There began a deadly game of hide and seek. The Russians, lacking night vision devices, waited until an American infantryman fired. When he fired his first few shots, the Russian would orient his weapon to the general location that he had seen the muzzle flash. If the American did not move before he fired again, the Russian would take final aim and fire a burst. Doing this, however, exposed the Russians to the same risks and results. So the infantry battle bogged down into a fire fight with sporadic and violent exchanges of gunfire followed by brief pauses as both sides tried to fix new targets, followed again by a new exchange of gunfire as someone found a mark and fired.
Just as the infantry fight reached this standoff, a volley of Soviet artillery hit the trail junction in the center of the wood lot. Obviously, they wanted to isolate each element of the Team to keep it from shifting forces to reinforce an endangered sector. In this manner, if one of Team Yankee's elements beat back one of the three attacks, Bannon would not be able to use the people thus freed to help defend against one of the other two Soviet attacks. The Soviet battalion commander who had come up with this plan was good. He knew his business and was playing all of his pieces well.
As if the impacting artillery was a signal, the infantry advancing on 55 and 31 began to pick up their pace to a trot. As they were not masked, Bannon ordered the crews of 55 and 31 to unmask and prepare to fire when the T-72s were at 700 meters. He issued the fire command and watched as the gunner laid on the T-72. It was becoming quite large, taking up most of the sight. Hitting it would not be the problem. Killing it was his concern. The gunner hit his laser range finder button with his thumb. The range return digits in the bottom of Bannon's extension showed 750 meters. They sat and watched the tank advance. It rumbled along, straining to hold back behind the line of infantry. The gunner ranged again. 720 meters. Almost there. The tank continued to advance. A large inanimate object whose sole purpose was to kill Americans. Team Yankee. Bannon. The gunner ranged again. 690 meters! "FIRE!"
"ON THE WAAY!"
The flash, the recoil, and the blast broke the silence. Target! But the Russian kept coming, turning his gun toward 55. "TARGET! REENGAGE-FIRE!"
"UP! "
"ON THE WAY!"
Again the flash, the recoil, and the blast announced the firing of a main gun round. Again 55 hit the T-72. Still it kept coming. Not only coming, but returning fire. The 55 shuddered in almost the same instant that the T-72 fired.
The loader looked and yelled, "WHAT'S THAT?"
"NEVER MIND." 55 had been hit. "ARE YOU UP?"
"UPS"
"FIRE!"
"ON THE WAY!"
The 55's efforts were finally rewarded. The third round found its mark. The tank commander's hatch on the T-72 was blown open. A fireball rose above the battlefield and was followed by a sheet of flame. The T-72 was dead. The range showing at the bottom of extension was 610 meters. Bannon stuck his head out of the hatch to see what 31 was up to. Its T-72 was also burning. Steady streams of tracers from 31's COAX, loader's machine gun, and caliber .50 were raking the line of Soviet infantry. Already most of them had gone to ground, either dead or trying to keep from becoming that way. Two of the BTRs were starting to fire at 31. Bannon decided to take them out first. Grabbing the override, he slued the turret to the left.
"GUNNER-HEAT-TWO BTRS-LEFT BTR!"
"UPS"
"IDENTIFIED! "
"FIRE!"
The first HEAT round found its mark just below the small turret on the BTR. The impact and the internal explosions caused the BTR to swerve to the left and out of the battle. Both the gunner and Bannon yelled target at the same instant. Without waiting, the gunner laid his sights on the next BTR and yelled "IDENTIFIED!" Once the loader gave an up, Bannon gave the command to fire, and another BTR was dispatched.
Garger surveyed the scene before him. This was becoming all too easy. Both 55 and 31 sat there as if they were on a gunnery range firing at cardboard and plywood targets instead of real people and vehicles.
All three of his machine guns were firing, each one covering a different area. The flames from the burning T-72 provided more than enough light for him and his gunner to fire without the use of night vision devices. A move on the part of the Russians was rewarded by a hail of machine-gun fire. When he couldn't see any movement, he fired at the forms he saw lying on the ground. No doubt he was hacking away at men who Nwere already dead.
When he became bored with that, he personally turned the caliber .50 on a BTR. It was something new and would be challenging. At Knox he had been taught that a caliber .50 could take out a BTR. Here was the perfect opportunity to learn if that was true.
As Bannon was preparing to engage his next target, he noticed that 31 was engaging a BTR with the caliber .50. The rounds were hitting but causing little damage. As a way of reminding Garger to get back to concentrating on pinning the infantry, he turned 55's main gun on the BTR that the lieutenant was trying to destroy with his fifty. One HEAT round was all it took.
Newman informed Bannon that 55 was out of HEAT and down to nine SABOT rounds. As he didn't want to waste those on BTRs, he ordered the loader to load a SABOT round but not to arm the gun. Then he ordered 31 to switch roles with 55. Garger was to work on the last of the BTRs, and 55 would pin the infantry. Garger's reply betrayed his joy. As 31 had, 55 divided its fire into sectors. The gunner engaged the troops to the front and right. The loader manned his machine gun and fired at the troops to the left. When his crew began to fire, Bannon called Uleski and Polgar for an update.
The infantry was still engaged in a standoff fire fight; Just as a Russian officer or NCO would get some of their troops moving, a volley of fire from the infantry would drive them to ground.
The Russian leaders would have to start all over again. Polgar decided to break the deadlock. He sent his Dragon gunner on a wide sweep around the flank to destroy the two Russian tanks. Two other men, each carrying an extra Dragon round, also went to provide cover to the gunner. One of them was Kelp, who volunteered when he heard Polgar giving the order to the Dragon gunner.
The three-man team dropped back a short distance while the rest of the infantry line increased their fire to cover the move. The Dragon gunner, a specialist 4 named Sanders, led the other two as they circled around the fire fight, using the sound and the gun flashes to guide on. When the lead Soviet tank fired, Sanders would reorient himself on his objective and continue. They were going to go for the second tank first because it was still fully capable and therefore more dangerous. The crippled tank could be dispatched at their leisure.
They closed in on the second tank from behind. It was apparently wedged in between some trees and unable to move forward or backwards. Sanders watched for a moment and then moved to a spot where the trees and branches would not interfere with his wireguided missile. He carefully set up his weapon as if he was on a shooting range. When he had the thermal tracker sighted in on the rear of the Soviet-tank, he let the missile fly. The missile was launched with a flash and whoosh followed by the igniting of the Dragon's rocket and the pop-pop-pop of the small guidance jets. The impact lit up the surrounding area and immediately ignited fires in the tank's engine compartment. One Soviet tank was down with another to go.
As he was maneuvering against the crippled tank, a lone figure stood up in front of Sanders at a distance of five meters and fired his AK into his chest. Kelp leveled his submachine gun and in turn cut down the lone figure. Both Kelp and the other infantryman, a private as young as Kelp by the name of McCauley, stood there frozen as they waited to see if any other Russians would pop up. Once they were satisfied that the Russian had been alone, the two knelt beside Sanders' body.