“Officer of the Watch, dive the boat… clear the bridge, look-outs below.”
“Aye, aye skipper.” The conning tower emptied of the bridge party and the noise of voices and human movement returned to the interior of the vessel.
“Upper hatch shut, both clips on.”
“Open main vents and Kingston’s.”
“Main vents open… Kingston’s open, sir.”
“Forty-five feet, watch that bubble Cox’n, keep the trim.”
“Aye, aye skipper… setting depth at forty five feet.”
“Raise the ESM.”
“Aye sir… ESM raised.”
With no forward motion to play over the diving planes, the Cox’n had to work hard not to let the vessel slide back, as physics dictated that the heavier stern with its fuel bunkers and engine should dominate the vessel with buoyancy diminishing. The main vents remained open long enough to ensure the correct degree of negative buoyancy, and the Indian Ocean covered the casing and then the sail. Skilfully he kept the backward slide above 10 degrees, re-establishing trim at the required depth.
“Forty-five feet, sir.”
“Well done Cox’n.”
After ten minutes with only favourable reports from the engine room, the captain was satisfied and gave the nod to the officer of the watch.
“Group up… slow ahead main engine.”
“Group up sir… telegraph at slow ahead, sir.”
The captain gave his officer a quick smile.
“Nicely done young man… nicely done everyone,” expanding his praise to all concerned, and his mood much restored by the display of good seamanship.
“It’s not the easiest drill in the book by a long shot… I’m going to get my head down for a bit, lieutenant, wake me if anything comes up?”
“Yes, sir.”
His ships ability to perform well in a conflict that well might arrive in Australian waters eventually was of deep concern to him. Only two of his vessels class had so far been upgraded, something that should never had been necessary in the first place.
Japanese, Taiwanese, Singaporean and now US warships were adding to the fighting power of the Australian, and tiny New Zealand fleets. American troops were in Australia preparing to defend it along with their own army and troops that had escaped by boat from overrun countries. There were even a few Brit tanks and infantry; God knows how they got there. What Australia needed now was time, time to prepare for the coming storm that threatened.
He was a good captain with a good crew, but he was relieved that their modified and upgraded sister ships would be more likely to encounter the enemy, north of New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, than they were, way out here.
When the Spetznaz` attacks on headquarters units had begun the night before, elements of the 155th Separate Armoured Brigade of the Mississippi National Guard had been in the later throes of relieving the Belgian 2nd/4th Lansiers and the Grenadiers of Prins Boudewijn’s Carbinier Regiment. A petrol tanker with its accelerator pedal wedged down had been rammed into a large corrugated metal and brick barn complex a quarter mile from the gun lines of the 114th Artillery. Explosive charges on the vehicle had initiated the total destruction of all of the buildings, everything inside them and in the immediate surrounds. The Belgian 1st Brigade headquarters which had been occupying the site until a few hours before had already shifted to a new location on the right. Joint Command headquarters for the Mississippi Guardsmen had been up and running at a derelict factory two miles north before the Belgian move. The attack on the command and control element had been a failure and it also sounded the alarm for the US troops, and the Belgians still in the lines. Less than an hour after the Spetznaz attempt heavy but sporadic artillery barrages began with nerve agent mixed in with the high explosive. It found no ready targets; the defenders were already under cover and preparing. Eighty percent of the Americans had already seen action in Iraq and there were veterans in the ranks from Bosnia and Desert Storm before that. This was not a green and untried outfit. 155th had shortcomings though as its own vehicles, tanks and guns, plus many of the crews, were aboard ships of the convoys and still several days out. Until they arrived their mechanised infantry were leg infantry and the few tanks and guns were from the storage depots and would have to suffice.
C Company 2/198th Armoured had a mixed bag of M1 and M1A1s which even with a remaining Belgian squadron of Leopard 1s left them stretched very thin.
The 3 (UK) Mechanised Brigades fight was drawing to a close before 155th had a ground target. The imminence of the dawn had not altered the ferocity of the ground assault. When it finally went in the National Guardsmen and their Belgian allies were fighting for their very lives.
The 155th’s battle became a focus for air support as the other assault river crossings tailed off. Exhausted JSTARS and AWACS crews found themselves losing peripheral vision in the battle as tired senses coped by concentrating on no more business than absolutely necessary.
The attack on the 155th was not a feint but the timing of another facet of the Red Army campaign was deliberate. With tunnel vision effecting NATO battlefield surveillance sixteen modified Maz 543 transporter erector launcher vehicles emerged from cover, rolling out from beneath bridge spans, camouflaged netting and other widely dispersed sites providing cover from prying eyes and photo reconnaissance packs.
A brief glimpse of any of the vehicles from a passing low level aircraft would cause alarm bells to sound in the West for they were the specialist sixteen wheelers for the transportation and launching of Russia’s family of theatre ballistic missiles.
As the vehicles reached pre surveyed launch sites close by the hiding places hydraulic stabilising feet extended, raising the massive vehicles chassis as they levelled the vehicles perfectly.
Thus far nothing differed from the normal launch procedures for a short-range ballistic missile. What was different were the heat reflective plates put in place to protect the road wheels, drivers and crew compartment and vital parts of the Maz 543s… .and that the bulky transport/launch canisters carried along the axis cradles were not raised to the vertical, just to thirty degrees above the horizon.
With local conditions prevailing it took some crews longer than others to signal readiness to launch. It left the first to complete the set up procedures feeling somewhat exposed, sat out in the open and vulnerable.
At 0847hrs 93rd MRR, supported by the remainder of 61st Russian Motor Rifle Division, began its assault river crossing with heavy close air support. JSTARS was fully involved with cutting the 93rd off from their artillery and follow-on forces whilst AWACS dealt with the demands of defeating the Red Airforce regiments efforts.
At 0959hrs all sixteen weapons were launched, rocket boosters and the missiles turbofan powering the KH-55 Granat cruise missiles from the canisters on ‘sledges’ where there stubby wings deployed.
Designed as an air launched weapon the army rocket artillery engineers had devised a system of launching the big missiles from a standing start at ground level. The rockets required to propel them along to flight speed were attached to the ‘sledges’ that fell away as the additional boosters spent themselves.