Chapter 282
The two Divisions of British Paratroopers and the eighteen Commonwealth Division, the fourteen Divisions of the Romanian Army in this area and almost three-hundred tactical Aircraft of all sorts and sizes did their best to hold back the tide of two Axis Army Corps.
The ANZACs and the Canadians down in the lowlands fought their counterparts in a pitched battle that had the Allied troops at a disadvantage of numbers but advantage of position, helped by masses of Allied and Romanian Artillery while the bulk of the Romanian Army was either in the mountains to the west or down south, where the Romanians were exchanging Oil for British guns and cast-off Cromwells. The actual status of the former minor Axis nations was not-quite Allied just yet, and co-belligerents were not due the best Britain had to offer.
In the Western mountains towards the Hungarian border the Romanian Mountain troops were fighting side by side with the Romanian Mountain Troops. The 6th Airborne was holding several mountain roads and passes that commanded these mountains, the 1st to the south and the 11th Romanian Mountain Division to the north. Opposition consisted at the moment mostly of the 120th Soviet Motor-Rifle Division that had the 115th Independent Heavy Tank Brigade attached. The British Army might have done away with Heavy Tanks long ago and the Wehrmacht and Red Army were in the process of doing it, but so far no one had told the 115th and the 101st Airborne Regiment was looking at three KV-1mod.42, supported by dismounted Infantry, coming at them and so far no one had developed an air-droppable 17 pounder.
What Colonel McAuliffe did have at his disposal was not much. The PIATs had difficulties penetrating even the side armour of a KV-1, but they had still been deployed, and the Heavy Mortars of the Paras were flapping out their rounds already. Theoretically he could call on several batteries of Romanian Skoda 105mm guns through Division, but this was not the fastest way out there and the pieces were older than most of his men. He stood in his log-bunker CP and looked at the advancing Soviets, smoking his last cigar and cursing the Soviets for sending these Tanks, the MoD for failing to give the Paras decent Anti-Tank weapons and the politicians that had started this war in general.
The position of the paras was however very well camouflaged and Soviet counter-battery fire was falling almost a hundred yards short, down the hill from the actual British position where the old, long since given up trenches were torn up. He watched as a mortar round glanced off the frontal armour of a Tank and he wished that the Boffins back home would soon manage to make a folding variant of the newer, heavy PIAT launchers that the normal Infantry was being issued with. His Anti-Tank troop would do their best but farm boys and shop keepers would be hard pressed to keep these steel monsters at bay.
He picked up the receiver of the wireless tied into the Regimental net. The Regiment was deployed in a long ark covering the road that they were charged with defending and his companies were in a strong position in spite of it all.
“Eagle Six Actual to all Eagle Stations, hold your fire until they're within six-hundred yards.” he said, “Eagle Nine,” (the AT Troop) “You are to fire with the rest of that, make them count.”
Acknowledgements came through and the men went about their work. Discipline was held, but as soon as the Soviets crossed the invisible line hell was unleashed on them. The mortars switched from high-exlosive to shrapnel rounds that exploded on impact but expended most of their force into turning their casings into hundreds of sharp metal splinters that began to cut down Infantry. The four Company snipers and their spotters were somewhere out there too and added their fire to the carnage of mortars, machine guns and accurate platoon rifle fire.
McAuliffe knew that the Reds that had taken over America were issuing semi-automatic rifles to their men, but like the rest of his own command he was trained after the British fashion and had spent almost a decade now in the British Army and he was pleased with the discipline that his men displayed as they coolly and calmly fired their guns into the advancing Soviets that began to bleed heavily for their efforts.
There, the first PIAT projectile flashed towards one of the KV-1s and bounced harmlessly off the frontal armour, soon joined by four more. The Tanks stopped and fired their guns at suspected British positions, but luckily they had no clear ideas so far, the Soviets just as the British having difficulties with making Infantry and Tanks communicate under fire, the Soviets even more so as the KV-1s still lacked wireless sets, as Stalin was unwilling to allow the development of the Heavies and intended to use them up at the front.
Another salvo from the PIATs, unfortunately this one reduced as Soviet Artillery now began to fall on the actual positions of the Paras, one having killed a PIAT team already.
Now however luck favoured the Paras for once as one of the PIAT rounds struck the tracks of one KV at an angle, smashing both the tracks and penetrating the thinner armour at this spot, detonating on the inside and killing all but the Commander.
The battle hung in the balance. The Soviets couldn't advance because the British fire and mortars held down the Infantry, whereas the British couldn't defeat the attack as the surviving Tanks steadied the Infantry enough that normal mortar and gunfire could not force them to retreat.
“Any word on the flyboys?” McAuliffe asked his wireless team.
“None, Sir.” was the reply they all gave him. The Colonel merely grunted. A general offensive by the Axis in Romania was under way and 21st Army Group Command in Bucharest had assigned the priority to air support to the two Allied Armies that were fighting farther east, and with good reason. What air support there was in this area was up north where the 11th Mountain and the rest of 6 Brigade were under heavy pressure.
McAuliffe still called Division again for some support, he would need it soon if things kept up.
He watched as several more PIAT rounds were fired.
The Soviets advanced again, drawing ever closer to the British position. Now however the flaw of Soviet Heavy Tank doctrine began to tell. As their British counterparts had before being re-tasked as Assault Guns, Soviet Heavy Tank Brigades were meant to advance with their Infantry compatriots and support them up forward. While this strengthened the Infantry, this also made the Heavy Tanks more and more vulnerable the closer they got to the enemy AT weapons.
Another KV-1 went up in flames as the side armour of the turret was penetrated by a PIAT fired at almost point-blank range and the ready ammunition exploded.
The last remaining KV-1 however broke through the British line and came straight towards the Command post, and just as McAuliffe was about to vacate the premises a PIAT round fired by an almost suicidally brave gunner who was promptly killed for his efforts hit the tank in the engine compartment, setting it afire even before the Soviet Heavy Tank came to a halt.
Over the next few minutes the Soviet attack fell to pieces and as McAuliffe watched the remnants of the Soviet attack force fell back. Time to relocate.
Even as he supervised the withdrawal of his men to a new position a few hundred yards down the road he could not help but hear the melody and lyrics of the Regimental Quick March float before his inner ear and mind...
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
[1]
~**---**~
The Battle for Romania was hard fought but overall the day went to the Allies. Axis forces outnumbered them, but the British, Canadians, ANZACs and Romanians had advantage of position and were far closer to their supply bases. 1st Canadian Army was faced with Soviet-German Forces three times their number, as were the ANZACs, but both Allied Armies were bolstered by large numbers of Romanian Infantry who all of a sudden fought much harder and with more tenacity than they had during the few times these Armies had so far faced Allied troops and mutual respect was earned. Even so, the situation in the sector of the Canadians was such that Army Command had to request the release of a Romanian Armoured Regiment, thus creating the strange experience of allowing everyone to see Panzer IVs with hastily applied British-style roundels in Romanian national colours supporting Tanks that bore the Maple Leaf in a counter-attack, shared with the world through pictures and Newsreels.
The Romanian General Staff was wary to deploy it's Tank formations. General Crear, officially merely here to advise the Romanians and to see 'that his troops were properly used' was well aware that the stocks of spare parts, ammunition and replacement vehicles for these units were limited. It had been decided that the other units equipping with Allied Tanks were out of action for the rest of the year at least anyway, so these units were robbed of their vehicles, spares and ammunition to keep the Regiment going. This meant robbing peter to pay paul, but the Romanian Armoured Corps was small and the Germans had never delivered the number of vehicles and spares the Romanians had wanted in the first place. Hopes were high that this would be different with the British, as the Romanian and Hungarian Embassies in London were directed to inquire into the licence production of spare parts and ammunition for the Cromwells and the 17 pounder, in fact both hoped to eventually buy the Comet for their own Armies.
In Hungary the battle was much more evenly balanced, at least in the mountains, but General Slim's 9th Army was, supported by I Hungarian Army not going to attack into the flank of the bulge the Germans had created. While this decision was often critizized after the war, Slim understood that his six Divisions (five and a half, really, as the King's Jewish Legion was still under strength) weren't enough and the Hungarian Tanks were considered to be so obsolete or short of spares that it was decided that throwing these units against Panthers and T-34/85 would have been almost criminally negligent.
All things considered the Allies had the advantage. Each day they managed to hold on shortened the time span between now and the end of the campaign season and if the Allies and Co-Belligerents managed to hold on until winter then all was won as then Field Marshal Alexander would be able to shift support around as needed and prepare for 1943.
One would then also have the time to get the former Axis Armies up to speed and with luck they could be integrated into the vast Allied host which would boost both raw Allied strength of men and ease the supply situation, Romanian Oil and the fuel made from it being the chief factor in this. Anything that would make Allied Victory easier had to be considered.
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Comments, questions, rotten tomatoes?
[1] I know it's just the third stanza with the chorus and then the fourth, but I think that this part of the Battle Hymn of the Republic fits best. It is of course banned in the UAPR. The Regimental motto of the 101st is “let us die to make men free”, but unfortunately my Latin is sorely lacking, so if anyone could help me with that...