Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (51 page)

Fear ate at his insides as he tried to remember his training
, a fear he overcame, pressing
his eyes to the periscope again.

Regaining his composure
,
he once more started to direct the crew of ‘Krasny Suka’ in the fine art of killing.

Evanin’s IS-III’s had engaged the lead elements of the reconnaissance unit from their hidden position in the edge of the wood a
t
Fischerhof.

Yet again, the Allied tanks were no match for the leviathan’s, and the
Cromwell’s of the 10th Mounted R
ifles were knocked out in quick order, the last two survivors falling back between Postmoor and Schragenberg, leaving the infantry component clinging to Habecksfeld.

Captain
Evanin pulled his unit back five hundred metres and set about resupplying main rounds to his greedy tanks.

The IS-III carried only twenty-eight main gun rounds, which in modern combat was a distinct disadvantage and one
the
6th had practised long and hard to overcome by constant exercises with their supply element in close support.

Elements of the supply company also awaited an opportunity to restock the other group
,
but the intensity of the fighting prevented then getting close in safety.

Whilst the heavy tank unit had remained unscathed
,
that could not be said of 47th’s tank units, numerous oily
columns of
smoke marking the position of dead T34’s.

The main group of IS-III’s moved back once the swift restocking had been completed
,
and immediately ran into problems.

Artillery started to arrive on Evanin’s position and he kicked himself
for
returning to a previously registered position, regret
that
turned to anguish when one IS-III was struck by a heavy artillery shell, transforming the tank into silent wreckage from which no-one emerged. The remaining three tanks swung south-west and skirted the edge of Nottensdorf, looking to deal death and destruction to the Poles struggling around Bliedersdorf.

Five
Shturmoviks appeared, survivors from a full regiment tasked with supporting the intended
Soviet
attack.

Selecting the most advanced group of
allied
tanks and infantry, the
vee of
aircraft swiftly attacked and dropped their
PTAB
cluster munitions over the southern prong of the
Polish
attack with devastating effect, killing tanks and halftracks as well as men.

High explosive
transformed a few acres of
Northern Germany
into a
place of death, and flames and smoke gave credence to the thought that the very gates of hell had been opened.

The 1st Armoured Regiment retained four Crusader AA tanks in its order of battle, and these were disposed in a line between Bliesdorfer and Postmoor.

The
Soviet
ground attack aircraft chose to turn hard starboard, intending to reverse course and return at low level, following the
Elbe
, which course took them right over the waiting
twin 20mm Oerlikon’s of the AA Platoon.

One Shturmovik staggered as two AA tanks successfully found their target, the heavy 20mm cannon shells destroying the port wing, knocking off the aileron
and wing tip,
before they progressed further, chewing lumps from the fuselage on their way to damaging the tail
plane and removing the rudder.

Uncontrollable, the Ilyushin aircraft rapidly lost height
and crashed into a Polish anti-gun position halfway between Horneburg and Neuenkirchen.

A second Shturmovik was badly hit, rapi
dly falling behind its comrades. The struggling aircraft eventually fell
victim to a roving RAF Mustang fighter.

Fire from the three IS-III’s under Evanin’s comma
nd was sufficient to break the n
erve of a few
of the Polish
soldiers
, whose
panic became infectious
,
and soon the whole southern prong was retreating back into Bliedersdorf and, in quite a few
cases, well beyond.

The central force, now aware that their comrades had been badly beaten, halted
,
and then started to give ground, moving back to occupy and defend Habecksfeld
.

Major Pugach enjoyed the sight of the withdrawing Allied force
s
,
but lacked the strength to push forward and make use of the advantage gained
in the repulsing of both the southern and central assaults. To the north
,
the sounds of heavy fighting now became
overpowering, particularly the boom of the big tank guns,
and he ordered a further company of his infantry up to support the 6
th
Regiment
’
s tanks.

His
opposite number
,
Lieutenant-Colonel Krol
,
was incensed that
the Polish
attack had ground to a halt.

Quickly consulting the map
,
he summoned up a possibility that had been discussed earlier that morning, and swiftly set his men to the new task.

Pulling back two
troops
from
‘A’ Squadron, a Firefly-heavy troop from the stalled ‘B’ Squadron
,
and adding in
his own HQ tank troop as well as a troop of Stuart light tanks, Krol ordered a rapid movement to the north, hooking round through Neuenkirchen and then eastwards towards Jork, the plan being to secure the latter before driving south and into the unprotected rear of
Nottensdorf
.

Infantry support came from the carrier platoon, as yet unblooded, and
‘A’ Company’s
3 and 4
Platoon
’s
, also unscathed.

Perlman, the Fallschirmjager Major
,
who had recovered sufficiently from his ordeal at the Hamburg Rathaus, was unsure what to think. The Poles had started badly but now seemed to be reacting well to the crisis, still planning to attack.

He waited for a break in Krol’s orders, or as he started to think, when the
Pole actually decided to take
a breath.

He seized his moment as the harassed Polish officer lit up a cigarette.

“Oberstleutnant Krol, may I offering my mobile platoon for some measure?”

Krol’s knee-jerk reaction was to decline
,
but the professional in him decided he could not refuse thirty well-armed experience
d
men
,
experienced soldiers
who also carried a number of the excellent panzerfausts in their
vehicles, two SDKFZ 251 Ausf C
half-tracks and one of the later
model Ausf D’s. T
he additional firepower of the vehicle mounted MG42’s would also be welcome.

Again he consulted the map, drawing the German forward.

“Get
all of
your men up to Guderhandviertal immediately
, not just the mobile platoon,
and be prepared to act as my reserve force
,
Perlmann.”

“As you order, Sir.
I will
forward
Hauptmann Schuster
’s mobile platoon immediate and following with the rest of mine men in the lorries.” H
is nod to the Hauptfeldwebel was sufficient to set the man moving to the task.

The HQ light tank troop had pressed forward swi
ftly,
performing a standard
leap-frogging
advance
up Route 140.

The route was less than ideal. The coastal plain was normally boggy, without the recent rains. The additional water ensured that nothing but
a
man
on foot
could move far from the roads.

‘
Almost like there isn’t a war on’
, thought the Sergeant in charge of the lead vehicle, right up to the time that a relic of the previous war exploded, the Stuart swinging off the road, its broken right track flopping uselessly out both behind and in front of the immobilised light tank.

The column of recon vehicles
moved slowly
past the stricken tank,
continuing the leapfrogging style,
an occasional cat-call or
laugh aimed at the hapless crew as they dismounted to effect repairs.

Bazyli
C
zernin
, an
experienced NCO
,
dropped to the ground at the back of the tank, his feet
positioned
neatly on the soil disrupted by the intact track.

“
Watch out
,
idiot
!
”
he shouted as
Kondrat,
the clumsy new boy
,
lan
ded
heavily and nearly knocked the sergeant over.
Kondrat and the other one weren’t bad soldiers. They were just new to the game and had much to learn.

“Careful boys, if the
bloody
cleaners missed one
,
they could have missed more
.”

He stepped carefully around his vehicle, examining each blade of grass and stone as he went, satisfying himself that there was no further danger from mines.

Mazur, experienced driver, excellent soldier
,
and quite the most ugly man ever to
inflict his visage upon
the planet, had dismounted at the front, stepping onto
the sanctuary of
a fallen tree trunk. From there
,
he surveyed the ground at the front of the Stuart.

The other new boy,
Rakowski,
fed up with
waiting on the glacis plate, gingerly stepped across onto the wooden refuge and slipped, his hand shooting out to steady himself.

Both he and Mazur went tumbling, falling either side of the trunk.

Czernin heard the crack
and scream
as Rakowski’s leg, held firm by a rigid
branch, snapped at calf level. The bone ripped through flesh
, exiting into daylight. B
lood
spouted
,
but the scream
ing
stopped abruptly
,
as the young trooper smashed his head face first into the ground.

On the other side, Mazur landed heavily, winded
,
but unblooded.

Czernin called for the First Aid kit and saw Kondrat climb up into the tank in response.

Aronowitz, the tank’s experienced gunner moved quickly to assist Mazur.

Click.

Even with the noise of the passing vehicles
,
the small sound was recognised for what it was by the experienced men
,
and Czernin locked eyes with
Mazur
for the briefest of moments, a microcosm
in time during
which both men read fear in the other
.

The German S-Mine was one of the most effective anti-personnel mines ev
er invented and this one, a 1945
version, had been put in the ground a few
weeks
before the German capitulation.

The initial charge
fired the mine upwards where another
,
more deadly charge, delayed for a few seconds, exploded and sent the contents of the mine in all directions. This mine did not contain the standard steel balls
,
as it was one of the last produced. The desperate Germans had filled it with old rusty nails, screws and waste metal shards.

The mine exploded at precisely three foot above the ground. Aronowitz was shredded by unforgiving metal, his lower and central portions instantly transformed into a bloody mulch.

Mazur
received dozens of fragments, none of which killed him outright, although the totality of the damage gave him less than two minutes to live before his system drained of blood.