1 Company’s stores had two locations, the main stores were well to the rear but a good stock of ammunition and munitions was in a bunker dug into a reverse slope two hundred metres from the company CP and covered with pine trunks before the earth was piled back on. Arnie headed for the hillside stores first and met the padre as he made his way through the trees; the padre was still doing the rounds, moving from trench to trench. The sound of battle nearby had instilled in some a renewed interest in things godly. The American paratrooper was moving downhill, whilst the British padre was heading up, having visited the Hussars in their hide positions and was now intent on speaking to the men in the forward positions. Arnie paused, stepping to one side and extending a helping hand to assist him over a particularly steep and muddy patch.
“Thank you, sarn’t major.” The padre was flushed and breathing heavily.
“When I left the infantry behind I left the concept of ‘infantry-fit’ behind too…I’m regretting that now.”
Arnie grinned at the man. Sure, he could be a bore and a pain in the ass with his bible punching, singling an individual out for some one- to-one attention, and usually when you had just come off duty, but he was sincere and meant well or he’d be in a shelter bay already and not still wandering around above ground offering spiritual support. Arnie was thinking of something to say in reply, but both men heard the sound of an express train approaching from the east. The paratrooper was beaten to a handy dip in the ground by the padre, and both men pressed their faces into the mud as the sound got louder.
“For what we are about to receive may the lord make us truly thankful!” said the padre with irony.
Taken slightly aback, Arnie chuckled
“Amen.” and then the ground heaved.
The rounds had landed upon the hills top, shattering the trunks of trees and cleaving deep craters in the earth, but otherwise doing no harm.
The padre raised his head to listen; canting it to one side for a few seconds, if the belt had been to ‘fire for effect’ then more rounds would be following them in now.
“Ranging rounds, so they must be doing better than expected against the marines, sarn’t major, and now they are thinking about us.” He climbed to his feet.
“I’m thinking the Reds will be here in an hour or so, and that means they’ll be stonking this hill in earnest a lot sooner than that!”
It was an ironic scene, the Man of God telling the professional soldier what was happening in the battle.
The Padre’s first taste of incoming artillery had been as a buckshee Guardsman during the Falklands War back in 1982, but it hadn’t been his last by a long shot. Arnie Moore, on the other hand, had seen his own share of conflict but until Magdeburg he had not been on the receiving end of medium and heavy guns, which made the padre the resident expert. Looking at his watch the RSM was troubled. It had been just a little over two hours since the Soviet’s had hit the protective mine field to the front of the marine’s positions, and 40 Commando’s CO had been confident on holding for up to twelve hours, six at the very least. The Royal Marine’s weren’t some pussy, amateur outfit, he had served alongside them in Afghanistan and Iraq, and if they were about to be overrun, or pushed off the position early it wasn’t due to bad soldiering or a lack of guts.
He cast a quick glance downhill towards Oz’s stores before turning and following the padre back uphill. Social calls would have to wait.
The stretcher bearing party had passed through the Battery from 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery, uphill into the trees and out of view from the hide who’s occupants could hear the sound of combat from over the rise the farm buildings had occupied, in the dead ground beyond. In the last forty minutes the sound of small arms had increased, and shortly after that the sound of main tank guns could be discerned. The Royal Marines, unlike the USMC, have no armour of their own. Two Troops of Scimitar light tanks on attachment from the Blue’s & Royals were the nearest thing they had, the Scimitars 30mm Rarden cannon was ineffective against medium or heavy armour but it could defeat APCs.
The marines had twice the number of Milan’s that an infantry battalion carried and they constituted the units principle tank killer, reaching out 2000m at their extreme range. The 94mm LAW is meant to take over from the Milan when the targets reach 400m, which is the Milan’s minimum engagement range; however the troops had found that opening fire with the LAW at anything above 150m was a waste of ammunition if the target was moving.
The artillery had ensured that the Milan teams had their work cut out, they fired a high percentage of shells fused for airburst and whereas these had no effect on troops in shelter bays with decent top cover, they were designed for use against troops in firing bays. Had the Milan teams had a free hand then they could in theory have destroyed eighty enemy AFVs between the minefield and the Milan’s own minimum engagement range, but only twenty three of the lead assault battalions vehicles were stopped by the guided weapons.
Channelling the enemy into the prepared killing zone had met with only limited success. Engineer vehicles had bridged the vehicle ditch in several places, allowing the mine ploughs to clear paths through the narrowest parts of the minefield. Rather than having a target rich environment of fighting vehicles sat stationary behind mine ploughs destroyed by Milan, those anti-tank teams that were not being kept in the bottom of their holes by constant airbursts had found ranks of mine ploughs confronting them. In the 12.5 seconds it took the weapons to reach maximum range the Soviet artillery spotters were targeting the launch site and a hundred square metres of real estate around the firing points for some serious attention in case the missile launcher had been remote sited. They had the quantity of weapons to achieve their aim, and consequently fewer than a dozen mine ploughs and combat engineer vehicles were destroyed. Too often the anti-tank gunners had fired and were guiding the missile home when they were hit by shrapnel or just forced to take cover, even.
The LAW gunners weren’t troubled by the Soviet artillery in the same way that the Milan crews had been, because as someone had once said, ‘It’s considered bad form to shell your own troops’. The AFVs were too close to the marine’s positions and so the gunners switched from H.E to smoke. The LAW isn’t equipped with thermal sights and that fact, coupled with the burning particles of white phosphorus that produced the smoke, reduced the ability of the lightweight weapons gunners to engage.
The loss of 40 Commando’s command post so early on had robbed the unit of its practiced and experienced, dedicated artillery and close air support systems before the Soviet’s had finished softening up their intended victim. The Commando units forward air controller, artillery rep and their staff’s, died when a single and frighteningly accurate salvo of heavy artillery scored a direct hit on the CP. Bravo Company’s commander assumed control but he had neither the staff nor the radios to take over the role of the CO and fulfil the duties the former CP had achieved so well. He delegated the passing of artillery requests to Alpha Company CP, and Charlie Company the air support liaison role, but Alpha and Charlie were over two kilometres apart and liaison between the two became disjointed.
To the front of Bravo Company an entirely natural feature was causing the enemy fighting vehicles coming their way to bunch up. A section of stream with particularly high banks on one side, and a dense stand of Sycamore trees on the other were spoiling the combat spacing between vehicles as they were forced to close up in order to get past.