A grown man provided the heavy weight in this case, feet first. Whilst they gasped for air the masking tape covered their mouths, arms were pinned and the plasticuffs applied to wrists and elbows. Last of all, masking tape blindfolded them whilst their equipment was cut off and searched for anything of intelligence value.
Colin sent them off back the way they’d come and found a fresh use for the two booby-traps he’d found before joining them.
As they headed back to the FRV with their prisoners, incoming artillery from the east, moaned overhead and impacted a hundred meters short and right of where the fire support had come from, at least someone was still alive in the other OP. The next salvo was in line but only fifty metres short, good shooting by the gunners and good spotting by whoever was calling it in, Colin thought, the next salvo would be ‘on’.
Oz and the fire support group were back at the FRV, safe and sound when the snatch squad arrived. The brief had been for ninety seconds sustained fire; the group had been long gone by the time the enemy artillery worked their old fire position over.
The patrol regained their bergens and moved out on the first homeward leg and Colin kept the speed down. People would know they were around and now was the time to be extra careful, possible pursuit or not. The homeward leg is always the most dangerous, with the danger of the missions objective behind them, soldiers can feel it’s safe to relax, feel it’s safe to relish the prospect of climbing into a sleep-bag, the venerable ‘green maggot’ and going to kip.
Behind them Colin heard the sound of a AFVs engines, five minutes later he heard the double crump of grenades going off.
Back at the mound, a very pissed off Czech sergeant took the identity tags from the neck of one of his dead soldiers, killed when he retrieved the AKMs and equipment that were the only things occupying their officers OP.
The sergeant had switched off the radar when the lieutenant had left the wood. The arrogant little fool, fresh from the academy had refused to listen to a mere NCO as he talked across the sergeant, quoting parrot fashion, what the manual said. Well maybe at the academy their vehicles had fresh, good quality batteries that could run the electrical equipment all night, without having to be recharged by starting the vehicle and running it for half an hour.
These vehicles old batteries could not run the radar and radios for more than three hours’ without a recharge. Once the officer had gone the sergeant switched off everything but the radios, intending to power the radar up just before the man’s return.
Well the radar was on now as he picked up the dismounted troops from their OPs and went hunting their attackers. At the copse the two troopers had been experienced men, they had dug in when they chose the spot and so had kept their heads down when the attack started.
Colin was aware of the engine sound growing stronger and stepped aside, letting the tail catch up to him.
“Looks like it is ‘actions on AFV’, Oz.”
Oz nodded.
“Watch yer sen hinney,” and increased his pace, heading up the column to take command.
Colin separated the two Guardsmen carrying NLAWs and the gun group who had been delegated at the O Group for a tank ambush. They broke track, Colin picking their spot in a ditch. His main concern now was the enemy vehicle commander, would he acquire the patrol on radar and call in artillery fire or close in and use the section of troops and the 30mm turret mounted quick firing cannon and 7.62 machine gun.
The vehicle commander had debated the same point but his blood was up. He knew the troops they faced were the English, he knew that these troops were not much good, they had watched them in their Landrovers, patrolling this side of the river. One of the English had been wearing a beret instead of a helmet, and the picture of the cap badge in their books was for a regiment of part-time soldiers, local militia, third-rate. The fact that the soldier had worn a beret instead of a helmet in a combat zone merely confirmed his opinion of the enemies’ worth.
Colin listened for the vehicle to draw nearer; it had to have picked up the patrol but was coming on anyway. That was a relief for him because it meant he would not have to go out and stalk it, killing it to stop the artillery ranged against the patrol.
Being at Brecon he had fired the weapon far more frequently than anyone in the Battalion had. The government defence budget had capped the number of rounds that could be fired in training to one round, per man, per year.
Colin had both weapons beside him, prepared for firing and waiting for a target.
The Czech APC had the patrol on radar and the sergeant gave his orders, charge through with the section in the rear using the side gun ports and if the stupid arrogant lieutenant got hit, then so be it. The Infra-red bulbs in the headlamps lit the way for the driver who wore goggles that enabled him to see the way ahead. They wanted maximum shock effect so there was not going to be anything scientific in the attack.
Colin watched the thing come on in the weapons Trilux sight, allowing it to close to 100m.
The IR picked out Colin, whose head was just visible above the ground and the driver shouted to the sergeant up in the turret.
Colin was aware of the turrets beginning to turn in his direction but held his sight picture, gently squeezing the trigger and knew the spotter was on even as he did so.
The Czech sergeant saw him and lowered the barrel of the 7.62 machine gun, just as Colin fired the 94mm HESH round.
Impacting above and to the right of the driver’s head, the shaped charge caused the AFVs armour to blister and a jet of white hot metal shot across the interior. It raised the temperature in the vehicle by 300’ and cut through a rifleman’s helmeted head as it crossed the interior to the storage bins of 30mm ammunition.
Colin was reached for the second NLAW but the APCs hatches blew out and the vehicle rolled to a halt, pouring smoke from every seam. At the first sign of movement the gun group opened up with three-second bursts from the gimpy, cutting down the driver as he emerged along with a sergeant. They kept up the rate of fire as Colin crawled forward and lobbed a hand grenade into the vehicles troop compartment.
Oz was conducting a proper search of the prisoners at their Warriors behind 1 Company when Colin turned up with his ambush group.
“You okay, Sir?” they were not alone and the Guards frowned upon ‘familiarity’.
“Yes thank you sergeant, can you get these prisoners over to the RSM please and join us for the debriefing back at our area?”
Oz nodded and pushed the prisoners through the Warriors rear hatch and climbed in after them. The rest of the patrol, less Colin’s four, had already unloaded their weapons under Oz’s supervision and were aboard their vehicles, ready to go. Colin got on with business, they weren’t finished yet and he had a patrol report to write before he saw his green maggot. He looked at his watch; the luminous hands told him it was 0358hrs. Great, he should get all of an hours kip before stand-to if he hurried.
The vast majority of the Chinese people on Mainland China were unaware of any war breaking out until the state-controlled media broke the news. TV, radio and the newspapers shouted defiance and vowed vengeance on America and it's running dog allies, claiming an unprovoked attack on three peaceful PLAN warships. According to their government, the ships had been well inside Chinese territorial waters and the ships had been sunk with all hands. For that reason, their country had declared war, for reason of self-defence, naturally.