Chapter 5

Several guerrilla fighters finally crawled to a place very close to the tank. Then, they suddenly lit the bottles they were holding and threw them out.

For the guerrillas, the simplest and easiest homemade weapon to deal with tanks was the Molotov cocktail!

The bottles were wrapped in rags. When the rags were lit and thrown, the bottles would smash onto the tank, breaking open and spilling gasoline, which would then ignite and burn fiercely.

Just as they were about to throw, a tank behind them noticed them, and a burst of bullets swept over.

They immediately lay down, covering their heads, but many were still hit.

Accurately throwing the bottles was not easy. Most of the bottles fell to the ground. One hit the turret, and then a fire ignited on the turret.

Success! The guerrilla fighters behind were very excited. They were looking forward to the tank crew inside quickly opening the hatch and escaping.

However, the tank continued to move backward, as if it were just playing with the burning torch.

This time, they had paid a great price, with nearly twenty people dying, and they had not even destroyed a single Soviet tank!

Two hundred meters away, the guerrilla leader, Khvajah Odiya, angrily stood up, watching the four tanks retreat calmly, still firing machine guns. He wished he could throw away the SVD rifle in his hand.

"Captain, the Soviets are running away!" one of the fighters said.

They all saw that the four Soviet tanks were about to leave the valley. After leaving, the tanks would turn back into powerful killing machines.

"There are two tanks ahead, let's go capture some prisoners!" another fighter said.

In any case, now two of the Soviet tanks were no longer moving, which was a good result.

Unfortunately, if it were to be said, these two tanks were not actually destroyed by them. There were people lying in ambush who had blown up the leading tank.

Who were those people?

They could no longer deal with the four tanks behind, but in the two abandoned tanks, one had a mechanical failure, and the tank crew was definitely still inside.

Pull out the tank crew inside! Take them back to honor our fallen comrades! A glint of madness flashed in Khvajah's eyes.

"Captain, those guerrilla fighters are heading towards 404," the gunner beside him reported to Belikov.

In the tank, there were four tank crew members. Just now, Belikov had called for support, but it would not arrive immediately. Now, these few tank crew members were at risk of being captured by the damned guerrillas at any moment.

"High-explosive shell, prepare to fire," Belikov ordered.

Now, having retreated to a sufficient distance, his tank gun no longer needed to be raised so high to reach the target, and the guerrilla fighters were within the range of his tank gun.

Let these guerrilla fighters taste the true power of a tank!

Following Belikov's order, the loader next to him inserted an OF-18 fin-stabilized high-explosive shell into the gun barrel and closed the breech.

The T-62 could carry forty shells. Normally, it only carried seventeen high-explosive shells, but now, since they were on a mission to clear out the guerrillas, most of the shells carried were high-explosive.

"Target 348, azimuth 102, elevation 15, one high-explosive shell," Belikov shouted.

At that moment, Belikov suddenly heard a peculiar sound from outside the tank turret. This sound was hidden in the roar of the engine, almost inaudible.

However, he heard it clearly. His teeth began to chatter, and a terrifying possibility filled his mind.

Another damned rocket! He knew this sound was the rocket hitting the turret. The next moment, a stream of hot metal would surge into the turret, and his vehicle would be destroyed.

He waited in fear for a second, but did not feel the intense heat.

"Full speed retreat, return to the safe zone, go to area three," Belikov, who had narrowly escaped, now cared nothing for the people in 404. His battalion had seven tanks in total, one had lost contact, and two had been destroyed. This level of damage was already very severe. Bringing these few tanks back intact would be a great achievement.

The four tanks increased their speed, exited the valley, turned around in the open area, and then fled shamefully to the rear.

Durani watched the fleeing tanks with his own eyes, wishing he could slap himself. The rocket had clearly hit the tank, so why didn't it destroy it?

He didn't know that he had forgotten to screw on the rocket's fuze.

The battle here was temporarily over. Muhamed came out from his hiding place. On the other side of the valley, Durani had not succeeded. It seemed that this subordinate needed more training.

This time, they had destroyed two Soviet tanks, which was a significant achievement.

At this moment, the guerrilla fighters had all run over. The two destroyed tanks were of great interest to them.

"God be praised, the wicked Soviets have been destroyed by our great Afghans." A cheerful voice came from behind: "I am Khvajah Odiya, the leader of this guerrilla group."

Following the voice, Muhamed saw that the person was holding a long rifle with a scope and a square hole on the stock. Muhamed knew at a glance that it was an SVD sniper rifle.

It seemed that this person had used a sniper rifle to take out a tank crew member operating the high-caliber machine gun, forcing the other tank crew members to retreat into the turret. This person had played a significant role in today's battle. Otherwise, the high-caliber machine gun would have turned the guerrilla fighters into corpses. Moreover, if the Soviets had not fled in panic, they would not have succeeded so easily.

Heroes recognize heroes. Muhamed looked at this person and said, "Yes, God be praised, our brave Afghan guerrillas are invincible! I am Muhamed Kamran, it's nice to meet you. You fought bravely just now."

"Was it just you who destroyed these two tanks?" Khvajah looked at Muhamed, who was alone, and couldn't help but ask.

"No, there was another one on the other side," Muhamed said. At that moment, Durani was running over with a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

Soon, Durani arrived, looking very guilty: "Report to the instructor, the rocket I just fired hit the enemy tank, but did not destroy it."

Instructor? Looking at Muhamed, Khvajah was curious: "May I ask where you are from, sir?"

"Pakistan, but that's a secret," Muhamed, with his special status, was not supposed to reveal his identity. However, seeing this guerrilla group, he had the idea of recruiting them. Otherwise, it would be difficult to rebuild a team with just himself and Durani. So, he revealed his identity.

"No wonder, your weapons were also transported from there, right?" Khvajah asked: "But why are there only two of you? Where are the others?"

"Yesterday, we had more than forty people," Durani said: "But today, we were attacked by the Soviets, and our base was destroyed. Only the instructor and I are left."

Attacked by the Soviets? So what? According to Muhamed's tactics, the ones who should have died were the Soviets. It must have been that a large number of Soviets came, and they were outnumbered. Khvajah quickly convinced himself.

Muhamed nodded and was about to say more when he suddenly said, "No, we need to leave quickly, or it will be too late."

"Why?" Khvajah asked.

Muhamed didn't speak, but pointed to the sky.

With so many tanks lost, the garrison in Jalalabad would be shocked. It wouldn't be long before the Mi-24 Hind helicopters, loaded with weapons, would fly over.

If they didn't run now, they would soon be dealt with by the Hinds.

It was still early in the Afghan War, and in this mountainous environment, tanks were not suitable, especially since the Soviets had made a serious mistake. Their tanks had no infantry support, which would not have been the case otherwise.

However, the Soviets would not continue to make mistakes. If the guerrillas were caught by the Hinds, they would suffer heavy casualties.

Even without the Hinds, the four fleeing tanks would bring a large group of Soviet infantry, and the guerrillas would be at a disadvantage.

"Alright, let's retreat immediately," Khvajah said.

After saying that, he looked at the distance, where his men were escorting two prisoners from the tank, one of them carrying a machine gun just removed from the turret, looking very pleased.

These fools, always doing useless things, picking up peanuts and losing watermelons, Muhamed thought to himself.

"Would you two like to retreat with us?" Khvajah asked.

Clearly, Khvajah had the same idea as Muhamed. The two people in front of him had personally destroyed four Soviet tanks, and such people were what he needed.

"Before we leave, we have some important things to do," Muhamed said.