Meeting people and killing them
12.00 Hours
The CP (Command Post) is coming under sniper fire from a nearby warehouse and Matt and I are detailed to take him out. We skirt around the back of the CP down onto the road where the sniper can’t see us. There we find the rest of our squad moving up under fire from the Africans behind a concrete roadblock. Luckily a Royal Marine turns up with a Minimi which has such a fearsome rate of fire that the Africans have to retreat.
He lays down a base of fire into the open doorway of the warehouse, giving us all time to cross the open ground and huddle up against the wall next to the door. On the count of three, we all pull grenades and toss them through the door, the Minimi gunner pausing only long enough to let us toss our frags in before opening up again.
Ben Watt, from Stirling Services, shows off his impressive weapon.Straight after the bangs we pile in and there’s utter carnage inside, 8 Africans are down with four of our guys gone too, but one African has holed himself up in an office and wildly spraying bullets at anyone daft enough to take a peak. We toss ins a couple of frag grenades and let the high explosive do the rest.
Now the sniper is gone we’re ordered to hold the warehouse until we’re reinforced as we’ve now got vehicles and the CO wants to push into the city where the Africans have taken over the hospital, the UN building and the Presidential Palace.
I take up a position next to the main loading bay doorway and immediately come under fire from a dozen Africans advancing down the road. Shouting out ‘Contact front!’ I open up with my G36 on full auto and hose down the road, dropping two of the militia straight away while the others take cover. Everyone else in the squad opens up too and soon an intense firefight develops with an outrageous amount of ammo flying. I can see Africans sneaking up both sides of the road and gradually our much smaller squad is picked off one by one until I’m left alone. I hold my fire and wait until they think we’re all gone before leaning out just enough to bring my rifle to my shoulder and sight along it.
”What do you reckon, just a few of them down there?” “Yeah, one, maybe two at the most…”The African a few meters away is just as surprised as I am and he soon goes down, as do the three behind him who had let haste overcome caution. Two more over the road have seen me and start peppering the door with fire to keep my head down and I’ now running out of options… I’m low on ammo, I have one grenade left and if I stick my head out it’ll be blown off for sure… but if I sit here and wait I’ll get shot too, so what do I do?
I stand up, ready to go out in a blaze of glory when to my surprise I see the militia legging it away up the road… then I hear the rumble of tank tracks and an APC goes by, the turret gunner giving it the good news all up and down the street and leaving me to fight another day…