‘Bunty’ Hargreaves took notes but could offer nothing tangible as yet, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Keith with only words of encouragement.
“Corunna-six, Scipio-six, you’ve done well so far. Sit tight and cover the airfield area to the south and river ahead. Blenheim will be moving up directly. Alma’s forty minutes out. Over.”
“Scipio-six, Corunna-six, understood, but I’m low on sherry. Any news on that delivery, over.”
“Corunna-six, Scipio-six, not as yet. Just sit tight, Corunna. Out.”
Pike tossed the headset into the bottom of the armoured car in disgust.
“Bugger, bum, balls! How in the name of blazes can I fight a bloody war without petrol for my tanks, eh?”
Lance Corporal Devenish wisely kept his mouth shut and concentrated on the gauges in front of him, noticing the distinct lack of ‘sherry’ in the dingo’s tank.
“Right, Devenish, get me over to the left flank there, and quick about it.”
Pike determined to take a personal look at the destroyed bridge, in order to assess if there was any mileage in getting a bridge layer up.
Within a few minutes the idea was but a distant memory, and ‘B’ Squadron were in the fight of their lives.
Colonel Hargreaves hastily conferred with Keith, and the two parted, one to fight the battle as best he could, the other to bring up as much as he could by way of reinforcements.
Keith spared a moment to watch Hargreaves’ Morris quad bounce away, but quickly returned his focus to the battle in front of him.
“Excellent, Viktor Timofeevich. When?”
“Almost immediately, Comrade Polkovnik General… moment…”
Removing the telephone from his ear, Viktor Obukov, commander of 3rd Guards Mechanised Corps, accepted a written report from his deputy, Major General Golov.
“Blyad. Casualties?”
“Not many guns, but they have to move. It will take time, probably nearly an hour, Comrade.”
He nodded by way of reply and spoke rapidly into the telephone.
“Comrade Polkovnik General, my artillery has been attacked and disrupted, but I’m going with the plan anyway. The Capitalists have stopped for a reason, and I’m going to exploit it. We attack at 1415.”
“Objective?”
The words slipped easily from Obukov’s mouth, but both men knew the doing would be harder than the saying by some considerable distance.
“Spornitz by direct assault… then I shall feint towards Ludwigslust, but centre my main efforts on moving northwards through Matzlow, and fall upon Schwerin. The opportunity to encircle the enemy forces north of my Ninth Brigade is too much to ignore, Comrade Polkovnik General.”
The silence on the phone was penetrating as Kazakov, commander of 10th Guards Army, assessed the possibilities.
In his headquarters, he ran his fingers over the situation map, reading the ground, the forces… the possibilities.
“I agree, Comrade Obukov. Comrade Marshal Bagramyan will be informed, and I’ll submit an urgent request for all the air cover we can muster. We’ve an opportunity here, Comrade. I’ll send some more support to your units south of the Elde. I suggest that you keep 9th Guards Brigade in place as a hinge. I’ll prepare our forces to their north for action in support of you, once you head for Schwerin. Have your staff get the written operational plan to me immediately.”
“Yes, Comrade Polkovnik General. Now, we’ll give the bastards something to think about.”
“Damned right. Now, set to it, Comrade. I’m going to speak to frontal headquarters immediately.”
The connection was terminated and both men, separated by fourteen kilometres of telephone cable, set about their tasks with renewed enthusiasm.
With the speed and accuracy of veterans, the gunners of the 1510th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment reacted to their hasty orders and put down a barrage on the advance British elements; their 152mm shells caused havoc with tankers and infantrymen alike.
An HE shell from one of the monster ISU-152s found no resistance worth the name when it smashed onto the turret of a Centurion II, the kinetic force alone sufficient to drive the top armour down into the turret space, where it easily won the battle between flesh and steel.
Even though the shell failed to explode, the 2IC of ‘B’ Squadron and his crew were messily removed from the equation in the blink of an eye.
At the rear of the advance group, another Centurion was tossed onto its side by two near misses, leaving none of its crew capable of evacuating the tank, as their bones shattered and disintegrated when bodies smashed into immovable metal.
Major Pike, his head bleeding from a close shave, screamed into his radio in vain, not knowing that it was the source of the burning smell that was just about recognisable over the metallic smell of blood from his scalp wound.
Despite mounting casualties, the Coldstreams and Grenadiers steadied themselves and waited for the inevitable.
2nd Grenadiers had driven straight into the divide between the 7th and 9th Guards Mechanised Brigades.
The latter was set on the defensive, still understrength from its exertions during the initial stages of the Allied offensive.
The 7th was a different proposition, nearer full strength, and Obukov had, with some other units of the 3rd Guards Mechanised, nurtured and kept them safe for the right moment.
As far as Colonel General Kazakov was concerned, that moment had come, and Obukov set loose his best remaining troops in a counter-attack intended to destroy the British resistance to their front, and retake Schwerin.
Leaving the 1st Battalion in Parchim and its environs, the remainder of the 7th’s motorised infantry components struck out, 2nd battalion straight out of Parchim and across the airfield, 3rd Battalion moved through the woods to the south, intent on occupying Spornitz in the first instance.
2nd Battalion was supported by elements of the 43rd Guards Tank Regiment, equipped with a mix of 85mm and 100mm equipped T34s.
The 43rd’s commander intended them to rely on speed rather than ability in a stand up fight, and his unit acted accordingly.
The 3rd Mechanised Battalion moved alongside part of the 35th Guards Tank Brigade, whose 1st Tank Battalion, although greatly reduced, possessed some quality T-54s alongside the venerable T34m44s it had started hostilities with.
The remaining part of the 35th Guards Tanks was conserved, held behind the 1st Tank Battalion, ready to drive in between the lead British units and the second echelon and develop the route to Schwerin.
Although equipped solely with T34s, both m44 and m45 models, Lieutenant Colonel Sarkashian, the 35th Brigade’s commander, had preserved his most experienced men for the difficult exploitation phase of the attack, and he was confident they would open the road to his final target.
Elsewhere across the battlefield, a leavening of SP anti-tank guns were held back, ready to provide support should a particularly difficult situation arise, and SPAA assets moved carefully forward, ready to provide close support when the inevitable fighter-bombers arrived.
Along with the artillery and mortar support arraigned against it, 2nd Grenadiers and 5th Coldstreams suddenly found themselves in the fight of their lives.
17-pdr shells crossed the battlefield, 85mm and 100mm shells passed them on the other track, all set against a back drop of artillery and mortar strikes, called in by harassed officers on both sides.