Hey Mom
Forgive my handwriting, but we got back after dark tonight so and it’s hard to write neat under these lights.
After a few days around base we were sent off into the jungle again this morning as a bunch of Chelt artillery sites were threatening to make things hard work for a while. Sarge was in charge (see what I did there?) as we loaded up into a truck, but it couldn’t take us far, as we needed to cross the river, and there aren’t any vehicle crossings near here. Still, any time we’re able to be off our feet and sat down while outside the wire is nice. The foot bridge we were dropped at was nothing more than some logs held above the water by lashed bamboo, and we could only cross single file, but it didn’t collapse and no one fell in. While we were crossing, I got a load of distortion on my radio though, so I told the Sarge I thought there’d been a spy in the village by the bridge who had just sent a message to inform the bases we were hunting for that we were coming. We didn’t get shot until after I told her that though, so it could have been worse.
As they knew where we were we set off, uphill, at speed. There was a load of open space which would have been lovely to go through, but we hugged the cover as best we could instead, with reeds giving way to trees as we got higher. As the trees closed in we hit our first contact, which I spent most of dragging casualties to Howser (one of our medics) as I couldn’t see a thing in the undergrowth. When we made it to the top there was another open area full of long grass. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but they always hide in the long grass, so while it looks like great cover, it’s just not, because they got there first. This time they got there early enough to build a proper encampment, complete with wooden walls and everything. I’m sure you’ll not be surprised to learn that even that was no match for the USMC though!
After mopping up the stragglers, and bandaging the squad, we called for a resupply and then immediately got bounced by a squad of Chelt across a small valley from us. This meant a lot of back and forth, then myself and a couple of others playing ‘hunt the green thing in the expanse of green’ as we had to double back to find the crate. I tried to get it in the valley so it’s be easy to see, but alas the wind was not on my side. Or perhaps the flyboys, but I’m going to say it was the wind so the flyboys keep dropping us supplies. Of course, as we were finishing resupplying we got hit again, but thankfully now we had a load more bullets and were able to respond in kind.
Setting off from there we pushed up a hill, to the north, meeting sporadic resistance as we went. As we got closer to the top we had to revector to the west a bit, then Rain found and destroyed a gun tower which was a good indication that there were more hostiles close by. Also a good indication was the number of explosive traps, and punjis we found. Repeatedly. Thankfully Morris also found a cable from the tower down into the valley to the east, so we followed that, and found a whole load of Chelt in a large camp at the bottom.
The assault started well, but then a few people got hit, the forward portion pushed on, the rear portion tried to consolidate, and it all got messy. When it seemed that we were had pulled back upslope I called in some artillery, which destroyed vast swathes of the camp, but sadly not all the hostiles (I think they’d taken cover in the treeline, that or they had reinforcements arrive at a really bad time for us). We tried to push forward, take the camp, and pick up the wounded, but we got quickly overrun again, and Sarge went down. I hauled my ass back up close to where the medics were working, then called in the airforce to smack the far side of the camp and the treeline the Chelt had been pouring out of. We initially had a bit of trouble establishing radio contact with the air support, and they hit the centre of the camp where some of our marines were, but they had sufficient cover to get down in and I think it was only a matter of singed eyebrows. Once I did get talking to the air we managed to vector their hits onto the newly arrived Chelt to finish off the fight.
As the medics worked on Sarge and the others, I called for supplies.
Resupplied and happy the area was cleared we moved on to our next point of interest, a rocky outcrop on the southern edge of an east-west running valley. As we crested on the southern edge of the valley, lead elements (Yellow Team) got eyes on the temple, and then the firing started. I’m not sure exactly what went on in there, it was a confined space and as I got to the rocks to provide cover we made contact with hostiles on the north side of the valley. Seeing as there was a long way to get to them, and they were being persistent, I called in some artillery on them, taking care to make sure to drop it long so I didn’t hit our own marines.
What we didn’t know at that time, but soon found out, was that the enemies had artillery too, and they put theirs much closer to us. Half the squad thought it was mine, which led to a few (understandably) testy exchanges over the radio, but I was vindicated in the end, and got some lovely hits in on the hostile positions on the other side of the valley. However, on moving up to confirm the area was clear it became rapidly apparent that the enemy still had artillery capabilities, and was watching us, so we had to go the long way round the head of the valley so we could stay in the cover of the jungle.
It took us a while to get round, and when we did the entire jungle exploded. I’m told it was the advanced members of the squad hitting the Chelt artillery so hard it immediately cooked off, but all I know is that one entire section of jungle exploded. Then it continued to explode for quite some time. After mopping up the infantry that survived whatever the hell it was Yellow Team did it was noted that it was starting to get dark, and our brief did not include an overnight patrol, so we drew back to the nearest crossing point and headed back to camp.
Give my love to everyone back home
Morse