by Vivek Ahuja
Wing-Commander Dutt was standing by the ramp of the parked Il-76 along with two of his former test-pilots in their flight-suits while the chief warrant officer was supervising operations. As Dutt watched, another spout of rain began to fall from the sky following a rumbling thunder. The weather was bad, at least for flying, and he wondered whether nature would force its way into the combat debut of his newborn helicopter unit. But the captain of the Il-76 had assured him that the flight to Leh would take place regardless of the weather. They were not going to let weather get in the way of destiny…
The No. 44 Squadron Il-76 had arrived on schedule at Bangalore to pick up and transport the 199HU to Leh. Most of the Il-76 force and the newly inducted C-17s under Nos. 44 and 25 Squadrons were already fully committed to the war, flying every hour of the day ferrying supplies, equipment and evacuating wounded soldiers to safety. Now the Il-76s would help mark another debutant to the war…
The induction of 119HU into Ladakh was currently underway. Six helicopters had been literally pulled off the production and testing lines for this job because the LCH was not yet fully deployed with frontline squadrons. Each of these six helicopters was either a production, testing or technology demonstrator vehicle. Therefore in many ways each helicopter was unique to the rest.
Weapons would be the key in their upcoming deployment.
The squadron, ground-crewmen were still taking delivery of the ready-to-fire rounds of the HELINA anti-tank missile that had gone into production just a year prior, being yet another piece of new technology being thrust into battle. Dutt had asked for volunteers from the HAL engineering staff to come with the squadron on the deployment and help maintain the helicopters since very few ground-crews had been trained on this new helicopter. He had found many willing employees in the staff. These HAL employees had already been working night and day to get the system up and running ever since the war started.
Desperate times for desperate measures…
“So how are we doing?”
Air-Marshal Subramanian asked as he walked over to Dutt. The latter pointed towards the first LCH being strapped to the floor of the cargo cabin of the Il-76 while another was being pushed into position behind it. Both helicopters had been stripped down and their main-rotors dismantled to allow them to be loaded into the transport.
“We are on time. The second helicopter is being loaded right now. Then we just have to load the ATGMs, rockets, Cannon rounds and spare parts. We are also sending ground-crews and two of my pilots along. We need to hit the ground running once we land at Leh,” Dutt answered.
Subramanian looked over to the remaining four helicopters parked outside in the drizzle awaiting airlift. They had been covered with tarpaulins now that the rain had picked up slightly. Their main rotor blades had been removed and the tail rotor blade system locked down and feathered. Armed guards with water dripping off their INSAS rifles were patrolling the perimeter nearby even as a round of thunder ran across the clouds.
Dutt had studied both the long-term and short-term meteorological reports. It was going to be cloudy over there.
And cold like hell...
“Dutt, once you get to Leh, you are to send a detachment of two helicopters to the FARP near Saser, south of DBO, after you reach Leh. Deploy another two of your birds at Shyok. The last two will remain at Leh.”
That caused Dutt to turn around. He did not like last minute changes in plans. Subramanian continued before he could speak:
“My boy, the war in Ladakh is not going as planned for either side. The situation at DBO is a bloody mess. We have our chaps on the verge of being run over by Chinese tanks. They have beaten off the first wave of attacks, but without support they wouldn’t be able to last another. We are diverting every last Jaguar we can spare for the CAS role towards DBO until the situation stabilizes. Take your two birds there and see if you can even the odds, will you?”
Dutt absorbed what all he had been told just now. The stakes were high, and despite the politeness of his Commander, it wasn’t a request.
“What about supplies, sir? My unit has just been formed ad-hoc. It has barely a skeletal logistical and maintenance setup. You stretch us out there from Leh to Shyok to Saser, and I will be struggling to get the basic supplies and ammo sent to my guys to shoot at the reds!”
“It’s already taken care of. We have an ALH unit in Leh along with a Cheetah unit. Plus Mi-17s at Thoise. Apart from that we have half a dozen other transport and utility helicopter units in the region already or arriving as we speak. The forward detachments of 199HU will receive supplies and logistical support through these units. Use their setup to transport your special supplies. Understood?” Subramanian said.
“Yes, sir. And what about our original task?” Dutt continued.
“It still stands as far as the two birds at Leh are concerned. You will receive your intelligence update from the Army once you land there.”
“As long as the bloody weather doesn’t get in the way!” Dutt answered, putting his arm out into the pouring rain. Subramanian smiled and grunted before walking away.
KASHGAR AIRBASE
SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION
CHINA
DAY 3 + 1120 HRS
Feng read the report stating that back-up radars for two S-300 batteries were now online. The handful of surviving launchers from various decimated batteries had been pooled together to bring up the semblance of two active batteries in the Aksai Chin.
Two.
Out of the original ten!
He crushed the report into a paper ball and threw it aside in a fit of rage. The Indians had conducted a very elaborate and deceptive takedown of his S-300 coverage capabilities yesterday night.
But the attacks had not been completely free of cost for the IAF either. They had lost three of their Jaguars to low-altitude point-defense weapons. Only one crewmember had been able to safely eject and make it to the ground alive. He had been quickly captured by a search party led by one PLAAF Major who had been embedded with the PLA battery commander at one of the sites.
And what a catch it is!
Feng thought about it. Group-Captain Parekh had been captured. Chinese military intelligence knew him as commander of the Indian No. 5 Squadron. The man who had led the attacks on his missile sites…
Feng looked up to catch the sound of the incoming rotor noises and saw the bright sun glistening off the Mi-17 as it approached for a landing. On the tarmac below, a group of armed guards ran off to greet the new guest of the PLAAF. As the helicopter touched down and the tires pressed against the hard concrete, the cabin door slid open and a blindfolded Indian man in his mid-forties was guided out by soldiers inside. An air-force Major also jumped out. Feng recognized him to be the man who had captured the Indian pilot.
Feng smiled as he walked over. The soldiers restrained Parekh from moving forward when Feng was in front of them. The Major snapped off a salute and Feng returned it. He then looked at the blindfolded Parekh:
“Welcome to the People’s Republic of China, Group-Captain Parekh. I apologize for the condition of your arrival but as you can imagine, external conditions were extraordinary to say the least. While you are here, you are a guest of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force!”
Feng turned to the Major escorting Verma and spoke in mandarin:
“Remove the blindfold. Make sure he gets food and water. He is not to be ill-treated or I will have the people responsible for it shot! Understood?”
The Major nodded and looked over to the two soldiers restraining Parekh. They quickly removed the blindfold. Parekh hadn’t seen light of any kind for hours now and the bright sunlight caused him to wince for a few seconds. Once his eyes adjusted, he looked around and saw a Senior-Colonel of the PLAAF standing in front of him. The bright red star on his fur cap could not be missed, and neither was the smile on the grizzled face…
“Group-Captain, as you can see, the Chinese air-force is in complete control of the skies over the battlefield to th
e south. We even flew you here during daylight in an unarmed helicopter and no escorts. In the time of your capture, we have struck your airbases with impunity using our missiles and have pushed them all the way to the south of the country,” Feng lied through his smile in crisp English. “Within a few days our land forces will have defeated your forces in Ladakh. Expect to meet a lot more of your friends here real soon. It should be just like 1962 for your countrymen, so you will get used to it. It’s almost like China has to remind your country every few decades of where it stands in Asia. Well, no matter. We will finish the job this time!”
Parekh squinted in the bright sunlight and turned away from it. He still had energy left to respond:
“Really, Colonel? All I remember seeing yesterday night was the exploding fireballs around your vaunted radar and missile sites in the Aksai Chin. And the rest of my boys made it home safely. You should probably check again with your field commanders about the war because to me it seems like you are being fed bullshit!”
“Ah yes, your attacks. They were nothing more than pin-pricks, Parekh,” Feng shook the file in his hand. “As of this morning, those holes you created have already been plugged. And our missiles have already claimed two more of your squadron Jaguars this morning. We even have reports coming in that the Tuskers unit is now so combat depleted that it is being replaced on the front lines. So your co-pilot and the others died for nothing. Our S-300s continue to remain active and your unit continues to breathe its dying breaths!” Feng replied.
“Buddy, we will see about that! I hope you have bunkers here, because it won’t be long before my boys will be visiting you too!” Parekh retorted
Feng laughed at the back-and-forth conversation. Something he had always wanted to do with his enemy face to face…
“We will see, Group-Captain!” he checked his watch and faced the Indian pilot again: “I had hoped to meet my counterpart, and I have. However now I am needed elsewhere. Perhaps we will meet again under better circumstances. Right this instant I have a war to fight!”
Feng smiled condescendingly and nodded to the Major.
Parekh was taken away after reinstating the blindfold over his eyes. He didn’t realize it, but he had just conversed with the man who had saved his skin inside an active war zone. Feng had gone to great lengths to have Parekh transferred to the control of the PLAAF instead of the PLA intelligence officers whose brutality in these matters were infamous throughout the Chinese military.
But Feng would not allow such a thing to happen to a person he considered a professional adversary, not a street criminal. Not many others agreed with him on that, however.
Privileges of my rank. The men will do as they are told.
For now.
Feng thought about that, sighed and then headed back to his utility vehicle to drive back to the operations center.
THE VILLAGE OF DOKUNG
NORTHERN SIKKIM
DAY 3 + 1215 HRS
Gephel yawned like a yeti when his eyes opened. He checked his watch and saw that he had been asleep for around six hours.
First warm bed and blanket in weeks…
Heaven!
He looked around and saw that the other members of his team were still fast asleep, snoring away. Except for Ngawang, who was busy shaving his beard off with a small mirror mounted on the window sill.
Gephel decided to do the same and pulled himself out of the warm sleeping bag on the floor. The winds were still howling outside and he recollected where he was again.
“Good afternoon, sir!” Ngawang smiled as he noticed Gephel getting up. He got a grunt in return. Gephel realized that their days of operating black and non-existent were perhaps close to ending. He was, at the end of the day, an Indian army officer…
“You too, Major!” he finally retorted to Ngawang before heading off into the washroom.
Thirty minutes later a well shaved Gephel and Ngawang walked into the office of the battalion commander and saluted. Both men were now wearing Indian army combat fatigues with proper rank insignia but no name tags or other identifications. They found Ansari sitting inside on a relatively comfortable chair next to the Colonel’s desk, with the pack of images taken by the team through various optics, printed out. It made Gephel somewhat uncomfortable to see the casualness with which all of this was being handled. He put it down to his own self having a hard time changing gears back to regular army life…
The images in front of them had been taken by the team. They showed the nature of the Chinese supply routes in the region as well as layout and structural strength of the bridges, roads and other assorted infrastructure in southern Tibet.
Gephel noted that Ansari had made notes on several images with special pencils. They couldn’t use pens here of any kind because the ink froze at the brutal arctic temperatures outside.
“So Lef-tenant-Colonel, what’s the tally?” the Colonel asked.
Ansari looked up from his seat to hear Gephel’s response. The latter had a smile on his face.
“Twenty-seven, sir. The ones we counted as confirmed! Twelve of these belonging to a Chinese recon party actually heading towards Kongra-La as we were on our way out,” Gephel stated.
The Colonel did not like that final comment one bit, because his Battalion was the one strung out north of Dokung in charge of the security of Kongra-La. The last thing he needed were Chinese recon teams infiltrating behind his lines or causing mayhem. Ansari was about to say something but the Colonel interjected:
“Lef-tenant-Colonel, was there any additional indication of Chinese interest in the region of Kongra-La?”
Gephel noted that the Colonel kept referring to him as “Lef-tenant-Colonel”. He wondered whether it was because Ansari had not told the Colonel his real name. He shook his head after some thought:
“No sir, not that we could see. But they do have some units out on patrol all along the border. The recon team we ambushed had notes on our unit dispositions and so forth for this sector, though. They had actually infiltrated behind our lines just as we had done behind theirs, roughly through the same route. But all indications from the notes I handed over to you and Ansari show that they probably wanted to know whether we had plans beyond Kongra-La.”
“Just like we want to know about their plans south of it,” Ansari said finally. “And I will agree with the Lef-tenant-Colonel’s assessment on this. They will send recon teams into Sikkim from this sector, and we have to stop them getting intelligence on our dispositions. So now we know that they have in fact been sending teams across. We need more units out here to plug the gaps. Our team broke through the border by crossing the peaks rather than the passes and nearly reached the camp perimeter this morning before we spotted them. If we can do it, the Chinese can do it too. We must work with that assumption.”
The Colonel was hardly enthusiastic about that:
“That means that I have to spread out my men even more to plug these holes rather than keeping them concentrated into a fighting fist. That is a folly I can ill afford, especially against the Chinese. As you say, we need more units. I will forward the estimates up to Brigade. Let’s see what comes off it. In any case, good work.”
The Colonel leaned back into his chair and faced Ansari and gestured him to continue. Ansari nodded and moved on:
“Anyway, coming to the bigger picture. What’s the latest at Gyantse?”
“55TH and 11TH Divisions,” Gephel answered.
“55TH Division, huh?” Ansari pondered.
Yet another familiar unit from the past...
“Yes sir. The Chinese 55TH Division is already concentrated at Gyantse and has units on the way towards the Chumbi valley. We located the divisional headquarters and two brigade headquarters near Gyantse. We didn’t really see any units under 11TH Division, but we have this information based on sources near the Karo-La. That makes three, I believe,” Gephel said for the record.
“Yes it does. Good work on the unit identifications. We have a Chinese brigade concentr
ating inside the Chumbi opposite Nathu-La. We are already engaged in local operations against them. The Chinese have another brigade heading to join this first one based on the photographs you provided us. That leaves a third brigade still 55TH Division at Gyantse. We can be sure that it will move down as well once 11TH Division comes down to Gyantse from the Karo-La. We have a lot of shit heading our way!” Ansari said and leaned back in his seat.
“And what about us?” Gephel asked.
“You are to stay here and get your team the rest it deserves. Get them cleaned up and have some hot food for a change. Until we handle and terminate the threat from the Chinese forces in Tibet, you are not going anywhere back in,” Ansari stated forcefully.
Gephel and Ngawang did not like that one single bit. Ansari did not expect them to do so either. Ngawang was about to say something but Gephel held him with a glare before looking at Ansari:
“With all due respect, I think we can do some good out there. And you know that. So where is this coming from?” Gephel asked.
“You know I can’t discuss that. The bottom line is that this thing has a potential of turning into something very nasty. And the last thing we need is to be seen as connected with the Tibetan rebellion. When we defeat the Chinese, we will let you all loose into Tibet to wrench it back from Beijing. But for now, you are to stay and serve as regular line officers that you are,” Ansari said blandly. He didn’t really believe in what he was saying any more than the people he was saying it to.
“That’s typical bullshit from New-Delhi!” Ngawang blurted out. Gephel shot him a stare that instantly shut him up.
“Apologies, sir. I don’t know what came over me,” Ngawang added half-heartedly. Ansari nodded in understanding.
“We will defeat the Chinese, Major. And you will get a chance to fight for your country’s freedom. You have my word on it. For now however, stand your men down!”