This latter force began to mobilize seconds later. But it was too late. The nine Arjun tanks were bypassing the destroyed lines of the PLA armor regiment and entering the rear area occupied by convoys of trucks other light-skinned vehicles. As each tank began firing streams of tracer rounds into the soft skinned vehicles and ammo-filled trucks, the Chinese soldiers abandoned their trucks and began running in all directions.
Some attempted to fire rocket-propelled-grenades at the advancing Arjun tanks, but the latter shrugged off the attacks on its Kanchan composite-armor plating. In turn, they responded by cutting down the offenders with bursts of co-axial machinegun fire.
As Rhino force reached the other side of the valley, they were surrounded by dozens of burning trucks and other vehicles. The Chinese logistical train feeding the ground offensive against DBO had been destroyed.
“Rhino-One to steel-centraclass="underline" objective achieved! Point-victory has been taken. Enemy divisional rear area has been destroyed and the main supply route has been cut!”
The streets could not have been more deserted if god himself had wanted it. The aftermath of a panicked evacuation of Thimpu’s residents was everywhere. The northern outskirts of Thimpu were a ghost town.
Captain Pathanya observed this as his team emerged from the bushes and carefully walked on the muddy roads between the houses. There were bound to be people still here, he reasoned. And sure enough, around the corner of the street, there were residents still trying to get their belongings together from the upper floors of their house as the nine Indian soldiers walked around the corner.
Pathanya’s men had their faces covered with soot and dirt. Three of them limped as they walked from injuries sustained during the battle for Wang-Chu earlier in the morning. Pathanya’s uniform and equipment were still stained with blood from before.
They had delayed as much as they could, but the officers of the Chinese Highland Division were no fools. After initial setbacks they had suffered at Pathanya’s hands, they had figured out the weakness of the Indian positions in Bhutan. They understood that the attacks by the PLAAF on Paru airfield had crippled Indian force-reconstitution capabilities in western Bhutan.
They understood also that there were only a couple of good main-supply-routes into Bhutan from the Indian border. Their drive on Thimpu had the desired effect of sending the local populace in panic and clogged the approaches to Bhutan from the south. To their unexpected pleasure, they had been assisted greatly in the uncontrolled media coverage from Thimpu by the media networks. So they had marshaled their brigade, spread out the forward units to avoid mass casualties from attacks by Fernandez’s rocket-artillery unit near Paru and now were less than a dozen kilometers from the northern outskirts of Thimpu.
Right on my heels!
Pathanya thought as he and his eight men limped back into the Bhutanese capital. He had been ordered by Potgam to pull back to Thimpu where he was trying to bring in reinforcements and hold the city. The Chinese could not be allowed at take the capital of Bhutan, or it would be a stunning victory for them in the eyes of the Bhutanese populace and utter defeat for Indian control over the small Himalayan state. It would also be a propaganda coup second to none.
Potgam and Pathanya both understood this.
The problem was what reinforcements could be brought in? And how?
While Potgam was attempting to figure that larger question, Pathanya had his own problems at the nasty, tactical end of things. He had been ordered to move to the Dechencholing Palace in Thimpu. It was the main operating point for the government of Bhutan right now. He was to figure out the exact civilian situation from the local officials there and ascertain the availability of RBA units to help defend the city.
The disintegration of the RBA during the initial assaults by the Chinese forces in northern Bhutan had not left many units to play with. Most that remained were closer to police and paramilitary units. And even their availability was currently unknown. Many had deserted and left along with their families to the south after the king and his family had been evacuated two days ago. The Bhutanese monarchy was a tight knit group, but remove the one binding thread and the whole group could unwind…
The remaining civilians in the northern outskirts were scrambling at the sight of Pathanya’s men, not knowing whose side they were on. Others recognized them as Indians but also realized from their condition that the Chinese were not far behind.
Pathanya saw housewives grab their kids and run while truck drivers left their vehicles with the engines still revving. Vikram, coming up behind Pathanya had his rifle at shoulder level and aimed at any sudden threat that might appear from the windows in the deserted streets. He brought it up on a reflexive move and pointed it towards a second floor window only to see a man in his mid-thirties close the shutters in anticipation of the upcoming battle. The streets became silent in front of the small group of Indians.
“Damn. What do you think they know that we don’t?” Vikram said as he lowered his rifle away from that window.
“That the Chinese are coming. They couldn’t have missed hearing the ever-increasing gunfire and arty noise we were dropping on the Chinese all the way south from winchester-charlie,” Ravi replied and chimed off.
“Keep the chatter down!” Pathanya ordered. “Vik, bring out your IMFS and set up on top of this house here.”
Pathanya pointed to the same house that Vikram had pointed his rifle to a few moments ago. It was the tallest such house around and had a good line-of-sight to the north from its flat roof. Better yet, the roof had side walls made of concrete unlike other houses around.
“Take two and set up an O-P here,” Pathanya continued. “I want you to be my eyes and ears.”
He turned to Ravi further down the line. The team members had taken positions along the edge of the road and were on their knees covering possible ambush sectors with their rifles. Pathanya pointed two fingers to his eyes and then swept them across the street. The soldiers nodded in turn. He then keyed his comms again:
“Ravi, you and the rest of the boys are with me. I want to advance on the palace and see what’s going on. Vik, I want you and your O-P team to stay here as long as you can. When the position becomes untenable, make your way back to the palace. This is not a strategic position for holding this city, so don’t let yourselves be cornered trying to hold it. I want no heroic last stands for these four plaster walls. Play hell and fall back. We will meet you at the palace. That will be our primary combat position. Understood?”
“Roger that boss!” Vikram replied with a nod.
“Good. Okay, rest of you: let’s pull out. Ravi, take point,” Pathanya ordered and his team went into action.
Vikram pointed to two of the men and the three of them lowered their rifles, removed explosives and a handful of mines they had left from their backpacks and ran across the street to start setting them up. Vikram ran to the entrance door of the house and knocked on it politely. The same middle-aged man he had seen earlier showed up, nervous and sweating to see heavily armed soldiers knocking on his door. He spoke broken Hindi so Vikram pointed out the need for him and his family to vacate the house right then and there.
The man was hesitant but there was no time so Vikram and another soldier from his team pushed the man aside and entered. They found the man’s wife and kids inside, shouting at the intrusion. Vikram grabbed what looked like a bag from the man’s living room and ordered him to put stuff in and get out while there was still time. Finally the man relented and began telling his wife and kids to start moving the essential items into the bags. Pathanya was on the other side of the road during this commotion. As he saw the civilian man and his family rush out of the house with their handful of belongings, he smiled and keyed the comms: