Chapter 3
In Which the First Battle is Lost and Won
"Driver, take us around the southern edge of the forest ahead. Go as fast as you can!" commanded Ayako the moment the match began.
Liza did as she was told and soon they were jolting over the open grassland that surrounded the main wooded area. For practicality purposes, the battlefield boundaries had been reduced from what they were during the championship and this forest dominated the center of the map. The wind generated by their passage cooled Ayako pleasantly as she sat in the turret hatch.
"What's the plan, eh?" asked Hayley over the intercom. "You haven't briefed us or anything."
Ayako had seen no need to share her strategy with them before now. After all, all they had to do was follow her orders.
"Saunders' team will no doubt expect us to move cautiously with this being our first match," she replied. "We will move quickly and decisively and take them by surprise. We'll skirt the southern boundary of the battlefield and then turn north once we are near their starting point. This should position us on their flank."
"Assuming they head west towards our starting point, yeah," said Hayley. "But our gunner isn't going to be in any shape to engage." Justine was hunched over, white as a sheet.
Ayako grunted noncommittally. She had neglected to account sufficiently for this problem. Hopefully, once they halted to shoot, Justine would recover quickly.
"We maybe should have holed up in an ambush position and waited for them to come to us," Hayley suggested.
"No. We are hunters, not some wounded prey backed into a corner. We will proceed with my plan."
Hayley shrugged. Liza began humming what sounded like a sea shanty.
"Keep the channel clear, driver."
"Sorry, b'y, but I's just enjoyin' the weather. It's a lovely day out," said Liza.
It was. The air was fresh and clear, a cool breeze ruffled the leaves on the trees and sunlight dappled the grass. Ayako could have allowed herself to enjoy it, but it was a distraction from the business at hand. She must stay focused on winning.
She scanned the tree line to their left. If she had misjudged their opponents, the enemy Sherman could be there, in cover, tracking their exposed progress across the open ground. But she could see no green steel among the brown tree trunks and no shells came flying at them.
They reached the easternmost extent of the forest and Ayako had them turn north and move into the trees. She felt less vulnerable in its shaded depths, but now she had to double her vigilance. They could come upon the other team at any time.
"Keep your eyes peeled," she said. The others, with the exception of Justine, acknowledged.
They couldn't go in a straight line more than a few meters before having to angle around the tree trunks. Ayako had to alternate between reading the map and compass and keeping a lookout constantly. They gradually turned back to the west, facing their original starting point.
Still no sign of the Sherman. Ayako's eyes were watering from trying to parse the identical brown trunks that stretched away in all directions. Liza was doing a good job of negotiating the obstacles and keeping their speed up. The foliage thinned up ahead as they approached the edge of the forest. Sunbeams shone through the gaps, illuminating a few stray leaves that drifted on the breeze.
"Driver, halt."
They came to rest overlooking a gentle slope that ran down towards the clearing where they had met Kay. There was no immediate sign of the other tank. Ayako used her binoculars to search around. There, something moving! But it was only a deer, trotting out of a cluster of oaks a kilometer or so away. It grazed calmly among the long grass, then stopped suddenly, swiveling its ears. With a flash of its tail, it disappeared back into the undergrowth. Ayako's pulse quickened. What had spooked the deer? She looked left and right, but saw nothing.
A minute passed slowly. Still nothing. Ayako watched carefully for other signs like birds taking flight, but all was calm. The back of her neck itched. She had been quite confident that by making a wide circle they would be in a perfect position to attack from behind. So where was the enemy? She glanced nervously over her shoulder, half expecting the Sherman to be parked right behind them, but the woods were as empty as before.
Now what? Hayley was looking at her. Justine was back to good health and drumming her foot impatiently while peering through the sights. She had not considered any contingency plans, but she had to act. Indecision had to be avoided.
"Driver, move back through the forest. We'll keep to the northern edge this time." Justine gave a small groan.
Once again, Ayako had to juggle between observation and navigation. Following the forest boundary helped, though. A fallen tree trunk, its roots grasping like claws in the semi-darkness, forced them to detour deeper into the woods. She glanced down at the map again.
Liza's voice came shockingly loud over the intercom. "Tunderen' Jaysus! Enemy tank, bearing green-one-zero!"
"What!?" Ayako had never heard that bearing nomenclature before. She looked franticly from side to side.
The Saunders M4 had appeared abruptly out of the shadows ahead of them, crossing their path from left to right not a hundred meters away. The commander was unbuttoned and Ayako saw her head turn towards them. The Sherman's brakes slammed on.
"Gunner, tank, one o'clock!"
Justine gave an inarticulate moan. Their turret started to swivel to the right. They were now aiming towards the Sherman's right rear quarter and the enemy's gun was pointing in completely the wrong direction. Perfect!
"Shoot!"
The QF six pounder thundered and a parcel of crows took flight from the nearby treetops, cawing querulously. Ayako peered through the smoke, but there was no white flag to see. Justine's shot had gone wide.
The Saunders crew started to slew both the tank and the turret around to the right to bear.
Hayley started manhandling the next shell into place. They were still trundling forwards, aimed to pass behind the other tank. What to do? Should they stop and hope that Justine recovered in time?
Hayley yelled over the intercom. "Liza, speed up and get us in close!"
"Yes, b'y!"
They accelerated with a jerk. Ayako was dumbstruck. The gun on the Sherman continued rotating, trying to get a bead on them. Liza bore in towards the other tank, racing to keep them ahead of the 75 mm's traverse. Their own gun was still canted off to the side. As Ayako watched in fascination and horror, Liza ran them right up alongside Saunders' vehicle, coming to a screeching halt with the muzzle of the six pounder mere inches from the M4's turret. Judging by the look on the Brittney's face, she was having a reaction similar to Ayako's.
"Gun up!" shouted Hayley. She turned towards Justine. "Justine! Pull the trigger! Shoot!"
Ayako joined in. "Fire, fire, fire!"
Justine stirred. Her hand closed around the firing mechanism. The Sherman's cannon turned the last few degrees to point right at them.
The sound of the gun firing and the shell slamming into armour plate were simultaneous. Ayako flinched back, ears ringing. A smoke cloud enveloped them. A few seconds later they heard the sound of a white flag deploying. Ayako rubbed her eyes, trying to see…
The smoke cleared gradually, revealing a large black blast mark on the side of the M4's turret. Above it, the flag fluttered fitfully in the breeze. Brittney stared at it, wide-eyed.
"I think I swallowed my gum," she said eventually.
"Saunders' tank is disabled. True North High School wins!" announced the radio. Hayley, Liza and even Justine responded with cheers.
The crews climbed out of their respective vehicles. "Good game, eh?" said Hayley to the Saunders crew. "We got lucky there."
"That was a close one," admitted Brittney. "We didn't know where you guys were for quite a while. We backtracked all over the place."
"Yeah, us too."
While preparations were being made to tow the Sherman out of the forest, Kay roared up in one of the jeeps.
"Wow, that was pretty tense! Watching the map feed, there were a couple times I thought you were gonna find each other, but then you kept going. That was one crazy move you pulled at the end."
They did the round of handshakes again and Kay wished them luck. "Do y'all have any more battles planned? 'Cause I might just come out to watch!"
"Thank you. We'll let you know," said Ayako stiffly. She was trying hard not to let her anger show. Kay and the rest of the Saunders team finally left and she turned on Hayley.
"That was not acceptable! I am the commander and I give the orders!"
Hayley and the others looked shocked. "But we won, eh?"
"You must respect the chain of command! This sort of thing would not be tolerated at my old school."
"I figured you would approve of me using my initiative," said Hayley, grimacing. "I guess not."
"Never go over my head again, is that clear?"
Hayley nodded once sharply. "Yeah, you've made your views very clear."
All the long drive back to the port, Ayako seethed. But deep inside, she knew the real reason why she was so upset. Hayley had won the match for them, not her. She had hesitated and barring a miracle, the Sherman would have knocked them out while they were still reloading. She tamped the thought down. She was a veteran of Kuromorimine, after all. She was the expert here.
Everyone else was silent and avoided eye contact. The entire mood of the group was spoiled on what should have been a happy occasion. When they got back to the ship, they went their separate ways with only cursory farewells.
Ayako went back to her dorm room and threw herself miserably on the bed.
Author's Notes:
Hayley is correct that the Ram Mk. II has some advantages over the 75 mm M4 Sherman: it has a lower profile and the QF 6 pounder gun has better armour piercing capability. Other than that, the two tanks are well matched. Liza used a nautical relative bearing callout apparently used by the British during WWII. Green = starboard/right; one-zero = ten degrees. In the anime, Kuromorimine uses the clock method for relative bearing.
It's definitely a stretch to justify the overhead for just two tanks to battle. However, I think the anime and manga spinoffs often show similar levels of exorbitant expenditure: Ami arriving by LAPES, the League allowing combat in a built-up area with the associated property damage and Saunders airdropping light tanks in Ribbon Warrior.
One thing that isn't shown in detail in the anime is how some of the spectators view the match. There are bleachers and a jumbotron for the main audience, but the other teams seem to sit off on their own. When Anzio show up to cheer on Ōarai, they look like they're miles from anywhere.