Storm Front by Rowland White

Author:Rowland White [White, Rowland]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446487921
Google: n_2c_DwbpJMC
Amazon: B0060MBHLI
Published: 2011-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

May 1972

AT LAST THERE was something new to sink their teeth into. In Mirbat, the BATT had been given an impressive new piece of kit.

After SAF’s withdrawal from Akoot following the launch of Operation SIMBA, it was decided to airlift one of the Desert Regiment’s 25 pounder field guns to Mirbat. After changing the gun’s carriage axle so that it could be rolled into the back of a Skyvan, the two-ton artillery piece was flown into the airstrip east of town.

It was hardly state of the art. Designed in the 1930s, the Ordnance QF 25 pounder was the mainstay of all the British and Commonwealth artillery units throughout the Second World War. From Norway to New Guinea it was used in every theatre of war. In the hands of the Australians the 25 pounder had been fierce in defence of El Alamein. When the United States entered the war, the first artillery shell fired against the Wehrmacht was launched from a 25 pounder. There was good reason for its ubiquity, though; it was believed by many to be the best field artillery piece of the war. In the hands of a good crew it was capable of firing 25-pound, 3.45in shells at such a rate that during the Allied invasion of Europe the Germans believed they were under attack from an automatic gun. And in 1972, despite its age, it remained in frontline service across the world.

At Mirbat, Troop Commander Mike Kealy decided that responsibility for their new gun would go to Tak and Laba. Neither of the two infantrymen had had any previous experience of a big field gun. To bring them up to speed the two Fijians were given two days’ intensive training by Royal Artillery gunners on secondment to SAF. There was plenty of ground to cover. There were two different sights for direct and indirect fire. The latter, unlike the mortars, used range rather than elevation to find the target. Tak and Laba were introduced to the mechanics of the gun; as well as firing it they were going to have to maintain it. They learnt how to operate the breech and ram the shells; were shown how the brass cartridge case carrying the propellant charge and the high-explosive projectile were packed separately and had to be joined before being loaded. Then the gunners left them to it.

After the monotony of their deployment to Mirbat so far, Tak and Laba revelled in the new challenge, Laba exuberant and his friend Tak working methodically through what needed to be learnt. They positioned the new gun next to the Dhofar Gendarmerie fort – alongside the men flown out of Habrut – 400 yards or so inland from the sea. The handsome DG fort, with its red Sultanate flag fluttering above a fifty-foot-high turret, was on a small hill at the furthest north-east corner of the town ringed by a cattle fence of vertical poles and barbed wire. From here Tak and Laba could see the BATT House

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