Chasing Shadows

CHAPTER SIX

  CROSSING BORDERS

  Michael was once again called into the Commanders office along with the camp Intelligence officer and briefed on a secret patrol he was about to lead into enemy territory. His team had been chosen for a long mission that would take them into North Vietnam. Where they were to stay hidden and undetected for several months. Under no circumstance were they to cross over into China, unless ordered to by the high command in Saigon.

  They were to operate independent of any of the other units and were to roam freely in search of high-ranking officers. Who were to be snatched for interrogation either within the North, or they were to be transported South and interrogated back at a new base camp near the border. They were to live off the land and were accountable to no one. However, if they were caught, then the South as was usual with this sort of infiltration, would deny their existence. This time they would really be on their own.

  Within a couple of days Michael had prepared and kitted out his team for a long stake out. The next day they were taken by helicopter to a position close to the border, where they crossed over on foot. For the moment Michael only had a loose plan of action in his head. He intended walking around for about a week and to see what they came up against.

  However, he did not have to wait long for the action to take place. On the third day in to North they walked onto a group of Vietcong encamped by a track and a fire fight broke out. None of Michaels team were injured, but it certainly caught them by surprise. Luckily they beat a hastily retreat leaving two enemy dead behind them. The only problem Michael worried about was the fact that they had left a calling card. By now the whole of the North would know they were in the area and would indeed be looking for them from now on.

  To get away from them Michael wanted to cut a new track, but was aware that they would never find the people they were looking on a new track. Most of the Vietcong camps were usually beside existing tracks that gave them very easy access heading North or South. Michael was carrying up to date maps of the areas that they intended to patrol. However, they had very little detail of the known military camps. The North Vietnamese army were well aware that if they stayed in one area to long they would not only become targets from the air, but also from the ground. So because of these reasons they moved their camps around on a regular basis.

  Michael knew that this mission was long term, and so they did not have to blunder in like a bull in the preverbal china shop. They could select their targets as they thought fit. He had made the suggestion that instead of having to enter a highly fortified camp to grab an officer. It would be much easier for them to grab one from the occasional small convoy that regularly drove the main tracks. The only problem was in trying to find these tracks, so that they could keep them under surveillance.

  The Vietcong were masters of disguise in their use and construction of these tracks. Half the time they were not visible from the air. During the daytime they looked like old unused tracks, but at night they became super highways and were used by thousands of military personnel, usually heading South. At other times they would cut out false tracks miles away from the real one, so that when the Americans bomb what they thought was a super highway it was in fact just plain old un-used track.

  They were carrying a radio and reported back on a regular basis. However, to confuse the enemy they would broadcast at different times of the day and from different locations that were usually a few miles away from their exact position. In this way they hoped that they could confuse the enemy. At least they were getting regular reports back to headquarters. It also meant that headquarters had a rough idea of where they were. Michael was never to keen to give exact positions, because he did not trust headquarters. Being in Saigon there was always a chance of spies working within.

  On the occasions that they found the odd supply depot that littered these super highways. Michael and his team would retreated to a safe distance away. They would radio in its position so that aircraft could bomb the area.

  They were now about two hundred kilomters inside the North, so they set up a very small but highly mobile camp in an area that they thought would serve their purpose and yield results. This far into the North they were hoping that the enemy would drop its guard a little, thinking they were safe within their own borders.

  This is exactly what happened one morning while Michael and his team were lying in wait beside a track. A small group of regular soldiers numbering only about twelve approached from the North. With all of his men in position for an ambush and with Michael lying on the Northern end of the track, he made the decision to take them out. All of his men were connected to each other by very thin jungle vines Michael gave his two tugs that was the prearranged signal to a plan they had rehearsed a couple of days earlier. The recipient on the other end passed on the two-tug message to the next guy and so on until they all knew what to do. It had been planned to take out everybody except the officer who would be identified by his uniform. The hardest thing would be for the guy who has to identify the officer and try to only lightly wound him. This would have to be done because if left un hurt he would no doubt try and return fire in some way, or worse run away. While the last thing Michael wanted was to have one of his own men down.

  The enemy walked slowly into the ambush position and was triggered by the man laying furthest South as he opened fire, hoping the maximum amount of enemy were within the trap. Just like in their training it was all over within a couple of seconds. All that lay in front of Michael and his team were eleven dead Vietnamese regular soldiers and one officer that had a leg wound. This had been enough to drop him to the ground in a great deal of pain.

  The team waited for five minutes to elapse before moving forward just in case a larger force of enemy had been close behind them. Once confident that they were alone the team moved out of the jungle in a well rehearsed manner that saw Michael and Don grab the officer while the other men went through all of the dead. Looking for maps or any other information that might be of use to them. However, they were all clean. It was well known that the Officers did not trust their men to know anymore than was necessary. The dead were dragged into the jungle and covered up, all signs of the attack were hopefully disguised and camouflaged so that the enemy would not know what had happened. Although after a few day when the bodies started to decompose they might be discovered, but by then Michaels team would be long gone from the area. The officer was indeed the man carrying what they needed and they all beat a hastily but orderly retreat, back into the jungle and away to safety.

  They marched for half an hour along a track that they had cut to lay the ambush and then stopped while the prisoners wound was dressed. He was not in to bad of condition, as the bullet had passed right through his leg so it was just a matter of plugging up the holes with a first field dressing. Then they continued their march. Only now they were cutting a new track and in a different direction. They were hopefully covering up all the signs that lay behind them in such a way, that whoever was sent to follow them would be put off the scent. While Michael was also gambling on the idea that they might not be missed for a couple of days.

  After a three hour march they decided to make camp for the night. It had been tiring for them as the wounded officer had been carried most of the way.

  As they set about making the area safe, Don and Hoi proceeded to interrogate the Vietnamese office. It soon became plain that on the paper information that he was carrying, this guy was a top officer. If he wasn't then the information that he was carrying was of very high intelligence value, especially to the South.

  The information concerning the snatch was relayed back to headquarters and arrangements were made to get the officer out of the jungle and back where he could be gone over by experts. The next morning they struck camp early and headed for a ridge that stood out high above the jungle about two kilometers to the East of their position. An area they hoped to arrive at by about midday. They needed a large clearing but in the jungle these are hard to find unles
s you are near a village or small town. So the next best thing for what they had in mind was the ridge.

  Just after midday Don and Geordie along with one of the Nards who had gone on ahead reached the objective and watched the skies for a Hercules aircraft. Only just getting there in time, almost on cue the aircraft appeared and made a pass over them. Coded messages were sent via the radio and the plane wiggled its wings in acknowledgement. It then went round one more time and commenced a low level run just skimming the treetops. Just before it reached their position a large bundle was kicked out of the lowered ramp at the back. The bundle crashed through the trees and bounced a couple of times, but to the delight of the guys on the ground it was almost on target. The last thing they wanted to do was to go looking for it. As it would have been too time consuming for what they had in mind.

  Once the bundle was unpacked it was plain to see that it was what is known as an extraction harness. This is a method that the Americans had perfected to retrieve people up from the ground without the aircraft having to land. It was for this reason that they required a large clearing. Luckily the ridge they had chosen was even better. This way the aircraft did not have to fly so low to the ground and that being on a ridge the team would be able to see if any unwelcome visitors were approaching them.

  The Vietnamese officer was looking very scared and wondering what they intended doing with him. He as fitted in to the harness while other members of the team cut down a few of the trees making a little clearing. Someone inflated a balloon and it was allowed to float upwards with a rope attached, while the other end was attached to the prisoners harness. The Hercules completed another low pass over them again. Only this time he aimed a V shaped frame fixed to the outside of the plane just below the cockpit. At the line hanging below the balloon and the ground. Michael and his men moved away from the officer who by now must have had a little idea of what awaited him, because he started to struggle. Don and Geordie ran back to him and threatened him with their guns. However, it did not seem to calm the man down. By this time he had probable decided that he was going to die anyway. It did not seem to matter to him in what way it happened. Then suddenly the aircraft was right overhead and the sound from its engines was deafening.

  One minute the Vietnamese officer was sitting on the ground and the next minute he was gone, plucked up from the ground at a terrifying speed. He could then be seen in the sky speeding along behind the aircraft. While the air crew were about to winch him on board. If he was screaming there was no way that they heard him, because of the noise of the aircraft. All Michael could say was "If he was scared when we captured him, he dreaded to think how he felt right now." Geordie adding "After that flight he would be squealing like a pig in the interrogation room." "No softening up need there," added Don.

  Michael had no idea how or if he would talk, not having witness an interrogation session. However, he was aware of rumours going round that some had been thrown from a chopper in order that others might talk. Any normal time and one would be a little repulsed at that treatment, until you are reminded of how your own friends had been treated if captured by the enemy.

  The team watched as slowly the officer was winched into the aircraft as it disappeared over the next range of hills. With the mission completed they had to get off the ridge as quickly as possible. The aircraft would have alerted every enemy camp within a fifty kilometre radius and all of them would now be heading their way. Sitting on top and in the open they would just be sitting ducks. Michael decided that it would not be a bad idea to move to another area and as far away as possible.

  However, in their haste they had decided to use their own track and that was to be their down fall. Within an hour they were ambushed themselves. One of the Americans and one of the Nards up front were shot. Lucky for the rest of the group they had not walked in to the firing zone. They turned around and fled back the way they had come as fast as they could. It was no good going back to see if they were still alive. If in fact they had only been wounded then by now they would have been shot a second time, so now they would be dead. At least that was what Michael and his team were hoping. To be taken prisoner was just the same as being dead. They would not have been able to fight their way back to the bodies. They had no idea of the size of the force that had attacked them and also they had no idea where they were positioned and from where the firing came from.

  Ten minutes later and they turned off the track to cut a fresh one, while at the same time they tried to cover their tracks at the place where they changed directions. They did not stop until about an hour before darkness when they secured a small area where they intended to spend the night.

  Their little band was now down to six men and they had only been in the North for about a month. From now on there would be no taking chances even if it slowed them up.

  They moved into a completely different area some three hundred kilometers in land but over towards the central mountains. Where they scored a number of successful hits. In the course of six weeks they captured over fifteen enemy officers. However, not all were of use to them. After being interrogated on the spot they were just tied up and left where they would eventually be found. A couple were killed being badly wounded by mistake and three more were successfully extracted from the jungle. The information that they gained turned out to be of very high quality. The mission was so successful that the Americans adopted this method of gaining information by using other teams in Cambodia and Laos.

  The only thing that was against them was that every time they used a radio their position was compromised. It also became a priority of the North Vietnamese Army to try and catch these teams who they knew were operating within their country. At times when they were extracting prisoners from out of the jungle they were at their most vulnerable. These were the times when they needed a better planning system to escape the enemy. The use of smoke canisters to give the pilots a wind direction was banned. Instead a long strip of white cloth that was pointed at one end was used. So at least the enemy on the ground could not see where they were until the plane grabbed its cargo at the last minute.

  Something else that was always a dead giveaway was when they needed to be supplied from the air. Food was no problem because the Nards scouts saw to it that they ate quite well and did not want for anything. Most amazedly not one member of the team smoked so nobody needed a supply of cigarettes. The big problem was with their weapons and ammunition. So Michael decided that they would start to use where possible as much of the enemies hardware that they could lay their hands on. So that whenever they were getting short or low on something, then they would lay an ambush in order to replenish their stocks. The only problem with this idea was the fact that the enemy was very limited in the arsenal that they carried. Plus it was drastically out of date to what they had been used to. However, Michael had learnt while in the British military how some of the older weapons went together and worked. One of the tests was to do it blindfolded. Just like the instructor had told him one day that knowledge would save his life. Being old did not really matter it was still lethal in the right hands. It would just be that little bit more deadly in the skilled hands of his depleted team.

  The team's survival had been amazing so far, apart from the loss of two of its members during that first extraction. The team had come through completely unscathed. The dangerous nature of the mission and its work that they were undertaking, always pointer to a higher fatality rate amongst the teams. However, it was accepted by headquarters who did their best to cover up the true death rate of the teams. Not wanting to have this work stopped from higher up. However, so far Michael had been very lucky and had not had a single accident. Michael put this down to good planning and of being very cautious in whatever they under took.

  However, their luck was about to desert them once again, and it was to be very cruel when it happened. After safely evading capture for over five months they were ordered to make their way back into South Vietnam. Where choppers would be waiting to take th
em back to their base camp. This meant that they would have to march a distance of around two hundred and fifty torturous kilomters to the border. At times through some of the world's most thickest and dangerous jungle. That would be full of Vietcong all looking out for them every step of the journey.

  Whether it was the thought that they were going home that let them drop their guard nobody will ever know. When they were within forty miles of the border they came upon a village. Being late in the afternoon and feeling tired they just walked straight in while in single file. It was a silly thing to do, but hindsight is a wonderful tool. So many times during their mission they had taken up defensive positions while just two members went in to check the place out. For some reason they were very slack and let their guard down at the worst possible time.

  They were met by a hail of bullets that cut down half of the team in the first volley. Michael was at the rear with Hoi and managed to dive in to the jungle escaping the deadly accurate fire that was being pumped in to his men. Between the two of them they returned fire in to the direction from where they had seen the flashes of gunfire being aimed at them. Keeping their intense amount of firepower up until it was becoming obvious that they were about to run out of ammunition. While the returning fire towards them had by this time ceased.

  Michael signalled to Hoi to circle around from the right and that he would go round from the left. As they went from hut to hut it was plain to see that the enemy that had hit them had by this time disappeared. It had been a hit and run exercise and he knew that he could expect another visit further up the track. By now the enemy had worked out that they were making their way towards the border. Because they did not know Michaels strength they had decided against a head on assault. This had been the only thing that had saved them.

  Once the village was secure they checked over the other members of the team. The other Nard who had entered the village first had been killed instantly so had Geordie who had been walking behind him. Chuck one of the American was still alive but was in a bad way losing a lot of blood, as he had taken two hits to the stomach. It was almost impossible to plug up the holes to stop the bleeding. Chuck also knew the rules of the game he was an old campaigner from way back. He knew that the team could not carry him out and that he would die right there where he lay. He pleaded with Michael to finish him off and not to let him fall into the hands of the enemy that had attacked them. Michael tore off his shirt and tried his best to stop the bleeding. He then beckoned to the Nard to hold the rag over the wound while he checked out Dan the other American. To his amazement he was by now trying to get up on his own accord, having only taking a shot through his thigh. He was in severe pain but at least he was not too bad. Michael got him to lie down and stuck a morphine needle into his leg hoping to dull the pain. Dan knew what was going on and was holding a coherent conversation with Michael about what had happened. According to Dan once that first shot hit him he had blacked out with the pain and crumpled into a heap on the ground. The enemy must have thought he was dead, so tying to conserve their ammunition they had concentrated their fire in to other areas. Michael went on to explain the condition that Chuck his buddy was in. And that there was not much they could do for him. They certainly could not carry him and the radio had been shot to piece when he had been cut down by almost a dozen bullets. So there was no chance of trying to get a chopper in this far to pick them up. Even if Michael tried to walk out for help it would be two or three days before he'd make it back. And by his reckoning the enemy was going to be laying in wait for them once again as they neared the border.

  Michael along with a Nard took a look around the village seeing if there was anything of use to them. In a hut they found two Vietnamese dead soldiers. So they took the ammunition that fitted the Chinese made assault rifles that they were carrying. They also stripped their own dead of identification and anything that would be of use to the enemy. As they were about to cover over their dead with a piece of old cloth taken from a hut a single shot rang out. Both men swung round in a ready to fire position to be confronted by Dan who had just put his old buddy out of his misery and laid him at peace to the world. He had fired a single pistol shot into the side of his head while at the same time he had held his hand.

  Michael said nothing there was no point he knew that if Dan had not done it, then it was more than likely that he would have to do it. They had to move on now very quickly as it was by now almost dark. They would not have been able to take Chuck with them and they could not have left him alive. The Nard went first followed by Michael with Dan's arm around his neck and his wounded leg closes to his. Michael was trying to walk as quickly as was possible while Dan did his best to hobble along.

  Another problem rose its ugly head, when Michael walked onto a sharp bamboo shoot that had been sliced off by a machete. It was as sharp as a razor and cut deep into the calf muscle of his left leg, opening up a large wound. Strapping it up with one of his shirt sleeves Michael did the best to stop the bleeding. At all costs they had to keep going.

  They took cover only about twenty minutes in to the jungle because by now it was almost black. The idea was to rest up for the night and to hope that Dan would be fit to continue in the morning. If he deteriorated badly in the night and could not carry on, well he knew what awaited him in the morning.

  In the morning Dan was found to be in not too bad a shape and that he felt he could get by himself, if they could make him a crutch so that it would assist him to walk. However, Michael was the bearer of more grave news. What had been only a forty-mile hike yesterday, had now turned into a journey that could be twice that distance. The radio had been shot to pieces, so now they would not be able to radio for the choppers once they were inside the South. Now they would have to walk to wherever they thought friendly forces might be. On the maps that Michael was carrying there were no such positions marked, just in case the map fell in to enemy hands.

  Michael was also worried about the wound on his leg that had not sealed up and was still bleeding, and the pain was getting worse. Although he made up his mind that he would keep it to himself.

  The journey was very slow mainly to help Dan who was doing a great job in trying to keep up. At all times they had to be on the defensive and to watch out for the signs that they were about to be attacked. The enemy would have returned to the village by now and checked out what had happened the night before. They would have realised that there was still a couple of them alive and that they were heading for the border. Not that a border would stop these guys from catching their prey, as it certainly hadn't in the past.

  It took them nearly a week to make it out, which was quite a feat considering the state that Dan was in, but he was getting weaker by the day. It was also amazing that they did not get hit by an enemy ambush. Either they had done a good job in covering their tracks or that the enemy had just given up the chase. Either way it did not matter so much as at least they had made it across the border. Now it was a case of trying to find the nearest friendly Southern camp that was in that area. That was not going to be an easy task as none of them had a clue which way to go. Michael hit on his usual belief that all rivers lead towards the sea. So instead of walking why not build a raft and just enjoy a ride down to the coast. Dan was the first to agree as he felt his walking days were just about over, from here on he was going to need a ride of some description. Secretly Michael felt the same way, as by now the wound on his leg was getting worse. The pain was becoming unbearable and a lot of dirt was now infecting the wound.

  Michael and Hoi set about felling a few of the larger bamboo stems while Dan was allowed to rest up. It took them the best part of a day to finish off the construction of the raft that was all tied together by vines. Then it was a good night's sleep for an early start in the morning.

  They pushed off at first light heading in what they thought was the general direction of the sea. Gently trying to push the raft along using two large bamboo poles that Michael and Hoi were using. Dan was sitting at
the back in control of a small wooden rudder that they had added to assist in its guidance. It was slow going and at times back breaking work. The river at this point was very narrow and littered by large boulders. Michael was also worried about the possibility of slowly drifting past an enemy camp unannounced and did not want to contemplate its repercussions if it were to happen. However, their luck held for the first two days and they all turned out to be uneventful.

  By the third day the river had became a lot wider and deeper. Because of the greater volume of water it was now easier to handle and control, and they did not need to push it along with the poles. So they sat back and took it a little more easily, this was the first time that they had relaxed for over a week. Michael had no idea where they were, other than to say that they were now halfway across the country and heading in a South easterly direction towards what he hoped would be the South China Sea and friendly faces.

  It was now that the other members of the team realised that Michaels wound was severely infected and was looking very black. However, Michael tried his best to brush their concerns off, by jokingly adding that it was "Just a flesh wound." "Nothing to be concerned about." Although he knew different, having realised that if he did not get help soon he might possibly lose the leg.

  Around midday the raft made its way around large bend in the river Michael noticed that the birds were not singing anymore and that there was a deafening quiet in the jungle. He motioned to Hoi that something was wrong, but before they had time to react to the situation, a volley of shots hit the raft. Michael went straight over the side but managed to keep a hold of a vine that was dangling in the water. As Hoi jumped up a hail of bullets struck him several times all over his body. Dan had been the easiest of targets, not being able to move because of his by now badly infected leg wound. It was all over in a few seconds and a calm settled on the area as the raft gently stuck front first into the bank just in front of the ambush position. The whole area was bathed in smoke and smelt of cordite as Michael raised his head slowly out of the water to see what had happened.

  To his surprise he was looking up into the barrel of a rifle that was in the hands of and Asian looking uniformed guy. His first reaction was that the Vietcong had ambushed him and that he was now their prisoner. However, as he looked around he saw more of the unit that had carried out the ambush. They were South Vietnamese troops that had mistakenly opened fired on him and his group. They had just seen the Nard on the raft and thought that they were part of a Northern unit that was operating in the area. Michael was relieved in one sense that he had made contact with a Southern unit. Although devastated and bitterly disappointed to have just lost two of his best friends to what had turned out to be friendly troops. He was so devastated that he could only sit there on the bank with his head cupped in his hands for a few moments. For once in his life he offered a prayer not for his own safety but to the loyal men he had just lost.

  He was flown out of the area by chopper all on his own, the bodies of his two dead comrades would follow in another chopper. As he watched the jungle go by he could see pictures of all his friends that he had lost passing in front of him. As each one past they turned to look at him and just nodded their heads in recognition. They had all been good soldiers and deserved a better end than this. All he could do was to make the promise to himself that he would keep their names and memories etched within his head forever.