As Dixon watched and assessed the situation, from C Company, then B Company, came the report that the Libyan tank battalion had been destroyed. Dixon considered moving both of those companies forward to join the fight but decided not to. The Libyan mechanized battalion had only a few minutes left. The only thing Dixon did do was to order the B Company commander to reposition the rest of his company to join in the engagement of the mechanized battalion. That order, however, was really unnecessary. Looking to his right, Dixon could see B Company tanks moving and swinging to the right, pivoting on A Company. Though that maneuver would mask C Company, Dixon did not stop it. He could now use C Company as his reserve force, maneuvering it as soon as the third Libyan battalion was identified.
Reminding himself that the fight wasn't over, Dixon contacted Grissins at the task force TOC, instructing him to get with the task force intel officer and the air scouts to find out where the third battalion was. No sooner had Grissins acknowledged Dixon's message than the task force forward air controller provided the answer. An Air Force captain who was the forward air controller followed the task force commander in an M-113 armored personnel carrier equipped with special radios, or FAC. Coming up on the net, he reported that two flights of A-16 ground attack aircraft had bounced the third battalion, a tank battalion, accompanied by an artillery battalion, before they had deployed. What was left of those two battalions was last seen by the A-16 pilots headed back north.
For a moment Dixon thought about pursuing the Libyans. He quickly dismissed that option, however. He had been ordered only to find and block the Libyan brigade. With two battalions wiped out and the third decimated and in retreat, the Libyan brigade posed no threat to the 3rd U.S. Brigade. Besides, if he pursued, Dixon would be moving into the sector belonging to the Egyptian 10th Mechanized Infantry Division. Since they weren't expecting him and he had no way of contacting them, such a move could lead to a fire fight with friendly forces.
Instead, he waited until all firing stopped. When all the companies reported that there was nothing left to engage, Dixon issued a new set of frag orders. The scout platoon was to screen to the north, watching in case the third battalion had a change of heart or more Libyan forces came down from the north. D Company was ordered to make a quick sweep of the battlefield, ensuring that there were no live tanks or BMPs mixed in with the dead ones. The other companies were ordered to stand fast where they were, reconsolidate, evacuate the wounded, and recover damaged vehicles.
The battle was over. The grim task of caring for the wounded and counting the dead now began.
Word that the 3rd Armored Brigade had made contact with the 2nd Brigade's airhead south of Cerro's position was greeted with mixed emotions. The young soldiers who had never seen combat were disappointed. First Lieutenant Prentice, noting that they had not had any contact all day, was bitter. "What was the point," he lamented, "in expending all this effort if we don't get to kill anything?" Cerro thought about talking to him about his attitude but decided not to. Later, when they were well rested, he would point out the grim realities of life, trying to impress upon Prentice that an operation such as this one, which achieved its goal without a major fight, was a double success: the enemy had been beaten with a maneuver, not a blood bath.
Neither officer, however, appreciated the fact that the link-up of the two American brigades did not mean the battle was over. Less than an hour before, the Egyptian commander, sensing that the Libyan attacks had run their course, ordered the 3rd Armored and the 10th Mechanized to commence the counteroffensive. Forty miles to the east, in the gathering darkness, a massive artillery barrage announced the beginning of that attack.
The Libyan forces were finished. After a day of attacking, they had been unable to penetrate the Egyptian line at Sidi Abd el Rahman. The air assault at Ras el Kenayis had severed their main line of communications with Libya and consumed their last reserve brigade at Fuka. With American forces operating at will on their exposed southern flank, pounding from the air and the sea without letup, the Libyans' collapse was inevitable and swift. Exhaustion, coupled with irregular rations, little water, and a loss of confidence, added to the general panic that ran through the ranks. Singly or in small groups, the Libyans abandoned their equipment and began to stream back to the west. Efforts by their officers — those who weren't fleeing themselves — to stem the westward tide were futile. The preparatory bombardment only served to hasten the slow and convince the few who had remained loyal up to that point to flee.
Leading the advance of the Republican Brigade from the vanguard, Colonel Hafez found the fleeing Libyans and the scores of vehicles they abandoned a great hindrance. At first his units engaged every Libyan they saw on sight. Soon, however, they discovered that doing so only slowed them down and wasted ammunition. Many of the Libyans tried to surrender. Hafez, however, didn't have the time for delays or surrender. His orders were to move fast, by passing resistance when and where necessary.
He therefore ordered his commanders to ignore any group of Libyans that offered no resistance and didn't appear to be a threat. He reminded them that their objective was not an impressive body count but the relief of the 1st Army. Ammunition was not to be squandered on defeated Libyans. It would be needed later, he told them, when they came into contact with the Russians sitting at Halfaya Pass and Solium.
Chapter 21
Policy is the intelligent faculty, war is only the instrument, not the reverse. The subordination of the military view to the political is, therefore, the only thing possible.
Jan's mood was as dark and as cold as the Icelandic night. Even in the warm and friendly hotel an oppressive pall hung over her, tainting her conversation and clouding her face with a permanent frown. During dinner, in a room better than half-full with correspondents and other members of news teams, the only sounds she heard were the voices in her head telling her that she didn't belong there. Jan's move to the bar after dinner did nothing to shake her gloom or drive her thoughts for long from the one person she wanted so badly to be with, to touch, to hold. The idea that she might never see Scott Dixon again hadn't struck home until she was out of Egypt. Rather than providing an escape, her departure from Cairo only served to drive home to her, and everyone who knew her, how much she was in love.
As she sipped a screwdriver, Jan gave little thought to the short and almost secretive meeting between the American President and the Soviet premier. Though there had been no accord or agreement announced, the feeling was that some type of political solution was in the making. The two world leaders had left, trailing in their wakes rumors and hopes. All official statements and news reports that night were tempered with a cautionary note that much work remained to be done behind closed doors before the world would know if it was to be peace or war.
From the lobby, a tall blond man in his mid-forties entered the bar and looked around. A correspondent for the French National News Agency, he and Jan had once had an affair while she was assigned to WNN's Paris news bureau. Seeing Jan, he walked over and took a seat opposite her. Jan looked up. "I ordered you a scotch on the rocks," she said, indicating a drink on the table.
The man took the drink and downed it clean in one gulp. For a moment he held the glass and stared at it. "You should have ordered me a double." There was only a hint of a French accent in his voice.