Jan. 17, 1940
German-Yugoslav Border
Early morning
Major Otto Wolf looked skyward as a flight of Stuka dive bombers thundered by overhead. At this early hour, hundreds like them had already passed by overhead as well as the larger Heinkel He-111s. Otto was not entirely sure that he had seen so much air support even in France.
Surely, he thought,
there will be little standing in our way by the time they are finished. While that would be most favorable, he had to admit that he was hoping for some resistance. After all, he had these nice, new Panzer IV's to try out.
His battalion had reached their starting positions for the coming offensive the night before and there was little else to do but wait until the clock struck eight, the starting time of the attack. Having had one last quick conference with his officers, he was now approaching his command panzer where it overlooked the border position. As he arrived, he could see his crew scrambling over the vehicle under Hoff's supervision. In fact, as he looked around, he could see that all of the tank crews around him were doing something to their turrets that he could not see. Stepping up to Hoff, he gestured toward the panzer and asked, "What's going on?"
Hoff replied, "Lorenz is just finishing a minor alteration, sir. Sort of a surprise."
Otto stepped closer as Lorenz hopped down from the panzer and asked, "Well sir, what do you think?"
Otto rubbed at his chin thoughtfully before responding, "Very nice artwork, but a tad immodest don't you think?"
Lorenz shrugged, "Not at all. Just taking a little pride, sir."
"That's what immodest means, Lorenz.", laughed Otto.
"Yeah well, all of the boys think it's a fine idea. See?", replied Lorenz pointing to the panzers that were arranged around them.
Looking around, Otto could now see that everyone was painting their turrets in a similar fashion to Lorenz. Otto threw up his hands and said, "I suppose I'll have to get used to it. Too late to do anything about it anyway, the attack starts in an hour. Mount up."
Hertz walked over and said with a smile, "First Panzer rides into battle again. You remember how to work that radio, Riegler?"
Riegler gestured rudely in response as Hoff grunted and said, "Hardly the First Panzer anymore if you ask me. I look around and all I see is new faces."
Otto sighed, it was still painful to think about just how many of First Panzer Division's men had fallen in Poland and France. Hoff had the right of it, not very many of the Division's original servicemen were still here with them today. Despite the youth and inexperience of the replacements, however, Otto had a high opinion of his men and was convinced that they would do the name of the First Panzer Division proud. When he said as much to his crew, the other crews in earshot let out a little cheer and Hoff just grumbled, "I hope you're right."
An hour later, Otto and his men crossed the border and began the assault into Yugoslavia. All around them lay the evidence of the aerial assault that the Yugoslav Army had been subjected to throughout the morning. He was stunned by the scale of it all. The roads that his panzers were rolling along on without opposition were lined with shattered and burning vehicles and dead men.
German troops pass by the remains of a Yugoslavian Army column destroyed from the air on the way to Maribor
Otto was perhaps most stunned by the sight of an officer's staff car continuously weaving in and out of the lead column, and sometimes racing far ahead of the column as if this wasn't enemy territory they were traveling through. When the staff car raced ahead of him for the fifth time, he fixed his field glass on the car and believed he recognized the commanding officer of I. Panzerarmee as it's occupant. He was standing up in the car and alternately looking through a field glass and consulting a map. Otto shook his head and thought,
He must be crazy. Still though, Otto's opinion of the man went up quite a few points. Not everyone of his rank would be on the front lines like that.
It was not until two hours after the beginning of the attack that any resistance was offered by the Yugoslav Army. As Otto's column approached the city of Maribor, it was confronted by Yugoslav armored vehicles. Otto deployed his battalion in an attack formation and studied the enemy through his field glass. Scanning the vehicles that were arrayed against him, Otto's first thought was that this was some kind of joke. The enemy proved that they were very serious by opening fire on him, though their shells fell woefully short. He ordered his panzers to hold position and fire at range. The battle was terribly mismatched. Otto's panzers were killing the enemy from a far greater range than they could match with their outdated machines. The enemy really had no choice but to either retreat or come closer to the German panzers. To their credit, they charged. Inevitably, they were slaughtered. Not a single enemy armored vehicle escaped the battle. Otto's only loss was a panzer that blew it's transmission shortly after he ordered the advance to continue.
The Yugoslavian armored units proved to be ineffective at stopping the German advance
As the German armored column reached the outskirts of Maribor, they found the city to have been abandoned by all but a small group of militia who wisely decided to surrender rather than face the German forces arrayed against them. Leaving a small group to hold the city, Rommel raced to occupy the rest of the province and continue the advance deeper into a reeling Yugoslavia that was now being crushed between the armed forces of the fascist allies.