I'll agree that the action was rather confusing*, but falling on an explosive is such a common war-movie trope (and real-life tactic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_on_a_grenade)) that I assumed that that was what happened.
*And perhaps intentionally so, given that we're dealing with a stressful situation in unfamiliar (to the viewpoint characters) surroundings, reported from multiple points of view. I recall a workshop from Confluence 2011 on writing battlefield scenes, and Tamora Pierce's haunting metaphor for the common soldier's perspective:
It's like the blind men and the elephant--only the elephant has gone musth and is trying to kill everything within reach.
no subject
*And perhaps intentionally so, given that we're dealing with a stressful situation in unfamiliar (to the viewpoint characters) surroundings, reported from multiple points of view. I recall a workshop from Confluence 2011 on writing battlefield scenes, and Tamora Pierce's haunting metaphor for the common soldier's perspective:
It's like the blind men and the elephant--only the elephant has gone musth and is trying to kill everything within reach.