about a weapon system does not always mean that you know what to do about it when you encounter that weapon. The manner in which the Soviets dealt with the scatterable minefields was a case, in point.
Tanks began to hit the mines and stop. Commanders at first thought they were under fire but saw no tell-tale gun or missile launcher flash. As more tanks hit the mines, the other tanks began to slow down. A minefield. An unexpected inconvenience but one that the Soviet commanders could deal with. With a single order, the companies began to reform into columns behind the tanks equipped with mine plows and rollers. Once the tanks were out of the minefield, they could redeploy and continue as before. Soviet battle drill is good, and it is precise.
It was at this point, when the Soviets were in the midst of redeploying, that Major Jordan ordered the ITVs, D company, and Team Bravo to open fire. The sudden mass volley caught the Soviets off-guard. They had thought that once they had cleared the choke point between the two hills and had begun to bypass Langen, there would be no stopping them. After all, the choke point was the logical place to defend, not after. Confusion, both in the Soviet battle formation caught in the middle of redeploying and in the minds of commanders faced with an unexpected problem, became worse as the Soviet tank company commanders and platoon leaders began to die.
With the Soviets thrashing about in the open, Jordan directed the artillery to switch to firing dual-purpose improved conventional ammunition, or DPICM. Like the scatterable mine, the artillery projectiles were loaded with many small submunitions. The submunitions in DPICM, however, were bomblets that exploded on contact and were designed to penetrate the thin armor covering the top of armored vehicles. Confusion now began to degenerate into pandemonium. Some tanks simply stopped and began to fire into Langen. Others tried to carry out the last orders given and form into column. Tanks from the second tank battalion of the regiment still in the gap between the hills charged directly toward Langen and ran afoul of the minefields laid by the engineers and infantry. Some tanks simply turned and tried to go back, a few headed toward the woods where Team Yankee was, thinking the silent tree line offered safe haven.
Sensing that the time was right, Major Jordan delivered his coup de grace. He ordered Team Yankee to fire. The first volley was devastating. Those Soviets headed toward the Team's positions were dispatched without ever knowing what happened. After the first well-measured volley, the tank crews in Team Yankee began to engage the Soviet tanks in their assigned sectors of responsibility. Firing rapidly, the tanks began to methodically take out the Soviet tanks starting with those closest to the Team's positions. Above the din of battle, the shouted orders of tank commanders could be heard:
'FIRE!' 'GUNNER-SABOT-TWO TANKSFIRE!' 'TARGET-NEXT TANK-FIRE!' Like a wolf smelling blood on a crippled and dying animal, the Scout Platoon swung around to the rear of the Soviet regiment and began to engage. The people who started the battle rushed forward as the battalion began the final stages of its killing frenzy.
The scene before Bannon was staggering. He stood upright in the turret and watched. Folk no longer needed him, simply continuing to engage anything that appeared in his sight. Folk, the loader, the cannon, and the fire control system were one complete machine, functioning automatically, efficiently, effectively.
Hell itself could not have compared with the scene in the open space to the front of 66.
There was the burning village of Langen in the background. Flames, interrupted by the impact of incoming artillery rounds, leaped high above the village and disappeared in low hanging clouds. From the far left of Bannon's field of vision to the far right and beyond, smashed Soviet tanks and tracked vehicles burned, spewing out great sheets of flames as the propellant from onboard ammunition ignited and blew. Burning diesel from ruptured fuel cells formed flaming pools around dead tanks. Tracers and missiles streaked across the field from all directions, causing stunning showers of sparks when a tank round hit a Soviet tank or a brilliant flash as a missile found its mark. Soviet crewmen, some burning, abandoned their tanks only to be cut down as chattering machine guns added their stream of red tracers to the fray. Transfixed by this scene, Bannon received a new understanding of Wilfred Owen's grim poem, 'Dulce et Decorum Est.'
As in all the Team's battles, there was no really clear-cut ending. The deafening crescendo of battle suddenly tapered off as the gunners ran out of targets. It was replaced by random shooting, usually machine guns searching out fugitive Soviet crewmen trying to escape. No order was given to cease fire. There was no need to. As before, Bannon allowed the Team to take out those that had survived the destruction of their vehicles. Mopping up is a useful term for this random killing. Team Yankee and D company continued to mop up for the better part of an hour.
When he was sure that the last of the Soviet tanks had been destroyed, Bannon called for a SITREP from the platoons. From his position he could not see any more of the Team than the tanks to his immediate left and right. In the heat of battle, he and the platoon leaders had become totally absorbed in fighting their tanks. There had been no need to exercise any command or control once the order to fire had been given. It had been a simple case of fire quickly and keep firing. The result was that, although he knew they had stopped the Soviets, Bannon had no idea what it had cost the Team.
The replies he received from the platoons were difficult to believe but welcome. Though several tanks had been hit, the total cost to the Team had been two men killed and four wounded, most of them from the Mech Platoon, as usual, and one tank damaged. The positions dug by the engineers and the fact that Team Yankee had joined the battle last, after the Soviet commanders has lost control of the situation, allowed the Team to come out with relatively light casualties.
Listening to the SITREPs given over the battalion radio net, Bannon learned that D company had suffered far more than Team Yankee due to the Soviet artillery fire and the fact that they were in the middle of things. Even so, that company was still in good shape and could field three slightly understrength platoons.
By the time Major Jordan got around to calling for a SITREP from the Team, Bannon's elation at coming out of this last fight so well with so little damage gave way to cockiness.
When the major asked for a report, Bannon gave him the same words Wellington had used when describing the Battle of Waterloo: 'They came in the same old way, and you know, we beat them, in the same old way.'
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
To the Saale
The creeping dawn of the tenth day of war revealed the full extent of their success. Over eighty Soviet vehicles lay smashed and strewn in the Langen Gap. The largest gaggle of burned-out hulks was between Langen and the Team's positions. A few of the tanks had been less than fifty meters away from Team Yankee when they had been hit.and stopped.
The battalion had been heavily outnumbered and by all rights should have paid dearly for holding the gap. But it had held and had done so cheaply. The favorable margin of victory had only been achieved through the planning and orchestration of the battle by Major Jordan.
Despite the magnitude of what they had done, there were no visible signs of joy or pride in Team Yankee. The closest thing to emotion displayed by anyone was a look of utter exhaustion. The efforts of the previous day and night, the emotional roller coaster caused by fleeting brushes with death and brief but intense periods of combat had taken their toll. When Bannon trooped the line at dawn, he was greeted with simple nods or stares by those who were still awake. Uleski was lying on top of 55 in a sleep that bordered on death. As there was no need to wake him, Bannon left instructions with Gwent to have him report to 66 when he woke but not later than 1100 hours. Bob Uleski needed his sleep more than Bannon needed him.
In the Mech Platoon area the men were split up evenly, half of them in the foxholes on alert and the rest back at the tracks. The day was starting cool and overcast. Since the mud in the foxholes hadn't begun to dry and wouldn't do so anytime soon, Polgar sent those men who weren't on duty to the tracks to sleep where it was dry. Bannon found him sitting with his back against a tree, his Ml6 cradled in his arms, asleep. As with Uleski, Bannon didn't bother him but left the same message with the squad leader in charge.
The morning passed quietly. The Team simply remained in position and watched the area to its front for any signs of activity. Patrols from D company had begun to sweep the battlefield after the last of the scatterable mines had selfdestructed. Occasionally there would be a random shot fired, but no one paid much attention. The patrols were stopping at each Soviet vehicle to check it. When they were satisfied that the vehicle was harmless, the patrol leader would mark it with chalk. Those tracks that were still burning were given wide berth.
The bodies strewn about the field were also checked. Not many Soviet crewmen had managed to abandon
