Stalemate (The Red Gambit Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Vickers ’ fire against a large group of cavalrymen.
    The Cossacks charged forward on foot, firing as they ran.
    Again, the Gurkhas claimed lives with their accurate fire, but lost men in return.
    The Vickers, swiftly relocated to a secondary position, stuttered back into life, and stopped the assault in its tracks, carving the leaders into pieces and driving the survivors into cover.
    Soviet cavalrymen fired back, but the Vickers pinned them in place.
    One Cossack officer attempted to relocate one of his own machine-gun teams, but he and they were betrayed by their muzzle flash, and they permanently lost interest in the battle.
    The Vickers kept firing, swivelling from left to right, its damaged cooling jacket losing hot water and steam as the constant firing increased the temperature.
    A DP burst struck home and the gunner rolled away , clutching his stomach.
    One of the loaders kept the weapon going, preventing the Cossacks from rising up and continuing the assault.
    Gurung moved gingerly, his wounded shoulder reminding him of its wretched state. He took over firing the gun whilst the loader went back to his task of joining the ammo belts together, so the gun could keep firing.
    An enterprising Cossack had crawled forward to attempt a grenade at the new Vickers position. As he pulled back his arm , a rifleman shot him in the face, the primed grenade dropping back to earth, and putting the brave man out of his misery.
    The Soviet battalion commander ordered his mortars into one last effort, the last of their rounds to be fired off on to the 7th and 8th Platoon positions. He organised as much of his available manpower as time permitted, and focussed them on the intended breakthrough point.
    A salvo of 82mm shells fell amongst Gurkha positions, one spectacularly striking an ammunition stash, sending a shower of .303, and unarmed grenades, in all directions.
    A few fires started, illuminating the defenders from behind.
    The third salvo saw a high-explosive round drop close to the Vickers, knocking the weapon over, killing one of the loaders, and throwing both Gurung and the other man off their feet.
    The Cossacks rose up again and this time they were not going to be stopped.
    Submachine guns spewed out streams of bullets one way, Bren and Sten guns replying, each second the volume of fire dropping as another man was silenced by a bullet strike.
    B Company’s commander, an experienced Major, had realised the difficulty and committed his final reserve to 8th Platoon’s aid. Screaming like a mad man, he led forward a special forty-man group, consisting of men from the Battalion carrier platoon and B Company headquarters, and completed by the some members of the battalion pipe band.
    They arrived at the same moment as the Cossacks penetrated the front line positions and a gutter fight commenced, the Major knocked down immediately by SVT rounds, dying silently as his men swept forward and into the Cossacks.
     
     
    A sudden surge in one of the fires illuminated part of the battlefield.
    CHM Gurung saw the danger and reached for a nearby Enfield. Picking up the weapon, he fought the pain in his shoulder and fired into a group of Soviet cavalrymen sneaking around the left side of the main position.
    The survivors withdrew , dragging two of their number with them, leaving a third motionless behind them.
    Successfully seeking out his own Thompson, Gurung discarded the rifle and checked that the men around him were ready to go.
    The melee to his front was growing in intensity, and on the left side, hand-to-hand combat had developed.
    The Cossacks were lovers of their long Shashkas, and remembering how the deadly blades had given them the edge in many such encounters with the Germanski, a number of men bared their weapons and rushed in close, whirling the sabres in time-honoured fashion.
    Starting on the Gurkha right, the front positions started to descend into chaos. Men, too close for modern weapons of war to do their jobs, fell