The cessation of the enemy barrage allowed the British infantry to sort themselves out and in the midst of this came the order to carry out local tests and unmasking drills. CAM L1A1, a hand held monitor was the first step in testing for CW agents that may still be present. It would respond to vapour agents as it searched for nerve, blister, blood and choking agents, its micro-processor flashing up the results on its LCD display. However, there was always the chance that not all the machines were working as advertised so human guinea pigs carried out the second stage.
Across the battalion area, pairs of men were chosen to carry out the drills, take off their respirators and breathe the air of the battlefield, it was at times like these that you find out who your friends are.
Moving out from cover and kneeling, facing each other, those who had drawn the short straw or pissed someone off recently began the business of decontaminating clothing and equipment before the unlucky half unmasked.
Fullers Earth in squeeze bottles and impregnated in bang pads were used with vigour before the mask was removed. The guinea pig had closed his eyes first before letting the outside world into the mask, just enough to take one breath before replacing it. His oppo watched closely for any signs of his mate being effected by chemical warfare agents that may still be present, ready to stab him with an Atropine pen which would combat the chemicals effects whilst also inducing mild belladonna poisoning. The drills progressed to the point where the subject was breathing normally the unfiltered night air and the order was passed to unmask everywhere.
East of the river, in the rear areas of the Red Army assault the NATO barrage arrived with devastating force as conventional shells airburst over, or impacted on the gun-lines and other high value targets. IM’s, improved munitions, broke apart to rain dual purpose improved conventional munitions, small bomblets, down on the target areas.
At the Czech Divisional HQ, the commander had been informed that his lead regiment was no longer advancing towards the enemy but had changed course without permission. He listened for himself on that regiments radio net before summoning the Field Police and ordering Colonel Eskiva’s arrest and summary execution.
Phoenix rather than Elint had located the divisional CP, as the headquarters had three ‘antennae farms’ well removed from the CP, should NATO attack the radiating source of the radio traffic. Elint located the antennae farms but it was the small, remote operated aircraft that carried the cameras and heat sensors which located the camouflaged command post. People walk and leave marks on the earth and turf, and they generate heat.
The Royal Artillery rep for 3 (UK) Mechanised Brigade allocated three MLRS, 227mm basic tactical rockets for the target, which arrived just as the Field Police BTR-80, pulled away. Each thirteen foot long rocket dispensed 644 submunitions from its warhead section, seeding the entire area with fragmentation and shaped-charge munitions. Only 81mm x 38mm in size, the dual purpose submunition performs two tasks on detonation, firstly the high explosive packed around the inverted copper cone at the business end detonates, transforming the copper cone into a white hot slug moving at supersonic speed in the direction of the explosive blast. On contact with the armour of the target it burns its way down into the armour plate, melting it as it goes. On the inside of the target a blister forms, red-hot metal contained by a thin skin of rapidly heating steel. The blister is burst by the white hot copper slug it enters the targets interior and the molten steel of the blister scatters throughout the interior, igniting anything flammable, including body fats. Whilst this process is under way, the outer casing of the submunition acts like an anti-personnel grenade’s casing, fragmenting into over seven hundred shards of steel that scythe out to 4m.
Two of these submunitions struck the roof of the armoured personnel carrier on its way to the front to arrest the lead regiments’ commander. The armour plating on the top of the BTR was less than an inch thick, less than a quarter of the thickness that the submunition was capable of penetrating and in less than half a second after impact, the BTR disintegrated.
Following the almost simultaneous detonation of one thousand nine hundred and thirty two submunitions, in an area just the size of three football fields, a strange eerie silence fell upon that area of the forest, broken only by the crackle of flames.
A total of three rounds had been needed to restore the hull-down revetments previous arcs of fire before Major Darcy’s Challenger had been able to enter the fighting position. The tanks secure messaging terminal, Ptarmigan, had gone down during the enemy barrage but they had managed to reboot the system and Darcy could see how his tank squadron fared. Apart from the loss of a troop commanders tank they were all there but two had damaged fire control computers, which needed replacing. One tank had thrown a track enroute to its firing position but the rest of its troop would cover its arcs of responsibility until it made it up to them.
They could only depress their main guns by 10 degrees so they had to start killing enemy vehicles at maximum range for the sabots at 3500m.
The Czech vehicles showed up clearly in the gun sights of the British tanks on the high ground, the heat generated by the tanks, the APCs and air-defence vehicles gave off signatures that identified them by type. Darcy was not entirely sure what the enemy formation was doing, or intended at that moment as they were moving across his front from left to right. They had apparently hit a minefield but he had missed what had gone on before, due to his own tanks slow, cautious move to the firing positions. His laser rangefinder showed the first two enemy company’s, now moving in parallel columns, were both with range and he was preparing to engage them when the Guards CO called him up personally. The CO explained that although his Milan teams and infantry were moving up to occupy positions on the top and forward slopes, his men had taken a beating in the artillery bombardment and he was even more reliant on the tanks main guns. Darcy had not seen a living soul in the move from the rear, let alone anything that resembled a trench. Okay he thought, let’s get to work and called up his troop commanders, instructing them to prioritise antennae tanks and Anti-Aircraft Artillery vehicles, before long the NATO fighter-bombers and choppers would be over the battlefield, they were not to commence firing until his command. His eyes were fixed to the sight and he used the manual commanders over-ride to search for the first target, his job was to provide command and control for the squadron, not have fun but this first kill was going to be his.
“Target… ..… AA vehicle… Gaskin,” a SA-9 missile system mounted on a four-wheel BTR chassis with radar mast and reloads in racks down the vehicles sides. He depressed the rangefinder button with his thumb, glanced at the figures displayed before continuing, “Range, three thousand one hundred, centre of second column… HE.” They already had a HESH round in the breech and the loader immediately called out.
“Loaded!” as he pulled across the safety gate. Standing behind the breach of the 120mm gun as it fired would cause massive crush injuries as the gun recoiled. After loading the required round the loader had to step to the side and close the low gate, if the gate wasn’t closed, the weapon would not fire.
“Firing!” Darcy stated, and the Challenger rocked back as the 120mm gun sent the round streaking eastwards.
The last time Darcy had fired a weapon in anger had been during the Gulf War and he smiled in satisfaction as the Czech AA vehicle exploded violently, its own anti-aircraft missile warheads and solid fuel in the motors made a spectacular firework display. He released the override and instructed the gunner to carry on, and got on with his own job of controlling the fight.