Firestorm: Red Thunder

Near Weichendorf, Bundesrepublik of Germany, 0800 hours, August 6th
Oberst Jacob Nagten listened quietly as the platoon leader of the BRDM platoon reported his contact. Tommies. How truly good. I had hoped to avoid them.
The Forward Detachment, as his fraternal brothers of the Soviet Union called it, or as he liked to think of it, Verloren Haufe, had been busy the last couple days and Nagten had been hoping for a break. The VA 4th Motosieret Schutzen Division had ripped through the center of 6th Panzer Grenadier Division on the first day. They had been in the garrisons of that unit cut through elements of 3rd Panzer Division to seize the E22 bridges over the Elbe on the southern fringe of Hamburg. The division had laagered on the west bank that night, but Nagten’s Verloren Haufe had been busy sowing confusion in the support echelons of what surprisingly was I Dutch Armeekorps. Podpolkovnik Stassilov, his GRU liaison officer, had helpfully informed him that NATO exercises had proved the foolhardiness of trying to insert a Dutch Armeekorps between the Tommies and the Beemer-crazy capitalist Germans, and so had given operational control of 3rd Panzer to the Dutch. Useful to know a couple days ago.
Yesterday they had swept south out of Hamburg, with 16th Guards Tank moving along the autobahn A7. Nagten was happy to let them. There were no BP stations on the autobahn, and with electric power disrupted all over northern Germany, the small support detachment accompanying his force was able to hook up a portable generator and refill his tanks while other teams scavenged in liebernschmittel geschaft for foodstuffs. It was one of the incongruities of this dreamlike campaign – lines of war machines waiting patiently for fuel at a BP Station, then pulling through a parking lot to have cold cuts and brotchen tossed up in plastic bags.
The other advantage was the big highways drew NATO aircraft and ambushes like flies. As if traveling 30 kph on the autobahn was somehow faster than 30 kph on a side road.
There had been more confused fighting yesterday as the sudden southward thrust had caught I Armeekorps by surprise. With the Dutch units of I Dutch Armeekorps recoiling west after 2nd Guards exploded through their GDPs, the flank of I German Armeekorps was exposed, and the capitalists had turned 7th Panzer Division, then coming up to join the main body, to meet the new thrust. 7th Panzer reputedly had lost a hundred tanks yesterday, and recoiled back west. Nagten had read enough history to know that such claims were likely exaggerated. But the evidence of retreat was clear. NATO command relationships are flexible; Seventh Panzer likely has been switched to the Dutch Korps while the Third is now fighting with the German Korps.
The Verloren Haufe had originally included 62 tanks. They had lost 14 in their first encounter and 6 more breakdowns on the way to Hamburg. Yesterday they had lost 5 more -2 in combat and 3 more breakdowns. The aging T55s had proved most vulnerable both to breakdowns, and combat as well. Last night he had been down to 15 T55s. Generalleutant Heintzelman had switched out the T55 battalion, giving his force 31 fresh vehicles and putting 241st Tank Battalion back in the 24th Motorized Regiment. The support echelon reported that 8 of the lost T55s and 4 of the T72s had been restored to function. They would rejoin the 241st, currently in the division rear guard.
This left Nagten with 26 T72s and 31 T55s. He split them in half, forming two echelons and sandwiching his supply vehicles and artillery in between. Three of the T72s were replacement vehicles from 9th Panzer Division’s maintenance echelon. They were leading the column. The unit markings might confuse the enemy. And the replacement crews driving them were not up to the T72 battalion commander’s exacting standards.
As the Oberleutenant finished his report, Nagten glanced at the map. The Tommies had been west and south toward Braunschweig two days ago. Now they were here. Or was this a new unit? There had been some nonsense about a British Second Corps reputedly kitting out in England. Could they be here already? The town ahead was a decision point – he could turn back east, closing in on the flank of 16th Guards Tank Division, and approaching Hannover, now just a couple hours drive away from due north, or he could go west and circle wider, staying between the Weser and Leine Rivers, threatening to cross the Mittelland Kanal. Due south was not an option, as the Bissendorfer Moor was directly ahead. Essentially the Moor was a swamp surrounded by trees. Either direction, Nagten’s plan was to skirt the edge of the Moor. The trees would keep roving NATO fighter bombers from making positive ID of his vehicles with casual inspection.
The Podpolkovik asked if the Oberleutenant was certain they were Tommies. The Oberleutenant made an impatient gesture, and his Oberfeldwebel dumped some clothing items and other trinkets on the ground. Quick inspection showed them to have laundry instructions in English, a cut different from the similar American battle dress uniform, and a black beret with a flaming grenade. The Podpolkovnik looked to Nagten to correct the disrespect, and seeing no support, bent to examine. “The hat and shoulder patch show the unit to be British, Herr Oberst,” the Russian observed. “Pity you couldn’t bring a prisoner…”
“Unfortunately, Herr Obserstleutenant, my Feldwebel’s knife cannot be set to stun,” the Leutenant replied, voice on the edge of sarcasm. “The patch, in fact, identifies the unit as Fusiliers, and the division would likely be their 3rd Panzer. We saw evidence of scatterable mines on the east side of the village, Herr Oberst. A company battle position, in the village and to the east, but nothing on the west that we could see. Extensive fighting positions, crew-served weapons type, south of the village in the west. I suspect more positions to the south, linking to the marsh.
That set off a brief debate. The implication was that this was at least a speerverband, setting up to prevent 4th Motosieret from encircling a defense of Hannover from the north. “Go round, Herr Oberst” was the advice from two of the three battalion commanders. “No prisoners,” was the recommendation from the 231st Panzer Battalion commander, a die-hard Communist. The GRU officer was the tie-breaker. “It would be useful to capture the town so your division’s wheeled equipment can break through, and while I understand Oberstleutenant Grima’s sentiment, prisoners can tell us through appearance and behavior much about the morale and logistics status of their unit even before interrogation.”
That was the voice of Commander, 2nd Guards Tank Army speaking. “Sehr gutt. Form for deliberate attack; 231st Panzer will be on the right, 43rd on the left. The Motorized infantry will go up the center, but their vehicles will shift to the right and follow the 43rd. We go in hard and fast, and if the defenders run, we pursue. If they give us a hard time we will shift west.”
THE BATTLE:
The scenario was the new version of NO RETREAT. The terrain was a largely flat zone with crops, small hills and a village forming a line across the center. A larger hill mass was on the ‘north’ side of the board and a small hill was to the southwest corner. A cluster of buildings marked the village of Weichendorf at a T-intersection between K102 and K103. A couple of outbuildings to the south and several fields completed the geography. Green Howard set up four minefields covering the eastern face and the east side of the table nesting them so that no vehicle could approach the town from that direction without crossing the mines or a walled/hedged field. The Brits had one mechanized and one airmobile company in the town itself, and a second infantry company in the position beyond the minefields on the ‘east’ side of the town with an independent Milan platoon behind it. Howard used the spearhead ability of a Scorpion unit to fully occupy the town. An airmobile Milan platoon was his ambush. He had a Swingfire unit in deep overwatch. Two mechanized transport units completed the on-table force. Reserves included an airmobile and mechanized platoon, gunships, more light armor
My setup zone looked like a tank parking lot. 13 T72s, 14 T55s, 6 BMP-2, 6 Spandrel, 13 BMP-1, an observer, 6 2S1s and 8 flak wagons were crammed into 20 inches of my table end. Along with 15 stands of infantry with 4 heavy weapons teams. My Hinds were in loiter, with the 4 falschirmjager teams aboard. The terrain combined with Howard’s spearhead kept me from using my spearhead to any real effect.
I lined my start line with vehicles, used a tiny bit of spearhead to get my infantry into some good starting positions, and then moved out, allowing one ‘battalion’ of T55s (7 tanks) to sit still on the east side with minimal cover, and placed the T72Ms on my right with the second ‘battalion’ of T55s in the middle. The BMPs mostly provided overwatching fire with missiles.
This was a mistake. While massed firepower has proven useful in the past against Brits, it was never on this constricted a front with this many infantry teams including 13 Milans at start. My fire, hitting on sixes, from all but 7 T55s, got an appropriate number of hits but only killed one infantry team. I cleverly put my helicopters into a position to prevent the Milan ambush from occupying the ‘best’ position to close my approach, and then foolishly chose to tempt fate by firing, trading a Hind plus two falschirmjager teams for a single Scorpion. Not an auspicious start.
I had pinned one of his platoons but of course he rolled it off. The Scorpions withdrew southwest to avoid being further shredded. Then the Milans started flying, and the 231st lost six tanks. Senseless waste, contributing nothing to the battle. If I don’t set them up there, 8 Milan teams have no targets. Two recon BRDMs also disappeared in balls of fire. One T72 died west of the town.
Second turn. Infantry on the east side of my center moved forward and occupy a building. Howard had fired, so everything was 5,6 to hit. The airmobile platoon on the east side of the town starts getting shredded. Both infantry platoons are pinned, but I had lacked the confidence to push my infantry to assault positions. I belatedly pulled the 231st west across my rear and pushed hard up the west side of town with the 43rd. Left two BRDMs in concealed and gone-to-ground position there as machinegun support in case the Fusiliers got frisky. Another error. The AGLs were sufficient deterrent. When my Hind failed to blitz, I pulled it out.
The airmobile’s casualties allowed one of my T72 platoons to assault one of his Milan platoons. Good idea. Then I consolidated forward. Bad idea. That exposed it to long range fire from a couple of his Milan teams on the eastern flank. One T72 disappeared in a ball of fire.
My third turn was do or die. We had played two hours and change, and had enough time for perhaps two more turns, at the outside, three. To contest an objective, I had to throw the Brits out of the town, and then rush through it with BMPs. I gave it my best shot, killing more of the mechanized platoon’s teams with accurate fire and nearly pushing them out with an infantry assault. Regretfully, they counterattacked (No surprise, right) and my guys decided to retreat after capturing a bedraggled wounded Tommi.
I pushed up onto the hill on the west side of town, and Howard dropped his ambush plus blitzed an infantry platoon onto the board in the southwest corner. This finished off my lead T72 platoon and killed another, for a total of five dead. It was now obvious that I couldn’t get to the objectives, and that spelled game over. The mission of the Forward Detachment was to find the seam/flank, and we had probably found the flank. It was up to the rest of the division to clear the town.
AFTERMATH 1030 hours
Oberst Nagten had passed his second echelon to the front, sending it toward Resse. You never send good money after bad. The Generalleutenant had scolded him for the unnecessary loss of 11 more tanks, but had no heart in it. Already the 234th Regiment had been tasked to make a deliberate attack on this position. Nagten’s new ‘second’ echelon would keep watch on the British at Wiechendorf for a couple hours while the 2nd Guards Headquarters decided if 16th Tank would keep pushing into what was most likely a full-scale division ambush. The prisoner had conceded his unit was 3rd Armoured after being told he would be turned over to the Russians for interrogation.
The support echelon was working on two of the T72s, recovered by the simple expedient of towing them with another T72 under the cover of smoke while the British force wondered why he had pulled back. There were probably a couple usable T55s; the infantry would keep an eye on them until the 234th came up. They doubtless would be recovered then. He kept the crews, such as survived. It had been a comparatively bloodless encounter. 11 tanks lost and 1 killed, three wounded infantrymen. 11 dead tank crewmen and 13 injured.
Four replacements from the 9th Panzer had survived when their three-tank element was destroyed by enemy missiles after successfully breaking through the airmobile unit.
The radio squawked. The recon Oberleutenant was reporting no enemy in Resse, except for a scattering of West German logistics vehicles, all burning now.
So the BAOR has turned. Perhaps they are heading for Dunkirk. Or maybe Bremen. Sorry, boys, no access this way.
Nagten turned to his orders group, and spelled out the afternoon’s march. Next stop, Hannover-Langenhagen Flugelhaven. The scenic Mitteland Kanal. Where, with any Gluck, they would shake hands with 3rd Shock Army.
Putting the BAOR in a sack. Wouldn’t that be something to talk about in hell.