Team in the assembly area and instructed him to provide guides when it arrived. With that taken care of, he started back for Langen and Team Yankee.
The Team never made it to the assembly area. The 2nd of the 94th, in one last push, succeeded in smashing through the Soviet's last defensive belt and destroyed a half-hearted counterattack by an understrength Soviet tank battalion. Orders came down over the Team net to move immediately to the passage point where they were met by the Scout Platoon and ground guides from the 2nd of the 94th. These guides directed Weiss's platoon to a cleared lane through a Soviet minefield that had been breached earlier. Team Yankee was now in the attack and headed for the Saale.
Once clear of the minefield, the 1st Platoon deployed into a wedge and began to pick up speed. From the cupola of his tank, Weiss surveyed the terrain to his front with the aid of his night vision goggles. There was no sign of the enemy. He turned to his left and watched the Scout Platoon, now clear of the minefield, begin to deploy to his right. Like his platoon, it also was forming a wedge. The Mech Platoon would be coming through the minefield now. Before turning to his front, he caught sight of the 66 tank as it pulled into a position between his platoon and the scouts.
Satisfied that all was in order, Murray Weiss leaned back in the cupola and allowed himself to relax for a moment. The entire Team, after spending a relatively peaceful afternoon near Langen, had been on the run ever since the Team commander returned with its new mission. Precombat checks, preparation for the night move, boresighting the tanks, receiving the Team order, and issuing the platoon order had taken up the balance of the afternoon. Immediately after darkness had fallen, the Team moved out for its forward assembly area where it was to wait for the order to pass through the 2nd of the 94th.
Weiss was pleased with the Team's mission and the orders Bannon had issued. The Team was divided into two parts. The XO, with the 2nd and 3rd Platoons, would move along a separate route about one kilometer west of the rest of the Team. Captain Bannon, with the 1st and Scout Platoons followed by the Mech, was to advance toward a bridge on the Saale. The order to bypass all resistance and go hell for leather toward the bridge regardless of the cost pleased both Weiss and Garger. The two lieutenants were tired of being held in check and having to wait for someone else to get their shit together. Although the Team commander tried to dampen their enthusiasm, the lieutenants were thrilled that they finally were going to have a chance to do some no-holds-barred tanking.
The crack of a tank cannon and the blurted contact report from 3rd Platoon jarred Weiss back to the present. The element with the XO had made contact. The enemy was out there. Weiss straightened up in the cupola and began to scan the horizon for them.
No one saw where it had come from. One minute there was nothing. The next minute, there it was. It was as if the BTR-60 had popped up out of the ground less than two hundred meters in front of the platoon. Without breaking pace and with one round, Blackfoot's 32 tank destroyed the BTR. Garger automatically ordered the platoon to refuse its left by going to a left echelon formation. This was done without confusion and with hardly a break in the platoon's stride. After a quick contact report to the XO, Garger turned back to his left and peered into the darkness through his night vision goggles. There was no further movement for the moment. The lone BTR, now burning, was well to the rear of the platoon as they continued to the Saale.
The 2nd Platoon, to the right, fired next. Garger whipped around to see what they were firing at. Following the tracers from the 2nd Platoon's rounds he saw several forms moving away from the advancing Team. A brilliant flash and shower of sparks followed by an eruption of flames lit up the night. One Soviet tank had been hit and destroyed. A second Russian tank, clearly illuminated by the flames from the hit tank, could be seen fleeing north. It did not make it, however. Another tank in 2nd Platoon fired and dispatched it.
'TANK-TWELVE O'CLOCK-MOVING NORTH!' At first, Garger thought that his gunner was looking at the same tank that he was looking at. Then he realized that the gun tube was still pointed to the left. He dropped down to his sight and saw the tank his gunner had found. For a moment he hesitated. B company, 1st of the 4th, was to their left. He did not want to engage a friendly tank. Garger studied the target in his thermal sight for a moment. He could make out the turret and the tracks. It was definitely moving north. But did it belong to B company or was it Russian? Then he noticed that the rear of the tank was dark. The exhaust from an M-I tank is vented out the rear, creating a tremendous heat signature. If the tank was an M-I, its rear would have been bright green. The tank was Russian. Without further delay, Garger issued his fire command and dispatched another Soviet tank.
The young engineer lieutenant was not pleased with his orders nor with having a KGB captain at his side overseeing him. The KGB captain and his people were supposed to be at the bridge to gather up stragglers and control movement. The young lieutenant was smart enough, however, to realize that the squat, stone-faced captain also had the task of ensuring that the people defending the bridge and preparing its destruction followed orders. Why else did the captain follow his every move and question every order the engineer gave?
The 15th Guards Tank Division was in the process of withdrawing across the Saale. The withdrawal was in great haste and confusion. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the order in which units came across. A tank unit was followed by a maintenance detachment, which in turn was followed by an artillery unit with a field hospital mixed in. To add to the confusion, the KGB would halt units at random and demand to see written orders giving them permission to withdraw to the north side of the river. Most of the units did not have these, having received orders over the radio. The KGB knew this but continued to stop units.
The thing that bothered the engineer lieutenant the most was the manner in which the KGB dealt with stragglers. When individuals, officer and enlisted, were found to be crossing without their unit, they were taken over to the side of the road and questioned. At first, the KGB captain was called in to consider each case. After awhile, however, he tired of this and allowed a young and enthusiastic KGB lieutenant to deal with the enlisted stragglers. The captain only wanted to be called in to deal with the officers, Justice, KGB style, was quick. The engineer, at the insistence of the KGB captain, watched each series of executions. Once a straggler was determined to be a deserter, he was put into a small wooden shed at the south end of the bridge. When the shed was full, the convicted deserters were lined up next to the road, in full view of the troops moving across the bridge. The KGB lieutenant would read a statement outlining the crimes committed against the State and Party before giving the order to fire. The first time he watched, the engineer lieutenant became sick. As he bent over to throw up, the KGB captain slapped him on the back and told him he had nothing to worry about, as long as he carried out his orders. The captain's statement was a promise, not a threat. The engineer lieutenant knew that if he blew the bridge without first receiving permission, the next time the KGB captain slapped his back, there would be a knife in his hand.
The sudden flurry of engagements stopped as rapidly as they had begun. The Team was halfway to the river and making good time. The Soviets encountered by the XO's element had been withdrawing and apparently were not interested in offering resistance. All was going well so far. Things had a nasty habit, however, of changing very rapidly. Six tanks and a couple of well-placed antitank guided missile launchers could raise hell with the Team.
Bannon expected to make contact with just such delaying forces momentarily.
The anticipation of such an event was becoming unbearable. An outright shoot-out with the Russians in the open was preferable to this rolling around in the dark waiting to be hit. His mind kept filling with worst case what ifs as the Team came to each point he had marked on his map where the Soviets could take up good delay positions. As the Team approached each point, Bannon could feel his heartbeat quicken as his body prepared for action. But nothing happened. The Team's lead elements would bypass the point and continue rolling north. Just as he managed to calm down, the next critical point would be reached, and he would again tense up in anticipation. They had to either make it to the river soon or make contact with the Russians. It really didn't matter to him. Anything was better than dealing with the stress of the unknown.
Just ahead of the element he was leading was a small town. Bannon would have preferred to bypass it but decided to send the scouts through it. Part of the Team's mission was to be noticed and running through the town was a good way to get noticed. The 1 st Platoon and the Mech were ordered to go around the town to the west and the scouts to make a high-speed dash through the center. If they ran into light resistance, they were to bull through. If the Soviets were present in strength, they were to back out and follow the rest of the Team. As the I st Platoon veered off to the left, the scouts formed on the road and raced in at a dead run. The lead scout track had no sooner entered the town when the report of its machine guns came echoing out. Flores sent a quick contact report. He had run into a Soviet recon unit in the town square and was taking it under fire as they rolled through.
Bannon reminded him that he was not to become decisively engaged and was to get out of there as soon as possible to rejoin the Team. With the din of battle clearly audible over the radio as he responded, Flores gave Bannon a curt 'ROGER-OUT' and continued to fight his battle and carry out his orders. Though concerned that the
