The Battle of Yonkers was the United States Military's first official engagement of the Zombie Wars in the book World War Z. It took place in Yonkers, New York, a suburb of New York City. The battle was a complete and total catastrophe.
Synopsis:
Elite special forces units known as 'Alpha Teams' had been used covertly against the undead in isolated incidents, but Yonkers would be the first time an army of regulars had faced them.
Elements of the United States Army were deployed along the Saw Mill River Parkway in North Yonkers. While the parkway served as a natural choke point, it made no difference in the final result. Utilizing antiquated tactics dating back to the Cold War, positions were prepared in such ways as digging tank emplacements, building barriers out of sandbags, and in foxholes.
When "Zack" first began to trickle down the freeway, the opening salvos were fired - two MLRS rocket barrages which did destroy a significant percentage of the first wave. As the undead became more tightly packed, the MLRS lost effectiveness, with the thick swarms of zombies reducing the possibility of a head wound. The second barrage came from M109 Paladin artillery stationed on a hill to the rear of the infantry. They fired fragmentation shells which had even less of an effect than the MLRS barrages. The artillery strikes depended on the "balloon effect," which by proximity to an explosion would cause the liquid in the victim's body to burst. This did not occur, however, because of the zombie's coagulated blood, and and because of SNT (Sudden Nerve Trauma), which "just shuts down vital organs like God flickin' a light bulb." does not occur in the undead [1]
After this, the infantry, armor and air support opened fire on the "river of undead". Firing on the zombies were the full military might of the United States army: M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradleys, Humvees, mortars and several RAH-66 Comanche helicopters. All of these held sustained fire for a time in what was likened to "a meatgrinder, or a wood chipper..." [2] until the anti-personnel ammunition ran out. The armor and helicopters then switched over to Anti-Tank rounds like HEAT or Sabot shells which had little to no effect on the swelling tide of undead.
The infantry were left fighting the undead in close proximity, and there were even zombies in the houses behind the front line of infantry. Soldiers could see everything through the weapon mounted cameras of the soldiers (thanks to the Land Warrior system); the hordes closing in, their fellow soldiers falling and being eaten alive and even reports of zombies not dying when being shot in the head. JSFs launched JSOWs, dropping hundreds of thousands of explosive devices. This decimated the oncoming wave but even more shuffled to take their place. At that point the battle turned into utter anarchy.
News crews clambered over one another to get away from the coming onslaught and military personnel sought refuge anywhere they could from the zombies. The air force dropped several thermobaric weapons on the zombies and their own troops hoping to neutralize the undead at Yonkers in one sweep. It accomplished its purpose of destroying the majority of zombies from that battle but many more still poured in from Manhattan, overpowering the American forces and proving, to devastating effect, that the war with the undead could not be won with conventional tactics.
What went wrong:
The Battle of Yonkers was an unmitigated disaster for the military. Public confidence in them and the United States Government was shattered, and this contributed heavily to the Great Panic that soon followed and claimed the lives of many more Americans.
Tactics:
The tactics used by the army dated back to plans against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Expecting to fight another organized army, the military leadership ignored the new, untested nature of the undead enemy. Instead of placing infantry in positions of overwatch and in elevated areas with excellent lines of fire, the soldiers were forced to fight on the ground and were quickly overrun. The higher-ups failed to prepare for what was essentially a human wave attack, and should have had fewer men on the ground and more indirect fire units.
Equipment:
The soldiers were ordered to wear protective MOPP gear, (used in case of chemical or biological warfare) which greatly impairs one's ability to fight by restricting eyesight, range of motion and respiration. The Land Warrior system, which effectively connected each soldier to every other by use of video cameras, proved a fatal mistake: morale disintegrated soon after soldiers watched their brothers-in-arms being eaten alive.
The conventional anti-tank ordnance was also useless against an army of zombies, as many of the depleted uranium rounds had no effect but to fly straight through Zack and pass harmlessly to the rear of the advancing mass. The men in charge of the battle failed to properly equip their forces for anti-infantry operations; from the outset, anti-tank weaponry should have been discarded, and AFVs loaded with HEI-T (High Explosive Incendiary, Tracer) rounds.
Press Coverage:
It is said that "there must have been at least one reporter for every two or three uniforms." This is obviously an exaggeration, but not far from the truth: "prewar records have shown Yonkers to have the highest press-to-military ratio of any battle previously fought." These news crews had been present to document the United States' decisive victory over the undead. As it turned out, however, they just served as a precursor to the rest of the War.