by Vivek Ahuja
“Damn it, Feng! This is unacceptable!” Chen shouted.
Feng agreed. They had just gotten a detailed damage and loss assessment report from Hotien airbase. It was still littered with the wreckage of the burnt out Il-76s and a host of other gutted aircraft.
Then there was the matter of several hundred deaths of Chinese soldiers, including wounded ones being evacuated to the north. The cascading anger had just reached Kashgar. Beijing had chewed out General Jinping and the PLA commander for their supposed lapses. Jinping had in turn blasted Wencang and Chen for failing him. Feng supposed the same must have happened down on the PLA side as well. Needless to say, Feng was on the receiving end of Chen’s outburst…
“We cannot let these attacks go unchecked! You know how long the casualty list is from the attack? Hotien was and still is crucial to us as a major logistical node! Spread out your defences to cover these airbases more effectively! Move an S-300 system to protect against future attacks if you have to! I want this taken care of!” Chen barked.
“Sir, this is exactly what the Indians want us to do! They want us to spread our S-300s defences so they can selectively take them down one by one. We have to maintain focus on the Aksai Chin for now! This attack on Hotien was a feint!” Feng countered.
Chen would have none of it: “I have had it with you on this issue, Feng! I have given you a lot more leverage than perhaps I should have done! And you have nothing to show for it! Nothing! We are still struggling to take the initiative from the Indians after six days of combat! And now our major supply nodes are being bombed with impunity! Get my orders carried out or I will have someone else to do it for me. Is that clear?” Chen slammed the table with his fist.
Feng controlled his anger. Now was not the time to lose control. Anger was getting the better of Chen right now. What was worse, Feng could see the Indian plans working through Chen even if the latter couldn’t. If he could not calm Chen down and refocus him, it was going to end up unwinding the whole PLAAF on the Ladakh front.
EAST OF THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL
NORTHERN LADAKH
DAY 6 + 0830 HRS
“Steel-Rain, we have red armour five clicks east of our position! Heavy concentration and bearing down on us! Requesting priority fire-mission! Coordinates to follow! Over!”
Kongara said as he hunkered behind some large rocks, a rifle in hands. He was looking over the rocks with his binoculars at the advancing armada of Chinese tanks making yet another attempt to break through the 10TH Mechanized defences…
“Thunder-One, this is Steel-Rain! We read you five-by-five. Standby for fire-mission! One salvo heavy-concentration fire! Fragmentation! One round correction-marker at thirty seconds! Fire-effect three-second delay!”
“Roger! Thunder-One copies all! Standing by!”
Kongara gave back the speaker to his radioman before putting both his hands on the IMFS to zoom in using the device’s infrared view. He winced as the pain in his bandaged legs and arms disrupted his focus. He had somehow made his way to friendly lines after staggering over the frozen no-man’s land the previous afternoon. The medics were surprised he was still alive, let alone walking, after sustaining so many wounds. They had offered to ship him back to the brigade medical-center at the airstrip. But when he had heard that the Major commanding his vehicles out here had also been killed, he had forced himself to stay and lead the defenses until somebody could be sent forward to replace him. Without his vehicle and crew however, he was forced to lead the defenses outside in the cold with the rest of the 9TH Punjab soldiers.
The Chinese T-99 tanks were attempting to spread over a two kilometer front to the north of the 10TH Mechanized lines. It was their third attempt to do so in the last day. The evidence for the past attempts was littered across the battlefield, spewing smoke and fire into the early morning reddish sky above. And so were bodies of soldiers from both sides who had fought and bled for this rocky plateau.
For now the initiative was on the Chinese side. They had made repeated attempts to push the two Indian mechanized battalions out of their side of the LAC for over a day now. Each time they had been stopped in their efforts.
But it had proven costly for both sides.
10TH Mechanized had been reduced to a handful of fully operational BMP-IIs and NAMICA vehicles. The 9TH Punjab units were doing better. The Sikh soldiers on nearby hills were holding strong, but were depleted in their ATGM capabilities. And there were no signs of the situation improving just yet…
The air crackled with thunder of supersonic rocket projectiles diving overhead. Kongara looked away from his binoculars to see the sky just as the rockets smashed their way into the Chinese lines. Three fireballs rose above the wall of gravel and dust that spread outwards from the impact zone. Two ZBDs and one T-99 in the advancing Chinese line had been killed by that salvo.
“Good effect on target!” Kongara shouted into the radio as the ground shook under his feet. Overhead, the Nishant UAV had already passed the same information back to Steel-Rain, the Saser based Smerch MBRL battery via the ACCCS. A second salvo round request was cleared by the Divisional artillery brigade commander just as soon as he saw the results from that first one.
A few minutes later Kongara and his radiomen saw in awe as the Chinese line disappeared in a carpet of explosions, ripping most of the enemy armor force to shreds before the view was obscured by a rising dust cloud that outsized the nearby hills…
The other part of the Chinese force further to the east was still relatively intact and continued the advance. Kongara looked to his northeast to see two dozen T-99s and ZBDs on a one kilometer front dashing towards his lines.
He could see three NAMICA vehicles and a handful of BMPs moving into protective revetments dug out by the supporting army engineers. The Chinese armor was now a few kilometers away.
The three NAMICA vehicles went into action, launching off their Nag missiles in quick succession. The missiles slammed into the frontal and top armour plating of the leading Chinese vehicles. The explosions ripped the vehicles asunder and sent metal and steel flying in all directions.
Seven T-99s staggered to an abrupt halt and stayed there.
The NAMICA crews were prioritizing the T-99s over the ZBDs. If it came down to a knife fight, they didn’t want T-99 main guns firing at them at point blank ranges. Even so, it wasn’t enough.
As a Nag missile streaked out of its launcher on one of the NAMICA vehicles, the vehicle exploded into a fireball by a Chinese missile. The Nag missile it had fired off claimed the last T-99 kill for that Indian crew. The tank’s engine compartment detonated in a fireball three kilometers from the Indian defenses.
The four surviving T-99 crews went into direct fire mode and fired their main guns in unison. Two Indian BMPs lit up instantly and a couple of the infantry positions were levelled in a burst of shrapnel and gravel. Two of the four T-99s were stopped in their tracks by the NAMICAs before several different Chinese light-armor vehicles overran the Indian lines.
The last two remaining NAMICA vehicles were hit and destroyed at point blank ranges. As the surviving ZBDs and a couple of the T-99s came within a few hundred meters of the 9TH Punjab lines, openly using their co-axial machine guns, the only response left were a couple of Milan anti-tank teams, but they were exposed and without cover except for the rocks and the burning vehicles. They managed to kill one ZBD before being wiped out.
And then it happened…
Kongara got up on his feet and spat out the gravel that had gone into his mouth. He picked up the radio and ordered a retreat as the Chinese vehicles rolled through the Indian positions.
The retreat was a mess, and utterly chaotic. The Chinese gunners mowed down dozens of Indian soldiers as they ran between rocks, the only form of cover out in the flat terrain…
It would have been a massacre for the 10TH Mechanized and the 9TH Punjab had it not been for the intervention of 199HU and its two Light-Combat-Helicopters. As Kongara ran behind some rock cover, he saw the
two helicopters as they flew low over his positions.
The two LCHs were low on ammunition and had been returning back to FARP-Saser after returning from the 4TH Mechanized advance lines to the southeast. Colonel Sudarshan had diverted them to here to stave off the defeat enveloping the 10THMechanized survivors.
Dutt and his wingman had no time for setting up piecemeal attacks. Their main job right now was to occupy the Chinese and buy time for the survivors of the 10TH Mechanized to retreat. The only way they could make their presence felt to the Chinese in all that mess was by conducting point blank attacks and strafing runs overhead. Besides, they had no Nag missiles left in any case. Dutt had a load of ammo for their chin-mounted gun-turret and that’s it.
The two helicopter gunners in the front seats used their helmet integrated optics to guide their cannon fire over several Chinese ZBDs as Dutt and his wingman flew over them. The result was the incapacitation of several ZBDs and the diversion of attention to the two helicopters buzzing overhead. This gave Kongara and the 9TH Punjab soldiers the opportunity they needed to deploy smoke and disengage. Several platoons made their way through the smoke and headed south to safety towards the 4TH Mechanized lines.
Back at the command post, Sudarshan realized what had happened. He also saw the danger that had now materialized on the left flank of the 4TH Mechanized, deep inside the LAC to the southeast. If he wanted to avoid its encirclement, he had to pull his force out now and also put the incoming 3RD Mechanized into the battle there.
Back in the skies to the east, Dutt noticed the volume of fire now being put up from the ground against his two helicopters. The shock and surprise amidst the Chinese gunners on the arrival of his helicopters was now gone.
It was time to leave.
His decision was made easier for him when his gunner announced that they were out of ammunition for the cannon.
That does it!
He ordered an immediate break and dived back to the southwest towards Saser, followed quickly behind by his wingman. The two helicopters flew low over the lines of Indian soldiers moving south alongside a BMP-II, all that remained of the once powerful 10TH Mechanized Battalion…
With the withdrawal of the 4TH Mechanized back to the LAC to remove their exposed left flanks to the Chinese armor, most of the territory gained in the first few days had now been lost. All surviving units of the 10TH Mechanized were now passed over to the operational control of the 4TH Mechanized and Sudarshan removed the former from the Indian order of battle in Ladakh.
SHYOK RIVER VALLEY
LADAKH
DAY 6 + 1130 HRS
The 43RD Armored Regiment entered the Shyok river valley after having reached and passed Leh. The road and the valley represented the main supply route for Indian forces in central and northern Ladakh. It was a hotbed of activity when Major Kulkarni’s taskforce rumbled on to the road in a long convoy of tanks. The only reason they had gotten here so fast was because the XIV Corps headquarters as well the 3RD Infantry Division commander were prioritizing its arrival above all else.
For good reason too!
Kulkarni sat in the open turret hatch of the Arjun MBT, admiring the sun rising above the mountains. In his mind, he had finally entered the combat zone. Now began his dash to DBO, still another twelve hours of driving away.
HAA DZONG
BHUTAN
DAY 6 + 1340 HRS
“Yeah...I have all vehicles on the ground now ready to go, sir. I am moving them into positions now,” Fernandez said to Potgam.
Potgam was not happy at the moment. The Indian military was just not in a position to airlift equipment at the rates he required to effectively defend Bhutan. It had never been structured to do so over the years. And the result of that meant a very sluggish response in Bhutan.
On the golf-course at Haa-Dzong, continuous helicopter operations had converted the once pristine course into a churned up piece of land. Soon it would be completely unusable for the heavier helicopters. Potgam was aware of this. And he wanted as much of his minimum required heavy equipment brought into the valley before the place broke down.
Hotel-Six battery vehicles under Fernandez were right now bunched up at one corner of the golf-course, awaiting deployment orders.
And that was actually a good question under the circumstances.
In order for the Pinaka Launchers to be of any use to Potgam’s soldiers in western Bhutan and Thimpu, the battery had to be moved northeast from Haa-Dzong towards Paru. That would put the battery southwest of Thimpu with enough range to support operations there. Paru also had a very useful airport that Potgam so badly needed right now.
Paru was currently unoccupied. Rumors had filled the streets of the small town that Thimpu had fallen and that Chinese soldiers were advancing south to the town.
But it wasn’t true.
Potgam had confirmed through UAV recon that Paru was in fact unoccupied and so was Thimpu. And Paru’s civilian airport remained surprisingly untouched. For now anyway. Potgam had his Searcher-II UAVs moving northeast above Thimpu and maintaining an eye out for flanking forces from the Highland Division that might attempt to cut him off from the south.
But Paru airport was the prize that Potgam wanted and he was currently making sure that he had it.
Fernandez walked back to his AXE utility vehicle at the head of the convoy after finishing his talk with Potgam. He looked back to see a good eighteen plus heavy vehicles from his battery including the launchers, replenishment, radar and command vehicles all stacked up in a column.
A flight of three Dhruv helicopters and the one Lancer at the golf-course lifted into the air, flying low and fast. Fernandez got into the front side seat and took the radio from his radioman in the back seat as the driver revved up the engines.
“Hotel-Six-Actual to all Hotel-Six elements! Move out!”
OVER SOUTHWESTERN BHUTAN
DAY 6 + 1355 HRS
The four Indian helicopters cleared Chele-La within minutes of take-off. The Lancer was the last in the group, trailing the three transport helicopters and looking for trouble to pop up.
In the Paru valley, the town was visible to the northwest along the axis of the valley. The airport concrete glistening in the afternoon sunlight was also visible to the east. The four helicopter crews dove down to a few meters altitude above the treetops as they headed for the airport.
Inside the three Dhruv helicopters, the small team of Indian paratroopers checked their weapons, equipment and comms. Most were covered with camouflage face-paint to merge into the heavy foliage of Bhutan…
“Hauler-Flight: thirty seconds!”
The army-aviation Major commanding the flight said over the intercom. The airport was becoming larger and larger from the cockpit glass with the civilian terminal in clear view now. Hauler-Three broke formation as they approached the airport perimeter and headed for the hangers north from the terminal buildings and near the end of the runway.
Hauler-Two flared and lost the bulk of its forward velocity just inside the airport perimeter where the runway began. A few seconds later the helicopter touched down on the hard tarmac of the runway and the heavily armed paratroopers jumped out from the open sides.
“Hauler-Two is clear!”
The pilot said over the radio as the helicopter dusted off the runway.
Hauler-One flared directly on the roof of the main terminal building with some of the paratroopers heading straight for the control tower building. They burst into the main control room on the top of the tower to find it deserted. The Bhutanese controllers there had left their positions in panic. Same went for the main terminal building which, although deserted, was also ransacked. When the paratroopers moved to the main entrance they saw large number of people, most of them tourists and their families, waiting to find some transportation out of Bhutan.
There was panic amongst the crowd as they saw the soldiers bursting out of the terminal building with heavy assault gear and camouflaged faces. The Indian commander
did not bother trying to control the crowd since it was a wasted effort in his view.
Hauler-One came to hover a few dozen feet above the terminal building a few seconds later, and the Major piloting it also saw the panicking crowds from the air. The paratrooper team leader switched on his UHF comms as he looked up at Hauler-One hovering above:
“What do you want to do about this?” he asked the pilot.
“Heck if I know!” the Major replied. “I am calling warlord-central to see if they can arrange for these civvies to be taken away from here. The R-P-Vs should have seen these crowds during their recon. Why the hell nobody told us about them? This place was supposed to be deserted!”
The Para commander grunted.
“Yeah. The place has been ransacked. Control tower is still fully ops and so is the runway. Send that back to warlord as well. I am going to set up a perimeter around this place until the ground convoy catches up.”
Several seconds later the paratrooper Major was walking out of the terminal onto the tarmac and saw the three Dhruv helicopters flaring and touching down in unison. He ran up to Hauler-One’s cockpit as the loadmaster jumped out to secure the landing. The paratrooper waited for the aviation Major to remove his helmet while the Shakti turbines spooled down. Soon the only noise to be heard was that of the Lancer hovering to the northeast as the paratroopers fanned out. The Paratrooper Major walked over to his aviation counterpart.
“Let me guess: warlord wants us to evacuate the civvies out?”
“You bet! Indian citizens first. We are to take as many of them in this flight as we can to the southern border crossing into India and then head back to Haa-Dzong. I thought my pilots and I can lend a hand organizing the civvies,” the pilot replied.
“Thanks a bunch. My men are spread thin trying to secure this place. I can spare a few men to you to help out. Can you handle it?”
The Major nodded once again as they began walking back to the terminal. Then the Major abruptly turned and ran back to the cockpit. He returned with his personal INSAS Carbine. A sidearm would not do if they got shot down behind enemy lines. The Para-CO smiled seeing the weapon in the pilot’s hands: