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A war story - Part I
by Modus Virtuoso

Smoke billows as sporadic tracer rounds rifle past our position.

This place is a hell-hole.

If I had a moment to let my senses take a bearing of this wretched place, I might find that the acrid smell of blood and burning flesh had found a home, mingled with the overpowering stench of explosive firepower - that is, if I could differentiate those smells at this time.

My ears would be constantly riddled with sounds of death and destruction: 88 shells, mixed with *lesser* ammunitions and the constant buzzing sound of the machine-guns. If, for an instant, the maddness stopped... no birds would chirp, no leaves would rustle - No, we were left with the sound of death. Inevitable death. We began to welcome the sounds; the silence was more un-settling than any shell or round.

As for my tastes - the stench came with a price; it sat in our mouths like a sticky paste - clogging our thoughts and intruding on our emotions. Un-escapable.

My eyes suffered yet the worst fate - a nightmarish hell on earth. An apocalyptic resemblance that left our vision permanently un-focused. We saw... hell.

---

The enemy had established a road-block that was currently holding up our advance out of the country of Belgium and into France proper -

- a few days ago as we advanced we caught glimpses of what we believed was the city of Lille through the tendrils of smoke that reached for the heavens -

The Panzer Grenadiers before us had tried to put an end to the hold-up with the assistance of a Demi-Brigade of assorted light Panzers, to no avail.

Our unit was called forth.

---
We received the simple orders only 18 hours before our planned assault. They read as follows -

A. Proceed from staging point "Adler" to the cross-roads of shortly after leaving the city of Mouscron and head into French territory.

B. Eliminate any resistance. Expect mines and determined defenses nearer to the city of Lille.

C. Report any concentrated Armored forces.

D. Our Air Forces are being slightly hindered by a possible presence of AA SouthWest of Lille, destroy if possible.

E. Lille is currently a city stored with resources vital to the enemies supply needs. Destroy/Acquire said stores.

Summary:

Primary Mission Objectives:
Eliminate any opposition on the road to Lille.

Destroy/report on enemy infrastructure.

Secondary mission Objectives:
Establish forward position of defence in accordance with standard procedures.

Acquire cross-roads West and South-West of Lille, coordinates to follow.

Good luck.

----

Well... This should be interesting. Our orders are some-what out-landish.

They must have some interest in the area North-West of Lille... but my place is not to analyze the tactics and strategies behind these orders.

I need to en-act them.

----

We advanced out of Staging point "Adler" with our heads held high.

Why shouldn't we? Germany was marching to war against our hated enemy to the west, France.

Our forces had made considerable headway against the defenses of Belgium and the Netherlands, over-running them after a well-fought 2 month Campaign. France had remained semi-defensive, content to hang behind their defensive lines and wait. The BEF had stationed itself within easy reach of most of the major strategic points in the Lowland area, but had done nothing.

It was a situation that had suprised the High Command.

A situation that was quickly taken advantage of...

Now, as we marched to war, we had the French before us and to our South, the BEF to our North-West, and the broken states of Belgium and the Netherlands laying in defeat behind us.

Yes, we were proud.

----

But that was then.

----

Two days before:

Our advance on Lille started easy enough. Our compliment of Panzer Grenadiers advanced along the roads and through the pastures, content with our tactical superiority. Our small compliment of Panzers seemed more than enough, and the little resistance that we encountered folded quickly without much bloodshed.

The French we faced were in no position to fight.

All along the Belgo-French border, German Division had poured headlong into the Second line troops - the true mettle of the French forces lay waiting in the Maginot Line defences, still confident that the Army Divisions jeering them across the lines would really attempt an assault.

Those German forces did not have the honor that we were given.

We would spill blood for the Fatherland.

----

The advance went without notice until we were withing 10km of Lille itself. The city was becoming visible, and we settled into what would become a routine emotion -

Elation, eclipsed with fear.

It was apprehension at it's worst.

Our enemy lay before us. We only had to engage and destroy him.

----

Up ahead, a enclave of houses sat atop a slight rise in the countryside. The road we were to follow and clear could be seen to pass between the houses...

What was that?

...The enemy was at hand.

The advance was halted, and we quickly changed our battle formation to accomadate the present situation.

Our compliment of Panzers, mainly light Pz IIs, a few Pz38ts and a single Pz III arrayed itself to outflank and enfilade the enemy position.

The Panzer IIs, with their 2cm Gun main weapon were to divide and advance over the soft terrain to the sides and try and surround the enclave, being supported by a compliment of 50 Panzer Grenadier to each flank.

As these forces deployed, our few mobile artillery units formed up under the cover of a furlough beside the road and proceeded to offer up a few rounds to soften the buildings - in the hopes that the defenders could be persuaded that their endeavor was futile.

The buildings, arrayed along the slightly curved road, were mainly contructed of bricks. Better than the wooden shantys that we had encountered earlier.

Better, for them, that is.

The remaining Panzers gathered their compliment of Grenadiers and started the General Advance along the road.

In retrospect, our plan was rather foolhardy.

This engagement would be punctuated by a single suprise.

Rather, two suprises:

Our aerial recon (or lack there of) had failed to notice one important feature.

The presence of two Char Bis B1s being refitted in the garage-like building.

Sheltered from our prying eyes, they unleashed a torrent of fire upon the forces advancing from the South edge of the road, destroying 2 of the Pz IIs in seconds. Realizing too late that their main armament would have no effect against the up-gunned and over-armored beast before them, the Panzer IIs fired back while attempting a quick withdrawal. Suffice to say, they did not fare very well.

Within 2 minutes, one third of our armor compliment was completely destroyed. The AP qualities of the 75mm main gun, as well as the secondary-turret gun both were capable of destroying the lighly armored IIs, the former able to blow the entire center section to bits - leaving a shattered hulk of a vehicle, hollowed from the inside out.

---

This engagement quickly went sour.

Machine-guns that had been previously un-noticed opened up on the now startled Grenadiers attempting to escape the imminent death assosciated with the Char Bis B1s. A quick redirection of the Northern flank force was an attempt at reconstituting the situation, but at this point, I had the distinct feeling that our situation was somewhat hopeless.

We didn't have anything to hurt those Chars.

The portable infantry guns could possible do the trick, but it would be far fetched.

I ordered the general withdrawal. My only hope was to try and bring the Chars out into the open, and hopefully get them into some situation they couldn't control.

Stuck in mud? - Perhaps.

I only hoped they would take the bait.