Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (17 page)

The specialist sniper section
s
of
11th Guards A
rmy had
little time
to do their work before the next battalion
s were
thrown forward. Priorities were the machine gunners, the deadly Vickers and
Bren
gunners
,
who were
the
main
culprits
responsible for the human detritus filling the space between the snipers and the Canadian infantry
positions
.
The others, the highly effective
Canadian
artillery
of 3rd Field Regiment
, were beyond the reach of the sniper teams
,
but not the ground attack
bomber
regiment
specially
tasked with their destruction.

The seconds ticked away,
each
spotter
concentrating on their watch
,
each sniper keeping their weapon on target, waiting, quietly, as the second hands
br
ought
closer the agreed moment of firing and the inevitable death of young Canadians that would accompany the volley.

Panfilova controlled her breathing, relaxed into her rifle, steadied by the crate against which she leant.

Starshy Serzhant
Babr
Yarit
quietly counted away the last seconds.

The Mo
sin-
N
agant rifle kicked
,
and
Lena
was rewarded
by
a red mist
that
appeared where once her target had crouched behind his Vickers machine-gun.

Switching to the second target
,
she was greeted with the surprised face of a young soldier, clearly inexperienced, head extended above cover whilst his older comrades had already disappeared from view.

The bullet took him just under the nose and carried through the eighteen year old
’
s brain before exiting at the base of his skull, expending its remaining energy burrowing into the
wall beyond.

The other teams similarly brought down their targets, leaving the Canadian positions temporarily exposed.

Overhead
,
the return of the
air force
bomber
regiment encouraged the ground troops, although the
older soldiers
noted many less
aircraft
than had flown
to the attack
some minutes beforehand.

A
collective
shout
, the famous ‘Urrah’,
went up from the
lead assault
battalion
,
and the
Soviet
infantry again rushed forward, this time accompanied by three SU-76 self-propelled guns
, sent forward
for close support
.

Defending Canadian troops commenced firing but the rate of fire was low. Brav
e men tried to man Vickers and B
ren guns
,
but were ma
inly struck down as the sniper sections
continued their work.

The self-propelled guns also wrought destruction, accurately blotting out nests of resistance.

A movement at an unoccupied window drew Panfilova’s attention. She fired a shot at a vague shape and the shape fell forward into view. Rechambering her rifle
,
she noted with satisfaction the obvious rank markings of her latest
success. This bullet had killed the Artillery Observation officer
for the Canadian batteries supporting this sector, removing the effectiveness of their support,
support that
had already been eroded by a swift and savage working-over by the Shturmoviks.

The
Soviet
infantry were already beyond the line of bodies
that
marked their furthest progress in the last attack
,
and few men had been struck down by comparison
.

A
handful of
mortar shells burst amongst the attacking wave, enough to kill and maim a handful of men
,
but insufficient to halt the momentum of the charge.

With the absence of the Artillery Officer, slain by a sniper’s bullet, and the OP team, destroyed by an SU-76 shell, the Canadian
infantry
Captain had called
upon
anything he could get to listen on his own radio before yet another HE shell had ended his life.

A second wave of infantry threw themselves forward as two Mosquito Mk VI’s arrived,
responding to
direction
from an RAF control
ler who had heard the desperate
plea for help
.
O
ne
was
already smoking
, courtesy of a
brush
with
Soviet
interceptors.

The
concentration
of
advancing
Russian
infantry
drew their attention
,
and they attacked immediately. Each
aircraft
mounted four
20mm
Hispano
cannon in
the
nose
,
and these spewed shells into the second wave, ravaging the ranks and destroying men
by the score
.

Spotting two of the
Soviet
assault guns
,
the leader turned and bore down again, this time thumbing
off his main strike weapons. A
ll eight 60lb rockets leapt from their racks and bore down upon the
Soviet
armour.

He did not see
his salvo obliterate both SU’s
as his aircraft was knocked out of the sky
by a ZSU-37 covering the attack. It
’
s 37mm
automatic
weapon severed the tail plane
,
and the Mosquito
drove
straight into the ground, killing its crew and more hapless
Soviet
infantry.

Panfilova grinned at her spotter, both for the destruction of the enemy aircraft and the obvious success of the
Soviet
attack.

Her good-humour turned to concern as she noticed
Yarit
was wide-eyed,
looking down and up, alternating between the two views swiftly, a look of horror spreading over his face.

The remaining
SU76 was moving as fast as it could, desperate to avoid the attentions of the surviving Mosquito.

It was heading straight at their place of concealment,
its madly rotating tracks sending
mud spraying in all directions as the driver hammered his vehicle.

The Mosquito flipped into a shallow dive and eight rockets sped away,
smoky
trails indicating the likely landing point.

Panfilova and
Yarit
tried to run but explosive force moves quicker than
a
human can react.

The first rocket entered the rear compartment of the SU, instantly sending it
in all directions
as
nothing more than
scrap metal, its crew evaporated.

The seventh rocket to land dropped at the rear of the ruined truck in which the two snipers were hiding.

After the battle was over
,
and Tostedt was in Soviet hands
,
comrades searched long and hard for the pair. Of
Yarit
,
there was
simply
no trace.
The
sniper
unit’s senior Non-com was finally persuaded to climb a tree and knock down
an
indescribable
something that was
hanging in its branches. Lacking head, arms and legs
,
the destroyed body was beyond identification, save for the obvious
shapely
right breast.

The only female missing was
Lena Panfilova,
so her
grieving c
omrades
swiftly
buried the corpse
,
on the
assumption
that it was their prettiest and youngest killer.

192
5 hrs
13th August 1945
,
Tostedt Land
,
Germany
.

Allied forces – Carleton & York Regiment, 4th Platoon, Saskatoon Light Infantry [MG] all of 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Field Regiment RCHA, 2nd Platoon, 4th Canadian Field Company RCE, B Battery, 1st Anti-Tank Regiment RCHA, all of 1st Canadian Infantry Division, Canadian I Corps, Canadian First Army, British 21st Army Group.
Kommando Tostedt, Kommando Bucholz.

Soviet
Forces – 4th Guards Tank Brigade,
1st Company, 79th Motorcycle Battalion,
2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 1695th AA Regiment, all
of
2nd Guards Tank Corps, 1195th Rifle Regiment,
1197th Rifle Regiment,
920th Artillery Regiment
all
of 360th Rifle Division,
Army sniper section,
1st Battalion, 2nd Guards Assault Engineer Sapper Brigade,
all of
11th Guards Army
, 1st Baltic Front.

Fig #
3
5
-
Tostedt
Land

             
Colonel Yarishlov was extremely satisfied. The lead formations had initially walked through the enemy front line, so effective had been the artillery strike. In fact
,
the main issue slowing the initial advance had been the destruction to roads and tracks
ravaged by
shells from
Soviet
artillery pieces.

             
2nd Guards Tank Corps
was one of a number of fresh units
temporarily assigned to the 11th Guards Army
,
to bolster the attacking force in its drive south-west towards
Bremen
.

The infantry of 360th Rifle D
ivision had leap-frogged his armour
,
and their attacks had
eventually
cleared out the
town
ahead,
at the cost of
decimating the 1193rd Rifle Regiment,
only
for the Division
to grind
to a halt when the
Germans and
Canadian forces
stopped the assault
just
short of the bridges over the Oste and Wümme
. They then
counter-attacked
and drove the survivors back through Rotenburg and Wistedt all the way into Tostedt
.
1193rd with the assistance of
relatively fresh
1197th
tried
at
once to renew the advance
,
but heavy casualties took their toll
,
and they were unable to progress alone. Yarishlov’s 4th Guards Tank Brigade was ordered to support a second attempt to dislodge the enemy
,
and to open the route to
Stemmen,
Lauen
bruck and Scheeβel for the rest of the Corps.