Firestorm: Red Thunder

Interviewer: Can you tell us what your regiment did after all the losses it suffered in taking Bremen?

Dirk Webel: We were sent to an assembly area to reconstitute our strength. Oberstleutnant Keller had again established the regimental HQ in the local McPizza King.

Most of our vehicles had been replaced and were parked on the outskirts of town. The men were enjoying the comforts of being under a roof in the nearby buildings. We were waiting on a T55 Battalion to join us.

The first we knew the enemy was anywhere nearby, was when the spearhead of a British motz-schutzen company raced through the town one block away. Four of their little tanks led three Chieftains and a mounted motz-schutzen zig through the streets and toward the bridges to the east of the town. Not long after, rifle fire, rockets, and Milan missiles erupted from the buildings across the town green. The infantry from my motz-schutzen kompanyie returned fire. The British added howitzer and mortar fire. We added our own howitzers to the crescendo. Our Shilkas braved Milan fire to support our infantry. While we lost one zug of them we succeeded in preventing the British from pushing toward the regimental HQ.

The T55 battalion that had already arrived moved eastward with their seven tanks and the five BMP-1s of our other motz-schutzen kompanie. They were racing the British spearhead toward a hill and woods that dominated the bridges. they left behind eight T72s that were being held in place until we were certain the direction of the enemy's main effort.

My wounds from the fighting in Bremen made it difficult to walk. Along with my promotion to feldwebel I was given command of a BMP-2 so I wouldn't have to walk and because they needed experienced men and there were precious few of us. Our nine BMP-2s were toward the rear at the refueling and rearming point when the battle began. The enemy did not seem to notice us so we held our position to see where we might be needed.

A flight of SU25s and another of Hinds arrived quickly to aid us. They coordinated a strike on the enemy Rapiers to make later air attacks easier. They were able to destroy two but could not force the others to leave. It cost them two Hinds and an SU25. They were able to report three more chieftains and four Milan armed vehicles were also in the town to support their infantry there.

The British motz-schutzen platoon arrived at the woods just far enough ahead of the T55s to disgorge their troops into the woods. The T55s closed in and sprayed the woods with their machine guns. The little British tanks raced up the hill to strike the T55s in the flank. The SU25s spotted them and destroyed them all before returning to base. The Milan and Gustav teams were able to destroy several of the T55s but the survivors joined by the BMP-1s were able to keep them suppressed so they did not even risk digging in.

The lead elements of the other T55 battalion began to arrive. However, rushing the bridges in the face of three Chieftains seemed as equally bad an option as testing their thirty year old suspensions in the river in the face of three Chieftains. They opted to find cover and wait for an opportunity to hit the Chieftains when they could hurt them.

Their arrival did cause the Chieftains to reorient themselves and call the other three from out of the town to help them. At the same time one of the enemy motz-schutzen zugs mounted up and headed for a factory building to cut off the T55s and BMP-1s from the rest of the regiment. With all these enemy vehicles in front of us our hauptman gave the command to fire. Missiles and cannons from our BMP-2s tore into the enemy. Three of the Chieftains were destroyed or driven off and several of the enemy troop carriers began to burn. However, most of the infantry made it inside the factory.

Attrition was slowly taking its toll on both sides. The Milans were so thick that they seemed to blot out the sun. The T72s suffered horribly when they tried to aid our infantry in town. Our RPGs treated the enemy infantry carriers the same when they attempted to support their infantry.  Most significantly the enemy infantry to the east of town had ceased to fire anti tank weapons. The surviving Chieftains could not move up to support them because of the threat to their flanks. The time seemed ripe to crush them under the tracks of the BMP-1s. The sole surviving T55 commanded by Hauptmann Klink, one of our battalion commanders, would support them along with a fourth BMP-1 too far away to assault. Unfortunately, the woods was littered with the splintered remains of trees blasted by machine guns and at least one artillery barrage. The BMPs quickly bogged down in the mess. When the fourth BMP exploded their crews abandoned their vehicles in a panic, no doubt believing the Chieftains were charging.

Hauptmann Klink was now left alone with a single T55 facing the remnants of the enemy infantry. As the hauptmann was the son of a prominent party leader, Oberstleutnant Keller ordered all forces that were able to move to reinforce Hauptmann Klink. The other T55 battalion balked at the command, still trapped by the river even though they could see Klink in his commander's hatch directing his tank's fire.

Our kompanie followed two of the surviving T72s around the factory held by the enemy. An infantry zug was ordered to take our place in the center. The T72s rushed ahead as we covered them. The enemy zug in the woods must have been as bad off as we were, because we could see infantry exiting the factory heading in that direction and in pursuit of our tanks.

The enemy Chieftains unaware of the approaching T72s turned to deal with our T55s across the river. Seeing the exposed flanks the T72 oberleutnant ordered his tanks to fire on them instead of focusing on relieving Hauptmann Klink. Their shots missed and having drawn attention to themselves the T72s were destroyed.

Stopping only long enough to all but destroy the enemy platoon heading for the woods, we headed for Hauptmann Klink. We watched in horror as a 105mm artillery barrage landed on his tank. One round must have found its way down a hatch because the tank exploded, its turret flying into the air.

The loss of the son of a party leader must have unnerved Oberstleutnant Keller. He ordered us to withdraw back to town in preparation for evacuating the city. We were just shy of contesting the objective and given an opportunity felt we could have secured a stunning victory over the enemy. But we will never know.

-Excerpt from August Maelstrom: Personal Accounts from the Third World War.