“What do you make of this situation, Sims,” he said to his able Chief of Staff.
“Well sir, It looks like O’Connor has his hands full well behind us. He’ll probably be able to handle the one division he’s tangling with now, but if we continue any further west, we’ll expose his flank. Rommel could send one of his other two divisions after us to keep us busy, and then use the other to swing down and get after O’Connor. The situation is fairly confused behind us, but signals traffic indicated they have had to commit 2nd Armored already, and that was supposed to be kept in reserve for the exploitation force. Drones can’t really see what’s going on. The whole area is wreathed in heavy smoke and dust from the silt we’ve been trundling through.”
Kinlan nodded. “Under the circumstances, I think we should turn now and get to work. The point of this attack is to wreck the Afrika Korps—at least the panzers. Where are my Dragoons?”
“About 10 klicks back, sir. 3rd Mercian had better ground, and they nosed ahead as we turned. “They say they’ve come up on a line of infantry positions.”
“Very well….” Kinlan looked over the map. “This feature here, Hill 498…. We’ll make that our turning point. Swing the whole brigade north at that hill and tell Cooper he can attack. I’ll want the Dragoons to stand by if we need them. We’ve put five challengers into each company with the Warriors, so they have some heavy tank support as things stand, but it may not be enough.”
Kinlan had 60 Challengers, but he had taken half of these and parceled out five to each of the companies in the Mercian and Highland Battalions. The remaining 30 he kept in one concentrated force, three Sabers of ten tanks each in the Scots Dragoons. The action he had ordered saw the Mercians move up to strike the right flank of Fischer’s position, falling on the 49th Pioneer Battalion and II Battalion, 69th Panzergrenadiers. There were 33 engineer squads with 18 Panzerfaust teams waiting for them in the Pioneer Battalion, but the Warriors were standing off and using that 40mm gun to good effect. The Spartan ATGM vehicles were also engaging with ranged missile fire. As German casualties mounted, a frantic radio call went out.
“Come on! Where is our armor support? They’re picking my troops apart, mostly those medium tanks firing at a thousand meters.”
Rommel now made a fateful decision. He reasoned that his armor could match those medium tanks well enough, and initial reports indicated only a very few of the heavy behemoth’s had been seen. His pulse quickened. Fischer had 156 tanks ready in the 7th Panzer Regiment, and Ravenstein had another 142 in his 5th Panzer Regiment. That was a mailed fist of 298 tanks, and a few more in the HQ troops gave him over 300. He could smash this enemy attack, possibly crippling a third of this deadly enemy brigade, and that was what he decided to do.
The two panzer regiments moved to contact, the Lions beginning to open fire at just over 1000 meters wherever visibility permitted. Colonel Cooper saw them coming on infrared, a massive moving heat signature kicking up a huge storm of dust as it surged forward. 1st Company, 3rd Mercian was going to take the brunt of the attack and now the five Challengers supporting 15 Warriors and 10 ATGM vehicles were firing for all they were worth. The sharp report of the 120mm gun cracked out in reprisal.
Had this been a static shooting contest, those five Challengers, each with 50 rounds of ammunition, could have theoretically picked off almost all of Rommel’s advancing tanks. But it wasn’t a static battle. The enemy was charging in at them at breakneck speed, taking many hits and leaving many wrecked tanks in its wake, but there was simply too little time to stop all those tanks. Cooper was in one of those Challenger IIs, and he felt one hard chink after another as enemy rounds were striking his tank, all defeated by that impenetrable Chobham 3 armor. They were seeing the Germans on infrared, the big turret tracking, firing, tracking again, firing, and blasting one German tank after another.
Kinlan had been afraid of this very development, but he could both see and hear what had been happening on his digitally linked command screen. That battalion was going to be swamped by hundreds of German tanks, and so he quickly ordered the Scots Dragoons into action.
“Come on Bob!” he said over the radio. “Time for the heavy cavalry!”
On they came, the three Sabers accelerating rapidly in a massive armored charge, The thunder of their coming was heard even over the din and roar of the battle already underway. Moving at 40KPH, they closed on the scene with alarming speed, then broke column and fanned out in a wide line, their desert camo paint scheme blending nicely into the terrain. 1/3 Mercian was fighting for its life, as any gun the German panzers had was going to hurt a Warrior at those ranges. The infantry squads had all deployed, and were hugging the ground as the desperate fighting thickened. The enemy line drew ever closer, an unstoppable front of steel and thunder. But it was about to meet a force that was simply irresistible.
The Challengers rolled up a low rise and Cooper gave the order to halt. Dust and smoke billowed about the tanks, and now he was going to volley fire into the enemy advance at about 700 meters range. It was Fischer’s 7th Panzer Regiment in the sights of those 30 Challengers now, and the rippling roar of those big 120mm guns sent a shock wave of molten steel tight through them. Not even the heavy frontal armor of the new Lions could stop those heavy depleted uranium and tungsten tipped rounds. Thirty guns fired on one side, and 18 German tanks were smashed in the first volley, some taking two and three hits. Seconds later the Challengers fired again.
German tankers careening forward through the heavy silt and smoke saw one tank after another struck and savaged by that deadly enemy fire. The carnage was stunning, and it immediately prompted the regimental commander to give the order to break off, his panzers now turning and racing for any cover they could find. When it was over, Fischer’s 7th Panzer Regiment would stagger north into the more rugged rocky terrain and find they had 12 of 48 lions remaining, 18 of 48 Panzer IVF2s, and 25 of 48 Leopards, with seven of the twelve panthers still surviving. Of the 156 tanks in that Regiment that made that attack, only 62 remained.
Ravenstein’s 5th Panzer Regiment was lagging on the far right of the scene, but when Rommel realized what was happening, hearing the desperate cries of his Panzertruppen on the radio as they died, he shouted an order.
“Get them out of there! Get them back!” The order would reach the 5th Regiment just in time to stop its advance, and Rommel reinforced that order telling Ravenstein to get that regiment back to screen the artillery. But the Challengers then renewed their advance, coming up in a wedge of Chobham and steel, those long 120mm guns blasting any target before them, I/5th Panzer would take the full brunt of their charge, and be completely destroyed, all of 80 tanks, and 30 to 40 other vehicles left as smoldering wrecks on the field as they Challengers systematically obliterated that battalion.
Rommel had hurt his enemy, but it was like a wolf biting the flanks of a bear. Now the beast had turned on him, and it was simply unstoppable, as it was at Bir El Khamsa, and at Tobruk. The swift moving heavy tanks had appeared on the scene to utterly smash his panzers. A brief lull ensued in the action, and The Scots Dragoons stopped to wait for the Mercians to collect themselves. Reeves 12th Royal Lancers was also coming up with his Scimitars and Dragon IFVs, and Kinlan ordered a brief halt to regroup his forces. An attack like that inherently scattered units about the field, and he wanted to keep the tip of his spear very sharp.