CHAPTER 17 – DEFANGING THE DRAGON
Woody Island, Paracel Islands, South China Sea, with Rocky Island to the left.
05:06 (Vietnam Time)
Wednesday, February 28, 1996 ‘C’
Woody Island, Amphitrite Group, Paracel Islands
440 kilometers to the Northeast of the coast of Vietnam
South China Sea
It was still dark when Colonel Van Minh Trung went to pay a visit to the American forward air control team that had been landed during the night by a giant VSTOL cargo aircraft. Their vans, camouflaged with nets among the coconut grove covering part of the 2.1 square kilometer surface of Woody Island, included a truck carrying a command shelter and a surveillance radar mounted on a telescopic mast. That mast was presently raised up, elevating its radar antenna just above the summit of the coconut trees, with the antenna rotating. Trung had been happy to see that American radar unit arrive on the island, something that would help a lot his anti-aircraft gunners to be alerted early to any incoming Chinese aircraft, but he had been equally happy to see the American FAC team arrive with a mobile sea water desalinization plant, complete with a trailer-mounted diesel generator set and flexible fresh water bladders. With no natural source of drinking water on the island except for collected rainwater, potable water was a truly critical resource for him and his men. To help alleviate that lack of water, the landing ships which had dropped his various units on four of the islands of the Paracel Archipelago had also dropped both dozens of barrels of fresh water as well as hundreds of clean empty plastic barrels with open tops, which were now dispersed on those four islands with the goal of collecting fresh water during the frequent local rainfalls. Another agreeable surprise that had come with the American giant cargo planes had been three bulldozers, which had been dropped respectively on Woody Island, Pattle Island and Triton Island, the three islands on which American FAC teams had been landed. Those bulldozers had then dug protective scrapes for the precious radar and radio vans of the American teams and, in a gesture that Trung had greatly appreciated, had subsequently been made available to dig scrapes for the PT-76 of his three light amphibious tank companies which were part of his defense force. Now, Trung felt ready for about anything but still would like to see the American marines announced by his High Command arrive in the archipelago: you never refused reinforcements when you could get some…unless you were a total idiot.
Trung was challenged by an American soldier when he approached the radar van but gave the short password provided to him earlier on by the translator attached to the American unit, so was allowed to get to the van, where he knocked on the door of the command shelter. Captain Eugene Blanchet, the U.S. Air Force officer in charge of the FAC team dropped on Woody Island, opened the door and smiled to the Vietnamese colonel, whom he knew to be able to speak a fairly good English.
‘’Good morning, Colonel! What’s up?’’
‘’Good morning, Captain! I came to see when we could hope for your marines to arrive here.’’
‘’Unfortunately, they are still one day away, Colonel. Their ship is going about as fast as it could but it is still in the Indian Ocean. However, if this could reassure you, a squadron of fighter-bombers landed at night in Da Nang and will be on call to give us some air support whenever we will call for their help.’’
‘’That is good news indeed, Captain. I feel better already. Beware, though: my personal experience tells me that the Chinese like to attack at dawn, so don’t be surprised if you see lots of spots appear on your radar in the next couple of hours.’’
Trung then turned around and was about to walk back to his command dugout when someone inside the radar van said something in an excited voice. Stopping and pivoting around, he listened on as an operator inside the van spoke with Captain Blanchet, who finally looked at Trung.
‘’Our long-range patrol aircraft turning over the ocean some distance from Hainan Island has just reported that a large number of ships of various sizes just sailed out of the Haikou Chinese Navy base. There is also a lot of activity reported on the ground at the Chinese airfields on Hainan Island.’’
‘’They are going to attack this morning!’’ said at once Trung. ‘’They should have sailed earlier than that in order to arrive at dawn but I bet that the Chinese are so confident of themselves in thinking that those islands are not truly defended that they will come in like a bunch of tourists, in full daylight. As for that airfield activity, I bet that they will send either paratroopers or heliborne troops first as a vanguard.’’
‘’That makes sense, Colonel. I will warn Da Nang about that possibility, so that our command element there could warn your own air force. We came to support you in the defense of these islands, but we also wish to let Vietnamese soldiers and airmen the honor of fighting the Chinese first. That was the word from General Dows.’’
Trung slowly nodded his head at that, his expression sober.
‘’General Dows is a great military commander and fighter: she truly understands what honor and pride implies, on top of being a master of the art of war. I will now go put my anti-aircraft gunners on full alert. Please advise me when you will have those Chinese aircraft on your radar.’’
‘’I will, Colonel! I will advise you via field telephone.’’
‘’Perfect!’’ replied Trung before nearly running back to his command dugout. That dugout was quite shallow, compared to what Trung held to be a well-made dugout, but the surface layer of dirt on Woody Island was quite thin, with hard coral right under it. Explosives actually had to be used to make that dugout, while Trung’s men had only been able to dig very shallow foxholes instead of proper trenches. Passing by field telephone orders for his gunners to stand ready next to their weapons, Trung then waited for the enemy to show up.
Some forty minutes later, his telephone connected to the American radar van rang, making Trung swiftly pick up its handset.
‘’Colonel Trung speaking!’’
‘’Colonel, this is Captain Blanchet. We have now two groups of three aircraft each approaching at medium altitude from the Northwest. I read them as cargo aircraft, possibly carrying paratroopers. We have as well two groups of what appears to be helicopters approaching at low altitude, also coming from Hainan Island. One pair of groups is heading for our island, while the other pair of groups is heading towards Triton Island. They should arrive in visual range in about ten minutes. Your air force and our fighter-bombers in Da Nang have already been alerted to these Chinese aircraft and helicopters, Colonel.’’
‘’Thanks for the warning, Captain!’’ replied Trung before putting down the receiver and picking another telephone receiver connected to his anti-aircraft batteries.
‘’Attention to all gunners! We have Chinese cargo aircraft approaching from the Northwest at medium altitude, plus helicopters approaching from the same direction at low altitude. Estimated time of arrival: ten minutes. Our 57mm gunners are to concentrate on the cargo aircraft, while our 23mm and 14.5mm guns will concentrate on the helicopters. Our anti-aircraft missiles will only target enemy jet fighters and bombers if they come down to attack us.’’
Trung then passed the same warning, this time via radio and using pre-selected codewords to warn his units dispersed on three other islands of the archipelago. With that done, he grabbed his binoculars and started watching the skies to the Northwest as the Sun started rising in the East.
The telephone linked to the radar van rang again some eight minutes later, making Trung pick it up in a hurry.
‘’Colonel Trung speaking!’’
‘’Colonel, three cargo aircraft will be over Woody Island in one minute, while another three cargo aircraft will arrive over Triton Island in three minutes. They have now descended to an altitude of 500 meters, which suggests to me that they intend to drop parachutists. As for the helicopters, ten of them will arrive here in five minutes, while another twelve other helicopters will arrive at Triton Island in fifteen minutes. That information has been passed to my other FAC teams, who in turn are passing it to your men on the other islands. We now have on radar over a hundred fast jets approaching at high altitude, probably to act as fighter cover for the cargo aircraft and helicopters.’’
That last piece of information made Trung pause for a moment: a hundred fighter-bombers represented a lot of firepower, even when accounting for the generally limited ordnance payload Chinese jet aircraft could carry.
‘’We will concentrate our fire on the cargo aircraft and the helicopters, Captain. Again, thanks for the warning.’’
Trung’s next move was to pick up a megaphone and, cranking it to maximum volume, spoke in it to pass last minute orders.
‘’ALL GUNNERS, BE READY TO FIRE ON MY COMMAND! ENEMY CARGO AIRCRAFT WILL BE HERE IN ONE MINUTE, COMING FROM THE NORTHWEST. ENEMY HELICOPTERS WILL BE HERE IN FIVE MINUTES. REMEMBER: THE 57MM GUNNERS WILL CONCENTRATE ON THE CARGO AIRCRAFT, WHILE THE OTHERS WILL CONCENTRATE ON THE HELICOPTERS. HOLD YOUR FIRE UNTIL I GIVE THE ORDER TO OPEN FIRE.’’
With that done, Trung resumed his observation of the northwestern sky with his binoculars. Only a few seconds later, he saw three dots appear in the sky at fairly low altitude, while dozens of condensation trails were appearing at higher altitude. He nearly shouted out in joy when he saw dozens of other condensation trails come in: those were coming from the direction of the Vietnamese coast. Next, Trung saw the newcomers from the Vietnamese coast start launching salvoes of missiles at the Chinese jets acting as fighter cover for the enemy invading force. Many of Trung’s men screamed in joy when many of those missiles hit their targets, transforming them into flying torches, to which Trung screamed at the top of his lungs.
‘’SILENCE! CONCENTRATE ON THESE CARGO PLANES AND HELICOPTERS INSTEAD!’’
A minute later, as the air battle went on overhead, he saw the expected helicopters appear on the horizon, flying very low. By now, the cargo aircraft were only a few seconds from overflying Woody Island. Trung then decided that he could wait no longer.
‘’57MM GUNNERS, OPEN FIRE!’’
Six S-60 57mm towed anti-aircraft guns, positioned and camouflaged in shallow scraped, then started pumping out shells towards the incoming three Y-8 medium transport aircraft. The four-engine turboprop aircraft, having to fly straight and slow at an altitude of 500 meters in order to drop their paratrooper loads, were easy targets for the 57mm gunners, with two S-60 guns aimed at each cargo aircraft. The result was nearly instantaneous, with shells from the first burst of fire either hitting directly the transports or exploding near them, thanks to their proximity fuses. One Y-8 transport broke up in midair, with a second Y-8 then turning into a flying torch. The third Y-8, with two engines on fire, tried to veer away but a direct hit against its cockpit killed its pilots and sent the aircraft into an uncontrolled spiral dive. None of the 180 paratroopers carried by the three Y-8s had a chance to jump out before their aircraft crashed into the sea in direct sight of the jubilant Vietnamese gunners. Trung now expected the pilots of the incoming helicopters to turn around after seeing the volume of anti-aircraft coming from Woody Island. However, those Chinese pilots kept coming: either they were very brave or they were loath to disobey their orders. That was when Trung saw twelve twin-engine jet aircraft come down to medium altitude, heading towards Woody Island. A look through his binoculars allowed him to easily recognize the distinct shapes of Il-28 light bombers, or rather their Chinese H-5 copies.
‘’57MM GUNNERS, SWITCH TARGETS TO INCOMING LIGHT BOMBERS! THE ZSU-23-4s AND SA-9s WILL ENGAGE AS SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE!’’
The first ones to fire at the bombers were actually two Vietnamese fighter pilots who were chasing them in their Mig-21 supersonic jet fighters. Firing their infrared-guided air-to-air missiles from beyond the effective range of the Chinese bombers’ tail gunners, they downed in quick succession four of the Il-28s before prudently deciding to veer away when they saw the first 57mm shells explode around the remaining bombers. Now not needing anymore to worry about shooting friendly aircraft, the Vietnamese gunners on Woody Island fired bursts after bursts at maximum cadence at the approaching bombers. To their credit, the Chinese pilots did not flee from that murderous fire and pushed their attack all the way. Only seven of them were still in the air when the four ZSU-23-4 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns started opening fire as well, filling the sky with 23mm shells, their fire directed by radar. Each burst that hit a bomber in turn ripped that aircraft apart, killing their crews and putting them on fire. With the 57mm guns continuing to fire on them as well as the deadly ZSU-23-4s, only two of the light bombers survived long enough to overfly the island and drop their bomb loads before falling down in flames. Captain Blanchet and his FAC team, having wisely decided to jump into their shallow protection trenches, were not hurt by the few bombs that exploded on the island but were still shaken enough to make a female radar operator briefly raise her head for a look while swearing out loud.
‘’SHIT! THAT WAS CLOSE!’’
‘’IT WILL GET CLOSER IF A CHINESE PILOT SEES YOUR PRETTY HEAD ABOVE GROUND, BERMANN.’’ replied Blanchet from his own trench. Then, more guns barked as the Chinese helicopters came within firing range of the waiting ZPU-4s quad heavy machine guns of the Vietnamese defenders. Being much slower than either the cargo aircraft or the jet bombers and flying close to the sea surface, the Z-5 medium transport helicopters proved to be easy targets for the ZPU-4s. None of the ten helicopters trying to reach Woody Island in order to drop off their troops made it past the coral reef circling the island. Then, as quickly and abruptly as the battle had started, silence fell back on the island.
Trung’s men, as well as the members of the American FAC team, started to cheer that victory out loud but Trung quickly returned them to reality.
‘’CALM DOWN, ALL OF YOU! THIS WAS ONLY THE FIRST ROUND. WE STILL HAVE A NAVAL INVASION FORCE TO FACE! I WANT FRESH RESERVES OF AMMUNITION TO BE BROUGHT NEXT TO THE GUNS, QUICKLY!’’
As his men obeyed him, Trung looked up at the sky and saw that the big air battle overhead was still going on, with planes after planes going down in flames. Being unable to say which of those burning aircraft were Chinese or Vietnamese, he refrained from cheering that battle on and instead took news by radio of what was happening at the other islands of the archipelago. His garrison commander on Triton Island soon reported that the Chinese air armada attacking him had turned around after the three Y-8 aircraft carrying paratroopers had been shot down, probably discouraged by the news of what was happening over Woody Island. The helicopters and aircraft approaching Pattle Island and Drummond Island had similarly turned around and were fleeing back towards Hainan Island and China. No losses or casualties were reported on the Vietnamese side. Quite satisfied by this battle performance, Trung walked to the American radar van, where he found Captain Blanchet speaking with someone on the radio. He patiently waited until Blanchet had finished his conversation before asking him a question.
‘’Any casualties or damage on your side, Captain?’’
‘’None, thank God! And you, Colonel?’’
‘’Nothing as well. Do you know how this air battle overhead is going?’’
‘’It has overwhelmingly been favorable to our side up to now, Colonel. Those Chinese jet aircraft have either obsolete missile decoy systems or none at all and their radars and electronics are a good twenty years behind ours. Their level of pilot training also appeared to be quite low, from what I was told by the air controller in Da Nang. Now, that was about the air battle. Next, we will have to face the Chinese amphibious fleet and its escort ships. From what I was just told, a total of about thirteen destroyers and frigates, plus close to seventy smaller armed craft and over forty landing ships and landing craft are now sailing towards the Paracel Archipelago.’’
‘’Damn! I don’t even have enough gun ammunition to stop that many ships. Do you Americans have something in reserve able to stop such a fleet?’’
That question made Blanchet grin devilishly.
‘’Oh, we certainly have something nice in store for these Chinese ships, Colonel.’’
09:29 (Vietnam Time)
Control room of the nuclear attack submarine U.S.S. SAN JUAN (SSN-751)
On silent running mode, midway between Hainan Island and Woody Island
‘’…I count over 120 ships and craft of all sizes, sir. If we launch missiles at that fleet, their radar homing heads risk becoming confused with so many targets.’’
Commander Jack Kramer, the captain of the U.S.S. SAN JUAN nuclear attack submarine, thought those words over for a moment before taking a decision and replying to his weapons officer.
‘’Then, we will set our missile seekers to home on the largest targets ahead of them and will fire our first four missiles in a spread, to cover the length of that fleet. Let the Devil sort these Chinese out! Prepare to fire our first salvo, Mister Donatello.’’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’
As Lieutenant (Navy) Ronald Donatello was preparing four sub-launched SQUID anti-ship missiles to be fired from periscope depth, Kramer went to have a look through his search periscope. He was able to see on the horizon the small dots marking the bigger ships in the Chinese invasion fleet. From the latest orbital reconnaissance missions flown over this area and Hainan Island, Kramer knew that the largest ships in that fleet would be four destroyers and eight YUKAN-Class LSTs{34}, with each LST displacing over 4,000 tons at full load. If his missiles would hit any of those targets, then he would be plenty happy. Of course, if one or more of his missiles would choose to hit one of the nine Chinese frigates instead, then he would also gladly take that.
Three minutes later, his weapons officer spoke up from his station.
‘’FOUR SQUIDS READY TO FIRE, CAPTAIN!’’
‘’THEN, FIRE THEM IN QUICK SEQUENCE, MISTER DONATELLO!’’
‘’AYE, CAPTAIN! FIRING FIRST MISSILE NOW!’’
The noise of a burst of compressed air ejecting one SQUID missile from one of the four torpedo tubes of the SAN JUAN was then heard in the control room. Three similar bursts followed at five seconds intervals, following which Kramer gave a series of orders.
‘’RELOAD ALL TUBES WITH WIRE-GUIDED TORPEDOES! HELM, TURN TO HEADING 295, DIVE TO DEPTH OF 200 FEET AND ACCELERATE TO TWENTY KNOTS. LOWER PERISCOPE!’’
Once his search periscope was down in its storage well, Kramer walked to the sonar room, situated aft of the control room, in order to observe the results of his missile firing. Some two minutes later, four short-lived noise spikes told him that all of his missiles had hit a target, making him smile with satisfaction.
‘’Excellent! We will now continue with torpedoes, so will be able to be more discriminate with our weapons.’’
On the surface, some 22 nautical miles away to the Northwest, the situation of the Chinese invasion fleet could not be called ‘excellent’. Two of the LUDA-Class destroyers of the fleet had each been hit by one SQUID missile, while one of the eight YUKAN-Class LSTs, by far the largest ships in the fleet, had attracted to it two SQUIDs, with their 250-kilo high explosive warheads ripping big holes in the Chinese ships and starting fires. The antiquated air defenses of the Chinese ships, which relied on old-fashioned anti-aircraft guns of mostly 37mm caliber and had only a few short-range surface-to-air systems with limited performances, were basically powerless to stop the American anti-ship missiles, which had arrived at supersonic speed just above the waves before performing a final steep climb-and-dive maneuver, both to throw off enemy gunfire and to be able to dive at near vertical on their target, coming in at an angle most gun systems could not elevate to point their tubes. Then, the fires created aboard the stricken YUKAN LST reached the reserves of artillery and tank ammunition carried by it. The 4,170-ton landing ship then erupted into a spectacular series of explosions that ripped it apart and cut it in two. What was left of the landing ship then sank in less than a minute with the ten medium tanks it was carrying.
The ordeal of the Chinese invasion fleet was however only beginning. Eight more anti-ship missiles, fired from the nuclear attack submarines U.S.S. PROVIDENCE and U.S.S. BIRMINGHAM quickly followed the SQUIDs fired by the SAN JUAN. Seven of those missiles hit their targets, while the eight one was downed by a lucky 37mm shell. The Chinese were now experiencing a deadly tactic invented by the German submarine fleet in World War 2: the wolfpack. This time, Ingrid Dows had directed that all the American attack submarines able to reach the Paracel Islands by this morning would speed to that area, while the other available submarines in the Pacific sailed towards ambush points along the Chinese coast, near the main port areas.
Despite having now three of his four LUDA-Class destroyers and two YUKAN-Class LSTs seriously damaged, plus one LST sunk and one frigate hit and in the process of sinking, the Chinese admiral in charge of the invasion fleet decided to push on, hoping to land his troops and equipment before losing too many of his ships. However, the first combined salvo of twelve wire-guided homing heavy torpedoes from the three American nuclear attack submarines soon made him reconsider his decision. A second torpedo salvo finished to convince him to turn around but it was now much too late for that, as his own flagship received two torpedoes and started sinking, forcing the admiral to order his ship to be abandoned. Now left with no major escort vessels and with only 54 fast attack craft armed only with light guns, anti-ship missiles or torpedoes and depth charge racks, the remaining collection of 62 landing ships and craft had no other option left but to turn back towards Hainan. However, that didn’t save them from destruction. The duplicity of the Chinese government’s recent actions had decided both President Perot and Ingrid Dows in showing no mercy to the Chinese forces in this war, with Ingrid ordering that every Chinese vessel, however small, that was encountered be sunk and every aircraft seen, either in the air or on the ground, be destroyed. The attempted retreat of the Chinese landing craft, loaded with soldiers, vehicles and guns, soon turned into a shooting gallery, with squadrons of both Vietnamese and American fighter-bombers continuously attacking the fleeing landing craft and fast attack craft with guns and rockets. The few old Chinese diesel submarines deployed in the area in support of the invasion fleet could do nothing then to help the landing craft. Worse, they themselves became the targets of the three American nuclear attack submarines, which went into full hunting mode against the ageing and noisy Chinese submarines. In the space of a few hours that day, China’s South Sea Fleet basically ceased to exist. This was however only the first phase of Operation MJOLNIR.
11:06 (China Time) / 10:06 (Vietnam Time)
Long range surveillance radar station near the coast, east of Jinan.
People’s Republic of China
The radar operator watching the display screen of his long-range air surveillance radar swore out loud when his screen suddenly filled with hundreds of dots.
‘’MAJOR, WE ARE BEING JAMMED! MY SCREEN IS FULL OF FALSE ECHOS.’’
His shift supervisor quickly walked to the operator’s station and looked briefly at the radar screen.
‘’Switch to our alternate frequency.’’
‘’Yes sir!’’ said the operator before obeying him. However, that helped only for a couple of seconds, with the radar screen again filling with dots. The operator switched again three more times the working frequency of his radar, still without success. The Chinese major then picked up the telephone linking him with the other coastal surveillance radars which formed the main eastern warning line of the Chinese air defense network, but was told by the commanders of the other radar stations that they were also experiencing severe and persistent electronic jamming. The last station commander the major called was in the process of giving him a report when the line went dead in mid-sentence. The major looked at his receiver with alarm, not understanding at once why the line had been cut like this. Before he could figure out what was happening, one of the concrete walls of the control center exploded under the impact of an air-to-surface heavy missile, projecting chunks of concrete and debris all around the control room and killing or wounding the radar operators. Another missile hit the big rotating radar antenna seconds before that, ripping it off its base and mangling the antenna beyond repair.
In a coordinated strike by two squadrons of B-51 heavy supersonic bombers that had been planned years ago for such a contingency, all the air surveillance radars along the eastern and southern coasts of China were first jammed, then destroyed, rendering much of the Chinese air defense network blind. The low technology, obsolescent state of much of the Chinese military equipment, which lagged by at least two decades or more behind American military technology, again proved that numbers were not enough to compensate for low quality in a technologically-based war. As soon as the Chinese surveillance radar network went dark, three more squadrons of B-51s flew in at low altitude and high speed to deliver a massive volley of heavy air-to-surface missiles from standoff distance. This time, it was the various military airbases and surface-to-air batteries defending Eastern and Southern China which turned out to be their targets. With the Chinese air defense network now rendered both blind and impotent, the B-51 bombers returned to their bases in the Philippines, in Taiwan and in Japan to rearm and refuel. As soon as the Sun went down over China, those bombers came back to fire more missiles, this time targeting the various military and political command center of the country, plus key defense industry installations and major power plants, sowing both chaos and confusion across the whole country.
As the Chinese leaders bitterly debated among themselves how to respond to the American strikes, one of their primary options for retaliation mostly evaporated when over a hundred heavy orbit-to-ground missiles rained down on Central China. Armed with deep penetration high-explosive warheads, those missiles suddenly hit the Chinese bases housing the silos and reinforced tunnels sheltering China’s intercontinental ballistic missile force, which counted only 20 missiles at the time, plus 22 more missiles with medium range capabilities which could not reach the continental United States. Penetrating deeply into the ground before exploding or squarely smashing their way through the concrete overhead protection of the ballistic missiles, those orbital missiles collapsed or caved in the walls and roofs of the Chinese silos and tunnels, destroying or sealing in the ICBMs inside them.
20:28 (China Time)
Deep underground command bunker under the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee building, city of Jinan, Eastern China
The morale inside the command bunker complex was about as low as it could get as report after report of more destruction of military installations flowed in by landlines or, less frequently, by radio. One of the telephones, connected to a non-encrypted communications network, then rang, prompting an aide in answering it.
‘’Central Party Command Center!’’
The political leaders around him, including Chairman Chen Shangkun, then saw the aide’s face reflect utter disbelief as someone spoke at the other end. Covering the microphone of his receiver with one hand, he looked at Chen with a haggard expression.
‘’It’s…it’s Washington calling, Mister Chairman. A General Dows wants to speak to you. She spoke in fluent Mandarin.’’
After a moment of stunned surprise, Chen got up from his chair and went to the telephone while speaking to his aid.
‘’Put the line on speaker, Wang.’’
‘’Yes, Mister Chairman!’’
Bending over the telephone set, Chen then spoke in a voice full of rage.
‘’What are you trying to prove by calling me here, General? And why isn’t President Perot talking to me, rather than you?’’
‘’First off, President Perot doesn’t wish to talk with a criminal like you, Chairman Chen. Second, I am calling to pass a warning to you. You better listen to it carefully because I won’t repeat it. By now you should know that all your nuclear-tipped missiles able to reach the United States have been destroyed, along with your other missiles able to reach Japan, the Philippines or Europe. We have started this morning to methodically destroy your navy and air force and will continue doing so until