130: Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Battle of the Rocket Launcher 130: Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Battle of the Rocket Launcher The opposition had rocket launchers, and naturally, the people of Sirte were not lacking either.
However, after their only armored car was destroyed, the remaining four armored vehicles of the opposition became an invincible presence, impervious to machine gun bullets, and if one attempted to launch a rocket outside the bunker, they would have to face the machine guns mounted on the opposition’s armored cars.
The main weaponry of the opposition’s armored cars was machine guns.
With shooting ports on either side or on the roof of the vehicles, the soldiers of the opposition could fire from behind the armor.
Moreover, an armored car often had more than one machine gun fitted to it.
Based on Gao Yang’s observations, even the smallest armored car had two light machine guns firing.
The machine guns inside the bunker sealed off the three entrances, preventing the opposition’s infantry from entering; and the armored cars sealed off the bunker, preventing the people of Sirte from leaving the bunker to use rocket launchers.
Both sides were temporarily locked in a strange standoff.
The deadlock was quickly broken when the four armored cars started a suppressing fire on the bunker cluster in front of Gao Yang and his group.
Then suddenly, a person emerged from behind one of the armored cars, fired a rocket at one of the bunkers at great speed, threw the launcher to the ground, and quickly retracted back into the armored car.
After the rocket emitted a “whizzing” long sound, it exploded on the external wall of the bunker, but the explosion only blew off some chunks of cement on the bunker’s exterior and did not cause substantial damage.
Glolov shouted, “AT4 high explosive anti-tank warhead, excellent, our bunker can hold up!”
The AT4 is a standard-issue disposable anti-tank rocket launcher used by NATO, equipped with a pre-assembled rocket warhead that is fired and discarded after a single use.
The AT4’s high explosive anti-tank warhead can penetrate four hundred millimeters of homogenous armor, making it a piece of cake against bunkers.
However, now seeing that the sheltering bunker was sturdy enough to withstand the attack of an AT4 high explosive anti-tank warhead was indeed a very joyful matter.
Glolov was briefly pleased, but he couldn’t stay happy for long.
After seeing the ineffectiveness of the high explosive anti-tank warhead, another rocket launcher operator peeked out from the top of one of the opposition’s armored cars.
Although the operator was immediately killed after firing the rocket, his shot still hit one of the bunkers.
This time the rocket fired did not explode but directly penetrated the wall of the bunker and exploded only after entering its interior.
“Damn it, damn it!
Dual-purpose high explosive rounds, delay fuse, we’re in trouble now!”
While the high explosive anti-tank rounds struggled against the bunkers, the opposition quickly switched to dual-purpose high explosive rounds, and they were much more skillful with rocket launchers than with large-caliber artillery, firing quickly and accurately with a variety of ammunition to choose from.
The dual-purpose high explosive rounds were enough to deal with the bunkers, and the four armored cars immediately launched an attack on the bunker cluster in front of Gao Yang and his group.
It was unclear how many AT4 rocket launchers they had on each vehicle, but they systematically started to destroy the bunkers of the people of Sirte and the mercenaries.
The people of Sirte refused to sit back and await their doom.
A rocket launcher operator, in desperation, fired a rocket from within the bunker, successfully taking out one armored car, but the backblast stirred up intense dust within the bunker.
Needless to say, the people of Sirte inside could not die, but severe burns and blast injuries were inevitable.
Harris ran out from the bunker beside Gao Yang and his group.
It seemed that after realizing surrender to the opposition was impossible, he finally decided to fight a battle to the death with the opposition.
Harris quickly fired a rocket, and although he was somewhat distant, the rocket accurately hit an armored car.
Then, Harris discarded the empty launcher and pulled another one from behind him, managing to fire twice in a very short time.
Harris hit with both shots and then successfully made it back into the bunker without sustaining any injuries, while in another cluster of bunkers, at least six Sirte soldiers fired their rocket launchers.
Although they were the farthest from the armored cars and their hit rate was dismal, one of the six rockets still hit its target and thankfully destroyed the last of the opposition’s armored cars.
What I just described may sound like a slow process, but everything happened in just a few dozen seconds.
All seven of the opposition’s armored cars were obliterated, but they managed to destroy one armored car and most of the bunkers in the outer cluster.
The opposition’s wave of attacks was repelled, much to Gao Yang’s relief, but before he could relax for long, less than ten minutes later, the opposition’s new wave of attacks arrived.
Leading the charge again were poorly made armored cars; this time five armored cars rolled in at once, but behind the armored cars came a significant number of infantry.
The opposition seemed to have wrapped up battles elsewhere and were now concentrating all their forces on the final battlefield.
Using the cover of the armored vehicles, the infantry of the opposition approached the front bunkers.
Suddenly darting from behind the armored vehicle after firing off their shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, they tossed them to the ground, grabbed their rifles from their chests, and threw themselves at the bunkers.
It was then that Glolov finally opened fire, as he had no opportunity to shoot until the opposition’s infantry moved in.
Despite the protection from two bunker groups, after leaving behind more than a dozen bodies, the opposition’s infantry still successfully broke through.
After entering through three breaches, they cleared out the two bunker groups that had already fallen and then occupied the bunkers.
From now on, the opposition’s infantry also had the protection of the bunkers.
Gao Yang also fired his weapon, and within mere seconds, he had killed two opposition infantrymen, but it was of little consequence to the overall situation.
Having taken out the two outermost bunker groups, the five armored vehicles split into two groups.
Three headed toward Gao Yang and his men, while the other two charged at another cluster of bunkers, with a large force of infantry following behind the armored vehicles.
Seeing the armored vehicles coming straight at them, Gao Yang and his men felt helpless.
They didn’t have a single rocket launcher, and aside from the ten rifle grenades that Li Jinfang had, there were only three boxes of hand grenades in the bunker.
It would be nothing short of a miracle if they could successfully destroy armored vehicles with those.
The field of fire for Gao Yang’s side couldn’t reach the infantry behind the oncoming armored vehicles, but they could target the infantry heading towards the other bunker cluster.
The reverse was also true, so now each bunker group could only rely on the other to deal with the accompanying infantry of the armored vehicles.
Gao Yang swung his gun around, with each shot certainly bringing down an opposition soldier.
However, two opposition armored vehicles, one in front of the other, provided cover for the accompanying infantry from the side, blocking most of the bullets fired by Gao Yang’s side.
Gao could only shoot the enemy when they exposed themselves from the front or rear of that armored vehicle.
As Gao Yang searched for new targets, he saw an opposition soldier emerge from behind an armored vehicle with an AT4, aiming to fire at a bunker.
Gao promptly pulled the trigger, and the bullet struck the soldier in the temple.
The man, intending to launch a rocket, fell sideways, but in a reflexive action after death, he still fired off the rocket.
The soldier Gao killed had launched his rocket, but as he was falling, he did not aim at the bunker; instead, he hit the armored vehicle right in front of him.
The rocket struck the rear of the armored vehicle, sending his comrades to the sky.
Gao was stunned at the unintended battle outcome he had achieved, but he had no time to celebrate and immediately sought new targets.
With one armored vehicle down, the surviving infantry had to face bullets from both directions and were quickly annihilated.
While Gao’s side was eliminating the enemy on the other side, Glolov shouted, “Change the ammo belt!”
Frey was holding an ammo belt right beside Glolov and, on hearing the shout, immediately fumbled to load the new belt.
What was easy in training proved difficult in real combat, and the usually swift Frey was shaking so much that it took him a long time to fit the new ammo belt.
Glolov glared at Frey in dissatisfaction but immediately resumed shooting and yelled, “Damn it, Frey!
What are you afraid of?
If you keep this speed up, I’ll kick you out myself!”
Gao Yang’s side was doing well.
In a short time, he had killed at least ten men, and Glolov had taken down no fewer than ten as well.
Coupled with the results achieved by the fighters of Sirte, the infantry charging the other side were nearly wiped out, leaving only a lone armored vehicle pushing forward.
On Gao’s side, however, the situation had turned dire.
The three armored vehicles had formed a triangular formation, providing cover for the vast majority of the infantry.
Gao Yang and the others shifted their attention to the armored vehicles in front of them but had no means to stop those that had closed within two hundred meters.
Now, their hope lay with Harris, who was skilled with rocket launchers.
Harris didn’t let Gao down.
A black man from the Black Fire Mercenary Corps leapt out of the bunker and fired an RPG, destroying the armored vehicle on the far right.
This exposed the infantry advancing toward Gao and his men.
Before the remaining two armored vehicles could adjust their formation, the other bunker group quickly took down a large number of the revealed infantry.
Before Gao could celebrate, he saw the black man who had made the successful hit shake and then collapse to the ground.
He had been hit by the machine gun fire from the armored vehicle.
Although not dead, the black man tried to crawl back to the bunker while bullets from the armored vehicle kicked up dust around him, yet they did not hit him.
Harris and two other black men jumped out; Harris fired a rocket, blowing open the lead armored vehicle, while the other two men tried to drag the wounded man to the ground.
However, bullets fired from the last armored vehicle felled all three men attempting to rescue their fallen comrade.