A War Too Far

by David Lee Corley

  She moved to the fallen tree and around the side that was not boobytrapped. Her eyes continued to scan the area, searching. She had to know if someone was waiting to ambush the column. She would be the bait. She walked deeper into the trees out of sight of the other scouts.

  There was a small clump of bushes at the top of a rise that looked like they had been disturbed. She walked around them and approached from the back. She knelt in the clump and pushed the plant leaves back. There were two square marks on the ground and an imprint of a man laying down. A light machinegunner, she thought. They had been waiting to see what they caught. So, where is he?

  She moved through the bushes and trees examining the forest floor, finding evidence of more men – twenty-five in all – a kill squad. She found some cooked rice that someone had eaten and let a few grains fall to the ground. Sloppy, she thought. She smelled the grains and rubbed them with her fingers. One, maybe two days, she thought. They were gone but had left their boobytrap set the way a hunter leaves a snare.

  She walked back to the area where the boobytrap had been set and motioned to the other scouts to stay where they were. She could hear the column approaching. There wasn’t much time. She followed the wire to the tree and studied the mechanism. Her eyes followed a second wire up into the trees. She stepped behind the tree and hooked the hard barrel sight in her rifle to the wire that stretched to the fallen tree root. She gave it a hard tug. There was a whipping sound, and a large mud ball with sharpened wooden spikes swung down from the tree canopy. It was designed to swing around a large area, so if the first swing didn’t hit anyone, it would swing in a circle until it found a target or ran out of energy. Spitting Woman attached her bayonet to the barrel of her rifle. As the spiked ball swung near the tree, she reached out and cut the rope. The ball crashed to the ground and rolled into the stream.

  When the commander of the column arrived, she suggested they take a different path to the fortress. If the Japanese had set a trap here, they might have set them elsewhere in this area of the forest. He agreed and informed Dewey and the Americans of the needed detour.

  Granier examined the spiked mud ball in the stream and looked with concern at Spitting Woman. They had brief eye contact before she looked away. There was nothing he could do to protect her, and it made him crazy like ants crawling over his skin. He would have gladly taken her place. She would continue to do her job, no matter how dangerous. It’s what he loved about her. She was courageous.

  It was just before sundown when the column arrived at the mountain ridge above the old French fortress. Dewey insisted that Granier be brought forward with the other scouts to explain the layout of the village and the fortress to Dewey and the Viet Minh commanders. Hoagland translated. Everyone listened closely. Their lives and the lives of the men under their command depended on it.

  Granier squatted down on the forest floor with the others looking out at the valley below. “The Japs keep two patrols, five men each, going at all times. One for the village to the west and one for the rice fields just beyond it. I estimate about two hundred villagers, mostly farmers. Nothing we need to worry about.”

  “Any chance they might help us?” said Dewey.

  “Slim at best. Probably get in the way more than help.”

  “Alright. No farmers.”

  “The Japs also keep two fifteen- to twenty-man squads patrolling the surrounding mountains. The group that set up the boobytrap was probably one of those squads. The remaining soldiers are stationed inside the fortress on the east end of the valley. If we attack after midnight most of them will probably be asleep in the barracks. We have enough explosive charges to blow the barracks to smithereens if we can place the charges without being detected. There is a river that runs by both the fortress and the village. The biggest challenge will be approaching the fortress undetected because of those two guard towers. If we take out the towers, our forces can have free movement outside the perimeter walls. There is a heavy machinegun and an 81mm mortar positioned near each other inside the compound.”

  “Can you take the machinegun and mortar teams out from the ridge?”

  “Unfortunately, no. They’re too close to the buildings. If we could get some men on the perimeter walls, they would have a clear shot at both positions, but the guards in the towers could easily snipe them.”

  “So, the guard towers are again the key?”

  “Yes. If I can get up into one of the towers, say the front one, I could probably take out the Japs in the back tower plus the heavy machinegun and mortar positions.”

  “That’s a lot to ask of one man.”

  “I was thinking a man and a woman,” said Granier glancing over to Spitting Woman.

  “I see. From what I have witnessed, you couldn’t ask for better.”

  “That’s true. There’s only one problem with this plan… I need to set the explosive charges under the barracks. That’s gonna be difficult to do if I’m stuck climbing a tower to play sniper.”

  “I can handle the explosives. Although you might want to give me a quick fresher course before you leave.”

  “Right. If you can set the charges and detonate them just as I take over the tower, we should be able to wipe out a majority of the Japs before they even know what hit them. The Viet Minh can focus on the patrols in the village and rice fields, then rush the main gate once I’ve eliminated the two heavy weapon positions. Once we control the compound, we should be able to provide a strong defense if the patrols from the mountains show up.”

  “A lot is riding on you, Buck. If you fail, the Viet Minh could be slaughtered by the heavy machinegun and mortar when they breach the front gate.”

  “Yeah, well… if I fail, I’ll be dead, and I won’t give a damn.”

  “Interesting way of looking at it. Commander, what do you think?”

  The Viet Minh commander heard the translation and nodded to affirm his answer. “We have a plan then,” said Dewey with confidence.

  While the Viet Minh and the Americans rested in the afternoon heat, Granier took the time to clean his weapon once again and ensure it was working properly. He no longer needed to think about the process of disassembling and reassembling his weapon. It had become routine. Instead, he thought about his rifle sight plan.

  The first demolition explosion would be his cue to open fire. He thought about the flash from the explosion. It would blind him momentarily, and even if he had his eyes closed, his retinas would contract making it difficult to see in the dark. The guard in the tower would move to the side of the tower facing the explosion so he could look out and see what was happening. He would wait until his target stabilized and his retinas returned to normal before taking his first shot. He figured two to three seconds would be required. That was an eternity in a firefight, but it couldn’t be helped. Missing was not an option.

  The distances he would be shooting from were not far enough to be affected by temperature and moisture in the air. There was no perceivable wind, so that was a plus. But that could change by the time he was ready to shoot, so he made a mental note to check the wind once he was on the tower.

  There would be four distances for which he would need to shoot. The first shot was from the front tower to the back tower. He estimated the distance at one hundred and sixty yards. It was a flat trajectory roughly parallel to the bore. He would adjust his scope for that distance since it was the most crucial shot. Since it was a relatively short distance and he wanted to make sure he killed the guard outright, he would go for a headshot.

  The second set of targets were the machinegun and mortar positions. Even though the targets would be closer in range, they would prove to be more difficult shots. There were two problems with those sets of shots. First, he would not have time to readjust his scope once the firefight started. He would need to ballpark the alignment of the target to the scope reticle. Second, the Japanese weapon positions were at a sharp downward angle from the tower. That meant that gravity would have
a different effect on the bullet’s trajectory and he would need to compensate. Third, the second target set was a shorter distance than the first. At seventy-five yards out, the bullet would be at the top of its trajectory when it hit the target. Again, he would need to compensate. He would go for chest shots so that he was sure to hit something even if it wasn’t one of the target’s vital organs.

  The third target set was the Japanese troops inside the compound. They would be at different distances and angles. He would need to ballpark his aim accordingly for each shot. Chest shots again.

  The fourth and final target set would be any Japanese troops approaching from the village, rice paddies or forest. He figured that those distances and angles were such that he could probably use his current scope setting, then adjust fire from there if he missed a shot. He thought he might be able to identify an object that was approximately one hundred and sixty yards out toward the village and use that as an adjustment marker. Again, chest shoots. It was far from a perfect plan.

  Granier glanced over at Spitting Woman. He was giving her the space he thought she needed to come to terms with his leaving. She was talking with her commander, Dao. She looked upset. They both looked in Granier’s direction as Dao gestured with his hands. Granier couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but he imagined it was last minute instructions about the assault. Dao was getting upset and yelling at her. Granier wanted to go over and smack the man upside the head but then thought better of it. Spitting Woman could fight her own battles. Granier didn’t like Dao, and he trusted him even less. At least Dao was a good fighter and smart. There was no doubt about that.

  It was well past midnight when Dewey, Santana, and Green descended from the forest and approached the old French fortress. Dewey referred to the simple map Granier had drawn of the buildings and weapon positions inside the fortress and the best points of access and egress. They waited until the guard outside the fortress passed before climbing over the perimeter wall and entering the compound. Just as Granier had done, they moved along the wall, staying in the shadows.

  Santana and Green kept a close watch as Dewey crept under the first barracks and placed the explosive package. Each package had a chemical pencil detonator of varying length of time – the longest placed first, the shortest last. They weren’t exact and required that Dewey place the bombs and activate the detonators at one-minute intervals. He placed each explosive beneath the center of each barracks for maximum effect, then crimped the pencil detonator with a pair of pliers before scrambling back out from under the building and moving to the next target.

  As the explosive charges were placed, Granier, Spitting Woman, and two other Viet Minh maneuvered along the edge of the forest near the front gate and the guard tower overlooking it. Spitting Woman and the two Viet Minh wore Japanese uniforms seized from past raids. Granier wore his camouflaged uniform because he was too big to fit in one of the captured uniforms. Spitting Woman and Granier did not communicate beyond what was required for the mission. They knew that the moments before a battle needed their complete focus. Their personal matters would have to wait.

  Two Japanese guards patrolled the entrance to the compound.

  The two Viet Minh soldiers exited the forest and walked toward the main gate. They spoke to each other in mumbled tones so nobody could determine the language being spoken. One laughed at the other’s joke. Their commandeered uniforms had bloodstains around several bullet holes. It was too dark to see well. One of them pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered a cigarette to the other. He pulled out a lighter and lit his cigarette and his comrade’s cigarette as they drew closer and closer to the entrance. He extinguished the lighter before the Japanese guards could see his face up close.

  The Japanese guard in the tower looked down at the two approaching soldiers like it was nothing unusual.

  The two Japanese guards on the ground said something to the two approaching soldiers. The soldier with the cigarette pack did not respond but held out the pack as if offering a cigarette to each of the guards. The two Viet Minh closed the distance between themselves and the Japanese guards. The two guards reached out each taking a cigarette and not paying attention to the soldiers’ faces hidden in the shadows of their caps.

  Granier threw a large rock in the bushes nearby and ducked out of sight.

  The sound of the rock caught the attention of the guards on the ground and the guard in the tower. When the guards on the ground turned away, the two Viet Minh placed their hands over the guards’ mouths and plunged knives into their hearts, killing them quickly and without a sound. The Viet Minh dragged the guards’ bodies underneath the tower and took their places, guarding the front of the main gate.

  The guard in the tower was busy investigating the noise from the rock and did not see his two comrades killed. When he finally decided the noise was nothing but an animal moving through the bushes, he looked down at the guards, now smoking cigarettes beside the fortress entrance, and everything looked normal. He went back to surveying the surrounding area.

  Granier and Spitting Woman waited until the guard in the tower was looking in the opposite direction. They sprang from the forest and ran quietly to beneath the tower supports where they were out of sight from the guard above.

  On cue, the two Viet Minh soldiers started a fight, one reaching into the pocket of the other like he wanted another cigarette. A shoving match broke out.

  The tower guard above looked down at the commotion and scolded them for not doing their duty.

  Granier and Spitting Woman climbed the ladder on the opposite side of the tower.

  The two Viet Minh stopped their argument and resumed guarding the main gate.

  The tower guard shook his head in disgust. As he turned back around, he was surprised to find Granier standing directly behind him. Granier placed his hand over the man’s mouth and thrust his bayonet through the bottom of the soldier’s head between the chin and throat. The guard died with a grunt. Granier kept him from collapsing and let his corpse gently fall to the deck of the tower. Spitting Woman was aiming her rifle at the opposite tower at the back of the compound just in case.

  The man in the opposite tower was the only guard with a view of the tower at the front of the compound. He seemed unaware of the death of his comrade.

  She switched places with Granier and assumed the position of the front tower guard. Her Japanese uniform was too large for her small frame, but the only person that could see her well enough to notice was a hundred and sixty yards away in the opposite tower, and it was dark. The loose uniform was good enough in the shadows of the tower’s roof. Her height was the biggest problem. She was shorter than the dead guard, and that could be a noticeable difference even in the dark at a distance. She stood on the dead guard’s corpse to make up for the difference in height.

  Granier unslung his rifle, laid down on the tower deck, and quietly chambered a round. He glanced at his watch and took aim. Spitting Woman kept her rifle down so as not to cause alarm from anyone watching. After the first explosion, she would be the first to fire on the machinegunner while Granier took out the back tower guard. It didn’t take long.

  Dewey was out of breath by the time he’d placed the final explosive package beneath the command post and crushed the pencil detonator. The fuse was only two minutes on the last charge. That wasn’t much time for him and his team to find cover from the explosions. As he crawled from beneath the building, Green gave him a hand up. They ran to the perimeter wall and ducked down behind some water barrels Santana had spotted.

  Dewey pointed to the different directions he wanted Green and Santana to aim once the firing started. Each man pulled out a grenade and slipped their fingers into the safety rings. The grenades would add to the confusion and hopefully kill more Japanese. They were as ready as they could be, considering the circumstances. Dewey desperately wanted a drink from his canteen to wet his parched throat, but he didn’t dare as the time to detonation ticked down.
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br />   Granier knew the time was close. He closed his eyes to minimize the effect of the explosion’s flash. He took several deep breathes to relax. Just another day on the shooting range. Ain’t no big deal, he thought. It was a lie he told himself to stay loose and release the tension from his fingers and arms. Even the slightest muscle contraction could throw his aim off. Once the firing started and he took his first shot, he knew he would be okay. It was the waiting that was stressful.

  The first explosion lit up the night sky and ripped apart the Japanese barracks killing or badly wounding everyone inside. Fourteen soldiers were put out of action in an instant.

  Dewey, Green, and Santana tossed their grenades and opened fire. The grenades exploded in different parts of the compound, caused the confusion and chaos they had been hoping for. The enemy had no idea of the direction of the threats they faced.

  Spitting Woman opened fire at the machinegunner below. Her first shot missed. Her second shot hit him in the shoulder. Her third hit him in the throat and killed him. The loader took his place behind the machinegun and gave her a new target.

  Granier opened his eyes and peered through his scope. The light from the explosion was dissipating. The guard was moving to the opposite side of the tower just as he had predicted. Granier’s retinas expanded. The guard settled. Granier squeezed the trigger. The rifle fired with its usual jolt. The guard’s head jerked, and he slumped over the tower’s rail. Dead. The second and third barracks blew up. Japanese poured out of the remaining buildings into the compound, looking for the enemy.