Hello to all my readers. I apologize for taking so long with this update. I will try and be better about updating this story.

Hope you like this chapter. Let's get to it.

Chapter 10- Into the Fire

(December 8, 2008)

Ron stares out from the observation deck of the Warspite, at the coast of Luzon.

It's been a very hectic last few months. After the fall of Nagasaki, The Free Forces had not waited long to make their next moves. On October 25, 5 Marine Divisions landed on Okinawa. Three days later, the last defenders on the island surrendered.

The Free Forces had then made their next move. On Halloween, Marines had landed on the north-western coast of Taiwan. Just days later, on November 4, they had engaged Slytherin forces in the Battle of Taipei. This battle had been costly for the Free Forces, with almost 40,000 Allied casualties. But, it had also resulted in the capture of almost 35,000 prisoners, and broken the Slytherin defenses on Taiwan, as most of the defenders had been brought from across the island nation to defend the capitol. With the defeat at Taipei, the Slytherin army in Taiwan was shattered. The final defenders surrendered just a week later in Taichung City.

With the Japanese mainland, Okinawa, and Taiwan now in the hands of the Free Forces, the Free Forces took a temporary break. The Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan campaigns had resulted in just over 100,000 Allied casualties, wounded, dead, and missing, mostly among the Marine Corps. Harry had ordered that the Free Forces cease hostilities for a brief time while they planned their next move, and to give time for the combat-weary Marines that had fought so far to be returned to Australia, and fresh divisions be brought out for the next phase of the Asian campaign.

In late November, the decision was made. The next target would be the Philippines. Many generals argued that Korea should be the next target, as it was co close to Japan. But, Harry and others argued that their air presence in Japan was enough to protect against air attacks from Korea. Also, the capture of the Philippines would eliminate a serious threat to a planned invasion of Indonesia set for February, which would give the Free Forces access to vital resources, especially oil.

The Free Forces immediately began preparing for the operation, codenamed Operation Musketeer IV. 10 Marine Divisions began training on Okinawa and Taiwan for the operation. A fleet centered around 3 carriers, 4 battleships, and 40 cruisers, destroyers, and frigates was assembled to escort the Marines to the Philippines and provide support.

The fleet had set sail from Taiwan on December 1. They had arrived off the coast of the island of Luzon around midnight the previous night. Now, it is past 8 AM local time on the 8th. Ron found it interesting that they were going to begin the invasion of the Philippines on the 67th anniversary of the day that the Japanese invaded the Philippines in WWII.

Ron checks his watch. 8:15. He gets on the radio and says, "Send out the orders. Begin the bombardment."

Ron's orders are conveyed, and within minutes, the Warspite, the Bismark, the Dauntless, and the New Jersey all open fire on the landing beaches, located just west of the town of Santa Ana on the northern coast of Luzon.

For 45 minutes, the four battleships shell the landing beaches. Then, all at once, the bombardment ceases.

As soon as the bombardment ceases, the first landing boats, hanging about a mile offshore, begin moving towards the landing beaches. To their surprise, no fire comes their way as they make their way towards the landing beach.

The Marines of the 13th New Zealand Marine Division are the first to hit the beach. As the ramps lower, the Marines race ashore, weapons at the ready. But still, no fire comes their away.

The Marines slow down a bit, waiting for more of the men to come ashore. More of the 13th are soon coming ashore, as well as men of the 20th English Marine Division.

As the number of men on the beach reach 20,000, the commander of the 13th, Colonel Jack Short, orders the advance off the beach and inland. The Marines start moving inland and moving off the beach. Colonel Short, from his position on a small boat just off shore, is starting to wonder what's going on. Intelligence has shown that at least 300,000 troops are holding the Philippines, and about half of those troops are on Luzon alone.

Colonel Short's thoughts on the matter are cut short when a series of massive explosions suddenly tear apart the back of the beach. Within moments, almost 3,000 men are killed. The formation on the beach dissolves into chaos, especially when a hail of rifle fire begins to cut down more of the Marines.

Colonel Short curses. He realizes now the defender's plan. Laying large land mines at the back of the beach and waiting to detonate them to allow maximum casualties. And in the confusion from the explosions, begin firing at the men on the beach.

The Marines on the beach are in total confusion. Many retreat back towards the landing boats, hoping to use them as shelter from which to strike back. Others drop to the ground, trying to avoid the incoming rifle fire.

Colonel Short radioes back out to the fleet. "This is Colonel Short, 13th Division. My men are under attack. Heavy casualties! We need air support immediately!" he shouts over the radio.

There's an agonizing silence of about 15 seconds before the colonel hears a response, "This is FFS Independence. We're vectoring 4 Super Hornets in your direction. They'll be there in 40 seconds."

"Understood," Colonel Short replies.

The next 40 seconds are agonizing as Short watches the battle unfolding on the beach. As he waits, he radioes the LSTs and orders, "Send in the tanks. We need to get those Lions on that beach!" Landing boats quickly swerve away from the LSTs and begin moving towards the beach, each carrying a Lion battle tank and a large howitzer.

Finally, the Super Hornets arrive over the landing beach. Two climb to 5,000 feet, while the others line up for passes against the Slytherin positions, each coming from opposite directions.

The first two Super Hornets streak low over the Slytherin lines, unleashing volleys of Zuni rockets. The rockets rain down on Slytherin lines, disrupting their formation. The Super Hornets pull up out of their runs, and the second pair line up to make their runs.

Now realizing their danger, several Slytherin troops loose off SA-16 shoulder launched SAMs. One of the Super Hornets pulls out of its run early to avoid a missile. The other Super Hornet just manages to roll to avoid it, then again drops its nose and drops two Mark 77 incendiary bombs. The bombs burst when they hit, spewing its burning content across Slytherin lines, incinerating dozens of troops instantly.

The second Super Hornet in the pair circles back around to make a second try. The pilot centers himself, then also drops two Mark 77 bombs. Again, dozens of soldiers are incinerated on impact, with many more suffering serious burns.

The Super Hornets circle, looking for more targets. As they do, the first tank landing boats hit the beach, and 5 Lion tanks roll out onto the beach. Immediately, their gunners take aim on the few spots where fire can be seen coming from and open fire. Five explosions follow, accompanied by a sharp decrease in the amount of fire being sent at the Marines.

With the attacks distracting the defenders, the Marines regroup and resume their charge up the beach. It quickly becomes clear that the attacks by the Super Hornets and tanks did not kill as many defenders as they hoped, as there is still a lot of fire coming their way. But more Marines have landed, and these reinforcements give the Marines formation enough men to charge right through the defending fire. The troops regularly radio particularly heavy pockets of resistance out to Colonel Short, who in turn radios them to the Super Hornets, which subject the spots to strafing attacks.

Finally, at about noon, all remaining pockets of Slytherin resistance cease fire and retreat further inland. Colonel Short radios out to Ron aboard the Warspite that the Marines are in possession of the beach.

The buildup on the beach moves forward. By the end of the day, 8 divisions are ashore. However, casualties have been heavy. A total 4,212 Marines were lost on this first day of the invasion, with another 2,500 wounded. Almost 2 regiments worth of men combined.

Ron is going over these figures in his quarters aboard the Warspite that night. He's already preparing for the capture of the town of Santa Ana in two days. He's already dispatched the Bismark and New Jersey to begin bombarding the Slytherin positions around the town in preparation for the attack.

"Sir!" Ron hears as he's going over the reports, and he looks up to see one of the Warspite's intelligence officers, a Korean, standing in the doorway.

"Yes, Commander?" he asks.

"We received reports just an hour. We have a major reinforcement operation going on by the enemy. They're bringing troops into the Philippines en masse by boat and by plane. Intelligence confirms a full division has already been brought to Luzon, and another division is being brought to Mindanao," the Korean Commander responds.

Ron grimaces. It was gonna be a tough fight anyways. More reinforcements is just going to make things harder.

( 2 weeks later)

Ron looks out from his field HQ as explosions from artillery shells rock the Earth several miles out ahead.

The battle for Luzon has been raging for almost two weeks. Slytherin resistance has been much greater than expected. Plans for the invasion had called for the Free Forces to have advanced all the way to Santiago by now. Instead, the Free Forces are still fighting to take the city of Tuguegarao.

Reinforcements numbering 3 divisions had come to Luzon, both from the mainland and from other islands. And their tactics were slowing down the Free Forces far more than expected. It had gotten so bad that the Marines had deployed two more divisions to Luzon, and dispatched two more aircraft carriers to provide more air support.

However, the fierce resistance on Luzon had one advantage. It drew some forces away from other islands in the Philippines. Thanks to that, Harry gave the order to go ahead with the invasion of the island of Samar ahead of schedule. Over half of Samar was now under control of the Free Forces. And a total of 4 divisions were preparing to invade the island of Leyte in a few days time.

However, Luzon was quickly becoming not only a lengthier endeavor than first thought, but costlier too. The Marines had already lost a total of 15,000 men killed or missing, with another 13,000 wounded. Already, this was costlier for the Free Forces than the Battle of Okinawa had been for the Americans, and only a quarter of the island was in Allied hands. Harry had confided in Ron he was feeling quite distraught at the level of casualties sustained so far. But everyone knew Luzon had to be taken if the invasion of Indonesia was to remain on schedule.

The fighting for Tuguegarao has now been going on for two days. Most of the city is now under Allied control, but Slytherin forces are fighting a battle of attrition, to the point where the troops have to enter every building to clear it of Slytherin troops.

"Sir!" Ron turns to see one of his intelligence officers, a Dutch colonel, walking into the room.

"What is it, Colonel?" Ron asks.

"Sir, latest report from the resistance fighters about Pinatubo," the colonel says as he hands several sheets of paper to Ron.

Ron looks at the papers, his expression grave. Shortly after their landing on Luzon, Marines had reported feeling relatively weak earthquakes. Then, Ron had received some disturbing intelligence reports from the Philippine resistance movement in southern Luzon.

The reports showed that in the last few months, and especially in the last few weeks, there had been a sharp increase in the seismic activity in the area surrounding Mount Pinatubo. Not only had the number of earthquakes sharply increased in number and intensity. Resistance fighters had also sent pictures that showed a slight swelling of the mountain at the peak, indicating rising magma beneath the surface. Not only that, but the water temperature in Lake Pinatubo at the summit has raised about 10 degrees Celsius in the last few months.

This increase in activity at Mount Pinatubo has been of deep concern to Ron and other Free Forces leaders, particularly those who are from the Philippines. Those from the Philippines well remember the volcano's violent eruption in 1991. Particularly the damage caused to Clark Air Force Base and the aircraft stored there.

The Free Forces were a little confused as to how the volcano had become so active so fast. There were some who believed that Voldemort's forces may have been stoking the volcano, hoping that an eruption would slow down the Free Forces. Some reports from the Philippine resistance have seemed to support this theory, but geologists have expressed skepticism.

Ron looks over the reports. They're particularly ominous. Seismographs show a near continuous shaking, with half a dozen distinct earthquakes in the last 10 hours, including 3 over magnitude 5. The mountain's summit has swelled almost a meter since the last report. Even more ominous are several pictures of the volcano, which show a small ash cloud trailing out of the lava dome in the middle of Lake Pinatubo.

Ron stares at the pictures and the seismographs. Finally, he looks up at the intelligence Colonel and says, "Dispatch orders to all forces on Luzon. Alert all Marine commanders that Pinatubo's activity is increasing and prepare for a possible eruption and fallout. Alert air forces at Laoag International Airport and Paredes Air Station. Put all aircraft on standby alert. I want all aircraft ready to take off with a few minutes warning until further notice. Send a warning out to the fleet as well. And send word to the resistance. I want them to maintain a constant surveillance on the volcano, and ensure I have a constant live feed of the volcano here in my office."

The Colonel walks out of the office to issue the orders. Within a few hours, a live feed of Mount Pinatubo is being fed onto one of the monitors in Ron's office.

For the next 24 hours, things are tense. The fighting for Tuguegarao is still ongoing, with the Free Forces now holding about two thirds of the city, and with Slytherin defenses beginning to crumble. But, the attention of Ron and his staff has not been as much on Tuguegarao, but more on Mount Pinatubo. The seismic activity around the volcano has intensified greatly, and the ash cloud emerging from the summit has nearly doubled in size. The swell of the summit has also grown.

Now, in mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, Ron is looking over some battle reports from the commanders in Tuguegarao when one of his aides calls out, "General!"

Ron's head shoots up, and his eyes instantly lock onto the screen displaying Mount Pinatubo. Rocks are tumbling down the summit, and it's clear a major earthquake is happening at the moment. The ash cloud is growing bigger.

Ron slowly stands up straighter, staring intently at the screen. The eyes of everyone in the room are glued to the screen, watching as the mountain continues to shake. Then, sections of the peak give way, and everyone watches as the summit of Pinatubo is blown apart as a massive ash cloud explodes into the air.

Ron stares in amazement as the ash cloud continues to grow exponentially, and the first pyroclastic flows begin surging down the side of the volcano. The ground continues shaking, the shaking growing more intense.

For a few moments, Ron just stares at the screen, getting his first sight of an erupting volcano. Then, he turns to his staff and says in a raised voice, "Send orders to all forces. All ground forces are to disengage from hostile actions and seek shelter. All Navy aircraft in Luzon airspace are to return to their carriers immediately, and no more Navy aircraft are to enter Luzon airspace. All Air Force aircraft on the ground are to scramble immediately and head for Okinawa or Taiwan, along with all aircraft currently airborne. All Marine Corps aircraft are to head for any available carrier, or for Taiwan."

Men and women in the room spring into action, hurrying to get the necessary orders out to all forces. While they know they have hours before ash and other volcanic material begins falling on Free Forces occupied territory, every minute can count, particularly for the aircraft.

In Toguegarao, the Marines pull back a bit and begin taking shelter in whatever structures they can. At Laoag International Airport and Paredes Air Station, aircrews race to their aircraft. Within minutes, lines of aircraft are moving across the tarmac, with each aircraft taking off as soon as they reach the runway. Air Force aircraft already airborne are already headed north towards Taiwan and Okinawa, and all airborne Navy aircraft are headed back towards their carriers.

Within an hour, all Navy aircraft are back aboard their carriers. Most Marine aircraft have found carriers to land on, and the rest have headed north to Taiwan with the Air Force's aircraft. The few aircraft left behind due to not being fully airworthy have been moved into hangars believed to be strong enough to protect them from the ashfall.

A few hours later, the ashfall begins across northern Luzon. Thankfully, the Marines on the island have taken shelter. As the ashfall continues, it begins to be clear just how heavy it's going to be. The Marines begin to hunker down and prepare for an extensive period of inactivity.

On Voldemort's side, leaders begin to realize the extent of the eruption. They had indeed used underground explosions in an attempt to stoke the volcano into erupting. However, they had not expected an eruption of this size. And so, like the Free Forces, the Slytherin commanders order their troops to hunker down and be ready to wait out the eruption.

The eruption lasts for almost 6 hours. For about two weeks after the eruption, combat on Luzon grinds to a complete halt as troops on both side stay under cover to avoid the ashfall. It's not until about two weeks after the eruption that equipment is able to begin clearing the ash and debris enough to enable troops to resume combat operations.

Filipino Marines lead the way as the Free Forces move to complete the capture of Toguegarao. As many of them lived on Luzon back in 1991, they are experienced in dealing with fallout from an eruption of Mount Pinatubo. With the Filipino Marines leading the way, the Free Forces are able to complete the capture of Toguegarao on January 9, 2009.

The fallout from Mount Pinatubo continues to prove a bit of a hindrance as the Free Forces continue their push south, especially as it is a major obstacle to aircraft operation. Given the amount of volcanic material still in the air, air operations are mostly restricted to attack helicopters operating at very low altitude.

But, the effects of Mount Pinatubo's eruption is not enough to stop the might of the Free Forces. Under Ron's leadership, they continue their march south towards the Philippine capitol, Manila.

I'll end there. I hope this chapter wasn't too bad. I always intended to do a battle for Luzon chapter, and I came up with the idea for an eruption of Mount Pinatubo while writing the chapter. In reality, Mount Pinatubo hasn't erupted since 1993.

The name Operation Musketeer IV is a reference to the WWII Allied liberation of the Philippines, which had three different parts codenamed Operation Musketeer I, Operation Musketeer II, and Operation Musketeer III.

Current plan for next chapter is for the fall of Manila and liberation of the Philippines.