Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 362 - 346: Ace Crew

Chapter 362: Chapter 346: Ace Crew

Never in my life did I expect to have the chance to be a tank loader, and to be thrown directly into combat at that, without any familiarization process, immediately taking out three armored vehicles.

It’s not something I could easily brag about, because no one would believe me; they’d say it was too fake.

"Are those not your men driving the tanks? Then who are in the armored vehicle crews, your people, or someone else?"

Gao Yi loaded a shell and still had the presence of mind to ask the loader for more information.

Without hesitation, the loader said, "We received orders after midnight, and then some foreigners arrived at our camp. I didn’t see all of them, but I saw four tank crews of foreigners. They were very short and old. I entered the vehicle with them, and there were also three armored vehicle crews, totalling six people, twelve in the tank crews, eighteen in all. They drove into the camp, but some did not come with us."

This was the crux of the matter.

Freedom Wind had found a unit of the Iraqi Defense Army actually controlled by tribal armed forces, but they didn’t trust the capabilities of these Iraqis, so they brought their own crew.

Gao Yi continued, "What about the infantry? Are the infantry your men?"

"Most of the infantry on the armored vehicles are our people, but some are not; they are from the National Defense Army Special Forces."

That clarified things.

Freedom Wind had sourced high-level crew members, but they didn’t send their own special forces, instead using Iraqis, albeit from relatively more elite units, not merely mechanized infantry.

No wonder there was such a significant performance gap between the tanks and the infantry.

But if Freedom Wind was neither with the British nor with the Iraqi tank and armored formation, where were they?

As Gao Yi pondered this issue, Feng Biao urgently shouted from outside, "The armored vehicles are turning towards us; the armored vehicles have missiles; retreat, retreat back, get behind the building!"

The idea was just to attract enemy attention, not recklessly charge into battle treating oneself as an invincible sea king.

Two tanks left, plus five armored vehicles—the enemy would overwhelm us if they attacked all at once.

Donkey began to reverse.

There was nothing to say at this point; follow the commander’s orders.

But just then, Gao Yi’s phone suddenly rang.

Feng Biao suddenly said, "No, no! The enemy isn’t attacking us; it seems like they’re... confused?"

Even Feng Biao couldn’t be sure, though he was the only one who could observe from outside.

Gao Yi answered the phone, and then he heard a voice like heaven say, "We’ve arrived."

Sherkin, it was Sherkin; the reinforcements had arrived.

Gao Yi glanced at his watch. Twenty-eight minutes. Sherkin had said they would arrive in half an hour, and they really had.

In that moment, Gao Yi’s voice turned a bit hoarse as he quivered, "Which direction are you from? The office building, the factory, and one tank are all our people, don’t hit them by mistake!"

"A tank?"

Sherkin was clearly baffled by Gao Yi’s report, and he exclaimed, "Aren’t all the tanks the enemy’s?"

"No, no! We destroyed a tank and captured one!"

"Uh... we have anti-tank missiles that can deal with both tanks and armored vehicles. The drones have already flown over the battlefield; tell me your tank’s position."

Gao Yi immediately said, "Back of the building, there’s a lone tank that’s ours."

"Is that the one with someone outside on it?"

Gao Yi instantly said to Feng Biao, "Wave your hands!"

Feng Biao raised his hand and waved at the sky.

"We see you now. We’ve launched an attack, but we won’t rush in immediately; we need to deal with the enemy tanks first before we can enter. Setting up radio communication now."

Report frequency, establish a radio connection, and then they could speak via radio instead of having to use the phone.

Once the radio was connected, Sherkin continued on the radio, "We will attack from both sides."

Gao Yi and his crew couldn’t see how Sherkin’s men were fighting, but at that moment, Feng Biao, still outside, marveled, "Such precise shots, those are anti-tank missiles!"

Sherkin still on the radio, "We’ll first focus on the enemy’s armored forces, but it seems those helicopters are preparing to take off."

Gao Yi had forgotten about the British.

Since the British soldiers who entered the building were completely annihilated, the remaining British had not launched another attack, and the helicopters had been stationed inside the compound.

It was easy to understand the predicament of the British.

If the helicopter directly flew away, it would mean completely abandoning their comrades who had entered the building initially. But if the helicopter didn’t move, especially now that more reinforcements had arrived and Gao Yi’s team had commandeered a tank, escaping would soon become impossible.

At this point, the British were about to run.

The helicopter rotors began to spin, personnel started boarding, and all this was noticed by Sherkin’s men, although Sherkin could only focus on striking the more threatening tanks and armored vehicles, ignoring the helicopter for the time being.

But Gao Yi and his crew had nothing else to do at the moment.

"Turn around! Take out those helicopters!"

Gao Yi said this with great excitement.

Regardless of whether the objective was achieved, today’s ambush had turned into a beatdown but, repressing frustration all night and losing so many people, the situation had finally reversed; nothing could stop them from striking back hard.

"Reverse! Reverse! Turn the turret, use the machine gun!"

The remote-controlled machine gun on top of the tank was destroyed, and the 12.7mm machine gun above the barrel was also wrecked, but the main body of the guns hidden inside the turret and the coaxial machine gun to the right of the barrel were still intact.

Although 7.62mm was relatively small, the British helicopters didn’t have strong bulletproof capabilities; more crucially, not all British soldiers had boarded the aircraft yet.

The tank simply reversed at full power without affecting the turret’s full rotation, aiming at the helicopter parking area behind.

Backing up the tank, it wouldn’t be long before they could see the helicopters previously hidden by the building.

"Fire!"

The machine gun fired a short burst, and tracer bullets marked the target; Feng Biao urgently shouted, "Higher!"

They had to aim indirectly, so they fired short bursts to test shoot.

Short bursts, but continuous short bursts—three to five bullets each time, with very brief intervals, maintaining fire while adjusting the point of impact.

Such a method of aiming was inefficient, but apart from wasting bullets and time, the effect was not bad at all.

"Right there, fire!"

The promoted loader began firing continuously.

The stability provided by the tank was unsurpassed by the human body; as long as they aimed accurately, the coaxial machine gun would keep hitting its mark.

"Longer bursts, move sideways, sweep them!"

Feng Biao shouted euphorically; after being suppressed for so long, now relying on the tank’s armor they could counterattack, and it felt incredibly satisfying.

The helicopters began to take off in panic. Although the tank’s machine gun fire was inefficient, it still inflicted some damage on the enemy, not just threats, but actual hits on a helicopter.

Taking out even one helicopter, just one, meant a completely different significance.

The UK could cover up the deaths of dozens or hundreds of people, but a destroyed helicopter was altogether different; dead men could be dressed up to look like imposters, but a helicopter from the UK shot down near the outskirts of Baghdad with wreckage meant solid evidence.

No matter who was collaborating with Freedom Wind, after bringing down one helicopter, the British who made that decision would have a headache.

"Destroyed a tank! The enemy is fleeing; do we pursue and destroy them?"

Sherkin’s voice rang out again, and Gao Yi without hesitation said, "Shoot, at least take out that tank!"

Whoever helped Freedom Wind was going to pay the price.

Gao Yi might not be able to deal with Freedom Wind now, but surely he could deal with Freedom Wind’s lackeys.

"Understood, take out the tank."

Sherkin didn’t say anything, while Feng Biao, waiting for Sherkin to finish, hurriedly said, "Fire the cannon! The machine gun can’t take down the helicopters! A little to the left, a bit more... fire!"

The coaxial machine gun of the tank, initially meant to guide the tank cannon within direct firing range, ensured that wherever the machine gun hit, the cannon could as well. Such tactics were incredibly common during World War II, but now they were seldom needed.

But now, they were absolutely applicable.

The machine gun swept back and forth; when the bullets could hit the helicopters’ bodies, Feng Biao decisively ordered.

The loader decisively fired the cannon.

Firing the cannon hit its mark; the helicopter was instantly penetrated by an armor-piercing round, and since the helicopter had almost no armor, an anti-tank round couldn’t unleash its full power, but the hit helicopter couldn’t possibly take off again.

"Hit!"

Feng Biao was thrilled.

Although the other helicopters took off one after another and quickly flew away, never to be shot down again, hitting a helicopter with a tank that didn’t have aiming devices was still quite a feat.

Feng Biao loudly said, "We are now an ace crew!"

The standard for ace pilots was downing or damaging five aircraft, for ace crews, it was destroying five armored vehicles or tanks.

Now, three armored vehicles, one helicopter; it still didn’t meet the ace crew standard.

But Feng Biao quickly said, "One helicopter counts as two armored vehicles; we are an ace crew now."

Donkey suddenly said, "No! One tank, three armored vehicles, one helicopter, we might not be an ace crew, but Wind Knight is definitely an ace... ace..."

Ace what? Hard to say.

Even with Donkey’s extensive knowledge, he couldn’t come up with an appropriate term at the moment.

After pondering for a moment, Donkey earnestly said, "We are an ace crew, Windwalker is a god; he hammered a tank to pieces, captured a tank, so he is... Hammer God!"

By then, the radio had reconnected with Sherkin and others.

So as Feng Biao and Donkey were considering what title to bestow on Gao Yi, Sherkin suddenly interjected, "Have you guys lost your minds or did I hear wrong? Hammered a tank to pieces?"