Finn's Invasion of Taiwan Extravanganza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Totoro said:
Numerical superiority on land - absolutely. Numerical superiority at sea - not so much. Maybe in the opening day, but after that at best they'll be on par with china. Numerical superiority in air will be completely on china's side. That is in the opening days of any possible invasion. With air superiority over such a small theater, taiwan's navy will struggle to do any serious offensive manouvers. As time passes, situation will get just worse for taiwan, until the point US starts its attack. Providing it waits to assemble a decent force - US strike would probably neutralize most of PLAN and deny PLAAF of offensive operations over taiwan. Any chinese troops that would be fighting on taiwan itself would effectively be cut off and would be forced to surrender in a short time frame.
Thank you Totoro. This is what I've been trying to say ever since I joined this forum.
This is how I think it would go.
Chinese forces launch a massive missle barrage at Taiwan, hitting communications facilities, airports and bases, costal defences, Kinmen and Matsu, as well as Kaohsuing and Taipei (to sow fear). American satillites have seen unusual amounts of activity and deployment in Fujian, and the CIA has alerted the ROCs command, thus the missle strikesdo not do as much damage as many had expected them to. Chinese Special forces assault the Penghu Islands, and take them in one day. After two days, Kinmen and Matsu fall, but the defences there have really eaten up the PLA Marine Corps, as well as destroyed uite a few precious landing craft. The garrison didn't go under before it was absolutely sure it had fired all of its ASMs. In the meantime, the PLAAf and the ROCAF have been engaged in a life-and-death struggle over the Strait and Taiwan itself. The ROCAF holds up well, downing many PLAAF planes, but the PLA is able to keep up a continuous tempo of strikes, and ROCAF pilots and crews never get breaks from combat. Even as they are landing and refueling, they are always in danger from missle strikes that are seemingly constant. The PLA has decided to eliminate Taiwan's ability to counterstrike and attack the landing force before landing. This strategy risks the invasion being defeated by American forces, however. American CBGs are en-route to the area in less than a day, as the President orders all West Coast Carriers into the area as soon as the PLA attack begins. The Kitty Hawk links up with surface assets out of Guam, but waits to be supported by other carriers. USN SSNs move into position to strike, at the Northern and Southern ends of the Taiwan Strait, as well as off of Shanghai and (from B-1s and B-52s, at standoff range and escorted by F16s) at targets believed to be necessary for ampihbious assault, as well as airbases, in Fujian. These strikes are relatively ineffective, as they are launched from so far out and at targets that the Chinese know will be hit. However, the US scores a major hit when it orders all of its B-2s to strike Chinese airbases. One B-2 is hit by AAA, but returns to base. In exchange, the US destroys 29 planes and takes out valuable radars.
All of this is mostly moot however, as the ROCAF is in desperate straits by day 5. The ROCN realizes it has no choice but to give battle, and attacks a Chinese task force that is bearing down on Northern Taiwan in preperation for an invasion (scheduled to occur on Day 7.) In "The battle of the East china Sea, the ROCN sinks a Sovremmeny, an 052, many older destroyers and, most importantly, several troops tranports. The ROC then fires Hsiung Feng missles, and in its weakened state the PLAN force takes heavy casualties. The ROCN looses most of the ships it has in the battle, but has delayed, or possibly halted, an invasion of the northern end of the island. Even more importantly, the US has assembled 4 carriers and is entering the battle zone with them.
The other main event of Day 6 is the massive landings of Chinese paratroopers on the island. Given the fact that many Taiwanese SAM batteries are still operational (but running very low on missles) and the USN has begun to fly planes in the area, the landings are remarkably sucecessful. They were supposed to be supported by amphibious landings on the same day, and by the mainlanding the next day, but US and ROC action pushed back the schedule a day and a half for landings on the central coast. The paratroopers are met by ROC reservists, mostly, although in areas where the landings were expected they are met by regular troops. The Chinese paratroopers manage to consolidate their positions but come under heavy attack as the ROC struggles to eliminate them before the ampibious assault comes. Several pockets are wiped out in the first day, mainly due to the ROC's numerical superiority, but the largest hold out, albeit taking heavy casualties.
When the Chinese landings finally do come, the USN is fully ready. SSNs, lying stationary in areas that the PLAN has designated as staging areas, open up Tomahaks and torpedos on every ship they can finds. Two are subsequently killed, the highest death toll the Navy has taken in one day since WWII. Groups of Hornets, armed with Harpoons and ecorted by F-16s out of Kadena and Guam, attack the Chinese fleet as it lumbers across the Strait. In conjunction with attacks from land-based Hsiung Feng batteries and what is left of the ROCAF, the US strike does much damage. A huge air battle insues, in which the PLAAF out does expectations, downing 40 planes, but the US forces still come out on top, killing 62 PLAAF aircraft. The next day, the one operational squadron of F-22s arrive in Kadena. The USN mounts another Hornet strike, and the PLAAF counters again. However, it is not nearly as close. The US loses 4 Hornets, and the PLAAF looses 73 planes, nearly the entire force sent up to counter the strike. The expense of the F-22 is justified.
Despite USN strikes, the PLA ampihibous assault force gets ashore in force on Taiwan, a testament to the strengh and will of the average PLA soldier, as well as the cunning of relatively inexperienced PLA officers, who are forced to make due with a greatly reduced force. Despite improvised landing procedures, the PLA Marines, then other PLA troops, get ashore. 8,000 PLA Marines and 27,000 other PLA troops make it ashore on the first day, day 8 of the war. They are met by 112,000 ROC troops in their sector of the coast(wround Tainan). Much like on D-Day, the ROC troops fail to mount a counterattack, and the landing force survives its most dangerous time.
The next day an additional 16,000 troops are landed. It is less than the first day because of continuing USN strikes.
On day 10, after the total amount of PLA troops on Taiwan has reached 61,000 (add ten thousand because of tjhe paratroopers), the ROC finally counterattacks. The beachhead is reduced slowly, but the ROC is able to bring in troops from other areas of the country because it has become obvious that the PLAN can no longer mount further ampibious operations (thanks to the USN
). The PLAAF is also losing its air superiority.The F-22s take a huge toll, and the PLAAF pilots cannot match the skills of the Americans. In Beijing it is obvious that the strategy of caution, calling for the main invasoin to fall on Day 7, has failed, and that they should have launched the invasion by Day 3. The pockets of paratroopers that have survived the past four days almost all fall on this day, and the beachead is hit by B-2s, flying out of Hawaii.
As the Chinese invasion of Taiwan failed, the USN engaged the main strength of the PLAN. Two PLAN forces, one south of Taiwan and one North, fired a salvo of missles at the 5 American carrier groups in the Phillpine Sea. The two sides trade missle barrages, but American air superiority allows them to again attack the Chinese fleet with Harpoon/JDAM-Armed Hornets. Sunburn Missles from the remaining Sovremmenys sink two Arleigh Burke DDs, and the Ticonderoga Subic Bay is also sunk, by a Jiangwei. Two Ticonderoga crusiers and another Arleigh Burke are damaged by missle fire from other ships. A replenishment ship is sunk by a torpedo from a Yuan, and goes up in a massive explotion. The Yuan is promptly killed. The most shocking development of the day for the Americans is the fact that the USS Abraham Lincoln (a carrier) is hit by two YJ-62 missles, fired form an old Luhai Class DDG. The Lincoln lists heavily, but does not go under, and is forced to begin to long journey back to Everett, Washington. The PLAN scored some sucesses, mission-killing a carrier and sinking 4 American ships. However, almost the entire PLAN fleet was killed, as well as several subs. Subs would be the main preoccupation of the USN fleet in the days to come, as they were almost the last viable threat the PLAN posed.
By Day 15 of the war, all PLA forces on Taiwan had surrendered, and much of the PLAAF, as well as most of the PLAN and its Marine Corps, were put out of action. The PLA had destroyed almost all of the ROCAF and ROCN, as well as killing over 100 American planes, 6 American ships, (two outside of the main action), and mission killing a carrier. But the PRCs ability to continue an offensive war had been eliminated.
That's basically how I think it would go. Its pretty off topic, but I'm really bored.
