Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (36 page)

Walking away to his own command group
,
the growing racket of an armoured vehicle
distracted him and he looked up to see the Tank Colonel approaching.

The tank, he wasn’t sure exactly what type it was, halted and the office
r dropped swiftly to the ground
,
followed by a submachine gun toting NCO who adopted the position of bodyguard.

Exchanging
casual
salutes
,
Deniken briefed Yarishlov in on the latest developments.

A moment’s silence pas
sed
as each looked at the alternatives.

“The rail bridge
,
Comrade
Polkovnik
?”

Yarishlov could only agree with a nod.

“Get your
other
infantry element mounted up on my tanks and I will rush it. I take it you will do a set-piece
holding action
against the bridge here, May
or?”

“Yes
, I think so,
Comrade
Polkovnik
. I will get my men in position as quickly as possible, get some mortar rounds on them
,
and
pin them in place
. Command have been very specific about the time we are to
have
secure
d
Rotenburg by”, and with more than a hint of sarcasm, “A
lthough less specific about the enemy sat in our way.”

With a disarming smile
,
Yarishlov ventured his opinion.

“That is why we frontline soldiers take our precautions
,
is it not?”

It was Deniken’s turn to nod.

Returning to his map
,
Yarishlov considered matters further.

“I suggest you start
immediately
,
Comrade May
or, as
will
I
,
once your men
are
aboard
my tanks
.
When
I am at the bridge
,
the rest of your men can push up and secure it. I will leave some support for them
, say two tanks,
but I will turn quickly and cut into this lot from the flank.”

The Major followed the plan on his own map. It was simple but effective.

“If needed
,
make sure your mortars
can
put down some smoke to mask my approach clear?
On your own initiative, or if I request it.”

“Yes Comrade
Polkovnik
. My mortars have
four
smoke
rounds each.
”

Yarishlov cocked an eyebrow at the infantry Major, impressed that the man had
such
knowledge at his fingertips.

Deniken
almost
blushed under the
complementary
scrutiny.

“What can I say
,
Comrade
Polkovnik
, counting mortar shells is my only vice.”

Kriks
, taking a sip from his canteen, spluttered, caught unawares by the man’s humour.

Yarishlov
and Deniken exchanged grins before swiftly moving back to business.

“Radios
and codes
. This one we will call Ivan,” he indicated first the road bridge before sliding his finger to the railway bridge, “And this one Boris.
Your radio sign is?
”

“
Narot
. Narot
-three-one
,
Comrade
Polkovnik
.”

“
Sable for me. Sable-seven
-one.”

“
My radio is misbehaving
,
so I suggest back-up s
ignals
,
Comrade
Polkovnik
. I have a lot of green flares at the moment
,
so shall we say two greens if
the
circumstances
are
right and
I decide to
press
the
position
to
move them off the bridge
before you get there
.”

“Excellent,
so if I need your smoke I will launch two
blue
as a back-up to the radio. Let my force take the initial strain here
,
so d
on’t risk your men unnecessaril
y. My tanks….” Yarishlov ground to a halt in mid sentence, “
Apologies C
omrade, I know a good officer when I see one. Right, let us to
the business of the day
,
Comrade May
or.
I will ensure 22nd Tanks know your flare signal
s and call-signs
.”

Salutes were exchanged and both officers went their separate ways as the
clouds
started to grow dark and drop their heavy loads on the battlefield.

The defenders were a hastily cobbled together force of Canadians from the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. A savaged company
of
the Loyal Edmonton Regiment
of the
2nd Infantry Brigade
, until recently
assigned to the extreme left flank to
join
up to the Carleton & Yorks of the 3rd Brigade
, sat astride the road bridge. They were
complemented by two 6pdr anti-tank guns that they had
managed to drag back with them.

Fig #
3
8
- Veeresbruck assault.

At the rail bridge w
as
a scratch force of
men
from the 1st and 4th Field Companies
, engineers
who were tasked with ripping down the structure with their expertise alone, explosives being a medium of distant memory.

Supporting the two
defensive
points were five
Shermans
of the French-Canadian 12th [Three Rivers] Armoured Regiment, vehicles that all showed the scars of recent combat.

Each bridge had one tank close-in,
the three vehicle section dwelling
in between, ready to respond to wherever the crisis was worst.

Deniken’s mortars started to bring down
their barrage
on the Canadian positions, accompanied by machine-gun and rifle fire.
A
6-pdr anti-tank gun spat shells back and wiped out a Maxim crew
,
just before two mortars shells dropped from the sky, wrecking both gun and crew.

Visibility dropped dramatically as the
weak
sun disappeared and the murky day became a rainstorm of monumental
ferocity
.

Deniken pushed his lead elements closer to the
Veerse
River
so that they could continue to bring down fire on the defenders who, for their part
,
were just as decisive in defence. After a while
,
the two forces
had closed up to
within
one hundred
metres,
with the swelling river in between, and still not close enough to truly see what each was firing at. Casualties still occurred on both sides
,
as speculative shots found warm flesh, more against the
Soviet
infantry by dint of their larger numbers.

Yarishlov’s group, skirting the woods and advancing slowly, suddenly found the going getting very heavy.

‘Too slow, too damn slow!’

The experienced tank colonel
reacted
instinctively
, switching his force to the railway line, accepting the disadvantages of a column formation and off-setting them for the advantages of getting closer quicker. The
violent downpour helped the
Soviet
force deploy undetected
,
even at the relatively modest distance of
three
hundred
metres, the
sound of the
rain successfully obscuring
the
noise of
approaching
armoured vehicles, at least
until
it was
too late.

Engineers labouring in heavy rain dropped to
the ground as the leading tank’
s
hull machine gun found targets.

Even then, some of the troops clustered around the rail bridge did not fully understand
the nature of the
sounds
that
were reaching their ears.

The
Sherman tank
crew
,
woken from their slumber by a soaked
and agitated
gunner, got their tank ready for action
,
as their commander tried to understand what he was hearing and seeing.

Grey shapes in the rain materialised into enemy tanks
,
and he quickly called range and angle bearings for his
extremely unhappy gunner before alerting the central tank troop by radio.

Taking his angst out on the enemy
,
the dripping
Lance-Corporal
Blanc
made sure his first round hit the target, stripping away the
front hull
hatch
that
had been open
ed
to permit the now-dead tank
driver
to see where he was going.

The T34 slewed quickly and stopped,
sending its infantry riders flying
,
and leaving the off
side completely exposed to the second round.
Wheels and pieces of track flew off as the armour-piercing shot wrecked the rear drive sprocket and severed the track.

Other T34’s sought out the
Sherman
and the commander decided to move off before the gunner could get a third and decisive hit.

Dropping back and right to the secondary position he had spotted only that morning, hasty shots flew into the former hiding place, marking the quality of his decision.

If anything
,
the rain had intensified
,
and the damaged
Soviet
tank could only just be observed from their second position. The young sergeant received a timely reminder that observation is a two-way thing when the T34 got off a well-aimed shot
, the glowing metal striking
the side a glancing blow
before flying
off into the field beyond.

His own tank halted in its new firing position and he gave the order to fire.

The delay was such that he repeated his order and looked across to his gunner.

“Just getting it right, Maurice.
Watch this and give me a medal.”

The 75mm gun spat out its shell and it tracked in through the
driver’s
broken
hatch and exploded within the tank.

“
Viens m'enculer, Guillame!”

Sergeant
Revel
leant across and slapped his gunner on the shoulder.

Lance-Corporal
Blanc
wanted to
bask
in the moment but couldn’t
,
as
other
indistinct
shapes
clarified into
Soviet
tanks
that
pushed past the dead
T34.