Sword Point by Harold Coyle

Author:Harold Coyle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Technological, Fiction, War & Military
ISBN: 9780671852948
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1994-07-15T09:50:03.546000+00:00

The confined area was filled with people coming and going, three different briefings were going on at the same time, phones were ringing. To the operations and intelligence personnel of 2nd Brigade, it was home.

Matthews sat before the intelligence map and posted information that had been received during the night but had not been posted during the move north. Though the situation was threatening, it was looking better than it had looked two days earlier. The two divisions moving toward them had been slowed down considerably. A combination of ground attacks by forces cut off but still fighting, raids carried out by the 17th Airborne along the

Soviets' line of march and attacks by the Air Force had had the effect of slowing the Soviets and buying time for the 2nd Brigade to deploy.

Matthews' current projections showed that it would be four to five days before the Soviets could mount a deliberate breakthrough attack against the brigade. By then, they would be as ready as they ever would.

The deployment of the 2nd Brigade bothered Matthews. The tank and mechanized battalions, reorganized into combined-arms task forces, had been placed across the main avenues of approach to the south. The 3rd Battalion of the 4th Armor sat on the road and blocked it. The 1st of the 29th

Infantry was covering a secondary avenue to its east. These units, placed in close proximity, could support each other in a pinch depending on where the Soviets made their main effort. But the use of a light infantry battalion attached to the brigade gave her concern. A valley west of the brigade's main sector ran south from Harvand, past Hajjiabad to Tarom. The infantry battalion was assigned the responsibility of covering this approach. Because the road network was so bad there, the 12th Division G-2 felt that the Soviets would not risk sending heavy forces south through

Harvand. If that did 213

happen, the infantry battalion was, in their opinion, capable of stopping the enemy in the restricted terrain there. Failing that, the battalion could delay the enemy long enough for the armored or mech task forces to shift over and reinforce the air assault battalion. When Matthews volunteered that no infantry unit had yet been able to delay, let alone stop, a Soviet mounted attack, she was politely told to confine her attention to Soviet operations.

While she had some support for her position, no one changed the plan as it stood. For better or worse, the die for the 2nd Brigade's first battle was cast. After thirty eight days of waiting and twelve thousand miles of travel, they were at the front. Chapter 12

Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.

-BARBARA W. TUCHMAN

East of Aliabad 1345 Hours, 7 July (1015 Hours, 7 July, GMT) The town suddenly became clearly visible in the distance as the two F15s flew over a low ridge. Martain tilted the plane slightly to the right and began to accelerate. "Aliabad dead ahead. Air defense status?"

The wizzo scanned his instruments.

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