Winter Sniper 07 Raid on Russia, page 24
part #7 of Winter Sniper Series
“Damn,” Hale cursed.
“You don’t want to tell me about vaginas during warm weather again?” Sofia asked with a grin.
“My loins would like me to, but I will not allow them to break my marriage vow to Nea,” Hale replied.
Sofia’s face morphed into a pout. “A pity.”
Suddenly the smell of cooking meat filled their noses. “Hopefully the wind will remain a constant out of the west,” Hale said. “If it shifts to the southwest or south, they might smell the cooking meat in the camp.”
“That might not be such a bad thing if we can lure some out here,” Sofia observed.
“An interesting idea,” Hale said.
Hale’s stomach audibly rumbled. “Why don’t you head back and get some food?” Sofia asked. “Mother and I will keep an eye on things up here.”
Hale nodded. “I think I’ll do that. I don’t plan on attacking for several hours.”
“When do you think is the best time?” Sofia asked.
“Around three in the morning when it is the hardest for the human body to rouse from slumber,” Hale replied.
“That’s more than enough time,” Sofia said. “We should try to get some sleep as well.”
Hale nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a good idea. The main road is paved and plowed, so once we are past the camp, we can drive in the dark. If everything goes well, we should be in Vazhenvaara around dawn.”
Chapter 35
Evening
Just South of Outpost 486
Karelia Oblast, Soviet Union
January 17th, 1940
After eating dinner and preparing for the attack, Hale managed to get around four hours of sleep. Now, he sat in the forest, just to the east of the outpost. Four guards were visible in the light cast by the camp’s overhead lighting.
Like before, three men were outside of the guard shack, struggling to stay warm. Inside the shack, a corporal sat at a small desk. A small wood-burning stove, which sat beside the squad leader, kept him comfortable. The corporal appeared to be reading a newspaper.
About twenty meters to the north of Hale, Sofia was ready with the heavy machine gun. It had taken them nearly an hour to get the gun set up as remaining quiet slowed the effort down considerably. They had to move a nearby log into the firing position. Now the gun rested on the log, and Sofia pointed the gun’s barrel at the three guards standing outside. Laying on the ground beside her was a full drum style replacement magazine for the heavy machine gun.
In between Sofia and Hale, laying prone in a line, were ten of the ladies. The women were armed with a combination of Mosin-Nagant rifles and carbines that were looted off of the bodies of slain enemy soldiers. The line of women included Sofia’s sister Hanna and her mother Lumi.
The other three uninjured women were with the trucks. Two of the women were sitting in the driver’s seat of the GAZ-MMs. They were ready to drive if they needed to leave in a hurry. The third lady was watching over Roza as the recently injured woman slept.
After setting up, Hale decided to modify the plan. Wanting to choose when to fire himself, he told Sofia to hold her fire until he shot the soldier in the guard shack. Even though it was dark, Hale scooped up some snow and placed it in his mouth to eliminate his breath cloud.
Next, Hale drew in a deep breath and took aim at the corporal in the guard shack. The man was still sitting at the desk reading a newspaper. Beside him on the desk sat a bottle of vodka. Hale had seen the man take several sips of the vodka while he was on duty. The bastard must be confident that no one is going to come and check on them.
Hale aligned his rifle’s two iron sights on the man’s chest and pulled the trigger. The loud boom created by Hale’s rifle startled the three guards standing outside. A moment later, Sofia opened fire with the heavy machine gun, while Hale worked the action on his rifle.
Hale’s bullet smashed through the glass of the guardhouse and hit the corporal in the chest. The Russian squad leader’s eyes widened in realization as he registered what had just happened. He looked down at his chest and saw blood running freely from a new hole. Horrified, he screamed. The corporal wavered for several more seconds as the blood rushed out of the bullet wound. Slowly, over the course of the next minute, he laid his head down on the desk and lay still.
A few seconds after Hale shot the corporal, Sofia’s heavy machine gun erupted with a thunderous roar. The sound of the gun firing filled Hale’s ears as the weapon’s deep, rhythmic thuds reverberated through the air. A cadence sounded with each round expelled, that resonated with a distinctive roar as the gun spat out death.
Sofia held down the trigger for thirty seconds as the bullets shredded skin, shattered bone, and ripped the internal organs of the three guards apart. The guards were inflicted with so many wounds by her that a red mist filled the air around them. The airborne blood quickly froze and fell to the ground as frozen blood.
While Sofia was butchering the guards, Hale turned his attention to the front door of the cabin. He tensed as the cabin door opened. He expected to see someone emerge at any moment. Instead, an object hurtled toward Hale. The object landed about ten meters shy of Hale’s location and exploded, flinging snow into the air. A grenade. Hale inwardly cursed as his night vision was ruined.
The grenade explosion had also ruined the night vision of the ten women laying prone to the right of Hale. Attempting to take advantage of everyone’s temporary night blindness, a half-dozen men dashed out of the cabin. They ran from right to left from Hale’s perspective as they sought cover around the backside of the cabin. Hale perceived the men as blurry shadows through the bright yellow dots that obscured his vision.
“They escaped from the cabin!” Hale exclaimed.
“What do we do?” Sofia asked.
“Is your magazine empty?” Hale asked.
“Yes,” Sofia replied.
“Leave the gun and come to me,” Hale ordered.
A few moments later, Sofia laid down on the ground beside Hale, who said, “We need to move, as they may have observed my muzzle flash.”
The pair joined the other women laying on the ground. When they saw Hale, Lumi asked, “What do we do?”
“At least six men are hiding behind the cabin,” Hale said. “Unless they have bolt cutters with them, they are stuck back there thanks to the fence.”
“Can we attack?” Hanna asked.
Hale shook his head. “No, it’s too risky.”
“We seem to be in a standoff,” Sofia observed.
“Indeed,” Hale replied.
“What do we do now?” Natalia asked.
“Let’s walk through our options,” Hale said.
“Won’t that give the enemy time to create mischief of their own?” Sofia asked.
“Perhaps,” Hale replied. “Trapped behind the cabin, with no way of exiting through the perimeter fence, at least that we know of, doesn’t give the enemy much to work with either.” Hale paused for a moment. “Lumi, can you lead Hanna, Natalia, and Yelena around to the back of the cabin outside of the perimeter fence? Use the cover of the trees to keep yourselves invisible to the enemy. If they try anything, send a runner back to me with a situation report.”
“Understood,” Lumi said. She turned to the other women. “Hanna, Natalia, and Yelena, you’re with me.”
After the four women departed Hale sat down with Sofia. “Let’s talk through our options. The first option would be to attack the Soviets directly.”
“There’s no good way to do that inside the perimeter,” Sofia said. “If we tried a direct assault, I think we would take many casualties.”
Hale nodded. “I agree. We may even lose if we take too many casualties, and they counterattack at an awful moment. Let’s consider the next option, we could leave a screening force in place to defend against an attack, and simply drive the trucks through the camp. Once the trucks are on the main road, we can withdraw the defenders and leave.”
Sofia nodded. “On the surface that sounds good. We may take a casualty or two when the Soviets realize what’s happening. If I were in their position, I would launch a hastily conceived attack.”
“Another potential pitfall to this plan is that we would leave an enemy force in our rear that can identify us,” Hale said. “We can cut the phone line, but we can’t guarantee that they don’t find another way to call ahead to Vazhenvaara and warn them about us,” Hale said.
Hale took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “What do you think would happen if Vazhenvaara was alerted prior to our arrival?”
“It would effectively end any hope you have of entering Vazhenvaara unobserved,” Sofia said. “Every entry point in the town would be cordoned off. Checkpoints would be set up at a handful of entry points, and everyone entering the town would have their papers checked.”
“What do you mean by cordoned off?” Hale asked.
“The likely Soviet response to a potential threat to an NKVD station would be to send in a large number of troops and lock the entire area down,” Sofia replied.
“That won’t do,” Hale said. Then repeated himself. “That won’t do at all. I think we can agree that whatever we decide, the Soviet survivors here at the camp need to be eliminated or my mission will fail. Let’s focus on figuring out how to eliminate the Soviets without losing too many of us.”
Chapter 36
Early Morning
Just West of Outpost 486
Karelia Oblast, Soviet Union
January 18th, 1940
After leaving Hale and Sofia, Lumi, along with Hanna, Natalia, and Yelena, set out on their mission. To reach their destination, the four women had traveled in a wide circle around the south of the outpost’s perimeter. Navigating through the forest was difficult, as they were forced to push their way through knee deep snow. To save energy, they moved in a single file line and rotated the person in the front every few minutes.
Now positioned to the west of the outpost, the group observed the Soviets hiding behind the cabin. Their vantage point through the woods, while not ideal, was sufficient for the purpose for which they were dispatched. To conceal themselves from the Soviets, the group had set up behind a large boulder roughly two hundred meters away from the rear or western side of the cabin.
They could see that the Soviets had worked to set up a defensive line. Lacking firewood and any means of digging a hole in the frozen concrete-like soil, they had split themselves in half. Three men now lay prone on the ground, evenly spaced on both the north and south sides of the cabin, facing outward. The men had used snow to create some concealment for themselves.
“It looks like they are waiting for us to make the next move,” Yelena observed.
Lumi nodded. “Yes, and if we try to attack around the sides of the cabin, we’ll be slaughtered.”
“Shouldn’t we let Hale and Sofia know what we see?” Hanna asked. “I can do it. I’m the youngest and fastest.”
“Yes, but you are also the second best out of the four of us with a rifle,” Lumi replied. “Therefore, you need to stay here in case anything happens.” Lumi turned to Yelena and asked, “Can you circle back around and let Hale and Sofia know what we are seeing here?”
“Very well,” Yelena said.
Exhausted from his grueling trek, Sokolov stopped for a moment to catch his breath. After Hale and the female prisoners had escaped on the supply truck, he had entered the abandoned prison camp. He quickly checked the entire area to ensure they didn’t leave anyone behind that needed to be killed. Once he was sure no one was left, that was still alive, he tended to his wound, put on additional layers of clothing, and took a pair of skis from the guard’s barracks.
Armed with his Mosin-Nagant rifle, a pistol, and a lot of anger, he had followed the trail left by the truck as best he could. The only time he had paused his pursuit was during the snowstorm. To continue during the blizzard would have meant death. Sokolov was exhausted from nearly two days of continuous skiing. Though his body was fatigued, his inner rage at what had happened to the camp and his fellow guards kept him moving ever northward up the road. I can’t believe one man and a bunch of whores took the camp. Even worse, they somehow managed to shoot me.
His eyes caught movement near the top of a ridge roughly fifty meters in front of him. He stopped and left the road to conceal himself. He immediately observed more movement. He quickly realized it was a woman moving toward the road. Hello, why are you here all by yourself? What happened to the others? Sokolov wondered, then decided. I should ask you myself.
Yelena trudged through the snow. Being short, even for a female, and slender, the effort of pushing through the nearly knee-deep snow was exhausting. She paused for a moment to catch her breath. Suddenly, she felt the keen edge of a blade pressed against her throat. “Hello Yelena. We have much to talk about,” Sokolov said.
“Why can’t we just attack from the woods?” Sofia asked, “It’s a chain link fence, so it won’t stop our bullets.”
Hale nodded slowly as he pondered the idea. “I’m a soldier. I should have thought of that.”
“It’s understandable that you didn’t,” Sofia said. “You have a lot on your mind. Now focus your thoughts on the idea. How can we make it work?”
“I believe trying to kill them from a distance would create less risk,” Hale said.
“Which means fewer casualties,” Sofia added.
“Exactly,” Hale said. “Obviously I would need to be with the attack group. There is no cover for the enemy to use at the back of the cabin that we are aware of, so let’s assume I can just shoot them one by one at my leisure. What would be their likely reaction once they started to die?”
“I think at first, they would try to locate you. Once they were sure of your location, they would return fire,” Sofia said. “Most Red Army soldiers are bullies, so when they couldn’t turn the tables on their opponent, they would likely flee to preserve their lives.”
Hale nodded in agreement. “That makes sense. Bullies are cowards at heart, so if you can’t stand, fight, and win without taking substantial casualties, then they are likely to run.”
“Which means we need to have a force in place to deal with that eventuality,” Sofia said.
“Assuming I’m the only shooter, the bulk of our forces would need to be deployed to block their escape,” Hale said.
Suddenly, a rifle boomed from somewhere nearby. Hale and Sofia looked around to locate the shooter. “It sounded like it came from the south,” Hale said.
Several of the women started screaming. “Nikita is dead!” someone shouted.
Hale and Sofia hurled themselves to the ground as Hale yelled, “Everyone down!”
Again, a rifle boomed and another woman went down. “Who could this be?” Sofia wondered.
Hale spat out. “Sokolov.”
“He’s firing a Mosin-Nagant from that area over there.” Hale pointed to the edge of the forest, south of the cabin. “If he fires again, I’ll be able to locate him.”
Suddenly, Yelena burst from the tree line, running as fast as her short legs would carry her through deep snow. She looked over her left shoulder as if checking for a pursuer. The shooter’s muzzle flashed as he took a shot at Yelena, who threw herself to the ground. The bullet missed her.
“There!” Hale exclaimed. “Muzzle flash.”
“I saw it,” Sofia said.
Hale fired first, followed by Sofia a few seconds later. “Do you think we got him?” Sofia asked.
“I’m not sure,” Hale said.
“What can we do to be sure?” Sofia asked.
“Find the body,” Hale replied.
“That sounds risky,” Sofia said.
“Oh, it is,” Hale agreed. "If we missed, or he is wounded but still capable of shooting, the person who went to check for a body would likely get shot and killed."
Hale saw Yelena as she slowly crawled through the snow. He gave the small woman a reassuring smile and gestured for her to keep going. Her progress was measured in centimeters as she pushed herself forward through the deep snow. Slowly, as the minutes ticked by, she drew closer to Hale and Sofia, who were lying prone on the ground.
Finally, she paused a few meters shy of Hale and Sofia. She met Hale’s concerned gaze. Yelena’s cheeks were bright red from the cold. The skin around her lips had turned a blueish hue. “She’s hypothermic,” Hale whispered to Sofia.
In a weak voice, Yelena spoke a single word: “Sokolov,” before passing out.
“That confirms our suspicion,” Sofia said.
Hale, disregarding the risk to himself, crawled to Yelena. Staying low, he dragged her across the snow until he reached the door of the cabin. He pushed the door open and pulled her inside. When no shots were fired, Hale wondered, What happened to Sokolov?
The young Finn received his answer when he heard one of their trucks start. Who is in the truck?
Hale’s immediate priority was Yelena’s life. He set her down on the floor and located a fireplace. The fireplace had a pile of logs sitting next to it. A few minutes later, he had a roaring fire going and the temperature within the cabin started to rise.
Hale returned to Yelena and moved her to the floor in front of the fireplace. With Yelena now out of immediate danger, he returned to the door of the cabin. He could hear the sound of the truck drawing closer as it slowly pushed its way through the snow up the small hillside just south of the outpost.
As the truck came into view, it suddenly accelerated. The truck picked up speed as it neared the compound’s southern gate. When Hale realized that the driver of the truck intended to smash through the gate, he raised his rifle and took aim.
Not knowing who was behind the wheel, Hale held his fire. A moment later, the truck smashed through the gate. As the vehicle crossed through the outpost, it continued to pick up speed. A moment later, Hale identified the driver, “Sokolov!”
Having only a handful of seconds to take the shot, Hale hastily targeted Sokolov. The wily Russian ducked down as far as he could manage and still drive the truck, presenting as little target as possible. Hale fired his rifle and missed.
