THE TEN THOUSAND

by Harold Coyle

  The impact of the conditions under which the Ukrainian commander had to make this decision played no small part in his choice. In the small, cramped confines of his own BMP's turret, he could see precious little of the outside world, a forested world that was as black as the ace of spades and illuminated at random only by an occasional flash of gunfire or an explosion. The grinding of his BMP's engine, mixed with the chatter of the machine gun and the thunk-thunk-thunk of the 30mm cannon in the same turret he sat in, mingled with the firing of other BMPs outside. Added to this was an occasional bing-bing-bing as bullets, both enemy and friendly, ricocheted off the outside of his BMP. Under such conditions, coupled with his temporary loss of control over his company and the tension and stress of combat, it was a wonder that the Ukrainian company commander was able to think at all. But he could and did. Without any hesitation, he ordered his remaining vehicles to continue to advance through the woods and up to the high ground beyond. The follow-on company, he decided, could deal with the mess in the woods. He wanted to get out into the open where he could fight his company.

  After skirting the edge of the tree line where Gross and his dismounts were located, Kozak was about to order Tish to make a left and head into the woods when Wolf yelled that he had acquired two BMPs to their front. Dropping down, Kozak put her eye to her sight. In the center of her sight, at a range of less than four hundred meters, Kozak saw the distinctive image of two BMPs moving across their front through the gap toward the high ground. "GREAT! WE MADE IT." Excited, Kozak began to issue her fire command. "DRIVER, STOP. GUNNER—ARMOR PIERCING—BMPS—RIGHT BMP FIRST—"

  But before she could give the order to fire, something moved in front of their sights and blocked their view of their intended targets, causing Wolf to yell, "WHAT THE—?"

  Popping her head out of her hatch, Kozak was greeted by the image of three BMPs in a line emerging from the woods she had intended to go into. The nearest BMP, perpendicular to their line of fire, at less than ten meters, was blocking their line of sight. Kozak screeched, not bothering to key the intercom, "BMPS! BMPS! FIRE! NOW!"

  Realizing what was happening, Wolf jerked the trigger, sending a volley of 25mm armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds into the flank of the Ukrainian company commander's BMP. At that range, none missed.

  With her head still up, Kozak was blinded by the impact of her own Bradley's rounds on the side of the BMP. The sound of the firing of the 25mm cannon and the impact of those rounds was mixed with the wild screams of the men and the explosion of stored ammunition inside the BMP Wolf was riddling. In a second, Kozak regained her senses. "CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE." Wanting to put some distance between her and the BMP they had just destroyed, so that they could maneuver around and engage the other two BMPs beyond it that continued to move forward, Kozak yelled to Tish, "DRIVER! BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP!"

  Responding to her commands, Tish jerked the Bradley into gear and started moving the vehicle backwards. They had not moved more than five meters when a stream of tracers emerged from the woods to their left and streaked across the front of Kozak's Bradley. Startled, Kozak looked over, just in time to see the nose and barrel of a BMP come out of the woods, almost ramming into the front left fender of Kozak's own Bradley.

  "WOOF! BMP! LEFT, FIRE! FIRE! NOOOOW!"

  While Tish was still backing up, Wolf traversed the turret, firing blindly as he did so, hoping to hit the enemy vehicle that Kozak was screaming about. When the image of the BMP's turret came into his sight, Wolf adjusted his fire and began to pump round after round into the turret of the enemy vehicle. As before, there was little chance to miss, and the effects on the enemy BMP were immediate and telling. When he was satisfied that the turret was wrecked, Wolf let up on the trigger, lowered his gun, and then raked the length of the BMP where the infantry squad sat with another volley.

  As she watched to both her flank and front, Kozak ordered Tish to turn on the smoke generator, hoping that the veil of smoke would buy her some time to sort out what was going on.

  As they broke out of the tree line, Rourk's gunner saw Kozak's Bradley, still backing up, and the BMPs to its front. Even as he yelled to Rourk, the gunner laid his sight on the first undamaged BMP he saw. Rourk didn't need the aid of a night vision sight to make out the forms of enemy BMPs and Kozak's Bradley. Without hesitation, Rourk yelled down to his gunner, "Get the first BMP, to the right of the burning BMP, now."

  Used to Rourk's informal fire commands, the gunner gave the crew warning that he was about to fire by yelling, "ON THE WAY." With the aiming dot of his sight reticle laid on the center of mass of the enemy BMP, now moving around the burning hulk of the first BMP that Kozak had engaged, the gunner hit the laser range finder button, watched for a return, and then fired. At a range of less than two hundred meters, the hypervelocity, armor-piercing, fin-stabilized round ripped through the BMP and went screaming out the other side almost without pause. Seeing the effect of his first round, Rourk ordered the loader to switch to HEAT, high-explosive anti-tank rounds, before ordering his gunner to traverse right and engage the next BMP.

  His wing man, however, pulling up next to Rourk's tank, got that one first. Like Rourk's, A33's gunner fired the armor-piercing round that was in the chamber. Though it was a waste of a good armor-piercing round, it was much quicker to empty the chamber by launching the round through the tube than having the loader try to unload it. And besides, in combat no one argued with a kill, even if the wrong ammunition was used.

  Glancing back to see who had delivered her from the jaws of death, Kozak saw the two M-1A1 tanks to her rear. Directing Tish, she ordered her to stop making smoke and to continue to back the Bradley up until they moved in between Rourk's tank and a third M-1A1 that had come out of the woods. All the while, Wolf continued to search for more targets, and Rourk's three tanks continued to engage the last of the BMPs that had overrun Gross's position.

  The engineers manning the roadblock peered out of the window of the farmhouse into the darkness as they listened to the sounds of the battle down by the river drift through the woods toward them. After the sudden and terrifying exposure to enemy artillery fire just short of their position, followed by the noise of battle that seemed to be coming closer and closer toward them, every noise, every motion, real and imagined, caused the engineers to jump. Left out there on their own, with no idea of what was happening, the engineer squad leader and his seven soldiers struggled to control their fears as they maintained their vigilance. Outside in a nearby field, the bellowing of a cow injured by the artillery barrage served to remind the engineers that this was for real, that there was a real enemy out there intent on killing them. Across the room, huddled in the corner of the farmhouse, the owner of the house, his wife, and two young children watched the engineers. At that moment in the darkness of the room, listening to the sounds of an approaching battle, it would have been difficult to tell who was more frightened.

  "Sarge, Sarge. To the front. Something's coming up the road." The warning, shouted by the gunner manning an M-60 machine gun, didn't need to be repeated. While his people aimed every weapon they had down the road, the squad leader wondered how long he should wait before challenging the approaching intruder.

  Having no idea where the engineer roadblock was, but knowing that this was no time to screw around, Shildon kept running for all he was worth. Huffing and puffing, he made it up the last incline, picking up speed as he continued to pump his legs. Absorbed by his own exertions and unable to hear very much due to the pounding of his feet on the pavement and his labored breathing, Shildon didn't hear the halfhearted challenge given while he was still fifty meters from the farmhouse.

  The realization that the intruder running at them had increased his speed, rather than stopping when he was challenged, left the engineer squad leader little choice. Without a second thought, he lifted his rifle to his shoulder and passed the word to open fire.

  For a moment there was a pause in the action, a pause that allowed Kozak to catc
h her breath. It took her several seconds to calm down enough to look around and assess her situation. To her right sat Rourk's tank. Beyond that she could see another M-1A1 tank. To her left, just a few meters away, was a third tank. That she didn't see a fourth tank didn't occur to her. What did occur to her was that the tanks had arrived just in time, destroying four more BMPs that had continued moving out of the woods while C60 had been fighting its own little battle. What chance, she thought, would she have had of surviving if the tanks had not arrived when they did. After pushing that thought aside, and finally composed enough to speak, Kozak made a crew check. Like her, most of her crew had been stunned into silence by their close brush with death. Only Pa-den, who had been in the rear compartment and unable to see out, had no clear idea of exactly what had happened. The reactions of the others, however, had been enough to convince him that things had been very, very tight.

  Satisfied that all was in order where she was, Kozak attempted to contact Gross in an effort to find out what was happening within 2nd Platoon. Sitting in the low ground, one hundred meters behind the woods, Kozak was unable to see the river or the gap beyond. But she could hear the sounds of small arms coming from the woods she had just fled from and Bradley cannon fire from the high ground far off to her right Artillery seemed to be impacting somewhere off in the distance, beyond the woods and near the river. She couldn't tell whose artillery it was, let alone what it was hitting. Finally ready, Kozak began to find out.

  The first person to answer Kozak's call for sitreps was Gross's platoon sergeant, sitting up on the high ground with the platoon's Bradleys. His report was quick and harried. "CHARLIE SIX, WE ARE ENGAGING A WHOLE BUNCH OF BMPS TO OUR FRONT. WE HAVE DESTROYED AT LEAST TEN, BUT THERE ARE MORE MOVING UP NOW, OUT OF THE RIVER. ENEMY RETURN FIRE IS BECOMING HEAVY AND ACCURATE. CHARLIE TWO TWO HAS BEEN HIT AND IS OUT OF ACTION. I MAY HAVE TO PULL BACK FROM HERE. OVER."

  Realizing that he was facing the second-echelon company, Kozak looked over to Rourk's tank, then keyed the radio. "CHARLIE TWO FOUR, THIS IS SIX. HOLD YOUR POSITION. I AM COMING UP ON YOUR LEFT WITH THE TANKS. WE WILL HIT THE ENEMY SECOND COMPANY IN THE FLANK. DO YOU COPY? OVER."

  Gross's platoon sergeant, in the midst of an engagement, only managed a quick "WILCO."

  That, however, was enough. While facing Rourk's tank, Kozak radioed him. "ALPHA THREE FOUR, THIS IS SIX. DID YOU MONITOR MY LAST ORDER TO CHARLIE TWO FOUR?"

  Rourk waved while he answered over the radio. "ROGER THAT, SIX. WE'RE MOVING OUT NOW." Taking his cue from Rourk, the driver of his tank began to move forward.

  When the tank to the left began to move, Kozak called to Tish over the intercom. "Okay, let's try this again. Tish, move out and try to keep abreast of the tank to your left."

  As Kozak and the tanks began to pass to the rear of his position, Marc Gross was still in the process of pulling his dismounted squads back together. Reoriented by Gross to the front and right, squad leaders called out to their men, who were scrambling and stumbling about in the woods torn up by the first wave of BMPs. While the platoon medic and a lightly wounded infantryman paused to help some of the more severely wounded, the rest of 2nd Platoon's dismounts homed in on the sound of their squad leader's voice. This effort was complicated by the presence of one BMP that had earlier run through his position and, unlike the others that had left the woods, had turned back. Realizing that he would be unable to ignore the presence of that BMP, Gross ordered the squad leader of his 2nd Squad to take his men and go back to find and destroy it. With that problem taken care of, Gross turned his attention to the efforts of his other two squads. Both had taken casualties, but for the moment both were preparing to re-engage enemy BMPs going past them into the gap.

  The BMPs moving through the gap offered the anti-tank gunners flank shots at less than fifty meters and provided Gross's men with perfect targets against which they could vent the rage they felt after being overrun. Seeing there was nothing more that he needed to do, Gross ordered the squad leaders to fire at will. After the first anti-tank rocket was launched, Gross called for his radioman, took the hand mike from him, and called to his platoon sergeant for an update.

  Back on the hill where Kozak had left him, Lieutenant Fong listened to the reports to Kozak and plotted them on his map. Even though she hadn't asked for it, Fong decided that Kozak would need some artillery to support her counterattack. Satisfied that he had a handle on the situation, he told his sergeant to contact the supporting artillery battalion and request fires on two preplanned targets that would cover the gap. The sergeant, leaning over to confirm the target numbers Fong had given him, asked if they wanted to cease their bombardment of the enemy tanks that had been supporting the river crossing. Fong looked at the sergeant, then at his map. "Tell the FSO at battalion that if the guns can fire both missions, then yes, keep up suppressive fires on the enemy tanks. If not, shift all fires into the gap."

  Giving Fong a thumbs-up, the sergeant began to process the call for fires using his digital message device, a keyboardlike device that tied directly into the TACFIRE system used by the artillery. While the sergeant did that, Fong called Kozak on the Charlie Company command net, notified her of his actions, and reminded her that the artillery was on the ball and doing its job.

  Stuck in the middle of a cluster of BMPs, the Ukrainian battalion commander realized that they were in trouble. Opening his hatch, he watched as the anti-tank fire he had assumed had been silenced resumed. He was about to order the follow-on company commander to shift one platoon over to engage the enemy anti-tank gunners in the woods on their flank when that company commander called over the radio net that enemy tanks were coming up from behind the woods. Jerking his head to the front right, the battalion commander watched as two BMPs on the right were blown up by enemy tank fire. Hit from the front by enemy Bradleys on the high ground, and now by tanks and dismounted infantry on the right, he saw no choice but to order all surviving vehicles to move left and take refuge in the woods on the other side of the gap.

  By now it was too late to salvage much. Command and control of the battalion disappeared in a matter of seconds as the second-echelon company collided with the remains of the lead assault company and mingled, just as Kozak with the tanks came up on the flank and opened fire. That this happened just as the dismounted infantry with Gross opened fire and the first volley of artillery began to rain down on the gaggle of BMPs was pure luck, nothing but pure luck. But luck, as Ellerbee had found out, was at times just as important in war as good planning and training.

  Using the woods to mask her command from the supporting Ukrainian tanks still sitting on the other side of the river searching for worthwhile targets to engage, Kozak began the methodical process of destroying the remains of the Ukrainian motorized infantry battalion.

  The final act in Ranger Company A's drama that night was, by comparison to Kozak's fight, anticlimactic. The movement of the ranger company down away from the tunnel was unopposed. Ilvanich's prediction that the Ukrainians would shift their efforts to the right of where the reaction force had been defeated appeared to be correct. Ilvanich, finally able to shake himself out of his despondency, joined the end of the column. Within minutes of moving off of the ledge where the tunnel entrance was located, he was able to concentrate again. The cold morning air, the physical act of moving in the company of soldiers, and the simple fact that they were finally leaving the tunnel that reeked of death were invigorating. By the time he had moved a kilometer, Ilvanich began to feel that he was back in control of himself and the situation. That did not mean he had forgotten. No, Ilvanich knew better than that. It only meant that for the moment the images, the sights, and smells that he had witnessed that night were relegated to the recesses of his mind where they would lie dormant. Someday, Ilvanich knew, they would be back. Like thieves in the night, they could creep back into his conscious mind. There they would try to rob him of his sanity and stability, just like the other images of past battles that he struggled to restrain and suppress
and on occasion did. Regardless of what happened, regardless of who won, Ilvanich knew that this war would never end. Only death, he knew, would bring an end to his suffering.

  As the single file of men, burdened by wounded comrades and heavy weapons, snaked its way along the side of the mountain, Ilvanich began to make his way to its head. The rangers, each left to deal with his own thoughts, pushed on in silence, reminding Ilvanich of members of a funeral procession. They needed to be touched, he thought, touched by a word of encouragement, a smile, a hand from another living human being. So as he moved forward, followed by Sergeant Rasper, Ilvanich took the time to pat each man on the back or grab his arm and say something, anything, in an effort to shake the men in his command out of their stupor. The presence of Rasper following on Ilvanich's heels and doing the same as he was overcame any reservations that the rangers in Company A had about the Russian major.