The FAC confirmed destruction of the self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle but Smackdown Zero Two was visible to the right, burning at the edge of the field. One for one was a bad trade off; it was not a good start.
The abandoned township Cambewarra Village had been occupied and hurriedly fortified, stopping the Irish Guards again soon after they had overcome the first line of resistance. A further tank, a Hussars Mk 10 Chieftain, and three Warriors had been lost.
2CG had hooked right, its vehicles threading their way through trees and on to Tannery Lane, chancing to luck and driving fast along a road straight enough to seem Roman in origin. Passing scattered dairy farms until reaching dead ground to the north of the Cambewarra hardpoint.
1 Company’s Warriors crossed a small ford before crashing through fences and hedges into field to the right. 2 (Support) Company entered the stream and used its banks for cover. The Mortar Platoons FV432s halted in line, opened their top lids and pivoted the 81mm barrels to point in the direction of the Chinese position. They were close in and the elevation of the tubes was steep, pointing at the cloudless blue of the sky.
1 Company were already reaching the edge of the village as 4 Company arrived and followed on in its wake. 1 Company may have been the old sweats, the veterans of the European unpleasantness with 1CG, but the weeks spent holding the Macquarie Pass had seasoned the remainder. Momentum can save lives when exploited at the right moment and no one dilly dallied.
1 Company’s Warriors arrived in the residential streets, crashing through garden walls at the edge of the village where the guardsmen debussed and began the energy sapping job of FIBUA, fighting in built up areas, clearing it, house by house.
3 Company flanked the village and the IFVs went into cover where they could put down fire on anyone leave its southern or eastern extremes.
The fire into 1IG’s right flank was curtailed but they needed a breather so ‘The Micks’ went firm and 1 Welsh Guards passed through them and immediately into the assault.
Tanks were burning, blown up or simply motionless with just a small penetrating hole in the armour plate. The enemy tanks had sallied forth to meet the approaching Warriors of the Welsh Guardsmen. Two companies worth of Type 98 tanks intended to slug it out with their opposite numbers but the air assets on call and the longer range of the British tanks 120mm rifled guns destroyed them. The day that had started badly was now improving.
The Irish Guards first opponents had been the anti-tank platoon and a company of the 14th Infantry supported by a company of their 9th Tank. Having fought their way forward and defeated those enemy a second infantry company had ambushed the Irish Guards right flank from Cambewarra Village. 2CG were going to be digging the second company out of the village for another hour or two at least, after which they too would also need to reorganise.
The Taff’s rifle companies were still fairly fresh, which was as well because a company of infantry and another of tanks remained defending Nowra.
The 1st Guards Mechanised Brigade was just a half mile from its objective and 2nd Guards Mechanised Brigade now emerged onto the plain.
Four hundred metres from the edge of Nowra Mark Venables Challenger was struck by a HESH round that failed to penetrate and Tango One One’s driver jerked the vehicle sharply right, and then back again to throw off the unseen shooters aim.
Before them sat the outskirts, single storey residences set among the trees. Mark Venables spotted the movement first, a Pampas grass plant that rotated? It had lost some of its camouflage when it had first fired and it lost most of the remainder now as it fired a second time. The Challengers armour saved them again but One One shuddered to a halt, its engine stalled, leaving vulnerable and out in the open.
Mark grabbed the override and slewed the turret around.
“FIRING!”
The Challenger rocked back on its sprockets as it fired, sending a tungsten steel sabot screeching across the intervening space. The last of the long grass stalks took flight and the hatches flew open. The crew began emerging as the first flicker of flame became visible and Mark switched to the 7.62 coaxial chain gun, the Chinese tank commander tumbled down the side of the turret and the gunner dropped down through the hatch, back into the flames. He lowered his aim but the driver had not been hanging about, he was off the vehicle and out of sight before the flames reached the ammunition and the tank blew up.
One One’s own driver was trying to coax the big Perkins engine back into life without flooding it, and the rest of the crew felt the hairs on the back of their necks rise. Targets like they were presenting were just too good to pass up.
The engine caught, roared, and they jerked forward again, heading for some cover.
“Thank Christ for that boss.” his gunner stated with feeling. “I was…”
A hammer blow struck the Challenger and flames engulfed the turrets interior.
The Coldstreamers were still engaged in clearing Cambewarra and the sound of fighting from there was audible from where Pat Reed summoned the COs of 1IG and 1WG. A quick O Group and a quick reorganisation followed.
The infantry who were cammed-up now divested themselves of flora and fauna, and hessian strips that broke up the shape of equipment. Fire was a very real by-product of house-to-house fighting so all unnecessary, flammable, items were removed. Oddly enough the section commanders sent out foragers to find thin, strong branches that were also straight and these were snapped into roughly 3’ lengths and brought along. Gaffer tape, PE4 or the nitro headache inducing PE808, guncotton charges, detonators, fuse cord and of course storm matches. The safest doorway into a defended building is one you make yourself, so the sections of branches and the gaffer tape create the ‘X’ frame on which a small charge of PE is likewise secured with gaffer tape to the tips of the upper arms. Placed against a wall and the fuse lit before retiring to a safe(ish) distance the charges blow ‘mouse holes’ big enough to allow the assault team, the Entrymen, to enter once designated ‘grenadiers’ lob grenades inside. If those preparing the mousehole charges had PE808 to work with they wore gloves as they moulded the charges into shape. Nitro-glycerine from ‘808’ is absorbed through the pores and the immediate effects of the poisoning are the mother of all headaches.
Grenades, rope, water and stones. A stone thrown into a room sounds the same as a grenade being thrown in and makes defenders take cover.
The Irish Guards cordoned the north of Nowra as the south of the river received mortar and artillery fire to prevent reinforcement or retreat. With no further ado the Welsh Guards began the process of house clearing, FIBUA, fighting in built up areas.
2nd Guards Mechanised Brigade moved past, heading east with A and C Squadron of the Hussars detaching themselves from Pat Reed’s brigade, along with a squadron of Scimitars from the Life Guards.
The bridge across the wide Broughton Creek remained intact but the wooded Back Forest hill beside it was an obvious defensive position. It commanded both the bridge and the road to their objective, Shoalhaven on the coast. The Scimitars gave it some clog, intending to go firm once across the bridge but the defenders let the leading troop cross, waiting for the following troop’s commanders vehicle to reach the centre of the bridge before they blew it.
In one fell swoop the Life Guards lost five vehicles. The troops which had crossed was hunted down by infantry with RPGs, and the second troop lost an additional vehicle on the bridge which did not reverse quickly enough to get out of range.