The ancient church spire had been gutted by strikes and the buildings through town were rubbled and some were on fire.
Some undamaged tanks from the 9RTR manage to get free and soon race to catch up.
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Number three,
keep the hedge to the left covered. All units,have a mind for our infantry in the tall grass.
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The HJ has begun to fight back after realizing the barrage had passed. Machine gun,rifle and mortars that have survived start to take their deadly harvest.
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The following section leader gets on the tank telephone and directs the armored support onto the targets identified.
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Commo has been restored with the German artillery and their front line forward observers so this is added to the Scotsmans’ problems
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But the Jocks also have an FO along with them so the new fire mission is called back to the allocated artillery. Those batteries will shift their fire from the on going rolling barrage and be dialed in to new targets being identified by the Jocks in contact.
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Up ahead, the Infantry, having begun to take fire from all directions, are guided on line by the surviving leaders. The shouted orders are never heard above the cacophony of small arms, artillery and mortar bursts and tank engines and main guns cracking at targets. So the leaders end up exposing themselves to enemy fire to place the troops in position physically. This results in high officer and NCO casualties.
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Meanwhile the radioed fire mission has reached the supporting batteries. The batteries then tell the individual guns by fieldphone the new coordinates and they start the new fire mission. Corrections will be sent back using the same method.
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Vast amounts of ammunition are fired in a short time by the well trained and sweating gunners of the RA. There is no shortage of shells. The 12$$ does not enjoy this luxury as supply lines have been cut off by the allies and their air supremacy.
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The kids of the HJ have fallen back to subsequent positions but are much reduced in number. One man or sometimes no men fill the holes and fight back.
A good portion of the front line defenses were killed,wounded or captured by the rolling barrage from over 600 guns of calibers up to battleship size off shore.
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But fight back they did. Individual solders manned the holes and inflected harm on the slowly advancing Scots. These well trained soldiers resisted until killed or running out of ammo, or until they were over run. Some waited until night in concealed positions and made their way back to friendly lines. The high state of training and the superbly sighted and constructed positions built with great cover and concealment and interlocking fire gave the attacking Infantry quite a challenge.
The main fall back for these troops from the I/26 $$ PzGrenRegt was the Bn command post area in the manor house of St Manvieu. It had been turned into a mini fortress. The commander, Sturmbahnfuehrer Krause was of a mind to not vacate the premises just yet…
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Jer, you missed your calling in Hollywood… You’re the invariant story teller and story boarder!
Always much enjoy looking and reading as the story progresses along!
Cheers!
1 Like