"Saemonza, target, 11 o'clock high, in the rocks."
"Got it, firing."
The breech of the 75mm slammed backwards as Saemonza pulled the trigger, the armour piercing shell shooting forward, striking it's target dead on, easily penetrating the frontal armour of the Panzer III.
"Shit, shot incoming brace."
The tank rang with the impact as a 37mm shell struck the side, luckily it bounced.
"Oryou, rotate 45 degrees right, Saemonza, target at our current 2 o'clock low,"
The tank rumbled as it turned, the gun firing as soon as it had stopped. An explosion highlighted the kill.
"Keep advancing, don't let them dig in. We need to keep up the momentum."
The radio crackled, "Mother Hen calling Hippo, come in Hippo,"
Erwin picked up the receiver, "Mother Hen this is Hippo, go ahead."
"Hippo you are ordered to stop, and hold your current position, the advance will be continued by the 9th Australian Division, you are to remain defending the city. You are ordered to remain there until your division lands."
"What?" cried Erwin, "We've got them on the run, any delay will allow Rommel to gain an advantage."
"The orders stand, Lieutenant-General Morshead has decided that he will chase the Germans, your Brigade is ordered to hold position."
Erwin desperately wanted to object, she knew that by the time the Australians launched their attack, Rommel would be ready. But she alson knew that to defy the orders of a superior officer would cause too many problems, and that Churchill's influence over the military only went so far, "Shit, Hippo to all members of the 7th Tank Brigade, halt, I repeat, halt. Let them go, we are ordered back to the city."
Slowly the advance stopped, each British tank coming to a rest, some guns still picking off retreating German units. Following infantry took up defensive positions in whatever cover they could find. Erwin climbed out of her tank, "Goddammit," she screamed, picking a rock across the floor. In the distance, one by one, the German forces disappeared.
A Bren Gun Carrier came to a stop nearby, Major Howard climbing out, "Why have we stopped sir?" he asked politely, aware of Erwin's current anger.
"Bloody Morshead," the past year had caused many of the girls to adopt many British terms and accents, "He's ordered the advance to stop, we are ordered to return to Tobruk and defend the city whilst reinforcements disembark."
"And you are worried that the delay will give Rommel time to prepare defences," Major Howard finished.
"I know Rommel Major, I know exactly what'll happen when Morshead finally attacks. He'll run straight into a German defensive line, what type I'm not sure, it could be a pre-made, well defended line, or it could be a hastily made defensive line, but either way, the German forces will be dug in. Now maybe Morshead will overcome the defences, but how many will die before that, and I know that if he attacks without extensive support, the 9th Australian Division will be crushed by Rommel's Panzer reserves."
"What will you say to the General?"
"Oh, exactly that, but because he doesn't like me, I know he won't listen."
#
The conversation went exactly as Erwin had predicted.
After returning to the city, glad to see that the fleet had returned, Erwin had headed straight for the town hall, Morshead's headquarters, she had stormed into the command room where Morshead was briefing his commanders about the upcoming advance. She had screamed and ranted warnings to Morshead, but each one was dismissed by the Australian for reasons, some of which made sense, others which were flimsy, and some which were outright stupid, but by the end of the conversation, Erwin knew that he wouldn't listen. Morshead had threatened to have Erwin court martialed, at which point Erwin gave up and stormed from the room.
Erwin could only watch as the Australian forces moved out into the desert, to the staging area from which Morshead would launch the attack the following morning, as the day was getting late, the sun beginning to set. She knew the night would get cold, as it usually did in the desert, but she knew that the cold wouldn't affect the German preparations, she had read Rommels book and knew he would pick up a shovel and dig himself.
Columns of men passed her by, many of them cheering when they saw her, they had been told who was responsible for breaking Rommel's attack. The day before these men had been weary and drained, on their last legs, but now it seemed that new life had been breathed into them, for they walked onward singing, the song Waltzing Mathilda drifting across the sands.
Seeing the high spirits of the Australian forces, Erwin came to a decision, Morshead could go to hell, she wouldn't let his men be slaughtered for his pride. She turned and strode purposefully away, soon coming across her friends, the rest of Hippo team were taking the opportunity to eat and drink, the body of the Stug was littered with Tupperware, which hadn't been invented yet, but had been in their Stug when they came back from their time.
"Erwin-san," cried Caesar, "Come, eat, you look wound up, take some time to relax."
Erwin smiled sadly, "I'm sorry my friends, but I don't have time to relax, Morshead is leading his men to their deaths, and I wish to do something about it. I'm not asking you to follow me..."
Her speech didn't get any further before she was interrupted by Oryou, "You don't need to ask us to follow you commander, we are your friends, we will follow you anywhere."
She smiled, "Thank you,"
#
The Stug raced through the city towards the town hall, "Major Howard," Erwin cried upon arrival, grabbing the aforementioned Major's attention, who came to a salute, "Organise the men into a perimeter around the city, make sure they are dug in. You are to command the Brigade until my return."
"Sir?" asked the Major puzzled
"Morshead is leading his men to their deaths, I will not allow that," She looked around the square, taking note of the two Victoria tank destroyers present, "You two," she called at the commanders, who came to attention, "Follow me."
The commanders nodded, looking slightly puzzled, but still obeying the orders.
Major Howard spoke up, "Sir! What are you doing?"
"I'm going to shadow Morshead's forces, and intervene when Rommel inevitably deploys his reserves to defeat the Australian attack. Rommel may have attacked with a large force in an attempt to break the city, but he would have kept some tanks in reserve in the event his attack failed, he isn't stupid."
Major Howard knew better than to object to his commander, he had spent a year with the girls and knew that each one of them was, whilst extremely talented, exceedingly stubborn, "Understood sir, How will I explain your absence to Major-General Somerset when he arrives?"
"Tell him the truth, Miho-san and the others will understand."
"Yes sir, good luck."
"Thank you Major," Erwin dropped into the Stug and raced away, quickly followed by the two Victoria's.
#
The outlying defences were roughly 7 miles from the centre of Tobruk, the Germans had been driven another 10 miles back after their failed attack, Erwin knew that Rommel would have retreated at least 15 miles before digging in, the delay Morshead insisted on before his attack would mean that by the time the attack occurred, the German forces would be dug in and that his men would be exhausted after marching at least 15 miles the previous day.
Thanks to the speed of her tank, Erwin caught up to the Australian forces quite quickly, they were only 5 miles outside the city, and had another 10 miles to march before they reached the staging area. The sun was low in the sky now, bathing the desert in a red light. It was difficult to see, especially in the rocky areas that Erwin was using to shadow the advancing forces. Moving slowly and cautiously, she was careful to ensure that Morshead remained ignorant of her presence.
The march took another three hours, by the time they arrived it was gone eleven at night. The advance was scheduled to continue at 7am.
Erwin had ordered a stop on a mound half a mile behind the Australian forces, she spent an hour watching the Australian's use the rest time wisely, before following suit and taking a nap.
#
She was woken the next morning at 06:00 by her phone, it had taken a while, but at some point during the year they were able to develop a plug point that their phone chargers worked with. Their phones couldn't be used for communications, but they still worked as cameras or clocks. One had been given to Alan Turing by Darjeeling, to let him examine it.
She had slept as peacefully as she could in the cramped space of the Stug with three other people. Within ten minutes, her small force of three tanks was awake and ready. Because of Morhead's orders and ignorance, they could only watch as the Australian forces began their march towards an ambush that Erwin knew was most likely waiting for them.
At 07:00 the march began. From their positions, the Australians formed up into a column of men and trucks and tanks, and advanced along the road into the deserts of North Africa. Erwin continued shadowing the force, keeping a close eye on the surrounding dunes.
Finally, half an hour into the advance, the ambush Erwin had been expecting began.
The convoy was thrown into disarray as the lead truck was hit, and burst into flames, soon afterwards the rear truck was hit, it too bursting into flames.
The convoy ground to a halt, men scattering from the road, diving to the floor. None of them had seen where they attack had come from, but they were on guard for the next shot. It came not too long after, hitting one of the escorting Matilda II's right on the front armour. Now most German shots of the time would have bounced, the Matilda's armour easily deflecting the shot. But to the shock of everyone nearby, the round went straight through the armour, and the tank exploded, it's turret flying into the air. Five men had been taking cover behind the tank, each one was killed by the explosion, their bodies flying away.
From his command car, Morshead watched the burning wreck in horror, he knew of only one type of gun the Germans had that could destroy a Matilda from the range and angle, "Find that 88," he screamed, his composure cracking.
Slowly the Australian infantry began to move forward, keeping low to the ground.
The 88 fired again, taking out another Matilda.
"Find that gun," cried Morshead again
In the cupola of the Stug, Erwin scanned the Horizon, "Where the hell is that gun?" she asked no one in particular, "The flak 8i8 has a large profile so should be easier to see than most German guns."
She was interrupted by another shot, luckily she saw the flash of the gun and quickly zoomed in on it.
"Oh Jesus," she said in a small voice.
Protruding from between two rocks she could see the barrel of an 88mm gun, but the profile was all wrong.
The 88mm of 1941 should be a large, stationary weapon, with a long, smooth barrel.
What Erwin saw, was low down, no shield that the flak 88 would have to protect it's crew, but most importantly, had a muzzle brake on the end of the barrel.
"What is it Erwin-san?" asked Oryou, the only one unable to search for the 88.
"We've changed things, changer things a lot."
Caesar picked up a pair of binoculars and looked where Erwin was looking, "Oh gods."
"What is it?" Oryou asked again
#
"Loading complete," came a voice.
Aiming through the sight, the gunner chose another target, this time a British tank obscured slightly behind a rock. Squeezing the trigger slightly, the gunner was rewarded with a loud bang, and the breech rocketing backwards, the shell casing slamming into the rear of the turret before clanging to the floor. Through the sights, he watched as the British tank burst into flames.
"Load high explosive," he said calmly, aiming at a crater where he could faintly see British troops poking their heads up.
He heard the expected, 'Loading complete', squeezed the trigger, and watched as the crater disappeared in a cloud of dust which parted to reveal a larger crater and the bodies of several British soldiers.
The gunner chose another target, this time he went to cut the head off the snake, and targeted the command car, in which he could see the British General directing his troops. Rolling his eyes at the Generals overconfidence or arrogance or whatever it was, he fired.
#
"Move forward, find that gun," screamed Morshead, panicking at the disarray his forces were in. He hadn't expected an ambush, especially not from an 88. He had assumed that the Jap girl had just been over estimating the enemy when she warned him. Evidently she was not. He had thought the Germans broken and on the run, "Find the gun before they can pull back."
He wasn't able to give any more orders, as his car vanished in a cloud of smoke and flame, the smoke cleared to reveal a mangled wreck.
The loss of their General through the Australians into even more disarray, many of them turning to run.
#
"Oh shit," murmured Erwin, she had seen where the last shot had gone, and had only been able to watch as Morshead died.
"Erwin," shouted Oryou, "What is it?" She was so agitated she forgot to use the honourific.
"Tiger, it's a goddamn Tiger."
"What? Haven't you constantly said that if Rommel had had Tiger tanks early on in the North Africa campaign he may well have broken through the British defences?" asked Oryou.
"Yes I have, and I stand by that, look what one Tiger has done to the Australian force."
"But didn't you also say that the Tiger was only developed and produced in 1942, as in next year."
"Yes, I did, something must have happened to change that.
Caesar spoke up, "The Germans may have found out about our new tank designs and plans, and sped up their development of tanks to counter it."
"That's not good, if German tank development has sped up then that means things like the King Tiger and even the Maus will be developed earlier. Even the Tiger 1 may change things, especially with Operation Barbarossa coming up soon."
"Oh gods," gasped Erwin, "The German advance would face fewer problems with Tigers in their initial attack. The advance was delayed quite often by the heavier, newer soviet tanks such as the T-34 and KV's 1 & 2 because the German guns couldn't kill them. There was even a battle where a single KV tank, either 1 or 2, accounts vary, held up the entire German 6th Panzer Division for an entire day. A single Tiger tank would probable prevent that delay, and similar ones like it."
"So what you're saying is that the Tiger tank being deployed earlier may change the outcome of the war of the Eastern Front?" asked Saemonza
"It may well do, it may well do. Hitler never had a chance of beating both the Soviet Union and America, but if the Soviets were knocked out, then he would have access to their industry and population. And if he was to treat the local populace better than the communists, then they may well fight for him, especially if he set up a collaborationist government as he did in France. A Nazi Germany with Soviet resources, industry and manpower would be a massive danger."
Erwin shook her head, "Enough speculation, what we know is that there's a Tiger roughly two thousand metres ahead of us that is destroying the 9th Australian Division, we need to destroy it."
"Yes commander," said Hippo team.
"Caesar-san, load high explosive, we need to block the aim of that tank. Our gun can't kill it, not at this range. We'll block it's sight and move forward, the Victoria's can kill it from here, providing they use composite rigid shells," she picked up the radio receiver, "Turtle 1, turtle 2 come in."
"Roger Hippo, this is turtle 1,"
"Roger that Hippo, turtle 2 here,"
"Turtles, load APCR shells, target the rocks where we fire, we're going to advance and order the Australians to retreat, we need you to knock out the enemy tank. It's of a new design, but you should recognise it. You'll know where it's weak spots are, so be ready."
"Understood commander," came the replies.
"Saemonza, fire high explosive."
#
The gunner rotated the turret, calmly choosing another target, this time one of the ammo trucks to the rear of the convoy, before he could fire however, a cloud of dust and sand burst up in front of the tank, and the tank rocked slightly.
"They've found us, driver, take us out, nothing they have should be a threat to us."
The engine roared, and the tank slowly reversed, before turning slightly and rolling forward.
"We'll do as much damage as we can before moving back to meet up with the General."
Aiming through the sights, the gunner began to sing, quickly followed by the crew, "Ob's sturm oder schniet, Ob die Sonne uns lacht,"
#
The Australian forces could only watch in horror as a monstrous vehicle emerged from the cloud of dust, it rumbled slowly towards them.
"What the hell is that?" cried a thousand voices at once.
"It doesn't matter what it is private," said a sergeant, "Just that it dies, fire at it."
Still terrified, the Australian soldiers opened fire with everything they had, but every bullet bounced off.
One of the remaining Matilda's fired it's two pounder, aiming for the lower galcis plate, usually a weak point on tanks, but the round simply bounced off.
#
Inside the tank the driver laughed, "That won't do anything, the gun is a pea shooter as the Americans say."
The gunner chuckled, before responding to the Matilda's challenge, firing the powerful 88mm main gun. The Matilda burst into flames.
However, they were too distracted by the Australian's to take note of the real threat that was quickly approaching.
#
"Oh gods,"
"It'll slaughter them,"
"I'll fire, draw it's attention,"
"You do that Saemonza-san, Oryou-san, be ready to evade."
"Caesar-san, what did you load?"
"High explosive Saemonza-san,"
Taking the type of shell into account, Saemonza aimed for the track of the Tiger, knowing that German tanks had weaknesses with their mobility and tracks.
"Firing,"
The shell shot from the barrel, the breech slamming back, due to the fact that they were moving, the shell didn't hit it's target. But it landed close enough to draw the attention of the Tiger.
Oryou gunned the engine, moving quickly towards the Tiger, but ready for evasive action.
#
The tank rocked, "Scheiße, What was that?" asked the gunner
The commander looked from his view sights around the cupola, "It definitely wasn't a Matilda, we can see them and none of the fired," he looked further away, behind the enemy forces, "What the hell? That's one of ours."
"What is it commander?"
"A Stug, one of our Stug's is coming towards us from behind the enemy forces,"
"What's a Stug doing behind enemy lines?"
"I don't know, oh Scheiße, it's painted in British colours, it's an enemy. Shoot it, a Matilda we can take, but I don't want to test our armour against one of our own guns. Destroy it."
The gunner turned the turret to face the new threat, taking the opportunity to gun down enemy forces with the coaxial MG34. Dozens fell before he returned to the main gun.
#
"Shit, he's got us, Oryou, evade."
The Stug raced left, rocking violently at the sudden change of direction, it skidded slightly before continuing on.
#
The gunner had to adjust his aim after the driver's violent manoeuvre.
"Firing,"
#
There was an extremely loud bang, and the Stug echoed with it.
Erwin hit her head on the side of the cupola, blood began to drip down her head.
She watched, eyes blurry, as Oryou turned the Stug violently to the right. Unable to brace herself she hit her head on the other side of the tank.
Taking the slight window of opportunity, Saemonza fired at the Tiger during the split second it was in sight, but the shot went violently wild, plowing into the sand 200m behind the Tiger.
#
The gunner cursed, he was sure the shot would have killed the tank, but the driver had moved slightly at the last second, and the shot had bounced. It was extremely unlucky as, from this range, a direct hit from his gun would easily kill the tank, the gun of the enemy tank would be able to kill them from this range as well, but the was a lower chance, and the crew didn't seem to want to bet on it.
Taking careful aim, he fired again.
#
The Stug slid to a halt, smoke filling the interior, flames began to lick around the engine.
Erwin's eyes opend slowly, her body was numb, in front of her she could see Saemonza's panicked face, wondering why she was so panicked, Erwin tried to speak, but all that came out was a gurgle, and liquid dripped from her mouth. She went to lift her arm, too find she couldn't.
Caesar's face popped up next to Saemonza, followed by Oryou, there was blood over their faces but they looked fine. But both of them were as panicked as Saemonza.
Slowly the world came back to Erwin, and she could hear what her friends were saying, "Erwin-san, can you hear me, stay with us Erwin-san."
"Please Erwin-san, stay with us, don't go to sleep."
Erwin was puzzled at the second statement, sleep sounded like such a good idea, and she began to close her eyes.
"No Erwin-san, don't sleep, please don't go to sleep."
"ERWINNNN," was the last thing she heard as sleep claimed her