by Colin Gee
The turret rose into the air and came back down on the rear of the still moving IS-IV.
Peters’ rocket struck the turret of his target and, although it did not destroy the tank, the main gun was rendered useless unless it could find a target in the sky, jammed into a raised position by scarred metal.
From their safe position behind the ridgeline, Peters’ support crew were already rearming the launcher with another Rotkäppchen missile.
At the start of the battle there were only six for each launcher, and they were the very last available until the French or German industries decided that more production was worth the effort.
The ‘powers that be’ had tried to convince the procurers of the importance of the weapon, but always met with resistance based around other effective alternatives and the time and cost of training operatives.
Just in case the 4e RACE got seriously in harm’s way, it had been issued with a large number of panzerfausts, a few captured Soviet rocket grenades, and a pair of the new US M20 bazookas; the so-called Super Bazooka.
That the Legion had the weapon before many of the US forces was only down to the successful scavenging by her forage parties, much to the puzzlement of a number of quartermasters up and down the Allied front, whose inventories came up short no matter how many times they counted.
However, yet again, ammunition was short for both rocket weapon systems.
One advantage of the Rotkäppchen launcher system was that it was generally deployed out of the line of sight, and so the need to relocate was less than normal.
Peters decided to fire from the same position himself, safe in the knowledge that the smoke trail of the first rocket would not identify his hiding place.
He guided his X-7 into the tank he had previously damaged.
The tank came to a lazy halt and belched smoke as her crew abandoned her.
This time he elected to move.
The IS tanks might not be able to see him or fire at the launcher, but they had mortars and artillery who could do a good job trying to locate him regardless.
No mortar fire came initially, and the enemy artillery response fell more to their front; a mistake, he thought.
‘Scheisse! Smoke!’
The IS force commander had asked for smoke to mask his tanks, an extremely successful counter to the X-7 troops, because even if it didn’t fully obscure a target, the smoke could simply make for a difficult perspective, something that was vital to the wire-controlled missile when guided by eyes nearly a kilometre away.
Some gunners still fired, but there was only one tangible result from their expenditure, so the RACE commander called for a ceasefire, and relocated his men further back.
Peters had a last look at the enemy and decided that they might be changing the axis of their advance.
The arrival of enemy mortar shells prevented him from confirming his suspicions and he ran as fast as his legs could manage and his equipment would allow him.
The Felixes and Jaguars of 4e/1er RCDA were still engaging, but not yet employing their limited HESH, as per an order issued by the unit commander… an order not wholly agreed with.
None the less, the Legion tankers were disciplined, and engaged the enemy heavy tanks with APDS and HEAT.
Back with the RACE, Peters and his nearest comrades received orders to relocate, orders that were either brilliant in conception, or incredibly stupid, depending on how well the IS tanks were supported.
The Kätzchen were brought forward and the small force loaded up.
The three small fully-tracked APCs sped off to relocate on the flank of the advancing enemy tank force to ambush them from the side, something that would require speed of reaction, skill, and above all, luck.
Peters clung to the MG-42 mount as he tried to see the enemy’s movements and, with the occasional glimpse, understood that they were switching from a straight advance and were already angling towards the area he had just vacated.
His map was less than helpful, one of a number of inferior quality ones made available to the rear line units when stocks of the better ones ran out, but he found a long thin stand of trees that would provide him with enough cover to position and shoot.
Another bonus of the X-7 system was its swiftness to deploy in trained hands.
The three Kätzchen bounced along the muddy track and swept into the rear of the stand of trees, still possessing most of their foliage, unlike the majority of woods in the area.
The gunners pulled their launchers clear and were already dragging them forward before Peters could even get his FuG 510 set and its associated paraphernalia clear of the locker.
He ran forward through the light undergrowth and found his own crew establishing the launcher in a prime position.
Hooking up, he moved forward and found a perfect observation point, an almost table-like affair where a fallen trunk lay against a severed tree, providing a seat for him and a place to put his control system, whilst providing excellent physical cover for both him and his kit.
Concentrating on the battlefield, he quickly realised that he could now see less than when in the position he had vacated.
None the less, he knew they were coming, so he patiently held his fire.
Two of the crewmen had returned to the Kätzchen and dismantled the rearmost MG-42, and both were now positioned to provide fire support, should enemy infantry arrive to play a part.
The ex-SS troopers could hardly bear to breathe as they waited…
…and waited…
0618 hrs, Tuesday. 1st April 1947, northern defensive line, Sulisɫawice, Poland.
3e/1er DCA screamed through Nietuja and shook out into a firing line just short of the ridge opposite the enemy force that was no longer heading west, but had turned and was driving at speed towards the river itself.
Köster’s mind recalled another battle, where Soviet tanks had crossed bridges secretly laid under the water, and his heart was in his mouth as the leading T54s approached the river, and then he exhaled in relief as they stopped short of the water and assumed positions that might provide them some sort of shelter from any incoming fire.
Köster’s tanks had been sent further west to broaden the front and provide an ability to interrupt any enemy movement westwards along the modest track that ran from Wólka Gieraszowska to Bazów and all points west.
The other units of the 1er BCL were engaging the main body of the advancing T-54s, trying to hit out at the two flanks in an effort to herd them into a concentrated bunch, something the Soviets would need to do to cross the obstacle of the river, but something that Knocke ordered early on, in order to make his artillery fire even more effective.
For some reasons, the T-54s and their accompanying APCs did not play by the rules, and remained on a relatively broad front and less of a target for the Legion artillery.
The reason suddenly became clear to any of the observing Legion officers and tank commanders, and target priorities shifted quickly.
The engineer tanks were spotted too late for the Legion to perform any credible active interference.
The Soviet artillery relocated their smoke barrage from the east side of Sulisɫawice to the northern approaches, and only a handful of shots were fired at the new arrivals before the slope nearest to the Legion tankers was covered with chemical smoke, successfully masking much of the assault force.
Immediately that happened, the Soviet bridging engineers already at the river went to work putting something in place that might stand a chance of supporting their light vehicles.
There was no chance that the brave men could erect anything capable of supporting one of the battle tanks, but the bridge layers that screamed down the slope at their highest possible speed could.
Their crews were free of any illusions, understanding that the smoke was all that stood between them and the concentrated fire of the defensive force.
On the extreme right flank of the attack group, the left as Köster looked, a Soviet tank ‘flashed’ and swung l
azily, before stopping with a uselessly flapping broken track.
Given that the Legion artillery had not been firing at the spot, and that Third Company had yet to open fire, he rightly concluded that it was a mine, a possibility that might give Third an advantage if the enemy decided to spread even further to the west.
A radio order penetrated his concentration, as the Third’s commander gave the command to engage.
He knew Jarome was on a target so simply passed the order on.
Lohengrin jumped as the 88mm sent a solid shot across the river and crashing into a stationary T-54.
The AP40 shell enjoyed an advantage of angle, having been fired from the ridge looking down, which meant it was able to carve through the T-54’s armour.
Despite the Tiger gun’s venerability, it was still a potent weapon on the modern battlefield, although Lohengrin’s vertical armour plates made her more vulnerable than the more modern vehicles.
The T-54s below had their own successes and each of the BCL’s units had lost vehicles already.
Perversely, Third had been the last to engage but had already lost two of its ARL-44s, one to a dislodged turret following a direct hit, the other to its transmission overheating and the catastrophic failure that resulted.
The design was seriously flawed, and unpopular with the ex-SS Panzertruppen, who were used to better, but it had been pressed into service and its 90mm gun was more than capable of successfully taking on most Soviet tanks.
It was also surprisingly accurate, more so than the 75mm and 88mm weapons to which most were more used.
It was one of the ARLs that killed the first bridge-laying tank, assisted by another shower that helped beat down the smoke.
Zilinski cursed his luck.
The commander of the 7th Guards Special Tank Brigade, the man who replaced Arkady Yarishlov following his hideous wounding at Naugard, watched as the smoke started to dissipate and his forces took increased casualties.
“Mudaks!”
Unlike Yarishlov, Zilinski chose to ride into battle in an APC rather than a tank, and he had taken a position on the heights opposite the Legion lines from where he could better observe the unfolding events.
He was normally a cautious leader, but Deniken had been on the radio, haranguing him for any delays and ordering him to press and press hard.
The opportunity to destroy the hated SS bastards of the Legion was not to be missed, so Zilinski committed his men to a suicidal task, simply to protect his bridge layers.
He spoke rapidly into his radio, addressing the whole reinforced tank battalion, the support unit, and then one specific company.
Returning to his binoculars, he observed the tanks putting down smoke directly on the enemy positions and then the company he had ordered over the bridge moving to concentrate for the attack.
Simply put, he was prepared to sacrifice some of his men to get the bridges in place, not trusting solely to the smoke from his tanks and mortars, having decided to hand the enemy the maximum amount to think about at one time.
“Blyad!”
His lead tank came apart as something unforgiving hammered into it.
As dispassionately as he could, he watched as three of the vehicle’s crew ran around like human torches until they fell, either consumed by the fire they carried with them or shot down by their comrades.
Another tank died as he wiped his hand across his face, but this time the men aboard escaped without apparent injury.
The furthest forward T-54 nosed onto the modest bridge and accelerated across, the desperation of her crew apparent even from that distance.
Another followed but fell victim to a hit as it turned off the road, its track rolling out behind it as the driver coaxed the wounded vehicle towards the illusion of safety represented by an old building.
The enemy gunners turned on the wounded tank and simply blew it apart.
Yet another of his tanks had died before it reached the small stone structure, but the remainder were moving forward, bravely attempting to do their commander’s bidding.
Another paid the price, but Zilinski missed its death as he watched the first of the transportable bridges drop into place, the IS-II chassis bridging vehicle backing away to permit the first of his tanks to cross up river of the bridge.
“Yes! Yes! We’ve done it… my men’ve done it! Kapitan! Report to Comrade General Deniken… tell him we’ve bridged the river west of Route 9 in…” he quickly checked and added the bridges still being deployed, “… five places. Now, man!”
The remainder of his tank battalion acted as they had already been ordered, and the company and platoon commanders sent their tanks across the river.
Their own smoke screen was of little use, and each unit in turn felt the weight of the defence as casualties mounted.
Their accompanying infantry had started to cross beforehand, relatively unmolested by the tankers of 1er BCL.
Not that they hadn’t been seen; it was simply that they were to be left to the watching legionnaires from a company of Truffaux’s 3e/5e RdM, and the tirailleurs of the 7e RTA.
Truffaux had positioned his command group behind his third company, so it was he who gave the order to start slaughtering the advancing infantry.
The legionnaires and tirailleurs lashed out with their machine-guns, a mix of MG-34s, 42s, M2s, and a surprising number of BARs.
The heavier weapons concentrated their fire on the temporary crossing points and inflatables, whereas the lighter weapons, including a number of the latest ST-45s carried by the 7e RTA soldiers, flayed the men already across the river and working their way up the slope.
Legion mortars opened up, adding to the misery of the under-pressure infantry, although some were quickly silenced by the appearance of a pair of Shturmoviks, who deposited their cluster bombs in the middle of Sulisɫawice, killing and wounding many of the mortar men and destroying nearly two-thirds of the mortar ammunition.
FW-190s of the DRL’s 23rd [Lehr] Jagdstaffel swept across the battlefield in hot pursuit of the pair of Shturmoviks and chopped one from the sky over Rozki, where it plunged into a group of Polish buildings, killing many of the cowering civilians.
The other escaped as La-9s swept in to protect the last surviving ground attack aircraft.
The Focke-Wulfs turned away, their ammunition and fuel already depleted by previous encounters in an air space increasingly and unusually Soviet in ownership.
To add to their woes, the DRL staffel had turned over the airspace above a large portion of the 1st Battalion, 286th Guards AA Regiment and their ZSU-20-4 vehicles.
The relatively slow moving FWs were at a perfect height for the SPAA mounts, and three were felled in the first volley of shots.
The gunners switched to other targets, some of which were already showing the outward signs of damage. Gunners homed in on the damaged aircraft, following smoke trails, and three more DRL aircraft were hacked from the battle’s airspace, but also added in one of the pursuing Lavochkins, whose proximity overrode the gunners’ natural caution when firing into an airspace containing friend and foe.
Three of the AA guns triangulated and blew the tail off the La-9 before gun controllers realised the error.
Too late for the experienced pilot, veteran of the early days of the Patriotic War.
His thoroughbred aircraft simply span into the Polish soil below and exploded, leaving very little to be salvaged when the battle moved on.
In front of the burning Lavochkin, the remaining FWs drove hard for the safety of their own lines, knowing that they couldn’t out-climb the Soviet fighters, but intent on springing a trap of their own.
Their leader took them on a rapid turn to starboard, which the pursuers mirrored.
Behind the Soviet fighters, a group of USAAF Shooting Stars remained high above the battlefield, unaware of the low-flying Lavochkins and providing top cover for a gaggle of Tigercats on an S&D mission, one of only two squadrons that were not based in the Pacific or Persia, on thei
r way to a ground attack mission of their own.
However, the Tigercats spotted the juicy target and, on the orders of the mission commander, the rear group jettisoned their bombs and turned to engage the unsuspecting La-9s.
The heavy twin-engine USAAF fighter-bombers carried a heavy punch, with four 20mm and four .50cal heavy machine-guns.
Three Soviet fighters fell in the first pass, and the inexperienced pilots panicked and scattered, despite their still superior numbers.
Not a single shot was fired back at the Tigercats as they chased the disorganised Soviet regiment in all directions, and the skies over the Koprzywianka River suddenly cleared of all aircraft.
Deniken consulted with Lisov and ordered part of the 171st to change its axis of movement, in order to try and break through behind Koprzywnica and at the same time bring force to bear on the south and southeast sides of the Sulisɫawice defences, defences that were far stronger than had been anticipated, making the overall plan fall a little behind schedule.
Having communicated with Rybalko, ostensibly to seek permission for the change, Deniken decided to shift his battle headquarters closer to the front, and within minutes the group was mobile towards the sound of the guns.
0628 hrs, Tuesday. 1st April 1947, Sulisɫawice, Poland.
Peters’ small group ran for their lives, leaving one lazily burning Kätzchen behind, with one of the launchers and four of their comrades.
All in all, the 4e RACE and 4e/1er RCDA’s Panthers and Felix tanks had knocked out seven of the big tanks and at least double that number of the newly arrived SPAT and tanks of the 6th Guards Tank Corps.
The X-7 gunners had not done as well as they would have hoped, more than one control wire snagging on the numerous bushes that covered the battlefield, and the huge IS-VIIs that had been their targets were seemingly impervious to direct hits, unless from the side, which was how the two that were burning had died, victims of Peters’ redeployment onto the left flank of Stelmakh’s force.
