Initiative (The Red Gambit Series Book 6) (58 page)

Pike determined to take a personal look at the destroyed bridge, in order to assess if there was any mileage in getting a bridge layer up.

Within a few minutes the idea was but a distant memory, and ‘B’ Squadron were in the fight of their lives.

Colonel
Hargreaves hastily conferred with Keith, and the two parted, one to fight the battle as best he could, the other to bring up as much as he could by way of reinforcements.

Keith spared a moment to watch Hargreaves’ Morris quad bounce away, but quickly returned his focus to the battle in front of him.

“Excellent, Viktor Timofeevich. When?”

“Almost immediately, Comrade Polkovnik General… moment…”

Removing the telephone from his ear, Viktor Obukov, commander of 3rd Guards Mechanised Corps, accepted a written report from his deputy, Major General Golov.

“Blyad. Casualties?”

“Not many guns, but they have to move. It will take time, probably nearly an hour, Comrade.”

He nodded by way of reply and spoke rapidly into the telephone.

“Comrade Polkovnik General, my artillery has been attacked and disrupted, but I’m going with the plan anyway. The Capitalists have stopped for a reason, and I’m going to exploit it. We attack at 1415.”

“Objective?”

The words slipped easily from Obukov’s mouth, but both men knew the doing would be harder than the saying by some considerable distance.

“Spornitz by direct assault… then I shall feint towards Ludwigslust, but centre my main efforts on moving northwards through Matzlow, and fall upon Schwerin. The opportunity to encircle the enemy forces north of my Ninth Brigade is too much to ignore, Comrade Polkovnik General.”

The silence on the phone was penetrating as Kazakov, commander of 10th Guards Army, assessed the possibilities.

In his headquarters, he ran his fingers over the situation map, reading the ground, the forces… the possibilities.

“I agree, Comrade Obukov. Comrade Marshal Bagramyan will be informed, and I’ll submit an urgent request for all the air cover we can muster. We’ve an opportunity here, Comrade. I’ll send some more support to your units south of the Elde. I suggest that you keep 9th Guards Brigade in place as a hinge. I’ll prepare our forces to their north for action in support of you, once you head for Schwerin. Have your staff get the written operational plan to me immediately.”

“Yes, Comrade Polkovnik General. Now, we’ll give the bastards something to think about.”

“Damned right. Now, set to it, Comrade. I’m going to speak to frontal headquarters immediately.”

The connection was terminated and both men, separated by fourteen kilometres of telephone cable, set about their tasks with renewed enthusiasm.

Fig # 209 - Soviet Order of Battle - Parchim, Germany.

With the speed and accuracy of veterans, the gunners of the 1510th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment reacted to their hasty orders and put down a barrage on the advance British elements; their 152mm shells caused havoc with tankers and infantrymen alike.

An HE shell from one of the monster ISU-152s found no resistance worth the name when it smashed onto the turret of a Centurion II, the kinetic force alone sufficient to drive the top armour down into the turret space, where it easily won the battle between flesh and steel.

Even though the shell failed to explode, the 2IC of ‘B’ Squadron and his crew were messily removed from the equation in the blink of an eye.

At the rear of the advance group, another Centurion was tossed onto its side by two near misses, leaving none of its crew capable of evacuating the tank, as their bones shattered and disintegrated when bodies smashed into immovable metal.

Major Pike, his head bleeding from a close shave, screamed into his radio in vain, not knowing that it was the source of the burning smell that was just about recognisable over the metallic smell of blood from his scalp wound.

Despite mounting casualties, the Coldstreams and Grenadiers steadied themselves and waited for the inevitable.

Fig # 210 - Soviet counter-attack, Parchim, Germany.

2nd Grenadiers had driven straight into the divide between the 7th and 9th Guards Mechanised Brigades.

The latter was set on the defensive, still understrength from its exertions during the initial stages of the Allied offensive.

The 7th was a different proposition, nearer full strength, and Obukov had, with some other units of the 3rd Guards Mechanised, nurtured and kept them safe for the right moment.

As far as Colonel General Kazakov was concerned, that moment had come, and Obukov set loose his best remaining troops in a counter-attack intended to destroy the British resistance to their front, and retake Schwerin.

Leaving the 1st Battalion in Parchim and its environs, the remainder of the 7th’s motorised infantry components struck out, 2nd battalion straight out of Parchim and across the airfield, 3rd Battalion moved through the woods to the south, intent on occupying Spornitz in the first instance.

2nd Battalion was supported by elements of the 43rd Guards Tank Regiment, equipped with a mix of 85mm and 100mm equipped T34s.

The 43rd’s commander intended them to rely on speed rather than ability in a stand up fight, and his unit acted accordingly.

The 3rd Mechanised Battalion moved alongside part of the 35th Guards Tank Brigade, whose 1st Tank Battalion, although greatly reduced, possessed some quality T-54s alongside the venerable T34m44s it had started hostilities with.

The remaining part of the 35th Guards Tanks was conserved, held behind the 1st Tank Battalion, ready to drive in between the lead British units and the second echelon and develop the route to Schwerin.

Although equipped solely with T34s, both m44 and m45 models, Lieutenant Colonel Sarkashian, the 35th Brigade’s commander, had preserved his most experienced men for the difficult exploitation phase of the attack, and he was confident they would open the road to his final target.

Elsewhere across the battlefield, a leavening of SP anti-tank guns were held back, ready to provide support should a particularly difficult situation arise, and SPAA assets moved carefully forward, ready to provide close support when the inevitable fighter-bombers arrived.

Along with the artillery and mortar support arraigned against it, 2nd Grenadiers and 5th Coldstreams suddenly found themselves in the fight of their lives.

17-pdr shells crossed the battlefield, 85mm and 100mm shells passed them on the other track, all set against a back drop of artillery and mortar strikes, called in by harassed officers on both sides.

In the main, the 85mm shells proved ineffective against the Centurions.

A number of tanks were hit but, apart from soiled underwear, little damage was done.

The 100mm shells were a different matter.

One Guards troop commander was still screaming his joy at registering a fourth kill in as many minutes when a 100mm solid shot smashed through the hull of his tank, creating a whirlwind of bone and gristle, and leaving him suddenly alone.

Unable to recognise anything human about the things around him, the young subaltern screamed in horror and pushed himself up out of the cupola, desperate to escape the horrors of the tank’s interior.

He quickly added to them, when his headless corpse flopped onto the turret deck, his head removed by a passing shell.

As the Soviet attack flowed along the south bank of the Elde River, the Coldstream infantry started to give ground, firing as they went, leapfrogging backwards from positon to position.

Encouraged by Nazarbayev, the soldiers of the 9th took them under fire and pinning a number in place as best they could, which permitted their attacking comrades to get closer and closer.

Perhaps understandably, some excitable soul in the lead Soviet assault unit mistakenly took Nazarbayev’s men under fire, which forced them to take cover more effectively than any attempts by the British Guardsmen to their front.

The lead elements of the 2nd Battalion started to dismount and move into foot assault on the small knots of resistance they encountered.

Although Sarkashian’s guardsmen had suffered many deprivations during the long winter and the supply shortages, they were decidedly fitter than most frontline Soviet soldiers, and their assaults swiftly overwhelmed the Coldstreams, whose choices were clear; surrender or die, and the British Guards were not minded to surrender.

‘B’ Squadron’s tanks stood and died, or reversed, often with the same result, as, not for the first time, numerical superiority started to overcome technology.

Godfrey Pike, his radio now repaired, did all he could to try to reorganise his battered force, all the time ensuring that Lieutenant Colonel Keith understood the perilous position his command was in.

‘A’ Squadron was also engaged, but was hampered by its inability to manoeuvre. Using speed alone, Soviet tank units closed down the range between vehicles, and both British tank squadrons found themselves fighting at ever reducing range, as 43rd Guards Tank Regiment charged forward, in spite of its own grievous losses.

British artillery opened up and managed to reduce the odds even further, but the Soviet’s understood that getting in close was of benefit in more than one way, and the British artillery would inevitably cease to prevent friendly casualties.

A number of passes were made by Allied ground attack aircraft, but only two attacked, the rest unable to make sure who was who, and fairly chose not to add their ordnance to the maelstrom below.

To the south, a large force of Soviets slipped past the British positions, moving through the largely intact Sonnenberg Wald, and closing on Spornitz virtually unopposed.

The southern force commander, Sarkashian himself, ordered the advance out of the Sonnenberg Wald, and his tanks crossed the almost dry Splettbach. Part he sent barrelling straight at Spornitz, to run parallel with the Oberbach and Mühlenbach. Part he sent further westward, with orders to circumvent Spornitz, pass to the east of Dutschow, and occupy the junction of Routes 65 and 59.