November 29, 1939
Namur, Belgium
0800 hours
A thick cloud of smoke hung over the city of Namur as Otto Wolf gave the order for his panzer company to advance. For the past two hours he had watched as the city was pounded by both artillery and flight after flight of bombers. Headquarters had been confident that the fearsome barrage coupled with the aerial bombardment would be enough to seriously damage the enemy's ability to defend the city, but Otto was not as confident as they and was prepared for the worst. As Otto's panzers rolled forward a shadow passed overhead as hundreds of Stuka dive bombers moved in to continue pounding the enemy defenses.
Stukas in flight above Namur
Otto's formation had advanced only a very short distance when artillery shells began to land amongst his panzers. Knowing full well how difficult it was to hit a moving target, he regarded the artillery fire as a nuisance and nothing more. Of course, nuisance or no, it was sure to claim at least a few of his panzers and do considerable damage to the infantry following in his wake, but Otto could only push forward and hope that the number would be low.
As Otto and his men closed with the outer ring of the French and Belgian defenses the true danger to his panzers revealed itself as the enemy opened fire with their anti-tank guns.
So much for neutralizing their defenses., thought Otto as he ordered his company to begin firing on the enemy line. As he and his men exchanged fire with the enemy guns, Otto fixed the location of the heaviest concentration of the enemy guns and had Schneider pass the information along. He was dismayed to see that the enemy artillery crews were good at their jobs and that several of his panzers were burning. Otto quickly ordered his company to increase it's speed and continue it's efforts to silence the anti-tank guns. Looking through his filed glasses, he could see shell after shell slam into the guns emplacements turning the the artillery pieces in hunks of misshapen metal.
By now, his formation had advanced close enough to the enemy line for small arms fire to begin striking his panzer. As rounds bounced off of the armored hull, Otto fought down the urge to button up the turret hatch and continued to stand upright as bullets flew around him. Though one or two anti-tank guns were still in action, Otto ordered the majority of his men to concentrate on the enemy trench line to soften them up for an infantry assault. As the panzers devastated the line, the infantry moved forward with the exception of the few platoons that would hold back and defend his flanks against a possible counterattack. Even as the infantry raced ahead, the panzers continued to roll forward and added their machine guns to the damage that their cannons were doing. Under this heavy assault, the enemy line broke and Otto could see their infantry flee back toward the inner defense line while their wounded were left behind to surrender and place themselves at the mercy of the advancing German troops.
As the advance continued over and past the first line, Otto twisted himself backward and counted that nearly a dozen of his panzers had been disabled or had suffered some other form of damage that had taken them out of the fighting. The number was more than Otto had expected to lose so early and a slight amount of concern began to creep into him. While the infantry began to gather themselves for the next push, Otto sent word back via Schneider that the first line had been breached and that he would be continuing the advance. He also had Schneider inform them that resistance was heavier than expected and asked for both reinforcements and aerial support.
Otto had just instructed his men to begin firing on the next enemy defense line in preparation for the advance when he heard Schneider come over the communicator, "Sir, headquarters reports that no reinforcements are available at this time and instructs us to push forward with what we have. They also say that they will try to send some aerial support our way."
Otto grimaced at the news. Things were apparently not going as planned if reinforcements had already been committed elsewhere and he somehow doubted that his air support would show up in a timely fashion. As these thoughts raced through his mind the commander of his infantry support informed him that they were prepared to continue forward, and Otto gave the order to advance against the enemy. As
Marlene lumbered forward, Otto lifted his field glasses and swept his gaze up and down the enemy line in search of any artillery pieces or strong points that would need to be given priority. He caught sight of a gun crew readying it's weapon and relayed the position to his company. Otto was rocked as Hoff opened fire with the main gun and as he was examining the effect of the shot he heard Schneider's excited voice in his ear, "Sir, he have reports of enemy armor on the right flank!"
Otto immediately turned to his right and a ball of ice formed in his stomach as he observed a large concentration of French armor speeding toward him.
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Next: The struggle for Namur continues.