The Battle of Grid 13 23.
The 10 Egyptian artillery batteries plus 3 mechanized infantry regiments and two modern armor regiments ground their way up the hill at grid 13 23. This hill was in range of the French city of Marseilles. More modern armour raced to positions around Marseilles in preparation for the attack and to cut off reinforcements for the beleaguered city. Like Rheims and Chartes before, the artillery and then bombers would pound the defenders giving the Modern Armor easy victories, taking the city with minimal risk.
Military advisor Napoleon had other ideas. He stood on a platform as 10 TOW infantry regiments and France’s last Tank regiment lined up before him. There were also 3 cavalry regiments, the men holding the reins of their mounts. Loud speakers distributed through the multitude would relay his every word.
Cardinal DuChamps of Paris led the men in prayer and then spoke to them. “The Egyptians have abandoned their worship of the false gods of Ra and Horus and have resorted to atheistic communism. They have offended God and are now invading holy France forcing good French Christians to abandon Christ. Their beastly troops have murdered priests and raped nuns.”
Napoleon suppressed a smirk at the last remark. Throughout the war Egyptian troops had treated their captured civilians well, even building temples in captured cities. But atrocity stories made soldiers fight with more fury and civilians tolerate more deprivation so the new propaganda ministry invented them.
The Cardinal continued. “Any man who dies trying to liberate France from the godless invader shall have eternal life in Heaven with Jesus and the Saints and the Mother of God forevermore. Go and kill commies for Christ!”
The soldiers cheered and one idiot emptied the clip of an automatic rifle into the air.
Napoleon took the stage.
“Men our mission is of vital importance to the future of the French Reich. We are going to attack the massive Egyptian artillery battery and capture it. With this artillery we can then smash the invader and recapture our cities. I don’t pretend this battle will be easy. We face both Mechanized Infantry and Tanks but our TOW missiles are powerful enough to knock them out. We also face artillery bombardment before we even sight the enemy. Our 4th Tank regiment will lead the attack followed by the TOW regiments. Finally our Cavalry will mop up their infantry. Look at the man to your left and to your right. When this day is done one of them will be dead. But the future of France depends on this one battle. Fight with all your courage.”
“For France! For Fuhrer! For God!” yelled Napoleon. There was a massive chant of “For France! For Fuhrer! For God!” from the men that only stopped when the engines of the tanks roared into life.
“Lieutenant French tanks coming!” called the runner. Lieutenant Paneb clambered out of the hatch and climbed onto the roof of his chariot IFV. He took out his binoculars. Tell tale plumes of dust and leading to the tall tanks of the French army. Still 5 km away.
“Sound the alert!” he yelled. His driver pressed the horn of the IFV in bursts of three. The infantry squads raced to Paneb along with Sergeant Papyrus, their artillery liaison officer.
“Sergeant call down some arty on those tanks” ordered Paneb. The Sergeant and his radio operator climbed on the roof of the Chariot and began reeling off coordinates.
“Infantry I want a four man foxhole either side of each chariot. Make a berm in front of the chariot with the dirt. In each foxhole I want at least one RPG8 launcher and a machine gun in every second one. Those tanks will have infantry with them. Get digging!”
There was a screeching sound overhead and 5 seconds later the thunder of explosions. The platoon did not notice, being busy digging. They missed the sight of three French tanks being destroyed by direct hits. Meanwhile Paneb was on the phone to regimental HQ. He was told to hold his position at all costs.
“Hey LT there’s infantry following those tanks. The Arty’s doing a real number on them!” called the sergeant.
Paneb waved an acknowledgement and set to work with one squad on their foxhole. He could direct the engagement better there than in a Chariot and would be less of a target. Besides, his gunners could operate the missiles and cannon better than he could. He took his personal SLR rifle and five clips of ammunition. Then he ordered all his infantry to take all weapons and ammunition out of the chariots. They would be the tank’s first target.
The sound of silence alerted him. The tanks were now only 2 km distant and the artillery guns could not depress enough to engage them without blowing away their defenders. Paneb lay in the shallow foxhole with his radio man, a machine gunner and three riflemen, one of whom had an RPG8 launcher. There was a whoosh to the left and a streak of light shot towards the enemy. Paneb was about to chide his Chariot gunner for breaking fire discipline when he saw the missile impact on a tank. Men baled out and started running away. The machine gunner fired a burst at them until Paneb screamed “Cease fire. Save your ammo for their infantry.”
The tank still had not fired. The effective range of their 90 mm cannon was 700 metres so they crawled on up the hill. Missiles from a Chariot had a range of 2 km so the gunners had a field day. For the six minutes it took the tanks to get in range they were picked off one by one. When Paneb heard the crack of the first French tank cannon he estimated that half of the tanks in view were destroyed or disabled.
Then there was a massive bang and the whine of shrapnel overhead. Paneb’s personal Chariot IFV had taken a direct hit on the turret. There was a popping noise as the 25 mm ammo cooked off. The driver dived out of the door aflame. One of the riflemen jumped out of the foxhole and threw a woollen blanket over the unfortunate driver. In a crackle of machine gun fire he was thrown back dead. The tank that killed him was only 100 metres away.
There was a whoosh to Paneb’s right. The private had fired his RPG8 and hit the tank in the turret. The tank stopped and the driver jumped out. Paneb shot him without a second thought. Two more tanks came on and another chariot was destroyed. Then the infantry destroyed them with a hail of RPG8’s.
“Sir three squad’s hole took a hit from a tank round. Sergeant Quonset says he’s wounded in the legs and three men are dead”
Seeing no enemy tanks still functioning Paneb ordered two riflemen to evacuate the wounded to the rear. Then there was the clank of tank treads and the familiar whine of Egyptian MBT’s.
“Lieutenant, we are from the 23rd Modern Armor, we’ll take the next attack. You Mech guys did real good.”
The two surviving IFVs withdrew and the destroyed ones were towed out of the way by tanks which then took up their positions. Then Paneb decided to stay with the rest of the dismounted infantry between the tanks.
“Lieutenant we have enemy infantry coming, looks like TOW infantry!” called the artillery observer.
The battle for hill 13 23 had only just begun.
