Kicking Bombs by Barry Stevens

Author:Barry Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Published: 2013-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

16

Video Message to the World

100mm Armour-piercing APHE-T

Made in Czechoslovakia. An armour-piercing (AP) shell is a type of ammo designed to penetrate armour. Iraq used this type of ammo in its 100 millimetre guns in their Soviet-made T55 tanks. It’s also good against concrete bunkers and the like. An armour-piercing projectile itself must be able to withstand the shock of punching through armour plate. Shells designed for this purpose have a greatly strengthened case with a specially hardened and shaped nose, and a much smaller bursting charge. Some smaller-calibre AP shells have an inert filling, or incendiary charge, in place of the high explosive bursting charge. Even with modern day tanks and ammo, AP shells remain the preferred round in anti-tank warfare; they have a greater ‘first-hit kill’ probability than a high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) round — especially against a target with composite armour. And because of higher muzzle velocity, they are more accurate than a HEAT round.

The van was far worse than the container. At least there I was able to keep myself busy by listening to voices and the goings-on around the warehouse; even the small light through the vent gave me some sort of amusement. But here I was stuck in a hole in the ground, unable to hear or see anything. After a while I decided to remove the bulb from the light socket and try to get some sleep. For a second I forgot about my arm injuries and when I lifted my arms up to unscrew the bulb I realised that I couldn’t possibly lift my left arm any higher than horizontal. I tried for a while to unscrew it using my right arm only but gave up after a short time and simply lay down on the cardboard. I rolled onto my right side against the concrete wall and fell asleep. When I woke up it was like everything that happened to me the day before was a dream. There I was at one stage positive that I was going to have my head hacked off by a goon with a carving knife, to wearing a woman’s dress in the back of a car, to lying in a cement hole under a truck wreck. I stood for a while trying to take it all in, slowly and carefully feeling my left arm, now minus its tattoos. After having some water and dried apricots I sat myself back on the cardboard against the concrete wall. I closed my eyes and tried to think of every situation I had been through over the past week or more. Was there anything I could have done better that could have helped me escape? Was there any occasion when I could have acted differently? The road checkpoint was the obvious one event that stood out in my mind, but even then I decided that there was nothing different I could have done and stayed alive even if I’d had the opportunity.

The throbbing pain around my left shoulder was getting so bad now that I couldn’t move my left arm at all.

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