Ambush Alley by Tim Pritchard

Author:Tim Pritchard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780307414540
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

7

At the foot of the Euphrates Bridge, as he looked along the streets that led into the heart of the city, Captain Mike Brooks of Alpha Company saw Iraqi fighters pressing in on them along multiple routes. He had been at the bridge for nearly an hour, and the noise level and the amount of incoming fire was getting steadily more fearsome.

Whoosh.

An RPG streaked over his shoulder. He saw more and more muzzle flashes from the windows of the houses to the west of him and what looked like waves of Iraqi fighters crossing through the alleyways ahead of him. It was as though the whole town had woken up and begun to join the fight. His map was highlighted with the location of no-fire areas, such as schools and mosques, where the marines were not supposed to shoot. But now he looked through his binoculars to see groups of men running into a large mosque ahead of him. When they came out again, they were carrying weapons. They’ve stockpiled weapons and ammunition in the buildings surrounding the bridge. They were waiting for us. All the rules of engagement about not firing on sensitive buildings were now crumbling in the confusion. It was the first time he had been in combat, and he was taken aback by the sensation of hearing and feeling pieces of hot metal flying through the air, just past his face.

He was anxious to get his FiST working. His marines were being targeted by a rain of fire from inside the city, and Brooks knew that it would stay like that until he managed to fight back with some serious weaponry. To his left he saw his 60 mm mortar section taking cover in some sort of trash ditch. They had unloaded their mortar pieces and were now working furiously to attach the barrels to the baseplates. Within minutes, they dropped their first rounds on a blue building to the right where most of the Iraqi fire seemed to be coming from. The mortars were set on delay. They rocketed from the tube, smashed into the building, and erupted inside, shaking the walls and knocking the glass from the windows.

He looked around at his AAVs. They were all in a good position. They’d been able to pull in behind a solid five-foot-high wall that gave them cover. It was almost as though it had been built as a defense. From the AAVs’ turrets, gunners fired their Mark 19 40 mm automatic grenade launchers. As the grenades impacted the ground, they punched holes in houses, destroyed sandbagged Iraqi positions, and tore apart anything within five meters of where they landed.

He had two platoons of infantry dispersed around the foot of the bridge, with one platoon further north tasked with securing the mouth of Ambush Alley. His young marines, lying in fighting holes and taking cover behind walls, were picking off Iraqis whenever they fired from windows or emerged from doorways to launch their RPGs. Brooks was grateful that his marines had such superior marksmanship skills.

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