by Griff Hosker
“Kowalski, go and find out the frequency.” He held out his hand, “Colonel Devine.”
“Major Harsker. What is your plan, sir?”
“We have eight M8 armoured cars and a dozen machine guns. We have put barbed wire all the way around the perimeter. If Fritz wants this crossroads that badly they will have to eject us first.”
“I saw no sign of armour on the way here but I think the Panzer Grenadiers have been going cross country. I saw signs of boot tracks. It seems obvious to me now that they are racing ahead of the armour to secure key bridges and crossroads. It is classic German strategy.”
“That makes sense. Well Major, I guess you are with us now. What do you have?”
“Two men and a jeep. It has a Browning on it. And we have our own equipment: Thompsons, Colts, grenades and a sniper rifle.”
He laughed, “You come packing eh, Major? Have your jeep parked up by the road. We have dug in the M8s. They have piss poor armour but the cannon on them can discourage the enemy. We are light cavalry and we are supposed to scout.” He rubbed his unshaven chin and his eyes widened. “I think I will have a drive down the road and see what we can see. I hate waiting here not knowing who is coming down the road. We are scouts, let’s scout. These armoured cars are nippy. If the German armour is coming down the road, then we can use the forest and see what we are likely to receive. Would you care to come with me Major?. My vehicle is not dug in.”
“Delighted sir.”
“Jones, you stay here. Major Harsker can come in your place.”
“Yes sir!”
I clambered inside the M8. “Move over Corporal Powers. Major Harsker will act as loader.”
The Corporal grinned, “This will be real interesting for you sir! Welcome to our little coffin!”
“Powers!”
“Sorry sir!”
It was a good job that I was not claustrophobic. It was cosy to say the least. I could see little out of the driver’s visor. Colonel Devine was half out of his turret with his field glasses. His knees were level with my head. The driver was just in front of me and Corporal Powers was next to the breech block of the 37 mm cannon. The snow was still falling and flakes fell into the tank. The driver was peering through his visor. “Right Mason, time to head into the trees. Keep the revs low. The Krauts use Panzer Grenadiers. We don’t want them to hear us.”
“Right sir.”
One advantage of the M8 Greyhound was the quiet engine. They were known by the Americans as Patton’s ghosts for the Germans rarely detected them. I was grateful for their quiet motors. We drove for another ten minutes. I could see very little. The bumpy ground meant I had to hang on to stop myself being banged into the sides. There appeared to be many objects which could cause an injury. I was grateful for the slow speed. If it was any faster then, I would be in trouble.
Suddenly Colonel Devine banged on the hatch, “Stop! Turn off the engine. Powers, do we have a shell in the breech?”
“Yes sir, armour piercing.”
“Well, have the Major have another shell ready. I can hear German tanks and they sound to be big ones. Mason when I give the word get us out of here as fast as you can. I just want to see what sort of force we are facing.”
“Yes sir.”
He leaned down to speak to me, “We need to know what kind of armour we are up against. We are hidden behind a couple of trees. I am hoping, with the snow, that they will not see us. The armour on these babies is there to stop bullets not tank shells. If it is any consolation one hit from a tank shell will send us to our maker. You won’t know a thing.”
“That is good to know, sir. Thank you for the heads up.” He nodded and lifted his head out of the turret once more.
Corporal Powers chuckled, “The British stiff upper lip, I love it, sir. The shells are over there. I would get another ready.” He tapped the breech. “This little beauty is quick firing. It only has a small shell but you can still do some damage.”
“To a Panzer?”
“All tanks are the same, sir. They don’t like it up the ass!” He laughed, lewdly.
I took the shell and cradled it like a baby. At just over three pounds it seemed too light to do much damage. The waiting was awful. I could not be a tank man. The Colonel leaned down and said, “I see their tanks. There are Tigers. They look bigger than normal.”
“I heard about these, sir. They are King Tigers. They have five inches of armour on their front. They weigh 70 tons. They are all brand new!”
“I will wait until the first one passes and see if we can get him at the back. No tank has thick armour at the rear. That road is narrow and the trees are too thick for them to negotiate these woods. If we damage one, then the road will be blocked and it will buy us time. Powers I want a shell putting in the middle of the rear.”
“Yes sir! If the major is fast enough we might put a couple there, eh sir?”
I could now feel the vibration from the huge tanks as they trundled down the snow covered road. It seemed impossible that it would not see us and then I remembered that we were hidden in the trees. The Colonel had chosen a spot where the road twisted. The Germans would approach us obliquely. I caught a glimpse of the behemoth as it passed us. It was sixty feet from us. It was truly enormous. It dwarfed us but it would have dwarfed a Sherman too. The noise was painful. I realised that we might escape detection.
“You got him in your sights, Powers?”
“Yes sir.”
“Ready Mason?”
“Yes sir!”
“Fire!”
The gun recoiled and the breech came back discarding the shell casing which clattered to the floor of the tank. Smoke filled the turret and Corporal Powers held his hands out for the next shell. I handed it to him like a scrum half with a rugby ball. “Get another one, sir!”
“Fire!”
The second shell followed the first and I handed the third shell to the Corporal. I had no idea what was happening. Automatically I turned to get a fourth. This was not my kind of war. It was obvious that we were still hidden for there was no return fire.
“Fire!”
There was an enormous explosion this time which rocked the M8. “Got the bastard! Get the hell out of here, Mason.” The Colonel ducked back inside and closed the hatch above him. I replaced the shell in the rack.
The armoured car raced backwards. I cracked my head off the side. I had to brace myself with my hands. I heard the roar of an 88 and them machine guns. There was a crack as a shell hit a tree. Mason drove at high speed in reverse and then suddenly stopped and we raced forward. My head cracked off the turret. Corporal Powers tapped his tanker’s helmet. grinned. “Now you see why we wear helmets, sir!”
“What happened, sir?” I was desperate to know how we had managed to hit one of these Leviathans. Was it destroyed?
“It took three shells but we got inside his armour. The turret blew off. The road will be blocked for a while. They can’t get through the trees. We have bought us some time. I am just not certain how we stop them from the front. We were lucky. But at least the road is blocked, for a while at least. You were right major. The tanks are loaded with Panzer Grenadiers. I think they are S.S.” We bounced through the trees as Mason drove like a maniac to escape the Germans. As the Colonel had said the huge tank had blocked the road but, eventually, they would clear it. They would follow and then we would be for it.
Once we were back at the base Colonel Devine had his men dig in the armoured cars as much as possible. Anything which could be used was packed in front of them. Some of the lucky ones were behind low walls with just their gun sticking up. “Sergeant Major we have Tiger tanks and Panzer Grenadiers coming down the road. Use anything you can as a barricade. Let’s see if we can slow them down!”
“Yes sir. You guys heard the Colonel, move it!”
He waved me to the Command Post. As we entered he pointed to the Corporal on the radio, “Get on the radio and see if you can contact Headquarters. If you can get through, then tell them there are Ge
rman tanks and infantry heading for St. Vith. They are in numbers and they may well be S.S. We will hold them as long as we can.” His officers gathered around. They looked at us expectantly. They would have heard us firing and the resultant explosion but nothing else.
“Gentlemen, we have a new variant on the Tiger coming our way. According to the major here it is called a King Tiger. We will be outgunned and outmatched. They will drive us from here. We hold them as long as we can. I don’t think, for one minute, that we can stop them but we need to slow them down and allow the men in St. Vith to prepare a reception committee. Thanks to the Major here they have some warning. We will have to sacrifice our armoured cars. We keep them dug in and we fight for every inch of real estate. Tell the men that we die hard! If we can hold out for the day we will use darkness to slip down the road.”
Just then a private raced in, “Sir, Lieutenant Harrison told me to tell you, German armour is coming down the road, sir.”
“Right Major, let’s see if we can upset Adolf’s little plan eh?”
I was shocked by the cold as we left the cosy warmth of the command post. The snow had not stopped and the temperature had fallen even further. This weather came from the Arctic Circle! I grabbed my Mauser and Thompson. “Gordy, drive up to the edge of the village. We are back in the war.”
“Right sir. Hewitt told the Yank about the frequency. We have had no signals since then.”
Just then there was the sound of the 37 mm on the M8 armoured cars as they fired at the advancing Germans. “Come on Gordy! Move it!”
The infantry were dug in behind sandbags, walls and pieces of timber hewn from the forest. We had a fortress. Would it stand up to a battering by 88 mm guns? I pointed to a gap to the left of the line between an M8 and a machine gun. As Gordy turned to head to it a shell exploded in the line. The machine gun post was riddled with shrapnel and shell fragments. We pulled in just behind where it had been. The shell had killed them all and destroyed the machine gun. We filled the gap.
“You two use the sandbags from the machine gun post and put them around the jeep.”
I looked up and saw one of the young crew of the M8. He was staring down at the remains of the crew. He was being sick. I took the Mauser and hurried towards the wire. I saw the flash from the German armoured cars. They had not sent tanks yet. These were the scouts, probing for weaknesses. I saw Panzer Grenadiers moving through the snow. They were wearing white. The Germans used a camouflage cape and white breeches. They would be hard to see. I lay down in the snow and rested the Mauser on the barbed wire. When I looked through the telescopic sight I could make out faces. I moved the rifle along until I saw an officer. His pistol marked him as such as did his hand which pointed towards us. I squeezed the trigger and he fell back; his face like a burst ripe plum. I moved down the line of camouflaged grenadiers and fired at a sergeant. I hit him in the chest and he pitched backwards. The Americans had now seen the enemy and the machine guns made them keep their heads down. The M8 had a .30 Calibre and a .50 Calibre machine gun as well as the 37 mm main gun and every one of them was firing. There was a cacophony of death as every armoured car tried to stop the white robed figures. Although the snow was of blizzard proportions the red blood from their wounds showed that we were hitting them badly. The Germans hit the ground and took cover.
The German Armoured cars had a 50 mm cannon and they were more heavily armoured than the M8. I heard Colonel Devine as he shouted, “We are the US cavalry! Let’s show these Krauts that we can kick their butts!”
The armoured cars switched their targets to the German armoured cars. I saw one German armoured car, less than 50 yards away, hit by a PIAT rocket. The men who fired it cheered. German shells began to fall on the village from the artillery which was supporting the scouting armoured cars. There was a sudden explosion behind us, in the centre. A wall of flame leapt into the air.
Someone shouted, “Colonel, that is the fuel dump! We have no spare gas now!”
“Just keep firing Captain, we will worry about that later on.”
The Americans had the advantage at the moment for the armoured cars made smaller targets than the Germans. The M8 armoured cars were dug in and only their turrets were visible. The Germans were in the open. With one inch of armour at the front it would take a good shot to damage an M8 turret. I saw that the German armoured cars had tyres. I emptied my magazine at the front two tyres of the nearest one. They blew out as did one of the rear ones. It slewed around and the PIAT hit that one at the side. There they were very vulnerable.
“That’s it boys. We are hitting them harder than they are hitting us!”
The Colonel was tempting providence for the armoured car just behind me was suddenly hit by two shells in rapid succession. One came from German mobile heavy artillery and the other was a 50 mm shell. It exploded and the concussion washed over me. I found it hard to breathe. I could hear nothing. I loaded another magazine and forced myself to find another target. I saw an officer towards the rear of the advancing Germans. He was about five hundred yards away and he stood out of the turret of the armoured car and was scanning the village with binoculars. He was not wearing white and he was the best target I had seen yet. As my hearing began to return I concentrated on the target. I aimed at his chest. The Mauser had a tendency to fire high. I squeezed the trigger twice. He slumped over the turret.
My shot attracted the attention of the infantry who were just a hundred and fifty yards from me. The air above my head was filled with flying lead. Gordy’s Browning ripped back in reply and Hewitt shouted, “Sir, get back here. We have sandbags for protection not just barbed wire!”
They were right and I slithered backwards towards them. My foot struck the sandbag and I rolled around to scramble inside the safety of the machine gun emplacement.
Gordy shook his head as he reloaded the Browning. “Sir, what would your mother think?”
I laid down my Mauser and, like Hewitt, picked up my Thompson. I peered over the top of the sandbags. The machine guns had ensured that the infantry kept their heads down. The two sets of armoured cars were duelling. The Americans were getting the worst of it. They could handle the German armoured cars but not the plunging fire from artillery which found their thinly armoured tops. Their M8, nicknamed Greyhound by the British, were fast but they were thinly armoured and did not have the firepower of the Germans. Their only advantage in this situation was the other two machine guns. The German infantry were kept pinned down.
To my relief, at about 1100 hours, American shells from the west started to pepper the enemy. They were firing towards the rear of the German lines as they did not want to hit us. That suited us for it was their artillery which was the danger. I sent a short burst from the Tommy gun every time I saw a German head appear. I was acutely aware that ammunition might soon be in short supply. The barrage only lasted for thirty minutes but it drove the Germans back for a short time.
“Sir, the Colonel wants to speak with you.”
“Right. Keep watch, Gordy. There is an enormous hole here. If anything happens to this Browning then we are in trouble.” I nodded to Hewitt. “See if you can get any .45 ammo from the wrecked M8.”
“Right sir.” It would be a grisly job but Hewitt was our unit medic. He could handle it better than most.
When I reached the Colonel I saw that he had gathered his other officers. There were just eight of them left. I was the last to arrive. “Thanks for your help today, Major. That rifle and your Browning sure made a difference. I shall be sorry to see you go.”
“Go, sir?”
“Yes, we have made radio contact. We are totally isolated. HQ wants us to break out tonight. They want you back now.”
I shook my head, “Sorry sir. That isn’t going to happen. First of all we have more chance of escaping if we are with you and secondly we have never run out on our comrades before and we aren’t going to start now.” He nodded. “Besides this is our sort of fighting. We know how to booby trap and make it hard for s
omeone to follow. And we have other things we can do to slow them down.”
Captain Jablonski asked, “Such as?”
“Sneak out before dark, at dusk, while we are preparing to leave. We can put booby traps further out and make them think that we are attacking.” I took out my Colt and my silencer. “We have these. We will need to buy time to get out. If you could send someone to relieve us at 1700 hours it should be dark enough to get through the wire and do some damage to them.”
“Lieutenant, see to it.”
“Sir.”
The Colonel pointed to the map. “We are going to be heading for Andler. They are going to make a defensive line between there and Manderfeld. We have to buy time until General Hodge can get reinforcements up to the line. We leave at 1830 hours. I will send up a flare every fifteen minutes from 1730. It should stop them getting too inquisitive. We were lucky in hitting their lead tank. It will take them some time to clear the road but they will manage to do so. I think we can expect tanks after dark. Any questions?”
“Sir,” I ventured, “what about food? In my experience a man who has eaten is more alert and better suited to fighting than a hungry man. If we have to cross the snow at night, the men will use a lot of energy. Besides the alternative is to leave it for Jerry. I reckon we will all be laden down with ammo.”
The Colonel said, “Captain Jablonski, see to it and Major?”
“Yes sir?”
“How do we make booby traps?”
“If we have explosives and timers…” He shook his head. “Then we use the grenades. Just disabling the armoured cars by taking out the carburettor will work and then setting fire to their petrol tanks.”
“Their what?”
I smiled, “I believe, Lieutenant, that you call them gas tanks.”
“That is a start. Sergeant Major O’Rourke get as many hand grenades as it takes. The Major and his men will show you how to rig them.”
“Right sir.”
I reached Gordy who had just reloaded his Browning. “We are leaving tonight at seven. First we need to rig booby traps.”