There was a definite shift southwards. Even as the NATO artillery was trying to get a grip on the situation, firing on those areas where the enemy had pulled ahead of their human shield, the Soviet armour was moving out of those locations. The road network was empty of traffic, there was nothing to stop them, even slow them down, as they were already behind most the NATO defences and the local civilian population had bolted.
“Major, there’s a bit of flap going on. Some one has found we’re in the area and wants to speak to you.” Sergeant Hyde Looked out across the multi-coloured tiled rooftops. As he did two nearby building collapsed into piles of rubble. The adjoining properties were hidden inside the giant cloud of dust that hung about. A great thunderclap of sound went on and on as the structures progressively avalanched in to the street. “I wonder who the hell fired those?”
As they made their way back down to the ground Revell knew what point the NCO was making. The battle was growing more complicated. The attackers had lost some of their cohesion and the NATO defenders were struggling to find an answer to the Russian tactics. Confusion was blunting any NATO response while the Soviet troops could lash out in any direction with little fear of hitting their own side and the certain knowledge of doing damage to the NATO forces.
As he climbed in to the hovercraft he saw that their prisoner was growing pale and his head was lolling. He floated in and out of consciousness. There was no time for him now. He was too valuable to be lost in a POW stockade, but if they did not find adequate treatment soon then he would be a worry no longer.
“What have we got?” Revell had sent through a brief appraisal of the situation as he saw it and for once some one appeared to be listening. The response he had was from their C.O., Colonel Lippincott.
Ol’ Foul Mouth had certainly been less than happy at one of his precious hover APCs being sent on such a suicidal mission as to find, neutralise and try to return with a nuclear weapon from behind enemy lines. Though his message didn’t say as much, Revell could read what he was really saying.
“He’s found a way for us to get rid of the bomb.” Revell knew the squad would greet that with relief, but also with suspicion. The colonel was a great one for extracting his units from tricky situations by making them take on another. “We have to get ahead of this Russian advance, pick a bottle neck and dump the damned thing in their laps.”
“Can you make this bomb work?” Libby eyed the pack, now able to rock slightly on the floor where its securing straps had stretched. “After spending the last day or so from stopping it doing so.”
Carson and Lieutenant Andy exchanged glances. “That has never been a problem. Only one fail safe is still functioning.” Carson patted the pack. “We bypass that and you just have to chose where and when. And as far as the yield goes, how much.”
From a flank position on a hilltop they watched the Russian vehicles shaking themselves out in to order. They were doing so under sporadic and largely ineffective NATO artillery fire. A bombardment of heavy missiles commenced and vast craters formed where the one-ton warheads impacted, detonating when they had plunged twenty feet into the farmland. Their effect was dramatic but rarely anywhere near their targets. Two arrived only minutes apart, bracketing a large farm complex and between them utterly destroying it. By chance a Russian supply column had been forming up among the buildings and barns and several fuel tankers dissolved in a sea of fire when their tanks were puncture, torn from their rugged chassis and hurled into the collapsing buildings. On the far side of the land just within the Majors range of vision another missile came down, a huge one.
Only a lone Russian APC was smashed, being left a hulk devoid of any fittings. Moments after the impact came the sonic boom of its passage.
“If they could do that twenty or thirty times, with a bit more accuracy, then we could just go home, after dumping our parcel with some appreciative boffins.” Dooley had thought for a moment they had witness an atomic explosion, judging by the fast climbing tall slim mushroom cloud that erupted. Shortly after two more fell, delivering their payloads further off and both flattening wide circles of firs when they landed in woodland and exploded as airbursts, before penetrating.
“Better make that a couple of hundred.” Clarence shrugged. He was not impressed by the accuracy or effectiveness of the missile artillery. With no terminal guidance the long range projectiles were simply an expensive way of remodelling the countryside, or of knocking down towns.
The mass of light armour was moving, the lead vehicles disappearing in to the distance rapidly. The rest began to follow, forming in to a huge and widely spaced column protected on its flanks by the flak vehicles. The monstrous self-propelled guns clanked along in the middle of the formation.
“Those great things are going to kick the crap out of the defences at Nurnberg.” Libby knew that the distance of four thousand metres was beyond the effective range of the anti-tank missiles they carried and the swarming light armour was going to prevent them getting significantly closer. Already a cannon and missile armed APC had spent several minutes watching them from the base of the ridge. A single wire guided anti-tank missile it had launched had failed in mid flight when the filament had broken, ploughing in to the hillside, burying its nose in the turf and its rocket motor, burning until it fuel was exhausted, starting a small fire among leaf litter.
After manoeuvring for a while the APC had got itself in to a position where it could elevate its low velocity gun sufficiently to engage them, but at extreme range Libby had been faster and had driven it away before it could fire, bouncing two cannon shells off its frontal armour.
“A squadron of Chieftains or M60s would stop them and make mince meat of the whole lot if they picked the right spot.” Hyde witnessed another missiles arrival. Its warhead erupted as an airburst and a wide circle of ground was churned. But only one APC was caught within its lethal radius, a vehicle that had failed to start and was receiving attention from its crew.
Dust rose to head height about it and then subsided to reveal the men were no more than a red smear upon the ground and the roof of their transport had been crushed and its tracks broken into its component pieces.
“The whole point is there are no M60s or Chieftains to block their path.” Revell elevated the command chair and sat with his head and shoulders above the cupola roof. He donned goggles and wrapped a scarf about his face to shield his nose and mouth. He could still speak through his throat microphone. “There is nothing between them and Nurnberg. They’ll arrive at the back door of that place and take the west bank of the river, letting the main Russian forces cross unopposed and create havoc. It won’t matter that they haven’t any heavy tanks. The direction they’ll be coming from there will be no meaningful defences to block them. And anything that is scraped together those assault guns will brush aside in no time.”
“If Nurnberg falls then Regensburg will be next.” Hyde knew the area well, had holidayed there before the war. “At a stroke they’ll have stretched the Zone a long way towards Wurzburg and even Schweinfurt. Taking Wurzburg gives them a straight run to Frankfurt. I can’t see the West German coalition government being able to stand up to that. They will throw in the towel, try to negotiate rather than fight on. They’ve been on the verge of that a couple of times already.”
“So this swarm of light stuff might just be what tips the balance.” Carson had taken out a knife and with it was cutting away those straps on the bomb that just hung down, with no function.