“Mustangs, pop smoke and fall back two hundred meters,” he directed over the company net. They needed to obscure the enemy artillery observers and back out of their crosshairs.
Crump, crump, crump, crump!
Explosions continued to rock their area as pieces of shrapnel pinged off their armor shell.
"Tanner, back us out of this artillery," Diss said to his driver.
“Those tanks are now 2,800 meters!” Winters yelled over the roar of enemy artillery going off around them.
“This is all happening too fast,” Captain Diss worried.
Looking through the commander's sight extension, Captain Diss found the next target just as he observed a series of their own artillery rounds landing amongst the enemy tanks. Some of the rounds scored hits, while others missed their mark. Taking his eyes away from the commander's sight, he looked at Winters. “I need you to take over calling targets and engaging them. I have to start managing the company,” he said reluctantly. Then he turned and looked at the blue force tracker display of the disposition of his unit in relationship to the enemy and the terrain around them.
He needed to get a status on his platoons and find out how many of his tanks had been hit. In all the confusion, he’d neglected his duty to make sure the other platoons were doing what they were supposed to do. As Captain Diss made contact with his platoon leaders, he learned that they’d lost two tanks in the recent enemy rocket artillery attack. One other tank had been destroyed, and one more damaged.
First, he ordered his medics and first sergeant to evacuate as many of the wounded as they could. Unfortunately, the dead would have to wait.
Then Captain Diss relayed the situation on the ground back to battalion headquarters. “Sir, requesting air strike on the enemy force advancing on us,” he urged.
While Captain Diss was in the middle of talking to his battalion commander, his tank was jarred hard. He knocked his head against the commander's extension, causing him to see stars. He instinctively pulled his left hand up to the side of his head. When he pulled it away, he noticed some blood on it.
“I must have cut my cheek,” he realized, still somewhat dazed.
“It bounced off our armor!” yelled one of his crew members.
Diss tried to regain his composure. It took a second for his mind to register what had just happened.
His battalion commander cut through the foggy thoughts Captain Diss was experiencing. “Delta Six, I’m ordering your unit to withdraw to Rally Point Beta. You guys are about to be overrun. Fall back now!” yelled his battalion commander.
Realizing his commander was right, Diss sent a message out to the rest of his troop to fall back to Rally Point Beta.
Their driver plugged in the coordinates, and they began a fighting retreat. As they wrestled their way back, they would eventually cross the next line of American tanks as they moved forward to take their place. Once Diss’s company was able to regroup, they’d charge right back into the action.
As Delta Company began the process of recovering their wounded and assessing their damage, his first sergeant’s vehicle stopped next to his tank, and First Sergeant Keene got out and proceeded to climb up to talk with him. Captain Diss pulled his CVC off and stood up in the turret.
“How many did we lose, Top?”
Instead of answering the question, he shouted, “Get me a medic up here!” and pointed at Diss.
The captain held his hand up in protest. “I don’t need a medic, Top. I’ll be fine.”
Keene shook his head. “You’ll be fine, but we need to get that bleeder under control before we go back into action. Look at yourself — you’re a bloody mess.” He pointed to Diss’s coveralls. The front shirt had blood smeared all over it.
The medic climbed up the turret. He wiped away the blood on the side of his face to get at the wound. He ripped open a pack of quickclot and doused the wound with it before attempting to place a makeshift bandage on it to cover it up.
“Hey, I still need to talk and be heard!” Diss said angrily to the medic.
Satisfied that his captain wasn’t going to bleed to death, First Sergeant Keene finally replied to the initial question. “We lost four crews outright. Another six soldiers were injured — four of them can return to the fight now that the medics have them patched up. The other two we had to medevac out. Second Battalion is hitting those Indian tanks now. From what I can tell, we’ll be ready to get back in the action as soon as you tell us to go,” he concluded.
Captain Diss nodded in acknowledgment.
Just then, they heard a series of propeller-driven planes fly over their position. The two of them looked up and saw the Air Force’s newest tank buster, the AT-6 Wolverine. Underneath the wing pilons, they could make out four hellfire antitank missiles and two anti-material rocket pods. Next to an A-10 Warthog, the Wolverine was definitely considered a godsend.
“OK, Top, let’s get everyone ready to move. I want to get us back into the action as soon as the colonel gives the go-ahead.”
His first sergeant nodded, then jumped down from the tank and ran back to his own vehicle.
Five minutes later, their battalion commander came over the radio net. “Advance!” he ordered. Second Battalion had blunted the enemy attack after they had withdrawn, and now they were going to push past their sister battalion and attempt to overrun the enemy unit.
As they moved past their earlier firing line, Captain Diss spotted a couple of his own tanks, now charred burning wrecks. A few minutes later, his company pulled up to their sister battalion, which was still firing at the enemy, who was now retreating. Once Diss and his men came abreast of the of the sister battalion, they stopped shooting.
Their battalion commander came over the radio again. “Charge!” he shouted.
“You heard the man, Mustangs. Charge!” Captain Diss shouted. He had secretly always wanted to say that. His tank lurched forward and picked up speed, and they quickly closed the gap on the retreating Indian regiment.
Looking into the commander's sight, Diss spotted two Arjun tanks. One was hiding behind a burnt-out wreck of a tank, and the other one was hiding behind a burning BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle. Captain Diss yelled to his driver, “Stop the tank!”
He quickly lased the first tank to get a quick read on it. Winters punched in the targeting data, but suddenly, their targeting computer spat out an error.
“Damn it! It looks like they have a dazzler. It just blinded our targeting computer,” Winters said to everyone’s horror. The gunner immediately switched over to his auxiliary sight and got them back in the action.
“Back up now!” Diss shouted to his driver. In a fraction of a second, their vehicle lurched back, just as a round slammed into the front glacis of their armor. The round bounced off, but it rattled everyone in the vehicle hard.
Diss instantly popped more smoke grenades, hoping to throw off the enemy’s next shot, which was sure to be on the way soon.
Boom, bam!
One of his tanks had pulled alongside his to try and hit the tank that had just shot at him. Unfortunately, the crew failed to identify the second tank, which had been hiding behind the burned-out BMP, and was blown apart by it.
Winters found the tank that was sniping at them from behind the BMP and sighted in on it, calling the target out.
"Identified! Arjun tank," he exclaimed in a hurried voice.
Specialist Mann tapped the loader's door lever with his knee for what must have been his tenth or twelfth time of the morning, opening it up. He reached in the ammo well, grabbed a sabot round and slammed it into the breech of the cannon and pulled up on the arming handle.