Chapter 59: The 108th Division

  Military aircraft are oil-guzzling monsters that consume tons of fuel at a time, and air bases need to store large amounts of fuel.

  It's too dangerous to store directly on the ground, except for oil tankers, all fuel is stored underground.

  T-8 attack aircraft is about to be officially formed, the first to enter is the base in Jalalabad, so the base here stored more fuel, preparing for the arrival of new attack aircraft, as a result, hundreds of tons of fuel were ignited.

  If it were just a rocket attack, after the attack, there would still be a possibility of repairing the airport here. Now, with the fuel explosion, the entire base has been completely destroyed in the intense explosion caused by the fuel, and all the underlying geological structures of the entire base have changed. This place has been thoroughly destroyed.

  And with fuel being ignited, there are raging fires everywhere, and it's only a matter of time before the ammunition stored in the armory is also detonated.

  Muhammad returned to his own people, turned his head and took a look at the raging fire in the sky, very satisfied with today's results.

  Originally, Muhammad was still skeptical about the effect of these twenty rockets. After all, they were only 107mm caliber and had limited power. But after the second explosion, the effect was too satisfying for Muhammad.

  Muhammad flipped over onto the horseback, waved his hand to his subordinates, and the whole team quickly disappeared into the wilderness, leaving only hoof prints.

  Thirty minutes later, Jalalabad's troops rushed to the city, and what appeared before their eyes was still a sea of fire and smoke. The explosion of ammunition had passed, and the entire air base had been completely reduced to ruins.

  Facing the scene in front of him, Colonel Sergei, commander of the 117th Regiment of the 108th Division of the 40th Army Group, was stern-faced.

  "This is his defense zone. Those damned guerrillas actually destroyed the airport! This is a military base, it's the most heavily guarded place!"

  Now, the whole of Afghanistan has been pacified, with only small groups of Afghan guerrillas active, which is not worth worrying about. On the surface, Afghanistan seems to be firmly in the grip of the Soviet army, but recently, the bombing of military airports indicates that the Afghan guerrillas have formed a very powerful force, and today they dare to attack airports, tomorrow they will dare to attack Jalalabad!

  This is absolutely not allowed!

  "Get Ilich over here!" Sherg said through gritted teeth.

  It was ambushed here by guerrillas, and Base Commander Ilyich bears the greatest responsibility!

  "Report, Ilich has made the ultimate sacrifice. He was burned alive in the command tower." A guard beside him said after a long while.

  Ilyich is dead? Sherga was stunned for a moment, the guerrilla attack here had caused such damage, with heavy losses, more than a dozen planes, especially that Il-76 transport plane, which carried the KGB's elite troops, plus the guard units and ground crew. Moscow would be furious, Ilyich would not have been able to escape court-martial even if he were alive. Now that he was dead, at least his family could get something, like a hero's medal.

  He is alive, he will be brought back to Moscow and put on trial, but if he dies, he will be made a hero, defending the air base, fighting valiantly, in order to cover up the incompetence of the Soviet army.

  He's dead and at peace, but all his troubles have fallen on me now.

  "Report, Lieutenant-Colonel Kurkov is flying from Bagram to Jalalabad and will arrive in half an hour," the communications officer reported to Sherga.

  The division commander has arrived! After the air force base here was attacked, the division commander flew over from the division headquarters immediately, showing great importance to this place! As soon as Scherger knew it, he had to figure out the truth here within half an hour and report to the division commander. Otherwise, even if he pushed all the blame on Ilyich, it would not work under the division commander's furious anger.

  In the sky, three helicopters made a rumbling sound. The two in front and back were Mi-24 Hind helicopters painted with eagle patterns, their weapon racks on both sides fully loaded with rockets and missiles. This time, they took on an escort mission. Under the protection of these two helicopters, a medium-sized Mi-8 helicopter flew.

  In the rumble of noise, a middle-aged man in the cabin cast his sharp eyes on the vast land below, the barren land, the mountains, and occasionally visible donkey carts. There was no economic benefit here, only military significance. This place gave the Soviet Union access to the Indian Ocean to the south, breaking through the encirclement of the Americans in Western Europe!

  His face has already begun to show wrinkles, as the commander of the 108th Division, he has strategic vision and also understands specific tactical command. He led the 108th Division to enter Kabul first, and then moved to Bagram.

  Bagram is fifty kilometers north of Kabul and eleven kilometers south of Charikar, the capital of Parwan Province. There is a large air force base here, which was used by the Soviet Union as its main military base. It has a runway of more than three thousand meters, and many military supplies were transported from here. The headquarters of the 108th Division was also established here. In later times, after being taken over by the US military, it also became an important military base, occupying half of the US troops stationed in Afghanistan.

  In comparison, the airport in Jalalabad to the north was just a small forward operating base that initially didn't even have a runway and could only handle helicopters until a dirt airstrip was later built.

  Kurikov's eyes gazed into the distance, under the afterglow of the setting sun, and on the ground far away, wisps of blue smoke kept rising.

  "Fly over and take a look," Kurikov said, knowing that was where Jalalabad's air base was located.

  The big fire has been extinguished, but thick smoke is still rising everywhere. The most striking thing is the wreckage of that huge Il-76. Seeing this, Kurikov felt a sharp pain in his heart.

  Above, a hundred or more elite warriors were being transported! Those were the KGB's finest, and yet they died on the plane before even setting foot in Afghanistan. If only I had known, I would have strongly recommended that they land at Bagram and then come to Jalalabad by armored personnel carrier.

  Kurkov suddenly lost control of his emotions and his nose began to sour.

  "General... " He saw Kurikov's eyes turn red, and then two lines of hot tears flowed out. Bergelgrad, the regimental chief of staff, was astonished by his side. How could the regiment commander be like this? As a general, even if all soldiers die in battle, they cannot shed tears, bleeding and sweating but not crying!

  "It's nothing." Kurikov tried to calm himself down, but the tall and handsome image of his son kept appearing before his eyes.

  Before the arrival of the transport aircraft, the information about A Troop was passed to the 108th Division for mutual coordination. Kurkov saw his son's name on it, who was the commander of A Troop this time!

  KGB was top-secret, Kurikov learned for the first time that his son, Krimikov, had already become a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union and had been through many battles!

  And now, with the crash of this transport plane, he went to another world, his soul has risen to heaven...

  So when he heard about the attack here, Kurikov immediately decided to come from the division headquarters!

  "Land at the airport," Kurikov said suddenly.

  "General, sir, this place is dangerous. We've just been hit by an Afghan guerrilla attack. If we land here, I'm afraid I can't guarantee your complete safety," Belgrade said.

  "The Afghan guerrillas have already finished their raid and escaped, why would they continue to stay here?" Kurikov said: "As the commander of the 108th Regiment, I also have a responsibility for this matter, I must come to the scene to take a look."

  Kurkov's order was not to be disobeyed, the helicopters began to turn around and head in the direction of the airport. One of the Mi-24s made a circle around the airport first, while another one landed, with the infantry squad inside getting out to cordon off the surrounding area before the Mi-8 helicopter finally came down.

  As he watched the Mi-8 helicopter land, Sherga knew that the commander had arrived. He was about to return to Jalalabad to await the commander's arrival, but unexpectedly the commander came here!

  The rotor's airflow swept across the ground, yellow dust flying wildly, the cabin door opened, and a serious-looking Kurikov stepped out.

  "Reporting to the commander, the commander of the 117th regiment, Xie Erge has arrived to greet." Xie Erge gave a military salute, his eyes cast towards the serious Commander Kurikov.

  Kurikov returned the salute casually and asked Sherg: "Why was this place attacked by guerrillas? Why did it cause such a big loss? Is the investigation clear?"

  If the instructor had arrived five minutes earlier, Sherg would not have been able to answer either. Just in time, he found a survivor and learned about what happened at that time, and carefully investigated the situation around him, confirming what happened at that time.

  "The defense of the base is completely fine, within five kilometers, it's the safest." Sherg said: "This time the Afghan guerrillas ambushed us at a distance of eight kilometers."

  "Eight kilometers?" Kurikov asked. "How is it possible? Are they using cannons?"

  "It wasn't a cannon, it was 107mm rockets, they carried out a covering strike." Sherg said: "In the Vietnam battlefield, Vietnamese used 107mm rockets to attack American troops. Now, this tactic is exactly the same, I suspect that Afghan guerrillas received help from some country in the East."

  107 rocket bombs? As Sherga One, Kurikov followed him to the simple launch platform, where the heat flow from the rocket launch had already been burnt.

  Looking eastward, Kurikov's face had a cruel cold smile on it, he silently lit a cigar and took a strong puff.