Chimera (40 page)

THIMPU

DAY 5 + 2150 HRS         

The first news reports of the situation on the streets of Thimpu began airing on news networks worldwide. Images of Bhutanese civilians fleeing to the south towards the Indian border filled the waves. Rumours filled the airwaves as the Bhutanese government began to collapse in the chaos. The situation was vastly reminiscent of the situation in Assam in 1962 during the previous Sino-Indian war. Rumours also spread that the Royal Bhutanese Army had been routed. 

As night fell, the citizens of Thimpu saw the ground thundering to the north as the last few Royal Bhutanese Guard units attempted to hold off the Chinese Regiment poised to take the capital of Bhutan. In a few hours the news media across the world were talking of explosions being heard north of Thimpu. At about the same time, Indian television channels began showing the same news, and started asking questions about the India’s failure to prevent the fall of Bhutan. No one stopped to ask Lieutenant-General Potgam, if he had anything to say or do about it.  

NORTHWEST OF LEH

LADAKH

DAY 5 + 2340 HRS

The moonlight glistened off the shiny new paint job. Major Kulkarni admired the speed with which the new camouflage had been applied. The green camouflage had been painted over with white and the light brown areas had been painted over with shades of disruptive patterns of brown. The paint was still not dry yet. Fact was that they only reason they had halted at all was because a medevac convoy was making its way west from Leh back to Srinagar carrying wounded soldiers and civilians to safety. The snake like mountain roads did not allow much room for two way motion along the road.

Especially not with these vehicles!

Kulkarni looked around. Everywhere they had passed along the way, the story had been the same: civilians heading west, military convoys heading east. Helicopters occasionally flew overhead and sometimes they could see black pillars of smoke from some supply base that had received a hit from Chinese cruise-missile. But the change in emotions on the way here from Rajasthan had been powerful.

They were also having a different type of effect on those they passed on the road. Everybody stopped in awe as the Major’s unit thundered by. It never failed to inspire Kulkarni.

It was still a long drive to Leh and just as long a drive from there to the actual ground combat zone.  

Would there even be a frontline to fight on when we get there?

He shook his head and turned his attention to the road. As the last truck passed by, he was waved on by the MPs guiding the traffic on the road. He climbed on top of the turret and put his helmet on. The others in his convoy did the same. He then lowered his R/T mouthpiece and depressed the send button, instantly activating voice comms between himself and the other eleven vehicles in his unit:

“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements! Looks like the road is clear. We are rolling again! Move out!”

His driver took the cue and a second later the vehicle lurched forward. Eleven other similar vehicles did the same. The thunder of twelve Arjun tank engines reverberated through the valley for kilometres as Rhino Squadron of the 43
RD
 Armoured Regiment began rolling towards Ladakh.  

day 6

YUMTHANG VALLEY

SIKKIM

DAY 6 + 0005 HRS

“Get it rolling, son. We don’t have all night.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Fernandez shouted as he walked by the young lieutenant fixing up the last supporting harnesses around the Pinaka Launcher. Its canisters were empty and the platform lowered and locked for transport. He stopped and looked around to see crews preparing the other vehicles as well. He moved the cigar in his mouth from one side to the other.

“Let’s go, men! Move!”

He loved his cigar. Always had. But he had begun to love it even more in the winter of Sikkim. And he definitely loved the victory smoke. His battery had hammered the divisional artillery units of the Chinese 55
TH
 Division in the Chumbi valley for the past day. That division was being heavily mauled by the Indian divisions under XXXIII Corps as part of operation Chimera.

But he and his Pinaka warriors had now been transferred to Bhutan.

“Sir, J-F-B command on the line!” Fernandez’s comms officer said as he ran up to him.

“All right son, let’s go.”

Fernandez walked up into the command trailer parked under camo netting and skip-jumped the climbing-steps and walked in.

“Hit it, son!” he said as he grabbed the radio speaker.

“This is Hotel-six-actual, send traffic, over!”

“Hotel-six-actual, this is Warlord. Give me an update!” General Potgam’s grizzly voice came through.

“Hotel-Six is on the move, sir. Group of three Launchers, one C-Three vehicle and support elements are awaiting a hitch to the deployment area just as soon as the flyboys get their act together. Other elements will follow later,” Fernandez said. He could faintly hear the sounds of helicopters outside.

“Keep pushing hard. I want you guys to hit the ground running. We are time-critical on this. We are getting some eyes in the sky soon. Get your asses over here in the meantime. Warlord out!” Potgam signed off.

Fernandez handed the speaker back to his comms officer. He stepped two feet to the side and opened the door. The immediate gust of freezing air entered the trailer, causing everybody to shiver and reach for their jacket zippers. Two Mi-26 helicopters were hovering outside and the strapped and packed Pinaka vehicles were being hooked up underneath them. Further away, Mi-17V5s were doing the same with the lighter utility vehicles…

The crumbling frontline in northern Bhutan and the threat to Thimpu had created a lot of uncertainty. While the golf-course at IMTRAT headquarters in Haa-Dzong had been converted into a temporary helipad for the heavy reinforcements heading into Bhutan, the threat to Haa-Dzong was still far from clear. Hotel-Six was the only rocket artillery moving into Bhutan for now and represented the only artillery units directly under Potgam and Joint-Force-Bhutan.

For Fernandez, the problem was the deployment into Haa-Dzong. Since it was clear that any area north from there was unsecured and possibly under enemy control, he felt very uncomfortable.

With the two Mi-26s and three Mi-17s providing heavy airlift capability, Fernandez had decided to move the required hardware in six to ten overall round trips with each trip lasting about one hour. That was about as fast as they could do it. The problem was that General Potgam would have the first eyes over Thimpu imminently. And he may have targets lined up for him by the time Fernandez landed. But with only a third of his needed presence he wouldn’t be able to deliver much punch just yet.

Potgam is not going to be happy…

He stomped out of the command trailer, closed the entrance behind him and headed across the ground in time to see the two Mi-26 engines groaning under the strain of the cargo hanging underneath. Several minutes later they were heading down the valley. Two of the Mi-17V5s followed behind, lifting some of the lighter equipment including the DIGICORA metrological radar and a stripped down command vehicle. The third helicopter was on the ground and soldiers from the battery were loading necessary light equipment into its cabin.

“Just tell me you have everything under control here!”

Fernandez shouted over the helicopter noise to his second-in-command, who would now command the remainder of the deployment from here while Fernandez headed off in the last helicopter of this batch to Bhutan.

“Yes sir! What’s the logistical support over there? Where are we going to get resupplied from?” the Major asked.

That
was
a good question!

Fernandez didn’t know the answer. He wasn’t sure if even Potgam had the answer for that just now. Fernandez threw the cigar butt on to the snow.

“I will let you know when I find out! There are no pre-located AFARP locations over there as far as I know!” He said finally.  

Northern Sikkim was dotted with pre-selected and pre-stocked Artillery-Forward-Area-Rearming-Points or AFARPs. These well hidden and well stocked supply locations allowed for rapid artillery deployments and longer periods of intensive operations. The supplies included ready-to-fire rockets for the Pinaka Batteries as well.

“Nobody figured we would be fighting a pitched battle with the PLA inside freaking Bhutan! You know what they say about battle plans, right? We can only hope that Warlord has gotten a ground convoy moving up to his location with rockets for us to fire. Or else we can say goodbye to Bhutan forever!” Fernandez said as they watched the last Mi-17 prepare to leave.

“Well good luck out there, sir!” The Major said.

“See you on the other side, Major!”

Both men shook hands before Fernandez jogged over to the waiting helicopter. Soon the helicopter increased power and lurched into the sky, steadily climbing away towards the mountains around Gora La before turning south down the valley. 

NEW CHINA NEWS AGENCY

DAY 6 + 0120 HRS

“Incoming reports have confirmed that Indian warplanes have shot down a civilian airliner carrying hundreds of displaced refugees over the Taklimakan desert. Refugees have been fleeing from the fighting in Tibet where the brave soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army are fighting off the India aggression. Other reports indicate that the civilian terminal at Hotien airport has also been bombed. Civilian casualties are in the hundreds. China asks the western nations to condemn these cowardly Indian attacks against innocent civilians. We welcome the news that Pakistan has joined China in condemning India for the attacks and hopes that the rest of the world’s nations will follow the example. China has formally asked the United-Nations-Security-Council to meet in an emergency meeting to discuss these incidents.”

NORTH OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 6 + 0320 HRS

“They didn’t leave much standing, did they?” Vikram whispered.

“That’s a
big
negative!” Ravi agreed from his position further away.

“
Cut the chatter!
Let’s move in for a closer look. Spear-four and -five are on over-watch with the LMGs. Rest are on me! Let’s see if any of the RBG guys are still alive out there. Move!”

Captain Pathanya said over the team VHF intercom speaker before bringing up his INSAS rifle scope up. He surveyed the fires around the small village on the other side of the bridge. There was no activity inside the village other than the odd burning wooden roof structure collapsing within the walls. 

Soon the rest of his ten-man team came cautiously out of the bushes near the road and headed towards the bridge with their weapons drawn and pointed towards the village. Pathanya was the first to run up to the edge of the road and remained low as he brought his rifle up again. Two seconds later the rest of the team was in nearby locations and had the road covered. Vikram had an IMFS set up to survey the hills on the other side.

Pathanya looked down the road to the south and saw the charred remains of a Bhutanese army truck, silently spewing smoke into the night sky. Further near the bridge, there were a few motionless bodies of civilians and men in Bhutanese army uniforms. The blood spatter near the bodies was hard to miss…

“Precision arty. The RBG boys took a beating out here. The Chinese left the bridge deliberately intact though,” Vikram observed.

“Why won’t they? It’s the fastest route into Thimpu from here!” Pathanya added. “When the time comes we need to get Warlord to find and destroy those enemy guns. For now let’s keep out eyes open. Move out!”  

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 6 + 0630 HRS

“Damn it, Feng! This is
unacceptable!
” Chen shouted.

Feng agreed. They had just gotten a detailed damage and loss assessment report from Hotien airbase. It was still littered with the wreckage of the burnt out Il-76s and a host of other gutted aircraft.

Then there was the matter of several hundred deaths of Chinese soldiers, including wounded ones being evacuated to the north. The cascading anger had just reached Kashgar. Beijing had chewed out General Jinping and the PLA commander for their supposed lapses. Jinping had in turn blasted Wencang and Chen for failing him. Feng supposed the same must have happened down on the PLA side as well. Needless to say, Feng was on the receiving end of Chen’s outburst…