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AndyF -> 'Shaw - Lt: USMC' (5/16/2016 3:47:57 AM)
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Armageddon's Song Volume 6, 'Shaw - Lt: USMC' , the first of two prequels featuring the early series characters Gen. Henry Shaw USMC; Terry Jones, CIA Director, and Peter Dawnosh, PM of Great Britain, all in South Vietnam in 1963 when it was still a low budget advisor's war.
The story opens with Henry Shaw's role model, his father, in WW2, although the father and son relationship is not an easy one.
Moving on to 1963, 2Lt Shaw, a young advisor, has been assigned to a firebase close to the borders of Laos and North Vietnam. He quickly falls out with the corrupt ARVN regional commander.
Lt Dawnosh, Royal Marines, is in Vietnam as an observer on detachment from No.14 (Commonwealth) Jungle Warfare School (fictitious) in Sarawak and has his own interpretation of his job description with MACV, "aggressively observing" whenever the opportunity arises.
Terry Jones walked into a trap in East Berlin but fought his way out. leaving four dead Stasi agents in the snow. His new cover is that of a pilot with Air America and he is involved in the operation to overthrow President Diem.
There is a spy at work, either at the US Embassy or in the CIA offices, which constitutes part of the espionage thread, but the remainder of the story is small unit war fighting.
I found the research quite fascinating and cannot help but suppose that had President Kennedy not been assassinated, later in 1963, the US may not have been dragged into that war. Neither did I know that the French Intelligence Service paid for itself by producing and supplying opium in partnership with the mafia, back in the 1950s. (Very easy to get distracted by research.)
105k words, plus illustrations of aircraft of the time, T-28 Trojan, O-1 Bird Dog, H-21 Shawnee, H-34 Choctaw etc (for the benefit of those younger than myself) and civilian-friendly maps (as they generally don't know about battlemap marking).
Nathan Anderson, an American artist, produced the maps for both this volume and the next (Sarawak and Chosin, for a flashback segement). For what it is worth, the maps are available full size and free from the gallery on this link. Map and Illustration Gallery
I am keeping the kindle price low until the second part is out in a month. If anyone wants to read it on hardcover then please save yourselves $15 by following these links and buying it directly from the printer Lulu.Com - Hardcover book printers. otherwise, the kindle and paperbacks from Amazon are here. Andy Farman @ Amazon Books
Andy Farman
Preview:-
Rob Radcliffe commanded the rear-guard, remaining alone on the bank as the last men crossed, he cut loose one of the creeper ‘safety-lines’ and tied the end of the other about his waist before fording the river in the same way as the Royal Marine had done. Six feet from the bank, he ducked beneath the water to secure one end of a tripwire about a boulder and the other to the pin of a hand grenade wedged between two others.
Major Washington extended a hand to help him up the bank.
The sergeant major untied the vine rope and was reaching up, dripping wet and smiling gratefully, when he staggered, a surprised look in his eyes and his lips and teeth suddenly bloody as he coughed up a crimson spray.
Bark flew off a tree trunk next to Joshua’s head and high velocity rounds cracked past, shredding leaves and amputating small branches.
Joshua dropped, still reaching for Sergeant Major Radcliffe but Rob was falling backwards into the water, his equipment taking him under and the current carrying him downstream.
Joshua saw the shape of a pith helmet, the headgear of the NVA, emerging from the shadow of a bush but before he could aim and fire the bank he was laying on began to fountain dirt and rotting foliage. Realising he was in view he rolled to the right and began crawling backwards.
Return fire escalated, allowing him to scuttle away far more quickly than he could crawl, moving into a firing position and joining the fight.
Henry, Rob’s three advisors and a dozen Montagnards were firing at targets they could see, and into cover from which muzzle flashes or gun smoke were being emitted. The roar of gunfire was deafening and with hardly a breath of breeze in the air the blue haze of cordite hung like an ever thickening blanket between the opposing forces.
This was not a contest they could win, their ammunition was limited to what they carried and they had to keep moving. The gunfire had pinpointed their position for all the enemy in the area and to stand and fight meant being pinned down and surrounded.
Joshua shouted to those on his right, pointing to himself, self-designating as their fire team leader before yelling at the top of his voice in order to be heard.
“GO!”
The advisors fell back ten feet, while the major covered them, keeping up the rate of fire.
Crawling low to avoid the incoming small arms fire that was chewing up the underbrush, filling the air with wood chips and diced leaves, the advisors then turned, resuming the firefight, allowing Joshua’s group to fall back beyond them by the same method.
A rocket grenade left a smoky wake in the air, spanning the river and detonating against a tree.
A Montagnard went down screaming, hit by shrapnel through the lower back, and Joshua grabbed a shoulder strap, dragging the slightly built man back into deeper shadow when he too was struck a blow and knocked on his face. He felt no pain and could not locate the wound although his right hip and thigh felt wet. His legs still worked so he carried on dragging the tiger stripe clad tribesman away.
His group were now returning fire and he watched Henry, eyes wide with the effects of adrenaline but still in control and not merely reacting, he was watching the members of that group fall back, checking none had fallen unnoticed.
“Lend a hand here, Mr Shaw!”
Panting, Henry dropped down next to Major Washington and grasped the wounded man’s other shoulder strap.
Joshua threw a WP grenade back towards the river, with care so as not to have it bounce back into his lap by hitting a tree or branch.
It exploded, providing a thick cloud of white smoke to give them cover from view.
“Break Contact!”
Enemy rounds ripped through the smoke and two more RPG rounds detonated, adding the dirty black smoke of high explosive along with shrapnel, wood splinters and deafening noise.
The advisors and Montagnards stayed low, with Henry and Joshua towing the casualty back another twenty five or so metres before quickly reorganising and taking stock.
The Montagnard they were dragging was already dead of shock and blood loss, so his weapons, ammunition and rations were stripped from the body and redistributed.
Joshua’s ‘wound’ was his water bottle which had exploded when hit, drenching his right leg so he claimed the dead tribesman’s bottle and they jogged away, covering their arcs while following the trampled undergrowth that marked the passage of the villagers.
The grenade in the stream exploded as the pursuit began, but there was no way to determine whether the threat of other booby-traps had deterred the hunters and consequently if they were now heading to the new ford to cross over before picking up their quarry’s trail.
After a hundred metres they came upon a defensive line, a hasty rear-guard composed of Peter’s party and more Montagnards.
Passing through the rear-guard, Major Washington’s group continued after the villagers with the major making his contact report to Firebase Zara and requesting air support.
[image]local://upfiles/47655/752F353EC2154E7B9F9570489BE288C4.jpg[/image]
[image]local://upfiles/47655/F8C0468311204F71854FF68843B1BF8C.jpg[/image]
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