Chapter 14: Drawing in and then releasing (1)
Article 1:
The first wave of attacks by the Indian army has just ended, and although Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, was not directly attacked, the news of the outbreak of war is enough to cause ordinary people to panic. As I drove through several intersections, all I saw were desolation and chaos.
The newly appointed Commander of the Malaysian Armed Forces' Forward Edge, Major General Lim Keng Kwang, gazed indifferently at his homeland on the eve of war. After all, the word "war" had been too distant from Malaysia for far too long.
The car drove up to the entrance of the Malaysian First Infantry Division Command in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. The tense guards forgot to salute and hastily signalled for them to pass after checking Lieutenant General Lim's pass. Lim smiled and poked his head out, saying calmly: "Don't be nervous, the war has just begun." Although Malaysia would face a tough time today, those were politicians' problems. Lim and his colleagues showed an unprecedented calmness, after all they were born for battle.
The situation is not too bad for Malaysia, as the country divides its territory and territorial waters into two parts with 109 degrees east longitude, and military forces are also divided into two zones. Even if the garrison in West Malaysia suffered a major blow, there is still a reserve team in East Malaysia that can be used.
In the first wave of strikes by the Indian military, the First Naval Area and Western Air Command to the west of the border bore almost all the pressure. What was most heartbreaking for the Malaysian Navy was that it had recently ordered six MEKO-A100 light frigates from Germany. These small warships with a standard displacement of 1,650 tons and full load displacement of 1,710 tons adopted modular design technology in an all-round system.
When the Indian Navy's Club-N cruise missile hit the Lumut Naval Shipyard, these six warships were in dry dock being fitted with Exocet MM40 anti-ship missiles and 21 units of RAM close-in weapon system modules that had just arrived from Germany.
Although surface warships were severely damaged, the Royal Malaysian Navy still had a considerable number of new submarines deployed within the Sepanggar Bay submarine base in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia. Most of them had already taken up attacking positions before the start of the war.
Two squadrons of MiG-29 fighter jets responsible for air defense and one squadron of "Hornet" F/A-18s responsible for attack missions.
A-18 fighter jets were either destroyed on the ground or depleted in the previous day's dogfight. Although there are still 20 new Su-30MKM and 2 Su-27 fighters deployed at the eastern Yaroslavl and Kedah airbases, the Royal Malaysian Air Force believes that under current circumstances it is better to leave the defense of Malaysia's skies to ground-based air defense troops.
What really worried Lin Jingkang was the attack from the ground. Within 24 hours of the start of the war, more than four companies of Indian Navy Marine Special Forces infiltrated and landed in the 100-kilometer coastal area of Malaysia centered on Penang. They had repeatedly attacked the local garrison in Malaysia. Their strategic goal is self-evident: to seize the isolated "Oriental Pearl" island of Penang.
Penang Island
Penang is a beautiful island in the northwest of Malaysia, named "Betel Nut Island" because of its abundant betel nuts. It is located at the northern entrance of the Malacca Strait, facing the Malay Peninsula across a 3-kilometer-wide strait, with an extremely important geographical location. The Malaysian government has formed Penang State with Penang Island and Wellesley Province on the Malay Peninsula. The state capital, Georgetown, is located on the northeast corner of Penang Island, which is commercially developed and is Malaysia's second-largest city.
Penang remains the most important port in western Malaysia. It is also an industrial centre, with tin smelting, shipbuilding, engineering, manufacturing of rubber and plastics, textiles, clothing and leather goods being some of its major industries. Hence it is a strategic location from both economic and geographical perspectives.
In 1959, a huge sum of money was invested in the construction of the Penang Cross-Sea Bridge, which is several kilometers long and connects the Malay Peninsula with Penang Island, ending the history of relying solely on ferry connections between the two places. At this moment, the troops of the First Military Region of the Malaysian Army are engaged in a desperate battle with the Indian special forces who have come to attack the bridge.
Once the main bridge is lost, the isolated and remote islands will soon change hands. The Indian army can also use the intact air base facilities on the island to push the activity radius of its aircraft up to thousands of kilometers. At that time, the impact that the ASEAN military needs to withstand will increase exponentially.
"Whatever happens, we must hold on to the big bridge and the island of Xiamen."
Lin Jingkang silently stared at the electronic map in front of him. His mind was repeatedly calculating the spatial movement distance of the troops and the possible aerial strikes they might suffer. At this moment, using a large-scale regular army was obviously not appropriate. Now he could only rely on the Malaysian Royal Navy's special forces, "PASKAL", which had been guarding the naval base and oil platforms in the territorial waters for a long time. Only special forces could better face the enemy's special attacks.
"The situation in Thailand shouldn't be much better than ours, right?" After signing the counterattack plan he had just drafted, Lin Jingkang let out a long sigh and took a cup of black coffee handed to him by an orderly. As he savored the bitter taste alone, Lin Jingkang's gaze began to focus on the situation in Malaysia's two neighboring countries: Thailand and Singapore.
The situation in Thailand and Malaysia is not much different, and the intensity of the Indian army's attack on its southern and central regions is no less than that of Malaysia. The Thai Air Force's new fighter jets have almost exhausted their last drop of blood to defend their airspace. Under the cover of a large number of fighter jets, the 9th and 10th Paratrooper Strike Teams of the Indian Paratrooper Corps parachuted into the southern provinces of Chumphon and Ranong in Thailand using Russian-made Il-76MD transport planes. The ancient Buddhist kingdom is also filled with smoke and flames everywhere.
But on the other side of the Johor Strait, Singapore remained eerily calm after the outbreak of war. Singapore, which has the strongest military power in ASEAN, surprisingly adopted a wait-and-see attitude, and India also tacitly gave Singapore a special look. Does this represent a secret agreement between the two countries? Thailand and Malaysia have already become sacrifices for Singapore to protect itself.
No, Lin Jingkang understood in his heart. Once the strategic barrier of Malaysia and Thailand is lost, the small island nation of Singapore will be vulnerable to the powerful Indian air force, and the logic of "when lips are gone, teeth will be cold" is not unfamiliar to Singaporeans. They are waiting for an opportunity to strike after being provoked.
But when will this opportunity arise? Lin Jingkang can only wait at this moment.
At dusk, the second wave of attacks by Indian troops opened again. The Indian Air Force squadron replaced the Indian Navy's carrier-based aircraft and land-based naval aviation as the main force for air strikes, many of which belonged to the Southern and Eastern Air Commands of the Indian Air Force, and arrived at the battlefield after long-distance ferry flights. MiG-27M
Warrior (Russia, Whip J) and MiG-23BN
The Vijay (Russian: Бичеватель, Whip) aircraft played a major attacking role.
However, the Indian Air Force apparently still can't adapt to this long-range raid. The "Light Sword" air-to-ground missile, which is heavily equipped by Malaysia, destroyed more than 20 incoming targets in this round of attack. Lieutenant Colonel Leiyong, deputy commander of the Vietnamese Air Force's 4th Expeditionary Squadron, also added two yellow five-star badges to his Su-27K fighter jet above the Strait of Malacca.
