08-09-2016, 08:25 PM
As the last of the Legion vehicles rolled out the flimsy-seeming gates of the one-time Moroccan embassy, the mood among the refugees and volunteers quickly took on a panicked air. Where had they gone so suddenly, and what did it mean about the city at large?
The few remaining Legion affiliated staff did what they could to calm the crowd. Mostly Sierra Leonean volunteers, taken on as hastily trained nurses, team leaders, even cleaning staff, they had little luck in assisting the Red Cross personnel in keeping the refugees calm.
But with the end of the Temne shelling, a momentary silence seemed to have fallen across the city. In some regions, the sirens of what few emergency vehicles the city still had could be heard, but for at least the moment, the sounds of weapons fire had dropped off.
The Legionnaires and their auxiliaries pushed away from the embassy quickly. With the Legion HQ still being established in Algeria, what support they could provide was intermittent at best. Legion techs did what they could with their minimal access to computers and communications.
A location was selected for their line in the sand; a simple thumbtack stabbed into a map of Freetown. The constant stream of information out of the city, and the country at large, was being filtered through two dozen very over-worked Legion command staff in Sidi Bel Abbès, some 4,000 kms to the north.
Legion SUVs from the embassy district were the first to arrive, and wounded Legionnaires and under-trained Sierra Leonean auxiliaries spread out quickly. There was little expectation of help; the various teams from Operation Rien N'Empeche were scattered throughout the city, often still sitting on potentially dozens of Wallace-Johnson's soldiers and sympathizers, and the rest were caught up in trying to contain fires, or search for survivors in the wreckage from General Katlego's artillery.
Sapper Aberash was one of the few unwounded Legionnaires that remained at the Legion headquarters in Freetown. He stood in the street next to Lieutenant Afolayan, and the two men surveyed the street in the few remaining minutes they had before the last of Wallace-Johnson's loyal troops arrived. Plans were made, final positions sited, and then the two men quit the open street.
The battle that came next was short and brutal. The Legionnaires had little to throw at the Sierra Leonean APCs. The lone .50 cal, mounted on the roll-cage of a civilian jeep and manned by a one-legged Legionnaire, tore into the lead APC, shredding thick rubber tires and causing the vehicle to crash into a pile of rubble from a collapsed shop, hit by an artillery shell.
Sierra Leonean auxiliaries opened up from roof tops, firing down into the open bed of a troop transport. The initial surprise didn't last long though. Wallace-Johnson's troops recovered quickly; more APCs, spaced evenly along the convoy, charged forward. The crashed APC fired a smoke-screen from its multi-barrel-grenade-dischargers, two banks of four small tubes mounted to either side of the vehicle's turret. Eight smoke grenades quickly filled the street with a blinding, choking cloud.
Auxiliaries fired blindly into the smoke; Legionnaires scrambled to find new positions and exert some degree of control over the situation. Mounting 73mm automatic cannons, the Sierra Leonean APCs only had an effective range of a few hundred meters, but within that range they were devastating. As the smoke began to clear, the remaining Sierra Leonean APCs burst back into view, advancing single-file and peppering buildings and rooftops with fire.
Dismounted infantry advanced on the APC flanks. While not trained or equipped to the same standard of the Legionnaires, they were more numerous, and a far cry more capable then the auxiliaries.
They fought through the Legion line in short order. Spr Aberash went down in a mostly-looted convenience store. Wallace-Johnson's loyalists stormed through the front door, their lead three dropping to the last shells in Aberash's shotgun and an auxiliary's rifle. Momentum slowed, grenades were thrown into the building.
Lt Afolayan crashed a Legion SUV into the tires of one of the advancing loyalist APCs. Wounded in the initial firefight, he had been pulled off the line, only to be left bleeding in one of the vehicles when his would-be rescuer, a Sierra Leonean civilian, had been killed by shrapnel. The SUV destroyed two of the APC's tires, crippling it, before the next in line put a burst of 73mm rounds through the cab.
And scant minutes after it started, the loyalist troops pushed through. Although outnumbered and outgunned, the Legionnaires and their auxiliaries had grounded two of the six loyalist gun cars, and left their weight in loyalist troop wounded and dead.
At the embassy, the sounds of the battle weren't far off. A few blocks to the south and east. Ferocious, dangerously close, and short lived. Two squad cars of Sierra Leonean police officers screeched to a halt outside the flimsy embassy gates, and a handful of officers piled out to take up positions behind their vehicles. Shotguns, looted assault rifles, and flimsy bullet proof vests would do little to slow the approaching loyalist troops, but they seemed determined that more help would arrive in time.
And then the loyalist troops arrived. APCs led the way, with sections of dismounted infantry jogging in their wake, taking cover behind the armoured vehicles as they approached the embassy grounds.
The few remaining Legion affiliated staff did what they could to calm the crowd. Mostly Sierra Leonean volunteers, taken on as hastily trained nurses, team leaders, even cleaning staff, they had little luck in assisting the Red Cross personnel in keeping the refugees calm.
But with the end of the Temne shelling, a momentary silence seemed to have fallen across the city. In some regions, the sirens of what few emergency vehicles the city still had could be heard, but for at least the moment, the sounds of weapons fire had dropped off.
The Legionnaires and their auxiliaries pushed away from the embassy quickly. With the Legion HQ still being established in Algeria, what support they could provide was intermittent at best. Legion techs did what they could with their minimal access to computers and communications.
A location was selected for their line in the sand; a simple thumbtack stabbed into a map of Freetown. The constant stream of information out of the city, and the country at large, was being filtered through two dozen very over-worked Legion command staff in Sidi Bel Abbès, some 4,000 kms to the north.
Legion SUVs from the embassy district were the first to arrive, and wounded Legionnaires and under-trained Sierra Leonean auxiliaries spread out quickly. There was little expectation of help; the various teams from Operation Rien N'Empeche were scattered throughout the city, often still sitting on potentially dozens of Wallace-Johnson's soldiers and sympathizers, and the rest were caught up in trying to contain fires, or search for survivors in the wreckage from General Katlego's artillery.
Sapper Aberash was one of the few unwounded Legionnaires that remained at the Legion headquarters in Freetown. He stood in the street next to Lieutenant Afolayan, and the two men surveyed the street in the few remaining minutes they had before the last of Wallace-Johnson's loyal troops arrived. Plans were made, final positions sited, and then the two men quit the open street.
The battle that came next was short and brutal. The Legionnaires had little to throw at the Sierra Leonean APCs. The lone .50 cal, mounted on the roll-cage of a civilian jeep and manned by a one-legged Legionnaire, tore into the lead APC, shredding thick rubber tires and causing the vehicle to crash into a pile of rubble from a collapsed shop, hit by an artillery shell.
Sierra Leonean auxiliaries opened up from roof tops, firing down into the open bed of a troop transport. The initial surprise didn't last long though. Wallace-Johnson's troops recovered quickly; more APCs, spaced evenly along the convoy, charged forward. The crashed APC fired a smoke-screen from its multi-barrel-grenade-dischargers, two banks of four small tubes mounted to either side of the vehicle's turret. Eight smoke grenades quickly filled the street with a blinding, choking cloud.
Auxiliaries fired blindly into the smoke; Legionnaires scrambled to find new positions and exert some degree of control over the situation. Mounting 73mm automatic cannons, the Sierra Leonean APCs only had an effective range of a few hundred meters, but within that range they were devastating. As the smoke began to clear, the remaining Sierra Leonean APCs burst back into view, advancing single-file and peppering buildings and rooftops with fire.
Dismounted infantry advanced on the APC flanks. While not trained or equipped to the same standard of the Legionnaires, they were more numerous, and a far cry more capable then the auxiliaries.
They fought through the Legion line in short order. Spr Aberash went down in a mostly-looted convenience store. Wallace-Johnson's loyalists stormed through the front door, their lead three dropping to the last shells in Aberash's shotgun and an auxiliary's rifle. Momentum slowed, grenades were thrown into the building.
Lt Afolayan crashed a Legion SUV into the tires of one of the advancing loyalist APCs. Wounded in the initial firefight, he had been pulled off the line, only to be left bleeding in one of the vehicles when his would-be rescuer, a Sierra Leonean civilian, had been killed by shrapnel. The SUV destroyed two of the APC's tires, crippling it, before the next in line put a burst of 73mm rounds through the cab.
And scant minutes after it started, the loyalist troops pushed through. Although outnumbered and outgunned, the Legionnaires and their auxiliaries had grounded two of the six loyalist gun cars, and left their weight in loyalist troop wounded and dead.
At the embassy, the sounds of the battle weren't far off. A few blocks to the south and east. Ferocious, dangerously close, and short lived. Two squad cars of Sierra Leonean police officers screeched to a halt outside the flimsy embassy gates, and a handful of officers piled out to take up positions behind their vehicles. Shotguns, looted assault rifles, and flimsy bullet proof vests would do little to slow the approaching loyalist troops, but they seemed determined that more help would arrive in time.
And then the loyalist troops arrived. APCs led the way, with sections of dismounted infantry jogging in their wake, taking cover behind the armoured vehicles as they approached the embassy grounds.