by Geoff Wolak
‘We have few options, my friend.’ I waited. ‘You have doubts?’
‘As you say, we have few options. If we move to the rocks we are spread thin. Only other option is to leave.’
‘We came to remove these men, not run away.’
‘We don’t fight these men, we sit under mortar and rocket,’ he complained.
‘Then we need to fool them, and set an ambush. When I know where they are and when they’ll attack I can set that ambush with my men.’
‘You will go close in?’
‘We will. Only way. But we may have some help from the helicopters and RAF.’
‘Smitty for Wilco?’
‘It’s Wilco, go ahead.’
‘You want us to stay in the OP, Boss?’
‘No, come out, but carefully, don’t fall down the fucking cliff!’
I got my sat phone out and dialled as men worked by flickering torchlight.
‘Captain Harris here.’
‘It’s Wilco. Listen, we’re expecting a full on attack from the south, they’ll use mortars and rockets first, but we’ll ambush them. Have the Pumas on standby, gunners in the doors, GPMGs. Attack might be dawn.’
‘Could withdraw you, we have the Chinooks here.’
‘Have them on standby, but if we withdraw – then what. We come back, then run away every time we think a group may attack? No. And see if there’s a Hercules of ours hanging around, and find some bags of cement for me.’
‘You need a decoy again, eh?’
‘We do, and some luck.’
I dialled Bob. ‘Did I wake you?’
‘No, I was working late. Don’t forget the time difference, you’re a few hours ahead. Problems?’
‘We’re just about to face a full on attack, and it’ll be messy, there’ll be casualties.’
‘Can you withdraw?’
‘And then what? We withdraw every time they attack, come back a few days later, what’s the point? Came here to reduce them.’
‘Keep casualties in mind,’ he warned me.
‘I aim to keep them down, but ... we can’t do this without a scrap. If a mortar lands somewhere it shouldn’t then it’ll kill men – or medics. Upside ... is that if this goes off well we’ll have reduced them a shit load, they’ll be on the back foot. Today we killed three rocket crews, almost thirty men, a good day’s work.’
‘Yes, but please don’t take too many risks on this next part.’
‘Terrain and enemy dictate, Bob, we just do what we can.’
‘I’ll be sleeping at my desk, keep me updated.’
Half an hour later we got radio chat from Sergeant Crab, and he came in ten minutes later, sweating.
When my phone trilled I stepped away and took the call. ‘Wilco.’
‘It’s Captain Harris. Signals intel has that group moving west to east, south of you, and that they’ll be directly south of you soon. But Wilco, we estimate five hundred men, and we’ve intercepted clear signals regarding mortars and rockets.’
I heaved a sigh. ‘Military logic would suggest we withdraw, and we probably have enough helos to do that, but a helo could be hit by a rocket when it lands...’
‘But..?’
‘The rebels want revenge, so they’re taking risks and they’re all bunched up. Could the French Air Force hit them?’
‘They’re grounded for now, Presidential order after the fuck up, and they only have four jets here anyhow.’
‘Hercules?’
‘Sat on the runway, pilots not ten feet from me.’
‘Tell them we need their help, see if they have those US night sight goggles, ask them to get fuelled ready, and see what they have to drop.’
‘Hang on.’
I waited a minute.
‘Flight Lieutenant Chalmers here, Wilco. You’re in a bind we hear.’
‘Got a big group of rebels south of us, could use a decoy or two at the right time. You got night sights?’
‘Yes, and there’s some cement here, not much.’
‘Got CS gas or smoke canisters?’
‘Hang on?’ A minute later, he said, ‘Boxes of them, yes.’
‘If they can be placed in a bag, pins pulled, taped closed, then when the bag hits they go off. Or use jam jars, anything, so long as the CS gas and smoke wafts around the area we want. But you’ll need to be above a thousand feet, they have fifty cal and RPG.’
‘We’ll be ready.’
‘Do me a favour, and do a fly by while the men there are preparing something to drop, bank in low at a thousand and peer down, give me a report, and ... soon if you can.’
‘Be off in five minutes, you have aircraft radios?’
‘Yes, for the Pumas, get their frequency.’
‘Be overhead soon, it’s not far. Hang tight.’
‘This is Captain Harris, you still there?’
‘Yes.’
‘Pilots have gone, I’m organising smoke and CS gas from the French, but the French just informed me they have the large CS liquid gas canisters, attached to something like a spray nozzle during a riot.’
‘If they dropped them, and they smashed on landing, they could put out some serious gas. Excellent, try and get some, or many of them, Hercules will be back inside the hour.’
‘I’ll get back to you,’ he promised.
I stepped to Henri as the digging progressed. I could hear it rather than see it. ‘Henri?’ He turned. ‘Hercules on its way, night sights, they will look south and report. They can also drop CS gas and smoke.’
His dark outlined shrugged. ‘It may help if they come together in a group.’
‘That many men, and they will be tight together.’
‘That many men ... how many men?’
‘More than five hundred.’
He let out a low, ‘Pah!’ Running a hand across his bald head, he said, ‘They mean to have us, no.’
‘Not if we get them first.’
A screech, and we dived down, shoulder to shoulder, a flash and a blast, our ears ringing as rocks rained down, the rocket having landed east of us a hundred yards.
‘I think they heard you,’ Henri told me as we eased up.
‘Keep digging!’ I shouted through the dark.
‘Wilco?’ Crab called through the dark, and I stepped across to him using my torch. With him was Hamble and the SBS senior staff. ‘What’s the latest?’
‘There’s a large group south of us now, so I think they’ll come up that road at dawn. Got a Hercules inbound with night sights, they’ll have a look and report.’
‘And the plan?’ Crab pressed, no consideration for my new rank.
‘The plan comes together when we know where they are, how many, and their movement.’
‘Why can’t the dopey French Air Force bomb the fuckers?’ Crab asked.
‘They were grounded after they flattened a school.’
‘Wankers,’ Crab let out.
‘We stand and fight?’ Hamble asked.
I took in their grey outlines in the dim torch light. ‘As opposed ... to what?’ I asked him directly.
‘We could move into the hills and use hit and run tactics or try and ambush them,’ he suggested.
‘Earlier you were advocating the benefits of this place,’ I reminded him.
‘From small attacks, yes. But without us stopping those rockets they’ll get some of us eventually.’
I nodded. ‘In Angola, some of you were not sure about my plan to ambush the brigade, but it worked. This is no different. We dig in, we have the firepower and the sniper rifles, and we fight.’
‘How many men do you reckon?’ the SBS asked.
I took a moment. ‘Five hundred plus.’
‘Five hundred!’ they gasped.
‘You fucking mad?’ Crab asked in a hoarse whisper.
‘Look, they’ll be spread out down the hill, there are a hundred of us, but when they get close ... that many men will forced together, and we have ten plus GPMGs here.’ I faced Hamble. ‘Captain, if you h
ad five hundred men at your disposal, would you come up across open land knowing that we were here?’
‘Well, no, I’d take very heavy casualties.’
‘Maybe they know that too, and maybe they’re not stupid, so there’ll be probing attacks. I keep telling you, we make a plan when we have the facts, and right now we have a large group a few miles south, who might just pass us by and go attack the French or some town.’
‘And if they do turn our way?’ Crab pressed.
I took in their outlines, feeling a little frustrated whilst knowing that I should not risk their lives without some very careful consideration – I was a captain now. ‘Gentlemen, if you think this is all a great risk, or doubt me and my planning, I can get the choppers in here and you and your men out with the medics.’ I waited.
‘And what’ll you do?’ Crab pressed.
‘Stay with the French lads and fight. That is what I came for, not to get a sun tan.’
They exchanged looks.
‘You ain’t staying without me,’ Crab said. ‘Crazy fucker.’
‘Captain Hamble?’ I posed.
He hesitated. ‘The odds seem stacked against us. If we move position, or come back again, we should be able to do what we’re good at - small unit tactics, hit and run.’
‘A good point, and a valid point,’ I agreed. ‘We’re SAS, not Wellington at Waterloo.’ I faced the SBS. ‘Any thoughts, gentlemen? I will respect your input, and it’s your lives and your men at risk.’
The Captain said, ‘We’re all about small unit tactics, so if the plan was us lot against five hundred in an open field I’d say that was unreasonable – given our chances of success.’
‘Fair enough,’ I said. I faced the SBS troop sergeant. ‘Sergeant?’
‘I’d like to hear your full plan first. You didn’t stay alive this long by being stupid.’
I smiled. ‘You’ll have my full plan when I have it, maybe after the flyby. And the helos are all on standby to come get us, provided we don’t leave that too late, we can’t risk a chopper shot down, but they could land at the north edge.’ I turned away and then turned back. ‘Oh, and gentlemen, I made my anticipated ... full plan known to the French senior staff, none of whom questioned it, nor any permutation of it.’
That was not strictly true, but close, and I wanted to dig at them. I left them with that and walked north, hoping to contact Moran, but then heard him contact Tomo, thinking Tomo was still in the OP. Ten minutes later the line of men walked in, some torches used. They were panting.
‘What’s the latest?’ Moran asked, but in a far different tone to that of Sergeant Crab.
‘Gather around,’ I called, and they closed in and knelt, rifles used for support as they panted. ‘South of us are maybe five hundred plus men, lots of jeeps, mortars, fifty cal and rockets. They may turn our way or not. On its way is a Hercules with night sights, and they’ll give us a report.
‘Chances are that some of that group south will attack us, dawn maybe, and they’ll use rockets and mortars to keep our heads down, otherwise we’d slaughter them as they come across open ground.
‘We have Pumas with door gunners, so we have a few options –when we know what the main group has planned. We have an escape route back here, and the choppers are on standby, and they could get us all out, so long as they’re not under fire at the time.’
Moran said, ‘There’s a flat area five hundred yards northwest they could use if need be.’
‘Some of the other Brits have expressed concern, and might want that helicopter flight out,’ I told the lads.
Rocko put in, ‘Some of those local fighters will stay with the jeeps and man the rockets and mortars, so that ain’t five hundred coming up that hill, and if they did it would be a massacre of the wankers. If they think they’ll keep our heads down, which they do, then we need to vacate this central area and be unpredictable.’
‘Agreed,’ I said. ‘So ... why have they not sent in small teams to sneak up?’
‘Single man in charge,’ Swifty said. ‘He has a plan - and fuck the other opinions.’
‘So what’s his plan, given that we’re not seeing them move into position?’ I posed.
Moran said, ‘He thinks he has enough rockets and mortars to pound us, and his men just walk up that road. He won’t send his men in yet because they’ll get pounded as well.’
‘Why that many men just for this little shit hole?’ Elkin asked.
‘My thoughts exactly,’ I said. ‘Maybe he thinks that he can do us quickly at dawn and move on, a larger target in mind. There’s a town ten miles away.’
‘So he won’t be sending all those men up the hill,’ Moran said.
‘I doubt it. So ... who wants to tell me what I’m thinking of doing, given that right now they’re all sat in jeeps and tightly bunched up.’
‘Take it to them,’ Rocko put in. ‘If they’re sat in jeeps they can’t duck down or shoot back too well. Sneak up close, hit them hard, run like fuck back up the hill, be a while before they recover.’
I added, ‘And if the RAF drop ten tonnes of CS gas, a little cement as we withdraw...’
‘Fuckers will have more to worry about than us,’ Rocko said as he stood. The others eased up.
‘Any comments on the plan?’ I asked.
‘They won’t be expecting it,’ Swifty said with a laugh. ‘Bet the fucking farm on that. This is a fixed position, it ain’t supposed to come down and bite you on the arse. It’s fixed...’
‘Any injuries?’ I asked.
‘All OK,’ Moran said.
‘Get some rest, keep your heads down, we wait the Hercules ... and a half-decent plan from your officers in charge,’ I told them, a few laughing. ‘And if you’re looking for Tomo, he’s probably been in with the nurses.’
‘I’m over here,’ Tomo protested through the dark, the lads soon asking for proof of his whereabouts during the day and taunting him.
I found Henri and pinched away his aircraft radio after he checked the settings for me. Stood in the dark, men still digging frantically, I heard the drone ten minutes later and I peered up at the twinkling stars, but figured that the Hercules would have its lights off.
‘Wilco for Hercules, receiving, over?’
‘Hercules receiving, on approach. We can see the road, a few vehicles down there with lights on, looks like a bloody traffic jam. Standby.’
I waited as they passed over, everyone looking up, the Hercules soon seen as fingers of orange tracer lifted from the south, seeking out our low and slow spy plane.
‘Wilco for Hercules, fifty cal trying to get your range, well behind you so far.’
‘Hercules reporting: long traffic jam three or four vehicles wide, stretches back around six hundred yards, almost due south of you, thousand yards out.’
‘Any men in the fields?’
‘Negative, can’t see any patrols moving towards you, all bunched up on the road.’
‘Wilco for Hercules, circle around us, low over the hills – there won’t be fifty cal there, look for patrols, over.’
‘Standby.’
Men peered up as the Hercules drone fixed its position, and I could see the dim moonlight reflecting as it banked hard around us.
‘Hercules reporting, negative on thermal images around you.’
‘Leave now, don’t spook them, and get ready for stage two. When you’re ready, we’ll be ready, say thirty minutes for us to get position.’
‘Roger that, wait contact, Hercules out.’
The drone eased.
‘Stop digging!’ I shouted through the dark. ‘Get cleaned up, get weapons, get ready to advance on the enemy! Henri, senior staff please, five minutes.’ I clicked on the radio. ‘All senior staff to the command fox hole, all Echo Detachment.’
In the medical tent I gave them my apologies, told them that they were not leaving – despite what they just heard, and pinched their brightest lamp away. That lamp lit my way back, and men started to gather around the lamp
as I placed it on the floor.
Henri moved to my right with his senior staff, plus the French captain – the man now appearing far more awake than our first encounter. I took in the faces, soon seeing that most were here, my lads off to the left, Haines in the group with his sergeant.
‘Can you sit down or kneel down, please. If there’s a rocket attack we need to get down quickly.’ They eased down, many sitting. ‘OK, we don’t have much time, and I now have a firm plan. The Hercules flew overhead and reported a long column of vehicles a thousand yards south down the hill. Those vehicles have mortars and rockets as we know, and some of the men in it will attack us at dawn I think.
‘The Hercules flew around us with night vision, no men seen approaching us, none at all, so we can assume that the men down the hill will hit this place hard with rockets before some of them attack us, the rest moving on. This is a small position, so I don’t believe they’ll all attack us at once.
‘As it stands, the Hercules will be back in under an hour to drop gas and smoke on the vehicles, and we have Pumas with door gunners stood ready. We also have helicopters standing by to remove us if necessary, or to get the wounded out – so long as not too many rockets or mortars are landing of course.
‘At the moment we have the advantage, because we know where they are, their strength, and their intent – they’re waiting to soften us up, no evidence of a sneak attack, so they’re over confident and badly led – unlike you.’
They laughed, at least many did, some still appeared worried, or downright terrified, their faces half-illuminated by the lamp.
‘So this is the plan, and don’t forget that I have operational command – I’m a proper officer. In concert with the Hercules, we’ll all move down the hill in an extended line, quickly and quietly, till we’re above the vehicle column. When we know that the Hercules is approaching we’ll open fire, and the men in the vehicles will find it hard to get out quickly and fire back.
‘We’ll then run back up the hill, covering fire in groups as the Hercules drops smoke and CS gas. When we get back we’ll dig in ready to fight, but I don’t think they’ll be coming. If they do, they’ll be greatly reduced.
