WWIII SOUTH CHINA SEA BY IAN SLATER

Copyright 1996.

China claims the whole of the south China Sea including the Spratley and Paracel Islands. Naturally the other countries in the region don’t recognize these claims. A dispute erupts between Vietnam and China with China invading Vietnam. Naturally the Americans have to get involved. They manage to have the Chinese ambassador to the UN not attend a vote, so a resolution is passed to help the Vietnamese. America sends Discount Patton who heads the Emergency Response Force in North Carolina. Britain sends some SAS and Gurkhas. All of this is put into the USVUN forces. Discount Patton has to deal with all sorts of problems. The rules state he can’t attack into China so China can resupply without any problems.

The Chinese manage to build tunnels to hide in. They also with help from the Khmer Rouge set up tunnels around Dien Bien Phu and parachute Chinese into there. The special forces contingent assigned to guard that part of the country are surrounded. There are subplots about two MIAs that work for the Khmer Rouge a black man and white woman. Oil rig workers are captured and forced to do labor in a POW camp. Some escape and manage to destroy the rail line. There is also a North Korean agent in Japan that sabotages the supply effort and gets dropped and forgotten. Never fear for Discount Patton manages to save the day.

Slater decided to write another book in the series after it looked like it was resolved last book. First, I liked the idea of setting it in Vietnam. I nice change of pace from Siberia/Northern China. Reading this you have to basically just forget about the previous books. Except for a mention of battles in Siberia he decided to basically scrape what he wrote and start over. So, the evil Communist regime is still in power. The Brentwoods are dropped. Only Discount Patton and his aid are holdovers from the series. It has many of the goofy trademarks from the series. Discount Patton always complaining about the fairies in the Pentagon and State department that interfere. He somehow manages to make the war about the environment for he is stopping the evil Khmer Rouge from deforesting, and he won’t use chemical defoliants. That is until he has to. There are subplots about MIAs which go nowhere.

Now the dispute over the South China Sea is still a very active thing nowadays. All the countries want the oil and gas deposits, and China is very aggressive in its claims. Now Slater wisely saw that this series had run its course and moved on to a spinoff series, USA Vs. Militia. That had Discount Patton battling insurrectionists out to overthrow the Federal government. I have never read that series but someday hope to.

As we will see though in the next review, Slater was not done with the series.

WWIII FORCE OF ARMS BY IAN SLATER

Copyright 1994.

Once again, the ceasefire is broken between the Chinese and the Americans. During a typhoon the Chinese launch a surprise attack. Using small hovercrafts as suicide bombers they strike a devastating first blow. A new missile base in Tibet starts to rain down rockets. Discount Patton has to go on the offensive. First, he has the SAS/D team go into Tibet and take out the underground missile base. After this he then goes on the offensive. Marines are landed in the north and the Taiwanese decide to enter the war and land in the south. With these distractions he personally leads a surprise airborne assault on the capital of Beijing with the intention of capturing the Chinese leadership alive. The Chinese resistance rises, and the government is overthrown.

This book is concentrated solely on the Chinese side. Once again, we get some over the top battles. Alexandra Malof the Jewish Siberian resistance leader gets kidnapped again and taken to be tortured. She escapes again and rallies the resistance. It is interesting that Slater has the Chinese resistance as so huge and well organized. This was soon after the Tiananmen massacre and it was probably viewed in the west that the country was seething with revolt. In fact, nothing ever came of it, and they were content to continue growing rich. Now this book seemed to be the end of the series. China was defeated and now a great liberal democracy. Not sure of the Siberians but they seem done for. Ends with a hint of a new crisis. Which we will look at in the next book of the series.

WW III ASIAN FRONT BY IAN SLATER

Copyright 1993.

There is a ceasefire in Siberia and Discount Patton has been relieved. Only the Chinese have not given up on their goal of conquering Siberia. Using the Japanese deployment with the UN forces on the border they attack. The replacement commander is totally incompetent (big surprise) and Discount Patton is reinstated. He has a plan to attack through Mongolia and drive on the capital Beijing. First, he sends David Brentwood and his SAS/D team to deliver a message to the Mongolian president to see if he will resist the Americans crossing his border. They have to battle the Siberian Spetsnaz who try to stop them.

Then they discover that the Chinese have intermediate range missiles in the western part of the country that have to be taken out. This can only be done with B-52s based in England. Apparently, there are no others available. Frank Shrirer the boyfriend of Lana is assigned to a harrier squadron based in Pakistan to fly cover for this strike. The Chinese agents in America manage to sabotage power and hijack a fishing boat to lay mines along the west coast. Finally, the big offensive is launched, and they totally defeat the Chinese. Of course, on the verge of victory what else but another ceasefire.

In this book it is mostly the Chinese who are the enemy. The Siberians seem to be totally defeated and have only minor roles in Mongolia and their agents once again sabotaging the New York power grid. This time apparently putting sand in the generator. Good God appoint a Brentwood to security, so this doesn’t happen anymore. How incompetent do you have to be.

This book also jettisons the past books and establishes that the Americans are there under the UN to keep the peace from both Siberians and Chinese in annexing Siberian territory. I guess the Chinese no longer have a veto and the UN is basically an American controlled institution. A very globalist neocon outlook of the nineties I suppose. Oh, and La Roche the evil pervert that was selling weapons to the Chinese finally gets his just deserts. He roofies Lana to rape her but the son of a congressman he drove to suicide decides to kill him.

WW III WARSHOT BY IAN SLATER

Copyright 1992.

There is a truce between the American and Siberians. Only it is soon broken by the Siberians staging an incident where they make it look like the Americans have launched an artillery attack on the Chinese. The Chinese attack and the Siberians join in. Discount Patton now is facing attacks from the west and south. Siberian agents in America once again manage to take out the power grids in New York and poison the water supply. They also destroy the cesium clock in Wisconsin which disables all the computer systems including the military communications with the ICBMs and submarines.

The Americans are reeling and forced to retreat across the frozen Lake Baikal with heavy losses. Discount Patton has a plan. First is to destroy the bridge at Nanking and stop the flow of supplies to Chinese forces. He gets the SEALs who have to be led by Captain Brentwood who is a trained SEAL as well as a submarine commander. He succeeds and is rescued by his brother who is in charge of the SAS/Delta teams.

Then he turns his attention to the Siberians. Discount Patton waits until the temperature goes below 60 which freezes up the inferior fuel of the Siberians. Their tanks stop cold, and the more superior fuel of the American tanks destroys the disabled tanks. As last time the enemy negotiates a ceasefire to save themselves because obviously the defense contractors have no interest in stopping this war.

Another goofy entry in the WWIII series. Now the Chinese are in the fight which gives Discount Patton plenty of action. I didn’t know that Robert Brentwood was SEAL trained which apparently, he suddenly is. Why does a guy in his forties who is a submarine commander have to lead the mission? Well because in Slater’s world there are only a handful of competent men. Basically, Discount Patton and the Brentwoods. Otherwise, the US would be doomed. There are some subplots with Lana Brentwood and her romance with Navy pilot Shirer who has to convince the Navy to let him fly in spite of losing an eye to torture when he was shot down last book. There is the creepy pervert Jay La Rouche the estranged husband of Lana who sells weapons to the Chinese. Then there is Alexandra Malof the Siberian Jewish leader of the resistance who gets captured by the Chinese. Is forced to lick moisture off the walls of her cell and pick out the undigested food from her own feces to survive. This book like the whole series is one rich experience.