Awesome short story for you grognards!

[Kraut]

This is the first chapter of a short story written by David Chong, better known as Blackhawk in wargaming circles on the internet. I enjoyed it and I thought you guys might too, so I'm posting it!

Enjoy!

MK

Beginnings

The history books would have you believe it was easy; that the French threw up their hands at the first sign of panzers. The Battle of France is related as if it were little more than a live-fire exercise for unopposed German tanks, as they rolled through the Low Countries and on into Paris.

In the event, it was a blur of terrible days and sleepless nights for everyone involved.

Unteroffizier Werner Hauke used both hands to brace himself as his panzer advanced cross country. He was thankful for his padded black beret - exclusive to the panzer troops - which did its duty as a crash helmet on more than one occasion as he rode in the open commander's hatch. The wind forced him to squint as he checked his position in the platoon formation, venturing a glance over his right shoulder to spot tank number 221, his Platoon Commander's mount. As the platoon's second in command, Hauke rode tank 222, directly abreast of the CO when deployed in combat formation.

His intended glance involuntarily turned into a lingering gaze, as he admired the muscular lines of Leutnant Ormann's Mark III tank. These new panzers weighed well over twice as much as Hauke's 9-ton Mark II, and their imposing 3.7cm main guns put the Mk II's 2cm popgun to shame. Unfortunately for Hauke and thousands of tankers like him, the Mk III had not yet been produced in sufficient quantities to replace the bulk of the older, lighter panzers. So it was that the Wehrmacht charged into France mounted on panzers that had only been intended as training vehicles! As bad as it seemed, Hauke and his unit were actually more fortunate than most. In his Waffen-SS Division, every platoon leader had the privilege of driving a Mk III, and the rest of the division rode in Mk II's. In many other divisions, the majority of the panzer units were handicapped with the lowly Mk I machinegun carrier.

Hauke put and end to his musings and deliberately tried to focus on the advance. Whenever he began to reflect upon such matters, his thoughts followed an inevitable progression from equipment shortcomings to national readiness and finally on to political considerations. Many of his kamerades had misgivings about the Western Offensive. Most Germans had been firmly behind the occupations of the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudatenland. After all, those were former German territories, and Germany was merely taking back what had once been hers.

The invasion of Poland, however, was not so easily rationalized on moral grounds. The German populace had been led to believe Poland had been ready to invade, thus legitimizing a preemptive attack for Germany's security. Nonetheless, with the subsequent declaration of war by Great Britain, the Common Soldier realized Hitler had started another Great War, and no one really wanted that - especially the veterans. Even in the ranks of Hauke's SS elite unit, under the surface lay some serious moral misgivings - specifically in the command ranks, which were filled with veterans of the Great War. Overpowering these feelings however were the compelling calls of nationalism, duty, and military spirit. The crisis of conscience was nonetheless uncomfortable for Hauke, and so he always chose to focus on the task at hand.

"Driver, adjust left, avoid ditch."

"Adjust left," answered the driver.

The tank jolted to the left, and Hauke cringed as his hip smashed into the hatch side as he was thrown up and right. It was for precisely this reason that Hauke had long ago foregone wearing his service pistol in his tank. His driver, fresh from the National Labor Service when the division was deployed to Poland, was a mere 18 years old and had a habit of throwing the tank around. Hauke wondered if he would've been better off taking the ditch straight on, as growing to resent a careless driver was less desirable than it was to bear malice toward a depression in the ground. As he had countless times before, Hauke let it go for now, and would have yet another talk with Private Bohg about his driving grace at an opportune moment.

Anticipating another harsh turn, Hauke crouched down in his seat, so that only his head was exposed. Fully bracing himself by the shoulders, elbows, and hands against the square hatch lip, he gave a new order to Private Bohg.

"Driver, adjust right, return to formation," ordered Hauke, carefully even-tempered.

"Jawohl," came the reply.

The tank curved gracefully right, and then drifted left again, returning to its position in the formation. Apparently, Bohg had remembered one of those talks, and he'd corrected himself on the second maneuver. Even the slow can eventually catch up, thought Hauke with a wry smile.

An ear-popping "CLANG!" broke Hauke's smile instantly. It was followed immediately by a rapid succession of smaller pings, which he recognized as the familiar sound of machine gun rounds raking the tank. Hauke kicked out his legs, dropping himself down into the turret and reducing his exposure to the enemy fire.

The radio came alive with Ormann's voice, "Platoon, engage infantry, right, bearing 350 degrees, dispersed in woodline! Range 300 meters!"

"Driver, halt! Come right sixty degrees!" barked Hauke.

"Jawohl!" replied Bohg in a wavering voice. Bohg had seen combat in Poland, so Hauke wasn't sure why his voice was so shaky. He did little more than note it, however, as his head was filled with the task of finding the enemy.

As soon as his tank lurched to a halt, Hauke scanned the indicated treeline with the criminally deficient commander's periscope mounted on the Mk II. He could see nothing, hampered somewhat by the tank's slowly diminishing oscillations on its suspension as it recovered from the skidding stop. Another startling "CLANG!" signified a hit from something larger than an MG round, and the urgency to find and engage the enemy was elevated to a critically high level. Finding the periscope useless, Hauke hoisted himself back up into the hatch, grabbing his field glasses from the rack on the inside wall.

He poked his head out to spot several muzzle flashes in the woodline, to the right of where he had been looking with the periscope. Leutnant Ormann was standing high in his hatch, pointing out the enemy positions to the rest of the platoon. Second platoon was beginning to deliver fire from the ridgeline to the East, from their overwatch position. Unfortunately, a bend in the woodline shielded the bulk of the enemy position from the protective cover of Second platoon, leaving Ormann's platoon to fend for itself.

As Hauke prepared to man his gun, satisfied with his situational awareness, he was thrown against the left hatch cover by a violent explosion. Saved once again by his padded beret, he was nonetheless stunned. He could no longer hear the small-caliber rounds whining through the air like angry bees, the rumble of his tank's engine, or the crackle of gunfire in front of his position. He looked about in a world reduced to slow motion, and his eyes eventually came to rest upon the blazing hulk of hull number 224 - Fritz's panzer. He stared on as a figure that could only be Fritz struggled to exit the turret hatch, although his body was completely engulfed in flames. Hauke looked on with very little emotion in his dazed condition, a reaction which he did not even notice at the time, but would later haunt him. Turning back towards the enemy, Hauke saw a billowing cloud of smoke in the treeline, the telltale mark of an enemy anti-tank gun.

Renewed pinging against the armored glacis of Hauke's tank brought reality crashing back. Shaking his head as if shedding a bad dream, Hauke burst into action. He lunged to the cannon, and quickly slewed the turret around to bear on the enemy gun.

"Enemy ATG, extreme right!" he screamed into the radio receiver as he lined up his shot. He hadn't even properly ranged his target as he mashed the trigger on the Coaxial MG, sending a hail of 7.92mm bullets over the gun crew's heads. He steadily depressed the turret. As he did so, the tracers from the MG walked down through the trees, and eventually began dancing upon the gunshield of the gun, which he could now clearly see. Through his gunsight, he watched as some of the gun crew cowered behind the thin metal shield. The MG was specially mounted to match the ballistic performance of his main gun. If the MG rounds were hitting, his gun would be on target, as well.

Satisfied of his aim, he sent a round downrange. He watched as a small plume of smoke signaled a hit. The automatic loader immediately cleared the casing and chambered another round in the gun, which was really a derivative of an antiaircraft cannon. Checking his lay, he fired again, this time adding another burst from the MG. He heard the report of a tank gun firing nearby, and a moment later the gun position lit up in a shower of fire. Without question, the Mk III had fired an HE round at the ATG, and it had set off an ammunition explosion.

With no time to gloat, Hauke immediately began slewing the turret left as he triggered long bursts from the MG. In this manner, he swept the entire enemy position with his weapon. The hard thing about infantry targets was actually spotting them. In a buttoned-up tank, the chances of actually singling out an enemy soldier and successfully engaging him with the MG were immeasurably small. The best tactic was to pour fire into their position, and either kill them by random chance, or drive them off. Without infantry support, the latter was usually the case. Unfortunately, Hauke's battalion had outpaced its infantry earlier in the day, as it did almost every day. The panzers were always ordered ahead to cut into rear echelon formations, while the infantry mopped up resistance. Contrary to popular belief, the German Army was moving primarily on foot and hoof, not wheel and tread.

The firing stopped, and Hauke secured his weapons and popped out of the hatch again. A secondary explosion from 224 made him jump, and a cursory look at the panzer made it clear there were no survivors. Leutnant Ormann was not in the hatch, so Hauke called out to him on the radio. "Two-one, this is two-two, standing by." Hauke did not get an immediate reply, so he prepared to repeat his broadcast.

"Two-two, the Leutnant is dead," replied an unfamiliar voice.

Hauke's spirits sank. Ormann and Hauke had been a command team since 1938, and they worked well together. His mind drifted for a moment as he adjusted to this new reality.

"Radioman, switch to the kompanie net," Hauke ordered as he prepared to take command of the platoon.

"Sir... Engel... he's dead," stuttered Bohg.

Another loss. "What?" demanded Hauke, somewhat incredulous. After all, he was in the same tank as his radioman.

"We... he got hit by a rifle round, sir. We were penetrated."

"Damn!" complained Hauke. The Mark II's were, sadly, so thin-skinned as to be vulnerable to specially designed, large caliber anti-tank rifles, which could be operated by an individual infantryman. Apparently one or more of those "clangs" Hauke had heard in the battle had been a penetration by one such ATR. He paused again, gathering his thoughts.

"Two-one, two-two. What is your status?"

"Two-two, two-one is operational. One casualty."

"Understood. Two-two is displacing to two-one." In this manner, Hauke signaled the rest of the platoon his intention to mount the Mark III and take command.

"Bohg, our tank is undermanned. I want you to drive her back to our step-off point in Courcelles and report to the kompanie commander. Understood?"

"Jawohl!" came an enthusiastic reply. Like the rest of them, Bohg had been on the front line of the advance for two weeks straight. The idea of heading for anywhere besides combat must have sounded incredibly appealing.

With that, Hauke grabbed his duffle bag off the transom of panzer 222 and headed over to the platoon's Mk III. The four remaining crewman were already busying themselves with removing Ormann's bullet-riddled body from the commander's station. He must have fallen to enemy MG fire as he directed his platoon while "unbuttoned," standing outside the protective confines of his turret through the hatch. The unbuttoned position offered much better visibility than from within the tank, but at the severe cost of exposure to enemy fire. Certainly, Hauke's friend would receive a posthumous medal for his courage under fire. Hauke reflected on the Leutnant's bravery as he wiped the blood off the turret wall and floor with a grease rag. Although brave, Hauke did not intend to receive his medals posthumously.

Hauke ordered the Leutnant's body loaded on 222, and reported in to kompanie HQ with his platoon's situation.

"Understood, two-one. Continue your advance to Objective Braun" came the order.

"Jawohl."

And with that, Hauke signaled the platoon to resume the advance from atop his Mark III.

-----

- Blackhawk's day job is professional writing for the Electronic Entertainment Industry. His writing credits include the strategy guides for "Close Combat III, Panzer General 3D Assault, Flight Unlimited III, and Prima's MS Flight Sim 2000.

[This message has been edited by Kraut (edited 04-26-2000).]

[Colin]

Great.

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Visit my webpage!

http://cm4mac.tripod.com

[Fionn]

Where could one find the rest of it?

[HijackGMH]

I sure enjoyed that. Like Fionn, I would like to read the rest. Where can I find Blackhawk's work?

[Lorak]

Great story! Thanks for posting that Kraut.

TTFN

Lorak

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http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/combatmissionclub

[Kevin Peltz]

That was a good bit of writing. For those interested in this time frame and location, an excellent book called, Dunkirk: The Great Escape, by A.J. Barker(David McKay Company,1977), relates the Battle of France, up to, and including, the evacuation. It includes numerous interesting anecdotes, including one where some British infantry created a false minefield using china plates from a nearby cafe!

[Strider]

Just checked with Blackhawk...he doesn't yet have it posted online. When he does, one of us will post it for y'all.

[Guest R Cunningham]

Uh, Fionn, what SS division had tanks in 1940? IIRC Totenkopf, SS-VT and Leibstandarte were all infantry formations with some suporting arms like their own artillery, but can't recall any mention of tanks.

[Mark IV]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>some British infantry created a false minefield using china plates from a nearby cafe!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This one dates to the Spanish Civil War. Supposedly, a tank/column of tanks was stopped by the plates in the road, thinking they were mines, while the clever infantry made good their escape/killed all the tanks. Depends on the version.

After Dunkirk, the invasion panic in England led to all sorts of wild, home-brewed tank-stopping schemes and expedients. This story got wide circulation and became part of the Home Guard mythology. The pie plates were a relatively harmless story, compared to some of the recommended techniques.

[Blackhawk]

Hi there,

Blackhawk chiming in. Kraut mentioned to me that he'd posted a portion of the story I'd shared with him, and that someone had a question. So here I am!

R Cunningham, you are correct in your assertion that there were no Waffen SS units with organic panzers fighting in France in early 1940. There were several wehrmacht panzer kompanien and in three instances I know of even whole abteilungen attached to the Verfügungstruppe, Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Totenkopfh, or Germania SS commands throughout the blitz, a strange situation arising from the as-yet unsolidified relationship between the Allgemeine-SS and OKW.

I've purposely left out all mention to a specific unit, or even a specific date in many cases, as history buffs would invariably try to figure out what unit I was writing about. By design, I am not telling the story of any specific unit. In my mind, to do so in a work of fiction would be a disservice to the real people that fought in that unit, shedding real blood doing the very real things that they did. You see, there was a real person that fought and probably died in, say, panzer B / 1.Zug / C.Ko / 2.Abt / 35th.Rgt / 4th.Panzer, and I shall not do that man's memory a disservice by overwriting his real life with that of a fictional character.

Instead, I offer a collective tribute to the experience of the WWII soldier by deliberately describing characters that are representative of a great many people and their experiences, not a single group or individual that could possibly be identified. It's a work of fiction posed in a historical setting, with realistic characters in realistic situations taking realistic actions.

So, as to the story. If I placed our protagonist, Unteroffizier Hauke, in a Wehrmacht Panzer Division, you would know he was in one of Pz Dvs 1 through 10. By matching the place-names in the story to historical battles, you'd soon narrow his unit down to one or a few possibilities. And thus my purpose is defeated.

Instead, read of the wartime life of Werner Hauke, and his experiences. They are the composite - but unified and characterized - experiences of thousands of men like him, based upon personal interviews and the wealth of anectodal and narrative accounts available to the interested reader today. This is not to say he's a patchwork quilt of anecdotes; Hauke is a living, breathing, individual character, or at least he should be if I've done my job. I invite you to enjoy him for what he is, and not in the place of some real person whom I would be so audacious as to replace with him. And it is thusly that we find UntOfz W. Hauke in command of a believable unit that never was.

I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

David Chong

"Blackhawk"

[Hunter]

David</p>

Welcome aboard here Nice to see some more writing credits beyond CC3 (in joke)</p>

I hope you will be available for a game when CM goes gold!</p>

Bruce</p>

[DesertFox]

Bob,

You are correct with the Waffen-SS in France. Only Regimental strenth and only infantry formations.

But Leibstandarte got 1 single platoon (5 tanks IIRC) of Panzer IV in France.

Actually the Waffen SS Divisions did not get any tanks except StuGs until they were reclassed as Panzer Grenadier Divisions. That was in November 1942 IIRC.

Helge

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Sbelling chequed wyth MICROSOFT SPELLCHECKER - vorgs grate!

- The DesertFox -

Email: desertfox1891@hotmail.com

WWW: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/2930/

[Guest R Cunningham]

Blackhawk,

Didn't realize that you were using that approach. Most of historical fiction I've seen usually tries to make units and dates match as part of the effort for as much realism as possible. 'Cause there's always people like me who will find these things and say "That can't be right..."

Anyway, good show old chap.

And keeping to form, I must also point out an error in your response, solely to spare yourself future sniping by people like me. (you do understand don't you?) German companies are always numbered. It may be a bit more confusing than the anglo-american model of Lettering but that is the way it was and is today. So when you get around to talking about Hauke's company, make sure it has a number!

Oh and it would be really cool if you could work in stuff like the way the germans oriented their vehicles by the meal times as shown in the following excerpt from the Tigerfibel (sorry Helge, yours wasn't up yet, had to use Byrden's).

[Kevin Peltz]

Mark IV:

Myth, rumour, BS,-who know's for sure?

"...having no anti-tank weapons-not even one of the much lauded but virtually useless Boys anti-tank rifles- the sergeant (50th Division, apparently- my quote)realized that his only hope of stopping any German armour coming this way was by subterfuge. So, from a nearby estaminet, he collected a few dozen china plates which he proceeded to lay out in a pattern across the road. An hour later, a troop of panzers came nosing down the road and halted when they saw the unorthodox "minefield." When their crews got out and walked cautiously forward to inspect it, the sergeant's men shot them and subsequently set fire to the crewless tanks."

pg. 51- Dunkirk: The Great Escape

If myth- an entertaining story for the pub- if true, those guys had big brass ones...

[gaffertape]

Blackhawk:

Excellent work. I look forward to the rest of it, as do many others on this board obviously. On a side note, I think your rationale for keeping the unit vague is commendable. The lack of such details do not detract from the work in my opinion.

GAFF

[Mark IV]

Anything's possible. I'll check "Men Against Tanks" when I get home for specifics on the original.

The point is that the original story from Spain may have been apocryphal, but really was part of the training "suggestions" in the post-Dunkirk era. So it's quite possible that someone got the idea, and was quirky or desperate enough to actually try it.

Since your example is evidently during Dunkirk, based on the source, it's hard to say whether they heard it somewhere else first and tried it, or it's just another version of the story...

(smileys used as faux minefield- bring on the Flail!)

[Kraut]

Just incase someone missed this i'm gonna post a reply so it goes to the top of the list ... mwhahhaaa

MK