View Single Post
  #7  
Old 08-26-2009, 11:07 PM
sglancy12's Avatar
sglancy12 sglancy12 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Posts: 161
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker View Post
Yes numerically Indonesia has a larger army, but the problem they faced was getting those numbers safely onto the Australian mainland and in a location they could actually DO something.
(SNIPPING all kings of relevant points about Indonesia's lack of ability to logistically support their army in the incredibly hostile environment of northern Australia)

The scenario I have in my timeline/gazetteer does not imagine a gigantic (and logistically unsupportable) Indonesian invasion force stomping around the most hostile environments in Oceania until the starving stragglers come begging the Australians to take them prisoner so they can get some food and water.

The war with Indonesia is going to be fought among the islands of Melanesia, and on the Island of Borneo. Indonesia has always had an interest in conquering the islands they've had to share because of European powers dividing up the area. East Timor used to be Portuguese... Papua New Guinea was consolidated from German and British claims before WWI, and Borneo is split between former British and Dutch possessions. I imagine the Indonesians invading Malaysia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea and East Timor (again?). Australian energy sources would be held to ransom by Indonesia if they don't join in and help defend these places. Otherwise (in twenty years) maybe the Indonesians will actually have the logistics to sail down to New South Wales or Wellington and eliminate the last "Colonial" holdings in Oceania?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker View Post
In the much more likely event that hostilities are confined to Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and East Timor, nukes just aren't appropriate. Engagements often involve much smaller units due to restrictions in the terrain itself as was shown by the WWII battles along the Kokoda track where 10,000 Japanese were held back intially by a company sized unit of Australian Militia.
Nukes could be very appropriate. One nuke in Jakarta could decapitate Indonesia's command and control and throw the entire island of Java into chaos. It might even lead to the break up of the Indonesian junta into competing warlords. Indonesian naval bases could be hit, destroying the junta's ability to support and maintain it's navy. A high altitude air burst or two could plunge Java (and a few other important logistical hubs) back into the middle ages as electronics and microchips are cooked by the EMP.

There are plenty of places to apply a nuke besides on top of a tank division or a ICBM complex. Besides, the nukes the South Africans had to trade were (if I remember right) were in the 20K ton range... not much bigger than Fatman and Little Boy. With only six or so, even if the South Africans traded them to Australia for a way out of Africa, the Australians would have to be very picky how and where they were used.

Perhaps a better question would be, if the Apartheid government holds on to power in South Africa through the 1990s and into the Twilight War, where would THEY use the nukes if they were trying to hold onto power in the face of an uprising at home and maybe even an invasion by their neighbors?

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing
Reply With Quote