Panzer 413 - Interlude

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As Tennessee Whiskey rumbled up the road to Gouvy, Mac Peterson was still thinking about the incident at the crossroads. Should Tom have let those Tigers slide on by? If he had, Boston Beans would be rolling down the road behind them. Now Tom and his crew were dead. Gone.

Yeah, sure, they'd killed a Tiger. But another Tiger had killed them. Mac had run, no other way to look at it, they'd run away. But Jesus, square off against a Tiger? He was also pretty sure that there had been a third Tiger, skulking behind the one Boston Beans had killed.

One Tiger was iffy, two? No thanks.

"Hey Sarge, you awake up there?"

The call from his gunner snapped Mac back to the present. That's when he noticed headlights coming down the road, faint headlights. Mac realized that the snow had lightened up some, otherwise they would have run smack into whatever was coming down the road.

"Louis, halt! Jim, load armor piercing!"

"Up!"

"Easy does it boys, could be one of ours." Mac was watching intently as the other vehicle slowly approached. As it got closer, he realized that it was an M8 scout car, with infantry hanging all over it. A second followed, it too had men clinging to the outside.

When the M8 spotted the Sherman in the middle of the road, it stopped rather abruptly, almost spilling a couple of its passengers. One of those passengers jumped down and approached Tennessee Whiskey, the man was taking no chances, his Thompson was ready and pointed in Mac's direction.

(Source)

"Chef..."

Horst was on the intercom, Willi thought he knew why, but he asked anyway, when the boys started calling him "chief," it made him nervous.

"What is it Horst? Make it quick, I think that's Limerlé up ahead."

"Fuel, Chef. We're about to see if this beast can run on fumes."

"Verstanden. We should be able to fuel here, I hope. Or we will become a very expensive bunker."

Willi could see a couple of Kettenhunde* by the first house in the village ahead, which he really hoped was Limerlé.

One of the Kettenhunde stepped into the road, signalling them to stop. Willi ordered Horst to stop, he would like to run the guy over, they'd hassled him in Russia one too many times, but he decided to play nice.

"Is this Limerlé?"

"What unit are you with?" the military policeman asked, ignoring Willi's question.

"Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 506, we were attached to 6th Army, but the battalion has been directed to here, then Bastogne."

"Ja, your boys were through here four hours ago, where have you been?"

Willi had had enough of this man's arrogance, over the intercom he told Schmidt, "Junge, point your MG at this schweine, I want to get his attention." Then to the man in the road...

"We've been fighting the Amis, not bothering honest soldiers. We need fuel, does this town have any?"

Obergefreiter Johannes Töricht, was ready to order this tanker down from his hatch and give him the business, how dare he talk to the Feldgendarmerie in such a manner? Then he noticed that the tank's bow machine gun was pointed right at his head. Taking a couple of steps to his right, he noticed that the gun followed him.

"Down this road, second house on the left, I think there are some fuel cans there. Now move it, you're blocking the road!"

"Insolent child," Willi muttered as he told Horst where to go. Damn Feldgendarmerie, never fighting, always harassing honest soldiers.

Feldgendarmerie
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As the man with the Tommy-gun approached, Mac could see that the man was a major.

"Evenin' Sir, we're on the way to Gouvy, then on to St. Vith to hook up with the rest of our battalion."

"Which outfit you with Sergeant? Last I heard, St. Vith was cut off. We were ordered back to Houffalize, but we've been dodging Nazis for the last few hours." While the major had lowered his weapon slightly, it would easily swing towards Mac if he wanted. The guy was obviously on edge.

"Second Platoon, B Company of the 17th Tank Battalion. Have you heard where they might be at Sir?"

Mac was getting a bit edgy, it was getting lighter, he was hungry, he was sure his crew was hungry and he was worried that Tennessee Whiskey might be thirsty. They needed to gas up, soon.

"No Sarge, haven't heard anything about that outfit, but I know 7th Armored was supposed to fall back on Elsenborn Ridge. If I was you, I'd turn around and follow us to Houffalize."

"Love to major, but I need gas."

The major went back to the leading M8 and after a brief talk with its commander, came back to Mac's tank.

"Should be some fuel in Gouvy, if the engineers haven't torched it yet. The Krauts are coming on fast, we don't want them using our fuel, so I'd hustle Sarge." With that the major headed back to the M8, then he stopped.

"One more thing Sarge, there are rumors of Krauts running around in our uniforms, driving Jeeps or some such nonsense. Keep your eyes open."

"Copy that Major. Good luck."

"You too, Sarge. You too."

"Willi, isn't that der Spiess** over there?"

As Willi helped Horst, Peter, and Georg move another fuel drum over to 413, he looked up. Next to a small shed was a battered Kübelwagen, and sure enough, it was Otto Krämer, Fourth Company's Spiess.

"Hallo, Spiess. Was passiert?"

Krämer looked over and saw Willi and a big grin broke out on his face. He'd known Willi since Poland in '39.

Kübelwagen
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"How are you Willi? Where's the rest of your platoon?"

Sighing, Willi lowered his head, then looked back down the road into the village. "411 broke down after we crossed into Belgium, engine fire. The lieutenant was going to try and get the engine swapped out, wanted us to wait. Some SS officer ordered the rest of the platoon to get moving, we were blocking the road."

Looking puzzled, Otto asked, "So where is the young Leutnant?"

"Dead. A stray Ami artillery round sprayed some shrapnel around, a couple of wounded, but Leutnant Hansel was dead. Freak accident I guess you'd say. Then 413 was killed by a Sherman earlier this morning. Now it's just us and 414."

Otto paused, as if he didn't know what to say next, then he just blurted it out. "We just had word, München was bombed three days ago. A heavy raid, the Tommies in the night, the Yanks in the day."

Willi was from München, his parents and his sisters still lived there. Before he could ask, Otto looked at him sadly and said, "They're gone Junge, all gone."

Tennessee Whiskey was all gassed up and ready to move out. Mac Peterson was pondering his next move, probably Houffalize as the major had suggested, he'd actually found that on his map, they should be able to make it there by mid-afternoon. If all went well, but so far, nothing had gone well.

Mac looked up as the engineers seemed to be finishing up whatever it was they were doing. One of them, a Master Sergeant was walking over to him.

"Hey buddy, where you headed? Me and my guys could use a little help. A tank might come in handy. We're supposed to head for Houffalize, putting down mines and dropping trees across the road. We might get to blow a bridge or two. Interested?"

Mac looked around, the engineers had a couple of weapons carriers and a jeep. What the Hell, he could use the company.

"Sure, you guys ready to move out?"

"Yup, go ahead and roll, we'll be right behind you!"

As Tennessee Whiskey headed back the way she'd came, Mac heard a loud "woomph" and looked back to see the last fuel in Gouvy go up in a big fireball. In front of that devastation, he saw the three engineer vehicles speeding towards him.

That MSgt was gesturing at him to "follow me," he looked scared for some reason.

On the other side of Gouvy, a long column of Panther tanks from the 9th SS Panzer Division, Hohenstauffen, was moving rapidly down the road into Gouvy.

SS-Hauptsturmführer*** Kurt Langanke slapped the turret of his Panther in frustration as he saw what had to be the fuel stores in Gouvy go up in flames. His tanks needed fuel, the Belgians they'd questioned said they'd seen the Amis storing fuel in two places, Gouvy and Rettigny.

No chance of getting fuel in Gouvy. Next stop then, Rettigny.

(Source)

"Meine Panzer brauchen Treibstoff!" Langanke bellowed at the lowering clouds.

They gave him snow.

Fuel dump near Stavelot.
(Source)

* Kettenhunde, literally "chain dogs," German Army slang for military policemen because of the gorget worn while on duty which was suspended from a chain.
** der Spiess = German Army slang for a unit's first sergeant.
*** SS-Hauptsturmführer, Captain in the Waffen SS (SS = Schutzstaffel, Protection Squadron), the Nazi Party's armed forces. Separate from the Army, Air Force, and Navy.