Impasse (The Red Gambit Series) (74 page)

“
New aerial.”

With little more than that, Haro was out of the vehicle and
straight into the repair.

He worked quickly, all to a backdrop of death and destruction
, as the ambushing anti-tank guns worked their way through the 2nd/3rd Company tank force.

Machine guns now also added their load of life-taking metal to the valley, as enemy heavy calibre weapons punched out bullets at the infantry force
trying to deploy for an assault.

By the time Hamuda and Yamagiri had qu
estioned the competence of the infantry Major Kuso, the man was already spectacularly dead, caught simultaneously by three bursts of .50cal shells.

Japanese battlefield intelligence was never brilliant and, as the Pacific War had come closer to the home islands, and Japan was more and more isolated, its intelligence services could only search for crumbs with which to feed the machine of war.

Ships had been seen at Fangcheng and Zhenzhu Harbours, yet more at Beihei, ships that spewed forth men and equipment in large numbers.

A few men and women survived close encounters with vigilant Chinese secret police, at least long enough to get a message down the line.

None made it through, the last messenger, a ten year old girl delivering a letter for her
‘uncle’, had a confession beaten out of her and was then left to drown in a shallow gully alongside the Suixi–Zhanjiang road.

So, the 2nd
/3rd Group of the Rainbow Brigade walked right into a prepared defensive position manned by some very serious men with big guns.

Colonel Edgar J. Painter, commander of the 20th US Armored
’s Combat Command A, and senior man on the field that day, had no choice but to let the guns loose ahead of time.

‘
Damn that goddamned fucking goat!’

He found some small satisfaction that the beast that had blown
his ambush was already with its maker; he would ensure the carcass would serve as a square meal for his headquarters that evening.

‘A goddamned fucking goat of all things!’

CCA had brought very little of its firepower forward, logistics proving difficult in a country firmly rooted in the 18th Century, but it brought some extra force to the field, in the shape of part of the 343rd RCT, quickly sent up to make up for the absence of infantry in CCA, its own regular armored-infantry battalion diverted away from the Southern Chinese ports by submarine warnings.

Both the 20th and 343rd had some action in Europe at the end of the German War, but both came to it late
, and their experiences were relatively untraumatic, pushing against a beaten enemy, and so the men were unusually eager to get to grips with the enemy.

Both partial units were augmented by a special tank-
destroyer group with three distinct elements. The first two consisted of two platoons of 3” AT guns and one extended platoon of 90mm AA guns respectively, the latter the modified version capable of engaging ground targets. The third element, slated to be part of the 86th Infantry Division’s order of battle, was a Headquarters and 1st platoon from the 656th Tank-Destroyer Battalion, sporting four M36 Jacksons, and an equal number of M20 utility cars.

It was one of the 90mm AA guns that had destroyed the lead Tiger with its first shot.

The M36’s sat on the right flank of the Chinese-American force, waiting their moment.

To complete the firepower available to Painter, the 413rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion was already lobbing its
105mm high-explosive shells to the rear of the 2nd Group, equally interfering with either reinforcement or retreat.

The 413rd was one of the few units in the US Army that had been converted to the M37 HMC
, and this was their first time using it in action.

Painter nodded in satisfaction at their work, the shells constantly arriving on the money, denying the enemy the road and everything for two hundred yards west and east of it.

“George. “

Immediately,
Colonel Bloomquist of the 343rd Infantry moved closer.

“
George, I think we need to push your boys up on the left there, through the woods. Don’t think they’ve got tanks in there, so push them up hard and get ‘em flanking the sons of bitches. “

The planning had anticipated an infantry advance up the left flank, using the relative safety of the trees. There were
huge gaps between some of the trunks, some wide enough to drive two vehicles side by side through, but it seemed the entire Imperial Army armoured group was on or near the road. None the less, George Bloomquist had made sure his lead formation sported extra bazookas, just in case.

“
I’m gonna commit my tanks with your boys. Tuck ‘em in behind until they can cut loose into the flank of these sons of bitches. Clear, George?”

“
Sure thing, Colonel. “

Even though they were both the same rank, it was Painter that held command.

Bloomquist moved off to his portion of the headquarters bunker, calling his CoS to him to issue the orders.

Major Norris, Painter
’s equivalent, took the opportunity presented and spoke softly to his commander.

“
Sir, should we move the TD’s across into the flank now. Maybe push up some infantry as a screen to the right flank?”

Edgar Painter was the sort of officer who encouraged free expression amongst his officers, so such a suggestion was of no surprise to him.

“I think not, Willie. Leave the doughs where they are for now. They’ve prepared positions and we still don’t know the strength of this lot. Get... err... Crowther’s tanks moving up the left, acting in support of the infantry. He knows the plan.”

The man’s name had nearly escaped him.

Had the six Shermans arrived earlier then he would have pushed them up to make a firmer left side to his position.

But they had
n’t.

He gestured at the rapidly declining enemy force spread across the gap at the exit from the forest,

The pain on his face was very real as he witnessed an enemy shell wipe out one of his 3” guns, complete with its crew.

S
wift retribution did not ease his pain at the loss of his men, the disintegrating Chi-Ha barely registering as he looked for survivors amongst his men, his knuckles white as he gripped the binoculars.

Some of the enemy tanks
, and most of their infantry, had now disappeared from sight, taking cover in the small folds in the ground, or behind the unusual terrain features, oddly shaped areas of higher ground, that marred what would otherwise have been a perfect ambush site.

Still, he had a plan.

“Major Norris, order Butter to commence preset fire, commencing with Alpha.”

Norris confirmed the order and was quickly at the radio, overseeing the transfer of the instruction to
call sign ‘Butter’, the commander of the 413rd Artillery’s three batteries.

The plan required one battery to continue discouraging retreat or reinforcement
, whilst the other two put their ordnance down on pre-ranged locations behind cover.

Alpha
, selected in haste earlier when Painter and a security detail quickly traversed the battlefield, was a very obvious place for an ambushed column to seek cover, and so was quickly brought under fire.

Whilst the results were not known, the observing officers were content that the Japanese were having a hard time of it.

He considered using his artillery to engage the hull down Tiger, but resisted, instead ordering the 90mms to concentrate solely upon the heavier vehicle until it was destroyed.

Even inside the noisy tank, the sound of tank
cannons and machine guns could be heard quite clearly.

The artillery barrage seem
ed to have slackened off, for a reason Hamuda could only guess at.

His
guesses came down to low ammunition, or a lack of targets.

As the edge of the forest started to declare itself ahead, Hamuda halted his
two tanks in cover and gestured to Kagamutsu, who understood his commander’s needs precisely.

Armed with an MP40, the Sergeant-Major dismounted his tank and
moved quickly after his officer.

The two dropped and crawled the last twenty yards to the edge of the woods.

Without his binoculars, Hamuda could see enough. With them, the problem grew fourfold, although the opportunity that was presented also tantalised him.

His mind quickly worked the issue and came up with a resolution.

“Sergeant-Major, if I call it in, we’ll strike to this point and break off towards those vehicles there, having stopped to make sure we kill them.”

Kagamutsu understood his officer
’s concerns; the enemy vehicles looked dangerous, the size of their guns evident even to the naked eye.

He pointed out the infantry positions.

“Keep your distance from those... and we’ll just cut straight across the enemy position. Clear?”

“
Hai.”

The doubt originated from a lack of knowl
edge on Hirohata’s status.

A flurry of fire from the woods a mile away to their right.

Hamuda’s decision changed instantly.

“
Right. The Marquis has run into enemy. If nothing else, that’s a distraction. We move now. Go!”

The two ran back to their waiting tanks
, quickly briefing the infantry before they mounted up and the Panthers leapt forward.

It was
Sakita’s Panther that had opened up the battle in the woods, swatting away a group of astonished GI’s.

The 20th may not have seen much fighting in Ge
rmany, but there were few in the unit’s ranks that couldn’t recognise a Panther tank, even in the colours of the Imperial Army.

Hull and turret machine guns lashed the short undergrowth, putting down a number of soldiers permanently.

Angling his tank, the driver evacuated his bowels as the trail of a bazooka shell rose towards his face.

The rocket clipped the driver
’s episcope, diverted, and nicked the top of the mantlet, neither contact sufficient to cause it to explode.

The bazooka shell detonated against the bough of a tree, some thirty yards behind the Panther.

There was no chance for the crew to reload, as the driver took revenge for his embarrassment by running the pair down.

The two other Panthers shook out behind Sakita, with Hirohata in the centre.

The infantry component stayed level with the tanks, selecting anti-tank threats for special attention, leaving the armoured vehicles to enjoy the harvest.

The lead platoons of Bloomquist
’s Charlie company fell back in disarray, moving back past the advancing Shermans from the 27th Tank Battalion’s A Company.

The tanks were a mixture of four M4 easy eights and two M4A3
E2 Jumbos, both with 75mm guns.

War can be peverse sometimes, and a wood would never be considered as tank fighting country
, but the first tank versus tank engagement of the newly-arrived US Army in Southern China occurred in the woods, west of Route 487.

Sakita growled at his gunner, talking the man onto the target that was steadily moving forwards.

“Driver. As soon as we fire, move on up to that big tree head and angle left.”

The gun roared and the Panther surged forward instantly.

“Baka!You missed!”

The accusation could not be refuted, as the chunky looking tank started to weave towards a clump of bamboo near another large tree.

Its gun belched flame and a solid shot struck the side of the Panther without penetrating.

A tree trunk prevented the Japanese tank from turning its long barrel, buying the American crew the opportunity for a second shot.

The 75mm struck the Panther’s mantlet and flew skywards.

Onboard the Sherman Jumbo, and not for the first time, voices condemned the lack of penetrative power of the 75mm gun. The commander screamed at his idiot gunner for firing at the thickest armour on the enemy tank.

The Panther edged forward, permitting its gun to bear and placed such thoughts beyond the American tankers. They died as the AP shell slammed into the Jumbo, the extra armour of the Sherman easily defeated by the close range of the battle.

Hirohata engaged an Easy-Eight to his front
, and watched as his shell punched its way through the driver’s front plate.

Hatches were thrown open
, and a wisp of smoke followed the bodies abandoning the damaged tank, the commander slower than the rest, his severed left leg lying in the well of the turret.