundred percent correct with everything that he said.
Sarah walked away from the table to pick up something from the kitchen. As she did so, she walked past the television and glanced over at what appeared to be a special news report being broadcast. She stood and watched for a few moments before rushing back to the dining room.
“Have you seen the latest news? Indonesian warships and aircraft have attacked a pair of RAN warships just west of New Guinea. The news is also saying that Indonesia has publicly declared that they are in the process of reclaiming their stolen territories in New Guinea from the foreign invaders that are destroying the land there.”
All three of them quickly gathered around the television to watch the breaking news broadcast.
“This bloody business in New Guinea is one hell of a mess. It’s going to reignite the entire controversy about annexing New Guinea in the first place.” Judith angrily said as she watched the first images from the front lines being broadcast by a daring reporter in a nearby helicopter.
“You know that the biggest reason why most of those politicians opposed the annexation was because they didn’t want to allow a couple of million dark-skinned natives to then have a chance to become Australian citizens.
Do those people actually think that the native population of New Guinea was better off while they were under Indonesian rule? We gave them the freedom to live as they chose as long as they remained peaceful. If they wanted a job, we sure as hell could give them one too.” Sarah countered.
“So why do the bloody Indonesians want this island back so badly? When this place isn’t getting hit by earthquakes and volcanoes, it’s in the middle of a monsoon.” Judith insisted.
“It’s all about pride, I reckon. Indonesia doesn’t like that we took this land from them. Their politicians have been publicly making the return of Papua, New Guinea a major domestic political campaign issue.” James pointed out.
“It sounds like the same thing that Argentine politicians do concerning the Falkland Islands. It stirs up the passions of the voters and gets them to the polls to vote for the politicians who are otherwise stealing their money and denying them their rights.” Sarah added while she continued to watch the television.
“It has managed to obtain a lot of additional funding for their militaries in both Indonesia and Argentina though, didn’t it?” James commented.
“Yes, it certainly has. Notably, there have been intelligence reports that indicate that Indonesia has financed the expansion of both nations’ militaries. I also think that the Indonesians have purchased every single available warship that they could get their hands onto, regardless of its age or condition.” Sarah explained.
“Now, they are throwing them into battle against us.” Judith admitted.
“But do we even have enough bombs and missiles in our inventory to deal with all of these ships and aircraft?” Sarah asked as more information began to come in on the number of Indonesian forces involved in the operation.
“Yes, I think that we do have enough munitions available. They just haven’t been purchased for the Australian military’s inventory yet.” James confidently replied.
“You know that we can’t really do anything legally unless the Australian military officially calls the Derby Militia to active duty. They haven’t done that since the end of the war against the Axis.
“You know that the Australian Chief of the Defense Force, Admiral Peter Clarke will be in Perth tomorrow. One of us can travel down there and meet with him privately there.” James said.
“How do you know that Admiral Clarke won’t change his plans and fly back to Canberra because of the Indonesian attack?” Judith asked.
“Because I know that Peter Clarke is one of those people who will never change his travel plans, regardless of what happens around him. He’s just that stubborn about that sort of thing. He will rely upon his subordinates to handle matters whenever he is out of Canberra. Someone would actually have to blow up that man before he would cancel a meeting.” James insisted.
“Well, then I better leave for Perth as quickly as possible. I’m going to need you two to get the Militia ready our assets here and in New Guinea as well as ensure that all of our space assets are prepared to support them.” Judith declared.
“It’s a damned shame that we have not been able to deploy any of our planned spaceborne defensive and offensive systems. They would have been very helpful in the event of the conflict escalating in scope.” James complained.
“I’m afraid that we are just going to have to fight with the assets that we have available. I better go home now and prepare to fly to Perth as soon as possible.” Judith said while getting her hat and belongings. Judith’s canine companion, a Belgian Malinois named Toolie, was right by her side as Judith walked out the front door towards her hybrid pickup truck.
