CHAPTER 3
Tank Attack:
The Charge at Pressbach
Captain Pavel Krylov's head slumped forward, colliding with the target designator sight in front. His padded tanker's helmet protected his forehead, but the sudden jolt woke him up. The inside of his T-80M tank was pitch black, and it took him several seconds to remember where he was. Over the earphones in his helmet came the noisy crackle of an incoming message.[17]
"Vorona One, Vorona One, come in please. Sokol Three here, over."[18]
It was the voice of his 3d Company commander, Lt. Vladimir Vasilev. Krylov adjusted the throat mike on his helmet, and turned on the overhead turret light so he could see the adjustment controls on the tank's R-123M radio. The audio level was too low. After three days of fighting, Krylov had suffered some hearing loss from the incessant noise.
"Sokol Three, this is Vorona One, over."
"Vorona One, I've been trying to reach you for two minutes. We have a visitor, near the left clearing. Shall I engage? Over."
Krylov realized he was so exhausted he simply hadn't heard Vasilev's
initial radio calls. It wasn't good radio discipline to continue to repeat calls. Vasilev should have sent a runner. Something must be urgent. Krylov got on the tank intercom.
"Pavel, what do you see down by the clearing?"
The tank gunner, Sgt. Pavel Ossopovich, looked through his passive night sight. The vehicle was nearly a kilometer away. The sight depended on moonlight, of which there was precious little that night. It was damn difficult to determine precisely what the vehicle was. Then, for a moment as it moved, it was silhouetted against the skyline. A thin barrel. A scout vehicle, not a tank.
"Comrade Captain, it looks like a scout vehicle of some sort."
"Is it one of ours?"
"Comrade Captain, it does not appear to be ours. It has no night position lights on. Shall I prepared to engage?"
Krylov, still a bit groggy from his interrupted sleep, thought for a moment. He had not been informed of any Soviet scouts being sent out in front of his position. It was not like the regiment not to inform him of activity in his area. Still it could be a straggler. Or a NATO vehicle hunting out the location of his unit for an artillery strike or attack. It would be prudent to eliminate the threat. He switched to the radio.
"Sokol Three, you are closer. Engage the hostile, over." Krylov expected to hear the sharp report of the neighboring tank's gun. There was nothing but silence.
"Vorona One, we have problems, over."
Krylov reacted quickly. He switched from radio to mike. "Pavel, we will engage." Then he switched from the personal to the professional. It would be straight battle drill, without pleasant familiarities. "Gunner, hard core… target, 850 meters." [19]
Krylov heard the ammunition carousel under their seats make its usual whirring sound. The automatic loader was seeking out an antiarmor projectile from the different types of ammunition available. The steady metallic clanking of the autoloader continued. Instinctively, Krylov moved rightward and pulled his coveralls taut. The autoloader mechanism would sometimes catch on the uniform of the unwary, and slam the hapless crew into the gun breech along with the ammunition. With two hard smacks, the autoloader pushed home the projectile, followed by the propellant casing. The whole operation took about ten seconds. Krylov heard his gunner on the mike.
"Hard core, loaded… engaging target."
Krylov braced himself for the blast. The big D-81TM 125mm gun fired, shaking the entire tank. Krylov lost his night vision as the sky in front of the tank filled with the enormous muzzle flash. The huge mass of the gun slammed backward in the tank, spewing out a metal stub casing into the hopper — the tiny remnant of the ammunition.
"Gunner, report."
Ossopovich had closed his eyes as the gun had fired, and now looked into the sight. The target had obviously been hit, since it was burning fiercely. In seconds, the vehicle exploded.
"Target destroyed, Comrade Captain."
Krylov was content that his gunner had hit the target with only a single round. But he was bothered about its identification. No other enemy vehicles seemed present. He decided to walk over to the neighboring tank rather than compromise radio security any further. He radioed the nearby tank.
"Sokol Three, Fm coming over."
"Vorona One, understood, out."
Krylov climbed out of his T-80M. It was still dark outside, but there
was enough moonlight to make out the dark shape of the neighboring tank. Lieutenant Vladimir Vasilev was already out of the tank and standing by the side.
"Vladimir Sergeivich, what was the problem?"
"Captain, it was the ammunition. As it was going into the breech, I noticed the propellant casing was smeared with oil. It could have misfired in the gun. We'll have to clean it out."[20]
"I'm glad you caught it. Look, we'll have to send someone down to that vehicle once the fire has lessened. Let's find out what it was. Send one of your tanks, and tell them to be careful near the tree line."
As they were speaking, a UAZ-469 jeep pulled out of the woods behind them with its faint night driving lights on. As it approached, Krylov recognized it as one from Yastreb (hawk), the code name for the 65th Guards Tank Regiment, to which Krylov's 18th Guards Independent Tank Battalion was attached for this operation. Krylov's battalion had been kept in reserve by the commander of the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division for use at an opportune moment.[21]
Apparently that moment had come. The damp October weather, the jarring ride of the past three days of hard road marches, and the stress of command had taken their toll on Pavel Krylov. He was thirty-four years old and had been a captain for three years.[22]
His career was unexceptional. He had come from a traditional Russian military family. His father, a tanker like himself, had served in the final year of the Great Patriotic War. Krylov's unit had been stationed in Czechoslovakia before the war. It did not have the newest equipment, neither the T-72MS nor the T-84A. But the T-80M was a good tank. Its turbine engine gave it a great deal of power, and its armor was relatively effective in stopping NATO antitank missiles.
His battalion was typical of most Ground Forces units in the Central Group of Forces. About 60 percent of the unit was Slavic — mainly Russian, but a significant number of Ukrainians and Byelorussians. These troops usually caused the least problem. At least they could speak decent Russian! They were not the brightest he had ever known; the "prestige" services usually siphoned off the bright ones for technical services and the star athletes for special forces. Krylov's battalion was left with the average and below average. Their training was adequate by Soviet standards. His deputy, Sr. Lt. Nikolai Gorin, had made certain they had passed the mandatory field trials. Maybe they had cut a few corners in training, but then everybody did.
Krylov's battalion had been moved to the vanguard yesterday afternoon, the third day of the war. It had been three grim days of waiting. The division had moved across the Czech-German frontier near Klatovy in the early morning of 30 September. The terrain of the Bavarian woods favored the defenders. Their main opponent was supposed to be the 4th Panzergrenadier Division (the German equivalent of a Soviet motor rifle division). But the encounters were so sporadic and vicious, it was very difficult to tell exactly who their opponents were. Most of the captured prisoners were from reserve territorial brigades, not from the regular Bundeswehr. They were not especially well equipped, having mostly old M113 troop carriers and old model Leopard 1 tanks. But they did have the deadly little Milan antitank missiles.
17
T-80M is the term used in this book to refer to the Soviet T-80 main battle tank when fitted with explosive reactive armor. The actual Soviet designation for this version is not known. The T-80M is armed with a 125mm gun and has a three-man crew — a driver, gunner, and tank commander. Unlike most NATO tanks, it has an automatic loader instead of a fourth crewman.
18
The radio call signs for this unit use the names of birds.
19
There are two standard choices of ammunition for the 125mm gun on the T-80, a high-explosive round for engaging lightly armored or unarmored targets, and a high-velocity antiarmor round. The Soviets usually call this latter round a "hard-core" round, whereas the usual U.S. name is "sabot" or APFSDS (armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot). The T-80 does not usually carry a high-explosive antitank (HEAT) round. However, some T-80s can fire a guided antitank missile through the tube in lieu of conventional ammunition.
20
The ammunition for the Soviet 125mm gun (and also the German and U.S. 120mm gun) uses semiconsumable propellant casing instead of the traditional brass or aluminum casings. This type of casing is now popular, since it burns up when the gun is fired, and so the interior of the tank doesn't fill up with spent metal casings. However, these casings, if contaminated by oil or other substances, can burn erratically, or the case can rupture. Soviet tankers are trained not to fire damaged ammunition.
21
Soviet motor rifle divisions have one tank regiment and two motor rifle regiments. Some divisions, like the one depicted here, have an additional complement of tanks in the form of an independent tank battalion. Krylov's unit is one of these. This unit is intended to act as a forward detachment, or to exploit breakthroughs won by the larger regiments.
22
Although one might expect a battalion commander to be a major by NATO standards, Soviet units are often led by more junior officers than their NATO counterparts. Indeed, Soviet battalions are sometimes commanded by senior lieutenants.