Soldiers and Marines Saga, page 58
“Good. Now Milch Cows forwarts… Careful… Very slowly… Don’t attract attention.”…. “Be very careful”….. “Slowly”… “Only move forward until your machine gun can hit the pontoon bridge or the enemy column on the road below”…. “Don’t show your vehicle”.. Good. Good. Very good.
“Careful… Slowly… “Leopards be ready to pop smoke when the Milch Cows pull back …….All Leopards select three target tanks or armored vehicles”….. “keep coming”….“Spread out your targets”… “If you are on the left take targets on your left; if in the center take targets in the center” ….. “Be ready to pop smoke and use thermal sights”….. “All machine gunners to watch for Saggers” …… “Slowly…. Slowly.” ……”Pick your targets”…. My God they still don’t see us… “Good, Good”….Uh oh…. That turret is turning.
“Fire. Fire.”
******
Harry could see the destruction as smoke and explosions instantly sprouted among the armor on the road. His mind only registered that his ambush is a success. He didn’t realize that he was being permanently deafened by the machine gun firing a few feet from his head and the massive firing going on around him.
Almost every one of the seventeen Leopards used its optical rangefinder and gun stabilization system to carefully aim at its initial target and destroy it. And then they did almost as well a few seconds later with their second and third targets. There was more than a little target overlap and some brief delays as gunners search for new targets when they find their second and third targets already destroyed.
By the time the somewhat hull-down Leopards fired their third shots and popped smoke the surviving Czechs of what turns out to be the T-62 and BDM-equipped Seventeenth Tank Division began to respond.
It does not become a one for one trade-off even after the first three unanswered shots—because some of the surviving Czechs were confused and others had left their cannons unloaded and none of them have the thermal sights needed to penetrate the Leopards’ smoke. Even so, some of the convoy’s Leopards and Milch Cows began to be hit, particularly the unarmored Milch Cows, as the small arms and cannon fire from the Czechs grew in intensity.
“Leopards stay put; Milch Cows to withdraw”…. “Repeat, Leopards to hold position and continue firing. Milch Cows withdraw.”….. “Repeat, tanks hold position and continue firing….”Milk Cows—withdraw.” …. “Tank commanders button up and use your co-ax machine guns.”
Damn. That’s an order I should have given earlier. Those that aren’t buttoned up by now are probably dead.
The battle raged for another ten minutes until the Leopards began to report they were running out of smoke grenades. By then much, if not all, of the Czech’s armor and vehicles had been destroyed and their small arms return fire was tapering off. In the end only a few of the Czech tanks and trucks survived—those already across the bridge and able to move on down the road beyond the range of the Leopards’ 120 mm smooth bore cannon.
Not one Sagger was fired as the twelve surviving Leopards dropped back behind the crest of the rise and rejoined their surviving Milch cows.
A few minutes later four West German Eurofighter Typhoons suddenly screamed in over the hills on the left and made a strafing and rocket run over the smoking remains of the Czech tanks and vehicles. Then they peeled away in search of more targets.
******
Oberleutnant Hakken had heavy casualties in addition to the five Leopards that were hit and unable to withdraw. Twenty-five of the Milch Cows were destroyed or damaged and the majority of their crews were dead or wounded. That is the report General Mauer gave me when I called him in response to a German air force report of finding a large enemy armor column that has already been totally destroyed. In that location so far behind the lines it could only have been some of Mauer’s men.
According to Mauer, the commander of the column is a senior leutnant named Hakken who has been slightly wounded but is continuing in command. His five teams are scheduled to peel away from the column and go to the Chemnitz airfield even though it appears to have already been successfully taken by the German airborne. Hmm.
Otto and I quickly poured over maps and conferenced with Mauer on a scrambled line.
“Order the officer leading the column to disregard Chemnitz and lead the entire column on towards the Czech Republic. We’ll send him a new destination in an hour or so.”
“Spreading out and attacking the Czechs in such a manner, and then withdrawing the Milch Cows and leaving the tanks using their thermal sights in the smoke, were exactly the right orders to give,” I say to Otto. “This officer must be recognized.” He absolutely must be recognized and the sooner the better.
A few minutes later, with Mauer and Klausen on the line, I contacted Oberleutnant Hakken by radio. He immediately reported that he has left his wounded and all his medical supplies at a farmhouse and is already back on the road leading his column towards the Czech Republic. Mauer had already ordered him to use to use what’s left of his five teams to beef up what’s left of the twelve teams who “are heading further south.”
There was elation in the oberleutnant’s voice when I told him he is promoted to major effective immediately and all the other men who were in the battle with him, all of them, are immediately promoted one rank including his junior leutnant, who apparently survived intact; he is promoted to oberleutnant.
Hakken’s voice choked up with pride when Otto concludes the call by telling him Germany is proud of him and that he will be awarded a Soldiers Cross for gallantry.
We spoke with Major Hakken on his column’s radio net so it’s likely every man in the column will soon know he’s been decorated and they have all been promoted.
******
The arrival of darkness resulted in a significant number of NATO destroyers and other surface ships altering their courses and heading at their highest possible speeds towards the Baltic and North Sea, and particularly the Kiel Canal and the northern coast of East Germany.
Two hours later NSA sent a flash warning. The Warsaw Pact’s naval headquarters in the Russian enclave at Kalingrad has ordered its submarines and surface vessels to sortie and attack all surface ships, civilian and military, in Baltic waters. According to NSA, the Russian surface fleet, much of which has so far stayed in port, is expected to sortie almost immediately to confront the NATO ships. A naval battle is brewing. How did they find out so quickly? Is bringing them to battle an opportunity or a problem? Need to ask Peavy, and quickly. I wonder how surface ships hold up to anti-tank rounds from an A-10?
Whatever the source of the rapid Warsaw Pact response, the result was a rapidly growing series of naval battles off the coasts of East Germany and Poland. The first indication that a naval battle might be brewing is the torpedoing of the HMS Thunder, a British Storm Class frigate, as it came charging out of the Kiel Canal at full speed and moved into the Baltic in an early morning rainstorm.
Thunder was leading a squadron of fast moving escorts comprised of two Dutch and three other British frigates. They moved through the canal at a relatively high speed, far above the peacetime speed limit designed to protect the shore from erosion and accelerated as they clear the entrance. The other escorts followed the Thunder out of the canal and a few minutes later saw the flash of the explosion and began picking up survivors and hunting the sub that killed it.
Within a few hours, Admiral Peavy reported, with a great deal of satisfaction, that the escorts in Thunder’s Squadron have found and sunk the sub that torpedoed Thunder.
It seems the Baltic seabed is relatively shallow, not a good place for submarines to hide.
The problem of fighting submarines in the Baltic is that, at the moment, there are so many of them, both NATO and Warsaw Pact. That means an attacker has to make a positive identification before firing, particularly since NATO already had a number of subs in the area because of the ferries.
We are damn lucky we got the right sub. It could easily have been one of ours. And maybe it was.
In any event, Peavy immediately ordered all NATO subs to move out of East German waters and the ever-increasing numbers of destroyers and other surface ships in the Baltic to take over the task of protecting the ferries. Three hours later, when the last of the friendly subs, a Norwegian, cleared the area by moving further east into the waters of neutral Poland, our surface ships off the German coast are ordered to immediately attack all subs they come across.
I don’t know why surface ships are better than subs at hunting other subs. Are there more of them or is this an effort to justify surface ships which wouldn’t otherwise seem to have much value? Peavy and his deputies tell me it is the best way to go. But I wonder. I’m going to look into this when I have some time. But I make it clear that if we’re going to use surface ships to protect the ferries there damn well better be a lot of them protecting each ferry.
******
Wismar and Warnemunde quickly joined Stralsund as one of the three main landing sites for our ferry-borne invasion. And Warnemunde, located as it is near the relatively large East German city of Rostock, quickly gave us an unexpected headache.
The Nordland, Anna Stollman, and other ferries discharged their Leopard teams as quickly as possible. It didn’t take long. Then they and their escorts hightailed it back to Kiel and immediately began loading troops and equipment arriving on the dock from the West German 22nd Armored Division. This time the Nordland and the Anna Stollman will go to Warnemunde and unload under the watchful eye of that port’s beach master, an incredibly profane Marine master sergeant wearing a green hat.
But there was an unexpected problem. By the time the Nordland and Anna Stollman arrive at Warnemunde the area around the ferry dock was packed with people. And more are on the way. The road from Rostock to the port at Warnemunde was filled with people walking, running, and riding on everything from bicycles and hay wagons pulled by farm tractors and horse to ugly little smoke-belching East German cars called Trabants and Wartburgs. It took longer than expected to unload the armor and get it headed down the road to the fighting because of all the people and vehicles.
The arrival of the refugees was totally unexpected. The German colonel who accompanied the Nordland was looking out the pilot house window at the gather crowd as he once again tried to call someone to get instructions as to what to do with the would-be refugees. Then, as he watched the last of his men and vehicles roll out of the ferry, he saw the ferry’s Green Hat wave and shout something. A moment later, after his translator used a bullhorn to loudly repeat his words in German, the crowd cheered and laughed as it surges forward and began running up the car ramp to board.
General Doppelfeld himself had gone to Kiel and to explain the role and absolute powers of the Green Hat to the officers of the 22nd.
“If he can tell me and General Roberts what to do in the unloading zone and we must obey his orders, it is certain he can give orders to you and your men. He is to be instantly obeyed at all times no matter what your rank or what orders he gives.”
The colonel put down the phone and began laughing. An American Navy enlisted man made the decision to evacuate German refugees while NATO’s generals and admirals dithered indecisively and tried to find someone to tell them what to do.
What is even more funny thought the colonel, chuckling to himself as he held the metal rails and bounded down the ferry’s rusty wheelhouse ladder two steps at a time to join his men, is that our Green Hat uses incredibly profane words that his German-speaking translator loudly and precisely translates even though sometimes it doesn’t properly translate. I wonder what he said that caused such laughter?
****** Feldwebels Jahn and Wettering
Jacob swung the canvas bazooka round case over his shoulder and started to run into the trees next to the railway tracks as soon as the bazooka round hit the locomotive square in the side and exploded. Two or three steps later he stumbled over something and realized he cannot see well enough in the moonlight to run in the heavy trees and brush. He needs to get away quickly and dirt service road next to the tracks is his only option. He stumbled is way to and then ran along it to it, bazooka in one hand and his MP5 submachine gun in the other, as fast as he could go.
Flickering flames and shouting behind him spurred him on. At first he barely noticed when he stumbled or the bushes growing in the dirt road tug at him. He is absolutely frantic and constantly falling as he runs. I’ve got to get as far away from the railway as possible he kept telling himself as he stumbled onward.
After a few minutes Jacob once again thought about leaving the path and moving down the roadbed and up the other side into the trees. And he even took a couple of steps off the embankment. Then he tripped over something and changed his mind. There is nothing to do but go back up to the dirt path that runs along the tracks and run. He can’t think of anything except the need to get further away from the train and the inevitable search party.
After a few minutes, actually more than thirty though he doesn’t realize it, Jacob stopped to catch his breath and listen. Nothing. He was alone except for the red glow of the locomotive’s burning diesel fuel that lights the night sky about two miles behind him. Then, for the first time, he thought about Karl—and his fear of being caught turns to desperation. How did they find him? My God, first Schulter and now Karl. What shall I do?
After another thirty minutes of churning Jacob’s mind is fixated on only one idea—getting back to the relative safety of the new camp. Twenty minutes later there seems to be an open space, a meadow, on the side of the tracks. So once again he plunged down the embankment and starts to move away from the tracks – and is immediately stopped as he runs into bushes and brush he cannot see in the dark. So once again he climbs back up on to the embankment and begins following the rails. Distance, I must have distance or the Ivans will get me.
It isn’t until the first light of dawn arrived that Jacob realizes his basic problem. He has been walking and running along the tracks going east. The camp he so desperately wants to reach is to the north and west of the repair train.
******
After leaving the train tracks at dawn Jacob walked north for hours and then northwest. By noon, when he thought he might be far enough north of the railroad, he began walking through the trees towards the west. He couldn’t see the railroad track but he had a pretty good idea where it is by the number of planes and helicopters that were going back and forth in the distance. Looking for me.
By about seven in the evening the sun was starting to go down and Jacob could see planes and helicopters moving far behind him and to the south. He has walked past the train and is getting close to where he and Karl cached their supplies and equipment.
Then he suddenly stops and his hair on his arms literally stood on end. Someone is in front of him. He is certain. Have I been seen? Slowly and silently Jacob put down the bazooka and swung the MP5 off his back and clicked off the safety. He didn’t move—just listened and scanned the forest and listened more. Nothing.
After waiting what seemed like hours, Jacob sighed and picked up his things and started walking again. Perhaps I was seeing things. Then for a fleeting moment he caught a glance of a limping man moving slowly between the trees towards the cache. Is it possible. It can only be Karl. It has to be.
He gives a big “Hallo” and then “Karl” as loud as he can shout. No answer. But he is sure and enthusiastically stepped up his pace, his tired and aching muscles totally forgotten.
Then in the distance, “Jacob is that you?” He broke into a run.
******
Commanders and staff in the massive Russian Military headquarters outside Moscow were late in becoming aware of the airborne assaults and the havoc West German armor is reaping throughout East Germany and the Czech Republic. As dawn broke they still had no idea that West German armor and NATO paratroopers are all over East Germany and that the Warsaw Pact headquarters at Magdeburg has fallen.
Even so, the meeting of the Military Committee in the Kremlin later that morning was anything but friendly. The Soviet Chairman had seen a transcript of my interview and angrily demanded that Marshal Petrovsky, the defense minister, explain. “What the hell is going on.”
The Defense Minister was defensive.
“Comrade Chairman, we are winning. Yes, some of what General Roberts said is true and yes there is fighting in Berlin; but local attacks and interviews do not win wars. They are obviously desperate attempts to improve the morale of his people.
“Comrade Chairman, the fact is that we have broken through the fascist lines and our operational maneuver group is now in the enemy rear. They are desperate for good news so they are making it up—even the western media is reporting that NATO is being defeated.” And until I know more I’m certainly not going to tell him that we cannot get through to Magdeburg.
“Actually, Comrade Chairman, NATO’s propaganda is a good sign. It is what a defeated army might do in a desperate effort to generate peace talks. Didn’t you yourself say at yesterday’s meeting that the woman who is America’s Secretary of State keeps contacting Piotr Kashavelli asking for peace talks.”
******
The call from the hysterical President of Czech Republic was the first real inkling the Russian Chairman had that the invasion had gone totally wrong. It came right after the unsatisfactory meeting of the Military Committee. He considered it significant because the President of the Czech Republic was also the chairman of its communist party and a Moscow loyalist.
“Our economy is virtually destroyed and now we are invaded. NATO troops are everywhere; they have already destroyed our refineries and power plants and last night they captured the Prague Airport. French paratroopers according to the police. I heard the guns myself last night. What are we to do?”
The Russian tried to be reassuring even though he knew his worst fears were being realized.
“Comrade Kukrak, you must control yourself. We are winning and Czech Republic will reap big rewards when we do.”
******
