The deck modifications were also underway.

After a night, Sernechevich’s attitude had changed significantly. Early in the morning, he approached Mark, expressing a willingness to fully participate in the operation and instructing the crew to provide maximum assistance to Keith and his team. The deck modifications were quickly completed.

Keith had the mechanics use gas welding to cut off the twist-lock fittings on the deck, then grind down the protruding parts with a grinder. With the help of seven sailors, they cleared enough space on the deck for two helicopters to take off and land in just one morning.

Once the deck modifications were done, other tasks followed. In the afternoon, the tarps over the two helicopters were removed, and the mechanics taped over the windows and air intakes, then sprayed the fuselage with dark gray paint. They used a quick-drying alkyd paint, which dried in about an hour and didn’t require oven curing.

By evening, both helicopters were painted dark gray, and Keith had the mechanics inspect the machinery and electronics before covering them again.

The next day was relatively easy. In the morning, Jansen and Semler unpacked boxes of clothing and gear from a container and distributed items by size. Each person received two undershirts and shorts, two pairs of socks, a pair of high-top military boots, a utility belt, a set of camouflage combat uniforms, a baseball cap-style military hat, and an MBSS tactical vest fitted with Dyneema ballistic plates in the front and back.

For gear, each rifleman received four double magazine pouches attached to the tactical vest and a triple-magazine waist pouch, the triple-magazine waist pouch similar to the ones used in the US military’s ALICE gear. Additionally, they got a large saddlebag and an army-green backpack, allowing each rifleman to carry up to eleven spare magazines, while the saddlebag and backpack held grenades and other supplies.

To increase firepower, Deng Shiyang instructed the machine gunners to maximize their ammunition load. Besides their weapons and ammo, they carried little else.Each squad machine gunner who uses Mini-SS will have an ammunition bag hung on both sides of his belt, so that he can carry two spare 200-round nylon ammunition chain bags; in addition, there is also an ammunition bag hung on the chest of the tactical vest. A nylon chain bag that can hold a 200-round bullet chain; and in their backpacks, they has same three additional fully loaded bullet chain bags as spare ammunition.

The universal machine gunner and the ammunition hand who act together not only have to perform the task of suppressing firepower, but also consider entering the building to perform "bunker dismantling" work. Each machine gunner carries an additional 4 nylon chain bags with 100 rounds of ammunition belts. Chain bags; the ammunition hand responsible for assisting the machine gunner must not only carry an SS1-V2 rifle and a triple magazine belt bag, but also carry an additional 6 nylon chain bags containing 100 rounds of ammunition for the machine gunner.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Grenade launcher and rocket launcher operators didn’t have specialized gear, so they used substitutes. The 40mm grenades went into saddlebags and satchels,rockets and propellant cartridges are kept in cylindrical packaging and stuffed into camping backpacks. Recognizing the limits of what they could carry, Deng Shiyang planned to Install crates of grenades, rockets, and bullets on the helicopters, establishing an ammo cache at the presidential palace.

After distributing the equipment, everyone began preparing their weapons. Du Preez unpacked three mortars and handed them to the designated operators for inspection. Confident in his recruited people , as all had served in the South African military and were familiar with the South African-made mortars and sights, he knew they’d be ready after a few practice rounds.

Mark opened ten boxes of .223 ammunition and asked the riflemen to sit around on the floor and load the bullets into the magazines. He also took out several hand-loading machines and demonstrated to the machine gunners and ammunition handlers how to load the bullets to feed chain. After the black soldiers were familiar with loading, he took two boxes of .308 bullets and loaded the bullets into the belt with a hand-operated loader. The Mini-SS uses a shotgun chain similar to the US-made M27, while the SS-77 uses a shotgun chain similar to the US-made M13. The belts, loaders and accompanying nylon ammunition pouches were purchased at a weapons store in Cape Town called Honey Badger Arms and Ammo.

Since there was still plenty of time, Deng Shiyang asked the "Cristo" to take a long detour and sail to a sea area where radar confirmed that there were no other ships within twenty nautical miles, so that everyone could test-fire the weapons they had just obtained. Deng and the other white mercenaries, who had handled at least half a dozen types of rifles, found using the SS1 effortless. But the African soldiers had only used AKs and Portuguese G3s, so correcting their shooting habits would take time.

At the front of the deck, Deng Shiyang cleared an open space, took out several rocket launchers, and installed PGN-1 night vision scopes on those rocket launchers. In order to calibrate the night vision scopes,each rocket launcher is equipped with five rocket rounds and accompanying propellant cartridges. Deng Shiyang also found several black soldiers to practice loading empty rocket launchers: at the beginning of the battle, one rocket launcher would be fired, and others would hand over another loaded rocket launcher to increase the instantaneous firepower density.

A dozen empty crates were hauled onto the deck, then tossed into the sea one by one to serve as floating targets. When they drifted a hundred yards away,,Semler led the others standing behind the deck, raised their guns and fired the crates. Over a hundred rifles and machine guns fired in unison, raising bursts of white spray on the water’s surface.

After a period of firing, accompanied by the sound and light of rocket launches, the more than ten boxes were riddled with holes and quickly sank to the bottom of the sea.

Keith, watching nearby, nodded and said, “These guys are adapting better than expected. The German really knows his stuff when it comes to training.”

“Yes,” Deng Shiyang had just returned from the front of the deck, replied, “I was worried they’d revert to old habits with new weapons, but it looks like those concerns were unnecessary.”