A teenage guardsman started to bayonet the American wounded who lay bleeding on the pews, standard fare for the German war of course. A bloodied Starshina stayed his hand before he could send a third American boy to his god. The young man shrugged and moved off to a firing position in a damaged window. Within half an hour he would lie dead with his victims, slain by a jagged lump of stone blasted from the wall by a tank shell.
As the fight for the village became more and more stagnant, the US Commander began to realise that he was nearly as far as he was going to go unless more infantry support was available. One battalion from the 63rd Infantry division had been freed up as an infantry reserve and he made a case for its deployment with his command. He got one company allocated under his orders and it was immediately sent forward from its reserve area, ten miles to the rear. Until it arrived he would have to make do with what he had.
Rottenbauer was a stalemate, both sides having fought themselves to a bloody draw but still killing although neither side was trying to expel the other anymore. The Russians were exhausted, having been fighting since midday on Monday.
The Americans were tired but, more than that, they were shocked at their full initiation in the rigours of modern infantry combat. The 12th’s soldiers thought they had acquired good experience against the German in 1945, even though they were already defeated and lacking in supplies.
By a coincidence, the 12th had captured Wurzburg in the first week of April 1945, some four months previously, sustaining a handful of casualties in the doing.
These Russians had first been committed to action in the hardest combat school ever known to man, in December 1942, on the Volga, at Stalingrad.
The 12th Armored’s experiences at Herrlisheim, the Colmar Pocket and subsequent romps through Southern Germany were as nothing compared to that Friday morning’s initiation ceremony in Rottenbauer, District of Würzburg.
Moreover, it was not yet complete.
It had taken over two hours to progress roughly two miles and casualties had mounted as enemy resistance stiffened, Soviet commanders drawing on years of combat experience gained at the hands of the world’s counter-attack specialists.
Ambulances and adapted jeeps from the 2nd/82nd Medical Battalion extracted the American wounded from the hellhole, unknowingly under the gaze of the observing Russian gunners who, faithful to their orders, remained silent behind their weapons.
The 179th’s Regimental Commander, Colonel T.N. Artem’yev, Hero of the Soviet Union, had stayed his hand thus far, all the time knowing his troopers in Rottenbauer were bleeding and dying in close combat with the armored infantry and tanks of this American Division. A very necessary sacrifice to persuade his enemy to orient themselves as he wanted, which his enemy had now obligingly done.
He did so with regret of course but it was necessary as he waited for the elements of the capitalists’ destruction to assemble on the battlefield, which they were very close to doing.
‘Why is it always the damn tanks that mess things up?’ he mused, all the time watching the to-ing and fro-ing of American vehicles, bringing fresh meat to the grinder and taking away that which the grinder spat out, maimed and crippled.
A BA-64 arrived to his rear and he received word that ‘armour’ had finally deigned to arrive.
Taking one last look at the open ground he had spent over an hour reading and understanding, he nodded in satisfaction and went to speak to the assembled senior officers of the four arms of service about to immolate the capitalist legion on his chosen killing ground
As senior Colonel, he laid out his plan for destroying this Amerikanisti tank force, coordinating with the newly arrived Colonel of Tank troops, Popov of the Army anti-tank unit and a Captain from his own divisional Artillery regiment.
He explained the plan to them and it was a thing of simple beauty, requiring only one act of cooperation from the Americans to succeed.
Looking at his watch and judging how much time the tank Colonel would need to get back to his unit and brief them, he designated 1240 hrs as the start time for his plan.
Allied Forces – 23rd Tank Battalion and 17th Armored Infantry Battalion and 495th Field Artillery Battalion and C Company, 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, all of Combat Command ‘B’ of 12th US Armored Division and 2nd Battery, 573rd AAA Btn, all of US Fifteenth Army, US Twelfth Army Group.
Subsequently arriving – 2nd Battalion, 255th Infantry Regiment of 63rd US Infantry Division, detached from US XXIII Corps, US Fifteenth Army, US Twelfth Army Group
Soviet Forces – 2nd and 3rd Battalions and Anti-Tank companies of 179th Guards Rifle Regiment and 127th Guards Artillery Regiment, all of 59th Guards Rifle Division of 34th Guards Rifle Corps, and 242nd Tank Brigade of 31st Tank Corps, and Special Anti-tank Gun Battery Popov,1317th Anti-Tank Regiment, all of 5th Guards Army of 2nd Red Banner Central European Front.
Simple orders issued and understood, Artem’yev had but to fire three flares to fully implement his plan.
In his right hand he held a battered but functional Model 26 flare pistol, his left arm crooked so he could count down the seconds on his father’s wristwatch, an inner whispering from his subconscious registering the newly cracked glass. At three seconds to time he pulled the trigger, sending one red flare skywards, and setting in motion the death of many a young man.
Flare number one was the signal for PTRD’s and 45mm anti-tank guns to open fire on the tanks north of Rottenbauer. Neither type were of much use when targeting the Sherman tanks nearest them but some sought out the more vulnerable Stuarts and half-tracks, scoring hits and taking lives, causing 3-C/92nd troopers to displace south-west, searching for a way round the southern flank of the enemy.
The CCB’ Commander responded quickly and aggressively to the challenge, noting the ground between him and the Russian firing line on the other side of the railway track was sound, both to the military eye and on the map.
C/23rd were ordered to move immediately north with their armored-infantry component and to take a left turn into line when level with Lindflur orienting to the north-west, with a view to reaching the BahnhofStraße and turning north to Reichenberg. B/17th moved west and north to come in behind them, ready for an assault once the AT guns had been beaten down.
A/23rd were to take their cue from C/23rd and move forward to the crossroads before turning left to descend upon Reichenberg from the east. As a precautionary measure one platoon of tanks was to set up oriented north at the crossroads, screened by a recon platoon in the tree line ahead and the armored-infantry’s support companies were moved up to an off-road position between Rottenbauer and Lindflur, ready to react as directed.
The cavalrymen were immediately drawn into a close-quarter firefight with Soviet guardsmen stationed in the woods to their west.
A further tank platoon of B/23rd was added to the mix in Rottenbauer, the rest joining the support companies off-road as a mobile reserve. The Colonel set up his mobile command post adjacent to the destroyed cavalry M24, having decided that Fuchstadt was suitable for his command needs.
He climbed to the attic room of the modest private house on the village’s northern edge to test the view, the occupants having long taken to their heels when the Soviets returned.
As he steadied himself and took everything in through his field glasses, he caught sight of a hit on one of C Company’s tanks that flipped the track off in an instant. The tank fought back even though immobilised and it was noticeable that his tank crews had already done good work amongst the camouflaged Soviet gun positions, where barrels stuck skywards or scars in the earth indicated positive hits and definite kills.