Operation Lightning: Blitzkrieg in Chad

The fire burned uncontrollably, spreading around the dry grass, swallowing trees, bushes, trenches, and men. In some places it burned so violently that fire tornados could be seen spouting into the air. The devastating firestorm was allowed to continue for another two hours before the main attack was to begin.

The Fourth and Fifth Armored Divisions were the first to engage. They were composed mainly of heat ressistant tanks, tankettes, and armored personnel carriers. The vehicles stormed through the firestorm into the open Chadian plains. Heat-resistant Hopper Tankettes were first to see combat, as they reached the rear defense lines of the Global Liberation Army, out of range of the Inferno cannons. The GLA's entrenched infantry positions posed a threat to the Tankettes, who retreated back into the flames.
"Commander, this is Recon-1. Entrenched infantry position to our front. Bring in the dragons!"

The ground began shaking, and out of the firestorm came a shenlong. Towering over the GLA entrenchments, it burst onto the scene, firing its deadly dual flamethrowers, loaded with black napalm. They were supported by the smaller Dragon tanks, who mopped up any remaining defensive position untouched by the flame. The hellish inferno extended towards the rear lines, as Shenlongs entered the battlefield, spraying its deadly payload over the beleaguered GLA entrenchments. No one would be spared from hell, not today.





The ground was once again turned ablaze, as the firewall pushed forward, deeper and deeper into Chad. The intense heat and smoke could be seen rising from kilometers away, bringing a sense of fear and panic into the hearts of the GLA. General Chen observed this from his headquarters in Sudan. He took out his wallet, and inside, was a picture of General Class AAA Qiang, promoted shortly after his death for his bravery in the Cameroonian war. "I will get my revenge," he thought to himself, "for you, and for everyone who needlessly suffered in the fear toxin attack. All these terrorists will burn in the fires of justice." He looked into the horizon. A huge cloud of black smoke hovered over the battlefield. He gave a satisfied grin, and turned to his second in command. 
"Send in the cavalry. Begin the second stage."

Nuclear battlemasters, gattling tanks, and troop crawlers then made their advance from Sudan. They began to catch up to the Shenlongs. After the inferno came the second stage of the attack: the armored spearhead.



Soldier Count: ~32,000 (Two armored divisions), with 44 Shenlongs and 52 Overlord tanks, focused on a 30km front in central Chad
Casulties: ~1,800 casualties so far
Civilian casulties inflicted: ~1,200

The Chinese Army continued their brutal advance into Chad. The central spearhead have created a bulge that extended over 140km into the Chadian savannah. Shenlongs and Dragon Tanks continued to set the battlefield alight, though this strategy was starting to become less effective, as the GLA have started to bring in more vehicles, as well as air support.

Excited by the rush of battle, the initial wave of flamethrower tanks have rolled out a bit further than originally planned. This made the vulnerable to air attacks, as the main force of gattling tanks have not yet caught up.

"The GLA are putting up a tough resistance!", said an officer, "They have even brought in their makeshift planes."

"The main brunt of our armored division should be arriving soon ", replied General Chen, "they should bring enough gattling tanks to deal with this little air threat." He then radio'd his second-in-command, the silent workhorse, General Class AA Huang. "Have a few Twin Fang companies advance across the border. Put them on high alert for cargo planes. Make sure they do not get a chance to drop any fear toxin bombs or anything similar."
"Already on it, General," he replied.

General Chen reached for his phone and called up a secretary back in Beijing.

"We are now deploying our Anti-Air. I need a no-fly zone warning issued over Chad. We will be shooting any and all unidentified planes flying overhead, NO EXCEPTIONS."

His radios started to go off. "Sir! Heavy GLA resistance on Hill Blue5, GLA aircraft just destroyed two of our ShenLong tanks!"

"GLA have brought in heavy armor! We cannot advance further!"

The Red Army General was reluctant, but then took out his speaker, and radio'd the spearheading regiments, "Stop your advance. The GLA have brought in their reinforcements. Wait for the rest of our armored divisions to reinforce."

With that, the advance ground down to a halt, as the Chinese began to dig in. They are to stay put and resume their advance the next day.



With the well known efficiency and swiftness of China's mighty industrial complex, the men began to set up defenses. Gattling cannons were the first things to be set up, and the men set their first priority to take down big lumbering cargo jets, as was the case with the Twin Fangs when they came. Each and every soldier involved in this operation was issued a gas mask, and a 'fear-toxin warning meter', a small device developed back in China using collected samples from the sites of previous GLA fear toxin attacks. It also warns against anthrax.

The Chinese Chairman was determined to not repeat the same mistakes of Cameroon.


Soldier Count: ~30,000 (The same two armored divisions), with 31 operational Shenlongs, and 45 operational Overlords
Casulties: ~4,000 casualties so far
Civilian casulties inflicted: ~1,200

0800 Hours, January 7th 2046
Eastern Chad

"Impossible, impossible!" cried General Chen, "How could our best forces be defeated so easily?"
He paced back and forth from his HQ as reports of retreats and defeats continued to stream in from communications.

"I knew it! I knew this would happen! Our forces are too few in number, and our men need more morale. We should have sent in the Red Guard."

The co-ordinated night attack proved highly successful for the GLA in driving back the Chinese spearhead. Many of the leading heavy tanks were destroyed, and they managed to destroy several battalions of poorly guarded inferno cannons on route to the front. They pushed the Chinese back 10km within the span of a single night.

This proved to be an even bigger morale disaster than in Nigeria, as the spearheading divisions were thought to be the most well-trained and well-equipped in the entire North African Front. This proved to be wrong, as the casualty figures, especially for the light Hopper Tanks, were to a scale unprecedented in modern history.



The Chinese Chairman called for a transmission from the front. A direct comlink was established from Wu's office in Beijing to General Chen's HQ.
"General Chen, give me a sit rep on the operation so far. I have heard the GLA were regaining their ground."

"Yes, comrade Wu, they made a co-ordinated night attack on our spearheading forces and now they are in retreat. Should I order them to stand their ground?"

"No, I do not plan on losing more than I need to. Have the third phase of the operation begin ahead of schedule. I want the Nigerians to attack as soon as possible."

"But sir, we have enough forces stationed in Sudan to overwhelm the GLA. We should send in the Red Guard"

"We have no use for the Red Guard." replied Wu, "Call up General Class AA Yun in Nigeria, tell him to begin phase 3 immediately. Meanwhile, shore up the line with our reserves stationed in Sudan. We have another four mechanized divisions at your disposal. Do not send in the Red Guard, they are not well-trained and will only serve as corpses."

The Red Army General paused for a moment, and said "Yes sir", with reluctance.

1400 Hours, January 7th 2046
Border between Nigeria and Chad, Kanuri State, Nigerian Federation

"Roger that, I will begin the attack in earnest," radio'd back General Yun.

General Class AA Yun, the chief-of-staff of the Federation Army, orders short artillery bombardment before ordering a general advance.



At 14:11 hours, the bombardment started. Two hundred artillary guns fired upon a dense 10km front. Satellite imagery and listening outposts revealed that the majority of defensive emplacements in the Chad-Nigerian border were mainly stinger sites and dushka nests, so the choice was made to have the majority of the shells fire shrapnel shells.

The initial bombardent was highly successful (six), destroying many GLA defenses and emplacements and clearing the way for the general advance. Men caught out in the open were torn apart by the shrapnel. Limbs were flying left and right as men tried to dive for cover behind sandbag walls and foxholes, only to be sliced apart by the mid-air timed-fuse shells.



Only an hour later, the men began their general advance. Three infantry divisions supported by a tank division burst through the GLA front lines. The men of the front line were still recovering from the shell shock, and the front line was in complete chaos. Most soldiers immediately broke, surrendered, or suicidally fought against the advancing Sino-Nigerian army, who's discipline and overwhelming numbers punched a gaping hole their defenses. It was a great success.



The plan was to have the tank division support the infantry wherever needed, as the single tank division (the 56th) was mainly composed of previous-general equipment, and had the poorly trained Red Guard and Nigerian vehicle crews operating them. The only other available tank division in Nigeria is still occupying Cameroon, and at the same time, recovering from the assault, so it could not be spared for this operation.

Despite these setbacks to the 56th Tank Division, the initial success of the advance combined with the propaganda and nationalist-induced frenzy of the Red Guard made them overconfident, as the tank division pushed too far into enemy territory. They began to meet fierce and determined GLA resistance, as RPG troopers and Chameleon tanks began ambushing the 56th from every corner. Soon, the tank division was pushed back to the infantry lines, suffering heavy losses. Despite the initial success, the overconfidence of the tank division caused many unnecessary casulties and a minor setback. General Yun now has to work with a weakened tank division for the rest of the assault.

Nigerian Attack Count: 72,000 soldiers, including 270 GLA-War era Battlemaster Tanks, 10 GLA-war era Overlods, 20 Twin Fangs
Sudanese Attack Count: ~10,000 soldiers, including 18 operational Shenlongs, 25 operational Overlords
Casualties Suffered: ~2,000 soldiers, 89 battlemasters lost in the overconfident advance
Casualties Inflicted: 3,500 (give or take) soldiers, all front line defenses