Their own position received relatively little attention in that first opening barrage, which is more than could be said for the forward slopes, the known and the suspected targets, identified by physical reconnaissance and Elint, electronic Intel in the form of radio direction finding.
The Soviets have long been lovers of rocket artillery from multiple launch tubes, for similar reasons that the Luftwaffe placed sirens on the bottoms of Junkers, Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers. The banshee shrieks of their imminent arrival tears at the nerves and induces panic. Although not terribly accurate, the warheads pack a punch, as the battalion was to discover. Bm-21 ‘Grads’ scattered their 40x122mm rockets from the backs of lorries, as they followed behind the advance. Further back, Bm-27 ‘Urgan’s’ 220mm loads joined the more modern 9A52-2 ‘Smerch’s’ 300mm rockets, in giving the rear areas their indiscriminate attention.
The trench was dug for two men and not three, Colin bundled the lawful occupants into the covered shelter bay whilst he crouched in the firing bay and waited for the initial barrage of the rear to lighten. He left the trench and crawled back to his own, midway he noticed the detector paper on his left sleeve turn yellow. Chemical attacks come in various forms, ‘blood agents’ will turn your blood to quick drying cement, and ‘nerve agents’ will attack your nervous system, while you are busy thrashing on the ground, your lungs fill with fluid and effectively you drown. Choking agents are heavier than air gases, very effective against entrenched positions, whilst everyone is sheltering from the barrage below ground, the gases flow, seeking the lowest point, pouring unseen into trenches and displacing the breathable air. In short, you either choke to death or get above ground and above the rising level of gas… into the shrapnel filled environment you originally dug the trench to escape.
Colin got back to his own trench where he could see Oz’s eyes behind the respirator screw up in a smile, glad to see his old mate back safe and sound. Colin crawled into the shelter bay where he used a field telephone to send a ‘Chemrep’ to the battalion CP, informing them that chemical weapons were in use.
The QRF were dug in under the trees, making use of their natural cover. To the left was a wide clearing on a gentle slope and to the right, the woods ran down hill to the Muhlsdorf/Liebethal road beside the river.
Colin had finished his report when they came under rather more attention by tube as well as rocket bombardment for a full twenty minutes, which is not long considering a two hour bombardment is considered a light working over according to the Red Army manuals.
As suddenly as it started it finished, and Colin stuck his head over the parapet, giving Oz the thumbs up and they left the trench, separating to check on their boys. In the first two trenches the Guardsmen were okay but shaken, the third trench revealed a lance corporal trying to rouse his mate who was blocking the way out of the shelter bay. Colin helped him pull the still form clear and a quick examination showed a very slightly bloody rent in the man’s NBC suit where a piece of shrapnel from an airburst had found the limb nearest the shelter bay entrance. The wound hadn’t been enough to kill him, it would have been fixed with half a dozen stitches and antibiotics, it was however enough for a chemical blood agent to enter the suit. The blood in the wound was already congealed hard, as it would also be through the arteries to the man’s heart.
Together they pulled him to the far end of the firing bay where Oz joined them, running awkwardly in the rubberised, protective over boot’s. Whatever Oz was about to say was lost in the roar of helicopters. Large, dark shape’s that skimmed the trees, their downdrafts whipped through the branches, causing mini cyclones of whirling leaves, pine needles and the like. Colin craned his neck to identify them.
“Oh, shit… ” He broke radio silence, reporting the presence of enemy troop carrying helicopters landing in the clearing to his left.
Two Ka-50 Hokum’s rode shotgun whilst four Mi-8 Hips began to land, troops poured forth, thirty-two from each ran outwards to form a perimeter. Unlike the British troops NBC equipment, these troops wore black and brown protective suits, the fabric of the Russian suits had been rubberised, for a tougher garment, but it retained heat even more than NATO suits.
Some of the Guardsmen were slow to react but soon caught on, fire was put down on the deploying Russian paratroops and a Rarden cannon from a dug-in Warrior APC scored on the furthest helicopter. It was ten feet off the ground, the last to land and still to disgorge its load, black smoke poured from the cargo bay and rents in the engine section. Its fixed undercarriage collapsed as it dropped the remaining distance to terra firma. The next three rounds from the warrior sheared away the tail section and with no negative torque to counter the still spinning main blades, it canted over, digging rotors into the earth that shattered and spun away in lethal shards. The lead helicopter was a mere 150m away but the SA-80s, LSW and even the gimpy’s were failing to penetrate the cockpit. Both pilots sat in plain view of the Guards position, safe behind armoured glass and plate.
The defensive fire had drawn the attention of the paratroops and the Hokums, which hammered 23mm cannon fire into the trees. The Royal Artillery came to the rescue in the form of a Stormer air-defence vehicle; its sensors scanning the 8-14 micron infra-red waveband had tracked the inbounds and had already knocked two troop carriers and an attack helicopter down. It had lost the signatures of the troop carriers as they landed, but the previously fast moving Hokum’s were now locked up and two Starstreak high velocity missiles were fired. The relatively slow moving targets, concentrating on the treeline, exploded in mid-air, one scattered wreckage and burning fuel on paratroopers on the ground, whilst the furthest machine set alight to trees at the north edge of the wood, 600m from Colin.
The forms of enemy soldiers were everywhere in the clearing and Colin dragged the dead Guardsman’s gimpy from the shelter bay, set the bipod legs on the trench parapet and got to work. Oz was lying behind the trench firing and the L/Cpl in the firing bay pulled a box of belted from beneath his dead mate, linking its end to the one already on the weapon. Colin worked rapidly, firing two and three round bursts into anything that moved or looked threatening. Return fire cracked past and overhead as high velocity rounds broke the sound barrier, finding one target as they did so, blood fountained, and a boot kicked Colin hard in the calf, as his young NCO spasmed in the bottom of the trench. He was aware of Oz dropping down next to him, taking over the No.2s role from the now dead L/Cpl. The noise was incredible, but Colin was happier when it increased. The section commanders had gathered the soldiers from trenches too far from the clearing to engage, and led them to where they could.
Despite the protection afforded by the armour plate and armoured glass, the Russian pilots of the lead Mi-8 were shouting at their paratrooper load to get the hell out of the aircraft with a tinge of hysteria in their tones. Ball and tracer rounds were still pebble-dashing the cockpit exterior as they pulled back on the collective and lifted out of the clearing.
The departure of the surviving Mi-8s signalled a hasty attack by the Russians in the clearing. The term ‘hasty’ does not mean ill prepared or even ill advised, it merely indicates the dispensing with, of prepared briefing’s and a formal plan due to the circumstances. The troops in the clearing had found themselves in a distinctly ‘hot’ LZ. The defenders had the initiative and the attackers now sought to take it from them. The paratroops skirmished forward, with half giving covering fire whilst the other half moved. A smoke grenade was thrown toward the trenches in an attempt to deprive the defenders of targets, but the wind blew it back in the paratroopers faces, more of a hindrance than a help.