[ambrafoxtrot]

Part 9 Armageddon in Brooksville (subpart 2)

January 2000 Central Florida USA late afternoon

Able Seaman Raymond Hubbard cursed at the smoke clouds hovering around the “battlefield”; they prevented him from aiming with precision at the charging crowd. Hubbard’s idea was to put down the armed thugs who were directing the mass of desperate people right into the CARABINIERI containment line.

In front of the seals nest, two stories below, in the street, Brigadier Dalmazia was doing his best to encourage his troops; not an easy task: Dalmazia looked at the charging crowd, some 100 more yards away, and estimated that each squad of his antiriot troops would have to deal with no less than 40 people. He saw someone was carrying melee or improvised melee weapons, which could potentially be lethal tools in an out of control confrontation. Dalmazia also saw some people armed with handguns, which made the situation completely unpredictable. He didn’t understand why nobody was shooting at that crazy mass of people yet. He glanced at the first rank of his platoon and understood that his men were having very similar thoughts. Fear was clearly visible in the eyes of the CARABINIERI, behind their anti riot visors. “Platoooooon… Brace for impact…raise your shields prepare to disperse the crowd”. Dalmazia shouted orders to his platoon hoping somehow that he could retain any control after the crowd hit his men. He was not convinced he could.

“Cobra…qui e’ Alpha Bravo 205... informativo...la folla carica la linea principale, passo”
“Alpha…Roger passo”
Lieutenant Luigi Camagna informed Cantatore from his helicopter that the crowd was charging the containment line.

State trooper Galdrom, immediately saw that the situation was not going to lead to anything good, and started to feed an ammo belt in his Italian lent MG 42/59, while Sheriff Rogers was busy readying his radio set. “

At the same time, completely unnoticed north of Brooksville, a unit of horse mounted soldiers was approaching town. Two men riding in front were observing with binoculars. One of them was Chief Petty Officer William Ralston, and the other one was a Lieutenant Colonel of the National Guard. A Sergeant rode besides the two, with the unit radio set . The cavalry units dismounted just about near the first buildings and formed a defense perimeter, while Ralston and the brass, decided how to proceed.

Despite the scarce visibility and intermittent smoke obscuring his LOS, Hubbard tried to fix his aim on one of the armed thugs running alongside the mass of charging people, a metal jacked 7.62x51 bullet already chambered in the feeder of his M-21. Hubbard held his breath and gently squeezed the trigger. The familiar push of the recoil of the heavy rifle reverberated all along his prone body; almost a comforting feeling. The only thing Hubbard didn’t like was the outcome: the head of a teenager right to the left of the thug he aimed at exploded in a burst of red and whitish liquid, while his intended target was still running.
“Godd&#*it” Hubbard, cursed out loud without even realizing it.

At the same time Cantatore slipped out of the Thai Restaurant building he was using as a command post, in order to run towards the action. He dragged with him his portable radio and his only weapon: a Beretta 92SB…in America known as M-9.

Galdrom and Rogers were finally ready to join combat if necessary. Their MG nest was placed on the left flank of the containment line at a 90 degree angle with it: was the crowd to overwhelm the containment line, they could shoot in its main body, and hopefully bottle up its impetus. Then Rogers saw a figure in the crowd going down in a pool of blood and several people stopping around it, some people fell down trying to take cover. Other people tripped on the ones that suddenly stopped causing considerable confusion in the mass.

Hubbard’s M-21 barked again multiple times, the crazy crowd being now at less than 100 yards. This time the Seals Sniper did better, and one of the armed agitators had her left leg almost cut in two parts as two bullet went through it, crushing muscles and bones. A third bullet through the chest put an immediate end to her misery. On the negative side, another stray bullet maimed an unarmed man arm. He stopped on his tracks before looking at his stump and was immediately stampeded by who followed. This second carnage scene discouraged the crowd; everybody tried to take cover as best as they could. Hubbard ceased fire and swiftly and efficiently went back to an aiming stance.

Despite Ralston objections, Lt. Colonel Bell decided against warning the Italians of the presence of his unit. The occasion to take them by surprise and conquering Brooksville in the middle of the Ariete Brigade salient was too tempting not to be taken into consideration. Ralston, whose seals team was still technically surrounded by Italian troops, had to come to terms with Bell’s orders, and an assault team of the 274th NG Brigade started to move from building to building after having left a small detachment to guard their mounts outside the city “walls”: tactical objective, the Italian hospital site downtown.
Once more…Ralston tried to convince his superior that the Italians were engaged in trying to stop the rampage of refugees from Tampa and Petersburg and that it would have been advantageous for both party to unite forces, but Bell didn’t want to listen. He would not be accused of cooperation with the enemy period. His troops would take the town and deal with the refugees from their new conquered positions.

“Sir my team is still fighting with the Italians on the southern side. When they realize what we are doing they might attack and kill my men”.
“Your men ain’t that easy to kill chief. We take control of downtown…then all the dagos surrender and we mop up whatever is left of the crowd.
“Sir you don’t understand…I”
“It’s you that don’t understand Ralston…I have the occasion to disrupt the supply of the Italian expedition force right here, right now…we take this town…all they have left from here to Orlando is permanently cut off…”

Ralston stared at Bell not particularly impressed.

“You have your orders Chief Petty Officer”
“Aye Sir”…Ralston retorted, and carried out with the preparation of the movement.

On south side, Sheriff Rogers looked horrified at the scene in front of him: civilians all over the place trying to crawl in cover somewhere, women screaming trying to cover their children with their bodies; the CARABINIERI helicopter sweeping over the scene with its unbearable noise; the omnipresent smoke all around; several people down in pools of blood, motionless: all the nightmares a cop could ever imagine, bundled in single view. Desperate with mounting frustration, Rogers grabbed his megaphone once again:
“Attention people, please stay down I am going to try and summon some rescue for the injured…we need you to cease any aggressive action and to stay in place…no rescuing effort could be initiated if you do not cooperate…Attention people, please……”

-Comment by one of the players to the Game Master-:
Poor fuc*&ng Rogers…he still thinks is working in his prewar little cute town. I would tell him where to stick his damn bullhorn.

Lieutenant Brusi was on sentry duty inside the building that the CARABINIERI were using as their field hospital. Inside, lieutenant medic Farro, with the tireless help of Kate Bates, a local American nurse, was taking care of various injured people and several dying ones from the previous clashes.
Brusi was scanning the area directly in front of the building when he noticed several figures approaching, moving from cover to cover. The newcomers wore American uniforms and they did not seem to have seen him in cover behind the window.
Brusi did not hesitate…he alarmed the personnel in the building and opened up on the advancing men outside with his AR-70 assault rifle. One of the assailers went down while others managed to take cover behind a building on the right. The response from the Americans was instantaneous; from concealed positions, a series of muzzle flashes appeared and several bullets hit the wall and the window he was hiding behind. Brusi was just extremely lucky not to be hit. Instinctively he slipped in cover behind the wall, panting and cursing and hoped that the Americans didn’t have a LAW. “Too many of them” was Brusi’s next thought.

Screams of panic continued to hail from the mob, most of it now prone crawling away from the road. Hubbard inspecting the situation through his scope could clearly see some armed people; he even spotted several military rifles. Many people were now pinned down and showed reluctance to resume the charge. Hubbard found himself thinking it could not last forever.

Chief Ralston managed to slip through the defensive fire and to reach the external wall of the hospital building; he stuck to it and brought his MP-5 sub machinegun online aiming at the window from where the hostile was shooting. He quickly pointed his finger at a position behind him alongside the same wall and two more American began their rush from the position they occupied. The hostile appeared for a second just to direct a long burst at the assailers, and Ralston quickly double tap the window…no hope to hit the target from that position – the plan was to disturb him enough though. Master Sergeant Fiedler and Lt. Colonel Bell himself zig zagged through the bullets hail and managed to get in position behind the navy seal. At this point, Ralston thought, it was matter of storming the building. Close quarter combat.

Lieutenant Brusi realized that his resistance efforts were doomed; with only eight rounds in his AR 70 magazine and the American fire team behind the door, his choices were to be a dead hero or living prisoner. Dead hero, he thought, was good for the movies, so he limited himself to shout to medic Lieutenant Farro that the hospital was under attack by American troops, and that they probably didn’t stand a chance.

Farro was tending at some wounded when he heard the firefight that was happening outside. At first he thought that the crowd of refugees had overwhelmed the defenses, but when Lieutenant Brusi informed him that a commando of American troops was assaulting the building, he realized that he had to pass the information that the hospital was under attack by American troops. He grabbed the radio that he kept always close to him, and got on the tac net:

“Qui e’ November Hotel…a tutti. L’ospedale e’ sotto attacco di truppe americane ...ripeto...sotto attacco di truppe americane...resistenza non possibile...mandate rinforzi...passo”.

For Petty Officer Talbot and Sheriff Rogers this transmission got lost in the foreign language chatter that had been going on the Tac frequency since the beginning of the action…but for all the Italians leaders involved in the battle, it meant much more than that. Besides, Rogers was too busy trying to convince the crowd to drop their weapons and surrender to be able to even listen to his radio.

Roger’s efforts were only partially rewarded, as part of the crowd listened to his pledge, but a second group did not, and resumed its charge against the CARABINIERI antiriot line which guarded the access to town.

Lario was taken by complete surprise by the news that the hospital was under attack. In a fraction of a second, images of the wounded, caught in a firefight danced in his mind, not to mention that the defense of the hospital was almost no existent. What kind of bastard could give an order to attack a hospital? Lario didn’t hear any answer yet on the net following Farro’s communication that the building was under attack, but he assumed that an order to relieve the hospital would come soon.

Suddenly he remmbered that Kate Bates was in the hospital as well.

“Davide…put the vehicle in motion and let’s rush to the hospital”…Lario ordered to private Goia
“What do you mean Sergeant? Our orders are to stay here as a tactical reserve for the containment line”
“Forget it…I am giving you a direct order…Drive to the fuc*^ing hospital!”
“Sergeant…you are going to get me in trouble…I…”
“Move this vehicle…Now” Lario expression did not admit more reluctance on Goia’s part.

Ralston moved along the wall of the hospital building, MP-5 stock against his shoulder, ready to drop whoever would appear in his path. The National Guard Assault team was right behind him. He quickly checked the main door, and realized that was locked and barred with furniture and other heavy objects. Without moving his cheek from his gun, he yelled to the occupants of the building:

“Surrender and come out with your hands up…we have control of downtown Brooksville. You are completely surrounded. Surrender immediately so that we can avoid any trouble for your wounded and for our civilians in the building”.

Cantatore could not believe to what he heard. Who in the hell did attack his unit in the back. Farro clearly talked about American regular troops, so the only answer could be Ralston and whoever he managed to summon to come help the CARABINIERI.

“Nice help indeed” thought Cantatore while he was walking to join the containment line. He brought the mike to his mouth, his adrenaline surging at the view of the mob charging now at less than 50 yards from his men:

“November Hotel, this is Cobra: defend the hospital, but do not…repeat do not put civilian or patient lives at risk. You have permission to surrender as soon as that risk become real…I’ll try to send you some reinforcements, but I can’t guarantee it…over”

“Roger that Cobra…out” Farro rushed down to the first floor of the hospital, where Brusi had taken cover behind the reception desk of the hospital hall.

“Luca…the orders are not to put civilian lives at risk…I suggest we surrender the building to the Americans”

His peer was not sure about what to do…but he was down to eight bullets in the AR-70 magazine, and he and the Medic officer would be reduced to their 92s once he went winchester with the assault rifle. Moreover they did not know how many attackers they were facing.
He gave a prolonged stare at Lieutenant Farro, and came to his decision…”ok…let’s do it”.

continues...

Picure #1 Able Seaman Raymond Hubbard Zeroing his M-21 before the action
Picture#2 One of the VM-90s of 17th CARABINIERI coy.
Picture#3 Medic Lieutenant Giuseppe Frigerio in a prewar picture