Feldwebel Reiner studied his maps. Curses! A regular relief assignment and we manage to get lost! The Tiger I's radio wasn't
working and even the platoon's radioman hadn't the courtesy to get lost with him and his men. He tried to find some landmark that would tell him where
he was. Aha! Ahead was a break in the fields and a heavily wooded area that the path winded through. That should appear on the map.
Indeed it did, and Reiner was pretty sure he knew where he was now. Apparently he took a wrong turn a few kilometers back, when the vehicles split up into the fog because of the Soviet tank scare.
How foolish! Well, he decided to make the most of the situation. Studying the area his forces were in, some woods by a village called Molitovsk, Reiner noticed he was
on the flank of a local Soviet infantry battalion, even a little to the rear. If he could break through the village with his forces, he might even become an asset, threatening the Soviets from behind. Then he could even claim to have planned the whole business, in
front of his superiors...
 
Reiner made his preparations carefully- he was a new officer, and was also anxious to prove himself in battle. Especially since
he had already botched an attempt in an earlier assault on a Soviet airbase. He decided to move his forces forward carefully in the following order- Tiger I tank, 2 halftracks each with a squad of reliable infantry and he would follow in his Kubelwagen.
He wasn't one for gallant shows of courage in front of his men, at least until he knew them better. He was an accomplished marksman though, and he was interested in seeing whether hunting Soviets would be like hunting deer in Bavaria.
He scouted out the clearing past the woods, and through the fog he could make out the outline of a small house on a rise, but nothing else. The convoy rumbled forward through the woods...
-1-
|
