by Vivek Ahuja
“Stand by, Spear-One!”
Pathanya heard the conversation now taking place:
“Hotel-Six, this is warlord. Can you suppress enemy tube arty fire on Spear-One?”
“Hotel-Six here to warlord: that’s a big negative. We have no country-battery eyes on winchester-charlie! We do not have W-L-R eyes on target. It has not been airlifted into Paru yet! We need visual eyes on red arty! Over,” Fernandez shouted back.
Pathanya was stuck amidst all this with his radio to his ears and his eyes squinting at every nearby explosion rocking the hillside…
“Oh shit! Ganesh is hit!” Vikram shouted from where he was, loud enough to be heard above the explosions.
“Medic!” Ganesh screamed in pain.
Pathanya dropped the comms set and ran out into the explosions towards Ganesh as Ravi did the same. They ran over the shredded tree trunks and the smoking craters before reaching a cluster of rocks where Ganesh had taken cover. He laid on the ground between the rocks now, his leg covered in blood and the rocks nearby stained with it. His moans of pain sent shivers down Pathanya’s spine as another explosion rocked the hillside and sent mounds of dirt flying all around them. Ravi, the team’s medic, slid into the rocks and got down to work.
“Easy there buddy! Hang on! Ravi is taking care of it,” Pathanya said as calmly as he could.
Ganesh could only reply with a suppressed moan. Pathanya looked over to Ravi who shook his head:
“We need to get him out! He’s got a deep shrapnel wound that I can’t see. I can’t do much for him other than killing the pain!”
“Do what you can! Stabilize him! I am going to go get some help,” Pathanya shouted as he got to his feet and ran across the ravaged hillside to his own position. He got there in time to see the radio speaker buried in gravel and foliage but still working…
“Warlord to Spear-One! Do you read?! I say again: do you read?!”
“This is Spear-One! I read you five-by-five! I am taking casualties over here! I need that damn enemy arty suppressed! Over!” Pathanya shouted as he slid on the gravel nearby.
“Roger that, Spear-One! Hold Five. Warlord has redirected R-P-V coverage north of winchester-charlie. We are getting eyes on the enemy guns now. Hotel-Six will suppress. Over”
Finally some good news!
Pathanya looked up but could only see the night sky. But above his head, one of the Nishant UAVs now under JFB command was attempting to do the seeker role in a hunter-killer mission along with Fernandez and his men at Paru. The UAV was equipped with thermal imaging and showed the glowing white balls of fire exploding on the hillside at the Wang-Chu Bridge and then further north the flashes of white emanating from enemy field guns. It didn’t take long for the latter location to be identified and calculated. Three Pinaka launchers quickly swiveled their launch tubes and adjusted for range, elevation, warhead and weather conditions and sent another streak of eighteen 214mm rockets into northern Bhutan…
At Haa-Dzong, Potgam was watching the battle unfold from the battlefield computers set up inside his operations center. The UAV feed was patched in to his screens from the flight-control trailer near the golf-course. Potgam watched in satisfaction as a carpet of small explosions lit up around the enemy guns. The gun flashes from that Chinese battery instantly stopped. He turned around to his operations staff and laughed.
“Good. Send my regards to Fernandez and his boys. Job well done. Now get Spear team some medevac support,” Potgam ordered.
THE WANG-CHU BRIDGE
NORTH OF THIMPU
BHUTAN
DAY 7 + 0230 HRS
“Okay. Here’s the plan…” Pathanya said as he slung his rifle around his shoulders. The rest of the team had gathered up around him.
The hill they were on was still covered in smoke. The trees all over this side of the hill had been ripped and shredded by the Chinese guns. Pathanya and the others were choking from the smoke and dust, struggling to speak.
Pathanya pointed his arm towards the dilapidated Wang-Chu village west of the bridge. They had seen PLA soldiers taking positions in there, preparing to attack across the bridge and up the hill that Spear was on. Hotel-Six launchers were replenishing and were temporarily unavailable. All Pathanya could count on for the moment in terms of support was the Nishant UAV overhead and the inbound flight of two helicopters from Delta-Flight. One of those helicopters was a Lancer attack chopper.
Pathanya coughed under the smoke and then continued:
“Those houses there are occupied by the PLA. The bridge is wired to blow, but the frozen riverbed won’t stop the enemy infantry from rushing across. We can’t stay here anymore. We have to keep rolling back to Thimpu, harassing these guys all the way using Hotel-Six rocket arty. There is an inbound evac helicopter that will get Ganesh out. The problem is that they can’t land anywhere here on this slope. No place flat enough. So we have to advance south beyond that bend of road to the south where Delta birds will be waiting. Keep your eyes peeled and move silent. We are going back down that slope without waking up the reds. One false move and they are going to open up with everything they got. Understand?”
Pathanya looked around to see everybody nodding in silence. He removed the rifle sling, pulled up his rifle and headed out, slowly moving past the broken branches and tree trunks. The others did the same. Two of them slung Ganesh around their shoulders as they helped him descend the tricky slope…
At least the ice and snow melted away…
Pathanya thought as he realized why he wasn’t slipping on the same rocky terrain he had climbed up before. He watched the red-dot sight of his rifle through his night-vision goggles and observed the eerily silent windows of the houses across the bridge. He looked behind for a quick second to see others coming down the hill. All of them moved without a sound.
They were taking advantage of the confusion on the Chinese side following the rocket barrages fired by Hotel-Six to try and sneak away without getting into a bitter firefight.
Pathanya had descended right up till the road and the burnt out hulk of the RBA truck from before. He keyed his comms as he slid up next to the charred chassis of the truck:
“Delta-One, what’s your position, over?”
The reply came over the background noise of helicopter engines:
“Standing by south of winchester-charlie at three clicks! What’s your situation? Over,” the Major in command of the Lancer helicopter replied.
“Spear is attempting disengagement and withdrawal. All silent so far. E-T-A to primary L-Z is ten minutes. Out,” Pathanya reported and switched comms to his team again.
“Boss, I got optical reflections from that central two-floor building on my night optics,” Vikram said quietly. “It’s the only elevated position in the village. I think the reds have optics on us.”
Shit!
Pathanya pulled out the IMFS device from his backpack and went prone under the truck. He clicked the device on and put it to his eyes before keying his comms again:
“Which building are you talking about? I see a white one with a half destroyed roof.”
“Yeah. That’s the one. Second window from the right, second floor,” Vikram replied calmly.
“All right, I have it now. Two soldiers near the window with some sort of tripod mounted optics. He’s scanning the hillside above us. Probably hasn’t spotted us near the base of the hill because he is looking further up towards the top,” Pathanya said as he lowered the IMFS and looked around for options.
He realized the openness of the next few hundred meters down the road that they had to go. Enough cover to allow a fighting withdrawal by a larger force, but not by ten men of which three were combat-ineffective at the moment. He switched his comms back to Delta-Flight:
“You still there, Delta-One?”
“Roger. What’s taking you so long? We are going to be running on fumes here pretty soon if you boys don’t reach the L-Z!” the Major said as he watched the Dhruv helicopter hovering a few feet
above the grassy terrain to his left.
“Delta-One, we have enemy optics conducting visual recon of the hillside and we are exposed. Over” Pathanya said. The Major looked to his co-pilot who nodded.
Goddamn it…
“Spear-One. Describe the structure occupied by the enemy O-P. Over,” the Major ordered.
“Delta-One, Enemy O-P is a two floor, white-coloration building with a damaged flat roof. Structure is in the center of the village and clearly visible when ingress is from the northeast,” Pathanya said, guessing what the Major had in mind.
“Roger. Delta-One is detaching evac flight and bypassing winchester-charlie from the east. Expect ingress from the northeast in five minutes. Delta-One out!” the Major said and looked over to his co-pilot:
“All right, my friend. You ready?”
“Ready as can be, sir!”
The Major increased power and picked up from the grassy field, leaving the Dhruv helicopter behind. The Major flew down the valley, flying east of the hill occupied by Spear team. He looked to his left and saw the smoke bellowing from the western slopes of that hill and then adjusted the tail-rotor power which spun the helicopter around. They could now see Wang-Chu on the horizon as they hovered over the treetops…
“Weapons armed. You have release. Throttle at max!” the co-pilot said as the Major looked to try and spot the target building. He thought he spotted it:
“Okay. I have target acquisition! Let’s roll!”
The Lancer dipped its nose and rapidly built up speed as it flew towards Wang-Chu from the north, coming up behind the PLA forces at tree-top level. Pathanya spotted the Major and his helicopter coming down the valley a good few seconds before the Chinese did. By the time they picked up their weapons and attempted to reorient themselves, the Lancer was flying a hundred kilometers an hour and already over the village…
“Weapons release! Fire! Fire! Fire!” the Major announced as the Lancer released all four of its gun-pod rockets in one salvo.
The rockets slammed into the target building, demolishing it in a bowl of dust as four thunderclaps rang out in the valley. The walls of the building occupied by the enemy observation post collapsed inwards.
The Lancer had already flown overhead amidst a crackling of assault weapon fire from the PLA soldiers inside the village. It didn’t take long before the thuds of bullet impacts started sounding off inside the cockpit. The two pilot were busy taking their bird down to tree-top height to evade the fire when a burst of heavy machinegun fire severed the tail rotor drive on the exposed boom, sending the helicopter spinning violently around while moving forward at one-hundred kilometers an hour.
“Mayday! Mayday! Delta-One has been hit! Catastrophic failure in attitude control. Shutting down power and attempting auto-rotation landing! Delta-One requesting…!”
The radio message was abruptly replaced with screeching static as the helicopter slammed into the trees well south of the village and close to the primary LZ for Spear…
“Oh my god!” Vikram said from his position as they watched the helicopter disappear below the trees. A jarring crash rippled through the air. Pathanya was more composed:
“Spear! We are leaving, boys! Egress to primary L-Z and link up with Delta-Two! Make the most of the cover provided by their sacrifice! Move!”
The team moved out while Pathanya stayed behind the truck to observe the dust cloud from the destroyed building in the village. He could see chaos inside the village as Chinese soldiers attempted rescue operations for those caught inside the building. They seemed extremely energetic…
Maybe their commanding-officer was in that building.
Good for us, bad for them!
Pathanya thought without sympathy as he put the IMFS in his backpack, picked up his rifle and moved out from under the truck.
“Delta-Two, this is Spear-One. What’s the status of Delta-One? Do you have a visual of the crash site? Over” he said as he ran.
“They are down and on fire, Spear-One! We have visual! Can you divert some personnel to attempt a rescue?” the pilot of the Dhruv replied.
“Roger that! We will take it from here, Delta-Two. Meet you at the primary! Out!”
Pathanya waved Vikram over and pointed him towards the crash site made visible by the glow of the fires on the trees nearby. Both men ran through the bushes and jumped over the rocky terrain covered in treacherous ice and snow as they moved towards the burning wreck of the Lancer.
When they got to the site, they witnessed the terrible sight. The Lancer cockpit had been smashed into the trees, and its engine and gun-pods were scattered into the foliage all around. Fires raged from fuel splattered all around. Pathanya saw the mutilated body of the co-pilot still strapped inside his seat in the crushed glass cockpit. The Major had fallen clear and his body was nearby, trailing a line of blood from his point of impact…
“God! He’s alive! Quick!” Pathanya motioned to Vikram and they ran over to the Major and turned him over. His green flight-suit had turned black near the chest because of the blood. But his hands were still clenching his sidearm.
Pathanya and Vikram picked up the Major and straggled over to the clearing where the Dhruv helicopter was waiting with its engines running and Ravi and the other men kneeling nearby, their weapons pointed outwards at any threat that might come their way. They loaded Ganesh and the Major onto the metallic floor of the cabin and the Dhruv crew promptly lifted off the ground and headed south back to Paru…
As the helicopter flew away into the darkness and the noise of its rotors receded, Pathanya looked at the Major’s blood on his arms, hands and his other chest equipment. He saw his eight remaining men staring at him in silence. His face stiffened:
“What the hell are you guys waiting for? This war isn’t over! Those bastards are getting organized inside Wang-Chu as we stand here. Vikram, blow the bridge. We have no further use for it. Any Bhutanese villagers north of here are now behind enemy lines.”
EAST OF DAULAT-BEG-OLDI
LADAKH
DAY 7 + 0450 HRS
“Is it operational?” Kulkarni asked.
“Negative. Thermal shows erratic white spots. Must be fires inside.”
“Bypass it then. Be careful from now on,” Kulkarni said as he backed away from the optics and wiped the sweat of his eyes.
They had just spotted a burnt out BMP-II as they approached the frontlines. Kulkarni had called for a stop to allow his unit to regain a line-abreast formation that had become loose after traversing the rugged terrain from Saser. Now they were behind the 4TH Mechanized lines, and the 43RD Armored was conducting a passage-of-lines through the former unit before taking position on its line-of-departure…
“Driver! Traverse forward!” Kulkarni ordered after making sure his unit was once again deployed correctly.
The Arjun tank lurched forward with a thunder followed by nine others in the first wave of the 43RD Armored force. Passage of lines was always the difficult part, especially when the unit you were passing through was exposed to the enemy. The process became even more difficult at night when visual acquisition was restricted to night-vision optics and thermal scopes, both of which offered a murky picture at best…
The radio squawked: “Rhino-two to Rhino-one: I have three, B-M-P silhouettes at five-hundred meters, over.”
Kulkarni rotated his sights and confirmed the sighting. He chimed in:
“Roger, Rhino-two! I have them. 4TH Mechanized vehicles in natural defilade. I also spot friendly infantry in prepared positions. Rhino-one to all elements: break formation and bypass in force. Out!”
Kulkarni once again leaned back from his scopes and checked his battlefield management system to confirm position of the 4TH Mechanized.
Right where they should be!
Good.
“Steel-central, this is Rhino-one. Rhino is approaching FEBA and conducting POL. Preparing to advance to point-victory. What the latest on enemy armor dispositions? Over,” Kulkarni checked and then saw
on his BMS that Colonel Sudarshan had a Nishant UAV overhead.
Hopefully, what he got would be what the controllers for the UAV saw and hence in near real-time. He was going to need a very clear picture of the enemy force. The battlefield between his force and the objective was littered with burnt out hulks of dozens of Indian and Chinese vehicles from six days of fighting. Kulkarni wasn’t clear how the UAV operators could spot a live tank in defilade position from a dead one in such a cluttered picture.
To make matters worse, Kulkarni had been told that there were PLA drones above as well. This was going to be a crucial battle for both sides and were expecting it and preparing for it.
“Rhino-one, this is steel-central. Intel from 4TH Mechanized suggests depleted battalion of T-99s on the front in hull down positions and we confirm at least three moving vehicles in reserve behind the lines. Infantry with anti-tank weapons taking up positions on bracketing hills. Over.”
They know we are coming!
“Roger! Rhino is approaching L-O-D. Your call, steel-central”
“Rhino, your orders stand. Seize and hold point-victory and eliminate red armor at objective. Good luck. Steel-central out!” Sudarshan’s voice signed off, leaving Kulkarni to do only one thing:
“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements: Advance! Advance! Advance!”
The thunderous roar of ten Arjun main-battle-tanks reverberated through the peaks in the early morning darkness. The tanks began traversing the open terrain between them and the Chinese forces…
In the skies above, a Chinese UAV shared the skies with the Indian Nishant RPV, and commanders on both sides prepared for battle. For Sudarshan, there was not much to do other than to give the “go” order to the Smerch battery at Saser.
Within minutes the skies around Saser filled with dozens of backlit smoke trails as the large rockets streaked into the sky, arced downwards and aimed for the ground around the Chinese positions. The spark-filled fireballs from the cluster munitions covered the PLA infantry positions.
