River Raid (The Scorpion Squad Military Thrillers Book 4) by Eric Helm

Author:Eric Helm [Helm, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

THE VILLAGE OF AHN TAP

The men in the motorboat watched helplessly as the village of Ahn Tap burned. The orgy of firing had tapered off to a sporadic crackling of rifles and carbines intermixed with an occasional burst from an AK, and people could still be heard yelling or screaming above the roar of the blazing huts, but there were not so many screams now, and very few yells.

Judging from the visible destruction, Fetterman estimated that the village had been hit by at least a reinforced company of Main Force Viet Cong. The volume of gunfire and the number of automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades indicated that they were far too well armed to have been local guerrillas.

It had chafed the men, Minh more so than the rest, to have to sit by and watch the carnage they knew was taking place in the village; there was nothing four men in a motorboat could do against such an obviously superior enemy force, not even four heavily armed men in a motorboat. Tonight, before their eyes, the village of Ahn Tap was dying, and they were powerless to do anything about it.

After a time, the effect of their inability to respond to the outrage had begun to make itself apparent in the unconscious actions of the men. Doc McMillan sorted through and repacked his medic bag three times. Sergeant Tyme repeatedly checked, unnecessarily, the ammunition belts and feed mechanisms of his twin .30-cal. Browning machine guns. Minh had put aside his rocket launcher, and sat nervously fixing and unfixing the bayonet to his heavy Garand rifle. Fetterman, who observed these behavioral tics in the others, failed to notice anything unusual in his own behavior until he caught himself checking the load in his M-79 for the fourth time.

At last the radio crackled with their call sign. Fetterman was surprised to find himself addressed by Gerber.

“Zulu Afloat, this is Zulu Six. We are two minutes out. Will land northwest of the village and sweep through toward the river. Can you establish a blocking position to the southeast, near the dock?”

Fetterman quickly considered the resources available to him. He had only four men, including himself, but they were armed with three machine guns, a grenade launcher, and a bazooka, as well as personal weapons. While it would have been foolish to attack a force the size of the one that must have hit Ahn Tap, it might be feasible for them to function as a partial block, provided they could get ashore undetected and find suitable cover.

“Roger Zulu Six. Will establish a blocking position near the dock. Out.”

“Doc, clear the belt on that weapon, and bring the ammo. We don’t have time to unbolt the tripod from the deck.” Fetterman turned slightly to face Tyme. “Boom-Boom, dismount both those Brownings. Cut up the anchor line and rig a couple of slings. Lieutenant Minh, please bring the launcher and as many rockets as you can carry. We’re going ashore.”

Fetterman cut across the river at high speed and ran the little boat in alongside the dock.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.