Ambush!

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Unteroffizier Sven Christmann stood in the commander's cupola of Sturmgeschütz 221 and looked down at the long column of American prisoners being marched back into Germany. He couldn't help but feel a certain grim satisfaction at the arrogant bastards thinking they had won the war, only to wind up in a prison camp.

He looked back at the long column behind him, three more StuGs behind him and behind them was all of Grenadierkompanie Koch, 119 men carried in thirteen Opel Lkws. and one Kübelwagen carrying the company commander, his Spieß, Hauptfeldwebel Otto Böhm, and the man driving the car, Gefreiter Lars Maier.

He thought back to the morning brief, held shortly after the entire Kampfgruppe and swarmed up the Holzwarche Ridge. All they found was a knocked out PzKw IV, a destroyed American anti-tank gun and its prime mover. It looked to Christmann that the SS hadn't bothered taking any prisoners. It was clear that they had lined up the surviving Americans and shot them.

It made him distinctly nervous about the skull and crossbones patches on his own tunic, he wondered if the Americans knew the difference. Best thing he thought, don't get captured.

After studying the map with his officers, Major von Lüttwitz decided to take the main body of the Kampfgruppe, including all of the reconnaissance assets, and send Grenadierkompanie Koch up the main road through Mürringen. One of Oberleutnant Köhler's scouts on a Kettenkrad had been up that road and past Mürringen itself. The Americans had pulled out he said. He saw American scout cars moving off towards Bütgenbach, but that was it.

The Plan
(Source)

Hauptmann Sauer wanted to take his tanks with the Grenadierkompanie, but von Lüttwitz had shot that idea down with a glance at the destroyed PzKw IV behind him. "The Americans have teeth, it was probably a lucky shot with this small AT gun, but your PzKw IIIs would have even less of a chance. Your armor is just too light Norbert."

He turned to Leutnant Günther Hornbach, commanding the Sturmgeschützkompanie, and said, "Send one of your platoons with Koch, they should be able to handle any American vehicles. They're low enough to sneak about as well."

Sauer had been upset, but he could see that von Lüttwitz's plan made perfect sense. So, here Christmann was, leading a column in the fog and the snow.

There wasn't much left of his platoon, but 2nd Lt. Jerry Holzmann had them positioned to cover the road into Mürringen. Three Shermans and a couple of squads of infantry in support, mounted in halftracks. His job was to slow any German advance past Mürringen.

He was watching from his tank as he could just make out what appeared to be a platoon of assault guns interspersed with a whole bunch of infantry on trucks. So if the Krauts wanted to come at his position, they'd have to walk, the fields were awfully messy. Though it was still snowing, the temperature was hovering around freezing, the ground had yet to freeze.

"Okay, all tanks listen up, Lance you hit the tail end vehicle, Bruce, you hit somebody near the middle, I'll take out the lead StuG. After that, kill anything still moving."

The leader of the infantry knew to hold fire until the tanks opened up. Holzmann did a three count then ordered, "FIRE!"

The Ambush
(Source)

Christmann nearly shit himself as an antitank round glanced off the Saukopf in front of him. He heard the clang of another round somewhere behind him. He turned to look and saw StuG 222 stop abruptly and slide off the road into the ditch. The vehicle began to burn, Christmann knew that Gefreiter Horst Behrmann and his crew had to be dead. As he dropped into his vehicle he heard an explosion behind him, StuG 222 was, along with it's crew, finished.

"Thorsten, right stick, pull hard Bubi! Markus when the gun comes to bear..."

"I see them, Sven, at least two Shermans!"

StuG 221 then lurched to a stop as another round hit the vehicle on the right drive sprocket, tearing it to pieces. Christmann had the bizarre thought, "Thank God we've got a spare." He was in a fight for his life and was still worried about getting his vehicle mobile again.

On his own initiative, Panzerkanonier Markus Hoffmann fired the big cannon as soon as he spotted a vehicle in his gunsight. "FEUER!! Panzerabwehr laden!"

Holzmann winced as a German tank round hit one of the halftracks, no one was onboard but those guys would have to ride the tanks back. Provided, of course, any of them survived. As his gunner sent a high-explosive round out, destroying a truck loaded with infantry, "Why weren't the dumb bastards getting out of the trucks?" he thought.

He could see two StuGs burning, one had blown up in spectacular fashion after Cpl. Bruce Walker's tank had punched a hole through the side of it just below the track. Those armor skirts won't stop a tank round, he thought.

Gefreiter Lars Maier tried to maneuver the Kübelwagen around the side of the column away from the enemy. It was slow going but it was working, the little car was handling the muddy terrain nicely. For his part, the commander of Grenadierkompanie Koch, Hauptmann Hans Koch was standing up, screaming at his men to get out of the trucks and deploy.

As the passed a gap between one truck and a burning StuG, an American high-explosive round decapitated the Spieß, Hauptfeldwebel Otto Böhm slumped down into the backseat, Maier and Koch didn't even realize that the man was dead.

"Lars, park it here, we need to get the men deployed, where the Hell is Otto?" Then he looked in the backseat. "Scheiße, Otto's had it! Let's go, you head to the rear of the column, I'll do the front."

Koch noticed then that at least two of his trucks had been destroyed with the men still in them. One was carrying an assault squad, the other contained part of his company headquarters. All thought of driving past Mürringen was forgotten, they were fighting for their survival now!

"Okay boys, I think we're done here. Lance, load up as many of the infantry as you can, Bruce you take the rest. Let's get the Hell out of Dodge!"

The snow had increased and they could only see glimpses of the road, they had killed three StuGs and at least two trucks, just before the weather had closed in Lance had scored another hit on a StuG as it was trying to deploy off the road. His round had gone straight through the roof of the vehicle and blown it all to Hell.

He figured the Krauts would be dismounting from their trucks and trying to close with his little unit which, other than the wrecked M3¹, hadn't taken any losses. They'd slowed the Kraut advance and that's all his company commander had wanted.

"Time to run away boys, so we can live to fight another day!"

As the tanks backed away from the position, one of the infantrymen fell off Sgt. Lance Ormond's tank and was crushed under the track. So much for no casualties.

Gefreiter Ernst Vogel, one of only two surviving snipers out of the original six assigned, came up to Koch and reported, "They're gone Herr Hauptmann, tracks lead northeast. A destroyed Ami halftrack and one dead man, everyone else is gone.

Hauptmann Koch surveyed the wreckage of his little command. Three knocked out assault guns, only one man of the twelve crewmen had survived unhurt, two were wounded, one badly, nine were dead. The remaining StuG was immobilized, though the crew was working hard to get the drive sprocket replaced, they had a spare, thank God.

The Spieß was dead, he had twenty other dead in his company, and five wounded. Two of his trucks had been completely destroyed. He checked his watch, it was getting late, it was getting dark. 

"All right, everybody back in the trucks except you Schneider, take your squad on foot and lead us into Mürringen!" Koch thought a moment then yelled out, "Franke, Hermann, you too, off the trucks, lead us into the town. We'll spend the night there."

He walked back to where part of his company headquarters had died, hoping that someone hadn't put all the radiomen in the same vehicle. He found Grenadier Horst Bauer at the side of the road, crying.

"Bauer, snap out of it! Is your equipment okay?"

Bauer nodded his head, his three fellow radiomen had all been on the destroyed truck. He was riding with one of the assault squads, so he was still alive. "Herr Hauptmann, my radio is functioning, I was just speaking with the Kampfgruppe, apprising them of our situation."

"Good job, Horst, stick with me from now on, you're riding in the Kübelwagen with Maier and me."

"Sir!"

(Source)

About two kilometers away, Major Jürgen von Lüttwitz handed the handset back to his radioman, he sighed.

"Problem Herr Major?" Hauptfeldwebel Klaus-Peter Keller asked, he knew that they had been expecting to link up with Koch and his attached StuG platoon, but they were late.

"Koch was ambushed outside Mürringen, three StuGs lost, two trucks, and he's lost thirty-seven men. Disaster, utter disaster. He's in Mürringen now, the Amis abandoned the town. We'll push on in the morning. Tell the men no cookfires, we are in enemy territory now."

"Yes Sir. Until the morning then..."

¹ White M3 Halftrack

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