Chapter 23

The mortars were somewhat unimpressive and there was some disappointment when they were delivered. Bob, who was responsible for teaching the mortar crew how to use the weapon pointed out that the mortar may not be as impressive looking as a howitzer, but it was a lot better suited to their kind of warfare.

Everybody piled into the trucks, including the latest acquisition taken from a used vehicle lot, and they combined an outing with a demonstration of what a mortar did and how big a mess it could make of a target. There was a lot of fiddling and fooling around by most of the rebels while those selected for the 62mm mortar crew were shown how to set up the weapon. They were in an open expanse of desert, so they didn't have much choice in the way of targets.

In the interest of safety, the first target was set for 150m, and Bob triple checked before he would let the loader drop in the first mortar bomb. Everybody was warned to pay attention and the projected site of the impact point was indicated. The loader dropped in the first bomb and jumped back as she had been told to do. There was a soft explosion-sound and a whoosh as the round leaped from the tube. That sound was as unimpressive as everything else about the mortar, and the audience was already getting bored.

A few seconds later, there was a big bang in the desert not far from the indicated target, and dust and dirt went flying. Ah, now the audience was interested. Bob told the crew to shoot for the same place and they did. This time, the audience paid close attention and were appreciative of the bang and tossed dirt produced by the impact of the mortar bomb.

Now it was time for a demonstration of the 105mm mortar. Bob selected a target 200m away. There was much more involved in setting up the 105, mostly because it was a bigger device. However, this time, the audience paid attention to every step the mortar crew went through. Finally, they were ready and Bob told them to fire a round. These larger rounds were much heavier than the 62mm rounds, so a large man was acting as loader. He had to struggle to get the round lined up properly and drop it into the tube.

He dropped the round into the tube and dove for cover. He had been impressed by everything he had seen so far and was taking no chances. Well, this time, there was more noise as the round was launched, and its impact was awaited by the audience in great anticipation. Of course, there was an even bigger bang this time, and several people were startled to feel the sharp impact of sand grains hitting their faces.

This was such a satisfactory demonstration that the crowd broke out in spontaneous applause. The mortar crew stood up, turned around, and bowed to their friends.

They broke for lunch and there was a lot of conversation about what could be done with the mortars, especially the 105. Bob dampened some of that conversation by pointing out that the rounds were very heavy and not many could be brought in by a drone if it was going to carry anything else. He said that they were going to have to make do with the smaller mortar for most jobs. This only slowed down the speculation for a short time. Soon, people were talking about what could be done with the 62mm version of death and destruction.

After lunch, two trucks were loaded with the sight seers, and they were delivered back to headquarters. Only the three mortar crews and a couple of guards were left in the sun to practice with the mortar. The current plan was to have one 105mm mortar crew and two 62mm mortar crews. At the moment, the crews for the smaller mortar would have to share a weapon for practice, but there was sufficient ammunition for practice on both mortars. Therefore, they should be adequately trained for their kind of warfare in a couple of days, given their dedication to the job.

Right now, they were practicing with bombs using a simple impact fuse. Later on, they would have a chance to try air bursts and delayed explosion fuses intended to go after underground bunkers. Whenever the enthusiasm seemed to slack off, Bob reminded the crews of who they were fighting and why. That generally was enough to get everybody back into the proper spirit.

They had range charts to tell them the mortar settings to use, but they were having trouble estimating distance. None of them had ever had to do that before, and they were going to have to learn how. They did have a small range finder, so Bob used that to select a potential target, a cactus or a bit of brush, or maybe a little hill. A couple of people were getting pretty good at range estimation, so Bob had hopes for them to come around.

Now that they had these glorious weapons, there was agitation to use them. There was a police station that they could practice on. It had no jail cells, so that was what they decided would be the first targets for their new toys. They were in such a hurry to try the weapons out against a real target that they decided not to wait for the next drone to bring in more suitably fused bombs. They really needed bunker-busters to do the best job against the police station, but Bob and John conceded that a demonstration of the limitations of impact fuses would be a good idea.

Since this was their first attempt to aim the mortars at real targets, they decided to make their attack during the day. This police station was three stories tall, so it was a big target. Spartacus decided that the 105 would drop bombs through the roof while the 62 would go after people as they ran from the building. With only one mortar of each size, Spartacus figured that most of the kills would be made by rifle, anyway.

By the time practice was finished, they only had six of the 105mm bombs and 12 of the 62mm rounds. There was no way to tell whether or not that would be enough to demolish the police station. Bob was dubious because of the limitation to contact fuses.

They planned the attack so that everybody would have a job, even 9 year old Jennifer. She was to carry drinking water to the mortar crews. This was actually an important job because of the hard work in the hot sun performed by the loaders. The mortars were spotted on a roof about 150m from the police station, and the FO (Forward Observer) who would adjust the aim and call the shots would be right at the edge of the roof just opposite the target. She would be using a tactical radio to talk to Bob, the commander of the mortars.

The riflemen would be spotted opposite doors that the cops could be expected to use as they tried to escape from the building. An MG (machine gun) would have been nice to put in front of every door, but they did not have any of those, so they would use the Mark 29s set for full automatic and using 100-round drums to feed the rifles.

Spartacus decided to time the attack for 1500 hours (3:00 PM), just before the shift change. He hoped that would trap the maximum number of cops in the building. Lena had now had time to make a full set of uniforms, so they fancied themselves as looking like a real army. Very proudly, they loaded into their three trucks and headed for their "date with destiny." This was to be their first fire-fight in full force against an established enemy. The fact that they had a vastly superior weapons base was entirely beside the point!

They got both mortars set up in plenty of time and Jennifer delivered a cup of drinking water to each member of the fire teams. There was a festive, but serious, air about the whole operation. As with all soldiers, none of them expected to be wounded or killed. The FFA just did not have that kind of bad luck!

The festivities were opened precisely at 1500 hours (3:00 PM) by a round of 105 mortar bomb landing almost exactly in the center of the flat roof of the police station. A hole was punched in the roof and a second round went through the hole and exploded when it hit the floor. The top floor was used by detectives and other officers as office space, and 23 women were killed by the two mortar rounds.

More importantly, the explosions caused the occupants of the building to panic and to try to run outside to escape what they supposed were bombs. The first few cops to run out the door were met by a 62mm mortar round. It exploded in the street and kicked up a lot of shards of concrete and paving compound, either one of which could impart a fatal wound. Nevertheless, the mortar did little good because the explosion was at ground level and would have worked better against fixed targets.