Chapter 03

Battle for Berana

During the day of Tuesday the 21st of December Claymore soldiers enter Berana in small numbers to meet at prearranged points so they can prepare for the task ahead. Because of the need to keep secrecy as long as possible the plan is to take out all of the auxiliary positions first. Thus, overwhelming forces are assigned to each target. The whole of the Royal Army is used to ensure a quick capture of all of the civilian and small military targets in the city.

At 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday the 22nd the Claymore troops strike at three hundred and twenty locations spread across the city. All of the radio stations, their broadcast towers, the police stations, military checkpoints, the civilian and military airports are attacked. All are captured without anyone else being aware of the situation. All of the captured soldiers are executed and everyone else is placed in cells. The media facilities are set to run on automatic broadcasts until 9:00 a.m. At 3:00 a.m. Ed leaves five hundred soldiers to patrol the city to keep an eye on things while the rest split into two forces to attack the main Army bases. The one on the northern edge of the city is manned by two thousand five hundred Army troops and the one at the southern edge has five thousand troops. These soldiers are the worst of the Generals’ killers. One of the Generals maintains his headquarters at the southern base. Force N under Mara will attack the northern base while Force S under Ed will attack the southern base.

Force N

Mara and her troops know they’re out numbered at a rate of five to two, but they’re determined to kill these scum. It takes them an hour to move to the base and to get ready, then another thirty minutes to take out the guards while remaining undetected. They take over the armoury and then they set up all of the base’s heavy weapons along the base’s edge. The heavy weapons are aimed into the base with plenty of ammunition at each position. Also, some fire-points are also set up inside the base to create crossfires.

Troops with silenced weapons enter the officers’ accommodation blocks and execute all of the officers. Most sleep in single rooms and that makes the task easy. The same applies to the senior Non-commissioned Officers (NCOs). However, the junior NCOs and general soldiers sleep in the large barracks. The Claymore can’t man the heavy weapons and put enough people into the barracks to take them all at once. So the plan calls for a different approach here. The preparations are the positioning of timed satchel charges under each of the barracks. They get ready then wait for 5:30 a.m. They know Force S is doing the same.

At 5:30 a.m., give or take a few seconds, the charges go off at one end of each barracks. They rip the floors into thousands of splinters that flail the sleeping troops. The charges are set for one to explode then the other to go a moment later. Those nearest the first charge are killed by it. Those a little further away are killed by the deluge of splinters being carried on the shock wave and many more are wounded. One soldier is walking to the latrine when he’s thrown against the wall by the explosion and pinned there by large splinters while hundreds more turn him into a bloody pincushion. About twenty percent of the soldiers are killed by the charges. The rest jump out of bed then hurry to get dressed and armed. The second charge goes off at the other end of the barracks. The results are more devastating this time as so many of the soldiers are unbalanced while they get dressed. Those nearest the charges are killed before they know what’s happening, and a larger number become pincushions for the splinters. This number is higher because many of the troops are no longer lying on their beds as they’re now standing or bending over. Their upright and semi-upright positions put their heads and upper bodies in the danger area that exists above their beds. The splinters go out at an upward angle that would’ve missed them on the beds. One man’s head is taken off by a very large splinter striking his neck. About thirty percent of the troops are killed while another fifteen percent are seriously injured and are unable to do anything except fall down to slowly bleed to death without any medical help.

The rest stagger out into the night with the small arms they have in the barracks. No one bothers checking to see if they’ll open fire or not because the Claymore open up with heavy machine-guns, rifles, grenades, and anti-personnel rockets. The Army troops die in droves; some shoot back, but the majority are very quickly killed. From the first explosion to the last rifle ceasing fire is only twenty minutes. Incendiary grenades are thrown into what’s left of the buildings in case some very hard-core survivors are waiting for troops to go in to check them. While the buildings burn the Claymore keep an eye open and they fire at any movement. They’ll wait for full light to give them a clear picture of the scene. The only sounds are those of the fires and a few rifle shots.

Force S

Ed and his force face a tougher nut to crack. They’re faced with an enemy force ratio of five to one, plus this is the harder and more experienced force. They take an hour to move to the base undetected, and another forty-five minutes to take out all of the guards. Like Force N they execute most of the officers and senior NCOs in their quarters. Ed’s troops take control of the armouries and they mine the main barracks. However, they have a special nut to deal with.

General Andar has an elite company whose barracks are around his headquarters in their own compound. The fence is laced with special sensors and guards patrol outside the buildings, all are killed by silenced weapons. Separate guard posts are inside the buildings. Any attempt to enter them will alert this force. The buildings are brick, not like the wooden barracks. Thus they’ll be much harder to take.

The main barracks are mined with satchel charges. Larger charges set to the same times are tossed over the fence of the inner compound in a way to land and slide up to be next to the brick buildings. Timed smoke and incendiary bombs are included in the packages the Claymore spread out in this base. All is ready for the main battle when they settle down to wait for them to go off.

At 5:30 a.m. the first set of charges explode. The results in the main barracks are much the same as what happens in the northern base. Death, destruction, and confusion rule, abetted by the incendiary and smoke bombs as sixty percent of the troops are killed outright, and about fifteen percent of the troops are given serious wounds. The rest are soon killed when they leave the wrecked and burning buildings. Many are killed by their comrades who survived the charges and got out with weapons in hand.

Force N was able to place troops around the edge of the base, and in a few fire-points inside it to give them good fire angles at each building from all sides. Force S isn’t able to set up good interior fire-points because the only reasonable position is occupied by General Andar’s compound.

The satchel charges exploding near the brick buildings blow holes in them as they send bits of bricks through the outer rooms as shrapnel to smash the heads of many troops. About fifteen percent of the special company are killed or wounded in the explosions. The troops pour out of the buildings to take up positions in their prepared fire-points within the compound. Unlike the others they have some heavy weapons as well as all their small arms in the barracks with them, so they come out fighting. Exiting their buildings they see people moving about in the smoke, so they open fire and kill hundreds of their own troops as none of the Claymore are inside the base at this time. Many special troops in the prepared fire-points are killed by delayed charges exploding in the fire-points to destroy the fire-points and kill those in them. Most are blown apart by the other explosives in the compound.

Fifteen minutes later about five hundred of the troops are still alive with all of them in or near Andar’s compound, and they’re fighting hard. Twice they try to retake the armouries and are repelled with heavy losses. The General figures to hold his position and to wait for support from the other base. He’s sure the rebelling citizens won’t be able to hold out against a two pronged attack. None of the defenders realise they’re being attacked by trained soldiers instead of armed citizens. None of them have faced trained soldiers, except when taking the Palace with overwhelming force and heavier weapons.

The dawn brightens the battlefield, and the Claymore snipers are able to target the defenders because they’ve the height advantage from the guard towers. Andar is studying the base, and he’s surprised at the level of destruction. Suddenly a bugle blows. Hundreds of uniformed soldiers rise up to fire rockets at his positions then they drop down from sight. The rockets slam into their targets. Heavy weapons are destroyed and many of the remaining strong defences are blown apart, so are many of his soldiers; about one hundred and twenty of his troops die. He’s stunned to see he’s being attacked by soldiers, so he wonders why troops have been ordered against him. A shower of rifle launched grenades fall all over the inner compound, another sixty troops are killed. He’s busy rearranging his defences when he sees squad sized fire teams covering each other while they work toward the compound; they’re coming from all directions at once. A wave of smoke grenades arrive. He orders everyone to fire blind into the smoke. The smoke clears to show the enemy hadn’t moved. Thus, all his men did was waste the ammunition on the smoke. Again a lot of smoke, again the blind fire. He has to assume this time they’ll attack behind the smoke. After four lots of smoke they’ve only a little ammunition left. A wave of fragmentation grenades arrives; shrapnel flies everywhere, another wave of grenades, and another. Five waves of fragmentation grenades fall upon his positions to kill many more of his elite troops.

The defenders are almost deafened by all the explosions before the attackers stand up and charge. A very short fight ensues. The defenders left alive are still stunned by all of the grenade blasts, so they can’t hear the shouted orders or are too bemused from the blasts to respond. They’re very low on ammunition, and most soon run out. Andar is taken prisoner, and he’s stunned to see a unit insignia he doesn’t know. He’s not surprised to see his wounded being executed as it’s a standard procedure for the Berant Army at present. The fighting is over by 6:45 a.m., and all of the Army soldiers are dead. Only General Andar has been taken prisoner because Ed wants to interrogate him.

In the City

Over half the city’s inhabitants are woken up by explosions and gun fire at 5:30 a.m. They ring and wake up the rest. They hear firing for nearly an hour in most areas, and some can hear it continuing for a bit over an hour. The few who venture out onto the streets are asked to return home. They don’t recognise the unit patches on the soldiers involved, and are surprised to be politely spoken to by troops.

After a brief radio conversation with Mara just before 7:00 a.m. Ed signals for a soldier to run a flag up the base flagpole at 7:00 a.m. while the same event is happening at dozens of places across the city at the same time. Andar chokes to see the Royal Falcon being raised. He’s very angry to hear the general population cheering the flag they see being raised.

The city is theirs. Just sixty-three of the Claymore died with only one hundred and five wounded troops. Very low losses considering the forces they faced, even though they did everything possible to improve the odds. The bulk of the Generals’ military support is no more. The Royalists now directly control over half of the country and the capital.

At 7:30 a.m. Mara and Ed meet at a park in the middle of the city, and they both kneel while the Chief Elders of three of the tribes declare them Queen Mara and King Edward, which is in keeping with the ancient rites of the Berant tribes. The two rise to cheers from the watching population and soldiers.

At 8:00 a.m. all radio transmissions in the country are stopped for a special news announcement. People across Berant are surprised to hear this vibrant male voice with an Australian accent say, “My name’s Edward, military and militia forces under my command have taken over control of the Kotar Plains, Amarant, Berana, the airport, and the main seaports. Forces are currently moving to control the rest of the ports and the remainder of Berant. The tyranny of the Generals is at an end. All enemy military forces in the Kotar Plains, Amarant, and Berana have been killed. The Vultures are no more. Any of the remaining Rebel military forces who don’t resist my forces while they move over the country to secure it will be allowed to surrender. Those of the rank of Major and above will have to be examined and tried for their actions against the people. Those below that rank will be immediately released to return to their families, if they haven’t already done so by then. I now hand you over to Queen Mara of Berant.” The listeners are surprised and jubilant as the Royal Family has returned in force, the Falcons have come home.

Into the microphone Mara says, “Thank you, My Warrior. The Falcon flies stronger than ever. The Royal Falcon now flies in Berana and all points south of here. It will also fly in many points along the coast when my supporters finish regaining control there. Soon it will fly all over the country again. Two years ago, in Australia, I made The Sound of Battle ring forth three times when I declared war on my enemies. Now those enemies fall before our troops. I’ve returned to free my country and my people. To those of you already freed, enjoy your freedom; to those of you we haven’t reached yet, be strong as we’re coming and we will be there soon. The King’s Swords, the Claymore, are coming to cut down the few Vultures who are left. It’s been a long wait, I know, but the time for freedom is at hand.”

The radio stations return to normal broadcasts while people across the country cheer. In many places in the Amiri tribal lands the Vultures find themselves dying when the locals attack them with military weapons they can’t possibly have, but they do have them. The Amiri warriors are cleansing their lands of the evil ones now they have the official approval to do so.

Ed spends the rest of the morning reorganising the Royal Army into five forces. One force of two hundred Swords stays with Mara at the old Royal Palace while three forces of six hundred Swords each, split into one hundred Sword units, are moving out to sweep the lands free of Vultures: one to the west, one to the north-west, and one to the north. The last three hundred Swords are under his command and are moving north-west while staying ready to quickly respond in support of any of his point forces.

The Countryside

The six point forces of one hundred Swords each move out. They visit every house and building while they make their slow way across the country. Each of the point forces stops to check out every government facility, village, town, and large group or clan residence. The following forces of four hundred Swords split up into four one hundred Sword groups to check the smaller settlements while they also do follow-up checks of all of the larger ones. Any armed resistance is met with deadly force, and support is quickly called in if it’s needed to deal with the situation.

In the process of checking everything they find many of the outlying military facilities are empty because the troops have left. They also come across many low rank soldiers heading for home. In a few places they come across a number of small groups of diehards who’re soon killed. The bulk of the citizens welcome them with cheering and open arms. The process of checking every house is going to take a long time, but Ed can’t rest until the other Rebel Generals are all accounted for.

In the second week they find the Generals’ families, but the Generals are missing. Half-way through the third week of this effort one of the point forces for the northern group meets strong resistance at an old clan residence that should be empty. The whole clan had been killed by the Rebel Army murderers when they objected to some senior officers taking their daughters away by force. The point force surrounds the residence, then they wait for reinforcement.

The other northern point force joins them, so does Ed with the mobile reserve. During the demands for them to surrender they learn the occupants are the last two Generals with their personal guards. The residence is well sited on a hill with very good defences. Any frontal attack will result in heavy losses, something Ed wants to avoid. A plane is ordered to fly over it to get pictures of their defences. It’s shot at by a lot of mobile dual purpose artillery. Mostly 1.5 inch Bofors cannons and 3 inch guns, which is almost all of the Berant artillery. The pilot wasn’t able to see much, but he was able to report on lots of trucks loaded with ammunition and heaps of ammunition boxes around the compound.

Ed sits and contemplates the situation. He has enough men to keep them bottled up, and maybe enough to take the place by storm. However, at too high a cost for him to consider it as a viable option. They lay siege to the place. On the second day he’s discussing the situation with one of his old special forces men when he suddenly smiles. Looking up he says, “What a fool I’ve been. I’m no infantry commander able to take out this lot like this. I should be looking at how to do this the same way I did during the war.” His old mate smiles. They spend a long time discussing old campaigns while looking for parallels to this situation. They call in more of the old platoon to discuss the situation at length.

Late that night ten men move out into the night to climb the defensive wall to spend hours making a careful study of everything inside the walls. An hour before dawn they sneak back to camp. The next day is spent planning and sending out for particular materials. People try to talk the Generals into surrendering and letting their men live. No response is received from inside the walls. The place seems empty, except for shots at anyone venturing too close to the place. The following day more men arrive with the extra materials, and the attackers’ lines are strengthened. The defenders sit and watch them.

The second night after the night visit is a dark night nearing a no moon, and it has cloud cover. At 8:00 p.m. twenty-five men in five groups of five men each, all experienced in night penetration, move out from five points in the attackers’ lines. They’re carrying boxes of explosives and packs of pre-set charges. They reach the wall just before 10:30 p.m. because they think the defenders will expect any night attack to be at midnight or later, so they’re going in earlier. They set the boxes up against the target areas of the walls. All of the timers are already activated. This is so with all of the charges they carry because it saves them time when setting the charges. With great care they move over the wall like lizards. Inside the compound they move about placing charges in all of the ammunition stacks and at every one of the heavy weapons they can get near. Others are placed in or near any group of soldiers they can reach. They penetrate all of the buildings, but only long enough to place charges and withdraw, for most of them.

By 2:00 a.m. the compound is readied. Fifteen men withdraw back over the walls to their lines. The remaining two groups of five men each head for where they think the Generals are sleeping. They’re in different buildings set far apart in the compound. One man of each group sets up to cover and watch the outside. With care four men of each group penetrate the buildings via windows of storage rooms they think are under other storage rooms, as all of the doors have interior guards. After drilling up through the floors with hand drills they push small mirrors on sticks through the holes to see what’s in the room. One group is in luck because it is a store room. The other group are under a bedroom occupied by a sleeping man. However, there’s no time to try a second room. Both teams are quiet while they drill more holes. Soon they’re able to saw between the holes with a keyhole saw. By 3:00 a.m. they’ve removed a manhole sized section of floor in almost total silence. Setting up collapsible ladders they brought for this task they climb through the holes. The team coming up into a store room crack the door open to check the hall. One man is in a chair outside a room halfway down the hallway, and he’s half asleep.

The other team is quick to subdue the man in the bed. He’s the General’s aide and the General is in the adjourning room. They quietly open the door and enter the room. One man covers the General’s mouth while another injects him with a sedative. After a moment’s struggle the General is sound asleep again. A few minutes later they’re carrying him past his dead aide and passing him down the hole. They follow, and he’s soon passed out the window. By 3:30 a.m. the group has their man near the exit point and are waiting to leave once the other team joins them.

The other team is preparing to move out to take the guard and enter the room behind him when Ed says, “This doesn’t make sense.” His men look at him, “Looking at the general layout of this house the better bedrooms should be to our left, not to the right where the guard is.” Pointing at two men he says, “You two take out the guard. Jim and I will check out the bedroom on the opposite side of the hall on our left.” They all nod agreement because he’s the boss and his past hunches have often proven right. They get ready to move out.

Steve goes first with his special crossbow, this weird weapon has proven very useful in the past. Small and collapsible it fires a bolt of his own design: the arrow head is razor sharp with a square head three inches wide. A hit anywhere in the throat will severe the target’s spine, often it’ll take the head right off. Ed quickly opens the door then Steve steps out and fires, the guard is dead before he even knows they’re there. Steve and another race to the guard’s chair and lower him to the floor.

Ed and Jim race for their target door. Ed holds a sound suppressed pistol in his right hand with a syringe in his left hand. Jim opens the door with his left hand as he holds his sound suppressed pistol in his right hand. Stepping through the doorway Ed sees a sleepy guard rising from a chair in the corner on his right. He fires a round and hits the man in the forehead. Turning, he does the same to the guard in the corner on his rear right while Jim takes out the guard in the front left corner when he enters the room. The guard in the last corner gets a chance to grab hold of his own pistol before Jim gives him a third eye. They don’t slow down when they enter the room. Jim slips his pistol into his pocket and he dives onto the General lying on the bed because he’s just starting to respond to the four very quiet ‘phuts’ of the sound suppressed pistols. Jim holds the General down while Ed injects the sedative. A few minutes later the General is asleep as they carry him out of the room, down the hole, and out the window.

They’re dark grey shadows as they move through the compound with their burden. At 3:40 a.m. they join up with the other capture team then they move their prisoners over the wall. 4:00 a.m. sees them outside of the compound and moving back to their lines. Due to their burdens they take it slow and careful as they move. Just on 5:00 a.m. they’re entering their own lines. The prisoners are tied up and left with the medical staff. The whole Royal force is awake and waiting for the show to start.

At 5:50 a.m. the charges in the compound start exploding. Fire splits the pre-dawn night. In the flash of explosions the attackers see objects flying through the air, smallish objects that are parts of heavy weapons and others are parts of people. Sleeping soldiers who had explosives placed near them are blown apart while some are blown away and only injured by the charges. One man is relieving himself against a wall when a charge goes off to fling him a little up and sideways through a set of French windows. He’s not harmed much by the explosion, except for some glass cuts and his penis being cut off by a broken window pane, so he hits the floor while screaming very loudly.

Explosives can act in a funny manner. One charge placed amongst boxes of explosive shells for the Bofors canon explodes, and most of them go off in sympathetic detonation to spray shrapnel all around them. In an odd quirk of fate two boxes of shells are blown open and scattered around that part of the compound. One of the flying shells strikes a soldier in the face and it breaks his jaw. He hardly has time to scream when the charge in the explosive round goes off to blow his head apart. Others land amongst rising troops and explode, killing some troops and wounding others. One soldier near a 3 inch artillery gun sees the explosion of the charge placed on the gun. He just has time to register this when the range handle slams into his forehead to tear the top of his head off. The soldier beside him has his guts ripped open by other shrapnel. All across the compound soldiers are dying in explosions or are being fatally wounded by the shrapnel of the things destroyed in the explosions. Most of the stacked ammunition has been destroyed in the explosions, so have most of the heavy weapons and large numbers of the soldiers.

By 6:00 a.m. a few surviving officers are chasing the survivors to the walls to fend off an expected attack when the boxed charges go off. One captain is standing near the wall when the charge explodes. A three square foot section of the demolished wall flies at him and it squashes him flat against the building wall a few feet behind him. Bits of broken brick smash into the soldiers near him, killing most of them. One soldier who’d made it up to his fire position on the wall is tossed ten feet into the air before he falls head first into the hole in the wall, breaking his neck. Another soldier running along the wall is blown off of it and is impaled on one of the undamaged twin 1.5 inch Bofors guns. The only member of the gun’s crew to reach the gun turns away as he throws up at the sight. Similar scenes are enacted throughout the compound and at all of the walls. Ten large holes have been blasted in the walls, and most of the compound is now in ruins with fire and smoke rising from many places all over it. By 6:10 a.m. there are no more explosions, only fire and smoke with some moans of the dying. No one in the compound is firing at the attackers or moving about.

Ed’s forces just sit in their positions, and wait. With full daylight on the scene at 6:30 a.m. twenty fire teams of ten men each move out in ten groups of two teams while covering each other. They approach the gaps in the walls with great care. Then they enter and they search the compound. At 6:45 a.m. they’re back out with fifteen prisoners. They line the prisoners up against the wall then they execute them. The whole enemy force is dead. Now no more soldiers loyal to the Rebel Generals still live.

At 11:45 a.m. the fires have burnt themselves out and burial parties have mass graves ready for the dead. The two Generals are awake and are being shown through the ruins. They’re sickened by many of the sights. Ed makes a point of showing them where the survivors were executed.

Taking them back to his camp Ed tells them, “You’re going to die, have no doubts about that, you’re dead and are just awaiting my pleasure.” They look into his eyes, and they realise that’s the truth. He takes off his battledress to stand before them naked from the waist up so they can see the scars on his body. “There’s information you have and I want it. The question is do you give it up quickly and have a quick death, or slowly and suffer a lot of pain first. Look at my body. I know all about torture. I remember everything the Kempeitai did to me, and I know how to do it to you.” They gulp. “I also have your families. You know the ancient punishment for treason. Tell me what I want to know without trouble and your families will be allowed to live unharmed. If not, the ancient punishments will be applied.” They both gulp since torture with gang rape of their daughters and wives is what’s being spoken of. “My wife, Mara, has promised to honour any promise I make, provided you two and Andar die.” Their eyes go wide as this is the new King and he’s very tough. “All I want to know is who financed you, people’s names, and those they represent? What they wanted from you in return? Plus the information to get a hold of the money they paid you and is stored in foreign bank accounts.” General Muldar breaks down and he starts talking. General Wazdor is sure Ed is bluffing, so he says nothing while thinking his family can get at the funds after they leave the country.

At 2:15 p.m. the families of the two Generals arrive. The deal struck with General Muldar is explained, and his family is allowed to go to their ancestral home under escort. General Wazdor’s family is informed of the offer and the penalties. They plead with Wazdor, but the General continues to think it’s a bluff.