The day that they planned the attack was horrible, there was fog and also a sandstorm. Neither the Axis nor the Allies wanted to risk troops to see if they find the enemy, the troops that were waiting for the order to attack Alexandria were the most affected ones by the sand storm. Their rifles jammed they weren't able to see anything unless it was extremely close, and the radio that they had wasn't working because of the sand.
At the Axis HQ:
Erika was getting nervous of the situation just like Maho, all the troops were ordered to stay in their tents unless they went to seek for food, water or wanted to go to the bathroom. The communications were failing due to the sandstorm that affected everyone.
"Commander, we still haven't had any news about our scout team… Should we send a searching party?" Erika asked
"No… We can't risk any troops with this weather, we have masks that they can use but we will be forced to make hand on hand combat" Maho answered
"But commander, we don't know if they kept their positions or not… Or maybe they were captured" Erika protested trying to put her googles and mask
Maho just sighed as she allowed Erika to send a searching party for their scout team, Should they really send a searching party? The report that they had from the Panzer IV was that they were well equipped and had anti-tank cannons. The searching party consisted of 3 Panzer IVs, 2 Panthers and a halftrack.
Maho putted her mask and went to check the status of the camp, she wasn't surprised seeing that most of her soldiers were out with their masks. She went to the radio tent to check if they could finally contact with both scouting teams.
"Could you finally repair the communications?" Maho asked as she took out her mask
"We were able to communicate with them, but the signal it's too fragile" The radio operator said "The scout team said that the town looks less defended than expected" She continued
"I see, may I tank with the commander of the scout team?" Maho asked
"Sure" The operator said as she passed the microphone and headsets to her commander
"We… We have bad ne… The ital.… wiped ou… send help" The transmission said as it was interrupted
"What did they say?" the operator asked
"Something about the Italians, I don't know if they were wiped out or they wiped out the defenses of the town" Maho said as she left the tent
The weather improved, it was cloudy but there wasn't any more a sandstorm. There was still fog, Maho started to worry about Erika and her searching team. 20 minutes passed as she heard the sound of tracks.
The searching party was back, she was surprised to see that from the only vehicles that came back were Erika's tank and the halftrack. Erika got down from her tank but didn't say anything to her commander, she just ordered a pair of soldiers to keep an out for the prisoners that they got.
"Erika…" Maho said as she followed the blonde girl
"Leave me alone" Erika said as she walked faster trying not to see her commander
"Erika!" Maho shouted, making Erika finally stop "What happened?" She asked
"Nothing" Erika said as she sighed and continued her way to the medical tent.
"Can you please look at me for the love of god?" Maho said annoyed grabbing Erika's shoulder
Erika turned making her commander freeze in fear, she was nose bleeding and had some bruises on her face. Maho waited outside the tent as she waited for Erika to get bandaged, when she saw her coming out of the tent she stepped in front of her.
"We… found the scout team…" Erika finally decided to talk
"Where are they?" Maho asked as she looked around looking for the scouts.
"Th… It was my fault…" Erika blamed herself
Maho looked at Erika who was now sitting on the floor covering her face with one of her hands, Maho kneeled in front of her just to notice that Erika was nose bleeding again.
"I ordered them to engage the enemy… We thought that the city wasn't well defended, we were able to take down a pair of tanks from Saunders… I, I just got carried away and charged deeper into the city making me a vulnerable objective" Erika said "half of our team, including the scout team made a wrong turn and entered into a narrow path. They got destroyed one by one, the Italians just gave a bit of suppressing fire for the halftrack to evacuate…" She finished
Maho just sighed as she got up and went to the captive allied soldiers that were sitting with their hand tied behind their backs. She saw that there were more than 20 captives, most of them belonged to Saunders. She went to her tent, sat on a chair and stared at the map for a while before standing up and going to the radio tent to communicate with Anzio.
"Communicate me with Anzio" Maho said
"I just communicated with them" the radio operator said a bit scared by the tone of her voice
"What did they say?" Maho asked
"T… They said that they want you and Erika to meet her tonight at their HQ" The operator answered still scared
Maho left the tent and told Erika that they had to meet with Anchovy that night. Erika was also confused about the invitation by the Italian commander, the radio operator also said that Anchovy sounded a bit too excited even if she lost 10 soldiers during the attack to Alexandria.
Both girls went and met Anchovy at the place that Anchovy had indicated through her radio, Erika and Maho went with some guards just in case they were ambushed or they suffer an attack during the meeting.
"Hey… Let me do the talking okay?" Maho said to Erika before they entered the tent.
"Alright" Erika answered and smirked
"You might be thinking why I asked you to come tonight" Anchovy said
"Yeah… You sound too happy" Maho said
"Well…" Anchovy giggled "Let's say that we were able to capture a small outpost that the Australians did around 10 kilometers from their HQ" Anchovy finished
Both Maho and Erika looked at each other, Anzio was able to capture a strategic point without help from Kuromorimine, Erika wanted to ask her if she was kidding but she remained silent.
"Is it well defended?" Maho asked as she was planning to move some troops to that outpost.
"Not really… It has some abandoned building that could be useful for cover, but the structure isn't really stable." Pepperoni said
"At least you made trenches right?" Erika finally asked
"Yes, we also made a pair of positions to locate tanks or cannons. We can strike the HQ with our artillery from that outpost" Anchovy said
"It's risky" Carpaccio added, "But we managed to take all the Australian soldiers as prisoners, and we didn't see any radios so the HQ might not be informed that we captured one of their outposts" She said
At the allied HQ:
"They what?" Kay asked in surprise to a survivor who managed to escape without being taken prisoner
"Th… They managed to conquer our outpost" The survivor repeated
"Shit… We might have underestimated Anzio" Sophia said to Darjeeling
"Hmm… Now we are in danger of an imminent attack. Perhaps we should reinforce this place until we take back that outpost" Darjeeling proposed
"But, most of our troops are at Alexandria. We might need to take some soldiers from the city and move them here" Kay said as she thought if her girlfriend's idea was good or not
"True… Do we still have heavy tanks?" Sophia asked
"What? You expect us to make a brute attack?" Darjeeling asked making Sophia a bit angry
"No, I want to make a joint operation of armor and infantry to take that outpost" Sophia answered
"What if… "Kay said before being interrupted by a soldier who shouted "INCOMING!".
The bombing campaign of Anzio had started, the objective was to weaken the allies by bombing them for some days and then charge with Italian and German armor. The shelling was intense, just in the first 3 hours of bombing that had taken out a pair of Crusader tanks, 3 trucks and killed more than 20 allied soldiers.
The allied commanders knew that they had to do something quick or they would be destroyed, they tried to call Alexandria to send them troops. Alexandria was under siege by 2 divisions of German infantry and 1 armored Italian division, the British and American troops were being pushed back and cornered into the coastal zone of the city. Christian who was in charge of the Australian troops was hiding in one of the coastal houses with a pair of guards that were protecting him.
"Fuck this" Mark said as he got out from his foxhole, putted a "bayonet" in his rifle (just a plastic knife)
"Mark! What are you doing?!" His officer asked him
"If I want to die I will die with honor! Who is with me?!" Mark shouted as he charged towards the Germans.
The Australians followed him, they all charged towards the Germans shouting and swearing. The Germans didn't retreat they decided to fight until the end, the Italians decided to retreat knowing that they were being overrun by the infantry, the Italian armored division moved their tanks near the entrance to the city so they could repel any kind of aid from the Allies.
The Allies managed to make a gap between the two divisions that were squeezing them, now the allies were on the offensive and with the aid of Alisa and Rukuriri they managed to push them back towards the entrance.
"I request backup right now!" A German soldier ordered to one of the Italian tanks
"We can't, it's too dangerous" one of the commanders answered
"We are retre…" The German said before being shot by one American soldier
The Italians knew they were screwed as they could see the silhouettes of their comrades and behind them the silhouettes of the British and the Australians who were chasing them with their bayonets. One of the Italian commanders got out of his tank and said
"Retreat! We are covering you!" he said
"We won't retreat!" One of the German soldiers who was shooting at the allies answered
"It wasn't a question it was an order!" He shouted as he entered his tank
The Italian tanks managed to destroy one American tank and immobilize Rukuriri´s tank, she used her tank as cover for the infantry thing that was a terrible mistake. Another Italian tank shot the British tank destroying it.
The allies managed to push the axis out of the city, but they were demoralized, tired and lost a lot of good soldier and material that they could have used. After the battle Alisa tried to contact the HQ, there wasn't any luck the artillery ruined the line of communications between the HQ and Alexandria.
"Commander!" A soldier shouted to Alisa "Come see this!" he continued, he sounded concerned making Alisa run as fast as she could
"What is it?" Alisa asked to the soldier
"She is Lucy, she said that they need help at the HQ. They are being shelled by the Italians" The soldier answered as he pointed at Lucy who was trying to catch her breath
"I'm not in charge of the Australian troops, but… I will go and help at the HQ" Alisa said as she walked towards her tank "Give her water or food" she said
"Don't worry… I'm okay" Lucy said as she refused the water. Her face was a total mess of sweat and sand
"How many losses did they have at the HQ?" another soldier asked
"Before I left I counted 20 dead, 3 trucks and 2 Crusaders" Lucy answered before she fell to the ground. "How about you?" Lucy asked
"Well, we were more than 200 soldiers and we had 5 tanks. 50 of them got killed and 60 got injured. And we lost 4 of our tanks." The soldier answered
Lucy smirked before finally falling to the ground, her legs couldn't carry her anymore she was exhausted
"Get that girl to the medical tent right now!" one officer shouted
"Yes sir!" Two Australian soldiers answered as they carried Lucy all the way to the tent.
The following day Lucy woke up in the hospital, she looked around and saw all the soldiers that were wounded during the battle. She saw that Kay was sitting next to her.
"You finally woke up" Kay said as she smirked to the Australian soldier
"Who much did I sleep?" Lucy asked to the American commander
"I don't know, when I arrived they told me that you had fainted after telling them that we needed help in the HQ" Kay answered
"Is she finally awake?" Somebody asked from outside the tent
"Yeah, come in" Kay answered
"We got worried back at the camp, we thought that you got killed" Sophia said as she hugged Lucy
"I'm okay… Wait, what happened to the rest?" Lucy asked to her commander
"They are okay…. We are now bombing the Italians, we thought that we were going to launch the counteroffensive when you feel better" Sophia said
"Don't worry, you shouldn't delay the attack just because of me" Lucy said as she coughed
"After all, I heard that a British soldier managed to push back the German offensive all by himself" Lucy said
"Yeah, it was a suicidal attack. But it was the best thing that we could have done… They should promote him" A wounded soldier said
"You should rest… Everybody its waiting for you at the HQ" Kay said to Lucy as she left the tent with Sophia
Kay and Sophia stopped next to the car that transported them from the HQ to Alexandria.
"Why didn't you tell her that the British gunner was also worried about her?" Sophia asked
"Because, now it's not the time to think about love. First we capture the outpost and then I will tell her" Kay answered
The trip was boring but paranoid as both commanders didn't have any topic of discussion. When they arrived they got overwhelmed by questions made by Darjeeling about the situation of Alexandria and how many soldiers were still alive.
"Darling please…" Kay said "One question at the time" she continued
"How is the situation in Alexandria?" Darjeeling asked as she tried to calm down
"They got hit pretty bad, they lost 4 tanks and 50 soldiers… Rukuriri was one of the tanks that got destroyed" Kay said
"Have you told Lucy the plan?" Darjeeling asked
"Yes… But she said that we shouldn't worry about her" Kay said
Assam was helping the wounded in the medical tent, she offered her help while she waited for another mission. Rosehip got wounded during the bombing, so Assam and Orange Pekoe decided to take care of her until she got better.
"Any news from Alexandria?" Rosehip asked to Orange Pekoe who was taking care of her
"From what I heard, they suffered more than us… Rukuriri got destroyed as she used her tank as protection for the infantry" Orange pekoe answered
"Do you think that we will win this fight?" Rosehip asked
"I don't think so… Until we capture the outpost and take the Italian HQ we might lose" Assam answered while she was helping another soldier
Some days passed and with that days there were more artillery bombings, but there were more inaccurate making the damage less alarming. They still managed to kill some soldiers and destroy vehicles.
3 days passed, it was the day. Today the allies would make the counterattack on the captured outpost and manage to take Anzio out of the fight. Lucy went to the allied HQ alongside Mark and some soldiers who volunteered to take part of the offensive.
"Today… Today it's the day that we will take Anzio out of the fight!" Sophia said
"If you see somebody being wounded drag them into a safe place and call a medic. Don't try to be a hero" Darjeeling continued
"The tanks will go first, the infantry will follow behind. If a tank gets destroyed take cover and wait for another tank to cover you" Kay finished
All of the soldier and tanks marched towards the occupied outpost. The first 5 kilometers were really relaxed with weak spots of Italian and German resistance. The real fight began when they were 3 kilometers away from the objective, the German cannons started shooting to the American and British tanks. The German and Italian machineguns followed suppressing the infantry making them take cover in rocks or in the foxholes that the Italians did.
"If we don't do anything now we will be destroyed!" Kay said as her tank continued shooting towards the outpost
"I know! But we need a distraction!" Sophia said
"I will be the distraction" Rosehip said as she started going forward
"Rosehip don't say nonsense I won't let you sacrifice yourself" Darjeeling said
"Please Darjeeling I want to do it!" Rosehip protested
"Let her do it…" Assam said, "I trust her" She continued
"Alright… Rosehip you can go, try not to get blown up" Darjeeling said
Rosehip went as fast as she could towards the fortified position, making the antitank cannons focus their fire in the Crusader. Rosehip managed to take out of service one of the cannons and kill 3 soldiers before being destroyed by a German soldier with a Panzerfaust.
The infantry were taking serious damages. They were close to the trenches now, so Mark decided to make again a bayonet charge, this time he would get shot in the stomach while we was cleaning the trench alongside Lucy and some American soldiers.
"I'm hit!" Mark screamed
"Hang on! I got you!" Lucy said as she carried Mark into a house that was under allied control.
"Medic!" Lucy shouted
"Going!" a medic shouted before being killed by a sniper who entrenched herself in a house in front of the one where Lucy was
"Sniper!" A soldier shouted while shooting his rifle
The allies managed to take the small outpost in 3 hours. They lost 15 soldiers and 30 got wounded. And captured more than 100 Italian and German soldiers. Lucy went and saw all the weapons that they now had and the equipment, she was scared knowing that they could get another counter attack by the Italians or the Germans in any minute
"You alright?" Lucy asked to Assam who was sitting alone next to her tank
"No…" Assam said as she looked Lucy at her eyes "I… I really worried when they told me that you fainted in Alexandria. And now they took down Rosehip" She continued
"You did?" Lucy asked
Assam just nodded before resting her head on Lucy's shoulder
"Hope I'm not making you feel uncomfortable" Assam said
"You aren't" Lucy answered moving herself closer to Assam making both of them blush, Lucy wanted to confess her to Assam but she didn't know if she had another boyfriend or if she felt the same for her.
The night came, the allies made their forces split in two and made the British team protect the HQ in case while the Australians and the Americans stayed in the outpost. They sent part of their teams to Alexandria to reinforce it in case Kuromorimine wants to attack again.
"Commander" An American soldier said
"Yes?" Kay said
"You might want to see this" The soldier guided Kay to the exit of the outpost where they saw they saw all the group of Anzio without their weapons.
"What the fuck?" Sophia asked
"We surrender…" Anchovy said, we lost all our forces. And also Kuromorimine wanted us to surrender thinking that we aren't strong enough
"What is the trick?" Kay asked crossing her arms
"Nothing… We will give you back all the soldiers that we held captive only if you don't tell Kuromorimine that we surrendered" The Italian commander said
"I don't know… I thought there were more soldiers" Sophia said
"We are all that is left… We swear" Pepperoni said
"Alright, It's a deal" Kay said as she hand shacked with Anchovy