by Harald,C. M.
The troops studied maps and the Experimental Battalion rehearsed the attack several times. B Company, with its four combat groups, extensively practiced Marsh's method of silent attack. Each combat group received a shotgun and Chauchat, Field Marshal Haig delivering on his promise. The Tigers were armoured with carefully secured Brodie helmets, although other attempts to armour them were ineffective as the armour proved too weak or cumbersome. Every two combat groups had a Lieutenant and Sergeant, with Scott and Marsh taking these roles for the combat group that Marsh found himself in. Lieutenant Simpson was, to Marsh's relief, in A Company, having already convinced his Captain to continue with as many of the old infantry techniques and tactics as possible. Simpson had especially resisted the issuing of shotguns, but had to back down to avoid discontent from the men.
What was lacking in their preparations was co-ordination with other units. Although the tanks were to be deployed to the left, there had been minimal consideration of how the tanks would work alongside the Tigers. The Tigers were swift and deadly, while the tanks were slow and noisy, lethal wherever they went, but vulnerable to the terrain and unable to wipe out the enemy from any one trench. There were similar problems with coordinating the artillery, especially the Corps level artillery that provided the majority of the artillery support on any battlefield. Minimal photo reconnaissance had been undertaken by the Royal Flying Corps, who had been busy providing the Canadians with photos for their sector of the attack at Vimy. There were rumours that the Canadians had even built scale models of the terrain and fully rehearsed their attack, a far more thorough approach than the Experimental Battalion was taking. Then there were the Australians, who did not really want British help. For that matter, they resented the presence of the British soldiers, although the small number that got to meet the Tigers were amused by them, rather than fearful. Marsh knew that the Australians would fight hard, after all they had already established their reputation in this war, but he was concerned that the levels of preparation that the Canadians were supposedly demonstrating elsewhere, were not being made here. He had even seen one of the tens of thousands of maps the Canadians had printed for their troops. Nothing like it had been provided to him or the Australians. The Australians he had spoken to had made it clear to Marsh that the issue was with the British leadership and higher level coordination. He could see from the way the troops worked together that they were experienced and many had made reference to their campaigns in Egypt and Gallipoli before that.
The Canadian attack at Vimy Ridge, to the north of Arras, had gone in on the 9th April, two days previously. Every artillery piece that the Canadians had in Europe had been firing for a week in preparation for the attack. A heavy gun every twenty yards and a field gun every ten was the rumour. Vast underground mines had been detonated underneath the enemy trenches and a new tactic, called the creeping barrage, had been tried for the first time. As the Canadians advanced over no-mans-land, field guns fired a barrage just ahead of them, designed to stop the Germans from targeting the vulnerable Canadians. Every three minutes, the barrage shifted one hundred yards towards the objective. This kept the Germans from supporting their forward areas while the heavy Canadian artillery dealt with known German positions and countered the fire of the German artillery batteries. From what Marsh had heard, the strategy had been extremely successful and the Germans had quickly been overcome, even losing much of their artillery as they were unable to withdrawn it under the fierce Canadian fire.
The success of the Canadian attack worried Marsh as much as it inspired him. Their assault had only been a short distance away on the other side of Arras and the Germans in this sector would therefore be alert for attacks. Whether the enemy would consider any other attacks to be diversions or not, they were unlikely to want to give ground along the fortified Hindenburg Line. The lack of coordinated preparation was a major concern, but Marsh had confidence in the Tigers to achieve their objectives. Another aspect of this failure to coordinate had been that the attack had been meant to occur one day after the Canadian offensive, but the tanks had not been able to get into position due to bad weather and therefore the attack had been postponed by a day. What was worse, was that one British regiment had not received the orders about the postponement and had unsuccessfully attacked to the north of Bullecourt, further alerting the defenders.
'My God.' The Australian Captain complained, 'We can't go ahead. The Germans know we're coming, only eleven tanks have made it into position and there's been a mess-up with the artillery barrage.'
'I thought there wasn't going to be a preparatory barrage, Sir.' Marsh replied as a few shells flew overhead.
'That's almost right. We were going to take them by surprise with a short barrage to take out the wire only.' The Captain peered through his periscope, 'But what artillery there is, is not enough to cut much wire. Here, have a look.'
The Captain moved aside to let Marsh look through the trench periscope. He could see the badly cratered mud of no-mans-land, the odd shell exploding and the barbed wire mostly intact. Splintered stumps of trees stood in small clusters that might once have been a small wood. The ground was also clearly saturated by the rains that held up the tanks the previous day. Marsh knew it was probably worse on the right where the tanks were positioned as the Hirondelle River drained through the lines there.
'I'm going to get on the telephone to Headquarters to let them know the enemy wire isn't broken. I think they should postpone the attack again until it's dealt with. General Gough will want us to attack, and that's pretty much all he wants to do, but I saw this sort of thing at Gallipoli and there's no way we can get through.' The Captain walked off to the dug-out containing the field telephone.
It was not long until the Captain came back. He did not look happy and called his Lieutenants over along with Lieutenant Scott, who was in charge of the Experimental B Company. Marsh held back at the edges of the gathering, but could hear what was being said.
'Battalion have passed along our concerns about the bombardment and the state of the enemy wire. Other companies have reported the same along their sectors of the line. However, General Gough is still wanting the attack to go ahead with no further delays. We'll just have to do our best with that wire.' The Captain looked at Scott, 'Are your Tigers ready to go Lieutenant?'
'Yes Sir, although the wire will affect us as well since the Tigers aren't great at untangling themselves. We'll have to stick to clearer passages and those are likely to be covered by machine-guns.'
'We'll be kicking off as scheduled in one hour. Get your Tigers out into no-mans-land and as close as possible for the assault and then we'll follow you up as planned. Without the bombardment, we're relying on you to get us into the enemy trenches.'
'We'll do our best Sir, but our artillery is still shelling no-mans-land trying to clear the wire. I can't get any of my teams out there until the shelling stops. It's bad enough that the sun's now up.' Scott replied.
'Yes, I know the plan originally called for your lads to get into position during darkness, but with this mess-up with the artillery, it's no longer possible. You'll just have to get them out there as soon as you can. General Gough was quite specific about that, that we do what we can, as soon as we can.' The captain could see that Scott was less than happy with the situation, 'Good luck and I'll see you in the German trenches.'
The Captain dismissed the gathered officers and Scott brought his two combat group leaders together.
'You heard what the Captain said. We're to get out there as soon as possible. Get as close as you can to the enemy trenches before launching the attack, and don't attack until it's zero hour.'
'But Sir, it's daylight and the artillery isn't dropping off yet. The Germans will see us and pick us off as we get into position. We should have got into position hours ago while it was still dark.' Marsh reminded him.
'As soon as it seems like the artillery has dropped off in front of your position, get out there into no-mans-land and get ready to assault.' Sc
ott thought for a moment, 'It could be that we'll have to advance at the last minute, just ahead of the Australians.'
'At least that'll keep Simpson happy over at A Company, he can pretend he's fighting with normal soldiers.' The other combat group leader, Tomkins, said.
'Tomkins, I'll accompany your group, Wells will be with you Marsh. Remember, handlers are in command during combat, so don't let us stand on your toes.' Scott waited until they both acknowledged the arrangements 'Any questions?'
The supporting artillery fire, although sporadic, did not drop off until five minutes before the attack was due to start. As a result all the Tigers were still in the forward trenches, crammed in with impatient and excited Australians. Somehow Marsh had managed to prevent any accidents from happening with his Tigers, although several of the Australians were enjoying teasing the snapping zombies, having quickly got over the shock of discovering that they were sharing the forward trench with Tigers. Word spread quickly among the Australians of what to expect from the Tigers, as other than the officers, they had not been briefed about the existence of these shock troops.
'Out we go lads.' Marsh directed his combat group, 'Keep low and I'll get the Tigers spread out. We'll try to get close to the enemy lines, but if we can't we go to ground and advance with the Australians.'
Marsh verbally and mentally ordered the Tigers over the top. He gave them mental images of the wire and how to avoid it, ordering them to use the cover of nearby shell holes, crawling as soon as they were clear of the parapet. The Tigers were quickly followed by the protection squad along with Marsh, all of whom stayed low rushing to the nearest craters. Marsh ended up in a crater with two Tigers as well as Morgan, just as a German machine-gun position opened up on them, their movement having draw the defenders attention.
'Great.' Morgan said as the bullets cracked overhead, 'Pinned down and we've only just started.'
'So much for a stealthy attack then Taff. Looks like we'll have to charge down the gun position when the Aussies come out and join us. If we don't, it'll murder our guys.'
Marsh crawled up the crater wall and took a quick peak over the edge. Another machine-gun opened up having spotted his movement and he pulled his head back quickly into cover, 'The wire's still solid ahead. There's a couple of gaps towards those MG posts, but I bet they'll have been set up as killing zones. We'll have to charge them down and hope that the Tigers can stand up to the damage. I'm not going to wait until the Aussies turn up, they'll get slaughtered.'
Marsh put his fingers to his mouth and blew a loud whistle to get the attention of the spread out protection squad, 'I'm going to send them forward! Stay down and wait until the Aussies are ready!'
Without another word, Marsh commanded the Tigers to advance rapidly, and as low as possible towards the two machine-gun posts. The two zombies in their crater scrambled out and ran off, Marsh risking a peak over the crater edge as they left. He could see the other animate dead doing likewise across his sector of the battlefield. As he lowered his head he caught a glimpse of a smoking rhomboid shape to the north ponderously crossing the front line.
'They really freak me out when they do that.' Morgan complained, 'You know, take off like hounds when you give them a silent order.' He explained when he saw Marsh's confused face.
'Tanks are moving to the north, attack should be any minute now.' Marsh said.
The two machine-gun posts almost immediately opened fire on the new targets. They had paused, initially stunned at the number of enemy running toward them.. The lack of bullets flying over Marsh and Morgan suggested that the enemy were targeting the Tigers who were rapidly closing in on their positions. Within seconds there was a great roar from the Australian trench and both Marsh and Morgan looked back toward their own positions, seeing a khaki swarm emerge from the trenches bellowing and rushing across the field towards them.
'Christ!' Morgan exclaimed, 'They're scary bastards. They'll give Simpson kittens advancing like that.'
The Australians did not wait to form up into neat orderly formations, but instead advanced rapidly, all of them experienced soldiers who knew movement and speed were critical for surviving on the open battlefield. Marsh pulled on the back of Morgan's webbing when the Australians drew level and they joined the advancing horde. Marsh did not want the Australians to get too far ahead of him for fear that he would not be able to protect them from his Tigers.
The Tigers had almost reached the machine-gun positions when Marsh left his crater. They had been funnelled into a narrow killing ground where the machine-guns had been able to concentrate their rapid fire. Five of them were down on the ground, the machine-guns having chewed through flesh and bone to the extent that the zombies could only continue to make progress by pulling themselves forwards with their arms. Another two were not moving, clearly hit in the head by the rapid machine-gun fire. The remaining three were almost on top of the two machine-gun posts. Marsh watched as the lone Tiger attacking the leftmost position was thrown backward by the impact of multiple machine-gun bullets, yet it immediately rose, one arm dangling by strands of muscle. Before he could see what happened to this Tiger, he saw the other two leap head-first into the other position the gun instantly falling silent, replaced by the sound of screaming and rifle fire from within the trench.
Rifle fire from the German positions picked up as the advancing Australians ran towards the enemy. The left machine-gun switched fire from the sole Tiger to the rapidly moving Australians, like a scythe cutting a great many down before the gun fell silent as the Tiger finally fell upon the gun crew. The rifle fire from the German line was also taking a horrendous toll on the Australians as they were filtered into narrow killing-zones by the unbroken wire. Yet the Australians continued to advance. As they reached the crippled Tigers, that were still crawling towards the enemy, Marsh's security squad put an end to each so that no unfortunate new casualties would occur. Marsh also sent a mental order to the Tigers that had taken the machine-gun posts. He was not sure if they were still functioning, but he ordered them to move towards a spot midway along the trenches between the two positions. He also sent a caution to not attack anyone in Allied uniforms. If the Tigers had created any new zombies during their attack, he hoped that they would pick up on his orders as well and head in the same direction. He had never tried to command new zombies without being able to see them and he was worried that this may be beyond his skills. He knew he needed to be closer to the action so that he could take control of any reanimated corpses. In other sections of the line it would be even worse as other handlers relied on verbal commands.
The Australians stormed the German front trench and fierce hand-to-hand fighting broke out except in the section between the two machine-gun posts. Instead of fighting, in this section there were shouts of fear and disgust from the Australians. As soon as Marsh got into the trench, he could see why. His three Tigers were now swelled by a further eight in German uniforms, new Tigers that had clearly followed Marsh's commands. All bore hideous wounds fatal to a human, and they were gorging on the remains of several corpses that had not been reanimated by the bacteria. The whole section of trench had been neutralised by the Tigers in the most bloody fashion, limbs, entrails and pieces of flesh scattered along the duckboards and up the parapet.
'Bloody hell.' One Australian exclaimed as his friend dry retched at the charnel sights in the trench.
'Be glad they're on your side.' Wells said to him, slapping him on the back.
'Poor buggers.' Another Australian said tapping a torn limp out of his way with his foot, 'I'm not sure what scares me more, a German machine-gun or these things.'
'Marsh, call them off will you!' Wells shouted to Marsh.
Marsh did as he was told and the Tigers ceased their eating, quickly moving away from the corpses and the frightened Australians.
Although the firing had slackened around their new position, the battle was ongoing elsewhere along the line. Using a captured German periscope, Wells identified several broken do
wn and smoking tanks to their south. Clearly the tank attack was not penetrating the German line as planned. Looking to where A Company's Tigers were attacking, there were large numbers of Australians lying immobile in no-man's-land, the volume of fire suggested that they were pinned down in the open. The attack was clearly stalling.
'Marsh, can you get ready to move forward again?' It was the Australian infantry captain.
'Yes Sir,' Marsh knew it would only take a few commands to get his charges ready, 'We'll be ready to go as soon as I get the Tigers and the squad ready.'
'Good. We need to get into that second line as soon as possible. We've got to disrupt the Hun as much as possible as the rest of the Brigade seems to be struggling to get their backsides moving. I've got a couple of squads moving down the trench to help break the positions on our flanks, but we need to get forward with the rest of our strength. I want you to get your Tigers into the next enemy trench and we'll follow right on your heels.'
Several bullets flew over their position, German rifles were firing from the second line. Marsh spread his Tigers along the trench ready for the next assault, the zombies moved quickly, and quietly, to their new positions. Most of the Australians kept their distance, but more than one patted Tigers on the back as they went by. Several wished the Tigers good luck, at best getting a growl or a snapping of teeth in response. Not far from Marsh, an Australian was proudly waving a bayonet he had looted from a fresh Tiger in German uniform.
'Ready to do this again then Alfie?' Wells asked, keeping close by his friend.
'Yes, but spread the word to the others. We need to get in there quickly, right with the Tigers, cause I'm worried that I might not be able to control all the new ones if they're out of sight.' Marsh was worried that he was going to find the limits of his skills at just the wrong moment. He did not want that kind of discovery on his conscience.
