Robert Forrest-Webb - Chieftains

He stared around him; nothing moved but the shadows.

The fatigue, exhaustion, and the pain were returning. He must get away; find somewhere where he could lick his wounds. He needed a weapon, though. Not another machine gun, something convenient, light, a pistol. He could see a holster on the belt of a body lying beside the upturned Jeep. He staggered over to it. It was the GRU captain; the man was unconscious. Studley looked at the two grenades he was holding in his hands; the pins were lost somewhere on the far side of the clearing. He had never expected to replace them. He considered tossing the grenades into the woods, then changed his mind.

Carefully he wedged them beneath the GRU captain’s body, the man’s weight holding the levers against their casings, then he took the pistol from the man’s holster.

He was about a kilometer away down the long slope of the woodland when he heard the two grenades detonate. The sound gave him no more satisfaction than had he killed a rabid dog.

A canopy of ponchos hid the white-blue light of the cutting torch as the men worked on the jammed track of Utah,. the Abrams of November India Squadron. The Bundesgrenzshutz platoon, with the exception of one engineer who was helping Adams, Ginsborough and Podini, were scattered on the lower slopes of the hill above the crippled tank. Master Sergeant Will Browning and the BGS lieutenant lay below the crest of the ridge and watched the activity on the three bridges now completed across the river.

The engines of the Soviet vehicles muffled the sound of gunfire, but distant fires were colouring the sky towards the west.

‘There’s one hell of a lot of supplies down there.’

The lieutenant nodded. ‘Too many. It should not be so. They are holding them… waiting for something.’

‘Reinforcements?’

‘No. I do not think they need them yet. I think they wait because they have delay.’

‘We’re holding them?’ It was a good thought, but Browning wasn’t convinced.

‘Maybe, yes. How far do you think it is to the combat zone?’

Browning studied the horizon. It was difficult to estimate distance at night, but the gunfire he could see was well below the rim of the night sky. ‘Eight or nine kilometers.’

‘Not much more than this afternoon. I think the American and German corps begin counter-offensive.’

‘Counter-offensive? Jesus man, we don’t have the strength. You’ve seen the amount of their armour.’

‘We now have French armour… and French aircraft.’

‘French? When the hell did we get the French?

‘Yesterday morning. They join us.’

‘Could they get their armour up this fast?’

‘It is possible. The distance is not so great.’ The German was lying on his stomach, his chin resting on his forearms. ‘You know what we must do?’

‘If I had any sense, I’d tell you we should get the hell out of here while we’ve got a chance.’ Browning stared down at the bridgehead and supply dump. The loss of ammunition, fuel, food and vehicle supplies would be a serious blow to the Soviet division, and if it could be achieved at the expense of a single NATO tank, then it had to be justifiable. The trouble was, it was his tank, his crew and his life; and he had already made himself a few promises. He attempted to weigh up the odds.

The lieutenant misunderstood Browning’s hesitation. ‘How do you want to fight this war, American? From twenty kilometers the other side of the front line… firing shells at an enemy you can’t see? In a tank, you fight close, like infantry. And sometimes it is necessary to die.’

‘I know my job, Lieutenant, and I know about dying.’ Browning was silent for a while. A lot of memories he had forgotten had been revived in the past hours, and almost as though it were Armageddon ghosts had risen from graves. He had called Adams ‘Jackson’ during the battle, but Jackson had died near Dong Ha; he had looked out through the episcope in the earlier minutes of the counterattack and for a few moments been unable to recognize the XM1s of the squadron, he had expected sand-coloured M48s. Dying? He was an expert. They had offered him a commission once… suggested he train to become an officer. He had refused, because he knew too much about death. As an officer you decided how a battle should be fought, and then you gave the orders to your men to fight it. As a sergeant you took the orders, but then made decisions to try to keep your men alive while you obeyed them. He preferred the latter responsibility.

‘You have visited my village before, Sergeant?

‘Gunthers?’ Browning saw the German officer nod. ‘I passed through it a couple of days ago. It was a nice place.’

‘Yes, a good place. Small, but good. And my school was good, too. I took my last class three days ago.’

‘Teacher?’

‘Yes, I am a teacher, art. I took my class on Tuesday afternoon. Boys and girls, fourteen years old. And they painted the bridge across the Ulster, from memory. I should have taken them down there, and let them sit by it… by the bridge. Now, it has gone, and with it the old gasthof, many memories. Yesterday morning, I blew them to pieces.’

Adams had repaired the track; cut it loose, replaced the severed link, repositioned the track on the sprockets and adjusted the tension. The XM1 was operational. There would be no opportunity to warm up her engine; once it was started every Russian within a kilometer would know there was an armoured vehicle somewhere close by. For a while they might think it was one of their own, but it wouldn’t be too long before someone decided to investigate. The sound of Utah’s Avco Lycoming turbine was distinctive.

Podini and Ginsborough had cleared most of the rubble from behind the tracks and with luck the Abrams would be able to reverse straight out. The men were waiting now for Browning’s orders, anxious to be moving.

The BGS lieutenant asked: ‘Well, Sergeant?’

‘How long will it take to get your men in position?

‘Four minutes.’

‘Will you be using your missiles?’

‘It’s not easy in the darkness… but yes, we will try.’

‘Okay,’ agreed Browning. ‘You have exactly four minutes.’

Podini’s voice was anxious in Browning’s earphones. ‘What’s going on? How many minutes to what?’

Browning had pulled down the hatch and was settling himself in his seat. ‘We’re going back to war.’

‘I thought we were going home…’

‘Afterwards, Podini…’

‘You had to mention a nuke,’ interrupted Adams, wearily.

‘It ain’t no nuke… I made a mistake. You’re kidding us, Sarge.’

‘Two minutes,’ warned Browning. ‘When you get her out of here, Mike, go right. Keep her close to the wall below the hill. After three hundred meters the ground dips below another section of wall that runs towards the river. I want her hull-down there for three shots, all HE… you get that, Mike… just three shots? You with me, Podini? Okay! There’s a fuel bowser this side of the bridge… that’s your first target. The missile you saw is under net some three hundred meters further up the bank, in a grove of trees, that’s your number two. I want that rocket taken out… so no mistakes. It may need a couple of shells… otherwise, we’ll see what we’ve got afterwards. Mike, once you move, move fast. Head straight into them… Podini, you’re on your own, I’ll be using the point five; and keep it cool, guys.’

‘Cool? Shit!’

Browning said, ‘Okay… let’s roll.’

Browning was watching the scene ahead of the XM1 through the light-intensifying lenses. They did not bring daylight, only dusk. There was no colour, soft shadows… the light of the minutes before nightfall.