The bucking and jolting of 21 running at full throttle to catch up with the CO’s tank tossed Avery about in the cupola as he struggled to respond to Bannon’s order to deploy to his left. Having no clear idea where he was, and even less idea where the CO was, the best Avery could do was give a “ROGER, OUT” on the radio and order his drive to keep heading in the direction that the CO’s tank had been heading the last time he had seen it.
As Alpha 21 crested a hill in search of Alpha 66 and the 3rd Platoon, it almost collided with another tank that suddenly appeared to its left. Only a quick order to the driver to go right prevented a collision with it. The TC in the other tank, apparently, had also realized he was about to collide with Alpha 21 at the last minute and had swung to the left to avoid 21. The two tanks then straightened out and began to run side by side at a distance of twenty meters.
The relief Avery felt at having found the CO’s tank was short lived. Just as he was about to key the net to order his platoon to begin to deploy, it dawned upon him that the direction the tank to his left was moving in didn’t make sense. Alpha 66 should have been to his right, not to the left. In an effort to verify that the other tank was Alpha 66, Avery leaned over as far as he could, squinted his eyes, and took a better look at the tank to his left.
A T-55! It was a goddamned T-55! The sudden realization that he was running side by side with a Polish tank was numbing. It was the sensation of urine running down his leg that galvanized Avery into action.
Grabbing the TC override, he began to slew the turret even as he was issuing a frantic fire command.
“GUNNERBATTLESIGHTTANK!”
The loader had no need to discern exactly what his TC was saying. Avery’s high pitched voice was enough to tell him they were about to engage. After throwing the arming lever out and pressing himself up against the turret wall on his side of the tank, he shouted out clear enough to be heard by the gunner without the need of the intercom. “UP!”
The target was so near and the thermal sight image so uniformly green that Tessman didn’t recognize the object in his sight as a tank. “CANNOT IDENTIFY!”
The belligerent move by Alpha 21 caused the Polish tank commander to give 21 a closer look. He too realized his error and began to lay his gun. Tessman repeated his call, “CANNOT’ IDENTIFY!”
“FROM MY POSITION — ON THE WAY!”
Without bothering to drop down and look through his extension, Avery fired the main gun from his override. The report of 21’s main gun and the impact of steel on target were as one, sending the T-55 staggering off to the left a few meters before coming to a stop.
For the longest time Avery could do little but stand there and watch the T-55 erupt in flames as 21 continued to roll forward. It was the cry of the loader reporting he’d reloaded the main gun and had armed it that snapped Avery out of his trance and croak out an order to ceasefire.
The retreat of the Poles turned into a rout. Polish tanks were everywhere. Most of them were gone, destroyed or scattered. Garger and his platoon now found themselves coming across trucks and personnel carriers. As the platoon crested one knoll, they came face to face with a battery of heavy mortars. Without slowing down on bit, the tanks of 3rd Platoon simply continued to roll through them, firing on the mortarmen as with machineguns and crushing their mortars under their tracks. In the midst of this carnage, all Garger could do was wonder when he’d receive permission to pick up his speed again. The whole Polish rear area was in an uproar. He wanted to finish them before they were able to reorganize.
His platoon had no sooner left the shattered remains of the Polish mortar battery behind when Bannon came up on the net and ordered his to deploy his platoon into a right echelon. After quickly acknowledging Bannon’s command, Garger passed the order onto his platoon, watching as the tanks to his right dropped back and took up their assigned stations, swinging their guns to cover the Team’s right flank as they went. It was only then that he noticed it was beginning to becoming light.
Twisting around in the cupola, he watched as Alpha 66 come up on his left. Behind 66 he could make out the forms of the 2nd Platoon tanks coming on fast. Once they were up, the Team would set to continue on. Unless something terrible happened, he expected they would reach the Saale River that afternoon with ease.
With Alpha 66 finally in sight, Avery allowed himself a sigh of relief. He hadn’t lost the Team. It was then that the first humorous thought that he had had since his arrival in Germany suddenly popped in his head. This made the second time that morning that he had been relieved, he thought to himself as he recalled what had happened during his near brush with the T-55. This led to his appreciation that while hip shooting a tank main gun was not in the book, any book, it had worked. Alpha 21 had killed the Pole, saving his hide and earning it its first kill ring.
CHAPTER 10
RED DAWN
Just prior to dawn, Colonel Reynolds accomplished what the Poles had not been able to; stop Team Yankee. As much as he would have liked to maintain the momentum of the attack, just as Bannon had been compelled to rein in Garger and 3rd Platoon as it had forged out ahead of the Team, Reynolds need to put the brakes on Bannon.
No one needed to explain why this was necessary. In listening to the traffic on the battalion net when not otherwise fighting his tank and maintaining control of his platoons, Bannon appreciated that while Team Yankee had been able to brush aside the Polish units directly to its front, those Poles who had been to the left and right of the penetration did not panic or flee. Instead, they attempted to close off the penetration as soon as Team Yankee and Team Bravo had passed through. Charlie and Delta companies’ lack of tanks encouraged the Poles to try. Their initial efforts proved to be devastatingly successful as they pelted the two mech infantry companies with a deadly crossfire as they emerged from the cover of the German positions and before they had a chance to fully deploy. The garbled and fragmented reports over the battalion net from Charlie Company, which had not expected to meet any resistance, betrayed the confusion and panic the follow-on company commanders were having to wrestle with.
The battalion XO, who had been following Charlie Company took a hand in sorting out this mess, reporting the situation as best he could and his actions to the colonel. Delta Company, the last of 3rd of the 78th’s line companies, was deployed into positions from which they could support Charlie Company. The XO who was still in contact with the German battalion, was able to get them to add their support to the roiling battle taking place well behind Team Yankee. Once a firm base of fire had been established and friendly artillery had been brought to bear, he moved forward to rally Charlie Company and reopen the breach.
His efforts, however, were rewarded with a direct hit on his track when it reached the place where Charlie Company had gone to ground. The Delta Company commander reported the loss of the battalion XO to Reynolds. He then informed the battalion commander that he would continue to do all he could to support Charlie Company, but, he added, at the moment there wasn’t much he could do other than engage the Poles to his front with the few long range systems that he had.
Unable to contact the Charlie Company commander, and sensing that the entire operation was in jeopardy, Colonel Reynolds ordered Team Yankee to stop where it was and instructed Major Jordan to stay forward with Team Yankee. He then turned Team Bravo around and led them back to hit the Poles in the rear. The day that had begun so well appeared to be turning against the battalion.