mesbooks Chapter 448 Guerrillas in Sumatra
Chapter 448 Guerrillas in Sumatra
The sea breeze blew, the night was as dark as ink, and the moonlight splashed on the sea, creating silver fragments.
The tide hits the beach wave after wave, making a rustling sound like a whisper.
The entire beach was deserted, with only a hermit crab crawling out from behind a sand dune, only to be frightened back into its shell by the sudden noise.
This is an unnamed small island outside Bangka Island, located in the sea northeast of the old port of Sumatra Island, more than 450KM away from Xingzhou, which was liberated by the Anglican Army.
A few mottled thatched houses are scattered on the edge of the coconut grove in the center of the island, appearing even more lonely in the night.
Suddenly, there was a low roar in the air, like thunder rolling in the distance.
Someone in the coconut grove looked up at the night sky. The starlight was passed by some black shadow. It was not the wind, but an airplane.
"Here it comes." A low cry broke the silence of the night.
The fire suddenly lit up, and several dark figures rushed out from the woods, running towards the piles of firewood that had been piled up in advance. They held torches and lit the dry wood with expert movements.
"Click on the third group, hurry up, the wind direction has changed!" someone shouted.
Within a few minutes, three flames rose on the beach, like three guiding lighthouses. The blazing flames shot straight into the night sky, illuminating half the sky.
"This is Raven-01, visually locating ground signals, preparing to enter the airdrop route."
In the cockpit, the captain and co-pilot looked at each other and pulled the joystick together to control the aircraft to change its course.
The Anmin Army's C-47 transport plane formation broke through the night, formed a neat wedge array, circled once, and then flew in a straight line from southeast to northwest, passing over the island like a long snake.
The paratroopers in the cabin held the cables in their hands with tense expressions. As the red light turned green and the hatch opened, they quickly pushed the wooden boxes out of the cabin one by one.
Click click click.
The sound of the pulley turning and the roar of the engine intertwined, and the next moment, countless white umbrellas slowly bloomed in the air, like silent fireworks blooming in the night sky.
A special airdrop wooden box was hung under the parachute rope and slowly descended.
Many natives on the ground knelt down and prayed. In their ignorant eyes, that was not an airdrop at all, but a treasure sent down by the gods!
The remaining group of people looked up, not caring whether the pilots in the sky could see them. Many of them waved their hands excitedly to the sky, and some simply jumped up and cheered.
A short Chinese guerrilla fighter couldn't help but whistle: "This is the most romantic airdrop I've ever seen in my life!"
"Shut up, you idiot! Do you want the Japanese to hear you? Go and pick up the goods." An old team member next to him kicked him into the sand.
"Where are the Japs? The farthest ones are a hundred miles away." The little guy complained and crawled towards the beach.
The fallen wooden boxes crashed onto the beach one after another. Some landed a little further away and plunged into the coconut grove or the sea. Someone immediately rushed over, carefully cut the parachute rope, and hugged the wooden box.
A sturdy man wearing the shorts of a South China Sea fisherman ran over in two steps and waved to several team members to move the boxes.
Although he was dressed like the common fishermen along the South Seas coast, his exposed limbs were full of tendons. Although his face was painted black, his eyes were bright in the firelight, obviously extraordinary.
He was Lieutenant Colonel Lin Laisheng, who had just departed from Xingzhou Port a few days ago. After three ship transfers, he secretly landed on the island in the dark.
Today, he is the deputy chief of the operations department of the Nanyang Strategic Intelligence Office under the Second Operations Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff. He came here at this time to contact the guerrillas on the island and pave the way for the subsequent landing operation of the Anmin Army in Jiugang.
Lin Laisheng squatted down, pulled out an iron crowbar from his belt, picked up the crowbar, and pried open the wooden box neatly.
When they looked inside, they saw in the firelight the various weapons they urgently needed in the box.
Another man also ran to his side. It was the leader of this guerrilla group, Harriman, an unremarkable White Eagle electrical engineer.
Together with former Dutch colonial lieutenant Karen, he formed a guerrilla force of several thousand people. The guerrilla force was mainly composed of local natives and Chinese who had escaped from big cities. They hid in the countryside of Sumatra and the surrounding islands.
The white man with a high nose, deep eyes and a face covered with stubble came over with a smile. While chewing tobacco leaves, he patted Lin Laisheng on the shoulder and said, "Hey, man, how are you?"
Lin Laisheng opened the stuffing in the wooden box, took out something, turned around and threw it to Harriman.
Harriman took it and saw that it was an M3 submachine gun. He excitedly pulled the bolt, and a crisp metallic "click" sound was heard:
"Great, we finally have some decent weapons instead of those junk."
"What weapons did you use to support yourself before?" Lin Laisheng asked casually.
"Some old Mausers left by the Dutch, plus a few Type 38 rifles captured from the Japanese. With one less bullet to use, I have to rely on ancestral spells to scare people." Harriman spread his hands.
"Spell?"
"We had the village wizard tie chicken feathers to the guns, pretending it was a 'gun protection charm', saying it would make the bullets more accurate. You know, for some people here, a gun is a wand that can cast deadly spells."
Lin Laisheng couldn't help but laugh: "You know how to adapt to local conditions."
"As the saying goes, when in Rome, act like Romans. These blowguns and javelins can kill the devil just as well." Harriman patted the wooden box. "Of course, they're still no match for these. Brothers, you really saved our lives this time."
Through the hand-rubbing radio, his team contacted Marshal Mai's Pacific Theater Command very early. Unfortunately, the latter was not optimistic about this ragtag guerrilla group, especially when Marshal Mai learned that the leader of this guerrilla group was just a former Marine Corporal and current electrical engineer.
So although this guerrilla force had a large number of people, they lacked weapons and had a hard time surviving under the encirclement of the Japanese. They only survived by hiding in corners that the Japanese were unwilling to go to.
Finally, as the An Min Army liberated Singapore and flourished, Harriman thought of seeking help from the An Min Army.
It just so happened that Zhang Chi was preparing to land in Jiugang and seize the oil fields on Sumatra Island. He lacked intelligence and local tyrants to lead the way, so the two sides hit it off.
This airdrop is a display of "sincerity" by the Anmin Army.
At this time, there was a commotion in the distance. Lin Laisheng looked around and saw that several guerrillas were fighting for the parachute fabric.
One person clung to a corner and refused to let go, while another shouted in the local language: "I saw this first!"
Lin Laisheng frowned, and Harriman quickly explained, "They all come from poor backgrounds. They even have to share pants. The nylon fabric of the parachute is more valuable to them than a gun."
"I think I'll have to airdrop cloth to you in the future." Lin Laisheng muttered, feeling helpless about the performance of these guerrillas who lacked military discipline.
It would be great if they were his soldiers. It seems that if he wants to complete the mission, he has to ask his hometown to airdrop another group of soldiers to him.
Harriman instructed the lower-level officers to maintain order and move the airdropped supplies as quickly as possible, shrugging his shoulders. "That's what it's like on the edge of civilization, isn't it?"
In fact, in the past, when parachute bags were still made of silk, even the White Eagle paratroopers would secretly try to hide the parachute bags after airborne, and keep them to make wedding dresses for their beloved girls back home.
It’s not that White Eagle is extravagant, but compared to ordinary fabrics, only parachutes made of silk are light and smooth enough.
Later, because silk was too expensive and not durable, it was eventually replaced with artificial nylon material.
The commotion on the beach continued. Lin Laisheng stood up and looked at this busy, chaotic, yet hopeful scene. His gaze passed over the beach and fell on the dark sea in the distance.
Sumatra Island is just across the sea, and behind him is Singapore. This ocean will soon no longer be an obstacle, but a strategic channel that is about to be opened.
It was October 22nd. According to news from the White Eagle side, its main naval force had already started a decisive battle with the Japanese Combined Fleet off the coast of Luzon Island.