The scream of the loader, the sudden discharge of the onboard fire extinguishers, and a searing pain that shot through Ellerbee's body told him he needed to get out now. There was no real conscious thought. He didn't feel the pain or comprehend everything that happened in the few seconds it took him to pull himself up out of the turret and onto the turret roof. Nothing registered. No pain, no thoughts. -Not even when he rolled off the turret, hit the right front fender, and bounced off it like a rag doll and onto the ground did he understand what he was doing. Only vaguely was he aware of his gunner and driver, who both came down next to him, grabbing him by either arm and dragging him back into the woods as his tank, the last of four tanks in his platoon, tore itself apart.
Shaken, but alive, Seydlitz looked about the turret of his tank, first at the loader, then the gunner. "What happened? What in the hell happened? Did we get him?"
The gunner, anxious to see, put his eye to his sight, then cursed. "SHIT! He got our sight."
Putting his own eye up to his sight, Seydlitz saw that the primary sight was gone. "The telescope. Is it still good?"
From above, Seydlitz watched the gunner pull his head away from the eyepiece of his shattered primary sight and move over to the telescope mounted on the side of the main gun's cradle. "Yes. Yes, it's still good. And the American tank, it's burning!"
Popping his head up, Seydlitz looked across the field and saw that their shot had been true. Though he couldn't see Ellerbee and his crew as they fled back into the woods, that didn't matter. Looking back to the left, where he had last seen the American Bradley, Seydlitz confirmed that it was now gone. With no primary sight, one track shot out, and no targets in view, he decided that he needed to check in and find out what was happening to his left and right and then report to battalion.
From his vantage point, Vorishnov had no idea who was coming out on top. He could see that both Dixon and Malin were for the moment safe to the right of the burning hulk of the tank that had been Malin's escort. To the southeast, in the woods that the Germans had come out of, there was at least one German tank destroyed and a second one that had been hit. Due south, where Dixon's force had been, he could see dense clouds of dirty black smoke rising on what should have been the right flank for those forces and another column of dense black smoke to the left of that. While Vorishnov didn't quite understand exactly what was going on, he realized that the enemy attack had two prongs, only one of which, the one coming from the woods to the southeast, that he could do anything about. Contacting the commander of the battalion he was with, Vorishnov ordered him to deploy more forces to their left and prepare to send infantry over into the woods where the first German tank had come from. In the meantime, he ordered his fire support officer back at the brigade main command post to call for every piece of artillery he could find and begin to pound the woods to the southeast.
When Dixon and Malin finally realized they were safe, Dixon pulled himself out of the rear of his personnel carrier and stood on its roof. Carefully he looked up and over the burning tank that was giving them cover. From below, Malin, who was just now catching his breath, called up, "Can you see what's going on, Scotty?"
Just as Malin asked that question, Dixon saw a muzzle flash from the German woods to the east. A flash of tracer streaking from those woods came to an abrupt halt in the tree line not far from where Malin had come from. A sudden bright flash, followed by a sheet of flames, told Dixon that another American tank had been hit. His reaction told Malin that something bad had happened. Finally ready, Big Al pulled himself up and jumped over onto Dixon's personnel carrier. Together they stood there side by side powerless to do anything effective to influence the battle as they watched the next series of exchanges.
Just as they came around a bend in the forest trail and caught sight of the 1st Platoon Bradley guarding the right flank, Kozak watched in horror as it was struck by a high-explosive anti-tank round fired by an unseen assailant. Because the back ramp was down, left open after the dismounted infantry had exited, much of the force of the explosion was vented out and in her direction. Still that didn't seem to make much difference to the Bradley's crew. Of the three men she suspected had been left to man the Bradley, only the driver popped up and out, leaping onto the ground and rolling across the trail as soon as he hit the ground. With no time to lose, Kozak pulled herself up, reaching for her rifle and gear as she went. "I'm going forward to find that squad of dismounts," she yelled to Wolf as she prepared to jump down. "Have Paden grab some LAWs and follow me. You get the Bradley into a good position here and cover the trail." Kozak didn't wait for Wolf to acknowledge. With a small hop she jumped down off her Bradley onto the soft floor of the forest. Even as she struggled to slip the straps of her web gear over her shoulders, Kozak was trotting forward to where she thought the dismounted infantry squad of the stricken Bradley would be.
Seeing a soldier hugging the ground for all he was worth, Kozak came up next to him and dropped to one knee. "Where's Sergeant Manning?"
Without a word the soldier pointed to his right. She glanced to her right, saw Manning, and then pushed herself up off the ground and headed for Manning. Behind Kozak, Specialist Pee Paden came running, carrying the AT-4 light anti-tank rockets Wolf had ordered him to grab. Called LAWs, the AT-4s were designed to be man-portable and disposable, each AT-4 LAW being a single round of ammunition. Paden, carrying three of them, first headed to where Kozak had stopped by the soldier for directions and then, seeing her shift to the right, changed directions to join her and. Manning.
Even before she reached him, Kozak called out. "Manning, what have you got?"
At first he said nothing. He didn't even look over at his company commander. He simply pointed east as he whispered, "Leopard, twenty, maybe thirty meters straight ahead."
Looking in the direction that Manning was pointing, Kozak listened for a second, then heard the deep throaty rumble of the Leopard's diesel engine. From the sound of it, it was sitting still, idling. No doubt the commander of that Leopard was either waiting for orders or uncertain how to proceed. Looking to her left and right, she saw that each of Manning's dismounts had an AT-4 LAW. "Okay, Sergeant Manning, go get it."
Again Manning didn't look at his company commander, staring intently instead in the direction from which the sound of the Leopard's engine came. Like Kozak, he had been listening for any change in pitch, any sign that it was moving or being joined by another tank. Only when he was ready did he bring himself up to a half crouch, reaching down for the AT-4 LAW that had been lying next to him. Calling out to his squad, he gave his orders. "Larson, Evestus, grab your rockets and follow me. The rest of you, cover us." From a short distance behind, Kozak, followed by Paden, went forward with Manning and his tank hunters.
Pulling up to where Kozak's Bradley should have been, Cerro discovered it was gone. Confused for a second, he looked down on the ground next to his own Bradley. Seeing where the tracks of Kozak's Bradley had torn up the ground when it had pulled back out of position, Cerro knew that he was in the right place. Kozak, however, had moved. Looking up to his right, he saw a second Bradley some thirty meters away. Cerro was about to dismount and go running over to it, hoping to find out if the commander of the other Bradley had seen where Kozak had gone, when he saw that Bradley launch a TOW anti-tank guided missile. Turning his attention across the open field to the woods to the northeast, Cerro watched the TOW as it streaked across the muddy field toward a target that he couldn't see.