The Chief Executive signalled for more coffee and turned to the stack of files marked ‘Most Secret’ sent over by Admiral Gee for his signature. After first checking that Henry Shaw had already signed off on them he scribbled his signature and reached for the next in the pile. He didn’t read the content, a glance at the name of the operation was all they got, such odd names designed to disinform an enemy of their purpose. Pork Crackling, Alabama Sunset, Armageddon’s Song, Cosmic Wanderer, and what the hell was a Turkey Snack supposed to do? Henry Shaw certainly wasn’t one for macho sounding names of the Approaching Fury, or Imminent Lightning strain.
The aide who delivered his coffee reminded him that he was due to call the new German Chancellor in five minutes, and then he had to sleep as the Far Eastern and Anzac representatives were arriving in the late hours. The summit would be delayed twenty-four hours in order for the Europeans to send replacements for those killed in Galway Bay. He rushed through the pile and was putting his pen away when the aide re-entered and gave him the nod. He allowed himself a moment to prepare and then picked up the receiver.
“Mr Chancellor, please allow me to express my deepest regret… ”
The broken glass from a light bulb was the first confirmation Colin had that a ‘nasty’ had been left behind by the enemy. He’d lain beside the entrance looking at the shards of glass in the snow before crawling back, only to return with a rather bloodied shirt, taken from a corpse, and a pair of PNGs, passive night goggles.
The bulb had been broken either to hinder anyone entering, or to force them to use light, either of which could prove fatal depending on the type of device in use. He didn’t have ‘Polestar’ to help him out with its remotely activated flashbulbs and light emissions of differing frequencies, so ultimately he would have to go down himself. The hide appeared to be of fairly professional construction, so an automated self-destruct system was a possibility, something like a movement sensor on a timer giving just enough time for an authorised person to disarm it. With that in mind he’d tied the shirt to the rope and laid it across the entrance, retiring to a safe distance before pulling the rope and allowing the shirt end to fall within the dark confines. After five minutes of jerking the rope up and down to spoof any motion sensor, he had tied his end to a tree and climbed down it, avoiding the ladder. Finding the booby-trap was almost an anti-climax, in fact it was such an obvious ploy that it raised goosebumps because he’d thought he might have missed something.
Petrol fumes had rendered one of the prisoners unconscious, and the other had to be carried out too due to its effects. Both were sent to the rear under escort to where an armoured ambulance would meet them at the forests edge.
By 1400hrs the two rifle companies had emerged out of the far side of the wood without sighting a single live enemy. Lt Col Reed gave the men a half hour to brew up and have some food before swinging back onto their original axis and continuing the advance, leaving Major Thompson and his troops to complete a head count of the corpses. An hour later and the wood had been abandoned by NATO, but the scars of their visit would remain for decades.
In the north western region of the woods, an area of the snow covered woodland floor moved. Like a large green earthworm coming up for air a quilted tip poked up from the snow, and there remained motionless for five minutes as it listened. Apparently satisfied that there was nothing hostile nearby, it wriggled itself clear of the snow and parted down the centre.
Nikoli unzipped the sleeping bag and rolled out of it into a firing position. His assault rifle shook in his hands and he handled it clumsily, the cold that had slowly sucked the heat from his limbs had robbed them of their dexterity.
Over the next few minutes all but two of his men heaved off the snow that had concealed them within their shell scrapes, several were unable to hold their weapons as the cold had made numb hands and fingers into unresponsive claws.
The amount of debris that had fallen onto the snowy surface of the wood during the attack had lessened the chances of discovery by the enemy. They had covered each other over with snow and the hidden men used twigs to keep small air holes open. The British troops had moved through this section of wood carefully but they were more focused on defensive positions and men above ground, so the paratroopers went undiscovered.
The two who had not appeared were wounded men, and in their shocked state had lapsed into hypothermia and died. They were left where they lay and the snow shovelled back over them.
Nikoli kept his men busy, packing away ground sheets and sleeping bags before allowing them to eat cold rations and await the coming of dark. As NATO had apparently blown up a whole wood in order to take them out, he decided that they would rejoin the main force without further diversions. A recce confirmed that the wood and its surrounds were now clear of NATO combat troops, so with the fall of night he led his men west.
Any notions that the Russians would try to sneak past the Royal Navy anti-submarine warfare group were quickly dispelled as dusk was falling. Since the afternoon, the Merlins and Sea Kings caught fleeting glimpses of the enemy on their sonars at extreme range, but like will-o-the-whisp’s they disappeared when they tried to lock them down. The senior ASWO, aboard the Illustrious was in agreement with the operators in the helicopters, these contacts were diesels, and as such more elusive than the nuclear boats. Of the big nuclear powered vessels there was as yet no trace, and it was assumed that the diesels constituted the van of the enemy force. The big fear was that the force had divided into smaller units, sent out to search different sectors of a necessity, due to the hugely degraded satellite coverage. The only known RORSAT the enemy still had up at the moment wouldn’t cover the upper reaches of the North Atlantic for another twelve hours.
At 2015hrs the first missiles had broken the surface and headed for the British surface warships. Sixteen missiles from a single source that had been quickly attacked and sunk, as had another diesel that began emitting radar energy and transmitting radio messages during the attack.
HMS Edinburgh had hardly worked up a sweat as her air defence systems swatted the dozen inbounds from the sky, well before they had closed to critical range. All twelve had climbed to two thousand feet and flown diverging courses, an obvious sign that the Russian submariners had no up to date intelligence on NATO positions. The defenders were still congratulating themselves when the next attack came fifteen minutes later, from five widely spaced vessels and on evasive courses that would terminate close to the Type 42 destroyer, using targeting data gathered by the sacrificed submarine that had plotted HMS Edinburgh’s position on radar, backtracking her missiles. Merlins and Sea Kings, heading back to their patrol areas after running for cover with the first launches, scattered once more. Most went east or west, getting out of the way, whilst those nearer the carrier headed for her deck.
Four vessels launched almost simultaneously, the fifths missiles were not breaking the surface until her sister ships ordnance were all in the air. Edinburgh’s air defence team went to high gear, plotting and launching on the inbounds, which were altering altitude, course and speed every minute or so.
To reach Edinburgh the missiles passed between the frigates HMS Cumberland and Campbeltown, entering the edges of their air defence zones. The first six missiles detected the warships radar energy and altered course, four going for the Campbeltown and two at her sister ship, leaving the destroyer to cope with the forty-six remainder. Illustrious came up with the destroyer, lending its own Phalanx gun to the defence, ten minutes later its magazine had expended all but eighteen rounds in destroying the ten missiles that got inside the missile engagement range.