by James Rosone
Childers had to give the Ukrainian Army credit; they fought fiercely against the Russians, despite being heavily outnumbered. Most of the units were just simply outmatched by the Russians. It was also hard to integrate them into the fight with NATO as their unit’s communications and digital equipment was not interoperable with the US or NATO. The electronic jamming the Russians were using heavily was becoming a problem in keeping the multi-national units communicating. However, for some unknown reason, the Russians were not actively jamming cellular service (of course, this was also a lot easier for them to eavesdrop on).
Most of the US Special Forces who had been working with the Ukrainians as military advisors were essentially stuck with those same units, acting as liaison officers and coordinators between US and NATO Forces. The interoperability problem was something that had to be overcome, but until additional communications equipment could be integrated into the Ukrainian Army, the SF soldiers and their equipment would have to be the stopgap solution. While this was not ideal, it did mean the Ukrainian units had seasoned combat veterans to help advise them during some of the heaviest fighting.
The next three hours went by with a near-constant stream of Russian ground attack aircraft and helicopters flying all over the place, attacking anything that moved below. As the platoon sat waiting in the village for the final allied troops to withdraw past them, they saw a pair of Su-25s dive down on what was most likely the remaining Ukrainian forces. These fighters were armored like the American A-10s, and they carried dozens of bombs, rocket pods, missiles and a 30mm auto-cannon.
Thump, thump, BOOM, BOOM. As the black smoke and fire rose in the distance from the latest Su-25 bombing run, Childers thought, “I wish we could shoot them down…it’s too bad that we ran out of Stinger missiles yesterday. There’s no more to be had, either.”
From time to time, they would see a massive aerial battle, but it was hard to tell who was winning and losing. Very seldom did they see an F-16 swoop down and plaster some Russian armor. When they did, they were quickly shot at by multiple air-defense vehicles.
“Look at that, Sergeant Childers,” one of the soldiers near him said, pointing to the sky.
A single F-16 flew in low over the trees and in a spectacular display of bravery, headed right for the Russian tanks with his afterburner lit. It released a pair of cluster munitions as it flew over them, only to explode into a million pieces seconds later. A missile that seemed to have come out of nowhere must have hit it.
“Ugh, I was hoping that guy was going to make it,” Sergeant Childers said, speaking to no one in particular.
“Hey, here comes two more fighters--I think those are Germans,” Specialist Cross said excitedly.
The two German Eurofighters tried to provide their countrymen with some close air support, both releasing a pair of 500 lbs. bombs. However, as the two aircraft peeled off to the right and began to gain altitude, a pair of MiGs came out of nowhere and blotted them both from the sky.
Childers churned through conflicting thoughts. “It’s so unbelievably frustrating to see our air support being shot down like this,” he groaned. “Then again, it’s encouraging to know that the Air Force is still doing their best to support us despite the incredible danger the pilots are placing themselves in.”
As the air battle continued and the remaining allied units passed through their ambush back to the new NATO lines, they began to hear the creaking and cracking of metal tracks. It was the unmistakable sound of tanks and other armored vehicles advancing towards them.
One of their scouts radioed in to Lieutenant Taylor and Sergeant Childers, “Nemesis two-two, this is Nemesis two-four. We have a column of T-90s approaching the village now. Count 12 enemy tanks. We also count 18 BTRs and at least half a dozen BMPs. Standby for contact, out.”
“Crap. They are bringing in T-90s now instead of T-80s. I’m not sure the artillery shells are going to penetrate their armor…” thought Taylor.
With the scouts at the edge of the town reporting the enemy tanks, it was only a matter of minutes now until they saw the lead vehicles entering their kill zone.
Lieutenant Taylor looked through the window of the building that his squad was in to see if he could spot Sergeant Childers and his crew. They were fairly well-hidden, but he thought he could still see them. He looked slightly to his right, not wanting to give away his position as he glanced outside the window. The Russian tanks were well within the kill zone; it looked like Childers was waiting for some of the BMPs and BTRs to also get within the box.
“A little closer…now I have you guys,” Sergeant Childers said to himself as he detonated the daisy-chained artillery rounds.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. The cars and storm drains the IEDs had been placed in erupted in a sudden orange ball of flames as thousands of chunks of scalding hot metal were thrown into the lead Russian infantry fighting vehicles and the tanks caught in the ambush. The force of the explosion was so great that several of the armored vehicles were thrown over on their sides.
“Now, Cross,” Childers said over the platoon net.
Specialist Cross was on the roof of the building next to them. He quickly popped up above the lip of the flat room, and aimed his AT4 at the first tank he saw, a T-90. Cross depressed the fire button, igniting the rocket motor. In a split second, the rocket shot out of the tube and slammed into the left rear side of the tank, causing a small explosion. The tank jerked to a stop and the engine area burst into flame.
As Specialist Cross was firing his rocket, a second soldier also popped up and fired off his AT4 as well. Like Cross’s rocket, his rocket flew right for the T-90 he had aimed at, only this time, the tank’s anti-rocket defense system activated, deflecting the rocket just as it was about to hit the tank. It flew into the dirt and exploded harmlessly.
While this was happening, the Russian soldiers who had been riding inside the infantry fighting vehicles and troop carriers disgorged from their vehicles and began to fan out and move towards the American positions. The Russians started to pour heavy machine gun fire towards the roofs of the nearby buildings, trying to kill any soldiers that might be hiding up there with additional anti-tank weapons.
“Now!” Sergeant Childers yelled over the radio.
The rest of the platoon opened fire on the Russian soldiers, causing most of them to drop to the ground for cover. The M240 gunners began to rake the Russian positions, crisscrossing the highway with heavy machinegun fire, killing dozens of enemy soldiers before they even knew what happened.
Lieutenant Taylor saw the building one of his M240 crews was set up in suddenly explode as a tank fired an HE round right into it. In a split second, he watched in horror as the upper torso of Private First Class Torino got ejected from the building, still holding onto the ammunition belt he had been feeding into the machine gun.
“Dear God, he’s still alive,” Taylor thought to himself as he briefly saw Torino try to crawl to cover, only to get hit by a bullet in the head.
As more explosions began to rock the buildings they were hiding in, a massive wave of Russian soldiers began to bum rush their positions, just as the Americans would have done in a similar ambush.
“Where the hell are those claymores, Sergeant Childers?!” the lieutenant shouted inside his own head. Taylor dropped his 30-round magazine and slapped another one in place, hitting the bolt release. He took aim at the enemy soldiers no more than 50 yards away.
BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM! The entire front half of the wave of enemy soldiers just disappeared into a bright red mist of blood, torn uniforms and body parts as the ten claymore mines detonated, throwing thousands of steel ball bearings into the charging enemy.
“Everyone, get out of here now!” Childers screamed over the radio, hoping to be heard above the cacophony of small arms fire, explosions, and the screaming of soldiers on both sides.
“These blasted Russians and their doctrine, if they are not predictable,” Childers dismayed as he saw several T-90s run over half a dozen scr
eaming wounded soldiers in an attempt to try and push their way through the ambush. Several BMPs and BTRs were quickly trying to follow the tanks through the village to get out of the kill zone as well.
“Blow it, Sergeant Childers! What are you waiting for?!” yelled Lieutenant Taylor over the platoon net. Childers looked down at the cell phone and hit send on the text message. In a fraction of a second, the additional IEDs went off, disabling one of the two T-90s and destroying two other infantry fighting vehicles. He then grabbed his M4 and ran out the back of the building, down the alleyway, heading straight for the wooded area, not far from the ambush point.
Childers caught up to some of his soldiers, who were panting hard as they were lugging the M240 and extra ammo. As they ran, he heard the whistling sound of incoming artillery rounds and yelled, “Hit the ground!”
Luke and the soldiers near him collectively dove forward and landed hard, skidding briefly on the ground before rolling to a stop. The earth beneath them then shook violently as artillery rounds began to strike nearby, throwing enormous amounts of dirt and debris from the surrounding buildings into the area. Craning his neck back to look at the village they had just left, he saw several additional artillery rounds plaster the remaining buildings, leveling everything.
“Come on guys, we need to get the heck out of here,” Childers said as he helped to lift several of his soldiers to their feet and they began to run to their next rally point.
“That attack ought to slow them up a bit while they deal with their wounded,” Luke thought to himself.
As Lt. Taylor was running through the woods with several of his soldiers he hoped Sergeant Childers and his group made it out all right. As he ran though, he couldn’t shake the images he had just seen. His mind raced, filled with the unmistakable yelling and screaming of wounded soldiers, men howling in agony. He saw that young soldier picking up his own severed arm off the side of the road. Taylor’s mind could not turn off.
While Nemesis Troop was carrying out their ambushes along E40 highway, the other troops of the 2nd Cavalry carried out their own traps on the other highways. While none of these ensnarements would stop the Russian advance altogether, it was slowing them down while NATO continued to rush additional forces to Kiev.
New Commander, New Strategy
Mons, Belgium
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)
General James Cotton had just arrived in Mons and was viewing the damage to the building from the Russian cruise missile attack that had hit SHAPE at the outset of the war. It was practically a total loss. What few people knew about (and thankfully the Russians did not destroy) was the newly-developed alternate command post built at the opposite end of the military base, which had been cleverly designed as a museum. About fifty feet below the building, was an underground command post that had been built to be used during a time of war. The bunker had been completed in 2014, so it was significantly more modern than the actual command center.
“As you can see General, we have a Patriot missile battery set up now and the THAADs are operational again. This type of attack should not happen again,” a Belgian Colonel said as he finished showing the new SACEUR the damage.
Shaking his head in disgust at how poorly things had gone so far with the war, he resolved to fix the situation and get things back under control. The past 24 hours had been a whirlwind of activity; the President had fired his boss, General Wheeler, and then a host of other generals and admirals to include all the Service Chiefs. Then he fired nearly 300 Senior Executive Service (SES) government civilians, along with dozens of deputy and assistant secretaries across the CIA, FBI, DIA, and NSA, because of their colossal failure to understand the true military threat posed by Russia. However, the biggest shake up to happen (and the one that directly affected his position), was the deep cover SVR agent who had been recently arrested. This spy had been passing numerous high-level meeting transcripts between the President and his military commanders to the Russians, which would explain why they appeared to always be a step ahead of their moves or lying in ambush of NATO Forces.
“I still cannot believe we had so many people involved in leaking classified intelligence to the media,” General Cotton thought to himself. “And how in the heck did the SVR get a mole who had access to the National Security Council meeting notes? These traitors have cost the lives of thousands of military members.” The general was still stewing at the revelations that had just been made by the White House.
Following a review of the damage, the military escorts led General Cotton to the elevator that would lead them to the underground command center for his morning brief. They needed to get him up-to-speed on the situation on the ground.
As General Cotton walked into the hallway that led to the Operations Center, he was impressed with how modern and high-tech the operations center looked. There were dozens of large screen computer monitors on one of the walls, with various maps and images on them. On a different wall were several different news channels from the various member states. They were all reporting on various aspects of the war.
His escort led him past the operations center, promising him a more thorough tour of the bunker following the meeting. There was a lot that needed to get taken care of, since he had just assumed command of NATO.
Taking his seat at the center of the table at the back of the room, General Cotton got right down to business. “All right, let’s get down to business. What is the situation in the air right now? Do we have air supremacy yet, or anything close to it?” he asked.
His NATO Air Commander (a British Air Marshal), cleared his throat before proceeding. “General Cotton, we presently do not have air supremacy over the battlefield. We do have control of the skies near the Polish border and the western portion of Ukraine. However, the central and eastern part of the country are in Russian hands. We have attempted to secure the skies over Kiev and the current frontline on numerous occasions over the last twenty-four hours; in each instance, our fighters were either heavily engaged by Russian Su-57 stealth fighters, Su-35s and MiG-31s, or an inordinate amount of SAMs. It’s a hot mess right now Sir,” the air marshal explained, summarizing the situation.
General Cotton was upset. “We are going to have to get the air situation sorted soon,” he worried. “This is ridiculous that we have not been able to secure the air yet.” General Cotton looked around the room, and everyone seemed to be satisfied with the air marshal’s response, as if the lack of air superiority over the battlefield was acceptable given the circumstances.
“Please excuse me if I get anyone’s names or ranks wrong--I have not been at NATO long enough to know all of your titles and the various ranks structures of your nations’ services. For the moment, I will plan on addressing everyone as General, Marshal, Admiral or Colonel, as I would speak to my own country’s military members, just for sake of clarity.” He saw some people were kind of put off by his lack of wanting to learn their proper military ranks, but frankly he did not have time. These officers had so fouled up the war unfolding in Ukraine that he did not care if he offended their sensibilities.
General Cotton continued, “Marshal Pierce, I do not accept that report or that outcome. I want to know why we are five days into this conflict and NATO still does not have even fifty percent air supremacy over the battlefield yet. NATO has spent decades developing plans to handle the Russian Air Force and air defense capabilities. Britain, France, Germany, and others have exceptionally capable air assets to handle the Russian threat. Please explain to me what the problem is, so we can work to address it.”
Marshal Pierce looked like a hurt puppy at the comment. He lowered his head and sighed softly before replying, “General, we do not have air superiority because we have sustained heavy aircraft losses, and several member nations have not committed additional air assets to the campaign yet. Until we get additional squadrons that can be brought to bear, there is only so much we can do. We also do not have the vast array of satellites that we used t
o; we rely so heavily on them to track and locate the now hundreds of Russians SAMs across Ukraine, and that ability has been seriously degraded.” As he spoke, he stared daggers at the Spanish, French, and Italian officers, who were the biggest offenders in terms of breaking air support promises.
The Air Force General shot back, “Marshal Pierce, I know this looks bad, and believe me, I wish there was more we could do. We are being held back by our President. He has not authorized the release of additional squadrons to NATO control.” He spoke angrily to the British Air Marshal, as if he personally was holding out on them.
General Cotton thought to himself, “I know there is a lot of consternation between the military members of NATO and their political counterparts. The NATO military generals want to beat back the Russians, but the lack of resources being released by the political leaders of these member states is greatly affecting our ability to adequately respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I know President Gates is working on this, but I sure hope it gets resolved quickly. Nothing like fighting a battle with both arms ties behind your back.”
I understand everyone here wants to get in the fight. I know there is a lot of pressure being placed on you all by your elected officials right now, and they are the ones holding up the release of the requested forces. President Gates and Ambassador Wilkins, our new Ambassador to NATO, are currently working that issue with your leaders right now. What I need from all of you is a plan that will be ready to execute as we get more forces released. We need anti-SAM missions drawn up, we need air superiority missions drawn up, we need our supply lines to start flowing, and men and material moved to the battlefield as quickly as possible. There is a tremendous amount of work that needs to happen while we let the politicians sort things out,” General Cotton explained, trying to light a fire under everyone. NATO had vast war supplies across the various member states; it was time to start getting them opened and on the move to the frontlines.