The road march to Kabul went as planned and the enemy did not try to attack the convoy. After loading the trucks, we were prepared for our return trip to Ghazni. My company commander decided to place two BTRs at the head and two BTRs at the tail of the column and then intersperse five BTRs within the truck column. He put a BTR between every eight trucks. He had the 1st MRP serve as a reconnaissance platoon and move ten kilometers in front of the convoy. The average road speed of the convoy would be 35–40 kilometers per hour. There would be one rest stop at the end of three hours driving.

In case the enemy would attack the column with small arms, the BTRs and helicopter gunships would place maximum firepower on the enemy while the convoy moved out of the kill zone. As a variant, should the terrain permit, the BTRs would roll right over the ambush sites of the attacking enemy.

Map 38: The 7th MRC defeats an attack.

At 0730 hours on 13 December, my company commander gave the order and the convoy moved out. After 30 minutes of travel, one of our heavy-transport trucks broke down. My company commander had another transport truck link up with this vehicle and tow it right behind his command BTR at the front of the column. At 1115 hours, the lead vehicles of the main body approached the green zone near the village of Maliykhel’. As the vehicles crossed the river bridge, the enemy activated a radio-controlled, command-detonated mine which damaged the towing vehicle. The passage was blocked. At that instant, the enemy opened fire on the convoy from positions on the dominant heights.

Attempts to push the trucks off the bridge failed. The company commander decided to have his 2nd Motorized Rifle Platoon flank the bridge site through a gully. However, the enemy had mined the exit from the gully. The 2nd platoon’s lead BTR hit a mine. Attempts to extricate this BTR failed, and while they were trying, another BTR hit another mine. Taking stock of his increasingly untenable situation, the company commander ordered the 3rd Motorized Rifle Platoon to dismount and take hill 1760. This was my platoon. I maneuvered my first squad into a position where they could pin down the enemy with fire from the front. Then, I took my 2nd and 3rd squads to flank the enemy and hit him from the flank and rear. By 1145, we had successfully accomplished our mission and hill 1760 was ours.

During this time, our force continued attempts to retake the road and move the convoy to a safe place. However, due to the intense fire from “Nameless” mountain, we were unsuccessful. The approaches to the mountain were wide open and a flanking attack did not appear possible. Despite our heavy small arms and BTR fire plus the repeated gun runs by helicopter gunships on the height, we were not able to take it.

Finally, the company commander’s radio requests resulted in an additional flight of helicopter gunships. The commander decided to attack the enemy with the 1st platoon, which had originally acted as the recon platoon. At 1240 hours, the 1st platoon attacked. It was supported by fire from the machine-gun/grenade-launcher platoon and a flight of helicopter gunships. It took the hill. The convoy could now resume its march.

Frunze Commentary: This vignette shows that it is always necessary to “wargame” several variants for your subunits in the event of an enemy attack. Further, sapper subunits should always be a part of a convoy escort along with the motorized rifle force. And, again we see how good combat training of the troops leads to success in battle, regardless of how difficult the situation is.

Editor’s Commentary: The companies in this vignette and the first vignette in the chapter (#35) are from the same battalion. There is a year’s difference between the two incidents. It would seem reasonable to check for improvements and a learning curve. There appears to have some tactical improvements made in this time. The force now moves with a reconnaissance force forward and with more responsive air cover. But, the commander still rides in the lead vehicle, bridges are not checked for mines, and likely ambush sites are not probed by dismounted forces. Broken-down convoy vehicles are still towed at the front of the column right behind the command vehicle. There is no apparent attempt to control dominant terrain or check it before the convoy’s advance. There is no discussion of using air assault forces to leapfrog from one dominant height to the next to cover the convoy’s movement. Apparently, not all the lessons on convoy escort had been learned.

This chapter started out by saying that the mujahideen attacked convoys with mines during the early stage of the war and, as the war progressed, they began to conduct full-scale attacks on convoys. All these examples are from 1981 or 1982 – the early stage of the war – and yet the mujahideen seem well advanced in convoy attack by this point. In these vignettes, however, the Soviets are not taking steps that are standard in western armies. There seems to be no road-opening force on these routes. Evidently, there are no “bait-and-hunt” decoy convoys. Rapid reaction forces supporting the convoy escorts are not apparent. There is no evidence of any planning to use airmobile forces on likely guerrilla escape routes. Artillery fire support planning also seems absent. These examples fail to show map and terrain work to identify choke points, kill zones and ambush sites in advance. Reconnaissance forces seem road-bound. The effort appears passive and reactive.

Next: Chapter 6: Conducting Ambushes

Footnotes

1. V. I. Rovba served in the OKSVA from 1981 to 1983 as the platoon leader of a motorized rifle platoon. He was awarded the medal “For Bravery”. [return]

2. The 9th MRC, 3rd Battalion, 191st Separate Motorized Rifle Regiment (ed.). [return]

3. The R-142 radio system is actually an R-130 shortwave radio, two R-111 medium-range FM radios and one R-123 short-range FM radio mounted on a GAZ-66 truck. The R-142 can communicate over distance and with helicopter aviation (ed.). [return]

4. A. M. Portnov served in the OKSVA from 1979 through 1982 as the assistant company commander of an air assault company and then as the company commander of an air assault company. He was awarded the “Order of the Red Star” and the medal “For Military Valor”. [return]

5. Both cities bordered the Soviet Union and cotton was one of the commodities with which the Afghan government paid the Soviet government for their aid. Afghan export of cotton to the Soviet Union started with an agreement in the 1930s in exchange for Soviet gasoline and manufactured goods. Cotton was only a small part of Afghan exports to pay for Soviet arms. Natural gas, uranium, precious stones, fruit, and other resources were also sent north (ed.). [return]

6. BMD or boevaya mashina desanta is an air-droppable, armored personnel carrier that carries up to nine men (usually a maximum of seven). It has the same turret as the BMP, so the BMD-1 has the 73mm cannon of the BMP-1, while the BMD-2 has the 30mm chain gun of the BMP-2. They both mount three 7.62mm machine guns. They were widely used by Soviet airborne and air assault forces (ed.). [return]

7. The Russian here is fugas, similar to the western word fougasse. The Russian term means a large explosive charge buried in the ground and covered with rocks and debris. The western term describes a flame weapon that is a buried 55-gallon drum of thickened gasoline with a propelling explosive charge at the base (ed.). [return]

8. A. A. Agzamov served in the OKSVA from 1981 through 1983 as the commander of a reconnaissance group of a reconnaissance company. He was awarded the “Order of the Red Star”. [return]