The Story

The following is a diary of a Soviet "Sky Trooper" in World War III.

     It's dark now, so I'll write. I am baby sitting a bridge right now with some "aquired" allied M60. There are only seven of us here on the bridge. Our airborne unit was sliced in two when an American armor group rolled through and blew up half the town. We killed about a third of the American infantry and destroyed all of their tanks. I have heard here that they call their sky troopers paratroopers. That's who I'm fighting right now. An entire brigade of us jumped into a small town called Caruthersville. It's in the American province of Missouri. We secured the town with no problems. We had no armor but plenty of supplies. The town was taken too easily. However, we couldn't have know. We were so brain washed about how poor the American army was at fighting. We heard stories about how quickly the Americans were pushed off the continent of Europe. My brother died in Poland in an ambush last month. Pushed off the continent aye? Just propaganda. They would do better to tell us what we are getting into. Anyway, an allied armor unit rolled across the bridge spanning the Mississippi. The Mississippi is an ugly river, not nearly as beautiful as the Volga. There were five Abrams and some anti-air vehicles. The rest was infantry which came in on trucks and in Bradley's. There were about three hundred of them not including the airborne drops. Now, Caruthersville is about the size of a match box. The commissar pilfered the town records and found that the population is three thousand. It is a very rural town. The tanks and these soldiers that fought like spetznaz called Rangers ripped the town in two, twice. There were nine hundred of us and a stubborn civilian population and no favorable buildings for urban combat. The fighting lasted for three days before things stabilized. 

     Even as I sit here with the town to my back I hear the muffled rattle of machine guns, American machine guns. You can tell because of the rate of fire. We lost most of our troops. There are about four hundred of us left. They came in the night and split the town and our forces in two horizontally. We held them until dawn with machine guns and RPGs. We dug holes 100m apart in the corn fields around the town to prevent flanking. We radioed in and they dropped in twenty spetznaz and seventy sky troopers. They went strait down town and suffered 2/3 casualties, but killed two tanks and some infantry splitting the Americans at the core. They diffused into less defended soviet positions and many of us were killed in the vicious fire fights which arose. At dawn we were greeted by four Cargo planes flying overhead in the Dark blue sky. The cargo was two airborne companies and four tanks. One hundred and eighty men and four tanks did a sweeping move through the town picking up fragments of remaining companies. Then the big sweeping motion hit a wall. The Americans had fallen back splitting the town vertically. The entire soviet force walked right into a mortar barrage, coupled with interlocking fire from M60's and anti-aircraft 50cal. The force scattered and luckily the Americans didn't pursue us. 300 died in that barrage which lasted two min. If the Americans had pursued us there would be nothing but bodies laying in the streets. 

     By the end of day two the Soviets regrouped and fortified positions and the local population evacuated. Fighting went on through the night, but only in so much as if someone raised their head to have it shot off. The Americans were sandwiched between us. Just before dawn we opened fire on them with mortars firing faster than humanly possibly. Once again, as they spread out, so did we. The city was fortified by us now. We had effective fighting positions. Still though, the fighting was intense. We regrouped at the bridge at noon and waited an hour. We would send in twelve man probes every ten minutes. Then our forces executed a pincer move and in three hours the entire American forces were pushed out of the town. Now they were in the open wheat fields to the west and we called in napalm on them. They held their ground. The sun was getting low when the Americans broke through our defenses on the bridge in the east and pushed us almost into the wheat fields with the Americans. Distracted by the fighting, nobody noticed that the Americans were dropping in paratroopers. As soon as we destroyed the cavalry unit we were sliced in two again, horizontally by the American soldiers. We were reinforced with two more companies of sky troops. Just before the sun set we squeezed the tiring American forces into a position that was splitting us still vertically. They were sandwiched once again. That's about where we are at now.

     Me and three others are guarding the bridge. This job has proved not to be a "hot ticket" as the Americans say. Four of us are manning the American 50cal. anti-air, we are using for them for anti-personnel. It's against the Geneva convention, but who cares except the man being shot? If it saves my life! Also We didn't sign the Geneva convention... he,he,he. The Americans keep dropping their paratroopers at the other end of the bridge in an open cotton field. They are well within range of the 50cal. We shoot at them as they come down, which is also against the Geneva convention. Anyway the Americans hit the ground hard because they are on a slope. Its funny to watch. They regroup and try to rush us, but the bridge is covered in blood and bodies. The Americans won't send tanks anymore. They can't spare it. They need them to help break the siege of St. Louis. The bridge we guard is also the last bridge spanning the Mississippi. This is a dangerous spot to be at. There is going to be a major battle here, I know it. Neither side can spare to let the bridge be destroyed. Mostly the Soviets. 

     As soon as we win in the Midwest as we have in the West, we will drive strait for Ft. Bragg, N.C. If and when we defeat them, its bye, bye Allied Special Operations, bye, bye Airborne. Then its just blow for blow. This bridge is just a path... a red path (Russian: Krasnay Trapenka). Hopefully I will be going ho.............( our sky trooper was shot in the head as he was going to tell us of visiting his new born son, Maximilian. An Allied 30-06 NATO round struck him in the right cheek bone and exited the top of his head. His body slowly spun as if turning intentionally then slumped as if it were finally relaxing. Nobody noticed. Not a sound. He just lay there near a crate looking as though he were contemplating the world. His body was eventually buried in a mass grave by victorious American soldiers. It was an American paratrooper sniper on the East bank on the other side of the bridge. He died just as he became a father, several thousand miles from home exhausted, alone, and hopeful of a better ending to this story of which I have not delivered. I give you this quote," So much blood shed could never please God." It was quoted by an 11th century knight who returned from the Crusades.)

The End...

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