In the kitchen he saw the first sign that something evil had visited during his absence. A dark, thick line led from the lower edge of the oven door, as if something had overflowed from the baking tray within. The trail led to the floor where it had pooled but not yet fully congealed, being only a few hours’ since it had been spilt. Joseph had opened the oven door, gasped in horror and sat down heavily. The Cocker Spaniels head had been completely severed from its body and the complete carcass stuffed inside where gravity had drawn out the blood from the inverted body. Moments later the telephone rang.
1CG, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, were dug in on the reverse slope of a hillside overlooking the River Wesernitz between the small towns of Barraute and Muhlsdorf, two companies up, one back, covering a frontage of over a mile. 1CG was at the centre of 3 (UK) Mechanised Brigades one up, two back, line. To the brigades left was a German armoured brigade and to the right another mechanised brigade, this one being Canadian.
At the tip of 1CG’s line, a west/east oriented hill, there were forward positions prepared for infantry to provide direct fire but these were ‘cammed up’, camouflaged and empty. The Royal Engineers had cleared some fields of fire on the opposite bank to assist the battalion direct fire against any frontal crossing.
Direct fire support was going to be provided from the ridge to the Guards rear in the forested ground dominating the road that appeared to be on the likely axis the enemy forces in Czechoslovakia would take toward Dresden. No. 1 Company was on the left covering Barraute with a platoon fortifying the small hamlet across the river from the town. The Royal Engineers had mined the bridge to blow along with the west bank. The western riverbank was very low and invited an assault by armour. The Commanding Officer, Lt Col Hupperd-Lowe had placed a Milan Section from the Anti-Tank Platoon at the rear of the small copse between the river and the road which cut behind into the forest. The Milan crews were dug in deep with good overhead cover and had also prepared several positions inside the copse they would occupy after any preparatory barrage had worked it over. He desperately needed anti-tank mines to cover his left flank between the riverbank and the wood line but Britain had destroyed much of their stocks so that the previous PM could strut his stuff as a world leader, leading by example. Lt Col Hupperd-Lowe had dispatched five trucks from the MT section to Poland to collect anti-tank mines from a colonel whose acquaintance he had made on a recent combined exercise with the polish army. The Poles had a glut of the things; all were of old Soviet manufacture and they were now put to good use against their former owners.
A Squadron of the Kings Royal Hussars, Challenger IIs were well to the rear, with several fighting positions dug forward for each of their tanks to go hull down in. They would not move into those position until the word was given to do so.
A Battery of 12 Regiment RA, Royal Artillery, 108 Self-Propelled High Velocity Missile Systems (SP HVM) and Blowpipe and Rapier anti-aircraft missiles were the battalion’s principal air defence means. Two Blowpipe shoulder launched weapons were with each rifle company and sited in well-camouflaged positions about the area. The battalion recce platoon was forward of the battalion area along with the West Yorkshire Yeomanry, a TAVR unit in Landrovers. Had this taken place just a few years ago, the Yeomanry would have had the benefit of Scimitar, Striker and Spartan CVR (T) fast tracked armoured vehicles. Mexico now owned those vehicles and the Yeomanry’s open topped, soft skinned ‘Rovers’ were far inferior. The only plus they had were the Milan posts on the wheeled vehicles. The CVR (T)s 30mm Rarden cannons could not defeat a MBTs armour, Milan could. The Regulars always refer to the part-time soldiers of Britain’s reserves as ‘Weekend Warriors’, and other even less flattering derivatives thereof, however they were performing a task vital to the Guards battalion, reporting on the enemy moves as they fell back. Also out ahead of them were a mobile Section from the battalion Anti-Tank Platoon, they had prepared several possible tank ambush sites in likely spots, incorporating mines. When the enemy came, the plan was for them to converge on the best one, dictated by the enemy moves, and liaising with the Army Air Corps Lynx and Apache helicopters they would stage one planned ambush before dispersing and harassing the enemy armour as the platoon withdrew to the battalion lines.
The CO had worked out a good plan with the FAC, forward air controller, he had from the RAF, and they would be sharing the air assets with 2LI on their left and 1 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders on their right.
The brigade had in depth, a TAVR battalion, 7th/8th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. Despite traditional rivalry the Coldstreamers CO was more than happy to have these regiments as neighbours.
His own battalion was now up to strength with some to spare, having ‘stolen’ 7 Company from 2CG, which was after all in suspended animation; it existed only on paper, to be reformed by reservists. 2CG were being reformed now in the UK, but future events would dictate whether it took the field as a unit or merely supplied replacements. Many of the men now in fighting positions had left the regular army but now found themselves back, and they had to make the transition away from their ‘civvy’ way of thinking and back to professional soldiering once more. This transition was not going easily for some; they didn’t want to be there and made no bones about it, in some cases some old fashioned ‘little chats’ by NCOs had been needed to assist the transitional process.
The brigades support company, mortar platoon commanders and the Royal Artillery heavy battery’s had thrashed out a fire plan that was comprehensive. The RA had been busy with laser range finders all along the brigade front, DFs, defensive fires, had been plotted and marked. If they enemy did not cooperate by using the plotted sites then those same sites acted as reference points for calling in adjusted fire.
32 Regiment RA, a divisional asset, could be called upon if the brigade recce troops found a sufficiently juicy target for that regiments MLRS, multiple launch rocket system, to perform the devastating ‘grid square removal’.
40 Field Regiment RA’s AS90 self-propelled 155mm guns would provide their main exterior fire support augmenting the battalion’s own light 51mm and medium 81mm mortars.
The CO of 1CG could also employ the battalion’s Warrior AFVs with their 30mm Rarden cannon against enemy APCs and infantry, however, he was not foolish enough to believe the fight was going to be fought and won on this spot. Optimistically he hoped to hold for 48 hours but knew it was likely to be nearer 24. He wanted to preserve his AFVs for the withdrawal to fresh positions when the time came.
Although the battalion had good crews on its Milan’s and NLAW, light anti-armour weapons. The Hussars Challenger IIs had British Aerospace L30, 120mm rifled CHARM main guns and would be the principle tank killer in the coming fight. The CO had never worked with these particular ‘tankies’ before and had several meetings with the squadrons OC, outside of the formal briefings. He was confident the squadron commander, Major Darcy was on the ball and the squadron were anxious to show what they could accomplish.
2 Company, 1CG had an arcing front that went from the forested slopes at the Battalion’s centre to Muhlsdorf. The platoon in the town had a limited view owing to a railway embankment that skirted the flood plain whilst following the line of the river. Beyond that embankment was tank country and the enemy could punch his MBTs and APCs right past Muhlsdorf and into the 1 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders at Liebethal. That was where the railway curved south and the enemy armour would have to mount the embankment at the end of its charge across the flood plain. 2 Company had OPs dug into the embankment to provide it some eyes.