Back at the centre of the battalion line, the Challenger IIs of the Royal Hussars could no longer depress their gun barrels enough to engage the tanks and APCs which were now moving down the river bank to begin their assault. They were instead engaging the follow-on tank regiment at extreme range, leaving the closer enemies to the infantry Milan and LAW-80 teams of the Guards.
The Czech 21st Motor Rifle Regiment, to the south of the Guards hill had just begun to emerge from the eastern treeline and orient itself to charge across the flood plain, at the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders regular battalion in its defence positions to the Guards right rear. They were too far off for the Hussars tank guns but the lieutenant who had inherited the squadron contacted the Argyll’s CP to warn them that trouble was a-comin’.
Major Sinclair, the Coldstream Guards 2 i/c, did not have time to send anyone to look for the missing commanding officer and his infantry section escort. The CO was old enough and ugly enough to look after himself, he reasoned, and got on with fighting the battle in his absence, ordering the Hussars to despatch a troop to cover the old road that ran from the, now blown bridge, diagonally through the battalion area to their right rear. At present only a platoon from 3 Company and CSM Probert’s quick reaction force was covering it, should the enemy break through at the ford. Although the Hussar squadron attached to the Light Infantry were waiting for the enemy armour to enter the fields in front of their positions, their Challengers guns would be useless if the enemy swung south into the trees behind his own battalion, on clearing the ford. Only one tank reached the desired location though as the other two threw tracks.
In the copse near the ford, the anti-tank section was watching the build-up of armour across the river. They could not see the vehicles of the 23rd MRRs lead unit as they were forming up out of sight, but they knew where they were by looking through their thermal sights. The unoccupied buildings were all cold with no inhabitants to warm them, but the vehicles exhausts and sundry heat sources warmed the brick work on the exterior walls near the tanks and APCs, these showed up in white on their sights. The damage inflicted on the Tornados by the AAA vehicles in the far woods made the RAF reluctant, to send more to run the gauntlet until their threat had been minimised, if not destroyed. Tube artillery had been firing blind at the AAA in the woods, with little effect so it now switched the small town beside the river in the north, a young lance sergeant calling in the fire.
“Hello Zero Delta, this is India Six One Charlie… fire mission, over!” With the loss of the 1 Company CP he was forced to change to the battalion net to call down the artillery.
“Zero Delta, send over.”
“India Six One Charlie, shoot Delta Foxtrot One Nine now, over.”
“Zero Delta… wait out!” The business of calling in the mission was speeded by the pre-arranged DF plan.
There was a delay of over a minute before the artillery rep at the battalion CP confirmed the mission with a brief, “Hello India Six One Delta… shot One four five, over,” meaning that the first rounds were on the way, arrival time in forty-five seconds. This information is important, because had the unit requesting the mission been in direct combat with the target, the shells would arrive when friendly forces were as exposed as the enemy was. Knowing the time of flight of the shells allows the commander to keep up the its own units efforts until just before the shells arrive, when they take cover.
The artillery already knew the targets range and bearing, so conventional shells tore into the target or airburst above it without need of correction.
Inside the small town the barrage pre-empted the assault before the Czechs were set up. They could not turn around in the confines of the narrow streets, nor could they stay where they were and risk being trapped by falling buildings or taking a direct hit on the thin roof armour of the AFVs, they had to go forwards.
With the appearance of the first BTR and BMP APCs the lance sergeant commanding the anti-tank section held his fire as the enemy vehicles raced for the ford. By some fluke the lead vehicle, ahead of its mates by about 50m, made it to the river and began to cross, whereas the next six hit the mines buried by the Royal Engineers. The wrecked vehicles impeded the approach to the water but did not block it completely and the lead vehicle commander wrongly assumed that the vehicles behind had been hit by tank fire. He began shouting for their own tanks to get their fingers out and get out of the town and give them some support. He was still busy on the radio when his BTR reached the western bank and hit a mine all of its own. Five minutes later the eastern bank was littered with the burning hulks of eighteen APCs and closed to traffic until they could be dragged away. The anti-tanks finally got to let-rip as the enemy tanks poked their snouts out from behind buildings, far too late to support their infantry comrades. Five were knocked out in short order by the Guards anti-tank crews who had the advantage of a heat signature to at.
JSTARS, far to the rear was watching the movement forward of vehicles behind the assault and eventually classified them as self-propelled artillery. The divisional headquarters were informed that they had about fifteen minutes before enemy artillery would again be supporting the assault. This in turn was passed on down the line until it arrived at 1CGs CP where Major Sinclair decided to pull out his forces in the cops and move them to a north facing position with the single Challenger that had not thrown a track from that troop. He dispatched three Warriors from the rear and ordered the young NCO and his section to bug-out with the two Yeomanry call signs.
The Challengers on the hill were steadily taking their toll of the tank regiments T-80s but they had been firing continuously for almost an hour and ammunition was running low. Three of the tanks had been destroyed and three had thrown tracks. Of the six that remained there were just five to take on the second wave approaching the hill. The lieutenant in command informed the battalion that he was withdrawing three of those five to the rear for an ammo replen. He then rounded up some of the infantry on the rear slopes to form a chain and remove the ammunition from the disabled vehicles, transferring it to his tank and the one that remained with him.
To the south of the main action, the motor rifle regiment there went totally unhindered between the minefields before spreading out and accelerating across the cultivated flood plain toward the 1st Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. If they thought they were fortunate, they were not, many sets of eyes, mostly electronic, watched them come on and the NATO forces MLRS oriented their launchers to the correct bearing and elevations and waited. It was an exercise that had been practised many times, they were not aiming at the tanks and APCs but assigned areas of ground. Computers worked out the sequence of firing, taking into consideration wind, temperature and humidity, range and times of flight.
Forty-one thousand, seven hundred and fifty sub-munitions arrived simultaneously in an area of terrain occupied by one hundred and forty-one armoured personnel carriers, main battle tanks and self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles. In the OPs along the southern edge of the high ground, young men watched one of the most expensive fireworks displays in European history. Secondary’s, the vehicles own exploding fuel tanks and munitions, were more spectacular than the detonations, which caused them, and like a fireworks display the results were accompanied by appreciative “Oohs!” and “Aaghs!” from the spectators. A grid square had been removed, along with the 21st Motor Rifle Regiment.
On the forward slopes the Guardsmen were unable to prevent the enemy crossing the river and this was unfortunate because the APCs disgorged their infantry on reaching the western bank, these men deployed and began the assault on foot, clearing the way for the AFVs. The riflemen and gun groups in the trenches beyond the crest moved up to the crest and forward slopes and began the business of killing their counterparts.