Re: Blood and Iron

Having secured its position in the South Pacific and denied the Japanese fleet a single island, the German Colonial Forces decided the time had come to push inland.

Inspired by the strategy that won the Pacific theater in the second world war of Bruno’s past life. German Marines began preparing for deployment via an island-hopping campaign.

The goal was to slowly invade the small islands in the Pacific that Japan had seized over the course of the Great War. Eventually creating a bridge straight to the Japanese mainland.

All the while, the Russian Army fought for control over the Korean peninsula, giving their alliance the means to force Japan into a position where they would inevitably face an invasion of the mainland.

And hopefully in the process compelling them to surrender before such a campaign needed being waged.

Bruno was now in Berlin, looking over the map that was corrected in the moment by intelligence reports received over the wire from the field.

He deployed a small fleet of forces, a few destroyers, one cruiser, but mostly landing craft. Each landing craft was designed to carry combined arms units onto the beaches.

There was, of course one problem with this: the island’s coastlines were riddled with barbed wire and tank traps.

As a result, Bruno shifted another much smaller series of figures into position ahead of the fleet.

“The objective is simple: drop our airborne forces over the islands and send in our raiders via the coastline. Dismantle the fortifications under the cover of darkness and begin waging asymmetric warfare in preparation for the arrival of our primary force. Thoughts?”

The other generals surrounding Bruno, Heinrich included, gazed upon the man with varying expressions.

Heinrich was proud. He understood that Bruno’s thinking when it came to warfare had always been revolutionary.

As for some of the other generals, they looked at Bruno’s plan with suspicion.

Airborne forces had existed in Germany since the years following the Great War, but they had been largely experimental.

And used sparsely across colonial war zones and border conflicts like the incident in Luxembourg years prior.

This would be their first real test in a battle of any scale. Still, many of the old guard had been replaced by a younger, more meritocratic generation of leadership following Bruno’s ascension to power.

And they did not fight with him over this, instead were eager to see if this would prove to be effective, or a blunder of epic proportions.

Among those present was a Grand Admiral who was quick to give Bruno his approval.

“My sailors will perform their duties without fault. It is now in God’s hands.”

Bruno nodded his head in agreement, and the orders were communicated across the wire. The next step of the German-Japanese War had begun.

—

Japan had not expected an invasion of their small islands in the Pacific, the fortifications were built decades in advance, but there were no spotlights actively trying to gaze into the sky.

The Darkness concealed the Ju-52 transport planes as they approached their destination, the men inside were dressed in a unique camouflage pattern.

It was based upon the M1929 Telo mimetico Italian camouflage pattern used by both Italian forces and the Waffen-SS in Bruno’s past life.

However, the colors used in its palette were updated to include a palette more suitable for tropical environments.

They sat in the compartment of the transport plane, their parachutes attached to the bar and ready to drop at a moment’s notice.

Among them was an old veteran… An Oberstabsfeldwebel, he wore an insignia on his sleeve that a chosen few had earned the right to adorn over the years.

And as he smoked his cigarette, one of the younger, fresher faces asked him a question.

“Sir… Are you a veteran of the Iron Division?”

The man didn’t say anything. The weathered lines on his face and the hollowed look said it all. And just when the soldiers gazed at him in awe.

The youngest volunteers to march into Russia and fight the Bolsheviks in 1905 had been 16 years of age.

That meant the man was at least 41, and had served in the German Army for over two decades of his life.

Finally, as the green light lit up, signaling that they were to drop into the zone. He looked at the young men, boys really, and smirked at them.

“That would be the signal. I’ll see you lads on the ground, and if not, God be with you all.”

After saying this, the man jumped, his chute deploying as he fell to the ground over the island controlled and occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army.

The rest of the men in his unit followed suit seconds later. Inspired by the grizzled veteran who led them into battle.

—

A group of rigid hull inflatable boats pulled up silently to the shores of the island. The men disembarking from atop hit the sand and crawled towards the tank traps and barbed wire lying in front of them.

The objective was simple: dismantle the barriers preventing the army from landing and begin an assault further inland via river channels to draw detection from the garrison.

The Japanese on watch had no idea who was on their shores, in fact from the sound of it, they were drunk and playing parlor games while sitting behind their fortifications.

The leader of the raider team raised one finger to his lips to silence the soldiers near him while he pulled a pair of wire cutters from his rucksack.

Cutting apart the barbed wire, while the rest of his men got to work on the tank traps.

Marksmen and automatic riflemen hid in the moss and rocks, covered in ghillie-liked clothing, aiming their weapons at the fortifications, ready and willing to take out high priority targets the moment the situation turned hot.

Progress continued… And then something happened. Gunshots erupted in the distance, causing the marines to hit the ground and hide as best as they could behind the sandbar.

Shouts in Japanese occurred from within the compound, confusion and panic spread as they tried to spot the coastline with their spotlights.

The Marines had concealed themselves well with the local environment. But sooner or later they would be revealed if they simply sat still and didn’t move.

Every second that passed felt like a lifetime for the marines.

Gazing at the mossy rocks that the marksmen blended in with, the spotlight lingered for a bit too long. Suggesting the enemy soldier behind it had realized something.

And when the marksmen flicked off his safety and lined up his reticle, preparing for a shot that would reveal them all, the spotlight died.

And the Japanese soldiers flooded out the back of their formation, heading further inland. The officer in charge of the operation quickly turned over to his fellow marines and gave an order to the radio operator.

“That was close…”

The marines all shared a sigh of relief as the commanding officer gave additional orders.

“tell high command the Airborne forces have made contact with the enemy, and we remain undiscovered. We are continuing with our objective and will update them if the situation changes.”

The radio operator nodded his head and began to do as he was commanded.

By the time the dawn rose, a fleet would be on the horizon, and the Japanese would be scrambling to defeat asymmetric airborne forces and raiders, without ever realizing their defenses to prevent an armored landing were dismantled in the dead of night beneath their very watch.

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