Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Battle of Bukit Ramly

Team Foxtrot made our way through the elephant grass silently, all three fireteams coverging on the enemy, eager to exact a measure of revenge for a cowardly attack on the UN compound that left dozens of civilian aid workers dead and many more wounded.


Foxtrot have been tracking the attackers since dawn with the help of a special forces Little Bird helicopter and had cut down their lead to just a few hours. We were close and it was only a matter of time before Foxtrot caught up.


We redoubled our effort when the pilot radioed a potential sighting but his very next transmission was a frantic "mayday" before all comms was lost.

It wasn't too long before we spotted the tell-tale smoke from the downed chopper and it took us just 20 minutes on double-time to reach the crash site and find the body of the co-pilot. It was easy picking up the trail from there, the pilot was bleeding and we needed to get to him fast.

Our lead scout had indicated that the so-called freedom fighters were camped at the top of the hill and the team leader decided that it was highly likely the pilot of the crashed Little Bird was being held captive there. That ruled out an air strike so we had to go in and get him, despite being outnumbered at least two to one.




We were expecting to link up with a unit of the local militia but they were not responding on the radio. They were either not in the immediate area or worse, had already met and come out second best against the rebels.

It was close to 1600hrs by the time we reached the foot of the hill, there were no guards or observation post. The rebels must have thought taking out the
chopper would have slowed us down.




We would have preferred to have waited for the sun to set of course but the amount of blood we had seen on the way meant the pilot was not going to last much longer, if he wasn't already dead.
There was nothing to it but to forge ahead, hoping that the vegetation would help mask our approach until we were in among them.


We were halfway up the slope when it became obvious we had made the terrible mistake of underestimating the rebels. We began to take fire from well prepared positions further up the slope.

The fireteam on the extreme left was first to go down under a hail of gunfire. It was only after we began taking fire from our flank and rear that we realised we've been caught in a well executed ambush.

I spotted movement to my rear after a warning from Myaadraal but I hesitated when I recognised the colours of the local militia, this could be the turning point for us to turn the tables on the rebels. However, it was at that point the lead militaman raised his weapon and fired at me almost point blank. There was no case of mistaken identity, he knew who I was
and gleefully took the shot.


I woke up bound and gagged in some kind of cell. They think I'm writing a confession and allowed me a scrap of paper and a pencil. I have no doubt about my fate. I've heard them screaming at the surviving members of the team, demanding them to confess their "war crimes" on camera. I've also heard the single gunshots.

They are coming for me now.

If you have found this, I hope you are on our side. Avenge us.





It was an early start for us on Sunday for our first ever WARGH! at the infamous but fictitious Bukit Ramly in Johor.

The day was organised by the friendly guys at WARGH! Tactical Team Sports. Team Damnation was represented by Amok, Myaadraal and Dean while a former TD stalwart, the Famarcist, joined in for the day.

In total there were about 40+ of us in various groups, about a dozen organised by WARGH! and the rest a bunch of guys who were either studying in SIM or NUS in Singapore. We didn't really bother to find out, they were just cannon fodder to us hehe. There were also a bunch of Malaysians who were quite regular at the woodsball events organised at the plantation where the fictitious Bukit Ramly is.

Suffice to say it was basically going to be the properly geared up guys in camo and other gear versus the students in sneakers, jeans and bright t-shirts.

The Malaysians joined us for the first two rounds because of the disparity in numbers but after we more or less wiped the hill clean of the "Orchard Road kommandos" in both attacking and defending scenarios, it was decided that the Malaysians would join the other side. This meant a dozen of us were attacking up the slope versus 20+ of them. Hardly fair but we were up for it.

The third scenario unfolded more or less the way the story above was written, yours truly was hit thrice in the back and one to the side of the head. Suffice to say we never even smelt the missing pilot hehe.

All in all it was a good day to run around in the light rain playing soldier and was well worth it, even mucking about in the mud .

We'll definitely be back for more WARGH!

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