Snippets From Combat Zone – The Sri Lanka Experience Contd…2

The FireFight

 

As the Toyota Pick up truck crossed the road crossing just 25 metres ahead of our company column, there was a total hush in the company column. Everyone strained his ears to try and make out where the vehicle had gone, from the sound of the moving vehicle in dead of the night. There was no sound for about five minutes and then we heard some sound to our right among some by-lanes.

 

About 25 metres to my rear, there was a narrow by-lane coming from our right to the coast road on which we were moving. I instinctively moved to the by-lane – coast road junction as did a number of my men. Suddenly we saw the headlights of the vehicle in that narrow by-lane coming towards us. As the vehicle had till now not shown any hostile intent, my men started calling out to the vehicle to stop. As the vehicle came about 25 odd metres close to us it suddenly accelerated and came straight at us, who were standing at the mouth of the by-lane. We recoiled back and in a split second we saw a grenade coming towards us, hurled by a young boy standing at the rear of the pick-up truck. Along with the launch of the grenade by the LTTE cadre, the vehicle accelerated further and turned right on the coast road. When the grenade blasted, and, when firing started from both sides, one could not make out. An intense exchange of fire ensued and I could see the vehicle stop about 6 feet away from me on the coast road. The exchange of fire lasted just about two to three minutes but they were the longest two to three minutes of my life. During this time, I had been hit on my helmet a couple of times by the bullets ricocheting from the vehicle. As the vehicle had come to a stand still, just six odd feet from me, I started shouting to my men to cease fire. It took nearly half a minute of shouting by me, my Company Commander (Coy Cdr) and other officers for the men to stop firing, as not only my platoon, my neighbouring platoons but even the next two companies had opened up on the truck. When the firing ceased, the radio operator of my Arty OP Officer, who was about 2 feet to my left, had slumped to the ground with chest wound. He was dead before he even slumped to the ground. The young boy/militant LTTE cadre who was in the body of the truck was lying on the road 15 feet from me injured but barely alive. The driver of the vehicle was slumped on the wheels of the vehicle. We could make out there was one more person on the seat next to the driver, status unknown. My Coy Cdr ordered me to check the vehicle. I approached the vehicle from the rear and after clearing the open back of the pick-up truck, I approached the co-driver’s seat. I could not see any movement inside other than very faint and laboured breathing. I opened the door gingerly, and the co-driver’s body slumped down to the side of the truck with his finger still on the trigger of his AK 47. After confirming that there were only three and all accounted for, we started the reorganisation procedure. Net result – three LTTE cadres, including their Cdr of Point Pedro ‘Kannadi Nathan’, against loss of one Radio Operator of our Arty OP team.

 

What exactly happened and why we got away rather lightly is because of series of small things that we did or were lucky to have them working to our advantage.

 

Firstly, the place where the by-lane merged with the coast road, had a hume pipe to allow water to flow under the road during rains. The grenade that was hurled at us, luckily for us somehow landed straight inside the hume pipe and burst there, thereby saving us from its effect. There was a height difference of about 2 to 3 feet between the by-lane and the coast road. The driver thus had to accelerate to climb up. As the vehicle came on to the coast road with a jerk, the young militant standing in the body of the pick-up truck with grenades in his hand fell down from the vehicle. His body was found with a grenade each in his hand. Sri Lanka like our country also has right hand driven vehicles. Our decision to walk on the right of the road put us on the driver’s side rather than the co-driver’s side. The driver of the vehicle must have anticipated us to be on the left of the road (which in normal circumstances is the side where we generally walk), and thus may have decided to turn right so as to allow the co-driver to use his weapon freely while he, the driver, would be shielded from our bullets. Our being on right of the road did not allow the co-driver to use his weapon freely as he was restricted by the driver on his right and he had to fire over the back of the driver and thus was hampered in causing bigger damage to us. When the militant threw the grenade at us we recoiled back. In the confusion most of my men has fallen on the ground and the continued to remain lying on the ground and emptied their magazines into the vehicle. So majority of the bullets fired by the co-driver went over their heads, thus saving us the casualties.

 

Some valuable lessons that we learnt are as follows:-

When halting, cover the by-lanes leading to the main road with some dedicated teams. If possible, use some locally available resources to block the entry or exits.

Strict fire control is essential. Only those troops who are in direct contact with the enemy should fire, rest should hold fire. Our companies even 200 metres away were firing at the vehicle, with the result we had number of bullet ricocheting and hitting us who were next to the target. Officers must exercise strict fire control and cease firing themselves soonest to take charge of the situation.

Always take up tactical positions while halting during the advance so that one presents the smallest target to the enemy.

Shoot the headlights of approaching vehicles in enemy territory, if they do not stop on your saying so. Because of the headlights we were temporarily blinded

 

A rather funny incidents happened in one of our company, in fact, the one last in the order of march. Immediately after the fire fight that company decided to occupy some of the houses next to the road to establish a temporary HQ. They approached a house and after going past the small drive way they knocked at the door, and asked the residents to open the door. When they did not get any response, they decided to blast the door open. The Platoon Cdr asked one of his men to use a grenade. The soldier took out the pin of the grenade and flung it at the main wooden door. The grenade bounced off the door and came back to where the platoon was standing. The soldier immediately picked it up and in the confusion, threw it a bit higher this time around. The grenade now went on the slanted roof and again rolled back to where they were standing but luckily it did not burst. As he picked up the grenade the third time, the Coy Cdr shouted at him to stop throwing it and just keep it aside. The grenade was thus kept at one corner of the front lawn and left there. The obstinate grenade never burst. It is sometime good not to clean your grenades well, especially if your grenade throwing skills are not too refined. Rather its better not to use them.

How we resumed our march and how did we finally occupy the whole of Point Pedro, we shall see in the next episode of Snippets From Combat Zone – The Sri Lanka Experience. Till then Happy Reading.