Chimera (38 page)

Chen stopped Feng with a raised hand.

“We have not 
failed
, Feng. Not yet, at any rate. We 
cannot 
fail!”

Feng could feel the sudden chill in the room as Chen’s tone changed:

“But we
do
have to adapt.”

Chen picked up his glass and poured in some water as he spoke:

“I have given it some more thought. It was not entirely Zhigao’s fault. None of us fully appreciated the vast gap in technology between us and the Indians and for that we are all to blame: you, me, Wencang and e
verybody
within the PLAAF planning staff!”

Chen paused and drank the contents of his glass. Feng had heard what happened to Major-General Zhigao after his arrest…

Poor bastard. 

Chen leaned forward and rested his arms on the table.

“Feng, we need a new game plan. Options?”

“Few,” Feng conceded with a dismissive shake of his head. 

“In that case we have to go defensive for a while,” Chen concluded.

EAST OF THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL

NORTHERN LADAKH

DAY 5 + 1445 HRS

The silence was hypnotic.

The gray skies above never looked better to Captain Kongara as he lay on his back, dazed and hazy. There was no cold or hot that he could feel. Kongara felt as if he was somewhere else.

So peaceful…

He turned to his side and saw his hand was for some reason covered in what seemed like his own blood.

Why…

It didn’t make sense to him. He stared at it in confusion as the blood slowly poured out. He stared at the hand for several seconds and then tried getting up. That was when the biting pain sliced through his senses…

The sky above was now darker and he saw what looked like lines of tracers slicing across it. The distant crackle of rifle and cannon fire reached his ears.

He rolled on his side and saw his left thigh bleeding profusely and he couldn’t move. As his senses started coming back he realized that his hands were touching cold rocks as he sat upright. There was no snow where he was but the peaks around him were still covered with it. It was then that he looked clearly and focused and through the haze in front of his eyes he began to see what appeared to be his BMP-II burning ferociously. The tracks had been blown off. There was dust and bullets flying everywhere.

He looked around now to see where his crew was and saw his gunner right there on the ground, next to the vehicle. His body was torn to pieces. His chest surrounded by a darkened pool of blood.

No!

He tried dragging himself closer to the mutilated body of his gunner but the blinding pain in his legs didn’t let him…

Ahhh!

He shouted in pain at his helplessness. Just then he saw a section of Sikh soldiers running by, a few dozen meters away. As he watched them run, a line of tracers sliced through them and several of the soldiers were struck, the bullets tearing through their bodies in muffled thumps. Those that got hit instantly died and fell into the gravel below.

Then there were other sounds and for the first time Kongara looked to his other side and saw a couple of BMP-IIs moving back to the south in tactical progression. They were reversing, but engaging some Chinese targets to the north as they did.

The flash-boom sequence of the auto-cannons on the two vehicles was hypnotizing. The Chinese were taking casualties, but were not pinned down. As the two Indian vehicles moved and fired, tank shells were exploding around them. One of the two vehicles finally took a jarring hit on the underside of its sloped forward glacis and the turret flew off underneath an orange fireball. Steel and aluminum fragments from the chassis flew off in all directions and Kongara ducked for cover, screeching with pain as the pain in his leg intensified. He heard the metallic pings of steel hitting steel as some of the fragments hit his burning vehicle…

The other surviving Indian vehicle spent no time deploying smoke and disappearing behind it.

Kongara looked around and could see no other friendly forces now other than a few crew members from another vehicle straggling back to the south on their feet. That was when the seriousness of the situation came to him and he started to get back on his feet with no small amount of struggle and pain.

I have to get out of here!

A new sound reached his ear and he recognized the diesel engines. As he faced north, he saw two familiar vehicles coming out of the smoke cloud the retreating Indian vehicles had deployed. He watched in fascination as he saw the bright red star emblazoned on the turret of the two T-99s that had now come to a halt a few hundred meters away from him, their turrets searching for Indian vehicles.

Kongara tore off a piece of his uniform and tied a makeshift bandage around his leg wound and his hand. But the two tanks now to his east would see him as soon as he stepped away from his destroyed vehicle.

He was still deciding to make a run for it when one of the two T-99s suddenly blew up in an earth shattering explosion, its turret shaken from its position and the forward part of its glacis smashed. Flames leapt out of the turret hatches.

No survivors.

The second tank suddenly rumbled to life and retreated back. This distraction gave Kongara the opportunity he needed to make a run for it. And he took the opportunity. He looked one last time at the body of his gunner and then turned away. As he staggered south, he saw the battlefield littered with destroyed Chinese and 10
TH
Mechanized Battalion vehicles…

The battle had been horrendous for both sides.

But the arrival of the fresh reinforcements along their main divisional MSR had been the shot in the arm the Chinese forces had needed. And despite the presence of attack helicopters from 199 HU, the advance had been crushed. Colonel Sudarshan had ordered a general retreat back to the launch point several kilometers to the south. 

Kongara looked around to see the remains of his unit littered around the frozen battlefield and could not avoid the feeling of gloom it brought. His eagle eyes spotted something moving in the skies to the southwest and he looked up, seeing what looked like a UAV flying just above the hills in that region. As Kongara watched, the small black speck flying to the southwest turned away and headed off. He was now all alone. He again applied pressure on his blood soaked bandage and headed though the dusty battlefield to reach friendly lines to the south.

THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL

NORTHERN LADAKH

DAY 5 + 1520 HRS

Colonel Sudarshan was standing with his staff officers when the UAV left the combat zone to refuel and the feed stopped streaming. There was silence all around except for the incoming radio chatter.

Sudarshan walked off to the map board. The 10
TH
Mechanized had been forced to retreat. The vastly superior logistical arteries feeding the Chinese army in the region had made its mark on the outcome of the battle.

There was no hiding it now.

The Chinese were in a position of strength once again and could possibly renew their offensive to take Daulat-beg-oldi. All that stood between them were combat depleted Battalions of Brigadier Adesara’s Brigade, the exhausted 10
TH
Mechanized and the 3
RD
and 4
TH
Mechanized Battalions…

“Contact 4
TH
Mechanized and tell them to pull back and support the 10
TH
Mechanized hold its positions. We cannot afford a breach in our lines there. Once the 3
RD
Mechanized starts arriving with its vehicles, send them east to act as Brigade mobile reserve. We are going on the defensive for the time being. I just see no other choice!” Sudarshan noted.

The enemy just took back the tactical initiative!

Sudarshan leaned over the map table, lost in thought.

And we need to take it back.

But with what?

The Chinese are continually reinforcing their units daily and my reinforcements are coming along a single vulnerable road once every two days!

We are losing the battle for logistics!

SASER

LADAKH

DAY 5 + 1600 HRS

Dutt exited his LCH as soon as everything had been switched off and the main rotor blades stopped rotating above his head. Already the ground crews were busy reloading the next round of weapons and ammunition from the dispersals nearby. 

There was more demand for anti-tank weapons of all kinds than anti-infantry weapons, of which the Indian army possessed enough. Dutt and his crews were now feeling the exhaustion of battle, flying round the clock.

Sleep and a decent meal were now luxuries long forgotten.

“Where’s the next delivery?” Dutt asked Major Narayana as he stepped away from the helicopter.

“10
TH
Mechanized sector again, followed by 4
TH
Mechanized sector. Battles are on the way in both sectors,” Narayana said.

Dutt lit up a cigarette once both men were well away from the parked helicopter. It was one of the only luxuries he had out here. His WSO and the other crew joined them. They had to wait as the sound of a Mi-17 lifting into the sky drowned the valley with echoes.

“Well, what did you think?” Dutt asked his other pilot.

“Bad, sir. The armored forces chaps are banged up like hell. We took out six tanks though, but it wasn’t enough. We saw one Dhruv take some fire as well. But it made it back to base. The skies were lit up all around us like Diwali. Our bird took few shrapnel hits too. Nothing serious though.”

Dutt nodded in silence and took a puff from his cigarette. He tossed it into the ground a few seconds later and crushed it under his boots before speaking: 

“The 10
TH
Mechanized is gone! They had to retreat the hell out of there once the Chinese tank reinforcements broke through. Took serious casualties. We got to nail a few buggers before we went bingo on fuel. My last Nag sent a commie tank crew straight to hell before we left. Got to see a nice fireball in the midst of all that smoke and dust. That was beautiful, but it didn’t change the outcome of the battle.”

He looked north to see their neighbors, the Smerch launchers, moving into position for yet another strike on the Chinese positions.

“There are just not enough of us out here to make a difference. We need to go deep and hit the Chinese supply routes and convoys
inside
the Aksai Chin. Out here it’s like trying to stop a tidal wave!”

“Okay, but the Chinese have the area well protected by the S-300s near Qara-Tagh La. They won’t let us get anywhere close to their supply convoys,” Narayana responded dismissively.

The latter shook his head as he pondered the problem.

“Well, then we need to figure out a way to get around that problem.”

NORTHEASTERN BHUTAN

DAY 5 + 1650 HRS

Major-General Dhillon looked outside the glass windows to see white clouds hugging the brown mountains in serenity, oblivious to what was happening around them. Dhillon leaned back from the windows into his seat and closed his eyes to take a power nap.  

Maybe the world would be saner by then.

He hoped as his eyes drifted asleep.

Up front in the cockpit of the Dhruv, the army pilots were busy flying within the valleys of Bhutan as they headed up to Lhuntse from IMTRAT headquarters at Haa-Dzong. Few hundred meters behind, a Lancer light-attack helicopter provided escort.

Dhillon was the IMTRAT deputy-commander in Bhutan. The role of the IMTRAT had changed quite rapidly in the last two days. With the Chinese Highland Division invading Bhutan and make quick progress towards the capital Thimpu as well as in eastern Bhutan, the security of India’s eastern frontlines was at risk.

The Chinese could not be allowed to take Bhutan at any cost. Otherwise it would give them a solid political and militarily useful gain in the near future.

In theory, anyway.

In practical terms on the ground, it was still unclear what the Chinese could actually achieve with one Division, elite as it may very well be.

But already the invasion of Bhutan solved one problem for them. Their left flank in the Chumbi valley was secure and if they could make their way south to Thimpu and hold it, it also gave them depth in that direction. And it was also diverting crucial Indian military resources away from the main offensive taking place under Operation Chimera in the Chumbi valley.

For now, the Highland Division was making quick progress to the south and the Bhutanese had taken heavy losses. The lightly armed and equipped RBA was in tatters along most of the Bhutanese northern borders. What stood between now and the collapse of Bhutan was an Indian intervention on the ground…