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From 69 to..WAKE?! WAIT WHAT?!!!

In January 12th 1969, the US forces were preparing to leave Vietnam one of these were 49th marine regiment the wrecking regiment.

On the 17th 1969 a massive white flash was reported, what happened next went down in history as the 49th marines their entire force, SEAL and MCV SOG including 50 marine and navy aircraft were gone like they never existed.

The Soviets to the CIA was blamed, even more.

On a lonely place the morning of 7th December on a lonely place called Wake island history got hit hard.

Colonel William Grady woke up to the sound of the gunfire, rolling down from his bed he gripped his browning and flak jacket and rushed out to the unbelievable sight. It looked the like the sentries were squaring with another group of soldiers.

"Put down the rifles!! Put them the frak down!"
"You put them down hands up!!"


By the time grady came out he could see more marines were rushing out guns drawn and then an M113 came out causing even more alarms.

"Tanks!! Tanks!!" One of the other soldiers screamed. Grady watched as the APC went forwards at speed straight through and cut the fleeing men off from the Armory

A single shot then a burst from an M-60 went off. Everyone stopped moving in both sides tense.

"All right, who's the frak is charge and where are we?" Grady shouted. He looked at men then at the jungle wait..

Where was the jungle?! The air was clean, almost too clean compared to Vietnam.

A single man came fowards clearly angry.

"I am Major P.S. Devereux, this is wake island 6th December 1941"

The name and the date didn't hit home until a few minutes later.

"Well frak!!"

7th December 1941

Colonel Grady was far from pleased, his regiment was back on wake, one the corps defining moments.

He knew what was going to happen in 16 days wake will fall to Japanese, along with others. There was no way to save to hawaii the few ships that came with them three destroyers, four freighters and two submarine the Pollack and plunger.

His regiment recieved a surprise by whatever deity did this, there already MACV-SOG that had been bunking with them now it seemed that the M48 Pattons had been changed for the newer M60A1 Patton he had seen stateside, the M114 were also changed for the shorter M113 and a half there was still the damn M551. The marines still had their huey and cobra there was a lot more AA from the HAWK to dusters.

Even more bizarre there was marine and navy F-8, F-4 and A-7, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeyes, alongside the 12 F4F wildcats, a few people were injured in a standoff no damage to the planes ordinance.

Supplies were excessive enough to last for two year.

'Laugh you damn fool." He thought.

Things had calmed down, but it was still tense. Didn't help with a VC skull hanging near the barracks either. Worse everyone's comms were static or jammed.

7th December 1941, Winfield S. Cunningham and James P.S. Devereux didn't believe them that the Japanese would attack tomorrow. But the more Grady and the men told them about the future the less it seemed unbelievable.

The whole day saw the every fighter both 1969 and 1941 take off and fly around in various formations to complement the other.
men drilled and retrained both 1st defense battalion the marines and making the defenses stronger. The armour was buried, every scrap of explosive was removed from wilkes Island

The destroyers and freighters were back to the mainland He knew that their presence would mean that would sink the whole damn fleet before they even got close to wake or he could loose them.

However without them United States would need proof and a win,

"Problems?" He turned to see Winfield the man was as grim as him. "I know, that we won't be able to stop pearl harbor or the Philippines, no one is going to pick up the phone and listen. I mean Hello sir the Japanese are about to attack pearl harbor we need you send every available aircraft into that air" He turned to the man. "Well?"

Winfield nodded "I can see your point." "So are those pilots listening." He referred to the wildcat pilots some were exited after being on a phantom, there wasn't much time to get them schooled in the new tactics to combat the Japanese zeroes.

"They're listening, no armor at all flying lighters."

He grinned, "When the Japanese arrive here its going to be a turkey shoot."

Chapter 3

On the 8th as predicted the radios came alive with news that was dreaded, pearl harbour had been attacked.

It hung heavily on the men of the 4th and 1st even the destroyers that returned hung their head low they couldn't stop the attack.

In hours every aircraft was up in the air patrolling, the F-8, A-7 and F-4 had their radars up and running, they didn't carry any AAM there was no need for them and there was no telling of the sidewinders could pick up and track the bombers.

Then one of the pilots heard on the radios from the Hawkeyes. "We're picking them up, all 36 of them." Using their radars they guided the wildcats towards the bombers so that they were able to bounce the bombers. The wildcats and the A-7 were best as interception as the subsonic attack craft were the least likely to overshoot.

"I see them on the radar." The F-4 phantom spoke.

The wildcats pilots could see them, 36 Japanese bombers. The wildcats and the corsairs moved to bounce them.

They arrived out of the sun, the Wildcats lined up an attacked in 6 pairs, their four 50 Caliber brownings firing. Each pair attacked one bomber each and broke away.

The G3M had no armor whatsoever resulting in seven being shot down on the first rounds as the large rounds sliced through everything people, wires and metal setting fuel on fire.

Once the wildcats broke off, the corsairs attacked. Their 4 20mm Cannons were overkill tearing apart the bombers two exploded in midair,

In under 15 minutes all 36 bombers were wiped out. The wildcats claimed 15, the A-7 claimed the rest.

Once they landed, the pilots of different times celebrated, but the marines were getting ready, setting up false targets.
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The failure of all 36 bombers to even return caused the Japanese to reevaluate briefly and went through with plan, this time the bombers would be protected.

On the 9th the raid was bigger and it was escorted by A6M zeroes

This time the F-4 And F-8 The result was surprise for bombers when they exploded, the A-7 corsair II and wildcats the zeroes would try attack key word try the A-7 were all over the sky to the Japanese pilots, white arrows too fast for them tearing apart.

The next two raids were met with a similar fate not even reconnaissance flights survived.

The situation was baffling for the Japanese.

On the ground the Pan am facility was cleared of all useful items leaving only an empty husk,

Chapter 4

The marines watched with baited breath would the Japanese be fooled by the smokescreen? It was risky move.

When it was over, the men both uptime and down time got ready, the Chamorro men took the marines captured stocks of AK 47 with gusto.

On the 10th the Japanese not being deterred in the slightest by the aircraft losses proceeded with the invasion

The latest attacks had brought some fruits, some the island was burning despite the loss of an entire bomber force.

3 light Cruisers, 6 destroyers, patrol boats, 2 troop transports, 3 submarines would be more than enough to take wake.

As the invasion force proceeded none of them noticed they were being trailed by USS pollack USS Barb.

Soon after pollack and Barb struck with a pair of torpedoes, unlike the current faulty versions these were far more improved.

Their targets were the Cruisers and destroyers in minutes the torpedoes reached the marks and hit home the Cruisers Yubari and Tatsuta and the destroyer Asanagi were sinking. Both the pollack and barb were well away while the destroyers broke off to hunt for the submarine that weren't there.

The next day the Japanese arrived in force, if a bit on edge.

On wake and Wilkes the marines were already waiting, their aircraft were in the air keeping an eye on the fleet waiting unleash hell.

The fleet bombarded the targets left and right while the gunners waited for them get closer and they did.

"Fire now!"

The 5 in guns roared, aided my the uptime marines the guns were more accurate Hayate and the cruiser Tenryū were hit the destroyer was sunk the cruiser was damaged. The Kisaragi was sunk by the wildcats, the rest were hit by the corsairs again the phantoms and crusaders flying top cover.

The corsairs used bombs and the new maverick air to surface missiles. While slower than a crusader were far faster than the anti aircraft gunners. The mavericks cut through the armor, some anti aircraft Cannons were picked apart. The pilots had to keep their own excitement under control to prevent lack of coordination.

The corsairs in two flights already set the destroyers on fire or crippled them the destroyers Yayoi ,Mutsuki , Hayate were on fire and sinking Oite and Asanagi weren't any better and decided to cut their losses and retreat. The patrol boats were obliterated in the second waves.

The final light cruiser found itself under attack by third flight of the corsairs, with the F-4 carrying mavericks. In minutes it was wrecked and on fire. Some the of the crew decided to stay on the ship then risk dishonerable capture.

Winfield S. Cunningham
James P.S. Devereux
Paul A. Putnam
Henry T. Elrod
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Grady and Cunningham were talked over a beer.

"The press is going to wild." The older man said, the japanese hadn't been mauled, they'd been chewed and spat out twice.

"Let's hope Ted though makes sure the press don't blab about our jets, it be bad." Cunningham agreed..

"You think they will stop attacking." Grady shook his head. "They won't, the Japanese won't just give up. It all rests on if the navy will give us out relief soon. Wake is an important place with it bombers will really hammer the side of the japs."

Chapter 5

Once word reached both sides, they were a stark contrast to each other.

It was comforting victory for the Uniyed States the landing force torn apart the press were having a field day, it was a bittersweet though with the Philippines hammered wake was now very important.

The Japanese didn't take the news calmly the remaining destroyers ran into pollack and barb with predictable results Asanagi was sunk her sister ship barely managed to escape not even risking to pick up survivors. Tales of rocket fighters were unbelievable until the pieces came together of why all the raids didn't come back. The term setback went hand to hand with disaster.

The uptime marine and naval forces were hard at work to bring information to their downtime counterparts, examples of technology had convinced many. Some of it regarding the Nazis actions and the death camps on both sides were horrific.

However with such valuable jets and even more important island at stake meant that the idea of even leaving the island was considered no longer on the table
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"If we were to relive Wake, could take we take the Japanese by surprise?" The Admiral asked.

They had the knowledge of what would happen on Philippines it was sobering.

"Possibly especially if the two carriers go all in for wake, we'd be able to catch them with their pants down."

Admiral Frank Fletcher and Wilson Brown still had their reservations the Pacific fleet had been damaged, carriers Yorktown, saratoga, lexington, hornet and enterprise intact loosing one would be bad.

Nonetheless TF 14 was soon underway, this time she carried wildcats not the planned brewster buffaloes and two carriers.

Chapter 6

"Well bloody HELLFIRE!" Grady spoke one F-8 was lost from crashing on the runway, not from enemy action but an accident.

As he predicted the Japanese didn't give up, more bombers were sent with bigger turkey shoots, there were also losses two wildcats one shot down by zero fighters that managed to escape the corsairs the second too damaged and scrapped for parts.

He talked with Cunningham and Devereux. "See these rings? the green ones represent the safe range limit for the Japanese to launch from a carrier and recover. The red one is the absolute limit of the return range. Even if we could not hit the carriers, we'll still wipe out their cream of the crop."

He had told how different the training between the axis and Allies.
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The 22nd of December came, TF 14 had received the news the Japanese had gone ahead with a second attempt in the form of two carriers.

If it were normal they would've sadly been forced to leave wake to its fate. But not this time.

Chapter 7


23rd December

The Japanese wasn't having the best of times, pollack and barb had struck again loosing two destroyers.
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The Japanese didn't give up they instead tried again even the losses. They had sent two carriers the Sōryū and Hiryū and twice as many ships. If there were jets on wake surely they couldn't have been a Squadron no one had jets let alone put them on island.

The first wave of fighters and dive bombers were dispatched and second ready to attack as the Cruisers bombarded the American positions.

The first wave had already been detected and the wildcats and crusaders were being directed towards the Japanese.

The F-8 were much faster than the A-7, they closed in on the fighters as slow as they could without stalling. Each man lined up his gun sighs and they fired, 4 20mm Cannons was overkill for the zero fighters most exploded or simply fell trailing smoke. More that half the fighters had been lost, the rest moved away from and attempted to attack the crusaders. Only to fail as the F-8 simply accelerated past zeroes and very easily moved away to attack again.

The Val dive bombers were now berfet and at the mercy of the wildcats who pounced in the bombers .50 rounds mangling the bombers, it was for the lack of better term turkey shoot.

On wake however wasn't any easier than than first time either, they found themselves under attack from a rocket barrage, two bridges were wrecked, turrets were jammed, AA guns knocked out and Cruisers Kinugasa , Aoba and destroyer Oboro were damaged . The attackers were moving faster than any aircraft too fast for the gunners.

The F-4 phantoms swooped in and dropped another deadly weapon on the Cruisers. The canisters exploded into literal fluid flames, that spread all over the wounded Cruiser Kako. Napalm stuck to everything incinerating the repair Crews and dropped into the holes and in a moment, its magazine ignited blowing the cruiser up.

TF 14 positioned itself for a strike on the Japanese carriers despite only having one carrier, dauntless dive bombers were getting ready, Devastator pilots had to make do with faulty torpedoes that would take a year to fix.

This was the first time any off them were going into action...
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The five patrol boats had been unmolested by the aircraft ran aground troops disembarking running out weapons only to shredded by the M42 dusters, two M60 Pattons and the Marines, 30.06, 7.62x51 and 5.56 rounds cut them down left and right with mortars landing on pre sighted areas.

The battle on the ground was one sided, it was less of a battle and more a timed massacre.

Epilogue

Colonel Grady watched B-17E had arrived it was different from their history, it was more like the G version, java didn't fall thanks to Churchill being warned beforehand, the Japanese made no third attempt after the huge losses inflicted.

He chuckled as General Patton really lost it with the M60, new weapons would be made soon with the first jet fighter being tested.

Hopefully things will change after this for the better.
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With this I end the story