Hell On Tracks
Part 57
"Kodiak, Hammerhead." I called into my radio as the Stuart pulled to a stop. I stood up and got as far outside the hatch as I could to see over what little concealment we had right here. The bulk of Maginot's forces were dug in on a hilltop, not quite where we had expected them, but in one of the alternative positions.
"Go ahead Hammerhead." Arisa answered my call.
"I have eyes on Maginot's primary force. I can confirm the M4A2, two B1s, and two S35s. None are the flag." I reported. "They're dug in facing south on the northern hill at Verdun."
"The French are at Verdun. Who would have guessed?" Naomi deadpanned. I chuckled, but didn't transmit it.
"Good work Hammerhead." Kay said cheerfully. "Mako Platoon, Grizzly Platoon, we're moving north!"
"Hammerhead, keep moving, try and find the rest of their tanks." Arisa added. "Don't go too far. We may need your assistance."
"Copy that." I replied, and dropped down into the turret. The sun was still beating down on us, and even if the tank was heating up, it was better than getting a sunburn and heat exhaustion. I pulled up my map and gave it a quick look. The Stuart was currently on the backslope of the ridge in the southeast of the area we'd marked Verdun. It had good lines of sight, but no cover and only a little concealment. It would have been an amazing spot to snipe from with a Hellcat and camouflage net, but at this range all the 37mm would do would give our position away.
"Driver, take us back down the hill, and then loop us eastwards." I ordered. "Keep us in the low ground if possible."
"Got it!" Jane acknowledged, and we set off. Flers-Courcelette had been a bust, Verdun had the primary entrenchment, but there were still five tanks out there, including three sneaky little light tanks. The Somme still had to be checked, as did Passchendaele.
As thematic as the location names were, my French pronunciations are awful. I know English, Japanese, and a bit of Russian, and that's about it. I really should have pressed harder for battles on the Eastern Front in World War 2. Then at least I would be able to pronounce the names without that much trouble.
For a while, all was quiet. I had my head out the hatch, scanning the area and regretting not bringing a wide brimmed hat to cover the back of my neck, and we were moving across the near featureless plains into the central part of the field.
"Hammerhead, Mako Lead." Kay called through the radio, finally causing something interesting to happen.
"Go ahead." I answered.
"We're in position to begin bombarding the Maginot line." Kay reported. Naomi snickered quietly in the background, and I ignored her. "Any sign of the rest of their force?"
"Negative. I'm moving through Arras, and I haven't seen anything."
"Understood. Keep looking, but be ready to loop around and come assist the main fighting."
"Will do." I acknowledged. When we had come through here yesterday for recon, this whole area had been decried as awful. No cover, no concealment, no meaningful terrain. It was like an ocean, except made of dirt and stone.
I blinked as my eyes zeroed in on an oddly large bush. We had been through here, there weren't any bushes that larger out here. Had someone put a random bush there between our recon pass in the M20 and now?
And then the bush started moving, coming apart to reveal the shape of three small tanks that were absolutely covered with brush. The M22s were well camouflaged, and on the attack.
"Gunner, turret left, Locusts!" I called, dropping down to have better access to my ready rack. "Clever girl…"
Kay grinned as she looked at the line of Shermans. While Tally was scouting and Arisa and Naomi were watching the team's flanks, she was preparing a proper artillery bombardment against the Maginot line. Three-quarter charge HE shells would arc in the right way that the seven M4s with the basic 75 could fire on Maginot's entrenchment with reasonable accuracy while staying out of line of sight.
"Mako and Grizzly Platoons, fire!" She called. It wasn't a hyper-coordinated barrage where all seven guns fired as one, but they didn't need to be. The parked tank bucked slightly underneath her with the recoil of the cannon, but the experienced commander barely noticed it, instead keeping an eye on her surroundings.
"Mako Lead, Grizzly Lead." Naomi called, catching Kay's attention. "Bombardment is going long. Adjust down."
"Okay, okay!" Kay's smile didn't fade in the slightest as she relayed the order to the tanks of her artillery battery. There was just something about a line of tanks firing in rapid succession. It was something you only ever really saw with Kuromorimine and occasionally St. Gloriana, so being able to conduct this sort of thing had the team captain giddy with excitement.
"You're on target." Naomi reported after a few rounds had been fired. "Maginot is moving."
"Mako and Grizzly Platoons, two more rounds HE, then cease bombardment!" Kay ordered. Once the arty had been finished up, Kay led Mako Platoon forward, crossing the ridge they had been using as cover. "Mako Platoon, charge!"
She scanned the field as her tank led the charge. The HE had certainly been effective in demolishing Maginot's defenses, but it hadn't knocked out any tanks. Good. She didn't want to knock anyone out of the match with a comparatively cheap tactic. Katyusha had been very clever to use her KV-2 to do something similar earlier this week against Viking Fisheries, but seven 75mm shells was a lot more effective at destroying cover than a single 152mm shell.
Behind her, the 17-pdr roared, and moments later, the white flag popped up on one of Maginot's B1s. Naomi was as good a sniper as ever.
A hail of 47mm and 75mm shells reached out and scattered around the advancing line of four M4s, and Kay gave the order to return fire. Between the significant emotional event that Maginot's forces were going through, and the high speed charge of Saunders' line, nobody was likely to hit anyone, but there was always the chance to get lucky.
"They're pulling back." Naomi observed.
"Then we pursue!" Kay said cheerfully. A chase was always fun, and made for good firing on the move practice.
"Yes ma'am!" Arisa and Naomi both replied.
"Hammerhead, are you in any position to assist?" Kay asked.
"Negative!" Tally replied. "The M22s have found me!"
Kay frowned, but didn't immediately give the order to run to the scout's aid. Tally could handle herself. She had her own battle to run here.
The crack of a light 37mm gun caught Kay's attention, and she swiftly turned around and spied one of Maginot's light tanks, an R35, halfway buried under the dirt and rubble, firing at Mako Platoon's rear.
"Tank, rear!" Kay immediately called out, but she wasn't quite fast enough to save Mako-3 from getting knocked out. The light tank fired again, this time aimed at Kay's own tank, but the shot bounced against the side armor of her rapidly halting and turning tank. "R35, halfway buried, 100 yards, azimuth 150."
"I see her. Gun's on." Becca, her gunner announced calmly.
"Fire!"
Becca's aim was true, and the 75mm round struck the turret of the buried tank. The light tank's white flag forced its way out of the dirt with a quiet 'thwip!' to wave merrily.
"Hammerhead, are you in any position to assist?" Kay asked over the radio as I slammed another round into the breach of the 37.
"AP up!" I announced, before quickly keying my radio. "Negative! The M22s have found me!"
When Kay didn't respond, I just assumed she was busy with her own battle, and so I focused on mine. The three Locusts had quite literally popped up out of the brush while we had passed through Belleau Wood, and it was a charitable description to say that Jane, April, and I were running with our tail between our legs. The only thing that kept us from being knocked out almost immediately was Jane's crazy driving.
Despite this being her first real Sensha-do match, Jane was handling the Stuart like a pro. Every bit of terrain was used to some sort of advantage, no matter how minor, and every wild maneuver she pulled cost us a minimal amount of speed. Never once did she push the tank too hard.
"On the way!" April called out, firing a shot at the M22 directly to our left. Even with the stabilizer, we were bouncing around so much that there was basically no chance of us actually hitting.
"Tally get down!" Jane called suddenly, and I ducked down into the turret just in time for a Locust to try and ram the Stuart from the right. Jane pulled us into a power slide that I wouldn't have expected us to be able to pull in this kind of terrain, and the Locust missed. That had been a very close call. Its 37 bounced off our side armor at a sharp angle, and I was very grateful for what little armor we had. The 37 could easily rip through any of Hellcat's armor at that range, if not for the odd angle of impact.
"Thanks!" I replied to Jane, before slamming the next round into the breach. My ready rack was rapidly running out, and then I would have to dig for ammo. Not an ideal situation when I need to be spotting and calling out orders. "AP up!"
"On the way!" April called out, and the hit she scored resounded within the Stuart. "One target down!"
"Good work!" I encouraged her, before we shook with another deflected hit. As April tracked the turret over towards our next target, I reflected upon the fact that the only thing keeping us in the fight right now was Jane's insane driving. If we made it out of here intact, I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt a little more. For this level of skill, I could tolerate a little bit of crazy. An of course, the wild driving made April's KO all the more amazing. It was like hitting a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst blindfolded, riding a tank.
Okay, probably not that bad, but it was still very impressive.
"Driver, any chance we can turn this thing around and try to lead our pursuers towards the rest of the team?" I asked.
"No! They've got us hemmed in tight!" Jane replied. I was afraid she'd say that.
"They're herding us somewhere." I said, before once again loading a round. The process was becoming pretty automatic at this point, all I had to do mentally was shout "AP up!" when the round went in.
"On the way!"
"This feels a lot like our match with Ooarai!" Kay suddenly called over the radio. "One tank all on her lonesome while the rest of us run around after ghosts and are kept busy enough that we can't help her."
"Do you really have to bring that up now?" Arisa whined.
"We just lost two more tanks to ambushes in exchange for knocking out a SOMUA, while Hammerhead is busy with three light tanks on her like a swarm of Locusts!" Kay retorted. Naomi started laughing in the background again, and I rolled my eyes.
"Only two of them now!" I added. "But I'm being herded somewhere and I don't like it."
"Understood. Grizzly Platoon, keep up your chase of Maginot's forces, but be careful. Mako-4, Kodiak, you're with me. We're going to go help Hammerhead." Kay ordered.
"Yes ma'am!" Naomi and Arisa replied.
While the radio conversation was going on, I loaded another round automatically, and gave April a very quick "AP up!"
The 37 barked again, to no success. And now my thirteen rounds of ready ammunition were depleted.
"We're being forced in a northwesterly direction." I radioed. "Can't tell you how far away we are right now."
"Understood. We'll be there as soon as we can. Mako Lead out."
I sighed, and bent down to start refilling my ready rack. At the speeds we were moving, Kay and Arisa would never reach me. All of the light tanks were a fair margin faster than their M4s, and with the Locusts drawing us more and more away from them… I just hoped we would be able to get around whatever it was that they were leading us towards.
Not being the fastest light tank on the field sucked. Not enough to make me want a Locust of my own, but enough that we didn't have any options. Not in terrain this open.
"Brace!" Jane called, and the Stuart shook violently as we slammed into something. I was bent down to refill ammo, and when we came to a very sudden stop, I nearly slammed my head into something. It was only a quick reaction and a scraped palm that saved me from a potential concussion. A shot bounced off of our frontal armor again moments later, and for not the first time I regretted not wearing a helmet. Hannah definitely had the right idea, even if I thought she wore hers a little too religiously.
Moments later, we were picking up speed again, moving away from whatever we had run into. Probably a Locust, since they'd already tried it once.
As soon as the ready rack was filled, I pulled out my map and checked it. A near miss whizzed right overhead, but I needed to have an idea of where we were going. If we kept this course, we were heading right towards a well placed killzone. Flanders Field.
This was going to suck.
"Jane, when I say, can you hit the brakes?" April asked, swinging the turret to angle towards our right.
The round had already been loaded, the process was nearly automatic on my part, so I poked my head out of my hatch to see what exactly was going on around us. The constant pings of near misses and bounces had stopped. The M22s were pulling away.
"What the…?" I wondered aloud. Sure, we were now alone in the middle of an open field, but there weren't any good firing positions to hit us from here. We were not yet at Flanders Field. As we slowed to a stop, April fired at the retreating M22s, but her shot went low, and slammed into the dirt right behind the trailing tank.
There was nothing here. They had abandoned the chase before we hit the killzone, which either meant their team hadn't made it into position in time, or...
Oh no.
"Mako, it's a trap!" I cried, desperately scrambling for my radio.
"It's a little late for that." Arisa grumped. "Mako platoon has been wiped out."
Which included Kay.
"Oh." I oh'd. "Where are you, Kodiak?"
"Fleeing eastwards. Grizzly disengaged and is coming to reinforce me. We are hoping to meet up around Argonne." Arisa answered.
"M22s have disengaged, I will try to meet you there."
"Understood. Stay safe, Hammerhead." Arisa answered.
I issued orders to my crew, but I was more than a little shocked. Kay was down, as was her whole platoon.
"Kodiak, Grizzly Lead, this is Hammerhead." I began. "What is everyone's status and KO tally?"
It wasn't all bad, but it wasn't good. Naomi and Arisa were still intact, and Naomi was only down one tank in her platoon. That left us Arisa, Naomi, two additional members of Grizzly, and me. Five tanks. With one B1, one SOMUA, one R35, and one M22 knocked out, Maginot was down to six, with most of their heavy hitters still intact, plus whatever the mystery tank was.
It felt like we were being outplayed nearly as hard as we had been against Ooarai.
"Kodiak, did you manage to see what hit Mako?" I asked, as we headed eastwards, towards the Argonne.
"It was the M4A2 and a heavy tank. I think it was a 90mm, but I didn't have eyes on when they hit Mako Lead." Arisa answered.
Okay, that narrowed things down. An 88 was close enough to a 90 that Tiger wasn't out of the question, and the ambush tactics suggested it could be Jagdpanther. Konigstiger was probably out, since it was hard to hide that beast of a heavy tank. Elefant might be another possibility, but I doubted Maginot would use one. If it was a 90, that could mean either Pershing or ARL, both of which sort of fit their theme, since ARL was a French design, and Pershing was an American tank to compliment the loaner American tanks.
But we would know if it was Pershing, since Saunders was always on the lookout for Pershing supplies to keep our own one running.
As bad a tank as it was, my money was on ARL-44. Mainly because it was French, and I don't think Eclair would be willing to dilute her French-themed lineup even more by adding another nation's tanks to her roster. Not when she was already having trouble with recruiting and losing veteran players to her revolutionary ideas.
Five tanks against six certainly wasn't unwinnable. Four of our guns could engage Maginot reliably at basically any range, and with the 76mm and 17-pdr, we could take out the heavy tank if we played things right. None of the tanks we had yet seen were the flag, which meant the mystery heavy should be our primary target. If Naomi can snipe it, we win. If Arisa can hit it, we have a good chance to win right there as well.
I still didn't like it. We needed to stop chasing and driving right into Maginot's ambushes. We had the advantage at range with our better guns and equivalent armor. Things became a lot more even at close range where flanks come into play.
Chasing the enemy was how we lost against Ooarai. If we could force Maginot to stand and fight, or pick our battlefield well, we could win. But where to fight? The terrain we were currently moving through was hillier than most, so it probably would be bad unless we could get a good position with lines of sight.
As I was pulling my map out, Jane screamed out a warning. "Tank!"
My eyes snapped to my periscope, and I froze. That was a very big gun pointed right at me. Panic welled up in my throat, and I could feel the unfortunately familiar feeling of being a passenger in my own body.
Jane pulled a hard turn that I wasn't braced for, and I slammed my head on the thankfully padded rim of the hatch. The Stuart weaved around the flank of the massive heavy tank, and as things started to go black, April fired a shot into its side. No effect.
My body moved automatically, and the darkness at the edges of my vision faded. My hands wrapped themselves around the cartridge of one of the 37mm rounds in the ready rack, and shoved it into the breach all on their own. Almost as swiftly as I had lost it, control over my body was returned to me.
"AP up!" I nearly roared, triumphant over my own panic.
"On the way!" April replied, firing. Once again, the 37mm round impacted harmlessly off the side of the ARL-44. I half wished we had better ammo for the 37, because right now, the heavy tank was basically invincible.
"Driver, get us out of here!" I called out as I slammed another round into the gun.
Jane didn't need me to tell her that, she already had us moving as fast as the Stuart could go. April's next shot had similar effectiveness to the first two, and while I had the next round ready to load, I held off for a moment, as it would only waste ammo.
Instead, I looked out the hatch to get a better view of the heavy tank. It was slowly turning to chase after us, but the unusually dark smoke coming from the engine told me that the heavy wasn't going to be nearly as mobile as it should be. Almost more important, though, was the blue flag waving above the ARL, and the blue spade painted on the side of the turret. The M4A2 next to it was both in much better overall condition despite the running battles it had been in, and much less important.
Eclair was commanding the ARL, and managing her whole team from a turret that didn't require her to do everything but drive. I had to commend her for doing as I had advised her on a few occasions, though I never expected it would come back to bite me in the butt in quite this manner.
Plans began formulating as Jane drove us into a spot of low ground and broke line of sight between us and the ARL. What bait did we have that was expendable, while still having a good shot at staying mobile even while being swarmed by Maginot's tanks, that could lead them into a trap?
Me. We had me, in the Stuart.
I grabbed my radio, and started the radio call that would condemn me.
"All callsigns, this is Hammerhead. I have an idea..."
