It was Sargento Muller who first sighted the enemy at close range. He quickly advised the others over the LASH. "They are no more than fifteen meters away."
"Escuchan!" Busch said. "On my command we will all fire a couple of six-round bursts in their direction. Then drop flat on your bellies and crawl away in the opposite direction." He raised his head and could see what appeared to be at least a half dozen of the enemy. "Tiren!"
The sudden eruptions of fire thundered twice, then the comandos went flat, turning to snake away into the grass.
* * *
CONNIE Concord jerked violently as two slugs slammed into his left arm, and he staggered sideways to tumble off the grassy bank into the water. James Bradley, in the second piragua, immediately dove in after him. He quickly found the wounded man in the muddy river and pulled him to the surface. Brannigan reached over the side of the boat and grabbed Connie under the arms, bodily hauling him aboard. James pulled himself from the river and wasted no time in examining the victim, who had slid into unconsciousness.
"He's hit bad, sir," James said. "The forearm is fractured, and he's got two massive soft tissue injuries."
"Christ!" Brannigan said. "They must've been really close."
"Yes, sir," Bradley said, digging into his medical kit. "Normally this could be handled easily, but I can't give him proper treatment for shock. That could kill him even if the wounds aren't necessarily fatal."
Now heavy firing broke out on the right side of the river, churning up clumps of grassy dirt and sending ricochets zinging off into the air.
.
THE BATTLE
CORONEL Busch's familiar voice sounded over Comandante Javier Toledo's RMAM radio. "Toledo, continue to fire, but move in closer! This is an attack not an exercise on the firing range! And use those machine guns for support!"
Toledo wasted no time in advancing his twenty-four men toward the enemy. The leading skirmish line of eight under the command Capitan Francisco Silber made first contact. Their fusillades swept back and forth into the enemy on the riverbank. Within sixty seconds the second rank under Capita Roberto Argento joined them. Now sixteen assault weapons, skillfully employed and well-aimed, poured swarms of bullets at the bandidos. When the CETME Amalfi machine guns joined the assault, their accurate patterns of fire overlapped as timed volleys of the 5.56-millimeter slugs supported the riflemen ahead.
.
THE SEALs slid over the banks of the Rio Ancho to avoid the flying steel whipping around them. They returned fire in the obvious direction of the attack; unaimed but hitting close to the enemy. Joe Miskoski pumped out rounds from his SAW, trying to be as effective as possible as he swept the barrel up and down the line. Although they were unsure of the effects of their efforts, and bullets continued to crack and thud heavily around them, the SEALs suffered no further casualties. Over on the other side of the river, the First Assault Team was not taking fire after the initial attack that hit Connie.
.
"CAPPUZZO!" came Busch's angry voice over the RMAM. "Where the hell are you?"
"I am taking my command toward the sound of the fighting," Co to Gustavo Cappuzzo radioed back. "But the battle seems to be moving eastward."
"Correcto! " Busch replied. "Forget about moving in to make contact until you're past the gunfire. Then make an abrupt move toward the river in skirmish lines. Keep going until you find the enemy. And don't forget your machine gun support!" He slipped the handset back onto his pistol belt, turning to Punzarron, Chaubere and Muller. "We are in a good position on the west of the enemy. We're going to move forward until we can fire at their rear guard. Punzarron, you and Chaubere take the south side of the river while Muller and I take the north."
The Equipo Comando split up, then began moving toward the bandidos as soon as Punzarron and Chaubere had swum across to the other side.
.
THE SEALs continued the trek to the east, answering the salvos fired at them with bursts of their own. Neither side was able to deliver accurate fusillades, but the unaimed fire kept both adversaries working in cautionary modes. Any rash attacks by anyone could be handily dealt with by the other side.
The piraguas were now tied together while Lieutenant Wild Bill Brannigan and Hospital Corpsman James Bradley both performed the poling chores in the front boat. They had piled a good amount of ammunition between them, and when some SEAL on the bank needed another bandoleer, it was a simple thing to reach down and toss him one. At this time they had plenty of the 5.56-millimeter bullets for both the CAR-15s and the SAWs.
Connie Concord was numbed by morphine as he lay in the second piragua. James had arranged him in a comfortable position on his back with blankets over him and his feet elevated. This was all he could do in an attempt to keep Connie from going into shock. The hospital corpsman would have preferred to use an IV drip with epinephrine solution, but the present situation of kill or be killed did not offer the luxury of sophisticated medical treatments.
Brannigan had issued orders to knock off unnecessary chatter over the LASH systems. He had to use the devices to issue battle orders since he could not use the AN/PRC126 handset. Both his hands were busy with the pole as he and James kept the piraguas moving as best they could. However, the Skipper could easily keep his eyes on the SEALs on both sides of the river as they continued to move in the eastward direction under fire. He wanted to keep them traveling the same distance and speed, and he made adjustments with terse comments. "Godamn it! Second Section slow down and First Section step it up."
The incoming fire, while still steady, was no longer so heavy. This was an ominous indication that the Falangists had figured out the situation and were concentrating on keeping pace with the SEALs as much as they were of blasting bullets in their direction.
AN hour had passed while Busch and his comandos trailed after the SEALs, and the equipo had stepped up the pace since they were not receiving fire. They listened carefully as they moved along both sides of the river, noting that the exchange of salvos was getting steadily louder.
Chaubere was the first one to catch sight of the bandidos. "Voila! I can see the enemy, mon colonel," he said, slipping into French. "There is a man on each side of the river."
"Atacen!" Busch ordered.
The four Falangists rushed forward, their submachine guns spitting fiery salvos at the SEALs.
Up ahead, Chad Murchison on the north bank and Andy Malanchenko on the south, turned to meet the attack. They dropped to the ground, pumping the triggers of their CAR-15s. Bruno Puglisi immediately became aware of the situation and rushed back to join them. The squad automatic weapon added to the volleys of steel jacketed slugs directed at the four attackers.
Busch immediately broke off the attack, and the equipo dropped to the grass as one man. They would bide their time, then once again make a charge on the rear of the bandidos' column.
.
1615 HOURS LOCAL
THE fighting went on all through the day. Neither side took casualties because of the nature of the fighting. No one could expose himself long enough to deliver accurate fire, so both sides more or less delivered independent firing in the blind. Many times the combatants simply raised their weapons without aiming, and squeezed off short fire bursts.
Busch's Equipo Comando kept the pressure on the rear of the SEALs with sporadic attacks before pulling back out of harm's way. While they didn't accomplish much in the way of inflicting casualties, they were able to keep an accurate measure of the enemy's rate of advance. Busch continually radioed Comandantes Toledo and Cappuzzo of the distance traveled by the bandidos. The information allowed the Falangist forces on both sides of the river to move along in the fluid battle.