Chapter 5

Sacka and I moved back away from the camp and moved around it until we found some decent cover. We found a nice little rise; it was not that much higher than the camp but it would give us more range. Ideally, we would want the two, two-man teams to be different flanks, which meant we fired in at different angles and that split the enemy’s base of fire.

We moved up the rise and found some cover. I dropped my Bergan off a couple of yards back. Then I positioned my two rifles and spare mags. I saw Sacka doing the same. Sacka had an M16 that had a grenade launcher slung under the barrel. He had a small pile of grenades next to it; I knew that Ship used the same weapon. Those guys would do a lot of damage to the camp.

I heard Sacka reporting in that we were ready and then Ship replied saying they needed five more minutes.

I broke open a ration pack and ate some food, swigged down some water. Then I scanned the camp with my NVGs on. The sunrise was coming up over the horizon.

It would not be long before we could do away with the Night Vision Goggles.

I got my L96A1 Sniper Rifle ready for action, I had the spare mags close to hand.

“Ten seconds lads!” I heard Ship say into my earpiece,” Take my first shot as the mark.”

I glanced over at Sacka and got a thumbs up. I used the scope on the L96A1 Sniper Rifle to find my first target. I heard Ship fire and I held my breath and fired. My first shot was a headshot. My second took a guy in the torso, my third was a leg shot, the raghead hit the ground and I put another round into him.

Sacka fired six rounds out of his grenade launcher in quick succession. The camp was being hit and hit hard. The Taliban warriors were all over the place as panic set in. They did not seem to know what to do.

We heard the crumping of explosions on the other side of the camp as Ship used his grenade launcher.

I kept up a good rate of fire. I controlled my breathing and tried to make sure that every round counted.

When I swapped mag, I worked out that my first ten-round mag had taken out nine men. That was good work in my book. the Schmidt & Bender MK II 5-25X50mm scopes proved to be spot on. In this firefight, every round would count.

I saw a guy who was obviously a Taliban officer, my round smashed into his chest. Sacka was firing perfect three-round bursts from his M16. I could hear Ship and Band-Aid firing as well. The light had changed as dawn broke over the camp. I stripped off my NVGs and that made it easier to use the sniper rifle scope.

There was a group of men running toward one of the armoured four-by-fours, one of my rounds took out one of its front tyres, and then I fired at a guy who was trying to jump onto the back of the truck to get to the GMPG. He went down, I switched my aim to another man in the group. I managed to get two rounds into him. One in the arm and one in the chest. I scanned, found a target, and fired. Round after round found its target and took another Taliban warrior out of the game.

“Keep up this rate of fire lads!” Ship chirped away in our ears.

The camp was lit up as one of the trucks blew up, taking out a few men who were sheltering behind it. I changed mags. I picked off targets one by one, all the time the men in the camp were firing at us. The Aks chattered; rock chips flew all around us. The Ak47s were not as accurate at this range.

The Taliban officers began to scream at their men to take cover and it made it harder to pick targets.