Battlefield Korea

Punched in the Face

Major General Paul Austin of the 4^th Infantry Division was looking out the window at the countryside whipping past his vehicle as his division raced through Lithuania on their way to Vilnius, the capital city. It was still dark, but he could make out some buildings and petrol stations just off the deserted E67 highway as they drove along. He had nearly 2,000 vehicles in his column, snaking across twelve miles of the highway. The decision had been made the day before to change the invasion of Belarus slightly and have his division race north into Lithuania so that they could make a more direct move on Minsk. His 11,000-man division was going to try and capture Belarus’ capital, and then seal off any possible retreat of the Russian 6^th Tank Army.

Following General Austin’s division into Belarus would be service members from the Lithuanian army; they would be responsible for the occupation and garrison duty once the primary objectives had been achieved. They spoke the language, unlike the Americans, and shared more of a common history and culture since both countries were former Soviet republics.

Austin’s division had been on the road now for nearly five hours, but they still had close to 40 kilometers to travel before they reached the outskirts of the city and then made their way to the jump off point. They were going to cross the border at Medininkai on the E26 Highway, which would lead directly to Minsk, 155 kilometers away. He looked down at his watch.

“The rest of Three Corps and the Polish army should be crossing into Belarus right about now, starting the new offensive,” he thought.

At 0700 hours, his division began to roll through the tiny border town of Medininkai (population 528), when they spotted the first sign of enemy activity. A small contingent of armored vehicles and soldiers was gathered along the road. They must have been very nervous at the sight of hundreds of American military vehicles amassing not far from their position because MG Austin could see enemy soldiers scrambling to get in their vehicles and race away from the border. They knew they were clearly outmatched-his division had 62 M1A2 Abrams battle tanks, 96 Bradley fighting vehicles, and 126 Stryker vehicles. They also had an artillery brigade for direct fire support. His forces were ready to pounce; now they just had to wait until it was time.

As they approached the border, he deployed his scouts and forward observers to start getting eyes on possible enemy units they may encounter. Soon he had scouts as deep as 40 kilometers inside Belarus. Shortly, the action would pick up and he would lead his division in a mad race to capture the capital city of Minsk.

“What an exciting time to be a soldier,” he thought privately.

“Viking-Five, this is Hammer-Three. We have three T-80 tanks and six BTRs at grid Golf Kilo 743 597. Do we have permission to engage over?” asked Sergeant First Class Tim Hanse.

His forward observer platoon had crossed the Belarus border nearly two hours ago, slowly moving along various dirt roads towards possible enemy positions. They had been shown several potential enemy positions via satellite reconnaissance and were tasked with getting eyes on them. His platoon had split up into squads to cover more ground as they tried to find targets for the guns.

His squad had found about a company-sized element located at Palyany, roughly thirty or so kilometers from the border, just where the satellite photos had said they would be. Now it was up to the folks at division to determine if they wanted to blow them up now or let them live a little longer.

The radio chirped briefly before it responded to their question, “Hammer-Three, this is Viking-Five. We copy. Proceed with fire mission over.”

SFC Hanse smiled that they had been given permission to engage. He looked at the coordinates one of the soldiers had given him, and briefly nodded. “Viking-Five, this is Hammer-Three. Requesting three rounds, HE at grid Golf Kilo 743 597. Fire for effect. How copy?”

A second later, they responded back and read the fire mission back to him. He acknowledged, and they stood by, waiting for the rounds to impact, ready to adjust fire as needed.

A couple of minutes later, the radio crackled to life again. “Shot out.”

After another pause, the radio came to life again. “Splash,” said the voice, indicating the rounds were about to impact.

“Copy that,” Hanse responded, and they waited for the sound of the incoming rounds.

Suddenly, a sound like a freight train raced over their heads as the artillery rounds began to fly in and saturate the area they had called in. One of the tanks took a direct hit, so did two of the BTRs. Several others had been damaged. Most of the troops near the tanks dropped to the ground. The survivors of the initial blasts immediately ran to their vehicles, knowing all too well that they needed to move to a new location.

SFC Hanse called in a second fire mission-this time destroying nearly all the remaining vehicles and flattening this small village in the process. As the buildings and vehicles lay in ruins, dark oily black smoke began rising into the air. Sergeant Hanse’s scout group got in their two HUMVEEs and began to drive to their next location, continuing to scout for their artillery brigade.