The Second Referendum of Hong Kong (pat of 2006 update)
The dreadful day came for the second referendum of Hong Kong, december 23, 2006. It had been a stressful months, with fears of chinese invasion, chinese spies being captured, the armed forces of the united kingdom have kept in alert, and already the remaining indian ocean fleet in ceylon and united kingdom forces were expecting the worse. To not spark fears no more reinforcement were send to Hong Kong, except the deployment of several Anti-air regiments and emplacements of several SAM cities around the main island of Hong Kong.
When the day came, turnout was lower than before, some 70% of available voters came to the voting polls, results were announced the next day as international observers watched the referendum. A second victory for the united kingdom was announced, 60% vs 40% another defeat for the PRC even if this time the votes closed the gap by ten percent. The PRC leadership was livid and a wargame was announced the next day, for an entire month would the chinese conduct a wide wargame around hong kong. It would effectively cut the city off.
The british authorities replied they would destroy any attempts to interfere with Hong Kong and its sovereignty, and that no such thing as the announced war game would be allowed. It was clear war was inevitable and that britain would send reinforcements to the city in the way of the Royal navy indian Carrier fleet, a prospect the chinese navy did not like at all. Under pressure by its military commanders the PRC plan to cut off the city for one month was scrapped and replaced for an attack upon the city by the third day of it, as troops were rushed into position.
The united kingdom forces, began digging in defenses, and anti tank emplacements. In the third day of the wargames, the chinese fleet did its move using the excuse of the war game they began closing in Hong Kong naval space, hiding submarines were detected by a patrolling destroyer of the Uk forces in the city and a naval engagement ensued as the submarines attacked yet failed to sink the ship. The Uk destroyer would then counter attack the chinese submarine and send an alert to the british forces as more chinese ships arrived. Meahile the destroyer would be sunked as was overwhelmed, it would send to the waves another two submarines and heavily damaged a destroyer, meanwhile heavily damaging another one. showing the difference between the highly trained and armed naval forces of the United kingdom and the naval forces of the PRC.
In the lands of hong kong special chinese forces took by surprise the northern passes bridges and managed to expel, paratroopers defending it before they destroyed the bridges, likely thanks to information leaked by intelligence units infiltrated behind lines. a major setback would be the destruction of the Sam Shad bridge and nearby ones, forcing armored forces to enter by the north or await the engineering corps to build passable bridges.
The shenzhen bay bridge would be taken down by a missile launched from the united kingdom navy as a armored column of the PRC attempted to cross it and support the chinese marines battling the United kingdom marines in Yue long city, causing the collapse of a segment of the bridge and the armored column.
Wary of the losses the PRC naval forces would attempted to sink the british naval element, however fear of the SAMs in range in HongKong main island as well, occupied supporting the PLA forces attempting to battle entrenched in yue long and failing cities (and cutting any advancement towards Hong Kong proper by control of the main roads of transportation) eliminated aerial support for the naval forces.
The battle of jiangwan island would end in the retreat of the PRC naval forces after a missile cruiser was sunk by the british one with prices hit destroying its ammunition deposits. The british naval forces suffered another two tank destroyers, and a heavily damaged other, meanwhile the PRC called the attack with a shank missile cruiser, four destroyers, and almost seven submarines a humiliating defeat for the navy of the PRC The expected NJ naval submarine support naver arrived on time.
On the land the Paratrooper division was dislodged from fading with the arrival of armored columns and the strikes by the prc aerial forces. They would retreat to second eastern defense line in Tai po where brigades of the hong kong Self defence forces were awaiting. In Yue long, before being cut off by armored columns the marines would retreat sacrificing near 100 men, in the retreat with another 100 captured, yet they would elude capture and Tsue ang district inside the small Aerial defence umbrella build up before the referendum.
The battle for Tai Po happening over the night of december 23th will score the first aerial losses of the PRC air force with three aircrafts downed by a SAM emplacement in the small city. still the position was untenable as retreat would be ordered in around 4 am, with near 300 death.
With this the battle would be moved to the main hong kon areas the next day. Some 22 infantry divisions supported by an assorted 10 special units divisions totalling 320,000 men and 400 tanks confronted fifty thousand men of the british forces. The Chinese knew they had not much time before british reinforcement arrived or intervention by other states, which is why they deployed near 300 air superiority fighters in the area to defend the airspace.
Emergency meetings were called across the world as the PRC armed forces hungering for time launching its attack upon hong kong main areas. The fighting would be brutal across the city, the chinese were not worse trained nor equipped than the british forces, whom however had the defenses on their side, slowly but surely the british forces retreated from the city accosted by aerial attacks (even as the chinese lost planes on the) and armours which they owned none. the british used excellent use of anti tank weaponry and close combat in cities to destroy great deal of tanks, yet losses were high.
Attempts at a cease fire were done by the american and british government, yet the prc was unyielding, their chance was before the seventh fleet arrived from japan and the royal fleet arrived from ceylon to win and no need to renegotiate. by the end of the week the british forces held in fortified positions in west Kowloon, and hung Hom, unable to hold any longer and with news of the fleets reaching, they were ordered to retreat to the safety of Hong Kong island as the the chinese rapidly occupied the mainland part of the city.
With the Royal fleet indian carrier group in hainan, and the American seventh fleet in Taiwan, the chinese stop their advances, specially as the aerial defences of hong kong island were stronger than what seen in the rest of the peninsula. As more air squadrons, were relocated to be used in the area, and more men and tanks routed, many wonder if all out war is inevitable.
(PRC controls most of hong kong peninsula,losses 1 strike craft squadron, 40 tanks, 1 infantry divisions (between death and injured), 9 submarines, missile cruiser, four destroyers) (uk holds Hong Kong island, loses 3 destroyers, 1 special units division ( between death and injured), 1 infantry division (between death and injured))(some 2000 men held prisoner by PRC armed forces) (some 1500 civilians death with 15,000 injured)