The sudden spat of engagements stopped as rapidly as they had begun. The Team was halfway to the river and making good time. Bannon reasoned that the Soviets they’d encountered thus far were strays, individual tanks and vehicles shaken loose from their parent units who were not interested in offering resistance. Still, after reporting these encounters and his assessment of the situation to Major Shell, Bannon redoubled his vigilance. Things had a nasty habit of changing very rapidly. Half a dozen tanks and a couple of well-placed antitank guided missile launchers in ambush could raise hell with the Team. Expecting to make contact with just such delaying forces at any minute, he put out a net call, instructing his platoon leaders to stay alert and look sharp.
The nearer the Team came to the river, the more unbearable the anticipation of just such an event became. Like Garger, Bannon was beginning to believe an outright shoot-out with the Russians in the open, even an enemy who outnumbered the Team, was preferable to rolling around in the dark waiting to be hit. Despite his best effort to keep from doing so, every time the Team approached a point he had marked on his map he thought was an ideal position from which a Russian delaying force could engage the Team, Bannon held his breath. And each time the Team’s lead elements bypassed a point he had identified as an ideal location for an ambush without being challenged, he would let out the breath he had been holding and relax the grip he had on the rim of his cupola. This lessening of tension never lasted very long. Without fail, just as he was managing to calm down some, the next critical point would be reached, causing him to once more tense up in anticipation. Before long he came to the conclusion if they didn’t reach the river soon or make contact with the Russians, he’d have a nervous breakdown. It really didn’t matter to him which came first. Anything, he told himself, had to be better than dealing with the stress and strain of the unknown.
In an effort to take his mind off his growing fears, Bannon checked his map. The next critical point they would hit was a small town. He would have preferred to bypass it. Going through it at high speed was not only dangerous, picking their way through the narrow, twisting streets of a German village would slow the Team’s momentum. Still, rushing by it without at least checking it out could be even more dangerous. An entire Russian tank company could be hiding in it, just waiting for the Team to bypass it before coming out behind them and whacking them a good one up the butt. Just to be sure, he ordered the scouts platoon to make a quick sweep through it since part of the Team’s mission was to be noticed, and running through a town shooting up any headquarters or rear echelon units that were in it was a good way to get noticed.
At the same time, he was ordering the Scouts to go in, he instructed the 1st Platoon and the Mech Platoon to go around the town to the west. If the scouts did run into light resistance, they were to bull through. If the Soviets were present in strength and the scouts got in trouble, they were to back out and follow the rest of the Team.
As ordered, the 1st Platoon veered off to the left just as the scouts were forming up in single file on the road as they prepared to hit the town at a dead run. The lead scout track had no sooner entered the town when the sound of machinegun fire and flashes of light reflected off the buildings of the village lit up the night. A hasty contact report from Sergeant Flores informed Bannon they’d run into a Soviet recon unit in the town square and was taking it under fire as they rolled through. Bannon reminded him that he was not to become decisively engaged, that he was to get out of there as soon as possible to rejoin the Team. With the din of battle clearly audible over the radio as he responded, Flores gave Bannon a curt “ROGER, OUT” before continuing to fight his way through the town.
Though concerned that the scouts might not be able to extract themselves, Bannon was able to take some comfort in the fact that they had finally run into the Soviet recon element. No doubt whoever was in command of it would get a report back to his parent unit that he was in contact with the Americans. In doing so, he would help accomplish part of the Team’s mission.
The sound of firing just south of the river startled both the engineer lieutenant and the KGB captain. As one, they looked in the direction of firing, then at each other. For the first time that night, the lieutenant noted a look of concern and uncertainty on the captain’s face. Together they began to make their way to the southern end of the bridge in search of the commanding officer of the motorized rifle company who was responsible for its defense.
The firing could also be heard by the soldiers who attempting to cross the bridge. Not wanting to be caught on the wrong side of the river when it was blowup by the engineers, they began to push and shove their way forward. The impatience of the drivers gave way to anger when they felt the people in front were not moving quickly enough. Truck drivers began to blow their horns and nudge the vehicles to their front in an effort to move things along. This did nothing but add to the confusion and push the mass of troops and drivers on the bridge ever closer to panic. What little order there had been before firing had erupted in the village disappeared.
With the Team now but a few scant kilometers of the bridge, Bannon decided it was time to start making a lot of noise in an effort to give the appearance that they were going to attempt a crossing. He ordered the Team FIST to fire prearranged artillery concentrations on both the north and south side of the bridge. Since the bridge was gone, or would be as soon as the Soviets waiting to drop it saw Team Yankee coming, he figured artillery fire wouldn’t hurt anything. It would, however, appear to the Russians that they were firing a preparatory fire as a prelude to an assault crossing. The longer and more convincing his deception was, the easier it would be for those units that were part of the Division’s main effort.
With the first impact of artillery, the KGB captain dropped all pretense of being calm and unconcerned. The idea of facing American combat troops terrified him. He and his men knew what would happen to them if they were captured. Yet the KGB captain also knew he and his men could not leave the bridge, not without orders. To do so would be considered desertion. After dealing with deserters all night, he had little doubt what would be waiting for him if he left without orders. His only hope was to secure permission to leave from his superiors.
To this end, both the engineer lieutenant and the KGB captain tried to make it over to the southern side of the bridge where the captain responsible for the security of the bridge had his headquarters. They were, however, fighting the tide, as everyone on the south side was trying to make it over the bridge and to safety before it was blown up. Vehicular traffic had come to a complete standstill. Vehicles hit by artillery, crashed into each other, or abandoned by their drivers were blocking the exit on the north side and the entrance on the south, making it difficult even for foot traffic to pass.
As they pushed their way against the flow of fleeing troops, both the engineer officer and KGB captain noticed their own men had joined the rout. At first the lieutenant tried to stop his, shouting to them or trying to grab them as they went by him. Few paid any attention as they continued to push their way ahead, giving him as wide a berth as the panicked stream of human allowed. The KGB captain opted for a different approach. Without a second thought, he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at his men. When one of them kept going, he fired several times, missing the KGB private but hitting two other soldiers who happened to be in the line of fire. This, however, did nothing to stem the tide. The other KGB men who witnessed the incident simply did their best to melt into the crowd as they pushed and shoved their way north.