"At least we don't have to deal with the foreign teams. Yet…" thought Darjeeling. Since the conflict started again with the Confederacy, St. Gloriana, Maginot and Chi-Ha-Tan formed a defense line between the Fuji and Suruga Bay, trying to secure one of the most explosive hotspots in Honshu, the land between Yokohama and Shizuoka.
They were waiting for De Gaulle Boys High School and Habsburg Boys High School to start their offensive.
"Pekoe-san. What's the situation on the other fronts?"
"Viking Marine High School left Morioka Darjeeling-sama. The Russians and the Hokkaido Battalion are breaking through everywhere in the north. Viking and Pravda are trying to hold out in southern Iwate Prefecture."
"Any good news from anywhere?"
Pekoe slowly shook her head. "No. Kuromorimine and Saunders will be soon separated from each other unless a miracle happens. Koala, BC Freedom and Waffle are being pushed further and further toward the Inland Sea and Niigata Prefecture is totally lost. Bonple, Gregor and Blue Division are still trapped on the mountains and they are all alone."
"That's all?"
"Yes. And finally… us. Here…"
"Huh. I guess we can state that we are still a bit luckier than the rest of us. Do we know anything about the enemy?"
"The scouts saw no movement so far. The question is: will they attack north or south from the Fuji-san?" said the orange haired loader.
"Kinuyo-san is at Lake Kawaguchi with Chi-Ha-Tan. We defend the coastal strip together with Maginot." replied Darjeeling.
"Say Darjeeling-sama… do you still love Sensha-Do?"
"I can assure you: the one thing I will always love outside of tea is Sensha-Do."
"And perhaps your husband in the future?" asked Pekoe with a faint smile, trying to make the atmosphere more delightful.
"Yeah… he he… perhaps." said Darjeeling with the same expression on her face.
"Sorry. This was embarrassing. Not worthy of a lady…"
"And what is worthy of a lady?"
"What… we used to do in my opinion. Why? Are you uncertain about it?"
"You know a year ago… I was like "we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender". Now… I think a lady shall know when it is time to pull down the curtain. And to realize that she was wrong."
"Were we wrong?"
"I honestly can't tell it Pekoe-san. Only Heaven knows the answer…"
Night has fallen after a day without anything special. But it didn't remain like this for too long.
03:00 a.m.
Darjeeling was sleeping in her sleeping bag when she woke up to the sound of exploding grenades and thunder of guns in the distance. She quickly stood up to see what was happening.
"What's going on Earl Grey-san?"
"We have incoming artillery fire Darjeeling-sama!" The G.W. Panthers and Wespes of Habsburg were shooting them from the western bank of the Fuji River.
"All hands battle stations!" shouted Darjeeling and like everyone else, she run to her tank.
The girls in red were waiting for the assault of the Austrian styled boys' school but nothing happened, just the self-propelled guns were firing. Darjeeling wasn't suspicious, many of the earlier confederate attacks were preceded by long artillery bombardment. This time however it served as a distraction.
Kinuyo's POV
"Is the enemy already charging in the south?" asked Chi-Ha-Tan's commander.
"Negative Nishi Taichō." replied Tamada. "They are still in their positions."
"Why are they sitting for so long? A real warrior charges immediately to surprise the opponent!" said Hosomi. Another hour was spent like this.
It was fifteen minutes before sunrise when out of nowhere a signal rocket flew into the sky and a voice somewhere yelled: "Ataque!"
The tanks of De Gaulle came out of the shadow of trees, opening fire.
"Here's your surprise Hosomi! All units, return fire!" ordered Kinuyo.
"Pour nos écoles! En avant!" shouted Napoléon standing in the turret of his ARL 44.
This caused confusion among the JSF teams. Because of the artillery fire they expected the attack south from the Fuji. They had no idea that the enemy charge will arrive at the northern side of the sacred mountain of the Japanese.
De Gaulle was attacking in two tank columns; the left flank was engaging Chi-Ha-Tan's main defense force at the lake, while the right flank was pushing the rest of the girls' school's team away from their comrades.
Soon after this Habsburg has launched its assault as well at the coast where the terrain was more favorable for their heavy tanks.
By noon it became a real danger that Kinuyo's group will be pushed into Lake Kawaguchi so they left its southern bank through the bridge of Road 707 and joined the others in the forest. De Gaulle was advancing fast since they outnumbered, outgunned and outarmored Chi-Ha-Tan by far.
In mean time St. Gloriana was defending at the northern end of the Izu Peninsula with Maginot behind their back. Out of the three JSF schools St. Gloriana was probably the most determined. Yokohama, their home was only about thirty kilometers away. They were ready to do anything to keep it safe.
The students of Habsburg were not joking however and they sent their Tigers to the wedge's peak to lead the attack. With this and the well-coordinated maneuvers of their medium tanks they managed to push back St. Gloriana and Maginot. After losing about eight kilometers of land and the city of Susono, Maginot retreated to Mount Mikuni, Chi-Ha-Tan to the fortifications around Mount Ashigara, and finally St. Gloriana repositioned itself at the Chitose River.
They blocked the bigger roads to Yokohama. Darjeeling could be sure that they can hold up the confederate offensive. But she also knew that they can keep it like this only until the IMAF arrives.
"I should drink green tea exceptionally. Maybe it would help on my nerves just a little bit." she thought. She felt that the caffeine in her usual black tea would make her heart explode.
Gustav's POV
After leaving Niigata, Gustav's team headed to the northeast. They mainly engaged Yogurt Academy, Anzio High School and Oarai Girls High School.
Now he understood why the Americans chose not to invade Japan at the end of WW2. These mountains, valleys and forests were not really the best for armored warfare. Despite of their clear numerical and technical superiority the advance was slower than he expected. Plus, those Japanese girls were on home ground and they visibly knew what they were doing. Especially those Oarai girls gave them hard times.
Still, they were gaining more and more JSF territory. One time when they were attacking Nagai he honestly felt sorry for his opponents. He and his crew encountered a group of Yogurt Academy's Hetzers at a defense position. They were constantly firing at them but they didn't have any chance against the Königstiger, all the shells bounced off its frontal armor. The heavy tank was just coming and coming toward them as an unstoppable monster. Within two minutes those Hetzers were not a problem anymore.
Their main goal was to reach Sendai and trap Pravda and Viking Marine between themselves and the Hokkaido Battalion.
A few days later they were at the city of Kaminoyama.
"Wie geht es euch Leute? (How are you doing guys?)" asked Gustav calmly his crew while studying a map. In mean time the grenades kept hammering on the tank.
"It's like clay pigeon shooting so far Kommandant." replied Fabian, looking through the crosshairs and firing the 88 millimeter KwK 43 L/71 cannon, disabling a Semovente.
"Immodesty can bring bad luck." said Emma, sitting in the driver seat.
"Why? Did we have any really dangerous situation yet?"
"I'm just saying that it's better to keep our eyes and ears open."
"I'm keeping my eyes open, don't you see? That's how I'm neutralizing them one by one."
"We are officially half way through Japan. What do we know about Pravda?" asked Gustav.
"As for Alexandr, they are around Mt. Kurikoma." said August, listening to the radio.
"If we keep advancing like this, we will be able to cut their way to the south then." said Silvia while loading a new shell.
"Ja. If nothing unexpected happens." said Gustav.
Pravda's team, northern Miyagi Prefecture
"No, they couldn't be this fast!" said Katyusha. It was a break between two fights and Pravda's tanks stood on a glade in a forest.
"It's true Katyusha." replied Nonna. "They already crossed the Mogami and they are almost at the Okama Crater."
"This is bad. The other teams should have kept them in Yamagata Prefecture."
"Perhaps they want to attack us from behind."
"Or… do they want to isolate us from the rest of the army?" asked Klara.
"Then we will be in serious trouble. Katyusha. If we want to react to this we have to react fast. Our corridor to the south is closing hour by hour." said Nonna.
"Their target must be Sendai. That's a strategic point. I contact the directorate. I'll ask for permission to build up defenses around the city."
A bit later Katyusha returned from the radio with a disappointed face. "They said Sendai is too important to let the enemy to even close it. They want us to attack them directly."
"Katyusha-sama, don't get me wrong." said Klara. "T-34s can handle Tigers IF there are more T-34s than Tigers. Where we are about to go are more Tigers than T-34s."
"Not to mention the other tanks, even if some of them are weaker than us." added Nonna.
"I'm aware about that; I can assure both of you! Look… We will figure out something, alright? Now get everyone and go!"
"I have a bad feeling about this Nonna." said Klara.
"Lucky you. I have bad feelings since many days. Or weeks."
"Can I say anything that can cheer you up?"
"Just be safe my friend."
"I will try my best."
They waited for the night to come. Viking Marine gave cover for Pravda. The Norwegian styled school's tanks dispersed and they intensified their firing rate so the enemy will not notice Pravda's missing before the morning.
Gustav's POV
It was early at the morning and the intervention troops were fighting around the Fudo Falls. Everything was going well when a report came from Alexandr that Pravda is nowhere to be found there.
"Are you certain they are not there?" asked Gustav.
"They just disappeared. We've met only tanks from Viking Marine for hours by now. I've sent out scouts they found nothing."
"They gave up land so easily?"
"Looks like they found out that we want to surround them and they want to prevent that. If you ask me you should prepare for them."
"Not a bad advice. We will look out."
"Viel Gluck mate!"
"That's "Glück" moy drug."
"Oh come on, you know that damn "ü" is not so simple for everyone."
"I know, I'm just joking around." chuckled Gustav.
"Dasvidaniya."
"August."
"Yes Kommandant?"
"Tell Ibrahim to watch the north."
"Jawohl!"
Ibrahim's POV
The Turkish teams, led by Ibrahim Arslan, commander of the Sensha-Do team of Sultan Suleiman High School from Istanbul were fighting at Road 286 when Gustav's message arrived.
He opened the hatch of his M26 Pershing and took his binoculars. "There is movement on that hill about three kilometers away." he said.
"I see it grand vezir." replied Firat, one of his vice-commanders in a Sherman. "Can it be the enemy?"
"Left flank! Turn your tanks' front to the north!" ordered Ibrahim.
They soon got an answer for Firat's question; Pravda launched its counterattack.
"Return fire! Ateş!" A duel began but Pravda retreated after a couple of shots. "Do any of you guys see where they are going?"
"To the southeast and Zao vezir!"
"Ibrahim to the General!"
"What is it?" asked Gustav.
"We engaged Pravda but they gave up. We think they want to get in front of us and break out of the pliers!"
"Thank you guys! Attention all forces! Prepare to encounter Pravda!"
It happened about ten minutes later.
Gustav's POV
"General! They are on us!" heard Gustav Colin's voice in the radio.
Katyusha and her team charged the british teams which were between Gustav and Ibrahim aggressively, not giving any time to react. Before the Europeans could blink twice a group of Cromwells, Crusaders and a few Churchills and Black Princes were already white flagged. Pravda managed to punch a hole in the IMAF line.
"Verdammt! Send in the Swedes! Support those Limeys!"
The Swedish teams have come to the place of action but nor the scandinavians could push Pravda back. Then the JSF school attacked the teams led by Gustav as well. Katyusha ordered her units to charge directly at the enemy at high speed, exploiting one of the weaknesses of many german tanks: they were more effective from long range, not at close quarters.
"Back, back! Lucia! You keep going to the east! Cut their way!"
"Affirmativa!" replied the Italian tank commander girl.
Gustav never thought that a single team can make this much trouble. Pravda pushed them back almost to Kaminoyama. One time even he was barely saved. A T-34/76 got into his back. But just before it could fire Gertrud took it out of the game.
A day later they were standing again at the bank of the Mogami.
"I have to admit. They are really good. I wasn't expecting this." said Gustav admiringly.
"What are you planning to do?" asked Gertrud.
"Likely they want to force us back to the west while continuing their way southwards. I will send teams to Fukushima, to stand in their way."
"Kommandant!"
"Yes August?"
"We got a message from a certain Marina."
"She is the Sensha-Do commander of Count High School. What is she saying?"
"She's heard what happened. Her team is nearby. They come to our assistance."
"That would be useful. Tell her that we are waiting for them."
"Understood."
Gustav had to confess himself that he was a bit naive. The campaign couldn't be so easy like at the beginning. Now he got into the epicenter of this turmoil.
