“Section, five hundred, one o’clock… bushy top tree… to be known as, bushy top tree… section, three hundred, ten o’clock… stone wall, right hand corner of wall to be known as, wall… see this stream bank on our right? If we come under fire in the next fifty metres we’ll take cover there.” Objects that would assist in indicating targets were adopted as they came into view, and discarded once they had been passed, and cover was pointed out as the section moved. Every other section commander was carrying out the same task for their own men, as well as trying to second-guess the enemy by trying to put themselves in the enemy’s shoes.
Taking cover when a single round passes you does not, in the eyes of the British Army, constitute as reacting to effective enemy fire. Rounds, plural, have to be coming in amongst you and your mates or, you start taking casualties, for it to count.
As the leading platoon approached a thick stand of conifers on a section of rolling heath land, a Guardsman spun around and fell on his face with a strangled cry. The crack of the high velocity round was followed a second later by the thump of the rifle that had fired it, and the men of 1 Section went to ground. 2 and 3 Sections, along with platoon headquarters were out of sight of the lead section when contact was made, but a second after the shot was fired L/Cpl Orden was on the air to CSM Probert.
“Hello One One this is One One Alpha… contact, wait out!”
Colin moved forward parallel with 2 and 3 Sections, impatient for a full contact report but having to allow the man time. He sent his own to the company commander, who in turn would send one to Lt Col Reed.
The theory behind the arrowhead formation is that the enemy ‘bumps’ the lead section, but cannot necessarily see the entire unit. With the battalion spread out and angled away on both flanks from the point of contact, it is theoretically able to manoeuvre in order to flank the enemy at that point.
A real live enemy is seldom as obliging as the ones provided for exercise purposes, and Nikoli was determined to bloody the battalions nose.
Colin had just got into a position where he could see his lead section when its section commander sent a full contact report.
“Hello One One this is One One Alpha, over.”
“One One send over.”
“One One Alpha, contact one minute ago, single round fired from copse at grid 4720, 7331, I have one Indian down… enemy not seen, over!”
“One One, roger… out.”
He didn’t give any orders, L/Cpl Orden knew what had to be done now, so he left him to it and passed on the report quickly and began a combat appreciation.
Less than two minutes had passed since the shot had been fired, and the casualty was lying in the open, unmoving. The British Army does not waste ammunition by shooting up all available cover, they had to locate the enemy first, and use the ammunition to win the fire fight. No further shots had been fired, which meant the firer had either bugged out or was waiting for someone else to show themselves. Under the circumstances they had no option but to offer him a target to shoot at, and one of the Guardsmen half rose from cover and then dropped out of sight again before crawling sideways, as his position was now compromised.
Colin kept the two remaining sections gun groups and a rifleman from each, which also carried M203 grenade launchers. Oz, who had the light mortar ready, had ten rounds each of smoke and HE laid out ready to use. In addition to their own ammunition, each member of the platoon carried four rounds for the mortar, one para illum, one smoke and two HE rounds. Colin sent the remainder of the platoon back twenty-five metres in readiness for a flanking move should it prove necessary, and they dropped off some of their mortar rounds as they passed Oz.
Lying behind a slight rise in the ground Colin watched a second Guardsman try to draw fire, but there was neither sound nor movement from the copse. Behind him the rest of the battalion had gone to ground, and if there was no reaction from the wood then they would have to assume the firer had left, so getting on the radio he ordered the section commander to send two men skirmishing forwards whilst the remainder covered them.
The lead section was two hundred metres away from the copse, and Nikoli watched the pair of riflemen come on, allowing them to get to with seventy-five metres before he tapped his machine gunner and a rifleman on the shoulders.
By agreement the paratrooper with the AKM fired first, aiming at the covering man’s face, which was all that was visible behind the SLR he was aiming at the copse. The young Guardsman’s head snapped viciously back, and the machine gunner fired a short five round burst at the moving man as he started to drop into cover. All five rounds scored, dropping the soldier.. The moment they fired, the Russian paratroopers all put their heads down and scrambled backwards on their bellies six feet to the shallow trenches they had hacked into the frozen earth. The Guards reply was almost instantaneous; the muzzle flashes had been seen against the dark background in the trees. Before Nikoli or his men had gained the trenches, 7.62mm rounds were chewing up the bank behind which they had fired, and cracking overhead, spilling snow from burdened boughs, gouging bark from the trees and amputating small branches. These rounds were no danger to Nikoli, they were protected by the bank from direct fire, but the grenades and mortar rounds were a different matter.
Oz had four HE rounds in the air before the first reach the ground, the mortar rounds and grenades straddled the area, one 51mm mortar round landing in the machine gunners trench.
An infantry section can take on up to three enemy riflemen, but they won’t handle a machine alone, not if there is support about.
Colin originally had a potential section assault to deal with, now it had developed into a platoon attack, and from what he could see of the ground it had the potential to become at least a company job, inasmuch as there was good concealment for at least an enemy platoon. The enemy in the copse had not revealed themselves all at once, so they weren’t beginners at this stuff. To the left of the copse was dead ground that ran to the rear of the trees, and to the right it was flat with little cover, until it sloped gradually upwards to meet dense scrub three hundred metres beyond.
CSM Probert thought about going left flanking, then dismissed it as too obvious, and the same went for the open ground on the right. True, he could drop smoke and dummy left whilst using the screen to go right, but he didn’t like the thick scrub behind it. He thought about it but alarm bells were ringing in his head.
“Stuff this, for a game of soldiers!” he muttered to himself and rolled onto his back, rapping the magazine on his rifle with his knuckles to get the attention of the men within earshot. Holding up three splayed fingers he then tapped them three times on his left bicep, then opened his hand crab-like and sat it on his head. He repeated the signal, except using two fingers instead of three, summonsing Oz and the section commanders behind him for a quick orders group.
“Okay, gee your guys up, we’re going through the front door… I don’t think these people are on their own, I think the rest are in depth, waiting on us going left or right flanking. Sarn’t Osgood… send a gun group further left to where they can shoot us right into the treeline without us blocking their fields of fire, but warn them to be ready for a reaction from the left once the smoke clears and they see we haven’t played their game… I want the other gun group on the right… same story, but they are to switch fire and hammer the thick scrub at the top of the slope five hundred metres from what will be their front, the moment we reach the trees. Sarn’t Osgood, collect more smoke and HE, because I want smoke masking our right from that scrub, I want it in the trees and in the dead ground on the left, then once we gain the treeline I want a couple of HE rounds dropped on the scrub on the right, where the guns are switching too, okay?” He looked from face to face before continuing. “Two Section left… Three right, leave a hole for One Section in the centre… L/Sgt Tilly, I’ll go as far as One Section as your left hand man, then I’ll join One Section and we’ll all skirmish up to the trees from there as a platoon, then fight-through as sections… important, there is to be no, I repeat no exit out the far side of the copse by any of our boys… understood?” He got nods all round. “I’m going to give the company commander a bell and let him know what we are doing, and to ask for the Mortar Platoon to set up ready to drop 81 mil’ on that thick scrub. They won’t do it just on a whim from me, but if I’m right then that is where their main strength is, and they will show themselves once the right hand gunners and Sarn’t Osgood rattle their cage… you’ve got five minutes to get them briefed and organised, so get yer skates on!” The three NCOs hurried away and Colin quickly briefed L/Cpl Orden by radio before switching to the company net.