encounter the broken-ground and wadi system where the dismounted infantry and the Bradleys waited. Artillery continued to fall about the Bradleys in spurts, taking its toll.
With nothing to do but wait until contact was made, Dixon began to notice small, obscure details. One of the T-80s in the lead was holding back and swerving from side to side. The tank commander, no doubt, was nervous and did not relish being with the lead element. For the first time, Dixon realized how nervous he was.
He could sympathize with that tank commander. How much easier it was to be sitting in the defense than running out across the open, knowing that everyone with an antitank missile was tracking you. Dixon looked down into his own turret. His gunner was calmly tracking a Soviet tank. Their TOW launcher was up and the ready-to-fire indicator was illuminated. All the gunner needed was one word.
The commander of Charlie Company gave that word as the lead Soviet tanks tripped across an imaginary line on the ground and entered Charlie Company's kill zone. Dixon watched as four Bradleys let fly their TOW missiles. The nervous T-80 was quickly alerted to the oncoming danger.
He fired smoke grenades and stopped moving, in an effort to screen himself.
The TOW that was targeted for him found its mark, however. The TOW gunner merely kept his thermal sight on the center mass where the T-80 had been and let the missile fly into the screen of smoke. A ball of flame followed by a rush of black smoke pushed the white smoke aside.
The T-80 was dead.
Not all the T-80s died from their first hits. Reactive armor, explosives in small metal boxes arrayed in front of the turrets of the T-80s, detonated with thunderous explosions and in some cases prevented the TOWS' warheads from penetrating the tanks' main armor. Dixon was amazed that crews were able to survive such a cataclysmic explosion.
Some did, rolling on, trailing a thin veil of smoke from smoldering scraps and hot steel. These successes were normally short-lived, however, as other TOWs marked the same tank and bored through. In less than a minute, all four lead tanks were burning or stopped: With the tanks gone, the Soviet BTRs came rolling out from under the smokescreen generated by the tanks. Their alignment was gone as they drove past burning tanks or zigzagged in an effort to confuse the Bradleys' TOW antitank guided missiles. But the Bradley gunners were not confused by the evasive maneuvers, and the BTRs, not protected by reactive armor, were easy prey: most of the TOW missiles found their mark and took their toll.
Despite the demise of the lead company, the next Soviet motorized rifle company rolled forward, past the foundering lead company. The second company had only two tanks in the lead and five BTRs. Artillery had already made its inroads. The folly of the Soviet deployment in column manifested itself as the second and third companies were, in their turn, smashed by
Charlie Company. Rather than hit in mass, the Soviets had presented themselves a little at a time. It reminded Dixon of watching a butcher feed meat into a grinder. Though each motorized rifle company drew closer to Charlie Company in its turn and was finally able to return fire, this gained it nothing but a quicker death as the 25mm chain guns came into play.
For a moment, there was a pause. The firing died down but did not completely stop. A few of the BTRs had made it into the wadis and their infantry had dismounted. A fight, pitting Soviet infantrymen supported by their BTR armored personnel carriers against Charlie Company's infantrymen and their Bradleys, now developed in the broken ground and wadis along the western flank of the American battalion's sector. Charlie Company had more than enough people and firepower to decide the issue if the Soviets were not reinforced. Dixon listened to the reports from the scouts as the second Soviet motorized rifle battalion entered the sector of the 3rd of the 4th Armor.
The Soviet second-echelon battalion apparently did not know that the first battalion had gained a foothold in the wadis. Instead of rushing forward and adding its weight to that fight, it rolled down along the eastern flank. The only reasonable explanation was that the regimental commander, surprised at the strength encountered in the west, had decided to try the left, hoping to find it lightly defended. Since the eastern side of the 3rd of the 4th Armor's sector was more open, the Soviets were able to deploy two companies forward, with the second company close enough to the first to support it by fire. The same openness also allowed the 3rd of the 4th to 235 mass the firepower of the remaining company and two teams, with telling effect. Once the Soviets were committed, Dixon called for the artillery to fire scatter able mines. These mines, in conjunction with the antitank ditch and the mines already in place, slowed and disrupted the well-orchestrated Soviet battle drill. Despite large volumes of artillery- and tank-generated smoke, efforts to breach the obstacles were frustrated by accurate M-1 tank fire. Soviet mine rollers and plows, along with MTU bridge layers, were destroyed as soon as they ventured forward.
T-80 tanks standing off and attempting to provide cover fire for the mine rollers and plows were, in their turn, destroyed. Seeing no way around the obstacle and little chance of bulling through, the Soviets began to withdraw.
As the battle began to ebb, Dixon's assistant called him on the radio and asked if he had been monitoring the brigade-command frequency.
Dixon, caught up in the battalion's fight, had not. The assistant S-3 reported that the brigade was having difficulty contacting the 1st of the 503rd Infantry. That battalion had reported earlier that it was being hit by tanks and BMPs, and after several sketchy reports it had stopped answering the brigade's calls.
Dixon was concerned. If the infantry battalion had been hit by a regiment equipped with BMPs, odds were that the main effort was going in against the 503rd and not the 3rd of the 4th Armor. The fight that was dying out to his front was probably nothing more than a supporting attack whose purpose was to divert attention while the Soviets broke through the infantry battalion.
Dixon contacted his commander and relayed his conclusions. The battalion commander concurred and, in turn, contacted the brigade commander, with the result that the armored battalion was instructed to make physical contact with the 1st of the 503rd Infantry and clarify the situation over there.
With the scouts forward, Charlie Company still flushing out the Soviet survivors, and the battalion commander needed in the battalion sector, it was up to Dixon to make that contact. Besides, Dixon knew where the two battalions'
designated contact points were. Without giving it further thought, he ordered his driver to back the Bradley out of its position.
Even after the Bradley had moved into the infantry sector-having avoided enemy fire by traveling along covered and concealed routes-it inched along with caution. Since they were approaching the other battalion's positions from the rear and were five kilometers from where the front line should be, they had more to fear from a nervous U.S. infantryman armed with an antitank rocket launcher than from the Soviets.
As they moved forward through a narrow, twisting wadi, Dixon had a crewman in the rear compartment switch the radio to the battalion-command frequency of the 1st of the 503rd Infantry and attempted to raise someone on that net. There was no response. After three unsuccessful attempts, he decided to try a company command net in that battalion. Just as Dixon lowered himself onto his seat inside the turret and pulled out his code book to look up the company frequencies, his gunner screamed, 'Jesus Christ! Back up-no, driver, stop! On the waaay!' This was immediately followed by a long burst of 25mm cannon fire as the gunner held his trigger down, pumping out rounds.
Dixon was startled. He looked at his gunner, who had now stopped firing, and shouted at him without keying the intercom, 'What the fuck are you doing?'
The gunner didn't answer, but kept his eye glued to his sight. Then it dawned upon Dixon what had happened. Letting the code book fall to the floor, he popped his head up out of the turret and looked in the direction the 25mm gun was pointed. To their front, at a range of less than twenty meters, was a burning Soviet BMP, its 30mm gun aimed at Dixon.
Chapter 13
My center gives way, my right is pushed back, situation excellent, I am attacking.
