T-70 — Soviet light tank with a two man crew, armed with a 45mm gun.
T-80 — Soviet light tank with a three man crew, armed with a 45mm gun.
Tallboy — British earthquake bomb of 12000lbs of Torpex D1 explosive.
Teller Mine — German made AT mine containing 5.5kgs of TNT.
Teutobergerwald — A range of low wooded hills strung between Lower Saxony and Rhine-Westphalia. Once much larger than it is today, legend suggests that it was the location for the loss of Varus and his Legions in 9AD.
TOE — Sometimes known as TO&E, an acronym for table of organisation and equipment.
Torpex — Explosive 50% more powerful than TNT, originally designed as torpedo explosive filler, hence the name.
Vernam’s cypher — Named for Gilbert Vernam, the cypher became the basis of the coded one-time pad, believed impossible to crack [if properly random.]
Westland Whirlwind — British twin engine fighter withdrawn from service in 1943. For RG, a handful were reinstated to equip two squadrons in 1946.
Willie Pete — White Phosphorous.
Winchester M-12 — US pump action shotgun with an external tube 6 shot magazine. [12, 16, 20, and 28 gauge.]
Winchester M-69 — US bolt-action .22 rifle fitted with a suppressor.
Wolf — Marriage of a Panther hull and a Panzer IV turret.
X7 Rottcapschen — German wire-guided AT missile used during WW2. Literally 'Red Riding Hood', the missile apparently enjoyed success against the IS series of heavy tanks.
ZSU-37-2 — Soviet SPAA mount on the SU-76 chassis, of twin 37mm guns.
Zundapp — German motorcycle, either single or combination.
Back Cover
‘Initiative’ - the story continues.
Read the opening words of ‘Initiative’ now.
Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.
Chapter 149 – THE POWER
It was the eighty-third anniversary, and the Foreign Legion’s most important and significant day of the year.
Camerone Day celebrated the lost battle of Camerone, named for a hacienda in Mexico, where sixty-five legionnaires resisted a force of nearly three thousand Mexican soldiers.
It, above all other battles, created the mystique that surrounded the Legion from that day forward.
The commander, one Captain Jean Danjou, was killed early on in the battle, but his false hand was subsequently found, and became the subject of veneration each Camerone Day, when the icon, the symbol of the Legion’s fighting spirit, was paraded in front of ranks of legionnaires.
The honour of holding the icon and marching with it in front of assembled legion units was a singular one, an honour that had once been afforded to the long dead Vernais, tortured to death in front of Brumath.
Normally, the most precious item in the Legion’s inventory remained safely within the confines of its headquarters but, as most of the Legion was in the field in Germany, the Camerone Day parade was being held in a large open green space on the north bank of the Eder River.
Every Legion unit found in the French First Army had a representative section present, the main guard being mounted by men of the 1st Régiment Etrangere Infanterie.
The Legion Corps D’Assaut group was led by a proud Lavalle, the mix of ex-SS and long-service Legionnaires blending seamlessly into one group, and into the parade in general.
It had been too much to expect one of the new German contingent to be included in the direct parading of Danjou’s hand, but it was a source of celebration and immense pride that Haefali had been honoured with command of the parade, and the singular honour of carrying the sacred relic had been granted to a Marseille-born Legion Caporal-chef from the Alma, and command of the honour guard given to Oscar Durand, Lieutenant in the 1st Régiment de Marche.
There was even a small squad comprising members of the 16th US Armored Division, until recently a solid member of the Legion Corps, their tank being one of two on parade that day, the other vehicle the only noticeable German contribution to proceedings.
The Sherman M4A3E8 led the way, followed closely by the noisier and larger Tiger Ie.
The day beforehand, a Legion tank crew had been assembled at the repair facility and presented with their vehicle, lovingly restored by cannibalism from wrecks found across the battlefields, or by manufacturing those pieces that escaped detection.
Each of the five men wept as Walter Fiedler, the workshops officer, presented them with the repaired heavy tank…
…Lohengrin.
Stalin stood upright and proud amongst the political and military leadership of the Soviet Union, as large bodies of troops and vehicles swept past, the traditional ‘urrahs launched from thousands of enthusiastic throats.
It was an impressive display, that fact more appreciated by the hierarchy than the multitude of citizens that gathered for the traditional International Workers’ Day parade, who saw nothing unexpected about the standard huge display of Soviet military might.
The participants had been stripped from internal commands, men on leave, those recuperating from wounds, anything that could stand or march was on parade.
For the citizenry it was as impressive as ever but, in reality, it was an illusion.
Of course, T-34m46’s, with thicker armour and adapted to take the 100mm, T-44’s similarly armed, followed by a phalanx of one hundred and twenty IS-III battle tanks, decked out as a Guards formation, all received rapturous receptions, appreciated as clear indicators of Soviet military superiority. Had they not been receiving specifically edited reports of fighting in the frontline, they may have felt differently.
The fly past of Red Air Force regiments was extremely impressive.
The political decision to retain the majority of new and replacement aircraft, depriving the front line units solely to ensure sufficient numbers were on display on May Day, had been heavily contested by the military contingent, but to no avail.
More importantly to the hierarchy, the large numbers of aircraft were there to protect them from any Allied attempt to disrupt the Soviet showpiece.
None the less, the new jets were impressive, although those with experience would have noticed the gaps in formation left by the three that had failed to take off, one drastically so, smashing back into the runway and spreading its experienced Regimental commander across the airfield.
The captured V2s, now in their new Soviet livery, were also impressive, although virtually useless for anything but fooling civilians.
Almost unnoticed, four large football-like shapes, huge bombs carried on Red Air Force vehicles, passed by, their arrival and departure overshadowed by more jets and the very latest in Soviet technological advances; the IS-IV heavy battle tank and ISU-152-Z, once known as Obiekt 704, brought to fruition for the heavy tank and tank destroyer brigades in Europe.