SARASWATI ; DHOLAVIRA COULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY A TSUNAMI

SOURCE:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/#!/2016/09/dholavira-could-have-been-destroyed-by.html

                         


                   PROJECT SARASWATI


DHOLAVIRA COULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY A TSUNAMI -- NIO

 

NIO finds Dholavira ‘treasure’

                        By

                Nida Sayed 

                        READ ALSO

[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dholavira ]

 

 

 

Aug 30, 2016.

 

PANAJI: In a major find through a project undertaken by the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), scientists have excavated the ancient submerged site of the Harappan port town of Dholavira which reveals to the world India's maritime history. Located in Gujarat, Dholavira was the largest port-town of the Harappan civilization that flourished for about 1,500 years. Researchers have been perplexed about why the civilization came to an abrupt end. Archaeological excavations indicate that the township comprised of the castle, the middle town and the lower town.

Dholavira is the oldest known site in the world which could have been hit by the tsunami, experts at the NIO said. As per their latest findings, there is indication of marine sediments possibly transported to the site by an extreme oceanic incident, which they attribute to the tsunami.

A team of palaeo-climatologists, marine archaeologists and geophysicists from NIO surveyed an unexcavated area of the lower town using ground penetrating radar (GPR).

What lay beneath the surface were remains of construction from the civilization that were buried under a layer of 2.5 to 3.5 meter thick homogenous soil.

After systematically collecting the soil samples and examining the same, the scientists found fossils of foraminifera, that is, microscopic organisms that build calcareous shells and live only in seawater.

The presence of these shells in the soil strongly suggests an episodic deposition of marine sediments in the area. "The deposition of such a component from seawater into the soil could have occurred due to forceful movement caused by an extreme oceanic event, like the tsunami," said director, NIO, Dr S W A Naqvi.

One of the most intriguing features of Dholavira is the presence of a 14-18 meters thick wall at the site.

Sharing his thoughts about the same, chief scientist, Dr Rajiv Nigam who led the research said, "Most Harappan walls have fortification but nowhere have any walls been constructed with such thickness. This indicates that ancient Indians were aware of protection measures against the tsunami or storms surges. Harappans were thus pioneers in coastal disaster management. Most importantly, results of this study opens the possibility that Dholavira, at least in part, could have been destroyed by such a tsunami,"This begs the question as to why the people of Dholavira would choose to build a civilization around such a vulnerable area. "Dholavira was an economically strategic location. So they built the city despite being prone to storms and protected it with a thick wall," added Nigam.

Dholavira was well connected to the ocean 5,000 years ago but it's not anymore owing to shifts due to tectonic movement.

Further research will enable NIO to date the calcareous shells and determine when the tsunami may have taken place.

"We would like to pursue this project and are currently awaiting funds from the central government," said Nigam.

For more research, close grid survey of the site is required for which NIO has applied to the Union ministry of art and culture. The budget for the same is Rs 35 lakhs. NIO doesn't have a mandate for excavation as the authority for the same is only under the archaeological survey of India (ASI). They are optimistic that the ASIwill go ahead with the excavation.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/NIO-finds-Dholavira-treasure/articleshow/53918649.cms

ISLAM : WHAT IS A "HIJRAH"

SOURCE:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260019/hijrah-europe-robert-spencer

                   WHAT IS A  "HIJRAH"

 
                          "HIJRAH"  IS  'JEHAD'
                               by
  means of mass migration without  'VISA'                 with a political intent 


   NO MUSLIM COUNTRY WILL EVER ACCEPT "HIJRAHS" . THE VERY ACT OF ADMITTING  "HIJRAHS" WILL BE DEEMED AS AN  AN UNISLAMIC ACT "HIJRAHS" CAN ONLY ENTER IN A NON MUSLIM COUNTRY, ONLY THEN IT WILL BE A 'JEHAD'



Approximately 104,460 asylum seekers arrived in Germany during the month of August, setting a new record. That makes 413,535 registered refugees and migrants coming to Germany in 2015 so far. The country expects a total of around 800,000 people to seek asylum in Germany this year. And that’s just Germany. The entire continent of Europe is being inundated with refugees at a rate unprecedented in world history. This is no longer just a “refugee crisis.”

This is a hijrah.


Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new “revelations” exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad’s birth or the occasion of his first “revelation,” as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.

To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Qur’an. “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” (4:100) The exalted status of such emigrants led a British jihad group that won notoriety (and a shutdown by the government) a few years ago for celebrating 9/11 to call itself Al-Muhajiroun: The Emigrants.

And now a hijrah of a much greater magnitude is upon us. Evidence that this is a hijrah, not simply a humanitarian crisis, came last February, but was little noted at the time and almost immediately forgotten. The Islamic State published a document entitled, “Libya: The Strategic Gateway for the Islamic State.” Gateway into Europe, that is: the document exhorted Muslims to go to Libya and cross from there as refugees into Europe.
 This document tells would-be jihadis that weapons from Gaddafi’s arsenal are plentiful and easy to obtain in Libya – and that the country “has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat.”

The Islamic State did not have in mind just a few jihadis crossing from Libya: it also emerged last February that the jihadis planned to flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. Now the number is shooting well beyond that in Germany alone. Of course, not all of these refugees are Islamic jihadis. Not all are even Muslims, although most are. However, no effort whatsoever is being made to determine the refugees’ adherence to Sharia and desire to bring it to their new land. Any such effort would be “Islamophobic.” Yet there are already hints that the Islamic State is putting its plan into effect: jihadis have already been found among the refugees trying to enter Europe. There will be many more such discoveries.

Eight hundred thousand Muslim refugees in one year alone. This will transform Germany, and Europe, forever, overtaxing the welfare economies of its wealthiest nations and altering the cultural landscape beyond recognition. Yet the serious public discussion that needs to be had about this crisis is shouted down by the usual nonsense: the Washington Post Wednesday published an inflammatory and irresponsible piece likening those concerned about this massive Muslim influx into Europe to 1930s Nazis ready to incinerate Jews by the millions. Hollywood star Emma Thompson accused British authorities of racism for not taking in more refugees – as if British authorities haven’t already done enough to destroy their nation.

And so it goes. If you don’t accept the brave new world that is sure to bring more jihad and more Sharia to Europe, you’re a Nazi and a racist. Meanwhile, no one is bothering even to ask, much less answer, one central question: why is it incumbent upon Europe have to absorb all these refugees? Why not Saudi Arabia or the other Muslim countries that are oil-rich and have plenty of space? The answer is unspoken because non-Muslim authorities refuse to believe it and Muslims don’t want it stated or known: these refugees have to go to Europe because this is a hijrah. 


This is also Europe’s death knell


                                      ************************************************

Large scale mass migrations become invasions and this actually appears to be a hijrah as he describes it .........

It appears the policies of the liberal socialist leaders in Europe and the US do not want to keep these lands from being overrun. Why???

I couldn't figure out why other Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, etc.) weren't taking in refugees, so I started digging.

Hijrah is jihad by emigration. It means moving to a new land in order to bring Islam there and is considered in Islam to be a holy and revered action. "And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance, and whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah." (4:100) So if a Muslim dies in the process, that's essentially the same as being a suicide bomber, his reward is automatic. This explains the great eagerness to undertake such a perilous journey.

Muhammad and his followers emigrated from Mecca to Yathrib/Medina in 622 CE. It was there that he became a military leader & still uneducated.

This is where all the commands to commit violence against unbelievers originate from. It's important to note that the Islamic calendar marks this as the beginning of Islam.

 

This current massive hijrah was announced last January although few paid the announcement much attention.

A supporter (or member) of ISIS uploaded a document in Arabic that urged Muslims to get to Libya for its proximity to southern Europe and for the important tactical value of its illegal immigration circuits to facilitate infiltration of European cities ("It has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat").

In February, transcripts of telephone intercepts published in Italy said ISIS was threatening to send 500,000 migrants as a
"psychological weapon" against Europe . The Italian Minister for the Interior, Angelino Alfano, said at the time, "If the militias of the Caliphate advance faster than the decisions of the international community how can we put out the fire in Libya and stem the migration flows?

We are at risk of an exodus without precedent.

Also in February, the Turkish intelligence service warned police that up to 3,000 trained jihadists were seeking to cross into Turkey from Syria and Iraq and then travel through Bulgaria and Hungary into western Europe. From Syria , to Hungary & then into the rest of Europe.

Sound familiar?

In May, a Libyan government adviser warned that Islamic State operatives were being" smuggled to Europe in migrant boats."

ISIS is profiting from the human trafficking trade, forcing boat owners to hand over their profits or be killed.

Some ISIS operatives are already sheltered in safe houses in the south of the Europe . Groups of men, 17 to 25, from Palestine and Syria, cross into Bulgaria and from there move into the rest of the EU. A former Al Qaeda double agent told the BBC that he knew of two Egyptian brothers who reached Italy from Libya, accompanied by men who were
"deeply religious and fluent in Italian and French."

Go watch the videos of those "refugees" again. How many of the "refugees" are 17-25 year old men?  Of military age?

If that doesn't convince you, we already know terrorists are coming through with the waves of refugees: a week ago five men were arrested attempting to cross the Bulgarian-Macedonian border with Islamic State propaganda, specific Jihadists prayers, and decapitation videos on their phones.

They had been posing as refugees. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage warned: "I fear we face a direct threat to our civilization if we allow large numbers of people from that war torn region into Europe."

Other Muslim countries are not "taking in" these "refugees" because this is a hijrah into Europe . This is no humanitarian crisis. It is an invasion. Its goal is to transform Europe: over tax its economies, tear down its wealthiest nations, re-draw the demographics and, of course, the culture.  And our government wants to start letting them into our Country?  Are we all Forest Gumps?  Is this worth sending on?


Sources:

 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis -milita...dviser-1501692
 https://www.rt.com/news/23383 9-isis-...ck-diplomatic/
 http://www.jihadwatch.org/201 5/09/ro...ah-into-europe
 http://www.jihadwatch.org/201 5/09/is...ng-as-refugees
 http://www.independentsentine l.com/i...byan-refugees/
 http://www.quilliamfoundation .org/wp...for-the-is.pdf
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne ws/arti..on-bombed.html

AFGHANISTAN - Game for the throne : More instability expected in Afghanistan

SOURCE:
http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=19104



                Game for the throne
: More instability expected in Afghanistan
                            By
                Lt Gen P. C. Katoch                   

                                                                

 

 

Updated:Sep 2, 2016

In April-June 2012, ‘Democracy International’ surveyed 176 Members of the Afghan Parliament (121 from Lower House and 55 from Upper House) seeking their views on elections, electoral laws and governance. Most agreed that electoral reforms were necessary to strengthen the country's electoral system and improve the government’s legitimacy. Majority of them wanted change of electoral laws and electoral system, introduction of safeguards for appointment of electoral commissioners, plus confirmed women representation in Parliament. Political stability may be defined as a set of characteristic which allow the state exercise its authority, prominent ones being: lack of violence within the polity; absence of threatening changes to the core political structure; sufficient capacity by the state to control its polity, and; absence of deficient state functionality to meet its political responsibilities and a reasonable degree of regularity in the political behavior of a polity. Any changes to these patterns will serve as a catalyst to instigate instability in the nation.

 

In the case of Afghanistan, a survey conducted by National Centre for Policy Research based in Kabul in 2011 had opined that political instability in Afghanistan was related to: unemployment and poverty; social fragmentation; return of migrants; poppy crops and trafficking; lack of rule of law; civil society and political parties; trust and legitimacy of government; Islamic radicalism and Taliban control in some areas; weak justice; ‘Great Power Games’, and intervention of neighboring countries as more fundamental dimensions of external causes of political instability – maximum from Pakistan. 

 

Much water has flown under the bridge since then. Take the external factor of intervention by Pakistan, assessed in 2011 by 43 percent of those surveyed as the highest among neighboring countries that would have gone up exponentially today with: Afghan clerics publicly calling for jihad against Pakistan; evidence of Pakistani involvement in frequent terror attacks in Afghanistan; Afghan President Ashraf Ghani repeatedly pointing the finger at Pakistan including for the recent terror attack on American University of Afghanistan in Kabul; former Afghan National Directorate of Security Chief, Rahmatullah Nabil releasing classified documents about Pakistan support to Afghan militant groups, specifically Haqqani network; July 2016 report by UN Assistance Mission Afghanistan (UNAMA) stating Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-i-Mohammed (JeM) are operating in Afghanistan, and  Afghanistan officially telling Pakistan that Hafiz Saeed, former LeT chief is directing ISIS operations in  Afghanistan.

 

Getting back to the political scene in Afghanistan, the aftermath of last Presidential election had witnessed considerable dissent and political turmoil. It was only because of the master of ceremonies, the USA, that a National Unity Government (NUG) was forged with Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun, as President and Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik, as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It is well known that the crux of ethnic rivalry in Afghanistan is symbolized by the struggle by Pashtuns to re-establish dominance, and Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek minorities seeking adequate representation in political power at the centre and autonomy of respective areas, with Taliban adding to the complexity  compounded by external factors like Pakistan. 

 

Talks with the Taliban itself are subject of debate in Afghanistan. Significantly, in his statement titled ‘Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community’ to the Senate Armed Services Committee on 9 February 2017, James Clapper, Director National Intelligence had said, “The Kabul government will continue to face persistent hurdles to political stability in 2016, including eroding political cohesion, assertions of authority by local powerbrokers, recurring financial shortfalls, and countrywide, sustained attacks by the Taliban.  Political cohesion will remain a challenge for Kabul as the National Unity Government will confront larger and more divisive issues later in 2016, including the implementation of election reforms, long-delayed parliamentary elections, and a potential change by a Loya Jirga that might fundamentally alter Afghanistan’s constitutional order”.

 

The implication of “potential change by a Loya Jirga (Grand Council) that might fundamentally alter Afghanistan’s constitutional order” as stated by James Clapper could be interpreted as  the Loya Jirga preceded by parliamentary elections likely institutionalizing the CEO as the Prime Minister of Afghanistan and the Parliament hitherto largely ineffective with powers centralized with the President, would have a larger and effective role in ruling and administering Pakistan – possible change to Parliamentary democracy? As per Dr Davood Moradian, Director General, Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies, when US Secretary of State John Kerry brokered the agreement to form the National Unity Government in Afghanistan, the government was expected to implement a number of electoral and political reforms by September 2016, including organizing parliamentary elections and conveying the constitutional Loya Jirga, the grand assembly. According to Moradian, no meaningful step has been taken to honour these promises. Many are anxiously watching how Washington and the Afghan government will handle the looming September deadline; underlying causes and possible corrective measures “being overshadowed by Washington”. To top this, everything between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah doesn’t appear to be all hunky dory.

 

The looming political crisis in Afghanistan could not have at a worse time. The assessment by James Clapper in February had said that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Khorasan branch will probably remain a low-level threat to Afghan stability as well as to US and Western interests in the region during 2016, but the reverse appears happening with frequent terror attacks in Afghanistan, supported by Pakistan. Pakistan is also deliberately targeting Afghanistan’s ethnic harmony by orchestrating terrorist attacks and killing Hazaras; to polarize the Afghan society on lines of the  Pashtun and  the non-Pashtun. Without open discussions, countermeasures and accommodation, this is recipe for more instability. According to Dr Moradian, “Failure to manage ethnic politics is one of the drivers of socioeconomic underdevelopment, ethnic and civil wars, state collapse, ethnic cleansing and even genocide”. To compound the problems, the Taliban offensive and influence doesn’t appear to be abating either. Pakistan will continue to support anti-Afghan forces especially since it has China backing her with Chinese commercial interests in Afghanistan protected through Pakistani proxies. It is imperative for Afghanistan to arrive at a political agreement on the framework and principles of political power to govern Afghanistan, and implement it speedily.

 

(Lt Gen P. C. Katoch is veteran Indian Army. Comments and suggestions on the article can be sent on: editor@spsindia.in)

 

 

 

 

7 CPC & ARMED FORCES : END OF THE LONG AND AGONISED WAIT

SOURCE: CURTSEY
EX-SERVICEMEN WELFARE
http://ex-servicemenwelfare.blogspot.in/2016/09/flash-long-and-agonised-wait-for-7th.html







THE LONG AND AGONISED WAIT FOR 7TH CPC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL (SERVING AND RETIRED) SEEM TO END TODAY




Navdeep Singh ‏@SinghNavdeep 12h12 hours ago

It seems that the notification for the new 7th Pay Commission pay structure for the defence services could be issued tomorrow.

 

In all probability, the controversial line of parity with 'CAPFs' may not be present in the notification :)https://twitter.com/SinghNavdeep/status/771363111202873344 …

Navdeep Singh added,

 

HISTORY : JOURNEY OF MANKIND

SOURCE :http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/


                                               JOURNEY  OF  MANKIND

Despite all efforts of whitewashing the contribution of India to world civilization by the modern ‘western’ world, truth has its way of being unravelled.

 

Centuries of efforts have failed miserably to establish the Aryan invasion theory and Aryan migration theory and that has shattered other assumptions related to the of Indo-European languages. Stephen Oppenheimer has elegantly depicted the migration of human race from Africa to India and beyond in

 

                                  Journey of mankind

 

 

It is now genetically proven that Australian aborigines migrated from India 4000 yrs ago and the Romani people (Roma, Europe’s largest minorities of 11 million people) migrated from India to Europe 1500 yrs ago.

 

                                   CLICK THE URL TO OPEN

                                                                                                                          http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/



                               Journey of mankind













 

BATTLE : EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST BULLET

SOURCE:
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:

fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck! WhathefuckamIdoinghere?!
 

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.”
 

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

                             Roland Bartetzko

 

 

 

I remember my first night before 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.

 

 

                             War Stories

                           The Ambush

                              Roland Bartetzko

 

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Roland Bartetzko

 

 

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?