Operation Dragon Slayer - part ten
The forest begun to quiet down, the Recon Marines were set up in defensive positions and Corporal Denny was back on his SAW looking over the break in the forest. His gaze kept moving back to the PLA Z-11 attack helicopter that was still burning. By now it was more of a dull crackle - like a warm fire in a New England family fireplace. Corporal Ferris leaned over and whispered to Denny. "Bro, give me some Cope."
Denny looked over at Ferris, "It's in my cargo pocket, right side. It's my Last tin, so go easy."
"Right, thanks."
"Don't sweat it."
A minute later, Corporal Ferris was flicking a few loose tobacco strands off of his finger tips when he and Denny saw a WMZ 551 B , a six wheeled PLA APC, roll into view. It was about 400 meters away and rolling down hill towards their position.
"Holy Shit!", Feris clicked on his MBITR . "Three One be advised, we have an enemy APC about 400 meters and closing. Ah shit, make that two APCs!"
The radio crackled back. "Roger Ferris, tell Denny to hold his fire." Three seconds later Sgt. King and the rest of the squad burst into their position. King spread the men out at the edge of the tree line, just far enough inside the cover to keep out of sight but close enough to the opening to have good sites over the entire area. The Sergeant looked at his watch. It was still another good thirty minutes before the evac choppers were due to arrive. Suddenly, Lieutenant Hogan burst into their cover and flopped down beside King.
"OK, second squad is watching our backs and third squad is setting up thirty meters down the tree line. Have everyone hold their fire. I expect they only have 12.7mm MGs mounted on those but I don't want to take any chances of having them see us if we don't have to."
"Roger LT, we're good. No firing unless spotted." replied Sgt. King
Everyone seemed to be settled in and waiting to see what happened next. Ferris could feel his heart beating in his chest. He had almost settled down from their previous encounter in the pine woods over an hour ago. Now he could feel the anticipation building up again. Ferris had been in the corps for a little over two years and was relatively new compared to the rest. He had cut his teeth during a seven month tour in Afghanistan with the 2/3 but by the time he served, the majority of action was winding down - insurgent attacks were seldom but he did experience, and learn to work in, firefight situations. He looked back over at Corporal Denny and saw him rubbing the stubble under his lip like he was sitting on a couch watching a ball game, as relaxed as could be.
As they watched the APC roll downhill towards their position, Lieutenant. Hogan's MBITR went off with his radioman, corporal Billets, calling him.
"LT, I got the CoC on the radio."
"Roger, I'll be right there.", The Lieutenant put his hand on Sgt King's arm and told him he would be back in a couple minutes but that he could be interrupted if need be on his MBITR.
When he made it back to his radio he found out the Evac was only fifteen minutes away and was being escorted by F18s. This could be the solution to our little problem, he thought.
"Thunderbird six, this is ThunderBird Three Actual. Is there anyway, we could get some close air support from one of those F18s, break?"
"ThunderBird Three, that's a negative, those birds are busy trying to keep the flight path open for your evac. You'll need a clean LZ for pickup Lieutenant."
At this point, Lt. Hogan realized they were going to have to take out the APCs on their own and they only had about fifteen minutes to do it!
"Roger Six." We'll clear the LZ ourselves."
Lieutenant Hogan then raced back to Sgt. King. Plopping down beside the hulking Sergeant they saw the APCs moving closer to them. They were approximately 100 meters now and closing in - probably another minute before they were within striking distance.
"Sgt, we're gonna have to take those two beasts out. Get Willem's sniper rifle equipped with armor piercing rounds. We're gonna fire through the windows and see what we can do."
"Roger LT." Those MGs on the top shouldn't be too much trouble. We can keep the mounted personnel pinned down and unable to fire with the SAWs."
Lieutenant Hogan added a few more twists with, "Its a long shot, but I want to try to get some 40mm grenades into the vehicles too once we blow out the windows.
"Roger, we'll set our man up, sir". With that, Lieutenant Hogan slapped Sgt. King on the shoulder again and ran off to confer with the other two squads. King looked over at Denny. "Did you get that sonny?"
"Sure did. Sniper opens up the windows, Corporal Black lobs a 40mm grenade into the 1x1 hole from 80 meters. I keep the 50mm MG silenced with the SAW and the baby Jesus will appear in my backpack later."
"Yup that pretty much sums it up, Corporal".
"Sounds great Sarge."
Corporal Black was the assistant squad leader of Sgt. King's squad. and was currently set up a few meters away with Corporal Polasky, who had finally settled down from his initial encounter a few minutes ago. Ferris chimed in a question to the Sgt, "How's Polasky holding up?".
"He's fine Corporal. He's a damn good Marine! Now you both know what needs to get done. Wait for the M40 shots before opening fire."
Sgt. King moved over to the other 3 men in his squad. Corporals Black, Polasky and Willems. Willems was the squad marksman and carried an M40A3 Sniper rifle that he had just finished loading with special armor penetrating rounds. The Sgt had instructed him to take out the windows in front of his designated vehicle on his command. Lieutenant Hogan had instructed the other marksmen in the group to take out the other one using the M82A3 SASR. Sgt. King made sure they were good to go then he settled back in cover. After another second of pondering, the Sgt. decided to equip his M203 as well. Two shots at the open window gave them two times the chance of making the shot.
The APCs pulled up in front of the smoldering helicopter wreck and stopped. They were about 20 meters away from each other in a line so that the front of the first vehicle was facing Sgt King directly while the second vehicle was far enough behind it to expose its front to the third team's position. The angle of the window was only about twenty degrees which should be enough to penetrate the plastic window cover on the driver side of the APC. Suddenly, the back door of the lead APC clanged down onto the open field just as Lieutenant. Hogan gave the word for the snipers to open fire.
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