"The early months of the Second Europan War were exceptionally difficult for many of our troops. Many of our units were poorly equipped and trained. Of the Rhineland Army's 15th Corps, to which I was assigned, over 50% of the infantry was comprised of poorly-trained scouts. Clearly this was a flaw in the Federation's overall defensive strategy, and such a weakness was reflected on all of early battles along the frontier…"
-1st Lieutenant Mary Bholm, Interview, Circa 1937
In the year 1935, due to increase shortages of ragnite, the East Europan Imperial Alliance's 8th Army Group launched a three prong invasion of its neighbor, the Atlantic Federation. In response, the Federation moved forward the armies of its 12th Army Group to stem the invasion of its frontier. To the average, poorly-equipped Federal soldier, however, this was a death sentence…
10 miles south of Stavern, Assen, Atlantic Federation.
"Blimey, Georgie, have you ever seen such a rat hole before?" said a Federation sergeant as his troop entered the blasted, ruined remains of a village.
"That's Lieutenant Bates to you sergeant," sighed the troop's officer. His troop, part of the Rhineland Army's 15th Corps' 31st Reconnaissance Regiment, was ordered to hold this village junction against the Empire.
"As if this is any good…" thought the Lieutenant. To him, this mission was like using pebbles to dam a great river.
"I've seen a rat hole like this before…" chimed a scout.
"Oh yeah, Scotty, where's that?"
"The slums of Hadleigh, Sarge," the troop laughed.
As the troops joked the Lt. stopped. Something was amiss…
"Hey, where's 2nd Lt. Bholm?"
"Ahh Mary? She's picking up the rear… I think," said the Sergeant.
The Lt. shook his head and sighed again.
"Now we're screwed if we need the armored car…" he thought as a 45mm shell whizzed past and slammed into the building behind him.
2nd Lt. Mary Bholm and her armored car were picking up the rear of the troop.
"Hmm…"
"Is something on your mind, ma'am?" asked the driver
The wavy-haired brunette of a Lt. sighed then smiled,
"I'm already home sick, Anna…" she said
The radio operator, Corporal Susan Cole, chuckled. She nudged Corporal Anna Coral, the driver and engineer.
"I guess even the great Mary has feelings," she said before the radio crackled to life.
"-Bholm! Bholm!-"
Mary sighed again as Susan passed her the headset.
"Yes Lt. Bates?" she answered
"-Where the hell are you?-"
"I'm on way, picking up the rear," she replied. Mary hated dealing with Bates. He was always so disagreeable.
"-Well you better get your ass here fast-"
"Wh-"
The armored car jolted with a near explosion.
"What the hells that!?" screamed Susan
"Quick, you idiots, Schnell! Schnell!" yelled Mary at Anna as she dropped the headset back to Susan and looked through the reticle of her armored car's gun, a low velocity 37mm Puteaux Model 18. It wasn't much; besides the M-18, the Type-34 heavy armored car only mounted a hull 7.62mm Gram MG and a co-axil Gram MG. It was a vehicle designed with the sole purpose of supporting infantry, not battling tanks.
As Anna quickly threw the Type-34 into reverse, Mary quickly called:
"AP round!"
Susan passed it up. Looking through the reticle again, Mary found where the shot had come from. It was a standard Imperial Light Tank that mounted the 45mm gun in its turret and 85mm mortar in a gondola turret. She smiled.
"Anna, drive around to the right, along the side streets,"
"Ma'am!"
As Anna threw the Type-34 into gear, Mary fired off the round. It bounced with a loud 'punck'.
"Figures…," she muttered, "Sussie, I want a situation report!"
Susan had the headset on and was shouting
"Lt. Bates and the rest of the troops have taken shelter in buildings lining the main road," She turned, looking up at Mary, "He reports there are a total of four Imperial Light Tanks, supported by scouts,"
"Looks like we hit the tip of the Empire's Assen Invasion Force," said Anna as turned into a second alley that ran parallel to the main road. Mary smiled.
"Well girls, looks like today is gonna be a really good day." She said "HE round!"
"I don't like the sound of that, Lt…." said Susan as she passed up the round, "And HE? If the AP round didn't pen, what good would-"
"We won't be shooting at their armor, Sussie," Mary peered out of the cupola's small view port, "Halt!"
Switching to the reticle of the M-18, she rotated the turret and aiming through the slight gap between the ruins. She smiled and pulled the trigger. It was an impossible shot, even Mary had her doubts. However, in war, she held the belief that you would never know unless you tried.
The Imperial Light Tank was moving down the main street, toward the alley that the Federal armored car had disappeared in to. It ignored the useless rifle fire that rained down from the buildings the Federal scouts had sought shelter in, so when the 37mm HE shell impacted on its left treads, de-tracking it, the crew was quite surprised.
"This is tank 301! We have been immobilized! Enemy Armored car spotted in vicinity, requesting support!"
"301! This is 303, what's your current position?" came the reply over the radio
"303, we are held up on the north-eastern end of the main road" said the commander as he peered thru his cupola view-slits, trying to see where the fire coming from. Just as he turned to look out through the rear-facing slit, he saw the armored car pop out of a side alley 15 feet behind his tank.
The Imperial tank commander swore at his crew as the armored car took the shot.
"We did it Lt.!" Susan cried as the shot exploded into the Imperial tanks rear radiator. Mary ignored her as she loaded and fired a second time. This round detonated the tank in a swirl of bluish-orange flames.
"HE round!"
"Lt.!" shouted Susan as she passed up another shell, "Enemy sighted to the right!"
Rotating the turret to the right, Mary spotted the second Imperial light tank as it immerged from a side alley. Slamming the breech close, she fired. It hit the tank square in the driver's vision slit, hopefully blinding him briefly.
"Anna! Move us forward across the street and turn right into the back alley, quick"
Anna floored the armored car across the street, narrowly missing the 45mm shell that smashed into the building behind them. Turning down the side alley, they barreled through a squad of Imperial scouts.
"My bad," muttered Anna as she shifted gears.
"Turn right, down that alley, then left on to the main road," She smiled pleasantly, peering through the cupola slits, "We're going to get close…"
She looked down at Susan.
"Give me an APCR round"
Susan grabbed and passed it up.
"It's the last one Lt…" she said nervously
Mary smiled again as she loaded and slammed the breech close. Peering through the reticle, she began to rotate the turret left. Turning hard to the right, they soon emerged on to the main street, were they narrowly missed another shot from the still immobilized tank. Quickly, Anna swerved the Type-34 left. Aiming directly at the light tank's turret as it tried to rotate to face the armored car, Mary fired the APCR round from 5 feet away into the 45mm gun's mantle. With a boom, the turret stopped rotating.
Imperial Captain had no clue what was going on. His Scouts had reported three Federal reconnaissance squads had deployed at the northern section of the town supported by a single Anti-personal armored car. So he sent his platoon of four tanks northward, as well as two squads of supporting scouts and a single squad of shocktroopers, deeming the force sufficient enough to push the lightly armed Federation scouts out of the town.
Now he started to receive damaging news. Out of the four tanks deployed, two were already destroyed within minutes of each other by the armored car, and his Infantry had been pinned down by heavy fire from Federal snipers.
Sitting in his staff car in the ruined town square, the captain ordered his radio operator.
"Notify the remaining scout and Lancer squads to reinforce our northern force,"
"They're definitely pissed now, old boys," chimed the Sergeant as Lt. Bates and his squads lay prone on the floor of what was at one time a shoe store. Across the street, Imperial rifle fire was beginning to increase.
"Uhh, Lt.," called the Federal scout-radioman named Scotty, as he crouched behind a counter.
"What is it, Corporal?" shouted Bates as he fired his SMG out of the busted window.
"I would like to suggest the idea that the Imps are being reinforced, Sah?"
"No shit, genius," said Bates as he ducked back down just as a hail of bullets began to chew up his window.
Bates knew his troop, numbering maybe around 60, was battling a Imperial spearhead numbering around three times that. His small force had already been pushed to their limit, and he knew they couldn't hold much longer without any major support.
"Corporal," he called out to Scotty, "Radio to regimental headquarters for support immediately,"
Bates then peered out the window.
"And does anyone know where the hell Bholm is?"
Author's note:
Please, If anyone has any Constructive suggestions or comments let me know, enjoy!
