Firestorm: Red Thunder

Senior Lieutenant Bezarin had received his new orders, advance north along the east bank of the Weser River and destroy a suspect Yankee force lurking in the area. With his 10 T-64s and an attached recon element of 3 BMP-2s, his battalion commander felt he had sufficient force to eliminate the weak opposition anticipated.

The first hint that he'd found the Americans was when one of his BMPs exploded. Within seconds, Bezarin was receiving panicked sighting reports over the radio. Yankee tanks moving to the farm on the east, tanks in the village, it seemed the Americans were everywhere and had come out of no where.

With at least some of the American positions known, Bezarin rapidly issued orders for his tanks to close with the enemy and focus fire on the enemy tanks. His platoon leaders acknowledged and sped forward, firing with abandon at the enemy. Some shots were better aimed than others, with one of the Abrams at the farm dying, whether to concentrated fire or a lucky shot was anyone's guess. Surprisingly, alone American tank had moved into the village with some AT launchers, and Bezarin quickly dispatched it before it did the same to him.

At the farmstead, two of Bezarin's units fought a close range duel with a pair of American tanks. The action was rapid and violent, for such is the way of modern war, but when the smoke cleared both the American tanks lay burning with only one Soviet tank destroyed. The same could not be said for the action in the village, where the American aim was much better. Here, Bezarin could see one tank explode in front of him and another sat silent, its crew wither concussed or scared into inaction. But the last tank fought on valiantly, pushing forward recklessly to close with the enemy. If that tank commander lived, Bezarin swore he would receive the Order of Lenin.

Bezarin could sense that the Americans were close to breaking. With only a couple tanks, a lone AT platform, and some infantry left, a final hard punch would force them from the field. But apparently the Yankees did not agree with this outlook, as missiles screamed from a building, brewing up a tank and a BMP. As Bezarin issued orders for the final push, an American missile hit the front of his tank! Bezarin had mere moments to jump from the turret before the tank brewed up and exploded. He was out of the fight, it was up to his platoon leaders now.

With orders in hand, the surviving tanks of Bezarin's command pushed against the dug in American infantry. After poring several salvos of main gun fire into the foxholes at point blank range and confident the Americans were either out of missiles or pinned down, they charge forward to grind them beneath their treads.

It seemed like an eternity, but it had been less than 5 minutes since his tank had been hit. As Bezarin walked into the village, he could see the wreckage of both American and Soviet vehicles. Less than half his command remained, but he had accomplished his mission. The American force in the area had been drawn into battle and annihilated. Bezarin hoped on one of the remaining tanks in order to use its radio. He needed to contact his battalion commander and inform him of the situation, as well as request new orders, for even though this little battle had ended, the war continued to rage around him.