Able Sentry Page 19

  A few kilometers to the southwest, the Egyptian 712th Mech Brigade was hitting A-Company, as the rest of that force came up the road from El Adem. A flight of F-35’s greeted them with a bombing attack that sent huge billowing clouds up into the sky.

  The Egyptian 36th Armored Brigade swung to the left, coming up on the old Fort Pilastrino where a dozen Challenger’s were waiting for them. They sent up a full armored battalion, with three armored companies amounting to 31 tanks, and one mech infantry company. Artillery fire began to fall all along that front, sending up tall spouts of sand and dust, blown into twisting little tornadoes by the stiff west wind that morning. Five Egyptian tanks were knocked out in the first salvos from the 120mm guns on the Challengers. The Enemy sent a hail of rounds back, some hitting but bounding harmlessly off the heavy Chobham armor of the Challengers. One tank was hit five times, but remained unharmed, because all those rounds struck its thickest frontal armor.

  As the Challengers started to fire, they were joined by B-Company of 1st Royal Irish, which now provided good infantry support to keep the enemy from getting in close to use RPG’s on the sides and tracks of the big tanks. They were spitting out controlled bursts of fire, keeping the dismounted enemy infantry pinned down, but the Fahd-30 APC’s were now returning fire. This variant of the low, boxy four wheeled APC had a BMD-2 turret mounted on the roof with a 30mm automatic cannon, and that was very effective against infantry positions. That said, the Fahd was lightly armored, and fair game for the Challengers, which trumped everything the Egyptians had in the attack.

  In the west, company sized bands of “Technicals” raced up towards the British line at Wadi Sehel, and they were supported by the rumble of 22 T-62 tanks from the Libyan 73rd Brigade. The men shouted as they fired their MG’s and recoilless rifles from the bed of those pickups. Then the British infantry engaged.

  “Welsh Guards!” came a full throated officer. “Mark your targets and fire!”

  Noon, 11 JAN 2026

  Kinlan’s Brigade had been racing south all the previous day and night, not stopping at all. The Paras in their helos had been patrolling the road, and it was kept well clear until the column approached El Cusac. There Reeves found D-Company, 3rd Para, waiting for them when they came rolling up about mid-day as the sun arced high overhead.

  “Greetings and salutations!” called the Lieutenant as Reeves pulled up.

  “What’s happening up north?” asked Reeves.

  “The Egyptians have been fighting all morning. They’re besieging the place, but it seems our lads are holding them”

  “Good. Is the road ahead still clear?”

  “As far as Gabr Sciahebi on my map. The rest of my battalion is there, rooting out some Libyan fighters that got into a stony gulley and an old fort. They should have the situation in hand by the time you get up there. That’s about 20 klicks on as I read it.”

  “Alright,” said Reeves. “We’ve got the whole brigade behind me, so no point sitting here any longer. Why not have your men ride the backs of my vehicles and we’ll give you a lift to your battalion.”

  “We’ll get there a lot faster on those,” said the Lieutenant, and Reeves looked to see several helicopters coming in from the east.”

  “Good enough,” he said. “We’ll carry on. But you’d better leave soon. The Egyptians have been pursuing us, and they’re right on the heels of our column.”

  “One more thing,” said the Lieutenant. “You’ll be fine as far as Bir El Gobi, but the Egyptians set up a blocking position there—a little bit more than we could handle.”

  “Understood,” said Reeves. He returned the man’s salute, then tapped the roof of his Ajax and the column moved out.

  So Tobruk is under siege, thought Reeves. That means we’re going to have to fight our way into that town if that holds. The General may see it some other way, but in my mind, getting both our brigade and the 11th out with them, will be no small task. What if they have artillery close enough to shell the port? It would take long hours to get our men and equipment in the sealift assets, even on RO/RO ships.

  The more he thought about this, the more he came to realize that they were going to have to do more than break through to Tobruk. They were going to have to beat the Egyptian Army here badly enough to force them to withdraw. Only then could they conduct the embarkation in any semblance of order.

  A damn bloody mess we’re in now, he thought. We’ve a fine brigade here, one of the best in the army, but they have a reinforced division up there, and we’ve another one on our heels. This could get ugly….

  * * *

  The fighting near Tobruk went on all afternoon, and when the British got orders to pull back from Fort Pilastrino to the main line further back, they left 20 wrecked enemy tanks behind them, losing only 1 Challenger in that firefight.

  The attack up the coast road had been stopped, but the Egyptians there were reorganizing. Their 129th Special forces continued to snipe and duel with the Gurkhas in Sidi Mahmud, but that whole area was becoming a kind of Hougoumont now, somewhat out on a limb. Brigadier Hale was in command of that entire flank, and got word on the radio that Kinlan’s Brigade was close, pushing for Bir El Gobi as the sun began to set.

  If I know this fellow Kinlan, he thought, he’ll blow through that blocking position tonight after dark, using our night vision advantage. After that, he’ll have more trouble at El Adem. We’ve word that another heavy column has come up from Fort Capuzzo and is reaching El Adem about now. Where are they getting all these units? What happening in the Sinai?

  That column was a brigade of the Republican Guard Division, commanded by Brigadier Ishak al Hamza, with four battalions of mechanized infantry riding in Chinese built WZ 551 Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Each company also had six of the better Ramses V tanks assigned in support, so they were a strong force.

  Now I’m told there’s another enemy column following Kinlan! They came all the way from Siwa, and that will mean he’ll have to watch his back. All this for those oil workers and BP executives. We could lose that many men in this fight. This could get serious.

  Hale heard the sound of aircraft overhead, knowing they had to be friendly. Lieutenant Stokes came in, saluting.

  “Sir, the recon drones have spotted the Egyptians forming up on the main road again in the 10th armored sector. It looks like they’re going to hit the Gurkhas.”

  “How many were spotted.”

  “Had to be two battalions, one armored, and one mechanized.”

  “Do the Gurkhas have tank support?”

  “The Dorset Yeomanry are on that flank sir, twelve steel beasts behind them.”

  “That’ll do. We’ll also see about getting them Apaches with a little fire and Brimstone.”

  * * *

  What was happening in the Sinai? It was a fair question, for the Egyptians had been able to send an entire corps west to engage this operation. Were they holding the Israelis at bay?

  Over the first week of the new year, they had fought a grudging retreat to positions closer to the canal. Their line arced from the Al Salam Bridge in the north all the way south to the Great Bitter Lake. This was the segment of the canal they assumed the enemy would try to breach, and to prevent that, the 19th Mech Division was deployed on the west bank of that area, which is why the Egyptian General Gamel Abdul Nimr thought his position was secure.

  The Israelis, however, had other ideas. When the Egyptians compressed their lines to the west, they were able to move through the Giddi amd Mitla passes, and followed them. Driving for the lower end of the Great Bitter Lake, the Sons of Light reached the canal, and on the night of January 6, they threw across bridges to reach the west bank at Al Shallufa. This shook up the Egyptian General Staff, and they immediately ordered the bridgehead they had in that areas east of the canal to be abandoned. Those were units of the Egyptian 7th Mech Division, with several battalions of Special Forces, and they made a mad rush for their own bridge at El Kubri.

  At the same time, the 19th
Mech Division was ordered to leave its guard north of the lake, and head south to counterattack the Israeli incursion. That same night, the British had also stunned the Egyptian Command with their landing at Tobruk. Which sent 2nd Mech at Alexandria and 3rd Mech on the middle Nile West. It was a moment of great crisis for the Egyptians, because they did not know at that moment just how much force the Israelis had for their cross canal operation. If it was strong enough to break out and swing up the west bank of the Great Bitter Lake, it could threaten to cut off the main Egyptian army.

  Israel had the 7th Armored Brigade behind the Sons of Light, and their 35th Parachute Brigade, Oz Commandos, and the Negev Infantry Brigade. That was enough to rapidly reinforce their bridgehead in the early morning hours of the 7th, and some effort was made to do just what the Egyptians feared. This prompted the Egyptians to also alert the remaining brigades of their Republican Guards, because Cairo was also exposed.

  So even as Kinlan hurried south, the Battle of Sinai had transitioned into the Battle of Suez. The Egyptian 19th Mech Division was pounded by Western air power on every road, taking heavy casualties, but persisting in spite of the punishment. Just north of the Great Bitter Lake, the US 4th Infantry Division was also keeping relentless pressure on the Egyptian lines. Working with the 14th Israeli Machatz Armored Brigade, the US engineers quickly bridged the canal at Deversoir, and the Israeli tanks began crossing.

  The tail end of the 19th Mech had just passed south of that breach, and so half its force had to stop and turn around. They would join a brigade of the Republican Guard to try and stop this latest break in the dike. As more US forces crossed, they took on the Egyptian guardsmen of the 512th Brigade the morning of the 7th.

  “They are across on both ends of the Great Bitter Lake,” came the report to Gamel Abdul Nimr. The ‘Tiger of the Nile’ growled when he heard it, realizing that if these two penetration could become one, Cairo itself was in jeopardy.

  “Is the rest of the Republican Guard moving to Cairo?”

  “Yes sir, all but the one brigade we sent west when the news came of the landing at Tobruk.”

  The General shrugged. “The British in the west, the Israelis and Americans in the east. A fine little war we have here. Order the divisions still east of the canal to cross and take up defensive positions on the west bank. We must defeat those forces they have already pushed over the canal. We must….”

  Chapter 23

  18:00 Local, 11 JAN 2026

  Reeves led the column north, coming to a stony depression in the road about nine kilometers south of Bir el Gobi. This was the place where the Paras had been fighting, or so he had been told, but as his lead squadron started down the track, small arms and RPG-7 fire came at them from two sides. When the paras left, what remained of the militia fighters had regrouped in that low area, and hid themselves among the rocks.

  “Saber 1, engage all targets on your left. Saber 2, move up and sweep the right flank. Saber 3, bypass on the right and fix any targets north at Bir el Gobi.”

  The Colonel disposed his cavalry, and then informed Brigadier Kinlan that the column should bypass on the right. Eager to get to Bir el Gobi before midnight, Kinlan ordered the tanks of the Royal Dragoon Guards to press on ahead, then he went up in the FV-432 command vehicle, and found Reeves well forward. He wanted to know the score.

  “What’s it look like at Bir el Gobi?”

  “A reinforced battalion, sir,” said Reeves. “Two Mech companies, and three of armor. A drone was just out there, and we counted 34 tanks.”

  “Alright, then I’ll want Hampton to take in all the Challengers. I want to blow right through them before midnight. I’ll want to swing to the left when we get through. The ground is too broken east of El Adem, and that’s where the Egyptians would have to fall back if they pulled out. We can’t get tied up to the east.”

  “Right sir. How far back is their 3rd Mech?”

  “Scots say they’re just south of Gabr Sciahebi, and that’s just 22 Klicks south of Bir el Gobi. So I want to make short work of this blocking force there. See to it, Colonel.”

  “Sir!”

  The attack made by those Challenger II’s was devastating. They moved up in lines, about 1000 meters from the Iraqi positions, but received no fire. Using their night vision, they marked targets, and then the entire battalion opened fire. The shock of seeing one tank hit and exploding after another stunned the Egyptians, for they did not even see the Challengers until they fired. Their Ramses tanks were gutted, some having turrets blasted clean off the body of the tank, and the burning wreckage now lit up the landscape all around the scene.

  There came the growling sound of a metal wind, and in came the Challengers, making a high speed run at the enemy, their big guns still blazing. The enemy battalion was all but destroyed, each and every tank dead and burning on the field. The infantry turned and fled north into the desert night, and Kinlan owned Bir el Gobi in one hot hour. Now all that remained between his brigade and Tobruk was the 510th Brigade of the Egyptian Republican Guard, which was perhaps the only opposing force on the field worthy of the fight.

  Four battalions strong it had its infantry in the Chinese built WZ-551 IFV, an eight wheeled welded steel vehicle, with a 25mm autocannon turret. Each company had a heavy squadron of six Ramses V tanks, but four had been lost to air strikes, leaving 68 on the field. It was the only Egyptian unit structured this way, with the tanks integrated with the IFVs as in the new American model.

  Kinlan still had 38 Challengers deemed ‘operational,’ with four others walking wounded, having external systems damage. Six had sustained track and wheel damage that might have been repaired, but there had been no time. The brigade had not a single hour to spare, and so Kinlan had given reluctant orders to have the engineers demolish those tanks as the column left Sultan Apache. So the Egyptians would have the advantage of numbers again, and this time there were four battalions waiting at El Adem.

  Hampton was with Reeves, and Major Ross from the Scott Guards came up with Kinlan when they reached Bir el Gobi. They were looking over the map near Kinlan’s FV-432.

  “Alright,” he said. “The road splits into these two tracks running northwest, and we’ll take them, bypassing all this desert scrubland on the right. Reeves, I’ll want you on the northernmost of the two tracks, and about twelve klicks on, you’ll take this track here to an old stone tower.”

  “Right, sir.”

  “Major Hampton, you lead the move along the southern track. It follows this wadi, so you’ll have some cover The rest of the column follows you. We’ll carry on to this farm, Qubur al Jandal, and then bypass hill 185 to the west. There looks to be an abandoned old airstrip here, and Hampton and Ross will form there. Stewart stays with the civilian column until we get to the strip. Then I send two of his companies forward to support the attack. That was one mighty blow you delivered here, Mister Hampton. Let’s do it again. Kemp’s Paras will hold here and see if they can delay the pursuit further. Move out, gentlemen.”

  As the men moved out, Kinlan looked for Simson. “Sims, get Pierce of 11th Brigade on the radio. Tell them we’ll likely reach El Adem by midnight. It might be good if they could put in a breakout attack once we get within striking distance of Tobruk. We’ll need to hit them hard enough to create a corridor safe enough to move those civilians through to the harbor. After that, our main task is done, and then we look to tangling with the investment forces in earnest.”

  “We’ll see them off, sir,” said Sims, always the optimist. He, too, had been bothered by dark dreams the previous night, where the whole of Sultan Apache was gone, blown right off the map. In the dream he was bounding north through the desert in the FV-432, but when they reached Tobruk, there was another terrible light in the sky, searing enough to wake him in a sweat. He shook his head, dismissing it as a case of the willies from the stress of the mission, but it nagged at him all that night.

  No dreaming tonight for me, he thought. No, it’s all fire and steel from here on
out.

  Midnight, 11 JAN 2026

  Reeves reached that ruined tower, peering at it through high powered night vision equipment, and seeing movement in the stony rubble. It survived the last war, he thought, and who knows how many battles before that. Those are most likely Mahdi fighters out here again in their haunts, and frankly, I see no reason to waste ammunition on them. We’ll swing northwest, and screen the other columns on those tracks. I’ll want to get up on that hill Kinlan pointed out, number 185.

  So the Ajax AFV’s wheeled left off the thin road, and raced off into the desert. The abandoned airfield was about seven kilometers north, so Reeves figured they would be formed and ready to attack by 03:00. That would give them a little time to apply more applique armor.

  “Clean your specs,” Reeves told the men. He was referring to the Thales ORION panoramic sighting system that provided the vehicle commander with 360° long-range surveillance and target identification, day or night. It had a laser rangefinder, two high-definition color TV sensors, and a gigabit Ethernet (GigE) interface for data sharing with all the other vehicles. Anything sighted was immediately displayed on the internal screens of all the other vehicles. It was this tremendous situational awareness that gave the British forces their advantage. Once he reached Hill 185, Reeves would get the drones up to look over El Adem, and then share that reconnaissance data with the Brigade as a whole.

  Kinlan’s plan of having the garrison break out as he was driving in towards Tobruk was similar to the one devised by General Manstein to rescue the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad in our history. Kinlan would have been the Winter Storm component, and the breakout was akin to Operation Thunderclap.