Act I - Failure.
Latest sim event, a chance to take my Tiger II H out, she doesn't get much of a run. It is actually a pretty nimble thing for its size and of course the gun packs a punch, big target as well.
First part of the mission, get across the bridge safely, another has gone before me so i run the gauntlet hoping nobody has me in their sights while i am in the open crossing the river.
First part of the mission, get across the bridge safely, another has gone before me so i run the gauntlet hoping nobody has me in their sights while i am in the open crossing the river.
Mission accomplished, i can stop holding my breath. Another follows me across so we are three on the Western flank, the rest have headed through town and out on the Eastern flank. My plan is to find a nice little place i can hole up and stop any push coming our way, the bridge we crossed is behind our spawn and the natural way to come in from behind. A nice spot presents itself and i tuck in for the wait.
It's a great little ambush spot. Looks forward down to possible routes of advance with a nice little zone between the houses for me to spy through, my left is pretty secure as someone would have to come down over the hill before they could see me giving me enough time to spot and fire. Our base is to my far right and slightly ahead over the river so i have this whole close in flank covered. The other two are moving ahead though, right down my firing lane and another moves behind me and up over the ridge..i decide he will have our left flank and move forward to provide support.
I knew i should just sit tight and wait, the enemy would come. Drink some ersatz coffee even, but we don't, we move out and take up the rear.
I knew i should just sit tight and wait, the enemy would come. Drink some ersatz coffee even, but we don't, we move out and take up the rear.
As soon as the leader stops we all stop and follow his turret, i don't even want to know what could be around the corner, whatever it is it will be nasty and have 200mm's and fifty thousand Russian troops hanging all over it ! My eyes are wide and i feel like crying.
There is nothing around that corner so we move forward a bit more, turrets pointing hopefully in the right direction, i am hugging the embankment to my left and hoping the guy on the right takes anything coming our way, merely so as to alert me of course.
There is nothing around that corner so we move forward a bit more, turrets pointing hopefully in the right direction, i am hugging the embankment to my left and hoping the guy on the right takes anything coming our way, merely so as to alert me of course.
I have no idea what our unchosen leaders plan is but as he starts to climb the small ridge we follow, he must know what he is doing. All i am thinking is 'Mein Gott, this is a big filthy slab of tank side i have waiting to be penned' and my eye balls are doing constant 360's.
We do look an impressive force though.
I don't even hear the shot, just the sound of ammo going up and the tank at the front is cooked ! Pretty sure the crew never knew i could slap reverse gear that quick though as mud churns and metal shrieks in protest, that guy behind better not be in my way or we are going to climb over his turret to get into cover !
In this shot you can see two tank crews who are totally oblivious to which way the shot came from, still reversing flat out and hoping we are not next.
Just when i think we are both out of danger the other Tiger goes up, more spectacular this time. My crew now knows the true meaning of fear as their commander keeps on panic reversing and puts them all in danger by nearly climbing the embankment and out into the open.
I still have no idea where the shots are coming from, our far right or ahead and and slightly left ? I grab forward gear and turn down off the near top of our precarious position and then reverse around the corner only to be met by a tank trap in the rear guard, we jam forward again and hide behind the closet cover.
Back in '39 we could have hidden two tanks easily behind this small building, now we struggle to hide one.
Back in '39 we could have hidden two tanks easily behind this small building, now we struggle to hide one.
Sitting there for a minute that feels like forever is no good, we are frozen and i know that the Russian tank probably has eyes on the tip of our barrel poking out, too scared to move forward and too slow to make a reverse dash across that small bit of open ground behind. Sorry lads, we should have stay buttoned up in our original ambush position and waited for them to come to us. Totally bad move on my part.
We hear a grumbling and clanking of tracks, eyes are peeled.. a shot rings out and then an explosion somewhere to our left as a great sight hoves into view on the right, another of our squad comes striding down the street ahead and we cannot contain our excitement as we roll out to team up with this conqueror of the evil enemy tank !
We hear a grumbling and clanking of tracks, eyes are peeled.. a shot rings out and then an explosion somewhere to our left as a great sight hoves into view on the right, another of our squad comes striding down the street ahead and we cannot contain our excitement as we roll out to team up with this conqueror of the evil enemy tank !
And then our world ends in a rush of heat and metal.
The evil enemy tank i thought he had shot was just another one of ours going up, the far left flanker. This lurking resident of the lumber yard pictured below had rolled up our entire flank by himself..and never moved once. Like we should have done.
Mere moments after we fire balled, the tank i thought was our saviour also became a not so proud wearer of the Grand Award of the Flying Turret (Posthumous). Sigh, another hard lesson relearned... again.
Act II - Redemption.
It was decided, after a ground up rebuild of my shattered Tiger II ...and some time out for the boys with the nurses far away from the front where late night parties and midday hangovers had become the norm, that they must push forward into battle again. This time no matter the circumstance they would stick with what they knew worked. Staying in cover, hull down, long range. After an initial push from their hop off point they buttoned up with a view from the edge of a forest overlooking the plain that the enemy was expected to travel across.
With a Jagdpanther and another Tiger II on their our flank we had a solid overlapping cover of the whole plain before us. Another two Tiger II's were covering our right, also well hidden amongst the trees. The enemy slowly appeared, all preferring to stay hull down about 12-1400 metres away and shots were traded until one of them bolted out into the open which spurred a mini charge by the allied forces. At a mere 1000 metres it was impossible to miss.
The first shot into the turret was a Tiger to my right, second and third were ours. We had a kill up and the boys refocused with a hardened gaze, they knew what it was like to be inside a burning coffin of steel.
A T44 and another M26 that had followed were also left shattered behind this lead tank. Two others had stayed hull down and watched as their attempted rush had failed. None of our side moved from cover, just waiting, watching.
Movement at 1600 away caught my eye, an SU tank destroyer appeared, moving quickly in the trees opposite. I called his position to the other crews and then we traversed and followed him with the turret, the 88 swinging across slowly, judging where he would be by time the shell had made it's flight..we fired..
The flash of our 88 just above the Su mantlet in the distant tree line exposed our position for a second.
A couple of seconds wait as shell and Su moved to close on the same point in time, we would either alert him..or he would know nothing more...
Commander backslapped the gunner, waited and watched for another minute or two to make sure nothing else came across the killing field. The three other Tigers broke cover and headed for the enemy front the Jagdpanther stayed as rear cover and we decided to move back to the other flank as it seemed light on, this flank was rolled up. Our job here was done.