Upfall

Shapira led the Bulls out of the woods on their bellies a few dozen meters to the north of Chaim. They crawled, following the Israeli lieutenant, to the north of the Ukranian encampment. The idea was to place the Ukranians in crossfire between the two groups, and especially, the deadly machine-guns. Shapira was reluctant to move the inexperienced Jews too near the Ukranian camp or the Treblinka wire, so he stopped his men when they had moved about 70 meters from the Bears. That put them at an oblique angle to the Bears, and perhaps 120 meters from the Ukranians. It would not be a textbook crossfire, but it was sufficient for the pinch they were in. Shapira arranged his men much like Chaim had done.

Sandler's men were tired and scared, but proximity to the enemy did wonders for alertness. As Shapira looked down the line he saw a dozen wide eyes, staring from faces smeared with dirt and mud for camouflage. They looked so bright under the crescent moon that Shapira feared for an instant that they must be visible to the Ukranians barely a football field away. But when he looked toward the motley encampment he saw only a few slouching sentries and heard little but snores. There was nothing to do but wait for Rafi to put his rocket into Treblinka's generator. That was the agreed signal to launch the attack on the Ukranians.

For fifteen agonizing minutes the two attack groups waited in the field outside the death camp, praying that they would not be seen or heard. Shapira listened nervously as the muffled reports of Yatom‘s suppressed weapons were drowned out by the sound of enemy fire, and then the sound of unsurpressed Israeli rifles. It was clear that Yatom was having some difficulty but Shapira resisted the urge to get on the radio. The sayeret leader would call him if necessary. In the meantime the shooting aroused the sleepy Ukranians who began to organize themselves and break camp, threatening to undo Shapira's plan of attack The generator shack finally blew when Shapira's watch said 01:40, about ten minutes later than planned. That‘s when all hell broke loose on the Ukranians.

Shapira hissed "Lost”t0 the machinegunner, and he let off a long burst of fire toward the Ukranian bivouac, the bullets coming in low, striking standing men in the legs and those slow to get off of their sleeping blankets everywhere. Simultaneously Roi opened up followed by the Bears’ machineguner. Then all of the Jews in the two positions let loose with fire from their rifles and submachineguns. They didn't bother to aim. Instead they fired after the green machinegun tracers slicing into the Ukranian camp. Roi, his Negev equipped with its own night-sight and laser illuminator, dealt death, killing or injuring more than a dozen men in the first few seconds of action. Now Shapira got on his radio to Chaim. "Let's give them some grenades!"

The two Israelis each put a 40mm grenade into the launchers slung under their Tavors and with a plunk barely audible through the hammering guns around them, arched high explosives and anti- personnel grenades into the camp. The grenades exploded with flashes that revealed confused soldiers running and crawling through the fire.

They each launched two more of the 40mm killers, spraying the closely packed victims with shrapnel and vicious 1.77mm flechettes.

Shapira flipped on his nightscope and looked through the viewfinder. The Ukranians were rattled. Many were already dead or wounded—others afraid to get off the ground. But here and there a sergeant or corporal appeared to be rallying the men, or trying to organize some fire towards their tormentors. Shapira put a laser dot on one of these men and fired. He fell. The Israeli leutnenant repeated the process on any man he saw standing or acting like a leader. Across the field, following the same doctrine, Chaim did the same, while Roi, grazing his fire a few inches off the ground, cut out the leaders‘ feet from under them.

The effect was stunning—within two minutes not a single Ukranian was standing or even on his knees. The survivors were crawling away from the galling fire to the south, attempting to leave the kill trap. Shapira continued to fire for a couple of more minutes, picking out an unfortunate Ukranian here or there, while his men mostly fired blindly over the heads of the fleeing soldiers.