I stepped off the IL-76 and onto the tarmac in the sweltering heat of the tropical sun. A small honor guard of German and American troops were there to meet me, as was Li, and her ally Jake. I took my time to observe Jake as I walked up, he was dressed in a plain marine uniform, wearing a faded red cap that said lifeguard.
"I take it you are Jake?" I shook the guy's hand as his face split into a wide grin.
"Got that right mate, heard from Li here you're the guy that's gonna help us out. Happy to have ya." he smiled enthusiastically.
"I heard you'd be giving me a tour of the facilities that were being prepared for my troops?" I asked. I didn't really need to come out here so early, the soldiers were arriving via cargo vessels and cruise liners starting the 1st of February, by then surface action group Angel should be entering the South China Sea. That would mark the start of operations as a whole.
I was taken to a large series of apartment complexes, the streets cleared and blocked off baring the occasional patrol. Jake had a map out, pointing at where we were. "So we figure we'll be tight, but we can fit all your boys into camp David, gonna be a right o'l time though."
I frowned, looking at the apartment buildings and back at the map. "How many people will these apartments house?"
"Bout three to four hundred each, maybe five hundred if you don't mind some complaints from the enlisted… only be a couple days though." i started doing some rough math. There were only seventy buildings they'd outlined… oh… this was…
"If we have overflow we're working on camp Heider, should be able to house some twenty to twenty three thousand more blokes." he grinned.
"So… where's the overflow for the overflow…?" I asked, keeping my tone neutral.
"Is this not enough? We can look into a camp across the river in Malaysia as well." Li spoke up.
"So, I'm going to try and catch you up on my math, so… if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me on it… each of my battalion tactical groups… about fifteen hundred strong… so I'm looking at packing them like sardines into these buildings and they'll still need three of them."
I glanced between the two of them, ensuring they were still following. "So each of my regiments has four of these battalion tactical groups… thats twelve buildings so far, just for a single regiment, packed like sardines…. Now… each division has five regiments. Now I'm at sixty buildings to house a single division… and I have nine of them coming, and they start arriving on the 1st, four days from now, and I wasn't even adding the support personnel either."
"Ain't no way you got that many mate…" Jake protested. Li was blinking rapidly, slowly looking hopelessly at the apartments. I didn't really want to make them feel like all that effort they'd probably put into making the buildings nice and livable again for my arrival. But I had somewhere in the region of three hundred thousand heads. If I counted everyone now technically deployed overseas, there was no way they'd all fit into housing for eighty to ninety thousand no matter how much I tried.
"I'll just instruct them to set up tents anywhere they can." I frowned, looking at the map and the heavy tree coverage. It was a deployment, the troops are just going to have to get over it.
We headed to an office building, which was being called the JCC, or joint command center. It was there I began to be briefed and brief my allies on the forces I was waiting to arrive in the theater. Li's forces were engaged in pushing into Kuala Lumpur, that slow methodical advance was sucking in most other troops. Her 1st, and 3rd Panzer Grenadier divisions. Then stretched across the peninsula was 4th panzer grenadier division and 1st Panzer division. Jake had left his 1st infantry division in australia.
That gave them three divisions, Li's 2nd and 6th Panzergrenadier divisions, and Jake's 1st Marine division. Six destroyers and eleven frigates between their small fleets to be earmarked for Red Comet. And Jake was able to scrape together a pair of F-15 squadrons to run air cover. I tried being as polite and diplomatic as I informed them of the Soviet and East German troops arriving in the theater. The two of them gradually sank into their seats, a darkness seeming to hang over them.
I sighed. This was going to be a delicate balancing act isn't this? I'm going to have to ensure the Pacific alliance feels like it's really contributing as I try and power level them during the liberation of Manila. I repressed a groan. With elections coming up too? Just what I needed… more stress on my plate.
Well, let's at least start laying the groundwork for everyone before they arrive, make it slightly easier on them. Yeah… their fuel reserves were well below what was needed. Looks like I'm going to have to start buying a lot more supplies than I figured. Damn…