Chapter 10: Welcome to Salem!
Erwin was in the hangar, helping her team ready the ISU-152 for the long ride to Salem, Oregon. Katie and Henrietta were making sure nothing was loose on the inside, while Joan and Christine were busy making sure the pins in the tracks were in properly and that the tank was fueled up.
"Gah, I hate getting gas on me," whined Christine. "It ruins whatever clothes it gets on, and it stinks forever. Riko, why must we fill the ISU-152 now, why not do it when we get to Salem?"
Erwin sighed; the same thought had crossed her mind earlier, but when explained to her by Erika, she understood the reason. Simply put, going from Everett, Washington to Salem, Oregon was at least a four hours of driving, but that if you took the I5 highway, which at the time they were leaving would probably be in gridlock. No, they had to take highway 405, which would add another two hours.
So they had to fuel the tanks now, which would arrive at the school in the morning tomorrow by train, so that they could maximize the amount of time they had to conduct the battle. But as she pointed this fact to Christine, the blonde's life force seemed to drift away. Nothing I can do, thought Erwin.
"So," Jackie said suddenly. "Riko, look forward to commanding the team as a whole?"
"Sort of," Erwin admitted. "I am a bit nervous, and hope I don't make a colossal fool of myself." Jackie laughed softly.
"It can't be that bad," Jackie sad. "Salem high is a bit smaller than Raven's Peak, so it probably doesn't have as well maintained of a tank fleet as ours. That or they have less tanks. Either way, it's good for us."
Erwin nodded, but she doubted that the tournament in the Us would be as unbalanced as it was in Japan. It's not that she thought each school would have the same budget, she knew better, but she also read the rules, and it made some mentions that made it seemed like there wouldn't be the various problems that Ooarai encountered (such as facing Black Forest's tank fleet of thirty tanks with only eight tanks, most of which should've been scrapped). So she didn't count this upcoming battle to be easily won.
After a little bit more preparations, the ISU-152 was ready, and Erwin and her crew mates left to head for the bus that would take the entire team to Salem. As they were getting on, Erika waved Erwin for a 'chat'.
"Riko, as you know, you are going to have to lead the team against Salem tomorrow," Erika started. "Now, I managed to get in contact with the instructor that teaches there, and she said that in all likelihood, the match will be close and fierce. She has faith in the team's commander, and she mentioned they had some rather good tanks."
"But Ms. Itsumi, shouldn't the Chruchill Mk VII and the ISU-152 be more the competent against whatever they bring in, short of maybe a Maus tank or something similar?" Erwin asked. She however knew that it was only two powerful tanks, while the other tanks either had no armor, weak guns, or were slow.
"True, but still, you never know what they could have," Erika stated. "But never mind that now, take a seat with your friends and get your mind situated, I rather not have the first team battle turn into a disaster."
Erwin nodded, and she quietly took a seat next to Henrietta while Joan, Christine, and Katie sat across the aisle from them. In front of her seat was Jackie and her friend Kim, and behind her was Sarah and Cheryl.
"So, do we have any plans on how we are going to knock out Salem's team?" Jackie asked, turning around to face Erwin.
"I suppose we are going to plan what Erika and Sgt. Harper had in mind for the team; Sarah's unit will scout and flank, your unit Jackie will push down the center, and my unit will find a suitable place to set up and ambush the enemy," Erwin said. "Other than that, I can't plan for much, because I don't know what tanks they have, and I don't know what the terrain is like."
Jackie nodded, a bit disappointed that they didn't have any better of a plan. But what could she expect; they didn't know what Salem was bringing into the fight, and they didn't know what the field of battle was like. She prayed that it wasn't a flat open prairie; with the number of lightly armored vehicles on their team, an open field would be a slaughter feast.
"So Riko, is it true you are going to the winter ball with Jacob?" Sarah asked, snickering at the blonde's misfortune.
"Argh, please, can we not talk about the cursed, wretched, deal I agreed to without paying attention?" pleaded Erwin. "Now that jerk will keep bugging me until I lose my sanity."
"Your fault for agreeing with him," Katie said, who hastily added something about being 'out of it' when Erwin sent her a death glare that would stop the entirety of Operation Barbarossa.
"Never use that glare ever again, that was evil incarnate," Joan said. "Also, its improper for a someone of your position."
Before Erwin could properly respond to Joan's comment, the other girls began to gang up on Erwin, and she silently vowed that once this wretched bus ride to Salem was over, she would make them suffer. She would ensure that her team would win, but god damn, she would make her team mates suffer like she was suffering now. What she didn't know was how terrifying a conversation about dance dresses could be, for it she did, she would've deserted and ran to the Cascades, never to be heard from again.
"I pity that girl so much," Sgt. Harper mused to Erika. Erika grinned savagely; that thought of enduring conversation after conversation about dresses, shoes, boys, and other flights of fancy would make Erwin want to curl up and hide for a while. But then she remembered she was the team captain and sighed, it wasn't in the vested intrest of the team to force the captain into hiding.
"But still, we have other things to discuss," Harper continued. "We need to figure out what tanks we can replace and what tanks we can acquire for when we get to the finals."
Erika was amused by Sgt. Harper's opinion that they would make it to the finals. Perhaps he figured that the tank selection they had offered them a great advantage early on, and when they got closer to the finals, they could acquire some heavy armor and replace a couple of tanks.
"I suggest we find replacements to the Marder IIIs; sure the Pak-40 guns are good, but their performance in the mock battles show the problems of the designs. No turret, rear mounted cannons,, next to no armor, and the firepower isn't good against the heavier tanks, like the T14s, the Matildas, or the Churchills."
"Also, they aren't as mobile as the Su-76s, and they don't offer the indirect fire capability of those vehicles. I guess the fact that they were a tank destroyer conversion shouldn't surprise us about the capability of the tanks."
"I agree," Erika began. "But what could we reasonable replace them with?" She saw only three ways to improve on the Marders; get a tank destroyer with a bigger gun, get one with more armor, or get one with more mobility/a turret.
"How about M10 tank destroyers?" Sgt. Harper suggested. "They mount a slightly larger cannon, they incorporate a turret, and they have better armor overall."
Erika nodded; the m10 would be a decent tank destroyer, beating the Marder IIIs in a number of fields. She quietly wrote down on a notepad to look into M10 tank destroyers.
"Alright, but how about the other tanks, are their others we should replace or even upgrade?" Erika asked. Her main thoughts were on the Tetrarchs and the Matildas; while the 2-pounder guns has good penetration and accuracy, it was a tad on the small side and anything more armored (like Panther and Tiger tanks) and the gun would be utterly useless.
"Well, I could see about getting the USSR Lend-Lease conversion kit on the Matilda tanks; that would give them a F-34 76mm cannon, which is a better cannon for larger tanks," Sgt. Harper said. "And the light tanks, well, they aren't supposed to light directly with the medium and heavy tanks, so I don't think we should worry about them."
"Fine, I rather see a better tank than the tetrarch, but if you think it would be better to use resources to other tanks, than fine. What about the 'new' fifteen tanks, any ideas on what the structure they should be?"
"I have an idea about that," Harper said. "I think that should be a so called 'Guards' unit, basically we give the 'veteran tankers' new tanks that still fulfill what they learned. Maybe we can tweak our doctrine and strategy depending on what tanks they would rather have."
Erika was about to object, when she realized why he suggested doing it this way. The team would see the flaws with their tanks, and thus would know what they would rather have as a crew. Maybe they rather have a more mobile tank, maybe they want a tank with better armor. But in the end, they would chose based on their combat experience, and not from a stat sheet.
"Alright, but they should be informed of this, so they can begin getting ideas of what they would want, as we need the new tanks before the finals," Erika said.
"I can agree to that," Harper stated. "Now, the only thing I want to do is get some sleep, I have been up for a while, and while teenagers can stay awake for days on end, I simply can't. So wake me up once we get to Oregon."
Erika nodded, and the sergeant leaned against the window, enjoying the cold touch of the glass. Erika meanwhile wasn't confident about the team knowing what tanks they would need, so she began jotting down some ideas.
She knew that as the tournament progressed, the teams would bring bigger and bigger tanks out, and thus she wanted to have countered to the heaviest monsters imaginable. Her mind flickered to the thought of Raven's Peak facing off against Black Forest Academy in the international tournament and them being nearly unprepared for the Maus.
She thought about so called 'Maus-killers', tanks designed to take out super-heavy tanks. The first obvious idea was using another super-heavy tank. Of these there were only a few real options. The T28 tank destroyer mounted a 105mm gun and was heavily armored, but it was too slow to really be a efficient counter. Same problem with the A39 Tortise, but they could be an option for an ambush unit tank. The Isu-152 with its 152mm cannon might be able to kill a Maus, but she wasn't banking on it.
She thought about other tanks. The T29, T34, and T30 were all good heavy tanks, but she didn't know about the gun performance enough to have confidence in their ability to counter a Maus. So her mind drifted to using a more mobile tank with an adequate gun to destroy the Maus.
Of these she had three real possibilities; the M26 Pershing, the Centurion Mk1, and the T44-100. All three were main battle tanks, all three mounted guns largers than 90mms, and all were mobile enough to flank the monster super-heavy tank. But the problem with relying on flanks was that if the Maus was adequately supported, a flank might not be possible.
She thought about how stupid is was for Black Forest not to have a couple of Tigers guarding the Maus. They would've put a stop to the ridiculous tactic that Ooarai used to knock out the Maus. She then pondered on some of the things she heard from Shiho last time.
She knew that Shiho thought the problem with Black Forest Academy was their equipment, but in reality it was training. Having Panther IIs, Nashorns, and the Vk-1602 (really, that prototype tank was only marginally better than the Panzer III) didn't make up for the fact that the team wasn't able to react to unique and odd situations.
Granted, the new tanks would help against Pravada (the thought of IS-3 tanks was a nightmarish prospective), but against the other teams, it wouldn't do much. She would talk to Maho about Black Forest about their training and tactics when she got the chance, but for now she had to have faith in the school's ability to bounce back.
Erika sighed as she watched Erwin dealing with the gossiping teammates. Perhaps it would be better not to dwell too much on the future for now.
"Never again," muttered Erwin as she slowly got off the bus. "Will I engage in the mess that is gossip if it is only about me." She felt utterly brain dead from the chatter that erupted due to 'date' with Jacob to the winter ball. Henrietta, Katie, Joan, and Christine had thankfully stayed out of it, and they tried (key word: tried) to discourage the others from bugging Erwin about it. But no, fate had to ignore her wishes.
She thought it might be best if she figured a way to not ensure future encounters with Jacob, if nothing more than to avoid the gossip 'chats' that just occurred. She didn't have anything solid, yet she had a few ideas.
Upon everyone getting off the bus, Erika and Sgt. Harper led Raven's Peak team to Salem's High tankery hangar. Erwin's opinion of Salem High was that while smaller than Raven's Peak, it was highly organized and carefully laid out. She could see much though had been put into the building, as she reckoned a person could get to any point of the school (save for the tankery hangar) in under five minutes.
"Ah, Sgt. Harper how is Everett?" said the booming voice of a middle age black man. Sgt. Harper chuckled.
"Dear god; when did you get stuck teaching Lt. Parker?" Harper asked. Parker laughed.
"Oh, I got discharged from the army due to, ahem, 'mobility issues'," Parker said, air quoting himself. He gestured to his foot, which Erwin recognized to be a prosethic. "Fucking IED in Afghanistan hit our Humvee, and shrapnel rip my foot apart. Took about three months to get back to walking normal with this handicap, but it was enough for a medical discharge. But still, the army offered to give me this job when the DoD began the national tankery."
"Ah, that sucks," Harper said. "So I suppose your cadets are inside?" Parker nodded.
"Aye, that be about right. I would've expected your cadets to be in formation."
"Nah, I don't think that after a seven hour bus ride they should subject themselves to trying to be in formation," Harper reasoned, and upon seeing Parker raise an eyebrow he explained. "Oh, there was a jackass who rear-ended a fuel truck, we had to take a major detour to get around, and by then since everyone learned of the accident the path we took was clogged with traffic."
"Hm, go figure, kids these days, not knowing how to drive," muttered Parker. He led them into the hangar, where to Erwin surprise was a perfect formation of students, all wearing a light blue uniform.
"Attention!" Parker barked out to his cadets. "These fine people who endured seven hours of terrible bus riding conditions are Raven's Peak tankery unit! You will respect them like one of your own, and you will show them courtesy as we are the hosting team for this friendly match. Do you understand?"
"Yes Lt. Parker!" replied Salem's tankery team. Parker smiled.
"Alright, enough formalities. Sgt. Harper, instructor Izumi, let me introduce you to the team's CO and XO, Belle and Angeline Rivers."
Erwin noticed that the twins looked identical. Both had sleek blonde hair, brown eyes, and were moderately tall. The only difference she could see was that Belle had scar on her neck.
"Likewise, this," Sgt. Harper began by motioning to her and then to Jackie. "is Riko Matsumoto and Jackie Lambert, our CO and XO respective."
"I see," Parker said thoughtfully. "I suppose then before we head off to get some sleep that your team would like to inspect our tanks and mingle with the crews?"
"I suppose," Harper said. "It would allow us to catch up, for old times sake." Parker nodded, and he dismissed his cadets, allowing the two teams to interact. Erwin and Jackie approached the Rivers.
"Nice to meet you," Belle Rivers said, while shaking Erwin's hand. "So did you guys really have to endure a seven hour drive?" Erwin nodded.
"Yeah, it was painful, but sadly, while it would've been nice to sleep, I was denied by my team," Erwin said. "They wanted to gossip so much."
"That sucks," Angeline noted. "But I suppose you want to take stock of what tanks we have?"
"Sure," Erwin said. The Rivers then lead Erwin and Jackie through the Hangar, and commented on their tanks, and to say Erwin's reservation about Salem's team were justified.
The Rivers told them that while they only have twelve tanks, they made up for it with organization. In total there were three platoons with four tanks each, and each platoon had the same composition.
Making up three quarters of the team were M4A2 medium tanks fitted with the 75mm M3 l40 cannon. They were fairly mobile, and the firepower, while not the best in the world, would be able to handle most of the tanks Raven's Peak had.
Leading each Platoon however was the real threats; the M36 Jackson, outfitted with a 90mm cannon. Those would be able to nullify the armor advantage of the ISU-152 and the Churchill MK VII without any problem.
Erwin and Jackie looked at each other with a bit of apprehension; they knew that if they wanted victory they would need to knock out the team quickly, or they would lose due to maneuver warfare. The Rivers saw their apprehension and inquired about it.
"Well, its just that on our team, were have fifteen tanks, but they are divided into three different groups with three different goals," Erwin began to explain. "We have a scout element, a ambush element, and a assault element, but sadly most of our tanks aren't as armored as your Shermans and the ambush element consist entirely of non-turreted tank destroyers."
"Why did your instructors suggest that structure?" asked Belle. Jackie shrugged.
"I guess the idea was that the entire team would work as one, not work in units. If so, it would be a slaughter for our team if we tried to split up our efforts. It appears that your team can split up and cover more ground with your organization and tank composition."
"So, what tanks do you guys have?" Angeline asked. Erwin ran down the list, and the Rivers shuddered when they got to the ISU-152.
"Why do you guys need an ISU-152; most teams are probably going to be composed of medium tanks, and that level of firepower is overkill," Belle argued. Erwin shrugged.
"Well, it is efficient at taking out heavy tanks," countered Erwin. "So if our team does encounter tanks like Tiger or IS tanks, we can have a viable counter to them."
"I suppose that make sense," Angeline said. "But still, your composition for your team is too fragmented at the moment. But I guess it will come down to tactics; most of your tanks can knock out our tanks with ease, but our Jacksons can knock out any tanks you guys have, while our Shermans might struggle against the Churchill and the ISU-152."
"Yeah, I suppose you are right," Erwin said. By this time, Harper had called for Erwin and the others to follow him to their 'sleeping areas' (which in this case was Salem high's gym, with sleeping bags), and Erwin and Jackie began the discussion on how the hell they were going to win tomorrow's battle.
Author's note: Argh, I hate month long breaks between chapters, but I had a hard time deciding the composition of Salem High's tank force. I decided to make it easy on myself and choose a common US tank backed by some heavy hitting US tank killers.
But now, we have a proper battle to look forward to, which I hope to have out sooner than a month, and I am going to start and say this; with the national tournament coming up, I will have to figure out the compositions of multiple teams. So this means that my updates will take longer, as I want a variety of team compositions (some nationally themed, others doctrinally themed). But still, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
So if you have an idea for a tankery team, here are some ground rules;
1: Unless your team is going to the finals, only include fifteen tanks, otherwise the cap is thirty.
2: No 'uber' teams (eg: a team composed nothing but M26 Pershings or the like)
3: Explain what doctrine and how they would fight in battle. Also some insight into the commander's mind would be nice.
4: No super heavy tanks (unless you want them to be in the finals).
As always, please follow, favorite, and review!