“So where are they now?”
Lieutenant-General Suman asked. The Brigadier in charge of operational intelligence for XXXIII Corps walked over to the large digital map on the wall in the Corps Operations Center and pointed to a place on the map that showed an attached labeclass="underline" ‘Pagri’
“Right here, sir.”
Lieutenant-General Sen, the Corps commander, turned to face Suman:
“The Bhutanese have confirmed for us what DIA and our own Corps Intelligence assets had thought all along. The Chinese 55TH Division’s is now deployed against us. Their 11TH Division is moving south of Gyantse just behind the 55TH.”
“And what happened to their third Division?” Yadav asked.
“That force is no longer heading towards Gyantse. They were expected to reach Gyantse hours ago but according to RAW’s local assets we have had no eyeball contact with any new Division on the road from the Karo-La to Gyantse. They have disappeared,” Sen answered.
“Divisions don’t just disappear. They are up to something,” Yadav observed and put his hands behind his head.
“Indeed! I think they might have gone off the road and headed south,” Suman chimed in.
“Speculation,” Yadav countered.
“So what? We have no clue where the three Brigades of that Division are. I say we speculate and see what comes off it,” Suman retorted.
Yadav grunted and relented.
“Very well. Let’s assume they went south from there. Where does that take them? Bhutan?” Yadav argued.
“Now why on earth would the Chinese take a combat ready Division off their roster for the Chumbi valley and send them towards Bhutan? Surely the RBA is no real threat to them?” Sen argued.
“Can this movement by the Chinese be substantiated?” Yadav asked the Brigadier standing by the digital map.
“Yes sir, we could. But we are not faring our long-range UAVs that far out just yet. The aerial defenses around major nodes such as Gyantse and Lhasa inside Tibet are still guarded by their S-300s,” the Brigadier responded.
“They are trying to suck us into Bhutan all right,” Suman added. “First that incident at the three-lake region this morning and now this direct threat to Bhutanese sovereignty. Beijing is certainly playing a high stakes game here. They seem to be treating Bhutan as fair game in their war against us. They see that as too much of a strategic gain for their ground forces”
“Agreed.” Yadav said. “Call up Potgam at Haa Dzong in Bhutan and tell him to get his act together. Tell him that we are looking at getting authorization from the King of Bhutan to put the Royal Bhutanese Army under his command. In the meantime warn him that there looks like at least one Chinese Highland Division possibly preparing to enter Bhutan from Tibet. Ask them to submit a preliminary appreciation of the local situation immediately along with his readiness, TO&E and mobility requirements. I will pass the word to the Defense-Minister. He needs to make sure that the Bhutanese Government knows the threat of invasion on their northern border!”
“Yes sir,” Suman said from where he sat.
“What about the two Chinese Divisions entering the Chumbi valley?” Sen asked.
“I think they have reached far enough south. Time for us to stop them in their tracks. It’s time we initiated Operation Chimera.”
“What is this?” Chakri asked as he took the sheet of paper from the Navy Lieutenant-Commander right as the Admiral walked into his office.
“It’s a warning issued by the US Navy about Chinese submarines leaving port. AVM Malhotra at the Aerospace Command confirmed it with overhead intel. Two of our Il-38 patrol aircraft launched from the Nicobar Islands a few minutes ago,” the Admiral noted as Chakri continued to read the report in his hands. A few seconds later he looked up:
“So we will know more in a few hours?”
“Yes sir. In the meantime I have put the Eastern Fleet on high alert. Almost all commercial shipping has been diverted away from the Malacca strait for days now so the threat to them is low. At any rate, I intend to keep the Bay of Bengal clean and the Malacca straits closed.”
DAY 5
The IMFS view flared out as a line of artillery explosions overwhelmed the optical scope’s ability to clean up the image…
Brigadier Adesara lowered the device and looked down at his feet as the thunder rumbled through. To the east the Chinese lines disappeared in dust clouds raised by the falling shells. As jet noises saturated the air, he instinctively looked up. He couldn’t see anything in the night sky, but he thought he saw the outlines of three Jaguar aircraft. A thunderclap erupted behind the Chinese lines and an inverted cone of dust went upwards…
The attacks were being coordinated by Adesara’s forward-air-controllers using tactical UAVs. It was as high-tech a war as Adesara could arrange, but in the end it came down to his soldiers clasping full magazines into their rifles and his tankers closing the hatches on their armored vehicles. He brought up the IMFS again and looked south to see lines of BMP-II and other special vehicles moving out with a rumble of their diesel engines.
Adesara was committing all he could spare from the forces in the sector into the attack. There were no reserves left behind worth speaking of. That made this plan risky to say the least. And both Adesara and Colonel Sudarshan knew this.
But if you have to play, you better play to win!
Wing-Commander Dutt could not have agreed more. He checked his sidearm and patted his flight-suit pockets to ensure he had some extra clips for it. He stood aside his parked LCH as they approached the time for launch…
His helicopter was outfitted with eight Nag anti-tank guided-missiles, four on each side in a 2x2 pod load-out. That was about all that could be carried at the moment given the very high altitudes they were on.
Oh yeah, there is also the gun rounds…
Dutt corrected himself and looked over to see the second LCH parked a little further away. He checked his watch again:
Two minutes to go.
He waved to his WSO and started climbing into the cockpit. His crew-chief walked up to the side glass panel of the cockpit and helped both crew members strap in. A few moments later the turbines on both helicopters were spooling up and the main rotor slowly gathering RPM. The Saser valley filled with the whine of the rotating turbo-machinery. Dutt activated the helmet-optics that instantly turned the murky dark environment near Saser into a brightly lit green-white-black terrain. His WSO was already looking left and right to verify chin gun turret slaving to his helmet. The crew-chief standing outside confirmed gun slaving and closed the cockpit side-glass panels before locking them in place.
Both helicopters were on full power now as they waited for the Smerch battery to the west across the road to cease fire and clear the airspace of rockets. The FARP should not have been that close to their deployment locations, but terrain negated any other choice. Flat open spaces were a luxury in short supply…
When the Smerch battery rocket-launchers fired off their salvo and were being approached by their replenishment vehicles, the two LCH pilots maxed out on the throttles to initiate dust-off and pulled off the gravel of Saser with a groan. Dutt’s heart was in his mouth as the engines groaned under the weight of the helicopter and the thin mountain air. But a few seconds later they were climbing away, much to the cheer of the HAL volunteers on the ground below. As they built up forward velocity, Dutt throttled down. Soon they had disappeared from view at Saser and entered the Daulat-beg-oldi sector…