A sudden bright flash ahead blinded him temporarily, his driver pulling hard on the right steering lever as the 432 swung right into the loosely packed trees to avoid the erupting armoured personnel carrier ahead. The deafening sound, as round after round from the Hind-D’s 12.7mm four-barrelled Gatling gun punched into the stricken 432, now ablaze, pummelled the lieutenant’s eardrums. The sound was then joined by the roar of the helicopter’s turbine engines and the downblast from the rotor blades as it shot past, its wingman placing more rounds into the afflicted vehicle, the gunner tracing the track seeking out more targets.
Russell’s 432 had ground to a halt, as did the two behind him, the track ahead now blocked by the fiery grave.
“Out, out!” He screamed.
The back door flew open and the 432 disgorged its load of infantrymen.
“Blowpipe, Blowpipe,” he yelled to his men.
He was suddenly thrown to the ground by a fierce blast as the burning armoured carrier tore itself apart as the ammunition and fuel exploded.
“Move it,” he screamed.
Farrell braced his legs, his oppo helping him steady the Blowpipe, a man-portable, surface-to-air missile, on his right shoulder. He aimed it through the gap in the trees above, searching for another attacking helicopter.
Russell knew it was pointless as the likelihood of the firer locking onto a fast-moving helicopter at treetop height was extremely doubtful. Anyway, the helicopters had done their job and were either going back to their base to refuel and rearm, or were out there somewhere else seeking out more lucrative targets.
“Mount up, mount up,” he called to his men. “Find us a route through the trees so we can get round it,” he said to his driver, pointing at the still burning 432. An inferno, a graveyard for more men of Combat Team Alpha, he thought.
The soldiers climbed back into their vehicles, their eyes drawn to the burning coffin where some of their fellow soldiers had no doubt died. Lieutenant Russell did a circuit of the burning mass, holding his hand up to protect his face from the searing heat, searching for any men that may have dragged themselves to safety. But he saw none. After a few hundred metres, the 432 clawed its way up a shallow bank and was soon back on the track on the other side, and the convoy continued on its way west and to safety. He shook his head to the unspoken question from one of his men: should they go back? They continued their journey, needing to catch up with the rest of their unit.
Chapter 2
Since four in the morning, at the same time the Warsaw Pact launched its devastating opening gambit along the entire European Front against the thinly held NATO covering force, the units of the Soviet 25th Tank Division had been moving into its alert assembly area. Released from their role of encircling Berlin, this mission handed over to the soldiers of the German Democratic Republic, they would now be able to add their weight to the Warsaw Pact forces battling for supremacy on the European battlefield. On hearing the news of their country’s attack on the West, the officers of the division drove their men relentlessly, preparing them, and the unit, for the next stage: the start of a long march west. With over 300 kilometres to their final destination, Salzgitter, West Germany, they would have to move at least 150 kilometres during the next twenty-four hours if they were to be in a position to support the battle that by now was in progress.
At the divisional departure areas, columns were already forming up, preparing to begin their journey. The division had been separated into different packets: wheeled, trailer-loads, and tracked vehicles. The last of the 300-plus T-64s were loading onto the semi-trailers, the roar of the Maz-537 tank transporter’s engines reaching a crescendo as those already loaded with their cargo pulled away to start their trip west. Often referred to as the ‘Beast’, the Maz-537G was more than capable of pulling the semi-trailer, rated at fifty tons, powered by its 525hp engine, as fitted to many of the Soviets’ main battle tanks. At over nine metres long and able to travel at up to sixty kilometres per hour, it was ideal for the task of moving this key element of the division. An entire transport regiment had been allocated, by the Front Headquarters, to move the main battle tanks, the tracked surface-to-surface missile TELs and some of the surface-to-air missile launchers, to their intermediate assembly area south of Genthin, 150 kilometres away.
On a parallel road, the other tracked vehicles, such as the BMP-2s from the tank regiments, the 142 BMP-2s from the motor rifle regiment, and the remaining tracked vehicles — surface-to-air missile carriers, the self-propelled guns of the artillery regiment and the numerous engineer vehicles, GSPs, K-61s and PTSs — would soon start their journey. Broken down into smaller packets, they too were starting on their long journey towards the front line.
Further afield, an even bigger group was forming up. The wheeled element of the division was in the process of refuelling before they too headed west. They would travel at around twenty kilometres an hour, stopping for a twenty-minute break every three hours arriving at the long-halt area late during the evening of 5 July. The tracked vehicle column would arrive roughly four hours after the wheeled column, their slower speed of twelve to sixteen kilometres an hour making the journey that much longer.
Officers and NCOs could be heard cursing and bellowing at the troops, urging them on ever faster to get their vehicles into the right order and join the exodus west. Others were tucked away into the tree line, waiting their turn to be called forward, adding to the volume of traffic starting to clog the roads. Excluding the three tank regiments and the motor rifle regiment, the division had over 800 wheeled vehicles. A huge logistical tail. Two parallel columns would stretch for up to thirty kilometres each along the road network they would be using, ranging from chemical decontamination and disinfection vehicles to Zil-131 fuel bowsers and ammunition transporters. Soviet Military Police and Traffic Regulators would be responsible for ensuring the roads were kept clear, controlling the speed and the flow of traffic to ensure the divisions needed for the 2nd Strategic Echelon would arrive when needed. This was the logistical element of the division; the lifeblood that was required to feed, fuel, repair and protect the massed armoured armada that was heading to the front to add its weight to the forces pushing the NATO armies out of West Germany.