It seemed like a duel of fire-breathing dragons. There were six of these vehicles around the perimeter. They were firing in twoor three-second bursts. Each burst contained a lot of tracer ammunition, and you could see the tracer hurtle over the river in the dark dawn sky. Belov could not make out any sort of target. He walked away from his vehicle to get a better view of the scene. It was fascinating. Then the unseen enemy responded. Two or three huge glares appeared in the sky, about a kilometer over the river. Tracers began coming back in the other direction! Whatever was out there had a big gun.
A tracer from the enemy aircraft impacted against one of the 2S6s near the river's edge. It looked like a fireworks display as the depleted uranium slugs from the 30mm cannon of the attacking American A-10 aircraft slammed into the steel armor of the 2S6.[55]
The contact of steel and uranium at such speeds throws off pebble-sized chunks of metal that glow like sparklers. The single burst smashed the turret, setting off the stored ammunition. The 2S6 began burning, with ammunition cooking off in little staccato bursts.
Two of the enemy aircraft screamed over Huterhof, dropping cluster bombs over the massed column. The bombs blossomed open, spraying the column with hundreds of tiny submunitions, each with the explosive force of a large grenade. The flurry of submunitions began exploding in a wave. It was a frightening sight. The whole area was engulfed in a fury of small explosions. Belov was thankful that his 2S1 vehicles were out of harm's way. And he hoped that his trucks were fer enough back in the column to have escaped the air strike.
The Americans did not escape unharmed. As one A-10 began to bank away over the river, it was hit solidly along the belly and wings by one of the 2S6 antiaircraft vehicles. With flames licking out of its belly, the plane plunged into the Danube. The two A-10s that had dropped the cluster bombs came back over the town in the opposite direction, firing their big cannons the whole time. They raked the remains of the truck column, then turned their attention to the pontoon bridge. In the early morning light,
Belov could see huge splashes of water around the pontoon bridge, but it was hard to tell whether or not it had been hit. The 2S6 antiaircraft vehicles fired three missiles at the departing planes, but the A-l0s had been dropping a steady stream of infrared flares, which seemed to distract the missiles. The two A-l0s escaped over the river, unharmed. Undoubtedly, they would be back.
A major from the bridging unit came up to Captain Gonchar's 1V16 command vehicle and advised him that the unit could begin crossing. He suggested that they wait until it was a little lighter. But after the recent display of NATO air power, Major Yefimov and Captain Gonchar decided to begin moving their equipment right away. The engineers had placed some type of matting on the riverbank. They had blown a hole in a wall along the river and bulldozed a ramp down into the water. The first vehicle to attempt the crossing was the battalion's PRP-3 scout vehicle.[56]
It had a night vision device in the turret and so could see more clearly across the river. The driver let the tank slip slowly into the water. You could see only the roof and turret when it finally settled into the river. The driver had the engine going at full speed, and its diesel was howling.
The PRP-3 had small position lights on the rear, pointing back to the shore. The command vehicles and 2S1s of the 1st Battery went into the water next. Bobbing up and down, they looked like an awkward flotilla of drunken ducks, only a good deal noisier. The vehicles did not have propellers, but relied on the motion of their tracks to push them through the water. The drivers had to really crank up the engines to get enough track speed to keep the vehicles moving forward against the current. The river was about 170 meters across at this point, and it would take three or four minutes to cross.
Belov led his battery into the cold Danube next. The big 1V14 command vehicle rode higher in the water than the 2S1 artillery vehicles. It was not only boxier (and therefore more buoyant), it also was lighter due to the absence of the heavy howitzer the other vehicles carried. The spacing between vehicles was about twenty meters, and the first ones were already climbing ashore on the opposite bank. By the time Belov's vehicle entered the water, the dawn sun had already appeared.
About halfway across the river, Belov noticed to his shock that the 2S1 in front of him seemed to be settling lower in the water. The crew must have realized it as well, because soon Belov noticed three crewmen on the turret roof. The 2S1 was also losing speed. Belov shouted to them to pull the vehicle out of line, but it did little good with all the noise. He called down to his own driver to try to steer around it. Although it is nearly impossible to steer vehicles like these in the water with any precision, the driver managed to move it out of the line of traffic. Belov shouted down to his driver to proceed forward. By now, the water was well over the bow of the sinking vehicle and threatened to swamp it. The driver shut off the engine, and the four crewmen jumped off and began swimming toward the approaching vehicles — a dangerous business since a swimmer could get caught in the tracks. Two of the swimmers managed to grab onto Belov's vehicle, and the other two continued to dog-paddle in the hopes of catching onto the next 2S1.
The crewmen clung for dear life to the grab handles on the side of the vehicle. One of them managed to pull himself up and climb the side of the vehicle, using the grab handles. It was the commander, Sgt. Ivan Dombrovskiy. He crawled on all fours toward the turret where Belov was standing. Dombrovskiy pulled off his dripping wet padded canvas helmet so he could talk to Belov. (Armored vehicle crewmen's helmets are designed to be soundproof due to all the noise in armored vehicles; the crew communicates via headphones connected to the vehicle's intercom.)
Belov had to remove his own padded helmet so he could talk to his waterlogged guest. Dombrovskiy related the story: The vehicle apparently had begun to fill with water almost immediately upon entering the river. At first, he didn't notice it, but soon, water began lapping up into the turret. His guess was that all the firing they had done over the past few days had cracked open a weld in the lower hull, causing a leak. He felt lucky to be alive. Dombrovskiy looked back to see what had happened to his other two men. To his relief, they had been picked up by the 2S1 following behind Belov's vehicle.
The scene near the exit ramp was chaotic. The bank was very muddy from all the rain and traffic. When one 2S1 bogged down in the mud right at the shoreline, the other vehicles began backing up behind it. Amphibious armored vehicles are not agile like boats and cannot easily remain stationary in a river current. So several 2S1s were pushed a bit downstream by the current while waiting their turn to exit. They could not easily get onshore at points below because of the stone and concrete walls. Finally, the engineers towed out the bogged-down vehicle with an armored recovery vehicle. They stayed nearby to help in case other armor bogged down. They did. The whole process of clearing the exit took forty-five minutes — far more than expected.
The battalion lost a second 2S1 from the 3d Battery during the crossing. It flooded out also, probably from hull cracks. Belov was lucky that his battery had crossed intact. He also had an added gun crew from the drowned vehicle. The battalion was on dry land by 0740. The crossing point was about a half kilometer from the main pontoon bridge. Traffic began crossing the bridge in spurts around 0700, but the air strikes were seriously disrupting the operation. Belov could see at least one other pontoon bridge farther down the river near Pfelling. There were at least four more, all providing a steady trickle of equipment over the river.
55
The Fairchild A-10 is a specialized ground-attack aircraft. It carries a large internal 30mm Gatling cannon, which is capable of penetrating the thin armor of light armored vehicles, or the side and rear armor of tanks. It can carry a variety of weapons, including bombs and Maverick guided missiles. The 30mm cannon fires special depleted-uranium projectiles. Uranium is used due to its density and weight.
56
The PRP-3 is an artillery scout version of the BMP infantry vehicle. It has a large two-man turret, similar to that of the BMP-2. Its equipment includes a ground surveillance radar, codenamed Small Fred by NATO, as well as a laser range finder and night vision sight.