The gunner of the Bradley that had fired, however, could. The TOW blew up as soon as it reached the far tree line and disappeared behind the trees that had been masking Cerro's view of the target. A ball of black smoke was already rising above the trees when the sound of the warhead's detonation reached Cerro's ears. Shaking his head, he turned back to look at the Bradley that had just fired and watched as it pulled back to hide in the woods. Fearing that he was going to lose contact with this Bradley, Cerro had just begun to wave at the commander of the Bradley when the sound of several small explosions further to his right came echoing through the trees. Since there was no distinctive high-pitched crack that characterized a tank cannon firing, or enough of a report to indicate the launching of a TOW, Cerro guessed that someone was firing anti-tank rockets on the battalion's right flank. Though he had heard Kozak's report of enemy activity over there, he hadn't imagined that it was so close or a major threat, since the obvious danger to the front across the field had so dominated his attention.
Grabbing his map and spreading it out before him, Cerro forced himself for the first time that morning to consider everything that was happening and come up with a clear, effective, and coherent plan of action.
When the first round of artillery came screaming in and impacted somewhere in the woods behind him, Seydlitz thought that the artillery battalion firing in support of his company had made a horrible error and was shelling his position instead of the enemy's. Pulling his hatch to the opened covered position, Seydlitz was about to call the fire support officer at battalion and tell him to cease fire when he saw across the field a series of explosions shake the farm buildings. That, he suddenly realized, was his artillery. The rounds behind him were American. While he was watching to see what effect his artillery had on the enemy and listening to the drumbeat of their artillery on his position, he wondered why he had discounted, almost without thought, the possibility that the enemy would respond with artillery too. He shouldn't have. And he knew he shouldn't have, since they had, until recently, been allies. Still Seydlitz reminded himself that all too often one allows himself to fall into the common pitfall of feeling that his side is superior or he is clever and his foe is dumb. The worst foe in war, Seydlitz had been told by one of his instructors, was often one's own arrogance.
Seeing that the first volley of his artillery had fallen too far to the west, Seydlitz calculated in his head how much of a correction he needed to give to his fire support officer before they fired the next volley. When he was ready, he attempted to contact the fire support officer. As he waited for him to respond, Seydlitz glanced over his shoulder, then to the northwest where the American vehicles had first come from, wondering if some American company commander wasn't doing exactly the same thing at that moment.
The first volley of German artillery had caught both Malin and Dixon standing on top of Dixon's personnel carrier watching as a momentary lull set in over the morning's fight. Without having to look about to decide what had happened, both men dropped onto the top of the personnel carrier as if someone had pulled their feet out from under them. When he was sure that the last round had landed, Malin looked up and over to the farmhouse, now ablaze. "Scotty, they know we're still here and want our asses."
Lifting up his head, Dixon looked over to where the shower of tiny cluster munitions had come down. "Jesus, that was close."
Looking to his rear, in the direction that he had come from not more than five minutes ago, Malin could see the tree line through the smoke of the burning tank that was offering them cover. "Yeah, we're lucky this time. Think they'll make a correction and try again?"
Dixon looked at Malin, in the direction that he was still looking, then back at Malin. He knew what Malin was thinking without asking. "Do you think we could make it?"
Slowly Malin turned his head toward Dixon. "Well, Scotty, we bet our lives if we stay here that the Germans won't shoot at us again. And we bet our lives that the smoke from the burning tank and the speed of these tinker toys will get us back in one piece if we make a run for it. What do you think?"
Dixon didn't need to think. It wasn't in him to sit and do nothing. "Do we go by road or trust the fields?"
Looking back again, Malin considered that. The fields to the west of the hard-surfaced road were a good three feet lower than the level of the elevated roadway. "Fields, I think. There's a chance we'll get stuck. If we do, we unass and go it by foot."
Dixon nodded. "Okay, General. I'm right behind you."
The loss of the two lead tanks in his column attacking into the flank of Kozak's position convinced the German commander of the tank company moving through the woods that staying in the woods was more dangerous than pulling out into the open. With a crisp, curt command he ordered his driver to make a hard right, taking a trail that led out of the woods. Once they broke the tree line, he ordered his driver to hug the tree line and his gunner to keep a sharp eye out. If they ran into someone, he told his gunner, it would be very close. He knew they would have to get the first round off or die.
The call by Dixon that both he and Malin were making a run for it in his direction didn't surprise Vorishnov. From his position, he had watched the first German volley go in at the farmhouse, and like Malin he had wondered if the Germans would try again. With a quick call to the brigade fire support officer, Vorishnov ordered him to switch to high-explosive mix with smoke rounds and continue to repeat the mission against the German woods to the southeast until he, Vorishnov, gave permission to cut it off. Though not as effective as a dual-purpose conventional round that spewed out dozens of sub-munitions, Vorishnov felt the high explosive and smoke slamming into the edge of the tree line would serve to disrupt any gunner's aim long enough for Malin and Dixon to have a chance.
"There they go! The Americans are running."
Seydlitz looked first to the northwest, the direction he thought that his gunner was talking about, then, seeing nothing, to the west, toward the burning farmhouse. Without his primary sight, he couldn't see what his gunner was talking about. "Who? Who's running and where?"
The gunner, excited and already tracking his new targets, shouted back to Seydlitz, "The American personnel carriers, two of them. On the other side of the roadway. They're running from the farm north."
Leaning forward, Seydlitz looked hard. Only after a second of intense search did he manage to see the very tops of two vehicles, mostly hidden by the elevated hard-surfaced road, crawling north. "Yes, I see them. Prepare to engage."
The gunner hesitated. He had not used his telescope in a long time for a main-gun engagement. Like many of his peers in the German Army, he had come to rely on the computer-driven electronic/hydraulic fire-control system that gave the Leopard such a high probability of first-round hits. With the primary sight out and only the telescope available, he, the gunner, would have to make many corrections, such as target tracking and range estimation, that the automated system had done for him. Still, as he looked, he figured that he had more than enough time to get off three, maybe four shots before the Americans reached safety among the trees in the north. A miss with the first round, therefore, would not be catastrophic.
Unable to see or do anything where he was, Cerro ordered his driver to slowly move forward. With his gunner looking to the left and him watching the German woods to the northeast, Cerro allowed his Bradley to inch out of the protective tree line slowly. If all went well, he would have the driver cut to the right and follow the tree line looking for somewhere to duck back in a little further to the east. Though this didn't make good sound tactical sense, Cerro was tired of being left out of this fight and was looking for the quickest way to find Kozak so he could get an accurate assessment from her and start exerting some command and control.