February 25th 1935, Gunposition "Hill 228", somewhere near Deventer
Valentin looked through his binoculars. The outlines of the base could be seen, but the fog was a bit too thick to see anything in detail. At least that also meant that the garrison wasn't able to see them up here. It had taken a while to get the guns up there, longer than initially planned. If they had received mules prior to the operation, it would have been a lot easier, but Valentin knew well enough that you can't really expect any special requests to be granted in a war. He wondered if the other team had similar thoughts. The howitzers were a bit larger than their guns after all, so there had been a few more parts after disassembling them. But everything was better than to use regular field artillery up here. One could say about their equipment what they wanted, but the mountain guns they had received recently surely were some nice additions to their arsenal…
The need for dedicated mountain artillery had first been noticed during the previous war, when the regular howitzers and siege mortars had proven to be a pain in the ass to move around in the mountains. The new guns from Krimm have been specifically built with the conditions of this type of warfare in mind: lightweight, easy to assemble and disassemble and the option to swap out barrels easily and quickly. While it was able to fire the imperial standard caliber of 76.2mm, a single barrel change enabled it to use enemy ammunition if there was enough available. This feature was implemented into the gun, so enemy depots could be raided for suitable ammunition, when the supply lines were stretched out. Valentin was glad that they had received these guns, especially after they had used the old ones during training.
Valentins thoughts were then interrupted by the sound of the FOs voice coming through the radio. "Batteries 6 and 8, here Forward Observer. Enemy defences consist of a small trench and a few watchtowers with machine guns. No heavy weaponry like at-guns." Valentin grinned. That was good news. AT-guns might not be as destructive as dedicated artillery, but they could cause problems for attacking infantry nonetheless. After checking the map again, he went through what the FO had said and marked the targets on it. Once the watchtowers, which probably were armed with machine guns, were taken out, the infantry should be able to take out the defenders easily, especially with support from their guns. He then gave Bauer the signal to inform the infantry while looking at his pocket watch. 07:43. 17 more minutes until the attack. Valentin looked around. Some of the men did some last-minute checks on the guns. Meanwhile Ulmayer and Kramer stood next to the ammunition cart and played Bowling with some spent shell casings as stand-in for pins. Those two where always a bit more carefree than the rest of the men. Ulmayer had been in prison prior to the war, and Valentin had heard, that he believed there wasn't anything to lose for him. Kramer was nearly blind without his glasses and Ulmayer didn't even bother to clean his carbine, so Valentin doubted that he'd bother to properly clean the gun. Instead he had tasked them with bringing ammunition to the guns.
He then diverted his attention towards the map again. He still had second thoughts. Something just has to go wrong at one point. With a sigh he looked at his pocket watch again. 11 minutes. He tried to calm himself down. That was just the usual pre-battle-pessimism, like always. Valentin breathed in and out. He was going to make it through this. It was just a lightly manned base…
"All guns fire! If the tanks get any closer were going to lose the infantry!" Valentin was practically glued to the radio. After the reports of the FO turned out to be wrong, improvisation was needed. One of the tanks already fell victim to their guns due to a lucky shot, since the fog blocked their sight and they therefor had to rely on the FO for guidance, but the other three kept pushing one. If only they had issued lances before this attack… but both both him and Lindtmann had agreed that they would just slow the troops down. And neither of them had expected tanks either, after all. "Martinek?" he would suddenly hear Lindtmanns voice from the radio. "Yes Colonel Lindtmann?" "Start firing at the ground before the tanks. Try to get closer with each shot. If that causes them to slow down a bit, we might be able to fire right into their formation." "Affirmative, Colonel Lindtmann." Valentin replied. He then turned around. "Attention! Change of plans, we will try to lure the tanks into a trap. From now on, adjust the guns to shoot in front of them!" "Yes Sir!" came the reply.
After the first few volleys, he heard the FOs voice. "Are you nuts? Shoot at the tanks goddamnit!" Valentin ignored the man. He prayed to whatever might hear him that this worked. Those guns might be effective against moving target when shooting at them directly, but with high angle fire like they had to shoot now, combined with the rather slow muzzle velocity due to the short barrels, it was a different story. He sighed. Even if it went right, he'd have to rely on the FO to find out the results. Just as he was thinking that, he heard the FO again. When you speak of the devil. "Tank down! I repeat, Tank down!" Valentin grinned. Only two more two go… "The other tanks flipped over too! Thank the Valkyrur, were saved!" So much to that then… now onto their original objective…