Chimera

On the other side of the border was the People’s Liberation Army. Their crucial highway from Gyantse to the Sikkim border near Chumbi valley passed less than a dozen kilometers at the closest point with this sector of the Bhutanese border. As such, it was far easier to access this side of the border than it was from the Bhutanese side, and that made the RBA positions extremely vulnerable.

And it had been so since decades.

Over the years the Bhutanese had built a fair-weather one-ton road here. Once RBA soldiers crossed the peaks behind them on foot or via helicopters, they could use these roads to move around in vehicles on their side of the border. This had allowed the Bhutanese Army to station more units in the sector to improve security. But to put things in perspective, the RBA never had more than two Companies of infantry supported by mortars in this sector.

By comparison, the PLA across them had an entire Battalion supported by heavy artillery and light armor units devoted to this sector.

If a battle was fought, it would be short.

The vehicles moved through a bumpy sector of the road and Kwatra had to hold on for his life. Once clear, he looked around and saw that from where they were now, he could see outlines of the hills surrounding the Dochen-Tso to the north and the long convoys of Chinese vehicles moving along the highway to the south.

This sector is a gold mine for intelligence gathering on the Chinese!

The three jeeps stopped abruptly and he looked around to notice that they were just west of the freezing lakes. Iyonpo stepped out of the vehicle and walked over to an RBA Captain standing near the edge of the road along with two of his soldiers. All three men were in white winter uniforms.

The Captain pointed out the locations of Chinese units nearby. A few seconds later Iyonpo turned to his Indian colleague:

“So, what do you think?”

“It’s too valuable for us and it’s too valuable for them. So they will try and deny it to us. Your men are extremely vulnerable here, sir,” Kwatra paused and looked at the terrain again.

“What are you saying, Major?” Iyonpo asked.

“Just that when this thing begins, your men here are going to get hit before we do!” Iyonpo sighed.

“Then Bhutan will get dragged into this war as well…”

DAULAT BEG OLDI

LADAKH

DAY 3 + 2300 HRS

Yet another flight of Jaguars streaked over the plains east of DBO. By now the Chinese anti-air vehicles had deployed around their forces and were making life a living hell for the Indian pilots.

The IAF had employed its might to help halt the convoys of armor vehicles that were rolling against the Indian defenders in several sectors in Ladakh. While effective, it was an effort that had proven costly and getting costlier as large numbers of anti-air units began taking their toll…

Brigadier Adesara looked through an IMFS as the valley lit up with lines high-intensity tracer fire directed towards the Indian aircraft attacking Chinese armor. Then there was a shower of sparks and a few fireballs to the east as yet another set of Chinese armored vehicles fell prey to cluster munitions. The rumble passed along the ground and under the feet of the Indian soldiers manning the defenses around DBO a few seconds later…

It had been a big relief for Adesara and Sudarshan when the long line of BMPs from the 10TH Mechanized Battalion had rolled into view coming in from Saser to the south. They were rolling in with their with hatches open and the crews sitting openly over the rim of the turrets as the Indian Jaguars continued to press their attacks to the east beyond the LAC.

Then there was a flash of light to the east.

All Indian soldiers at DBO looked in that direction and saw the burning debris of an Indian Jaguar falling out of the sky. It slammed into the slopes of a hill to the north and erupted into a fireball. No parachute was spotted. The other Jaguars pulled out of the sector a few seconds later.

Adesara thanked the departing Jaguars for their attempts to hold back the Chinese from overrunning his men. They had bought time at the cost of their blood and had allowed the Brigade to receive urgent reinforcements. Now that the 10TH Mechanized Battalion was fully deployed, if the Chinese decided to make a run for Daulat-beg-oldi again, they would be made to pay the price for it.

DAY 4

WESTERN TIBET-BHUTAN BORDER

DAY 4 + 0740 HRS

“Incoming fire!”

Major Kwatra shouted as he saw vehicles on the Chinese side of the border rumbling out of their revetments. The Bhutanese soldiers were already running into their prepared positions. Moments later the skies filled with the screaming noise of incoming artillery shells. The first rounds slammed amongst the Bhutanese positions west of the frozen lakes.