Bannon next contacted the Team Bravo commander, asking if he was in contact. Lieutenant Peterson, who was commanding that team, reported that he was not in contact but could see the Soviet tanks coming down off the hill to the east. He estimated that there were at least ten, maybe more. He couldn’t make out what kind they were, but since they were shooting on the move and hitting, he figured that they had to be T-72s.
It was clear that the battalion, who had been with Charlie, was in trouble, if not already dead. With the S-3 also off the net for some reason, and Charlie Company fighting for its life, Bannon quickly concluded he had to do something and do something fast before things really got out of hand. With Delta Company off the net as it prepared to greet the Russian onslaught, that left Team Yankee and Bravo in a position to respond to the crisis. As he was senior to Peterson, it was up to him to come up with a solution to the nightmare playing out to the rear of his Team before the whole damned battalion was wiped out. As these thoughts were running through his mind, Team Yankee continued to move north, away from the battle, at a steady rate of one meter a second.
The Soviet tank company commander could almost feel the adrenaline run through his veins. They were closing on the Americans to his front. Already half-dozen personnel carriers were burning hulks while the rest were scattering this way and that, try their damnedest get out of his company’s way. All semblance of order was gone. Surprise had been complete. His tanks were reaping the benefits resulting from the speed and violence of their attack.
With curt orders, he directed the fire of his platoons. A report that there were more personnel carriers deploying to the west of the road drew his attention to the ten or twelve that were some three kilometers away. Many of them were already under cover and were dropping their ramps to let their infantry dismount. His company would have to finish the enemy company to its immediate front quickly and reach the second one before they had time to set up a viable defense. Speed and violence were critical! With this in mind, he began to issue new orders to his platoon leaders.
With little chance to think the whole problem out, Bannon began to issue orders. On the battalion net, he ordered Team Bravo to turn east, cross the north-south road, go about a kilometer, then turn south, and take the Soviets under fire in the flank with TOWs and tanks. When Peterson acknowledged those orders, Bannon dropped down to the Team net and ordered the FIST chief to call for all the artillery and close air support he could, then find a position from which he could control it.
Convinced the Soviets had emerged from gap formed by the two hills to their right and guessing more would follow, he then ordered the Mech Platoon to move to the southeast along the tree line and into that gap. There it was to set up an anti-armor ambush in the woods and keep the Soviets from reinforcing the company already in the valley. His orders to the two tank platoons were simple. They were to make a wide sweep and follow 66.
As Alpha 66 turned east and headed up the hill to the tree line, Bannon explained over the Team net what they were going to do. Once they reached the tree line, they would turn south, following the tree line. When they got to the gap, if there were more Soviet tanks already coming out, they would hit them in the flank. If, however, Polgar got to the gap first and were able to block it, the tanks would turn west and attack the Soviets in the rear. The Mech Platoon would be left to deal with any follow-on Soviets as best they could.
It was all Uleski could do to hang on. The Team commander had his tank roaring along the tree line at full tilt, with the rest of the tanks in the Team doing their best to keep up. The Mech Platoon had taken off on its own as soon as it had its orders. To their right he caught quick glimpses of the battle in the valley. A dozen or so tracks were scattered about the area burning. The Soviet tanks were clearly visible as they moved forward, firing as they went. At the ranges the Soviets were firing at, they seldom missed.
Gwent, his gunner, kept the gun laid on the Soviets below. The range was too great even if the Team commander had given them permission to fire. At the rate they were moving, however, that would not be a problem in a few minutes.
Uleski could feel his blood rising as he worked himself into a rage in preparation for the upcoming battle. He stoked the fires of his hatred of the Russians by recalling how his first driver, Thomas Lorriet, had died. The image of the young soldier’s body on the ground that first day pushed aside any last shred of compassion he had for the enemy as he cursed the Russians out loud over the whine of 55’s engine.
As his tank raced along behind 66, Garger realized that he was thoroughly enjoying himself. Despite knowing full well men were dying in the valley below him, and that he and his crew would soon be in the middle of the swirling melee, he felt no fear. That his luck could run out just as easily as Avery’s had didn’t bother him.
Somehow the idea that he should be enjoying what he was doing, or about to do, seemed inappropriate. But there was no denying the feeling. He had never felt so alive. Standing in the turret of 31 as it raced along, the image of the US cavalry riding out to the rescue flashed through his mind. The only things missing from this scene was a guidon and a bugler sounding the charge. This was his moment. This was why he had joined the Army. “To hell with it,” Garger muttered out loud to himself, “This is great!”
A frantic and incomprehensible report on the radio was the first indication that the Soviet tank company commander had that his company was under attack from the north. He glanced to his right just in time to see an anti-tank guided missile slam into the side of a tank. As if on cue, the second American mechanized infantry company that had deployed along the road loosed a volley of antitank guided missiles. He was trapped. Without a second thought, the Soviet company commander ordered his tanks to turn left and cut on their smoke generators. They had been lucky. His company had succeeded in wreaking havoc on one American company. But the Americans were now gaining the upper hand. It was time to break off this attack, retreat back to the gap his company had emerged from, and wait for the rest of the battalion before renewing the attack.
Team Bravo was in position and firing just as Team Yankee reached the point where they needed to turn and go into the attack. As soon as Sergeant Polgar reported that he was in place, Bannon ordered the tanks to execute an action right, form a line, and attack. Following 66’s lead, the other tanks cut right and began to advance back down into the valley. Team Bravo’s fire had been effective in forcing the Soviets to break off their attack and had thus taken the pressure off Delta Company. In a massive cloud of smoke being thrown off by their smoke generators, the T-72 tanks that had survived disappeared to the south.
Without hesitation, Folk switched to the thermal sight and continued to track the Soviet tanks as they fled to the south. Bannon could now see that it was now a race, leading him to wonder if the Team would be able to catch up to the Soviet tanks fleeing south. Right now, that didn’t seem likely. Team Yankee’s grand maneuver had been a bust. It had, by going too far out in front of the battalion, taken the Team out of the fight.
Then it struck Bannon that this disaster, or at least part of it, had been his fault. Had he promptly obeyed the battalion commander’s orders, Team Yankee would have been closer to Charlie Company and able to support it when the Russians hit. A pure mech company in M-113s on the move was extreme vulnerable to enemy tanks. Team Yankee should have been able to simply turn around the support the infantry. He had, however, been in a hurry to get out in front and reach the Saale. Not only had Charlie Company and the command group paid for his error, the enemy who’d hit them were getting away.