Rob
Horn was here with the General Motors Demonstration Company to interest the Red Army in more of "Detroit's finest". A team of Russian observers from the Red Army commissars from the ordnance had been sent to evaluate the GM vehicles. The Russian's, unsatisfied by Rob's sales pitch, had demanded a real trial against real Fascists.
The GM troop had been set the task of recapturing the stocks of spares & manuals for their vehicles. The Russians with Byzantine intrigue having allowed these to fall into German hands 2 days before.
They were a mix of experienced guys & trained newbies confident in the quality of the product. Although for some of the men the confidence stemmed only from their ignorance of what was to come.
Horn had cherry picked the best, Shermans with 76 mm guns, M3 half track mounted mortars , Hellcat tank destroyers, Stuart light tanks, a recce platoon, a light motorised weapons platoon, & an AA platoon, Rob was particularly proud of the new Sherman "Jumbo" (an up-armoured Sherman rendering it impervious to all but the heaviest AT gun)
Sagermann had been Shanghaied again. One minute he was dozing quietly on the west bound train for some leave, then the train lurched to a halt & he was hustled into a filthy Russian railway station in the back of beyond. An aristocratic officer introduced himself (both pompously & inaccurately) as Graf Von Sauken and said he needed a junior officer for "an interesting project".
Sagermann was under orders to hold the positions as long as possible to allow the Waffenamt technicians time to study the manuals. Von Sauken wanted a "good show" as he put it …....no pressure there then. So it was that Sagermann found himself facing Americans in the middle of Russia with one of the Heer's most famous armoured commanders watching his every move.
His command was a platoon of Panzer grenadiers, a 21cm nebelwerfer section a pak 40 section & 2 37mm armed Flak ½ track. The PAK40s were hidden in ambush. All were hard bitten vets with good NCOs able to keep them in line no matter what. Von Sauken promised Pz IV tanks and mechanised infantry reinforcements from the rail head once they had been unloaded.
The Panzergrenadiers dug themselves in near one supply dump. The Flak, Sagermanns HQ & the near the other. A river divided Sagermanns command in half then turned in front of the Amis line of advance, both a blessing & a curse it presented an obstacle to the Ami advance but prevented either German flank from easily reinforcing the other 2 bridges crossed the river one just in front of the Ami positions & the other near the farm. They would both become death traps however once battle commenced.
Horn's force advanced, Ami officers peered thru field glasses looking for the Germans , but apart from the occasional flash of metal or the occasional bobbing head, there was nothing to aim at.
Not so for Sagermann, the nebs opened up, instantly causing chaos for the recce troop, a jeep overturned, their CO, initially unaware of the problem continued to advance trying to probe the panzergrenadier positions. The nebs Pak 40 added to the chaos for the Amis.
The weakness of the jumbos became instantly apparent as their overloaded chassis sluggishly waddled across the terrain holding back the faster tanks. Rob, nervously twiddling the pens in his top pocket, ordered the Stuarts to advance & silence the nebs. The Hellcats stealthily advanced into a field of sunflowers screened by their security group.
The shermans advanced on the panzer grenadiers firing their main guns & hosing down the panzergrenadiers with their machine guns, the tank commanders rashly stood in the hatches firing the 50 cals. The grenadiers started to take a few casualties stretcher parties busied themselves ferrying wounded to the rear. Oberst Brun, Sagermanns 2 IC, watched them advance, the open commanders' hatches of the shermans would be a weakness he could exploit later in close assault.
The Stuarts burst upon the Nebs, almost simultaneously a section of 3 PzIVs arrived who made short work of 2 Stuarts, the Nebs lost one crew to close assault by the Stuarts the remaining Stuarts were shot up by the Flak guns leaving mangled tanks littering the field, members of the Nebs ammunition party rounded up a few dazed American survivors.
The panzers had little time to savour victory, as the Hellcats opened up from the sunflowers
all 3 tanks burst into flame, the crews scrambled out & took cover in the tall crops. The remaining Nebs fired on the Hellcats even their rockets being deadly to such thin-skinned armour. Unable to get a clear view of the target however the nebs rounds fell harmlessly.
The pak40s opened fire on the shermans then watched frustrated as their rounds bounced from the jumbos thick armour, one round however glanced off a Jumbo then careered into a standard Sherman which instantly slewed to a halt. The discipline of the grenadiers held as the NCOs kept them deep in their foxholes.
More panzer IVs arrived & immediately set about the shermans brewing one the return fire left 2 panzers burning the remaining tank withdrew.
Under fire from the AA platoon Sherman & the hellcats the PaK40's fire slackened, then the Ami fire shifted to the Grenadier's forcing them deep in their holes. Seizing their chance the Shermans pushed onto the grenadier's position.
Brun leapt from his hole eager to take on a jumbo & was cut down by Mg fire. The Grenadier CO ordered his men to counterattack. In the confusion the NCOs misunderstood & the platoon started to pull back. The Pak 40s now freed from fire opened up on the Shermans, more rounds, as if magnetically drawn, sped towards the Jumbos & bounced off but enough telling hits were scored to break the nerve of the Ami tanks, & they retired, after all these were salesmen not soldiers!
The Russian observers had seen enough, the lead Commissar, Obstrikov poked Horn in the chest & summoned up his broken English "American tanks Paaah …...one too slow other burn easy, you go over there try sell Fascists!". He then turned on his heel picked up a case of Kentucky bourbon, got in Horn's own jeep & drove off.
Von Sauken gave a curt nod to Sagermann, looted some Cigars from a burning Stuart then drove off thumbing through a captured Sherman Jumbo manual.
Horn looked forward to an uncomfortable flight back to Detroit & a more uncomfortable meeting with VP sales........
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