Sword Point by Harold Coyle Read Free Book Online

ricocheting rounds from
    Ilvanich’s machine gun that hit their vehicles, realized they were in trouble and began to turn on their Iranian attackers. For the BMD
    farthest from llvanich’s position, this realization came too late. With a thunderous explosion, it was flipped up and over onto its top as it ran over a mine. The remaining BMD continued to fight for its life.
    A scream from the squad sergeant to Ilvanich was cut short by a gurgling sound. Ilvanich turned back toward his platoon’s front to see the squad sergeant sink to the bottom of the trench, clutching his bloody face in his hands. A dozen Iranians stood at the lip of the trench, ready to jump in.
    Ilvanich ordered the machine gun back to the front. The Iranians were in the trench, however, before it could be brought to bear.
    In a blur of actions, the fight degenerated into a hand to-hand brawl.
    Ilvanich shoved his pistol into the face of the nearest Iranian and fired twice. Without pausing, he turned on a second Iranian just as the Iranian ran a bayonet into the stomach of one of Ilvanich’s men.
    Two rounds finished the Iranian and emptied Ilvanich’s pistol. Not taking the time to reload, Ilvanich threw down the pistol and grabbed an AK assault rifle. In a single upward swing, he fired a burst into a group of three Iranians rushing at him and managed to kill two and wound the third.

    Now only he and two other Russians were still standing. All the Iranians who had entered the trench were down, mixed in with his own dead and wounded. Ilvanich looked over the top of the trench, only to see another wave of Iranians approaching. “Get the machine gun!” The three Russians searched but could not find the machine gun, now hidden somewhere on the floor of the trench under bodies.
    The Iranians were within twenty meters of the trench. There was no time to find the machine gun. Ilvanich yelled to his remaining men,
    “Forget the machine gun! Shoot the bastards with your rifles!” He turned to get to the front wall, but discovered that his legs were wedged in the tangle of bodies cluttering the trench floor. Unable to move, Ilvanich realized he was going to die.
    At that instant there came the sharp crack of a BMD’s cannon and the chatter of a machine gun from the rear. Ilvanich looked in the direction of the noise and saw the surviving BMD moving up to his position, firing as it came. He watched the last of the Iranians stop, waver, then withdraw.
    As the sun began to crest the horizon, Ilvanich freed his legs and staggered over to the side of the trench. Panting, he leaned against the dirt wall for support and surveyed the scene before him. There was no distinguishing the body of friend or foe. In the confined trench before him were twenty bodies, twisted and interwoven into a grotesque quilt work of death. They had held. But it had cost them.
    Junior Lieutenant Ilvanich bent over and began to vomit.
    Beaumont, Texas 1930 Hours, 28 May (0130 Hours, 29 May, GMT ) The rail loading of the brigade’s equipment at Ford Hood and the offloading in Beaumont were going surprisingly well. Annual trips to the National
    Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, ensured that there were always an adequate number of officers and soldiers in the units who had the skills and experience required for the tasks of planning, organizing and carrying out the movement of the unit by rail.
    The 2nd Brigade, 25th Armored Division, had been tagged as the first unit to move by virtue of the fact that it had been in the final stages of preparation for movement to the National Training Center and was to have begun the actual move as soon as the three-day weekend was over.
    The Soviet invasion of Iran had changed the goal. Rather than going to California to face a U.S. Army unit trained and organized as a Soviet motorized rifle regiment, the 2nd Brigade was en route to meet the real thing.
    While the XO of 3rd Battalion, 4th Armor, remained at Fort Hood to handle last-minute details