Die Glocke

by M C Drake

  The paratroopers had created an all-around defense and were ready to provide cover fire for the incoming chinooks. The chinooks also delivered several large fuel containers and then flew off fast and low when they had finished.

  Brooklyn Jnr and the five other Phantoms that had landed were ordered to refuel and then wait for the green light to attack. Brooklyn was uneasy while he was on the ground but he had to follow orders.

  At the first sign of trouble, no matter how minor, the Phantoms were instructed to get air born as fast as they could. The Paratroopers were to hold the airfield as long as they could no matter what the cost.

  A missile attached to the belly of Brooklyn’s phantom glistened as it caught the sun, the dark liquid inside swirled in unnatural patterns.

  Losses

  Commander Paul’s Chieftain fired another round from its 120mm main gun, the round flew true and penetrated the weak side armor of an advancing Panther, the Aryan tank only came to a halt when it plowed into the side of a demolished shop front. Smoke poured from the huge hole in the armor.

  The 5th army had been bogged down on the outskirts of Baltimore; they had come under heavy fire from Tiger I tanks that had been dug into the muddy fields. Their powerful guns opened up just as the sun was going down.

  Troop carriers flanked the left-hand side of the 5th Army and Aryan troops disembarked under heavy machine gun fire; they returned the favor with a high volume of plasma fire. Tracer rounds that crisscrossed the area were mixed with bright plasma rounds, it would have been a beautiful spectacle if it was not so deadly.

  The Chieftain’s kept up their fire on the advancing Panther tanks; they were still accurate in the dark thanks to their night vision. The Panthers fired on the move and a superheated ball of light struck a Chieftain.

  To the Panther's surprise, the British main battle tank returned fire. The round struck the Panther straight through the turret ring and the tank stopped moving; the cupola flipped open and the Aryan soldiers jumped from the crippled tank.

  The soldiers jumped on to the hull of another medium tank and immediately opened fire with their plasma rifles.

  “Bastards!” Commander Paul said. He ordered the loader to load a high explosive round and then aimed up carefully. He could see the luminous rounds fly towards his tank as he peered through the night vision.

  “Fire.”

  The large caliber gun let out a deafening roar as the high explosive round left the barrel and a few seconds later it hit the tank dead on. Paul had to look away as the bright explosion interrupted the night vision.

  In the eerie green glow, he could see Aryan troops leap from the tank covered in flames, the tank continued to advance and crushed two of its own men in the process.

  The Chieftain next to Paul’s fired a standard round and put the flaming Panther out of its misery.

  The British tanks were keeping the Aryan frontal assault at bay but the flanks were at risk of being overrun by Aryan infantry who were almost suicidal in their rapid advance into the suburban outskirts of Baltimore.

  They Aryan forces took heavy losses from the .50 caliber Browning machine gun positions but they still they came forwards. Several machine gun nests were taken out by plasma grenades, the bright flashes played havoc for the soldiers lucky enough to have night vision.

  Major Smith-Hampton of the 151st Para regiment was having difficulty making out targets in the moonless night. The clouds covered up most of the starlight. The Aryan soldiers had a clear advantage as they had thermal imaging cameras mounted to their helmets.

  The Aryan's plasma fire was too accurate and by now they had set up fields of fire for the heavy plasma machine guns. When a group of paratroopers leaped up to provide covering fire they were cut down; the smell of burning flesh permeated the night's sky.

  The Aryan’s sprinted quickly from building to building as they probed the flanks for weak points. They split into small fire teams that passed through the defensive line and took out as many troops as they could before they were finally overwhelmed and killed.

  Bodies started to pile up in the otherwise deserted streets. The British knew they could not hold the line forever but they continued to fight. Major Smith-Hampton radioed for any available support.

  A small group of Aryan troops had entered the church being held by twenty paratroopers, chaos ensued in the tight area as the British men resorted to hand to hand combat with their enemies. A twenty-two-year-old paratrooper jumped onto the back of the six foot plus Aryan and drove a knife into his armor.

  The blade snapped as it bounced off the thick body armor, the Aryan drove his elbow straight into the paratroops ribs. The man howled in pain as his rib broke and he rolled off on to the floor.

  Before he could regain his breath he was lifted clean of his feet as the Aryan grabbed him by the throat. The Paratrooper struggled until his windpipe was crushed.

  His comrade who lay on his back on the floor raised his pistol and fired the whole clip into the Aryan's leg; every single round bounced off. The Aryan soldier turned and stamped on the man's head, crushing his skull.

  Aryan troops rushed the stairs to the parapet where the two stubborn paras had a .50 covering the door. The paras kept firing and managed to take out three men before plasma grenades were thrown up into the parapet. The two young men lives were taken in the blinding blue flash.

  A wall of the church suddenly collapsed, then another explosion brought down a section of the roof, showering the retreating Aryan’s in debris. Ten M60 main battle tanks rolled down the street firing into the church as they went until only rubble remained where the once stunning little building stood.

  The M60’s 7.62mm guns chattered as they came to support the faltering line of infantry.

  Midnight

  Plasma rounds washed over the hastily dug trenches, the freshly dug earth was scorched a horrid black. The men of the 101st infantry division were under heavy fire, they jump to the floor to keep their heads down.

  The air above the trench crackled from the immense heat. A series of large explosions came from somewhere close behind. Five M60 main battle tanks fired their main guns. The rounds smashed into a small bungalow, the heavy stream of plasma fire dulled a little.

  A large purple flash fired off in the distance, it was followed by another and then another. The rounds of plasma impacted into the area around the trenches but the third round grazed the side of an M60; the tanks thick armor sizzled and melted over the track.

  The heavy plasma rounds continued to rain in out of the darkness, they briefly illuminated the area as they homed in on their targets. The houses in the abandoned suburb burned furiously with a mixture of purple and red flames.

  A Twenty-nine-year-old tank commander watched in horror through his night vision. He could see at least fifteen colossal tanks advancing across the open ground. Their cannons blinded him every time they fired.

  The American, who was an Alaskan native had never seen a Maus tank in the flesh before and he found himself paralyzed by fear for a few seconds. His gunner fired on the target without his order. The armor piercing round bounced off the turret like it was a peashooter against an elephant.

  Commander Paul was getting more and more calls for support, the 5th army was in danger of getting penned in and forced back into Baltimore itself. The British troops holding the left flank were in the gravest danger.

  “This is Commander Paul; we need any available air support. Reference 15, danger close. We have heavy armor pinning us down.”

  Paul knew they were in no position to assist the 4th army. "Commander Speering you are on your own tonight. We will try to get to you in the morning. Good luck."

  “Roger that. You too. Speering out.”

  Fifteen terrifying minutes had elapsed before the first growl engines drifted lazily into the night’s sky. It steadily grew louder until a group of bombers roared overhead. The British Blackburn Buccaneer strike aircraft streaked in for the attack.

  They tore towa
rds their targets at over 600 mph and dropped their ordnance, the unguided bombs detonated over the area causing firestorms to cover the advancing Maus. Wave after wave of the carrier born bombers raced in.

  The British cheered as they used the lull in the fire to mount a counter attack, they popped up over the top of the trenches and laid down a huge amount of covering fire. Aryan troops were caught out in the open and were cut to ribbons.

  The Buccaneers were keeping the Maus’s attention but were not actually causing many casualties. A few brave British Charioteer medium tank crews used the distraction to carefully move their tanks in position to flank the Aryans.

  The five tanks had managed to go unnoticed as they moved around the unguarded left flank, they bumped into a small group of unprepared infantry and five Kugelblitz setting up.

  “Cheeky bastards.” Barry Downs said. “Fire!”

  The 20 pounder gun of the British medium tanks bellowed as high explosive rounds penetrated the weak armor of the Kugelblitz anti-aircraft guns. They were quickly dispatched in a ball of flames.

  The Aryan infantry did not have any anti-tank weapons but hosed the hulls of the tanks with plasma fire. The medium tanks returned fire with 0.30 caliber browning’s, the rounds rattled off quickly but only caused minor damage to the Aryan’s armor.

  “Fire the high explosives at them.” Downs ordered.

  The 20 pounders guns bellowed to life once more and made short work of the infantry. Body parts littered the scorched earth.

  Once the Aryan forces realized a Kugelblitz division had been ambushed the retribution was immediate. Lieutenant Downs armor swiftly came under heavy fire from Panther tanks ordered to protect the flank.

  The Charioteer's fought for their lives as they were rapidly cut off. The 20 pounders kept up a high rate of fire and managed to destroy four Panthers. The Panther's returned fire and one of the Charioteers were penetrated a total of six times before it vanished in a powerful explosion.

  “This is Lieutenant Downs of the 15th armor; we have flanked left and destroyed a group of anti-air but have been cut off. We are being overrun by enemy armor. I am requesting air support to completely carpet bomb the area 15.7!”

  “Roger that Lieutenant, can you make it out?”

  “Negative.”

  Everyone knew what that meant.

  “Roger that Lieutenant, god bless you.”

  The Charioteers kept firing for another five minutes before two of them were knocked out. The two remaining tanks charged towards the Panthers in a suicide attacked. They managed to knock out another three before a plasma round sliced through the turret of Downs tank; he was cut clean in two, his insides painted the hull in deep scarlet.

  The next round penetrated the ammunition rack and the whole tank went up in flames.

  Two minutes later and the roar of engines filled the sky once again as twelve Blackburn Buccaneers split from the main attack run and swept in over the Panther tanks. The bombers dropped their bombs and carpeted the whole area.

  Many of the Panther tanks were completely destroyed in the following explosions but it was too late to save the cut of Charioteers who were consumed by the spreading fire.

  Bomber activity slowed down in the next few hours but the intense fighting on the ground continued unabated.

  The Eastern Front

  The rain continued to lash down sideways as a powerful storm swirled around San Francisco Bay, the sound of fighting was almost drowned out by the growing wind. A small group of surviving American armor was making its way back to the shore.

  The army group had suffered heavy losses and were now only managing to cling on due to the support of the Navy vessels to their rear. American cruisers were firing into the town; they had kept up this heavy bombardment for the last thirty minutes.

  Admiral Phillips wished they had some real battleships but he knew he only had these vessels at his disposal. The sixty-two-year-old veteran cursed the growing storm as air support was now unusable.

  Phillips was a cautious man by nature and he was reluctant to mount a rescue operation in the poor conditions and without air support. Every instinct screamed at him to delay the operation until the morning light.

  The older man pulled an antique, gold pocket watch from his jacket and flicked the lid open, the time read twenty to three in the morning. The Admiral sighed heavily. ‘They will never hold out until daybreak.’ He thought.

  The Chinese Admiral had no such caution. He was throwing every transport ship he had at his disposal to recover the men clinging on at the edge of the harbor. Plasma rounds were lighting up the area but they were not very accurate.

  The Aryan forces had not followed the retreating men into the harbor but instead camped at the very edge of the area. Xiu Chang thought this was strange but they were due a lucky break and he was going to grab it with both hands.

  The Chinese vessels opened up with another huge bombardment as the transports got closer to the docks. The communication between the Americans and their Chinese counterparts was almost nonexistent.

  By the time the American fleet reacted and sent in their rescue force, it was almost twenty minutes behind the Chinese. The smaller transport craft was quickly secured to the dock. Men rushed towards the ships as quickly as they could.

  The wounded were taken aboard first; the ones that could still walk had to carry their comrades on stretchers aboard the ships.

  A group of desperate Chinese infantrymen tried to rush a tiny transport craft but were gunned down by the men guarding it. The others who had witnessed it had learned their lesson and waited patiently for the next transport to arrive.

  The American Destroyer USS Lynde McCormick was the closest to the shore. Her Captain was trying to watch the scene unfold in front of him but the low cloud and swirling rain were making it hard for him to make anything out.

  He watched through his binoculars but now that the light from the plasma rounds had stopped it was even harder to see. He stood there for another thirty or so seconds before it hit him.

  “The Plasma rounds have stopped but why?” He said to himself, “Shit.” He said, “Contact all ships we have incoming!”

  The radio man was stunned.

  “What do you mean we have…”

  The whole bay was suddenly illuminated by a bright shade of purple. It looked almost lavender in color as it was dulled slightly by the thick cloud.

  The Captain looked through his binoculars and to his horror he could just make out five, then six, and then seven small purple suns in the night's sky.

  They did not have enough time to warn the rest of the fleet as the clouds in front of them literally dissipated in the heat, the rain turned to steam as the ‘suns’ grew larger. The first giant orb hit Admiral Phillips aircraft carrier, The USS Enterprise started to vaporize in front of everyone’s eyes.

  The great aircraft carrier lurched to the left as the impact site grew and then the ship disappeared in a bright purple haze. The water around it turned to steam and the sea bubbled aggressively.

  “Artillery, all vessels evasive action. Repeat evasive action.” All radio operators seemed to shout in unison.

  The Aryan Artillery was targeting the larger ships at the back of the bay. The heavy cruiser USS Newport News was struck in the stern the ship went up in a massive explosion. The sailors in the aft of the ship who survived the blast were thrown into the boiling sea. They screamed in pain as their bodies bubbled in the intense heat.

  One ship after another was struck by massive orbs of light; the metal that was not instantly destroyed melted and bowed. Water rushed into the open wound gorged in the side of the destroyer the USS Barry it started to sink rapidly.

  Panic had set in amongst the vessels clustered closest to the harbor, a Chinese destroyer set full ahead with its guns still blazing and raced forward. It struck several smaller transport vessels in its blind panic and caused them to sink.

  The USS Manley had not seen the panicked Chinese vessel speedi
ng towards them until it was too late and the two vessels collided with each other, The bow of the Chi Lin sliced into the stern of the American destroyer, the sound of the metal scraping against each other was sickening.

  The bow of the Chinese destroyer ship cut into the ammo store of the American ship and the sparks caused a massive explosion; both ships started to sink.

  The American troops who had been left on the dock watched in despair as ship after ship was taken out systematically. How the Aryans were so accurate with their artillery they did not know but the Pacific fleet did not have a chance.

  Plasma rounds started to fly into the American troops, the final assault was coming and the Americans knew the battle was lost. They returned fire with all they had.

  A mortar regiment fired their weapons as rapidly as they could; they caught a group of Aryan infantry out in the open. They were enveloped in the deadly explosion.

  The sea water in the bay was covered in flames as oil leaked from the devastated ships, just before the final aircraft carriers were taken out the pilots of the Phantoms and Chinese Mig’s took to the sky in a desperate attempt to survive.

  Many had collided with each other due to the lack of communication and poor weather conditions. The ones that had managed to take off successfully went straight on the offensive and started to provide air support for the beleaguered ground troops.

  Fighting on the ground was intense; the American troops had nowhere left to run. Their remaining tanks were running low on ammunition but continued to fire shells at point blank range into anything that moved.

  They had four M48 Pattons still functioning and one M60 main battle tank that had used its last machine gun rounds on a group of anti-tank infantry. The main gun focused its barrel on a rapidly advancing Tiger.

  The gun fired and the round punched a hole through the Tiger’s lower plate which took out its engine. The Aryan heavy tank was still able to fire though and its large plasma cannon returned fire.