The guys ate chow. It was about nine AM before there was much movement. More vehicles came out. Some started to head up the Ahwaz highway and then turned and headed for the end of the base, the end with most of the ammo bunkers on it.
I let 'em come for a while. They were probably going to replicate the suicide bomb truck trick. Okay, got something for that, now.
When they got to about two klicks, two kilometers, I told the Mk-19s to open up. Mark-19s were originally developed for the Navy but the Army fucking loves them. 40mm grenade launchers, they pack a hell of a punch and just keep on firing.
Bud-a-bud-a-bud-a-bud-a-bud.
Three Mk-19s opened up from bunkers. Two klicks is a long range for the Mk-19. Max effective range is 1600 meters. Max range is only 2200.
The point wasn't to kill them. The point was to throw off their aim.
Fuckers kept coming. Don't know if it was a suicide run or what.
So they got down to the range that they could be engaged effectively and started getting hit.
Three "military grade trucks," Mercedes ten-tons, probably loaded with ammonium nitrate and all the rest that makes AMFO, and four pickup trucks loaded with guys with light weapons. The pickups were keeping wide of the big trucks, which gave me a clue they were bomb trucks.
The Mk-19 is a pretty effective "anti-material" weapon. It's even better when it hits a big assed bomb.
The term is "secondary explosion." One of the Mercedes just fucking disintegrated. I mean the fireball was probably a hundred yards across and made a mushroom cloud. Very big explosion. Another one rolled over. The third continued on. For a while. Until a couple of rounds hit the engine. Then it rolled to a stop smoking. The driver got out and ran for it.
Not far. By then the group was in range of all the bunkers on the berm. And both the Mk-19s and the .50s were lighting them up. They wiped them out.
Here's military law. Don't ever imagine I wasn't skirting some issues. Use of "local" personnel for "aid and comfort" was against so many regulations I don't want to start. But we're talking about military law.
In a combat situation a military unit must give the other side a chance to surrender. Under certain conditions.
1. The enemy clearly signals a desire to surrender or is hors de combat.
2. Taking the enemy prisoner will not endanger the receiving group.
That's right. During most of the War on Terror we'd been accepting surrenders that, under the laws of war, we did not have to. A side that uses "irregulars" has three days to give them all some identifying mark saying "this is our side." If they don't, they are known as "illegal combatants" and have exactly no rights under the Geneva Convention or any other law of war. They are legally the equivalent of spies with guns and the Convention is clear that you can shoot spies. They're given a swift and not particularly just trial, guilty unless proven innocent, and after six months you can justly and legally shoot them.
That'd clear out Guantanamo.
Okay, so we're the good guys. We cut the bad guys some slack. I get that.
You think I'm going to take prisoners when I've got one company of troops cut off so far behind enemy lines you can't see the good guys with a fucking satellite?
Not hardly.
My orders had been simple. "No quarter. We can't afford it."
The boys had no qualms with that. They knew what a cleft stick we were in.
So there was a blown-up truck, another rolled over and a bunch more shot to shit.
Round One: Bandit.
At the same time there'd been some movement from town. More vehicles. Including the two tanks. They were followed by a whole bunch of people. More people than I thought were living in Abadan at that time.
We didn't have a way for me to automatically use any of the sights we'd set up. I had somebody hand zoom on one.
The vehicles had stopped. The people were herded out. And I do mean herded.
The front rank was women and kids. Mostly. There were some old farts.
I don't know how they'd been chosen. Never did bother to find out.
Bottomline: The fucker was using us being the "good guys" against us. Behind the women and kids were more soldiers than I'd thought could be in Abadan. That was when I knew I wasn't holding the base. It's also when I figured there was no way I was going to lose.
They were headed for the same part of the base as the trucks; the part with all the goodies. That was fine by me.
Fillup started getting queries when they got close enough most of the bunkers could see what the group was made up of. They'd put the vehicles, "technicals" and the tanks and one APC that was a surprise, in behind the women and kids. But most of the "soldiers" were interspersed. There was no way we were going to be able to take them out without killing the noncombatants.
Again, there's a military law that covers this. I could have lit them up. My boys would have done it if ordered. I'd have been covered, technically. My name would have been mud, I wouldn't have liked myself much and I don't want to think what it would have done to my All American boys. The Nepos would have just been professionally chagrined.
Thing was, I figured I didn't have to. Oh, to hold the base and all the gear I would. But I'd kissed that goodbye the moment I saw how many soldiers we were up against.
"Make sure we get fucking video" was all I said.
The whole group shuffled forward. They weren't moving fast. A few fell out, heat stroke, exhaustion, whatever. Some more were shot "pour encourage l'autre." We just let them shuffle.
Six miles from their main point of departure to the fences. Gave me time to get a good look at what I was up against. Couple of 20mm anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks. More with machine guns. Couple without any weapons. The two tanks. One APC with a 30mm gun. About six thousand infantry. That had required some logistics, that.
The plan was, apparently, to just shuffle up to the fences. I was good with that. Was interested to see what they'd do about the mines.
Six miles. Took three hours. It had taken them about an hour to get set up. Was two PM before they got close to the base. They stopped about a half a klick out.
The three trucks that weren't carrying weapons pulled through the group. They weren't moving fast; getting the civilians out of the way wasn't easy.
"Get some Jav teams up on the berm. Let them get a look at what they're facing. Don't show the Javs."
The trucks eventually got through, spread out and headed for the fence.
We'd repaired the previous damage. They derepaired it. All three took out sections of fence and the concertina.
"Tell the gate guards to get ready to open up and then hunker."
"Roger."
"Samad?"
"Yes, sahib?"
"May be some leakers. Do not let them take my whiskey."
"They will not pass us, sahib."
God, I love the Nepos.
They hadn't opened fire at us. We weren't opening fire at them.
I started to wonder just how much this colonel knew about our internal defenses. I'd made sure that once the girls came into the compound, they didn't leave or pass messages out. I wasn't going to have the sort of intel we were getting from the refugees get out to my enemies. But he clearly knew we were on this end, primarily. He was staying well away from our living area. Like he was saying "We're just here to take the silverware. Don't mind us."
The problem being, he was going to have a hell of a time getting everything out over the berm.