Panzer 413 - The Onslaught (16Dec17)

(Source)

As the crew mounted up, Willi saw Major Lange coming back down the road. Seeing that 413's track was repaired the Major grinned at Willi and pointed to the west.

"Greife meine Kinder an!¹ Go get 'em boys!"

Issuing a gout of smoke from the exhaust, Tiger number 413 lurched forward. Willi Hoffmeister hunkered down in his commander's cupola. He didn't want to stand fully upright, he knew the Amis² could still be around, the little outpost they'd overrun certainly couldn't be all of them. Could it?

"Shit, shit, shit, shit." Sergeant Billy Jenkins muttered as he lowered his field glasses, he'd just seen a freaking Tiger tank on the road leading to his position. Dropping down into the turret he ordered his crew to load up an armor piercing round. They'd had high explosive loaded because they figured there was nothing but Kraut infantry out here. Nobody said anything about freaking Tigers.

But they were in a good position, just the turret was above the terrain and their cannon covered the road down to the treeline, about 500 yards away. The Tiger he'd seen was coming down a ridge on the other side of the small woodlot. No way he would try a shot at that range. He had buddies who'd gone up against Tigers in Normandy. You got up close and personal with those bad boys. Preferably behind them.

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"Fritz, American tank at 2 o'clock!"

Feldwebel Fritz Weber traversed his sight to that position, there, just above the trees in the woodlot ahead was an American Sherman tank. As he cranked the turret to line up the shot, he heard his loader shout out...

"Panzergranate geladen³!" Gefreiter Georg Hansel, the tank's loader reached back into the shot locker for another anti-tank round in case Georg missed or if another tank showed itself.

"Horst, stop here."

Willi was watching the American, he was confident that the American saw him, his turret though wasn't pointing at them, it was pointed down the road. Probably the Yank meant to pot them when they rolled out of the other side of the woodlot.

"Fritz?" While he knew his gunner was ready, he wanted to make sure that he'd acquired the Ami tank.

"Ready Willi..."

"Dammit! Johnnie boy back it up, move! That Tiger has spotted us!"

The Sherman, built in Detroit six months ago, began to move quickly in reverse. All they had to do was move about ten ...

"Feuer!"

"Auf dem Weg!⁴" Fritz barked as the big 88mm gun belched and sent the big anti-tank round down range. As the gun recoiled back and spit the shell casing out, Georg kicked the spent brass out of the way and loaded another round.

"Panzergranate geladen!"

The 88mm round slammed into the mantlet of the Sherman, disabling the cannon and killing Teddy Wexford, the tank's loader. While the Tiger round didn't penetrate, it sent spalls off the tank's interior into the crew compartment, which is what killed Teddy and blinded Steve Baxter, the gunner.

John Reese, the driver, was screaming, "Billy, what the hell, what the hell..." over and over again. He kept the tank backing up though, as commanded. He didn't notice that his buddy Bob, the bow gunner, wasn't saying anything, he was slumped over his gun, unconscious from the concussion of the 88 slamming into them.

Willi blinked, the Sherman was still moving. He'd seen the sparks thrown off the enemy tank's turret when his shot had hit it. Yet it still moved.

Bringing his binoculars up, he could now see that the Ami tank's gun was cocked at an odd angle.

"Verdammt! Fritz you must have hit the mantlet! Scheisse!"

Dropping into his seat, Willi took command of the gun. Looking through his sight he saw that the Sherman was backing up, rapidly. As he laid the gun on the target, he saw the Sherman rear up, as if the back end had dropped into a depression behind it. For a moment the lower front of the enemy tank was exposed.

Willi almost felt guilty as he squeezed the trigger, this was too easy.

"What the ..." Sergeant Jenkins never had time to finish that thought as the next shot from the Tiger sliced through the front of his tank, hit the transmission, and then ricocheted up through the Sherman's ammunition storage. The shock and the heat detonated a smoke round, then a high explosive round. Jenkins was thrown out of his seat and back over the rear deck of the tank.

As the remainder of the ammunition cooked off, the surviving members of Billy Jenkins crew died instantly. Jenkins braced himself as he expected to be run over by his own tank, he lay there helplessly as "Maggie" lurched to a halt just inches away.

He rolled away as fast as he could, "Maggie" was starting to burn now, Shermans loved to burn. Panting he lay momentarily in the mud, staring at the wreck of his tank. He could feel bitter tears streaking his face, his men were dead, his tank was gone, and the freaking "defeated" Germans were coming out of the woods in force.

"Jesus ..." Jenkins prayed as he shuffled away from "Maggie." Off to who knows where ...

Willi ordered 413 forward. He could see the Sherman atop the next rise, burning vigorously. He thought he saw someone scramble away into the brush, probably one of her crew. Poor bastard.

¹ Attack my lads!"
² Ami - German slang for an American.

³ Antitank shell loaded!

⁴ On the way!