by Vivek Ahuja
“Yeah well, this place...” Potgam gestured to the golf-course, “…won’t last long once Chinese satellites pick up what we are doing. Two or three missile strikes and we would all be out of action. Still, let’s get whatever we can while they are busy with the Chumbi valley whoop-ass we are handing their Divisions right now. What about air support?”
“Mig-27 strikes from Hashimara are all I have been assured of right now,” the Colonel said neutrally.
I need more time!
If we can’t have it for free, we have to go buy it…
OVER SOUTHERN TIBET
DAY 5 + 2030 HRS
As the night unfolded along the blazing frontline in Ladakh, eight Jaguars in two flights of four broke into Tibetan airspace again, this time doing so from the Himachal Pradesh border. The eight aircraft tore into the thin mountain air and continued east…
The Tuskers were on the job again and out to exact revenge for the loss of their commander and two other aircraft to the PLAAF defences two days ago.
They banked towards Rudok-Dzong. The terrain identification was the teardrop shaped lake pointing east. There the Jaguars would turn north.
The S-300 air-defences in northern Ladakh near the Qara-Tagh-La were playing hell with the air-force’s ability to provide battlefield interdiction in the Aksai Chin. But after five days of intensive combat between the PLAAF and PLA air-defences on one side and the IAF on the other, both sides had lost the stomach for costly slugfests. The Chinese had only a handful of S-300s left in Western Tibet now after the destruction of significant numbers of these batteries by combined Jaguar-ALCM operations two days ago.
This left several holes in their defences in the region and Air-Marshal Bhosale fully intended to use them to cripple the PLAAF even more.
Strategic initiative was the name of the game now…
The eight aircraft thundered over the lake near Rudok and then headed north from there. Soon thereafter the two flights broke into the flat plains of the massive Taklimakan Desert inside Tibet and left the Himalayan peaks behind them. All eight aircraft dived to ultra-low altitude above the desert.
This is what the Jaguars were built to do. The aircraft had enough endurance to haul heavy weapons load deep into enemy airspace at extremely low altitudes. They even had over-wing Matra-Magic air-to-air missiles to defend themselves. The flight of eight Jaguars now spread into a line abreast formation. All eight pilots knew that they would only get one pass at this.
HOTIEN AIRBASE
TAKLIMAKAN DESERT
TIBET
DAY 5 + 1940 HRS
The airbase was abuzz with activity.
It had several unloading tarmac areas where PLAAF transport aircraft were active in offloading supplies which were then to be driven to the Ladakh front. At the same time they were loading on board the sick and wounded soldiers evacuated from the frontlines to hospitals in mainland China. Three Il-76s stood on the eastern tarmac area of the airbase while several Mi-17 helicopters and lighter transport aircraft were parked at the extreme western tarmac areas. In the central area, two Boeing 737 airliners from the Chinese airlines fleet were parked as they offloaded PLA soldiers heading to the Ladakh front. The airbase was full lit as enemy action threat this deep inside Tibet was minimal.
In the skies southwest of Hotien, two J-8F fighters from Kashgar airbase armed for air-to-air combat were now conducting mid-air refuelling with an H-6U tanker from Korla airbase. A hundred kilometres north, a KJ-2000 AWACS aircraft flew on radar picket duty…
For the Jaguars streaking in such low altitudes, the margin for hitting the airbase was low. The J-8Fs would be back on station soon enough. As they flew over the terrain, the ground cleared and Hotien rolled in over the horizon. The airport well-lit and clearly visible.
The Chinese did get a few moments of warning as the eight Jaguars now climbed. As they reached several hundred feet above the desert floor, for the minimum CBU release height and to align themselves with targets, the KJ-2000 detected the eight inbounds and the warning was sounded.
As the base klaxons sounded off, the mass of confused soldiers and ground-crewmen ran for cover. One Il-76 had just taken off the runway on a return flight loaded with wounded soldiers. The pilots of that aircraft began screaming for air cover…
There was no time.
The first six Jaguars screamed over the well-lit runway before the first anti-air guns had even opened up, releasing two dozen cluster bomb units within seconds of each other. The Hotien tarmac area suddenly exploded within a mass of spark filled carpet punctuated with orange fireballs. The two parked Il-76s were ripped into pieces by the explosions and the control tower was a mass of blazing fires. The Mi-17s and the two airliners on the ground were also turned into funeral pyres. Several hundred Chinese lives were extinguished within those few seconds.
Two of the eight Jaguars were tasked for anti-air, and they immediately latched on to the slowly lumbering Il-76 as it took to the air in front of them. The pilots didn’t even bother with missiles. As the two aircraft strafed the large four-engine transport aircraft, its two port side engines caught fire and the wing broke into pieces. As the aircraft tumbled towards the desert below, the wounded soldiers inside were swept out by the winds without parachutes. The aircraft was fully loaded with fuel for a long flight and it disappeared into a blazing fireball on impact…
The two J-8Fs on patrol terminated refuelling operations and began diving to low altitude over Hotien. By this time the Jaguars were egressing south, away from the blazing fires and clouds of smoke encompassing Hotien airbase. One the two air-to-air configured Jaguars fired off two Matra-Magic heat-seeking missiles followed soon by his wingman as they cleared the way for the other six Jaguars down below. One of the two J-8Fs exploded under impact of the missile. The skies filled with flares as the other aircraft evaded for its life. But the J-8F is not nearly as manoeuvrable to evade from advanced heat-seeking missiles such as the Magic series. The missiles claimed the second J-8F low over the desert sands where it disappeared in a cloud of dirt and smoke.
It was over within minutes.
The eight Jaguars headed southeast towards the safety of the Himalayan peaks, ending their brief foray over the Taklimakan Desert. Behind them lay a devastated PLA logistical node for the Ladakh front.
THIMPU
DAY 5 + 2150 HRS
The first news reports of the situation on the streets of Thimpu began airing on news networks worldwide. Images of Bhutanese civilians fleeing to the south towards the Indian border filled the waves. Rumours filled the airwaves as the Bhutanese government began to collapse in the chaos. The situation was vastly reminiscent of the situation in Assam in 1962 during the previous Sino-Indian war. Rumours also spread that the Royal Bhutanese Army had been routed.
As night fell, the citizens of Thimpu saw the ground thundering to the north as the last few Royal Bhutanese Guard units attempted to hold off the Chinese Regiment poised to take the capital of Bhutan. In a few hours the news media across the world were talking of explosions being heard north of Thimpu. At about the same time, Indian television channels began showing the same news, and started asking questions about the India’s failure to prevent the fall of Bhutan. No one stopped to ask Lieutenant-General Potgam, if he had anything to say or do about it.
NORTHWEST OF LEH
LADAKH
DAY 5 + 2340 HRS
The moonlight glistened off the shiny new paint job. Major Kulkarni admired the speed with which the new camouflage had been applied. The green camouflage had been painted over with white and the light brown areas had been painted over with shades of disruptive patterns of brown. The paint was still not dry yet. Fact was that they only reason they had halted at all was because a medevac convoy was making its way west from Leh back to Srinagar carrying wounded soldiers and civilians to safety. The snake like mountain roads did not allow much room for two way motion along the road.
Especially not with these vehicles!
Kul
karni looked around. Everywhere they had passed along the way, the story had been the same: civilians heading west, military convoys heading east. Helicopters occasionally flew overhead and sometimes they could see black pillars of smoke from some supply base that had received a hit from Chinese cruise-missile. But the change in emotions on the way here from Rajasthan had been powerful.
They were also having a different type of effect on those they passed on the road. Everybody stopped in awe as the Major’s unit thundered by. It never failed to inspire Kulkarni.
It was still a long drive to Leh and just as long a drive from there to the actual ground combat zone.
Would there even be a frontline to fight on when we get there?
He shook his head and turned his attention to the road. As the last truck passed by, he was waved on by the MPs guiding the traffic on the road. He climbed on top of the turret and put his helmet on. The others in his convoy did the same. He then lowered his R/T mouthpiece and depressed the send button, instantly activating voice comms between himself and the other eleven vehicles in his unit:
“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements! Looks like the road is clear. We are rolling again! Move out!”
His driver took the cue and a second later the vehicle lurched forward. Eleven other similar vehicles did the same. The thunder of twelve Arjun tank engines reverberated through the valley for kilometres as Rhino Squadron of the 43RD Armoured Regiment began rolling towards Ladakh.
day 6
YUMTHANG VALLEY
SIKKIM
DAY 6 + 0005 HRS
“Get it rolling, son. We don’t have all night.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Fernandez shouted as he walked by the young lieutenant fixing up the last supporting harnesses around the Pinaka Launcher. Its canisters were empty and the platform lowered and locked for transport. He stopped and looked around to see crews preparing the other vehicles as well. He moved the cigar in his mouth from one side to the other.
“Let’s go, men! Move!”
He loved his cigar. Always had. But he had begun to love it even more in the winter of Sikkim. And he definitely loved the victory smoke. His battery had hammered the divisional artillery units of the Chinese 55TH Division in the Chumbi valley for the past day. That division was being heavily mauled by the Indian divisions under XXXIII Corps as part of operation Chimera.
But he and his Pinaka warriors had now been transferred to Bhutan.
“Sir, J-F-B command on the line!” Fernandez’s comms officer said as he ran up to him.
“All right son, let’s go.”
Fernandez walked up into the command trailer parked under camo netting and skip-jumped the climbing-steps and walked in.
“Hit it, son!” he said as he grabbed the radio speaker.
“This is Hotel-six-actual, send traffic, over!”
“Hotel-six-actual, this is Warlord. Give me an update!” General Potgam’s grizzly voice came through.
“Hotel-Six is on the move, sir. Group of three Launchers, one C-Three vehicle and support elements are awaiting a hitch to the deployment area just as soon as the flyboys get their act together. Other elements will follow later,” Fernandez said. He could faintly hear the sounds of helicopters outside.
“Keep pushing hard. I want you guys to hit the ground running. We are time-critical on this. We are getting some eyes in the sky soon. Get your asses over here in the meantime. Warlord out!” Potgam signed off.
Fernandez handed the speaker back to his comms officer. He stepped two feet to the side and opened the door. The immediate gust of freezing air entered the trailer, causing everybody to shiver and reach for their jacket zippers. Two Mi-26 helicopters were hovering outside and the strapped and packed Pinaka vehicles were being hooked up underneath them. Further away, Mi-17V5s were doing the same with the lighter utility vehicles…
The crumbling frontline in northern Bhutan and the threat to Thimpu had created a lot of uncertainty. While the golf-course at IMTRAT headquarters in Haa-Dzong had been converted into a temporary helipad for the heavy reinforcements heading into Bhutan, the threat to Haa-Dzong was still far from clear. Hotel-Six was the only rocket artillery moving into Bhutan for now and represented the only artillery units directly under Potgam and Joint-Force-Bhutan.
For Fernandez, the problem was the deployment into Haa-Dzong. Since it was clear that any area north from there was unsecured and possibly under enemy control, he felt very uncomfortable.
With the two Mi-26s and three Mi-17s providing heavy airlift capability, Fernandez had decided to move the required hardware in six to ten overall round trips with each trip lasting about one hour. That was about as fast as they could do it. The problem was that General Potgam would have the first eyes over Thimpu imminently. And he may have targets lined up for him by the time Fernandez landed. But with only a third of his needed presence he wouldn’t be able to deliver much punch just yet.
Potgam is not going to be happy…
He stomped out of the command trailer, closed the entrance behind him and headed across the ground in time to see the two Mi-26 engines groaning under the strain of the cargo hanging underneath. Several minutes later they were heading down the valley. Two of the Mi-17V5s followed behind, lifting some of the lighter equipment including the DIGICORA metrological radar and a stripped down command vehicle. The third helicopter was on the ground and soldiers from the battery were loading necessary light equipment into its cabin.
“Just tell me you have everything under control here!”
Fernandez shouted over the helicopter noise to his second-in-command, who would now command the remainder of the deployment from here while Fernandez headed off in the last helicopter of this batch to Bhutan.
“Yes sir! What’s the logistical support over there? Where are we going to get resupplied from?” the Major asked.
That was a good question!
Fernandez didn’t know the answer. He wasn’t sure if even Potgam had the answer for that just now. Fernandez threw the cigar butt on to the snow.
“I will let you know when I find out! There are no pre-located AFARP locations over there as far as I know!” He said finally.
Northern Sikkim was dotted with pre-selected and pre-stocked Artillery-Forward-Area-Rearming-Points or AFARPs. These well hidden and well stocked supply locations allowed for rapid artillery deployments and longer periods of intensive operations. The supplies included ready-to-fire rockets for the Pinaka Batteries as well.
“Nobody figured we would be fighting a pitched battle with the PLA inside freaking Bhutan! You know what they say about battle plans, right? We can only hope that Warlord has gotten a ground convoy moving up to his location with rockets for us to fire. Or else we can say goodbye to Bhutan forever!” Fernandez said as they watched the last Mi-17 prepare to leave.
“Well good luck out there, sir!” The Major said.
“See you on the other side, Major!”
Both men shook hands before Fernandez jogged over to the waiting helicopter. Soon the helicopter increased power and lurched into the sky, steadily climbing away towards the mountains around Gora La before turning south down the valley.
NEW CHINA NEWS AGENCY
DAY 6 + 0120 HRS
“Incoming reports have confirmed that Indian warplanes have shot down a civilian airliner carrying hundreds of displaced refugees over the Taklimakan desert. Refugees have been fleeing from the fighting in Tibet where the brave soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army are fighting off the India aggression. Other reports indicate that the civilian terminal at Hotien airport has also been bombed. Civilian casualties are in the hundreds. China asks the western nations to condemn these cowardly Indian attacks against innocent civilians. We welcome the news that Pakistan has joined China in condemning India for the attacks and hopes that the rest of the world’s nations will follow the example. China has formally asked the United-Nations-Security-Council to meet in an emergency meeting to discuss these incidents.”
NORTH O
F THIMPU
BHUTAN
DAY 6 + 0320 HRS
“They didn’t leave much standing, did they?” Vikram whispered.
“That’s a big negative!” Ravi agreed from his position further away.
“Cut the chatter! Let’s move in for a closer look. Spear-four and -five are on over-watch with the LMGs. Rest are on me! Let’s see if any of the RBG guys are still alive out there. Move!”
Captain Pathanya said over the team VHF intercom speaker before bringing up his INSAS rifle scope up. He surveyed the fires around the small village on the other side of the bridge. There was no activity inside the village other than the odd burning wooden roof structure collapsing within the walls.
Soon the rest of his ten-man team came cautiously out of the bushes near the road and headed towards the bridge with their weapons drawn and pointed towards the village. Pathanya was the first to run up to the edge of the road and remained low as he brought his rifle up again. Two seconds later the rest of the team was in nearby locations and had the road covered. Vikram had an IMFS set up to survey the hills on the other side.
Pathanya looked down the road to the south and saw the charred remains of a Bhutanese army truck, silently spewing smoke into the night sky. Further near the bridge, there were a few motionless bodies of civilians and men in Bhutanese army uniforms. The blood spatter near the bodies was hard to miss…
“Precision arty. The RBG boys took a beating out here. The Chinese left the bridge deliberately intact though,” Vikram observed.
“Why won’t they? It’s the fastest route into Thimpu from here!” Pathanya added. “When the time comes we need to get Warlord to find and destroy those enemy guns. For now let’s keep out eyes open. Move out!”
KASHGAR AIRBASE
SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION
CHINA
DAY 6 + 0630 HRS