Guardsman Troper and L/Cpl Veneer were sat in a ditch, apparently keeping a diligent watch upon the skies; they were however looking in every possible direction except the CSMs. The outlying Royal Artillery Stormer air defence vehicles had the job well in hand as regards local air defence, and the two men were hoping that the CSM wouldn’t realise that their Stinger missiles were, for the moment anyway surplus to requirement, meaning that an extra two pairs of hands were available for some manual labour on the wall.
“Is e’ lookin’ at us?” Troper whispered, and started to turn his head so he could glance at the warrant officer out of the corner of his eye.
Veneer dug him in the ribs. “Don’t look at ‘im… I read a book see, it says that if you avoid eye contact you becomes invisible like.”
A snowball narrowly missed the junior NCO, causing him to flinch but his mate hissed at him, and they both acted as if it had never happened.
Colin selected another missile from nearby and sent it after the first.
The half brick made contact with the big soldiers’ helmet, bringing forth a startled yelp.
“Oye… what do you pair of idle Mary’s think yer on!”
“We’s the air defence sir!” L/Cpl Veneer shouted back.
“Yes sir… ” Guardsman Troper enjoined, and tried to sound convincing by adding something he had heard once, but it didn’t come across quite as eloquently when he repeated it. “… we are a essential element in the air defence mesh that guards the skies above the battalions ‘ed, sir.”
Colin glared at him; his eyes full of menace and roared. “Get your scaly arses into gear or as soon as this lot’s over I’ll bang you up where the sun never shines and the birds don’t shit!” The pair scrambled from the ditch, crawling rapidly over the snow to the base of the wall and began furiously hacking away at the wall with their own bayonets.
Oz joined Colin behind the wall as the last of the loops was completed, breathing hard and the cold air condensing his breath into ragged smoke signals. “The boys are in place, 1 Section is covering the rear of the houses on the left of the street… the rest are reorganised for street fighting.” He had the platoons small 51mm light mortar on a sling across his shoulders, which he now got ready for firing. Colin nodded and depressed his ‘send’ switch. “Hello One, this is One One over.” There was a moment’s pause before the company commanders radio operator acknowledged him. “One… send over?”
“One One… all set, over.” This time there was a longer delay as the company commander was informed that the point of fire was in place and the remainder of 1 Platoon were ready to jump off.
“One, roger your last… One Three is in position but One Two will be a further figures five, over.”
Colin could see 3 Platoon a hundred meters away, lying at the base of the wall, ready to go over it and begin the assault on the first house on their side of the street. The remainder of Colin’s own platoon were to his left, similarly waiting patiently for the off. The delay was due to 2 Platoons inexperienced young 2Lt, Sergeant Osgood’s successor.
1 Company’s Commander was not ready to let loose the young officer on a task such as his more seasoned platoons were to undertake, so 2 Platoon had the more straightforward task of flanking the village so as to be in a position to cut off any enemy withdrawal or reinforcement. The young officer had taken too long sorting out his men after the first positions had been taken, so 1 and 3 Platoon had to wait in the snow, shivering behind the wall.
After a delay of rather more than five minutes, the company commander gave the word to go and from eight hundred metres to the rear the anti-tank section started the ball rolling by putting Milan missiles into the upper floors of the first buildings.
CSM Probert gave the nod to the first assault team, Oz was directing heavy fire into the buildings, and dropping smoke into the street with the 51mm mortar, to hamper the fire from enemy in other buildings, as they went up and over the wall, boosted over by members of the second assault team. Crossing obstacles such as the wall was a team effort; the first men over stood facing the wall, arms above their heads with their palms against the brickwork to steady themselves and to grasp the top. They raise the heels of their feet and two men crouched behind them cup their hands under the raised heels and lift together, boosting the men up to where they can pull themselves up and over. The procedure goes on until there are four men left, and instead of dropping to the other side of the wall the next pair stop on top of the wall, swivel around and lie draped over top where they can reach a hand down for their mates, and use their legs as cantilevers. One at a time the last men run at the wall and jump up to catch the outstretched arms, whereupon they are pulled up.
Despite the best efforts of Oz and the Milan crews the enemy was not entirely silenced. Colin followed the first assault team over, dropping into the snow beside one of his section commanders, the Lance Sergeants eyes were staring blankly up at the Company Sergeant Major. The rest of the platoon was adding the weight of their fire as the first mouse-hole charge was placed against the side wall of a pleasant 19th century house and the fuses lit. Colin paused to take cover behind the section commanders body until the charge blew, creating a five foot hole for grenades to be thrown through, these were followed by the entrymen once they had gone off. The entrymen fired indiscriminately into anything that could conceal an enemy as they went through the entry hole and ducked to one side out of the silhouetting light. A face appeared briefly at the hole and Colin heard the soldier shout “Room clear!” and the remainder of the first assault team sprinted across the road, disappearing through the entry point. Colin resumed the task of stripping the body of its ammunition and grenades, stuffing them unceremoniously inside his smock, before removing the magazine from the dead man’s weapon and adding it to the rest. 3 Platoon had quickly taken their first house across the road and were knocking a hole in its roof. Slates slid down the steeply slanting roof to shatter on the pavement below, but Colin was watching the action on his side of the street, the other side of the road was somebody else’s business.
There was a flurry of firing from the upper floors, interjected by grenade blasts as the Russian paratroopers contested the hallway and stairs. Had they had more time they would have dismantled the stairs, using a rope to pass between the floors and using the materials for barricades, but NATO had reacted too quickly for such advanced preparations.
The soldiers did not clear every room by first throwing in a grenade, some had collected rocks of roughly the same size as a fragmentation grenade, and to conserve their grenades they would occasionally toss in a rock, accompanied by the shouted warning, “Grenade!” It had the effect of causing any waiting paratroopers to duck, allowing the guardsmen to enter the room, firing into the corners of the room, furniture and any enemy in view. The cries of, “Room clear!” could be heard until the eventual “House clear!”
With one man acting as his runner, CSM Probert entered the house where he received a sitrep from the first team, he had one man walking wounded but there were three enemy dead, one wounded seriously and a prisoner. He listened as the report was made, merely nodding and clapping the NCO on the shoulder when he had finished, before taking the stairs two at a time.
Despite being two men down, Colin decided to up the pressure on the enemy and ordered a mousehole charge placed against the wall to the neighbouring house in the upper front and back rooms. In the confines of the house the blast of the first one was almost stunning to the attackers, but devastating to the defenders in the room beyond. Flying debris killed both Russians who had their backs against that wall, looking upwards and awaiting the sound of their attackers on the roof. As soon as the room was taken, the second charge was fired, and half the upper storey of the second house was taken in less than two minutes.