Chimera

As the helicopter flew away into the darkness and the noise of its rotors receded, Pathanya looked at the Major’s blood on his arms, hands and his other chest equipment. He saw his eight remaining men staring at him in silence. His face stiffened:

“What the hell are you guys waiting for? This war isn’t over! Those bastards are getting organized inside Wang-Chu as we stand here. Vikram, blow the bridge. We have no further use for it. Any Bhutanese villagers north of here are now behind enemy lines.”

EAST OF DAULAT-BEG-OLDI

LADAKH

DAY 7 + 0450 HRS

“Is it operational?” Kulkarni asked.

“Negative. Thermal shows erratic white spots. Must be fires inside.”

“Bypass it then. Be careful from now on,” Kulkarni said as he backed away from the optics and wiped the sweat of his eyes.

They had just spotted a burnt out BMP-II as they approached the frontlines. Kulkarni had called for a stop to allow his unit to regain a line-abreast formation that had become loose after traversing the rugged terrain from Saser. Now they were behind the 4TH Mechanized lines, and the 43RD Armored was conducting a passage-of-lines through the former unit before taking position on its line-of-departure…

“Driver! Traverse forward!” Kulkarni ordered after making sure his unit was once again deployed correctly.

The Arjun tank lurched forward with a thunder followed by nine others in the first wave of the 43RD Armored force. Passage of lines was always the difficult part, especially when the unit you were passing through was exposed to the enemy. The process became even more difficult at night when visual acquisition was restricted to night-vision optics and thermal scopes, both of which offered a murky picture at best…

The radio squawked: “Rhino-two to Rhino-one: I have three, B-M-P silhouettes at five-hundred meters, over.”

Kulkarni rotated his sights and confirmed the sighting. He chimed in:

“Roger, Rhino-two! I have them. 4TH Mechanized vehicles in natural defilade. I also spot friendly infantry in prepared positions. Rhino-one to all elements: break formation and bypass in force. Out!”

Kulkarni once again leaned back from his scopes and checked his battlefield management system to confirm position of the 4TH Mechanized.

Right where they should be!

Good.

“Steel-central, this is Rhino-one. Rhino is approaching FEBA and conducting POL. Preparing to advance to point-victory. What the latest on enemy armor dispositions? Over,” Kulkarni checked and then saw on his BMS that Colonel Sudarshan had a Nishant UAV overhead.

Hopefully, what he got would be what the controllers for the UAV saw and hence in near real-time. He was going to need a very clear picture of the enemy force. The battlefield between his force and the objective was littered with burnt out hulks of dozens of Indian and Chinese vehicles from six days of fighting. Kulkarni wasn’t clear how the UAV operators could spot a live tank in defilade position from a dead one in such a cluttered picture.

To make matters worse, Kulkarni had been told that there were PLA drones above as well. This was going to be a crucial battle for both sides and were expecting it and preparing for it.

“Rhino-one, this is steel-central. Intel from 4TH Mechanized suggests depleted battalion of T-99s on the front in hull down positions and we confirm at least three moving vehicles in reserve behind the lines. Infantry with anti-tank weapons taking up positions on bracketing hills. Over.”

They know we are coming!

“Roger! Rhino is approaching L-O-D. Your call, steel-central”

“Rhino, your orders stand. Seize and hold point-victory and eliminate red armor at objective. Good luck. Steel-central out!” Sudarshan’s voice signed off, leaving Kulkarni to do only one thing:

“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements: Advance! Advance! Advance!”

The thunderous roar of ten Arjun main-battle-tanks reverberated through the peaks in the early morning darkness. The tanks began traversing the open terrain between them and the Chinese forces…

In the skies above, a Chinese UAV shared the skies with the Indian Nishant RPV, and commanders on both sides prepared for battle. For Sudarshan, there was not much to do other than to give the “go” order to the Smerch battery at Saser.

Within minutes the skies around Saser filled with dozens of backlit smoke trails as the large rockets streaked into the sky, arced downwards and aimed for the ground around the Chinese positions. The spark-filled fireballs from the cluster munitions covered the PLA infantry positions.

That bombardment did not go unnoticed on the thermal scopes of the Nishant’s optical systems. Sudarshan watched in silence as the distant rumblings coming from the east confirmed what he was seeing on the battlefield laptop in front of him…

“Damn! My view just flared-out, sir!” Kulkarni’s gunner said as he reeled back from the sights.