SOURCE:
https://www.quora.com/
BATTLE :
EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST BULLET
I jest a bit, there’s always a twinge of fear/excitement when you go out and when you make contact, but after a while, it’s just another routine.
https://www.quora.com/
BATTLE :
EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST BULLET
Do Soldiers get Excited or Depressed
when they are sent to a Real War Mission?
When you first get to the OP AREA, you’re excited. You’re jacked to the tits. You’re ready to wreck shit. All that training is finally going to pay off!
Then you sit there for weeks at a time. Fuck, who knew war was so boring…
“De Tricht, we pulled the 0600 patrol of [wherever]. Get some sleep, roll call is at 0430.”
Fuck. Well, 2200 is not an ideal time to tell me this… But I’m pretty excited.
Erm… Actually, I’m scared. No, really. Scared as hell. I really don’t want to get shwacked by some dirt farmer with a couple of unexploded Paki shells, a bit of wire and a battery…
[no sleep]
0430 - roll call and equipment check: petrified.
Shaking a little bit, but this is what we trained for, and this is what we do. We do the job. We do the job. We do the job.
0600 - mount up and go: scared for a minute or two, but it quickly becomes just another routine.
0800 - big nasty ambush:
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckf
0804 - These guys can’t shoot for shit. I mean, there’s a lot of bullets, but they can’t hit anything.
0810 - Breathe, relax, aim, slack squeeze.
Breathe, relax, aim, slack, squeeze…
0815 - “Hey, man. I gotta take a wicked piss. Cover me?”
0825 - “Hey de Tricht! We have CAS inbound. Check this shit out.”
“Whoa. That, uh… Hm. I guess that probably wraps that up, huh?”
“Pretty much.”
1200 - RTB: “meh, we got into a little TIC with the baddies. No big deal.”
Shaking a little bit, but this is what we trained for, and this is what we do. We do the job. We do the job. We do the job.
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckf
Breathe, relax, aim, slack, squeeze…
I jest a bit, there’s always a twinge of fear/excitement when you go out and when you make contact, but after a while, it’s just another routine.
Mostly they get scared. The new and inexperienced will be excited. On the way to the front line everybody is in a good mood. Some people crack jokes and everybody is laughing. After the first combat experience this will change. Most soldiers will become very calm and some might even get depressive.
It was the same for me. On the night before my first battle I was pretty excited. The whole thing was like a big adventure for me and I couldn’t wait to go into battle. Then I took a look around at my comrades, all of them were seasoned combat veterans. None of them seemed to share my enthusiasm: One guy was puking his guts out, some others were praying, but most soldiers were just sitting on the ground by themselves, deep in thought and smoking cigarettes.
We had many casualties in this battle, so maybe these guys already knew what was coming.
No wonder that when a couple of weeks later we were ordered to our next battle the mood was extremely bad. I was scared. I thought that I had already pushed my luck hard enough the last time. Anyway there was nothing I could do now and I just found myself a little spot on the ground where I could spend the next hours by myself and wait for the battle to start.
Every one of us reacts different in the face of life threatening danger. Some people indeed get excited, some depressed, but most people I met, including myself, are just scared.
War Stories
My First Battle
The Croats in Bosnia had assembled almost 20.000 troops, which was about half their army, to make a decisive attack against the positions of the Bosnian army. My unit was right in the middle. Preparations had already started days before the attack. Nobody told us that there would be an attack, but this wasn’t necessary, we saw the signs everywhere.
At first a reconnaissance unit from Croatia came to our base and started to observe the territory with some big binoculars. The next day some high ranking officers arrived and were discussing their plans over maps and aerial fotos.
Two days before day zero a mortar unit set up a dozen of 82 mm mortars in our backyard. And finally, when there was only one day to go, a complete mechanized infantry brigade from Croatia arrived. As my unit was our brigade’s intervention unit, the freshly arrived Croats sent their intervention unit to join us. We would attack together with them.
It was all very busy and crowded at our camp during these days. People coming and going. Trucks bringing ammunitions and weapons.
Finally all preparations came to an end and the support and logistics troops left us in the afternoon. Dusk settled in and everybody knew that the next morning would be the day. Some alcohol was served and we were reminded not to drink too much of it. One of my comrades didn’t listen and passed out somewhere. Another one started vomiting, not from the alcohol, but from stress and anxiety.
Most soldiers were busy preparing their gear, cleaning their rifles and getting ammo for their guns.
Around midnight a blue cotton ribbon was given to each soldier. We were told to put them on our uniforms to easily recognize each other as friendly troops. This was necessary as our enemy had very similar uniforms to ours.
After midnight an eerie quiet settled in. All weapons were cleaned, checked and double checked. Everybody was prepared and there was nothing left to do then wait. You can clean your weapon only that many times and puke your guts out only once.
In these last moments most soldiers preferred not to talk to each other, but to stay for themselves. I saw some of them praying. Others tried to sleep, but most of us were just laying down on our flak jackets, staring holes into the night sky and smoking one cigarette after another.
This moment reminded me of all the soldiers and armies in history who found themselves in the same situation. From ancient Germanic tribes , the French in Dien Bien Phu to our own enemy who was just a couple of hundred meters away. They must have felt the same thing. Being part of a big army going into combat you feel big and tiny at the same time. Fate is out of your hands and you can just hope and pray that tomorrow at the same time you will still be alive. You look around and watch your comrades. To see how they cope and to remember their faces. Some of them won’t come back.
My squad leader interrupted my thinking. We were called to pick up our gear and to advance to our starting positions. As our base was practically in the center of the attack, we just had to sit there and watch the other units to leave, wondering what will happen to them.
Then came our turn. We walked a few meters to our trenches to await the final signal for the attack from there. It was now absolutely quiet and dark. No talk, no cigarettes. Everybody’s eyes were directed towards enemy territory.
Then a small “blop” sound behind us, seconds later a sound over our heads, like a gush of wind or a swarm of wild geese flying over us and finally a big explosion in front of us, right in the middle of the enemy’s positions.
The waiting was over and the game was on…
What happened next?
We left the trench in small groups of five or six soldiers. I was the last soldier to get out. This was my first “big” battle and I decided to take it slowly. We were walking in single file, because the first soldier had to keep us clear of the mines. We had mined the whole area around our base just a couple of weeks before and although nobody had made any maps that could show us where the mines were, the guy we had put to walk in front had a good memory and knew which places to avoid.
Our own artillery now started a massive barrage. As we advanced so did our artillery fire, constantly hitting targets about two or three hundred meters in front of us.
After about two hundred meters we came to the first buildings of an enemy village. There was nobody there. We had expected some resistance, but not a single shot was fired at us. There were not even the unavoidable dogs around to bark at us. The village was totally dead, so we thought. We slowly passed through it and nothing happened.
Behind the village were several railroad tracks. We were about to enter a big industrial area. In the upcoming light of dawn I could make out warehouses, an oil refinery with several huge oil storage tanks and a lot of smaller buildings, like pump stations and office buildings. There were plenty of railroad tracks going in every direction and on them were dozens of railroad wagons of all kinds.
While we navigated ourselves towards the oil refinery a bullet zipped over our heads. Used to getting shot at we continued our way without even looking up. After a minute a second bullet hit a nearby railway wagon. The more we approached the refinery the more shots were fired at us. They seemed to come from all directions, even from the village that we had left behind. Every time a bullet hit a railway car it was ricocheting from the metal surface with a nasty "pling" sound. From somewhere somebody with a megaphone started yelling : Allah u Akhbar! "
We ran the last meters to the refinery. The bullets were now raining at us. We hunkered down in a trench near a giant oil storage tank which luckily seemed to be empty. Every time a bullet hit this storage tank it made a resonating sound like a drum. Soon it was like a thousand drums were playing all at once.
Now the first enemy grenades were hitting nearby. Mortar and RPG grenades, which could be fired only from a close distance. Although by now we had complete daylight, we still couldn't figure out from where the enemy was shooting at us. We encountered another small group from our unit nearby. They had made out an enemy position at the far end of the refinery and decided to attack it. I saw one of the guys fixing his bayonet to his AK rifle. Then they disappeared. We also decided to move, but in another direction, towards a big warehouse building next to the refinery.
The building was half empty and we used its cover to take a break from the bullets and grenades, smoke a cigarette and wait for orders coming over the radio. This was a warehouse from a tea factory: There were thousands of teabags everywhere around us: Chamomile tea. The smell of it became soon intolerable.
By listening to the radio communication we got a clearer image about what was going on : Obviously there were still enemy troops in the village we had marched through earlier on. They either hadn't seen us when we sneaked through or they had decided to let us pass. Either way, the enemy was now between us and our base. They were in well camouflaged positions and we were an easy target for them. Furthermore, the group of soldiers we had encountered earlier on near the refinery was now in serious trouble and had suffered its first casualties.
We were ordered to retreat. Now we just had to find a way back. We decided to try our luck by following the railway line in one direction to get around the enemy village and then to cut through open ground and reach our own lines. This was easier said than done: We left the warehouse on the opposite side from where we've entered it and met two more groups of our unit. It seemed that by retreating from the enemy’s fire most of our unit had ended up right in this spot. We all took cover in a long trench which ran along the side of the building.
Now snipers were starting to aim at us while mortar and RPG grenades were hitting the trench. It was clear that if we would stay there any longer we would all be doomed.
The only way out was a small road, but there was absolutely no cover for at least 400 meters. We started to leave the trench in small groups of 2 or 3 while the remaining soldiers shot cover fire.
I was in the last group to leave. When I jumped out of the trench I ran over the first dead body just a couple of feet away. I ran maybe 10 meters before I fell to the ground and started crawling. There were bullets everywhere. A friend of mine crawled just in front of me and I saw how some tracer bullets were hitting the tarmac just inches away from him. Another soldier behind me got hit in the leg and started screaming.
We managed to crawl down the road until we were stopped by a big wire fence. It was too high to climb over it: All the soldiers who escaped the trench were piled up in front of this fence and were attracting enemy fire.
Finally we managed to cut through the wire of the fence by connecting an AK bayonet with its scabbard. This makes a perfect wire cutter. On the other side of the fence we continued crawling.
About 100 meters further down the road I reached the first of our own defense positions. I entered a small bunker, its floor was covered in blood. A wounded Croatian soldier was getting first aid there.
Meanwhile a Croatian T-55 tank was approaching to cover our retreat. Under its protection we started to evacuate some of the wounded soldiers along the road.
In the evening we took count: From 18 soldiers of our platoon six were killed during that day. Another two were missing. The next day we learned that they also got killed. The guy that I saw planting his bayonet on his AK was also dead. Another comrade was heavily injured by a head shot and died later in a hospital. Three days later two more soldiers of our platoon were killed when their car was hit by a mortar grenade.
The following week we buried our dead comrades. During one of the funerals we came under heavy artillery fire, but luckily nobody died.
And I don’t drink Chamomile tea anymore.
Remark: This post is written from the content of two of my answers (one in the beginning: Roland Bartetzko's answer to What's the mood of an army field camp the night before combat? and one at the end: Roland Bartetzko's answer to What is the most terrible experience you had to face during your time in military? ) while the middle part is new. Fellow quorans who read Roland Bartetzko's answer to What's the mood of an army field camp the night before combat? asked me about what happened next, so this is the answer.
The Croats in Bosnia had assembled almost 20.000 troops, which was about half their army, to make a decisive attack against the positions of the Bosnian army. My unit was right in the middle. Preparations had already started days before the attack. Nobody told us that there would be an attack, but this wasn’t necessary, we saw the signs everywhere.
At first a reconnaissance unit from Croatia came to our base and started to observe the territory with some big binoculars. The next day some high ranking officers arrived and were discussing their plans over maps and aerial fotos.
Two days before day zero a mortar unit set up a dozen of 82 mm mortars in our backyard. And finally, when there was only one day to go, a complete mechanized infantry brigade from Croatia arrived. As my unit was our brigade’s intervention unit, the freshly arrived Croats sent their intervention unit to join us. We would attack together with them.
It was all very busy and crowded at our camp during these days. People coming and going. Trucks bringing ammunitions and weapons.
Finally all preparations came to an end and the support and logistics troops left us in the afternoon. Dusk settled in and everybody knew that the next morning would be the day. Some alcohol was served and we were reminded not to drink too much of it. One of my comrades didn’t listen and passed out somewhere. Another one started vomiting, not from the alcohol, but from stress and anxiety.
Most soldiers were busy preparing their gear, cleaning their rifles and getting ammo for their guns.
Around midnight a blue cotton ribbon was given to each soldier. We were told to put them on our uniforms to easily recognize each other as friendly troops. This was necessary as our enemy had very similar uniforms to ours.
After midnight an eerie quiet settled in. All weapons were cleaned, checked and double checked. Everybody was prepared and there was nothing left to do then wait. You can clean your weapon only that many times and puke your guts out only once.
In these last moments most soldiers preferred not to talk to each other, but to stay for themselves. I saw some of them praying. Others tried to sleep, but most of us were just laying down on our flak jackets, staring holes into the night sky and smoking one cigarette after another.
This moment reminded me of all the soldiers and armies in history who found themselves in the same situation. From ancient Germanic tribes , the French in Dien Bien Phu to our own enemy who was just a couple of hundred meters away. They must have felt the same thing. Being part of a big army going into combat you feel big and tiny at the same time. Fate is out of your hands and you can just hope and pray that tomorrow at the same time you will still be alive. You look around and watch your comrades. To see how they cope and to remember their faces. Some of them won’t come back.
My squad leader interrupted my thinking. We were called to pick up our gear and to advance to our starting positions. As our base was practically in the center of the attack, we just had to sit there and watch the other units to leave, wondering what will happen to them.
Then came our turn. We walked a few meters to our trenches to await the final signal for the attack from there. It was now absolutely quiet and dark. No talk, no cigarettes. Everybody’s eyes were directed towards enemy territory.
Then a small “blop” sound behind us, seconds later a sound over our heads, like a gush of wind or a swarm of wild geese flying over us and finally a big explosion in front of us, right in the middle of the enemy’s positions.
The waiting was over and the game was on…
What happened next?
We left the trench in small groups of five or six soldiers. I was the last soldier to get out. This was my first “big” battle and I decided to take it slowly. We were walking in single file, because the first soldier had to keep us clear of the mines. We had mined the whole area around our base just a couple of weeks before and although nobody had made any maps that could show us where the mines were, the guy we had put to walk in front had a good memory and knew which places to avoid.
Our own artillery now started a massive barrage. As we advanced so did our artillery fire, constantly hitting targets about two or three hundred meters in front of us.
After about two hundred meters we came to the first buildings of an enemy village. There was nobody there. We had expected some resistance, but not a single shot was fired at us. There were not even the unavoidable dogs around to bark at us. The village was totally dead, so we thought. We slowly passed through it and nothing happened.
Behind the village were several railroad tracks. We were about to enter a big industrial area. In the upcoming light of dawn I could make out warehouses, an oil refinery with several huge oil storage tanks and a lot of smaller buildings, like pump stations and office buildings. There were plenty of railroad tracks going in every direction and on them were dozens of railroad wagons of all kinds.
While we navigated ourselves towards the oil refinery a bullet zipped over our heads. Used to getting shot at we continued our way without even looking up. After a minute a second bullet hit a nearby railway wagon. The more we approached the refinery the more shots were fired at us. They seemed to come from all directions, even from the village that we had left behind. Every time a bullet hit a railway car it was ricocheting from the metal surface with a nasty "pling" sound. From somewhere somebody with a megaphone started yelling : Allah u Akhbar! "
We ran the last meters to the refinery. The bullets were now raining at us. We hunkered down in a trench near a giant oil storage tank which luckily seemed to be empty. Every time a bullet hit this storage tank it made a resonating sound like a drum. Soon it was like a thousand drums were playing all at once.
Now the first enemy grenades were hitting nearby. Mortar and RPG grenades, which could be fired only from a close distance. Although by now we had complete daylight, we still couldn't figure out from where the enemy was shooting at us. We encountered another small group from our unit nearby. They had made out an enemy position at the far end of the refinery and decided to attack it. I saw one of the guys fixing his bayonet to his AK rifle. Then they disappeared. We also decided to move, but in another direction, towards a big warehouse building next to the refinery.
The building was half empty and we used its cover to take a break from the bullets and grenades, smoke a cigarette and wait for orders coming over the radio. This was a warehouse from a tea factory: There were thousands of teabags everywhere around us: Chamomile tea. The smell of it became soon intolerable.
By listening to the radio communication we got a clearer image about what was going on : Obviously there were still enemy troops in the village we had marched through earlier on. They either hadn't seen us when we sneaked through or they had decided to let us pass. Either way, the enemy was now between us and our base. They were in well camouflaged positions and we were an easy target for them. Furthermore, the group of soldiers we had encountered earlier on near the refinery was now in serious trouble and had suffered its first casualties.
We were ordered to retreat. Now we just had to find a way back. We decided to try our luck by following the railway line in one direction to get around the enemy village and then to cut through open ground and reach our own lines. This was easier said than done: We left the warehouse on the opposite side from where we've entered it and met two more groups of our unit. It seemed that by retreating from the enemy’s fire most of our unit had ended up right in this spot. We all took cover in a long trench which ran along the side of the building.
Now snipers were starting to aim at us while mortar and RPG grenades were hitting the trench. It was clear that if we would stay there any longer we would all be doomed.
The only way out was a small road, but there was absolutely no cover for at least 400 meters. We started to leave the trench in small groups of 2 or 3 while the remaining soldiers shot cover fire.
I was in the last group to leave. When I jumped out of the trench I ran over the first dead body just a couple of feet away. I ran maybe 10 meters before I fell to the ground and started crawling. There were bullets everywhere. A friend of mine crawled just in front of me and I saw how some tracer bullets were hitting the tarmac just inches away from him. Another soldier behind me got hit in the leg and started screaming.
We managed to crawl down the road until we were stopped by a big wire fence. It was too high to climb over it: All the soldiers who escaped the trench were piled up in front of this fence and were attracting enemy fire.
Finally we managed to cut through the wire of the fence by connecting an AK bayonet with its scabbard. This makes a perfect wire cutter. On the other side of the fence we continued crawling.
About 100 meters further down the road I reached the first of our own defense positions. I entered a small bunker, its floor was covered in blood. A wounded Croatian soldier was getting first aid there.
Meanwhile a Croatian T-55 tank was approaching to cover our retreat. Under its protection we started to evacuate some of the wounded soldiers along the road.
In the evening we took count: From 18 soldiers of our platoon six were killed during that day. Another two were missing. The next day we learned that they also got killed. The guy that I saw planting his bayonet on his AK was also dead. Another comrade was heavily injured by a head shot and died later in a hospital. Three days later two more soldiers of our platoon were killed when their car was hit by a mortar grenade.
The following week we buried our dead comrades. During one of the funerals we came under heavy artillery fire, but luckily nobody died.
And I don’t drink Chamomile tea anymore.
Remark: This post is written from the content of two of my answers (one in the beginning: Roland Bartetzko's answer to What's the mood of an army field camp the night before combat? and one at the end: Roland Bartetzko's answer to What is the most terrible experience you had to face during your time in military? ) while the middle part is new. Fellow quorans who read Roland Bartetzko's answer to What's the mood of an army field camp the night before combat? asked me about what happened next, so this is the answer.
War Stories
The Ambush
The Ambush is the preferred tactic of the Guerrilla. You attack the enemy by surprise and at its weakest spots. Then you hit hard and disappear.
During my time with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) we laid out many ambushes. Often we used explosives that we put on the roadside to stop an enemy column and would then attack it with a small group of fighters. As we had only limited amounts of weapons and ammunition, these ambushes also provided us with additional goods.
All military supplies were usually brought from Albania through the mountains (the so called “Albanian Alps”) into Kosovo. This was done with horses and was very dangerous. I crossed the border myself this way when I came first to Kosovo and it was a hell of a trip. The enemy knew that we were using the mountain paths for logistical support and often laid out their own ambushes.
The last months of the war this mountain route was completely closed, as the KLA opened another frontline at the border, and all our military supply had to come from raids on military storage depots or ambushes.
One day one of my comrades came to me and told me that his home village was occupied by the Serbian army and that all civilians had fled. This village was in the North of Kosovo, deep into enemy territory and far away from any of our positions.
We decided to check it out.
We assembled a small team of 5 soldiers, including a machine gunner, a sniper and a guy with a 40mm grenade launcher (MGL). We also took two M 72 RPG's with us and some military explosives. We kept our preparations silent. Only our unit commander was informed about what we were up to.
Late in the afternoon we started to march towards the village.
As the enemy held all roads and had checkpoints and observation posts at all strategic points we had to move through very rough terrain, mostly wood and underbrush.
We had to advance very slowly and therefore soon got tired. As soon as night fell we dared to take a small secondary road to bring us closer to our target. This was very dangerous as there was military traffic on this road. Every time we saw the headlights of an approaching car we jumped for cover. Still, we covered some ground and reached our destination in the early morning hours. It was still dark and we carefully went from house to house. The whole village had been burned down, there wasn't a single building that was spared by the enemy. We finally found an annex building of a small farm that was intact and tried to catch some sleep. Of course this was nearly impossible as we were all too wired up. Every time I heard a noise my pulse went up.
With the first daylight we got a better view of the situation: The village was abandoned. It was right next to a main road which was an important enemy supply route from Serbia to Kosovo. We decided to set up an ambush, but first of all we needed to eat. There were still enough chicken running around the place so we caught one, made a small fire and roasted it. This was dangerous; we could make out an enemy position about one kilometer away from the village. We were careful not to make any noise or smoke.
Stomachs full, we found a good position near the road and waited. Moments before we had found this position we had observed some Serbian paramilitaries that had gone down the road with a small truck. Two guys had been in the driver's cabin and three more on the open back. As we were not ready for attack yet when they had passed us coming down the road we now hoped that we would catch them on their way back. We waited for about two hours. There was only civilian traffic on the road. Finally we heard the small truck coming back. This time its back was loaded with all kinds of stuff: TV sets and furniture, stolen from abandoned ethnic Albanian villages. A paramilitary was sitting on top of all the stolen goods, smoking a cigarette and expecting no evil.
When the truck was passing in front of us we opened fire. The guy on the back of the truck was hit immediately by our machine gun. The driver steered the truck off the road and it overturned. Two paramilitaries ran into a nearby corn field and got away.
Meanwhile a civilian car turned up and stopped 50 meters away from the truck. The driver also ran away in the cornfield. Two more civilian cars turned up and backed away.
We kept the road blocked for an hour. Then we heard an armored column approaching us. The enemy thought we were long gone and therefore started to shoot with tanks at the nearby hills where they suspected our escape route to be.
We withdrew towards the enemy positions we had spotted earlier on. It was a line of trenches, but surprisingly they were unmanned. We booby trapped them
Then we went into a nearby forest and waited till the late afternoon. The enemy continued strafing the hills with tanks and artillery, but we were safe and didn't engage.
Then we decided to try our luck down the road from where the enemy column had been approaching us before. We chose a path parallel to the road. We continued about 2 kilometers, but the enemy column was long gone.
We decided to set up another ambush: There was an excellent position at a small building near the road where we could put our machine gunner in a relatively protected place. One of our guys went further down the road to tell us via radio if any enemy forces were approaching.
For a while nothing happened and we got bored. But finally our observer told us about a big bus coming up the road. We didn't know if it was civilian or military, so we decided not to attack it. I went to the road to have a good look. Our position was a little bit elevated so I had a straight look at its passengers as the bus slowly passed by: All of them were Serbian soldiers. I could see their shaved heads when they passed by two meters away from me, many of them dozing away or smoking.
It was too late to attack them now, so we let them pass. This was very frustrating: It would have been an enormous success to get this bus. Now it was beginning to get really dark. Our chances to mount another ambush where getting very slim as the enemy rarely moved at night. Tired and frustrated I walked up and down the tarmac with one of my comrades. It was almost night now and we were almost ready to leave the place when our radio crackled: Our observer reported two jeeps approaching. Definitely military.
We positioned ourselves again: I stood behind a bush when the first jeep passed: A black Land Rover with a mounted machine gun on it's roof. The machine gunner pointed his weapon straight at me when he passed, but couldn't see me in the half dark. These were special forces.
Seconds later our machine gunner opened fire. The first jeep was rippled by bullets. The jeep's machine gun opened fire, but only for a second, then the gunner got hit. Now the second jeep passed us. Land Rover again, but no machine gun. While I shot with my AK-47 my comrade shot an MGL grenade. It hit the back of the Land Rover, but didn't explode: The MGL 40mm grenade has a security mechanism: A target has to be more than 15 meters away for the grenade to explode. We were too close. So we ran a few meters down the tarmac away from the jeeps and my buddy shot again. This time the grenade went off and the second jeep got severely damaged.
Our observer told us that more enemy was approaching us. Time to leave! I ordered the machine gunner to cease fire so that we could safely withdraw, but the guy didn't hear me. I shouted for a minute and finally he stopped shooting.
Tired and low on ammo we decided to go back to our base. We climbed the nearby hills and found some local villagers there who had fled from the Serbian army a few days earlier. After we smoked a cigarette with them one of them helped us to find a way back to friendly territory. This is most important when operating in enemy territory. If you have somebody with you who knows the ground it makes things much easier. Early the next morning we reached our base. I was happy but very tired. I hadn't slept for two nights and we had walked maybe 70 kilometers through rough terrain.
Remark: This blog post contains Roland Bartetzko's answer to What does it feel like to be in combat behind enemy lines?
The Ambush is the preferred tactic of the Guerrilla. You attack the enemy by surprise and at its weakest spots. Then you hit hard and disappear.
During my time with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) we laid out many ambushes. Often we used explosives that we put on the roadside to stop an enemy column and would then attack it with a small group of fighters. As we had only limited amounts of weapons and ammunition, these ambushes also provided us with additional goods.
All military supplies were usually brought from Albania through the mountains (the so called “Albanian Alps”) into Kosovo. This was done with horses and was very dangerous. I crossed the border myself this way when I came first to Kosovo and it was a hell of a trip. The enemy knew that we were using the mountain paths for logistical support and often laid out their own ambushes.
The last months of the war this mountain route was completely closed, as the KLA opened another frontline at the border, and all our military supply had to come from raids on military storage depots or ambushes.
One day one of my comrades came to me and told me that his home village was occupied by the Serbian army and that all civilians had fled. This village was in the North of Kosovo, deep into enemy territory and far away from any of our positions.
We decided to check it out.
We assembled a small team of 5 soldiers, including a machine gunner, a sniper and a guy with a 40mm grenade launcher (MGL). We also took two M 72 RPG's with us and some military explosives. We kept our preparations silent. Only our unit commander was informed about what we were up to.
Late in the afternoon we started to march towards the village.
As the enemy held all roads and had checkpoints and observation posts at all strategic points we had to move through very rough terrain, mostly wood and underbrush.
We had to advance very slowly and therefore soon got tired. As soon as night fell we dared to take a small secondary road to bring us closer to our target. This was very dangerous as there was military traffic on this road. Every time we saw the headlights of an approaching car we jumped for cover. Still, we covered some ground and reached our destination in the early morning hours. It was still dark and we carefully went from house to house. The whole village had been burned down, there wasn't a single building that was spared by the enemy. We finally found an annex building of a small farm that was intact and tried to catch some sleep. Of course this was nearly impossible as we were all too wired up. Every time I heard a noise my pulse went up.
With the first daylight we got a better view of the situation: The village was abandoned. It was right next to a main road which was an important enemy supply route from Serbia to Kosovo. We decided to set up an ambush, but first of all we needed to eat. There were still enough chicken running around the place so we caught one, made a small fire and roasted it. This was dangerous; we could make out an enemy position about one kilometer away from the village. We were careful not to make any noise or smoke.
Stomachs full, we found a good position near the road and waited. Moments before we had found this position we had observed some Serbian paramilitaries that had gone down the road with a small truck. Two guys had been in the driver's cabin and three more on the open back. As we were not ready for attack yet when they had passed us coming down the road we now hoped that we would catch them on their way back. We waited for about two hours. There was only civilian traffic on the road. Finally we heard the small truck coming back. This time its back was loaded with all kinds of stuff: TV sets and furniture, stolen from abandoned ethnic Albanian villages. A paramilitary was sitting on top of all the stolen goods, smoking a cigarette and expecting no evil.
When the truck was passing in front of us we opened fire. The guy on the back of the truck was hit immediately by our machine gun. The driver steered the truck off the road and it overturned. Two paramilitaries ran into a nearby corn field and got away.
Meanwhile a civilian car turned up and stopped 50 meters away from the truck. The driver also ran away in the cornfield. Two more civilian cars turned up and backed away.
We kept the road blocked for an hour. Then we heard an armored column approaching us. The enemy thought we were long gone and therefore started to shoot with tanks at the nearby hills where they suspected our escape route to be.
We withdrew towards the enemy positions we had spotted earlier on. It was a line of trenches, but surprisingly they were unmanned. We booby trapped them
Then we went into a nearby forest and waited till the late afternoon. The enemy continued strafing the hills with tanks and artillery, but we were safe and didn't engage.
Then we decided to try our luck down the road from where the enemy column had been approaching us before. We chose a path parallel to the road. We continued about 2 kilometers, but the enemy column was long gone.
We decided to set up another ambush: There was an excellent position at a small building near the road where we could put our machine gunner in a relatively protected place. One of our guys went further down the road to tell us via radio if any enemy forces were approaching.
For a while nothing happened and we got bored. But finally our observer told us about a big bus coming up the road. We didn't know if it was civilian or military, so we decided not to attack it. I went to the road to have a good look. Our position was a little bit elevated so I had a straight look at its passengers as the bus slowly passed by: All of them were Serbian soldiers. I could see their shaved heads when they passed by two meters away from me, many of them dozing away or smoking.
It was too late to attack them now, so we let them pass. This was very frustrating: It would have been an enormous success to get this bus. Now it was beginning to get really dark. Our chances to mount another ambush where getting very slim as the enemy rarely moved at night. Tired and frustrated I walked up and down the tarmac with one of my comrades. It was almost night now and we were almost ready to leave the place when our radio crackled: Our observer reported two jeeps approaching. Definitely military.
We positioned ourselves again: I stood behind a bush when the first jeep passed: A black Land Rover with a mounted machine gun on it's roof. The machine gunner pointed his weapon straight at me when he passed, but couldn't see me in the half dark. These were special forces.
Seconds later our machine gunner opened fire. The first jeep was rippled by bullets. The jeep's machine gun opened fire, but only for a second, then the gunner got hit. Now the second jeep passed us. Land Rover again, but no machine gun. While I shot with my AK-47 my comrade shot an MGL grenade. It hit the back of the Land Rover, but didn't explode: The MGL 40mm grenade has a security mechanism: A target has to be more than 15 meters away for the grenade to explode. We were too close. So we ran a few meters down the tarmac away from the jeeps and my buddy shot again. This time the grenade went off and the second jeep got severely damaged.
Our observer told us that more enemy was approaching us. Time to leave! I ordered the machine gunner to cease fire so that we could safely withdraw, but the guy didn't hear me. I shouted for a minute and finally he stopped shooting.
Tired and low on ammo we decided to go back to our base. We climbed the nearby hills and found some local villagers there who had fled from the Serbian army a few days earlier. After we smoked a cigarette with them one of them helped us to find a way back to friendly territory. This is most important when operating in enemy territory. If you have somebody with you who knows the ground it makes things much easier. Early the next morning we reached our base. I was happy but very tired. I hadn't slept for two nights and we had walked maybe 70 kilometers through rough terrain.
Remark: This blog post contains Roland Bartetzko's answer to What does it feel like to be in combat behind enemy lines?
