GuP Skirmish No.4!
Northern Kronor Girls Academy(PoV)
vs
Pravda Girls High School
Kronor Lineup:
1x Strv m/42 Medium Tank
2x Strv m/41 Medium Tanks
1x Sav m/43 Assault Gun
1x PvKv m/43 Tank Destroyer
1x Strv m/40K Light Tank
2x Strv L-60 Light Tanks
Pravda Lineup:
1x IS-2 Heavy Tank
1x KV-2 Assault Gun/Heavy Tank
5x T-34/85 Medium Tanks
8x T-33/76 Medium Tanks
Through a raging blizzard, a sole Strv m/42 was being pursued by two T-34/76s. The Swedish tank's commander, Celeste, had her head stuck in the wind. Her tank was getting blown back by the wind and had difficulty moving through the thick snow as their tracks just tossed it aside.
Their pursuers had a similar problem, trying to get a zero in these terrible conditions was near impossible on the move. Celeste watched as their turrets flailed around with their 76mm guns, just trying to get a lock. She then looked back towards the front of their tank, their lights were barely penetrating the snow.
"Guys, we have to get that backup now, this chase isn't going to last much longer at this rate." She spoke into the receiver of her radio.
"Celeste, we're on our way, Ottilie, keep the tank straight, we can't veer off path!"
"I know that Emelie, but-" A gust of wind blow back her head, fazing her for a second. "But we need it urgently, we're the only ones with any kind of idea where their forces are."
Emelie, commander of Team Uppland sighed and said back, "Okay, we're making headway, just us and Gotland, hold on until we make it there."
"Okay, we'll be here." Celeste tossed the receiver back into the crew compartment before speaking over the headset. "Kaia, you doing okay down there?" The sound was fuzzy, but it was the only form of communication in this blizzard.
"I'm doing fine, this blizzard is nothing, I'll last as our driver."
"Good to know." Celeste stared off into the distance, her view cut short to mere inches. Between the goggles protecting her eyes, her scarf and field cap, it wasn't particularly worth it.
Suddenly, a shell whizzed nearby, nearly hitting their turret. "They've started firing!" Katina, the gun prepared herself. "So we're going to fire back!" The turret of the Strv m/42 traversed fully to meet them.
"Loading..." Mia, the loader, took an HE shell and loaded it into the breech.
"I have no sight of view!" Katina quinted through the sights. But her visibility was very poor.
"Fine, if we're going with this, I'll spot." Celeste took at look at the tank and their own gun. "Right." The gun rotated to the right, placing itself on target. "Fire."
The short 7.5cm gun fired its round, but between the low velocity and the type of gun. The round simply puffed off the frontal armor. "Fire again." A second round hit to no avail, just leaving a dent and ash.
"We're not doing any damage are we? Mia, load HEAT." Katina spoke back as conditions got a bit better. With the HEAT loaded and viability, she fired the gun. However, due to the sloping of the armor, it simple just exploded without penetration.
"This isn't going to work!" Celeste looked back towards the front of the tank. In the distance, she saw to very shady vehicles coming towards them.
With the gun firing behind her, she took a closer look with her binoculars. She couldn't make out whether or not they were a foe for a while. But she decided that the design was definitely not Soviet. "Sormland to Uppland, I think I have visual on you."
"This is Emelie, we've spotted you as well, approaching you."
"Hmm..." Celeste looked back at the T-34, then back towards their angle of approach. "Kaia, approach our tanks at a diagonal angle." The Strv m/42 made a gentle turn right towards their m/41s.
"Emelie, you and Gotland move quickly, we're being them towards you, charge them if you have to." Celeste could start to see the grey and white highlights on their tanks.
"We got this in the bag." Ide, commander for Gotland, leaned forward in her gunner seat and watched through her sights. The Strv m/42 led the T-34s on a path parallel to that of the m/41s.
"Now!" The m/41s went up to the maximum speed for the T-34s while the m/42 made a full turn towards them. The Swedes converged on the T-34s surrounding them in a fury of fire.
"Loading!" Linnea from Team Uppland took out an APCR round and rammed it into the breach. The m/41s had a hard time much like their larger companion.
These m/41s were really just Czech TNH tanks with the 37mm Bofors. Even with APCR and HEAT rounds, the T-34s were just shrugging these rounds off. "Keep loading!" Ide yelled back to her loader, Auda, who was frantically searching for rounds.
After a series of circling and dogfighting, the T-34s began to lose their footing. It became apparent that their rear armor was beginning to be exposed more often, changing the 37mm APCR rounds to slam into them.
But this battle was a waste of time, they had to do something to remedy this quickly. "Ram them!" Emelie looked at her driver who nodded and began to tail on a T-34.
The other m/41 driver, Linn, did the same and the two tanks wedged themselves into it. The other T-34 fled while Celeste's tank came up behind their friend. The turret could not move, blocked by that of the m/41s, it was finished of by a 7.5cm HEAT round into the rear.
Just then, Celeste received a transmission from Karin, the commander from Team Halland. "Halland to Sormland, we've spotted the main enemy force, moving down main road at convoy speed."
"This is Sormland, Karin, proceed a few miles down the road, we'll link up soon enough." Celeste changed the channel again and spoke to the other tanks nearby. "We're moving out again, no time to rest." With that, the Swedish tanks skidded off again, kicking up snow.
The three tanks started to approach a road, or at least according the maps they were provided. They parked a half mile away and waited for their allies. Celeste was worried they were knocked out without them ever knowing. The storm was picking up and radio comms were becoming garbled.
However, two pale figures came through the snow, a Strv m/40K and a Strv L-60, both Swedish light tanks. Celeste was relieved but there was something off, one of the other L-60s was missing. "Karin, what happened to Mikaela and her crew?"
"We got spotted by them midway of our scout run, their engine got cut. Sofia and Vandela tried to get it up, but a shell slammed into them."
Celeste sighed and gathered her thoughts again. "Okay, we can still go on, they're going down the road as I planned, as anyone seen Lappland and Varmland."
"The two parked themselves further down the road, Lappland said they were going to join but Varmland wasn't."
"I see...Lappland has the tools I need for my plan."
"Ask and you shall recieve my friend!" A familiar voice rang over the radio it was Lovisa, the commander from Lappland. "We have the bag right here!" Their Sav m/43 putted out of the snow and parked nearby.
"Perfect, hand it over!" Celeste came out of her hatch just in time for Lovisa to toss the bag and have it land on the turret.
"They also said to use this flare gun if they need us." Lovisa also tossed over a Swedish issue Flare Gun. To be honest, it was extremely strange looking. Celeste examined it, but it didn't take long for her to figure it out.
"Interesting..." She snapped the breech and put it back in its place before putting it in her pocket. "Okay, the plan is simple, you guys have to hide yourselves out here on both sides of the road."
"What will you do?"
"I'll be in the snow taking out their tracks."
"How?"
"I'm borrowing this tactic from the Finnish." She pulled out a metal rod out of the bag. "I'll jam the tank tracks with these, and then I'll fire the flare."
"But, how do we see through this thick snow?"
"The flare should illuminate enough to provide a shadowy figure, fire at those figures will you?" The other commanders had murmurs of discussion between them before agreeing to the plan. "Perfect, now how about you get to your positions, I'll be going now." She lifted herself out of the turret and stood on the hull.
"Good luck!" She could hear Mia's voice ringing from the compartment as she shut the hatch. Celeste hopped down onto the snow as the other tanks sped away. Over her shoulder was the bag of rods and at her hip was the flare gun. She walked over to the road and sat, watching the tanks go into the distance before disappearing into the wind.
The storm started to pick up now, she elevated her scarf, tightened her goggles and stared towards the direction of Pravda. Her blue cloak waved wildly in the wild as she put up her hood of the same color and laid in the snow.
What seemed like hours passed as she closed her eyes and mentally prepared herself for what was to come. It wasn't until she heard the familiar sound of engines getting nearer that she was fully aware of her surrounds.
She looked into the distance and then checked for her field glasses. They weren't present, she must had left them in their tank. But it was obviously that it was a convoy of T-34s, they were expendable tanks. But leading them was a KV-2, identifiable from the giant box of a turret.
She laid down into the snow and covered herself in it to conceal. Then reached back for the bag and held the edge of the opening. The tanks got much closer to her now, she had to wait for the last tank to pass in order to get all the tracks pinned.
The KV-2 passed first, followed by at least four or five T-34 models. She watched as they slowly passed by, it was rather dull to her. Once the last tracks came out her sight, hesitated for a moment.
But she gathered her thoughts and sprung into action. Running up behind the rear T-34 and taking out a metal rod. She came beside it and jammed the rod into the wheels and gears, halting the track. This forced the T-34 to veer left now, but she was long gone.
Moving on to the next T-34, they hadn't noticed yet, and did the very same. Now they had started to stop, but just as another T-34's tracks were jammed.
Now was their chance, she took the Flare gun out of her pocket and pointed it into the air. Then pulling the trigger, launching a bright light into the sky.
"You see that?" Asa, the Commander of Team Varmland and the PvKv. "Looks like it's our turn to have fun, Tova, Freja, get ready to fire."
Celeste ducked as their tanks started to fire on the unsuspecting tanks. They were facing shells from both sides, without a lick of knowing where they came from.
But they weren't hitting anything at all, it was really more suppression and eye-candy than anything. She was starting to doubt the ability for this plan to work.
Just as she thought that however, a 7.5cm shell slammed into the front of a T-34, knocking it out. "Look at this, they have the tanks gift wrapped for us." Tova smirked from behind the gunner sight.
"AP loaded Tova." Freja rammed another shell into the breech of the gun. "Ready to fire again."
"Let's have some fun." Tova slowly honed in on a another tank, she decided to leave the KV-2 for last.
Celeste realized that the tank were started to try and escape. That wasn't going to happen, not on her watch. "You're not going anywhere!" She yelled out and took out a metal rod.
She ran up to the closest T-34 and jammed a rod into it. It snapped, but at least stopped it long enough for a shell to slam into it. The shell blast did knock her back and she was dazed for a bit. But she kept on going after the ultimate prize, Pravda's KV-2.
But she'd have to do it fast, the flare was quickly falling and their opportunities would disappear along with it. She took another rod out of the bag and ran up to the side of the KV-2.
Ramming the rod in with both hands, she found that the KV-2's tracks were going to be jammed. But only as long as she held the rod there, they couldn't escape.
"Uh, Celeste's holding the KV-2 pinned for us, but she's right next to the tank!" Tova watched with amazement as the girl stood there. "Should I take the shot?"
"Take the shot, she knows about the risks of doing this, there's a reason she did that." Asa stared at the scene from her binoculars.
"Okay..." For a second, Tova hesitated, afraid she's hurt Celeste. But she took the shot anyways, aiming as far away from Celeste's position as she could. The impact of the round did knock her back, again, but it was for a good as the KV-2 was now knocked out.
Celeste stood up and looked around at the tanks around her. They had taken out a good chunk of Pravda's tanks. Three T-34s taken out along with a KV-2, any surviving tanks had most likely escaped. But hey, they still had a majority of their own still functional, all in a good tactic to be honest.
She started to walk back to her own tank, which along with all the others, had abandoned their snow positions and begun to rest for the time being. She waved hello to Katina, who had her head sticking out of the turret.
However, she was only about five minutes into her walk back when a 122mm shell slammed into the side of Team Uppland. Celeste saw this and started to run back to the tank and climbed onto the hull.
The other tanks started to move around and take evasive maneuvers, they had to retreat, what with the storm picking up. Just before she entered the crew compartment, the remainder of Uppland's knockout message was heard. "Get this tank moving, they know where we are, we don't know where they are."
Kaia started up the engine and finally, their tank was off and running. The same could not be said for Team Halland, who had their engine die on them. "Come on, get it started already!" Katerina, the driver, yelled back at their loader, Viva, who was trying to start the engine.
"This tin can isn't going to start anytime soon, we might as abandon it at this rate." Viva knocked on the engine and leaned on it. "Yep, we're sitting ducks now."
"This is Team Halland, just a heads up, we aren't joining you guys anytime soon, might as well put us on the knockout list." Karin sat on the threshold of the turret and looked out into the horizon.
"We've lost three out of eight of us, we have to reorganized quickly." Celeste frantically searched for the radio. Once she found the receiver, she set out a channel for all the tanks. "All remaining teams, relocate near the main road at the position of Varmland."
"This is Vastmanland, we read you, we're going to head there quickly." Astrid the commander for their team watched out in the snow. The wind had started to get worse, even with her Winter gear it was pretty cold.
"I can't see a darned thing in this weather, I feel like we're going to hi-" Much to their dismay, out of the snow came the figure of a T-34-85. But it was too late, at the distance they saw it, they couldn't pull off, so the Strv L-60 just rammed into the tank.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Their loader, Fredrika yelled in horror. Astrid manned the 20mm gun and unloaded 20mm AP rounds into the turret ring. At that amount of armor and their measly penetration, all they could do was jam the turret, which they managed to do. "Are we safe now?" Fredrike foolishly asked.
Astrid looked out the hatch and saw heard that the crew was yelling inside the tank. "I think so…" She looked the left and saw at least four other T-34s started to turn their turret on them. "No we're not!"
She doved back into the turret and took up the receiver before looking back out of the hatch. She rapidly spoke out, "Vastmanland, we've found the enemy, but we're not making back, they're located near the-" She looked for any major landmarks she could use, before seeing a small dock.
A T-34/76 fired a shot that just landed behind the turret. "They're located at the frozen river-" A shell finally hit and cut off the radio transmission. Celeste sat still in her seat, but kept her posture and mentality intact.
She picked up a map they were given for the match and scanned it. It was actually just a tourist level map, which didn't really give a lot of information. But she did find that there was a river on the far edge of the paper. "All tanks, report about 200 meters away from the river and wait for orders."
"So the fight begins…" Mia mumbled to herself. "You realized the only way we're going to penetrate any of their tanks, we'll have to fire HEAT at their sides."
"Not exactly, I did remember a few of the girls back home labeled some Blank Rounds HEAT and loaded them by accident."
"Why do you tell me that now?" Mia went back and started to examine their real HEAT rounds.
"Didn't really occur to me, anyways, to the river we go, godspeed." The Strv m/42 made a complete turn in the opposite direction and head to the ice. After a long period of driving, they perched themselves upon a ridge overlooking the river. Celeste was surprised that there was any elevation on their field, but it still could help them in this match.
"All teams, report in…" She watched for any movement within the valley below them.
"Gotland, we're primed and ready!" Ide patted her Comms member, Rebecka.
"Please, stop, you're hurting me." She pleaded with Ide. Meanwhile, further down their ridge was Team Lappland with Lovisa out of the casemate.
"Team Lappland, rounds loaded and ready for some action." Lovisa looked down at her crew. "Oda, Greta, you two are ready right?" Greta, their gunner was busy wiping the gunner sights while Oda was checking their rounds.
"They're ready Lovi, you can tell right?" The driver, Ady, relaxed herself because she knew that everything would go bad easily. On the other end of the ridge was Varmland already setting up.
"This is Varmland, the others are setting up our position, so we'll be ready soon enough though." The driver, Jannike, reported while the other three primed the gun and their own camoflauge.
This was good for now, their four tanks were ready for battle, Pravda was camping down the valley and weren't expecting to be found. "Varmland, you guys just shoot once you're ready, we'll start the attack, don't report if any of us are knocked out, it just distracts."
"Roger." The other three crew members said in unison as Celeste prepared their plans. It was going to be simple, it was likely that the flag tank would be on the other side of the river, they were just guarding it there and here.
They were just going to move in on the frontal guard, take them out and then rush across the Ice. If they moved quick enough, they'd make it to the other side without falling through into the water. It was risky, but also the best plan they could come up with on the spot.
"Okay, all forward tanks ready to move on my mark, Varmland, Lappland, stay here and provide covering fire." The only tanks that were going to advance were their Strv m/41 and m/42 as they started up the engines. "Okay...we move out…NOW!"
The two tanks rushed down the side of the hill right towards the first few tanks who were not even prepped up. The m/41 flanked one, and Celeste the other. As they rounded about, Katina fired an actual HEAT round which penetrated the side armor, knocking out the tank.
"That's what I'm talking about!" She yelled out as she saw the white flag pop out. It appeared that Gotland had done well with the other, seeing as it was knocked out as well. Now it was the hard part, they had to advance across the frozen river now.
Between them and the other bank was 100m of ice of unknown thickness. But there was no time to waste, the two tanks started to rush across the ice. Behind them, two other T-34s came out and started to fire on them. They were swiftly taken out by the combined efforts of Varmland and Lappland.
Now Lappland was out of range, only Varmland could assist them in their crossing now. On the other side of the bank, all their T-34s started to fire on Sormland and Gotland. "There's a lot of targets out there, you're going to have fun Tova."
"That I will…" Tova watched with intent as she saw distant flashes in the other side. Adjusting for both distance and their elevation, she found that it was going to be harder than she thought. What with the strong winds at that range, firing accurately was going to be difficult.
Nonetheless, she did it just wonderfully as one of her rounds precisely impacted on a T-34. "I think that's one down, estimate four or three left." But her efforts were in vain, as Gotland started to receive too much fire.
Eventually, a round slammed into the frontal hull, but wasn't enough to take them out. But what did take them out was a much closer hit as they approached the shore. They didn't report, as just told, but their elimination worried Celeste. "Engage quickly with HEAT!" As yelled as they came back onto solid land.
There were only about three T-34s left, one 85mm and the other two were 76mm models. The Strv m/42 swiftly maneuvered to avoid fire as Tova aimed in for another shot. "Where are you…" She carefully observed for flashes, once she saw one the calculations began.
Meanwhile, Celeste's tank had found themselves right in the center of a crossfire. As they veered right, Tova's shot hit a tank just about to fire on them. The Strv m/42 flanked around a T-34 that tried to get its hull around to meet them.
It was obvious that it was a novice driver, as they managed to drift around to the rear and fire HEAT close range. The last T-34 decided to back off and fired rapidly at them, this proved to be their downfall as Tova had found her mark again.
"And...one last rounds just for good measure!" The 7.5cm round she fired wavered against the wind, but still hit on target as it knocked out the last remaining T-34. "Good..now where's that IS-2 they have?" She spoke to herself as the storm cleared and she saw the knocked out tanks. "It has to be here somewh-"
On the other side of the bank, Celeste watched for her own tanks to come over. But instead, she found two trails of smoke rising up into the air. "It can't be…" The storm had now completely cleared up, and on the other side of the river was a single tank.
"Is that?" Kaia leaned forward in her seat.
"It really is…" Katina watched the tank through her sights.
"Their final tank, a single IS-2…" Celeste saw the ghastly white and red on the tank. Pravda's emblem on the tank as it turned its attention towards them. "Move, quickly, we'll deal with them out on the ice!"
"HEAT loaded, last round we have sadly." Mia looked back as she loaded the final round into the breech. With that, the Swedish twenty-two ton tank started for the Soviet forty-six ton tank across from them.
The two tanks were now one on one as they skidded across the ice. Sormland had only one round left, they had to make it count, one shot into the rear would finish it all. The IS-2 fired at them but Kaia veered just in time.
Celeste watched from the turret as the IS-2's own turned to meet their movement. "Keep moving, we'll have to drift behind them."
"On ice!?" Kaia looked back swiftly and then returned.
"If you can do it on snow, we can do it on ice, get close to them."
"Okay…" The Strv m/42 picked up even more speed as the two tanks closed distance. Now they were close quarters with each other as the last crew from Kronor tried their best to avoid a knockout. One hit and they were done for this time.
Kaia took the risk of actually making contact with the IS-2, which had difficulty adjusting to the close range combat. Between the erratic patterns of the Strv m/42 and the IS-2 keeping its front to their gun, it looked almost like a dance. "Okay… here we go, get that gun ready."
The m/42 moved forward and stopped itself just enough for the 122mm gun to swing over to them and fire. Though, Kaia slipped back just in time for the shell to go into the air. Performing a rather amazing move possible only on the slippery surface of ice.
She reversed the tank at high speed, then pulled a tight turn. The reverse spin caused the tank is veer out of control around the side of the IS-2. But the move paid off, with the IS-2 off guard and them spinning to the rear of the tank.
Katina found herself pointing the 7.5cm gun straight up the rear plates. "Good night!" She pressed on the solenoid and released a HEAT round right into the rear of the tank. It was an instant knockout as the round penetrated the thinner rear plates.
In a duel over a frozen river, Northern Kronor had won over Pravda's superior numbers and firepower. An excellent display of skill and firepower was shown here.
