The Pacific Forum Nations in WWIII

[drmarkbailey]

TLW The Pacific Forum Nations in WWIII

The Peace of Amiens


Late 2005

Just why were his men emerging from the wood-edge up the gentle slope where their Abrams tanks were concealed? And just why were they gesticulating so much?

General Westmar stopped so abruptly that his staff officer cannoned into him.

The General did not even notice.

“What. The. Gibbering. Fuck?”

“Um, sir?”

“I don’t fucking believe this...” He brought his little set of very expensive Minox hunting binoculars to his eyes.

“OK, I am not hallucinating, then!”

“Sir?”

“There’s a column of Shermans coming down the road.”

The staff officer looked at his General as if he’d suddenly sprouted a second head. Then he followed his gesture. Silently, the General handed across his binoculars.

“Well I’ll be fucked. Um. Sir.” He handed the binoculars back and started rapidly skimming his rather voluminous folder.

Beside him the General was muttering. “Goddam Shermans. Nobody has run those for years! Decades! What sort of poor miserable poverty-stricken back-woods bastards would have no choice? And what sort of balls do they have to send ‘em here?”

“Big brass ones sir?”

The General glared at him.

“Um, sir, looking through this sector’s reinforcement schedule and orbats I can’t really say for sure right now. Our northern flank has that new composite British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Corps with a crazy mix like we all do but worse, even a lot of Chieftains and Centurions…”

“Look for M50’s. Those look like ex-Israeli Super Shermans, M50s with a decent 105 in them, saw them as a brand new shavetail back in the 70s when we toured the Valley of Tears and other Yom Kippur battlefields. Very surprised to see them here thirty years later.”

There was a brief silence as they marvelled at the sight.

oOo

“Got a light motorised infantry brigade mentioned here sir, not M50s but M51’s in their orbat.”

“Who the hell are they?”

“Republic of Fiji Expeditionary Force sir. Got mostly ROK kit by this. Very lightly equipped. It’s basically a very light, weak motorised brigade.”

“Hmm. Only something like that would explain it. Been to Fiji Jimmy?”

“No sir.”

“Nice place, good people, tiny little army but very good soldiers. Quality of their recruits’d make you weep. Warrior culture and proud of it. Always have a battalion or two out doing UN work which is how they pay for it. Only had light jungle infantry back then in, about ’85 I think I was there, Fiji’s really poor but there’s been war out there for what, six or seven years now and there’s no way they could ever afford anything much. They have about doubled in size and the Brits and Aussies all have a lot of Fijian soldiers in their armies. Makes sense if they picked up what they could afford. Be a huge job for them to support even old simple AFV like them. Shermans. Absolutely freaking unbelievable. Where the hell did they get them? And why? You said they had Korean kit in their orbat?”

“Yes. Hmm, sir, South Korean APC, their K200 and Kia trucks, Daewoo rifles. Fired one of those, it’s a good rifle. Second hand South Korean 105 towed howitzers. Looks like the ROK helped ‘em out. But I don’t get the M51’s at all.”

“Find out. Not from mere curiosity either. I need to know just how polyglot that corps to our north really is.”

He shook his head.

“Centurions and Shermans. What next?”

oOo

November 2004 Army HQ Andover

The Chief of General Staff was somewhat nonplussed

“But…”

“Not arguable, sir. This comes from the Palace and has the PM’s approval in writing.”

“Bloody hell. OK, give me the precis.”

She riffled through her notes. Briefings on the fly were part of any staff officer’s repertoire.

“Sir, the King of Tonga is HM Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV. He is massively respected in Tonga and in the South Pacific Islands Forum, a huge man. Six foot five inches and 280 pounds after he lost a lot of weight, he is very fit, and is a very, very good personal friend of the Queen. You might want to consider that in context here, what’s not written down is that the two Monarchs have been in very close personal correspondence on this and other matters. Now, the Tongans were a sea raider folk, think Vikings with rongo-rongo, which were enormous catamarans, so they don’t have an Army, they have a sort of sea army, a Marine army, really. Now, because of the ongoing conflict in South East Asia and Chinese inroads, into the South Pacific, the militaries out there have all been expanding. It’s been paid for by a combination of local resources, Australian, Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese money and kit, and whatever they can get that’s cheap and cheerful and above all else simple to maintain of a very shallow tech base. The Taiwanese and Japanese assistance is kept very quiet and is mostly monetary. The buildup has been slow and off a really low baseline, but it is very real. We have also assisted on the quiet, sending them some of the UK reserve stock of L4 LMG, the old Bren modded to 7.62mm NATO, as they already had a stock of .303 Brens and Vickers.”

“Tonga has long had a small army, basically a battalion and it has been doubled. They also have a Home Guard which has also expanded. They are equipped with SMLE in .303, Brens and Vickers guns and act as reserves and volunteers basically as a training and security force. So Tonga has two battalions of basically marines and is offering us one of them. The reports say that they are actually pretty damned good, as they have been trained by a mix of our, Australian and New Zealand SAS and the SBS, with a number of ‘suspiciously Japanese looking fellows’ also involved. Apparently, the King is also friends with the Emperor of Japan.”

“Anyway, sir, the recent rise in temperature here prompted HM Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV to personally call the Queen and ask what he could do to assist his personal friend and fellow monarch. He pointed out that as his forces had doubled in recent years there could be a battalion on the way very quickly. The Queen said that the UK would appreciate that and would, of course, look to administrative matters such as paying for them. The Queen is very well aware that Tonga is a really, really poor nation so the UK is very wise to offer to pay for them.”

The CGS leaned back in his chair, thinking. “We would be more than happy to add the Tongan Marines to 3 Commando Brigade. So long as they are happy in Norway!”

“Management of this will be a little quirky, sir,” warned his Chief of Staff. “I asked about this morning and found a couple of the trainers. King Toupou absolutely will put his own stamp on things for two reasons, Firstly because he can, and secondly because he must. This is a very, very big deal in Tonga and a bigger one in the Pacific Islands Forum nations. Canberra has warned us to expect Fiji to move too, as soon as this becomes public – they have already been informed on the quiet. At the very least please expect the Tongans to keep using L4 LMG and Vickers MG modded to 7.62×51mm NATO. The King’s perfectly practical, the Royal Guard might use SMLE, Bren and Vickers all in .303 to this day ceremonially but they guard the Palace and the King with the normal FN FNC. Oh yes, their officers still use Webleys of all things and you won’t get ‘em off ‘em, they are a direct presentation to officers by His Majesty and form a direct link to the King’s Trust. Symbolises it, really.”

“Norway,” said the CGS firmly. “3rd Brigade. Hope they are happy about the cold!”

“Spoke to the Australian LO, sir. They did some sort of work a couple of years back in Antarctica and took some Tongans with ‘em. Some sort of funny business down there. With modern thermal clothing, even the Tongans can handle Antarctic conditions and that’s pretty much per Norway. He said that the bitching will be relentless, but only to other Pacific Forum types, Kiwis and Aussies. To any European, a freezing, thoroughly miserable Royal Tongan Marine will just say ‘Got this brother, not much like Tonga, eh? No coconut trees.’ And that will be that.”

He grinned.

“That grin… spill it.”

“Well, sir, he was vehement on this one, speaking of relentless. So will be their pursuit of the chubbier Norwegian women, not the really fat ones, that’s Samoans, but the bigger Norwegian blondes with big boobs will be delighted with their arrival. All of a sudden they are the ‘ten’! And these are very tall, seriously fit men all built like the side of a cliff.”

His face sobered. “He’s outside sir, he wants to give you a heads up on Fiji. He visited the High Commission yesterday, they called him in.”

“Ah. Go get him.”

This only took a few moments.

“I understand that you wish to speak to me about something?”

Well, that’s about as open ended as it can get, he thought, pommies know how it’s done.

“Informal back pocket conversation from the Attache, Deputy Attache and the High Commissioner, sir.”

“Ah, one of those briefs. Diplomatically sub-rosa, you might say.”

“Yes sir.”

He pulled out a pad with hand-written notes on it. No copy would be provided, they knew, so the staff officer sat to take notes.

“Sir, it’s not widely known that a strong linkage between the ROK Armed Forces and the RFMF started in about 2001 after the time of the Speight Putsch in Suva. That was in May 2000, leading to a political crisis until about November 2000. That crisis gave time to sort a few things out and it also sort of waited until the end of the interim government under Frank Bainimarama. The putsch was a very Fijian thing, the whole Speight Affair, even though he’d resigned as President Ratu, that means Chief, Sir Kamisese Mara kinda-sorta got appointed temporarily with the critical but informal OK by the Great Council of Chiefs. I know Frank Bainimarama from a course we attended together, and at least Frank knocked the I-Taukei crazies on the head during the whole matter. So what happened was a sort of a ‘settling down’ period by the Government of Ratu Josefa Iloilo in the last six months of 2000.”

“I really don’t understand the complexities of Fijian internal politics,”

“No worries sir, no-one but Fijians does and no reason you should. The guts of it was that things had gone very pear-shaped with the Speight Putsch in May 2000, basically the Great Council of Chiefs sorted out the mess as best possible, then the Chinese stuck their oar in and truly pissed in the stewpot. They tried to strong-arm the Fijians into accepting their economic and military aid, and stuffed it up. Not a smart move, there was a riot, the Chinese Ambassy was damaged and they instituted sanctions to leverage their economic power. That forced Canberra and Wellington to step in and we brought you and the Americans in on the quiet. The December 2000 crisis was a nothing affair by world standards but it had major ramifications in the Pacific Forum countries. When that settled down the lessons were kind of obvious. We were still ticked about the whole coup thing but geography does not change and now we all had an intrusive, and apparently hostile, power entering the game in the South Pacific.”

He paused, “there’s a huge rabbit hole to avoid right there sir, suffice to say that between that, the situation between us and Indonesia and the Chicoms and Sovs all stirring the pot we all kissed and made up in the Pacific Islands Forum. So the Island states offered what they had, really high quality manpower, the existing forces as a basis and expansion. The problem is the usual, equipment and training. What made that worse was that they have a gossamer thin industrial and logistics support basis and it’s also got lots of holes in it too. Think lace-like gossamer. They can support light industry and some heavy commercial vehicles, diesels, generators and such. They have good men and they make good soldiers. No way they can afford to build the forces to use that manpower. So we, you and the Kiwis now all take islanders into our militaries. You have for decades, of course, all we really did was adopt your policy holus-bolus. So they started their efforts and naturally, asked us and the South Koreans for help with equipment and asked the Japanese for financial and, most importantly, logistics and light industrial support to maintain a level of equipment they needed and had no ability to support.”

“What did they do?”

“They had a quiet talk between Seoul and Tokyo, reached agreement and then talked to us. In the region, only Fiji and Papua New Guinea have anything like the ability to operate and sustain anything above trucks and mortars. The South Koreans basically donated refurbished 105 towed howitzers. They are towed by Kia trucks. They sold their K200 APC’s and Daewoo rifles, mortars and machine guns basically at cost, we picked up some of that financial impact, and so did Taiwan. The Japanese paid for a modern maintenance facility in Suva and for another, smaller one in Port Moresby. We donated a bunch of Bushmasters, older ones which were fully refurbished to a standard they wanted. They have a roof mounted machine gun behind a shield for example. We also placed large orders for uniforms and webbing in Fiji, where there is a pretty big and good quality garment industry. This is not all one-way, sir. We have encouraged the UK and Canada to do the same and some orders have been placed. Then the Fijians asked an awkward question…”

“Which was?”

“What about bunker-busting, and things like how to deal with armour. They pointed out that they were moving into lightweight brigade level operations and had never been there before, and needed a workable anti-tank and anti-bunker capability better than the Carl Gustav, which was all they had. The problem was that they could not possibly support modern anti-tank guided weapons. They need anti-tank guns or a very simple, light tank that could deal with the light enemy armour they are likely to meet. There are none such. Certainly no anti-tank guns are really possible these days. We looked at a lot of tanks and none suited, all are both far too complex and too heavy for island infrastructure. There’s barely a bridge out there that can take 50 tons and we needed something far below 40.”

“What the Fijians and Papua New Guineans required was really a tank physically light enough to operate in tropical soft ground, swamp and jungle conditions, with much more than APC armour and full size gun if possible. A Centurion was far too heavy. Something like the 1980s Cadillac Gage Stingray would be good, but very few were made. And of course, these tanks have to be used in driblets, as infantry support tanks. Tropical warfare needs tanks spread among the infantry in penny packets, so numbers needed were very low. Stingray is long out of production, of course, so no new builds were possible.”

The General looked thoughtful. “Very different indeed. So in this context ‘light’ means a light logistics footprint… oh and ‘light’ cost! No-one could have had much money to spare.”

“No, sir and it’s not the worst shortage. That is the skilled manpower in the case of the Islanders, it had to be simple, no more mechanically complex than a bulldozer. Certainly, Australia did not want another vehicle as we had the problem already with our unholy mess of a fleet of Leopard I, Centurion, M113 variants, Rooikats and Yeramba mix and such. Our operations in the Timor and eastern Indonesian archipelago were even then being done by mixes of Centurions or the lighter Leopard I and support versions of M113 and, in some areas, wheeled vehicles. The Kiwis also needed something too but they were already financially overstretched after the disastrous Clark government and the Victor class SSN wreck, and all of that. They had a lot of rebuilding to do. Clark did a lot of damage, and they fluffed it a bit, got a bit too enthusiastic and tried too much too fast, not that they had a lot of choice.”

“So Australia had to find something for the Islanders. I mean, sir, we’d help fund this a bit in order for some vehicles to be given to the Fijian Army, PNGDF and Timorese Army. The thinking at that stage was that the need was probably 12, 6 and 6 respectively. Tiny, tiny numbers, but it just was not do-able. Then everyone seemed to have the same idea. The Koreans noted that old kit is not necessarily bad kit. A mad historian said it might be an idea to look at what had worked before in the Pacific, and one of the Army treadheads who’s also an AFV collector came up with a full survey of odds and sods around the world. Of these the most attractive possibility was Chile.”

“Chile?”

“Yes sir believe it or not, Chile. They had what was left of their old tank fleet in storage. What was attractive about the Chilean remnant M4, M24, M50, M51 and M60 fleet was the numbers. There were…” He checked his notes, “65 M-60 Shermans with modern engines and 60mm gun, these were M-51 refitted with a 60mm gun, 35 M51 Super Sherman all ex IDF with a 105mm F91 gun, HVSS and Cummins V-8 460HP engine, and what were left of 76 M4A1 with 75mm gun purchased in late 1940s and 48 M4A1E9 with 75mm gun with improved suspension, in service until mid 70s. So there was a fleet of about 100 vehicles, about 65 with 60mm and about 35 with 105mm, all have everything else in common. There was also a pool of remaining M4A1, about 50 in various states, and all 21 M24 Super Chaffee. The international collection of AFV collectors this bloke tapped found all sorts of bits and pieces around the world. In the end we wound up with all sorts of stuff, like on the aircraft side with Daks and Hunters. Total was the 100 working or near-working Chilean tanks and 13 additional Israeli M-51 they still had lurking in store. We also looked for hulks and parts, tracks, suspension units and whatnot. Among that lot were 122 hulls and hulks of various types, and among those were six Sextons from South Africa, four Lees from Brazil and two ex-Australian Army Grants with the wartime jungle mods.”

“Good Lord. Chilean M50 and M60, no wonder they were getting rid of them. I am amazed that such obsolete tanks were still in service, how odd! I assume the Lees and such went to museums? What the hell did you do with all that junk?”

The Australian shook his head and looked at him a bit reproachfully. “Hmm. That’s a very NATO-centric view, sir. The Chileans bought their tanks to face off with Bolivian T-55s and they were good for that. The tropical Pacific-centric, archipelagic, infrastructure-what’s-that view is ‘hey look an effective, modern light infantry support tank.’ So that’s why we bought the lot. The whole Chilean M24, M50 and M60 fleet. Now, out in our neck of the woods these are a 32-ton light tank by today’s standards. Why buy the lot – why not? It’s not like they were expensive. Also, it played very well into Pacific politics, especially as Port Moresby, Suva and Dili were offered sufficient numbers of them. Yes, these really are be token with the exception of Fiji, to whom Australia also offered a small number of original M113 battlefield taxis from store and the Bushmasters. It led to some weird things happening, though.”

“So who got what?”

“Well, we talked it over with the Fijians, PNGers and Timorese. Basically only the Fijians really needed more than a few, the others really just need them for training to familiarise their infantry and quite frankly for prestige. All of them needed refurbishment and for that we used a lot of commercial truck components, heavy truck engines for example. That meant that they could maintain them based on a sort of Japanese-improved mining machinery maintenance capability. So the remaining M4 and useful hulls were put into the refurbishment line to be rebuilt to M51 standard, the Israeli’s helped there and it was hardly costly, less than a million each, the US, Seoul and us basically split the cost, the Japanese kicked in some infrastructure upgrades in Suva and the Israelis helped out gratis with technical support, training and equipment they found in store. That gave us a pool of 100 M51, all simple and with very economical systems, and ample attrition stock. The 105 is a readily available round, for example. The Kiwis were the surprise here as they really, really liked the 60 mm High-Velocity Medium Support (HVMS) Gun in the M60. They were intrigued by the 60mm, that thing’s 3-round burst capability, which was not in the Chilean M24 tanks. The M60 could carry a LOT of ammo made it a perfect HE bunker-buster. Three small explosions is a lot better than a single 105mm explosion when your own infantry are close to an enemy bunker, and that happens a lot in jungle fighting. The M60 earned a good rep in Timor’, its reliable, easy to maintain and simple. A flat trajectory, very accurate gun like that is very interesting tactically. The 60mm HVMS also has a really good APDS round. The problem was that the ammo is expensive per round when compared to the 105, which ruled it out as a weapon for Fiji. But that was not really a problem for the Kiwis and they decided to keep it. So the Kiwis’ve got a pool of 60 M60 Sherman, another five were reconverted to M51 standard to provide additional 60mm guns for the pool and for training. What really surprised us was that the Kiwis are also refurbing the two dozen ex-Chilean Chaffees which also have the 60mm HVMS, but it’s manually loaded as the turret is small. The Kiwi Army loves the things as a training vehicle for their independent M60 squadrons. But… Kiwis. I expect they might pop up anywhere. They’ve been trialled in Timor too, successfully again.”

The General nodded. “We offered the New Zealanders Chieftains, I recall that they did say it was too heavy for them. And Scorpion and Scimitar were too small.”

“Yes, sir, and they have dug out everything locally, even a handful of Valentines and Churchills they got going to do initial famil and AT training for infantry at basic training. Buggers are probably still looking for Semphills tank. And the Fijians wanted the Sextons and Lees, and had decent reasons. We are kissing and making up so that was no issue.”

“Heard about the Kiwis Churchills, but it’s not a combat role at all, but Sextons and Lee’s? Are you guys serious?”

“Heh, not us sir. Look, the islanders have their own sense of humour too, and to be frank, the Brazilian Lee rebuilds were a bit of a joke. The Fijians put a case to us in writing that when fitted with the same kit as the M51’s and has a seven-man crew, they’d make a good crew trainer. Buggers had to be grinning when they sent that request. We looked at it, and basically it was negligible cost and gave the Fijians a sense of control. So no biggie. And we think it’s hilarious too. The Sextons are just a good idea, it’s just a simple SPG. Refurb it and swap the 25-pounder out for the same 105 they have as a towed gun and we may convert a few more from Sherman hulls for them if they want them. And don’t forget the numbers.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, sir, penny packets again. The six Sextons were refurbed same as the M51s and refitted with a Korean 105 howitzer. Not a bad idea and again cheap, we’ll probably do some more from the Sherman hulls, the Lee’s were odd, gave them the same engines and such as the M51’s, a modern 20mm in the turret, kept the three-incher, there’s ammo available believe it or not, and caged the things against RPG, adding the jungle mods we developed in 1944. They are an independent troop specifically to support the Fijian Company in Timor, and the huge crew’s really a training opportunity. Bloody useful as they are very light, well under 30 tons, and can go places our Leopards and Centurions can’t.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes sir, it really does not take much of an AFV in that sort of role. Seriously, you could use any 1930s gun-armed tank there. And they bought the Fijians solid prestige as they look impressive to the Timorese public and to be frank a 20mm in a turret is all they really need. The 75 is perfect against anyone in good cover, they only have HE and smoke. And the Fijians really do think it’s hilarious.”

He chuckled. “And sir it really is. You should see the looks on the faces of our American cousins visiting Dili when a bloody Lee tank goes trundling past with a grinning Fijian Sergeant saluting jauntily from the damned thing. Worth it just for that, really.”

The British officer smiled, cocked his head slightly and paused in thought. “Hmm. So just quickly, what do the little armies out there look like?”

The Australian took to his notes again.

“The Fijian brigade coming over is two Infantry Battalions, an Engineer Company, two batteries of towed 105mm artillery and the armoured battalion, total in battalion, 33 M51 Sherman tanks, 10 Bushmasters, 6 Sexton 105s, 20 officers and 380 enlisted and there’s about 40 K200 APC, with transport support in the form of Kia trucks. The rest of the RFMF is four regular and eight reserve infantry battalions, so totals about 6,000 regulars and 11,000 reserves. The PNGDF has also doubled to about 5,000 regulars and 8,500 reserves. All are light jungle infantry and they are bloody good at it in country so rugged that you, sir, would consider it a vertical green hell. I’ve seen those mad buggers operating in ten metre eight foot cloud-jungle.”

“Ten metre eight foot cloud jungle?”

“Ten metres of rainfall a year, visibility in the vegetation is eight feet, and it’s all freezing cold and in the clouds, you at ten thousand feet sir and the orographic uplift is bloody horrifying, you’ve never seen such rains.”

“Good Lord!’

“Funny place, the island containing Irian Jaya and PNG, sir. It’s got glaciers on the equator. With jungle below them. Some of the cloud forest tribes are still cannibals and sir I really am not pulling your leg at all.” He grinned. “Now, sir, His Majesty’s Armed Forces of Tonga has also doubled to two battalions each with three companies, each has 450-500 Marines. There are about 400 for the Navy and air wing which now has three S-2T as MPA, plus the Royal Guard of about 200. Then there’s the Vanuatu Mobile Force – about 500 very light infantry. More Gendarmes, really, but very good at counter-insurgency stuff. They have done very well in Timor.”

“What other air forces are there?”

“Really none, sir. The Tongan Air Wing operates on Australian money and support staff. The Fijians focus on what they are good at, they have a couple of airvans for local work in the archipelago. PNG has the closest, three Turbo-Dakota and seven Wirraway II airvans and again we do a lot of the maintenance. They have a real need for light transport in their country. That’s why we have a Squadron of old Caribou we’ve resurrected out of reserve based in Port Moresby as well.”

He shrugged. “It’s not Europe, what you’d call third-line kit or worse is all you need in many cases, and forces are spread wafer thin over vast areas without infrastructure. Just the island of New Guinea is 300,000 square miles, Britain’s only 80,000. New Guinea has maybe 10,000,000 people in a thousand different groups each with its own language. Half of it’s scientifically unexplored and the anthropologists reckon there’s probably fifty tribes which have yet to be discovered. If you want to get anywhere off the few roads you walk but that’s at track speed which is measured in hours, not distance.”

“I’ll cross it off my bucket list, I think.”

oOo

Chile Super-Chaffee.jpg

Chile M-60.jpg

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[Bernard Woolley]

The Tongan Marines ended up in Denmark of all places. The Kiwis will get Chieftains, btw, but not until they arrive in Europe.