Read The Black Effect (Cold War) for Free Online

the tank up through the gears, the battle tank lurching forwards, ripping up the earth beneath its tracks. Savva’s company cut left as Kokorev manoeuvred his tank out of the gap on the other side. They were followed by the guard tank which quickly overtook them to catch up with its mother unit.
    Trusov was almost blinded as they drove out of the smokescreen into full daylight. The tanks had now stopped generating smoke, ready to use their engines for their true purpose: to power the T-80s into battle. Leaving the rapidly dissolving smokescreen behind them, Trusov’s battalion fanned out. He could see the forest ahead, now occupied by their motor rifle battalion. The battalion had encountered no resistance. In fact, the biggest challenge was not the British army but negotiating the shattered ground with their BMP-2s. The motor rifle battalion commander, Lachkov, would have been astounded if there had been anyone left alive in this hellhole, to have prevented his men from taking their objective: the western edge of the forest where the River Oker would be a mere 2,000 metres away.
    The T-80 lifted up as a shell exploded less than twenty metres away and rocked back down, Kokorev fighting with the two steering sticks to get it back in control. Trusov ducked as clods of earth pounded the tank and fragments zinged off the turret, and he quickly dropped down into the compartment closing the hatch after him. He peered through the right-hand vision-block and could see columns of earth being thrown into the air as shell after shell peppered the ground around his battalion. It was the British army’s turn to retaliate and hammer the advancing Soviet forces. Reports started to come in from the R-173 radio transceiver. Two-company on the right flank had lost one tank to artillery and a second to a Milan missile.
    Trusov urged Kokorev on. If he could get two-company into the northern edge of the forest, facing the southern outskirts of Braunschweig, one-company on the western edge of the forest on the right flank of the motor rifle battalion, the third tank battalion would be to their far left and three-company in reserve behind, he would be in a good position to support the advance and the crossing of the River Oker. The entire 62nd Guards Tank Regiment of seventy-eight tanks, its motor rifle battalion and its twenty-four remaining BMP-2s would support 248th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment in making a crossing. All of the regiment’s eighty-two BMP-2s and twenty-six T-80s would be joined by the reconnaissance battalion. Heavy amphibious pontoons, such as the GSP ferries, along with PTS and K-61s, were already speeding to the front, ready to force a daytime crossing. A PMP pontoon bridge company would enable the Soviets to put in place a substantial floating bridge to move heavier units across and get to grips with the enemy. Heavy artillery, air-to-ground support from the air force, missiles and rockets had been committed to make this a fast passage.
    It wouldn’t be the only crossing. Further south, 7 Guards Tank Division would be doing the same, increasing the pressure on the thinly spread British 4th Armoured Division trying to stem the flow. The British would continue to fight a delaying battle. The combat teams were already withdrawing from Braunschweig and Wolfenbuttel, to take up positions on the western bank of the river, leaving any further fighting to the West German reserve forces. No effort would be made by the Soviet army to enter the major conurbations; not yet, at least. But follow-on forces would ensure the security of the rear. Two additional elements would help swing the day in the Soviets’ favour, the dreaded Hip and Hind gunships supporting a full motor rifle battalion, provided by the 61st Guards Tank Regiment that would be landed on the opposite bank by scores of Hip and Hook transport helicopters. Trusov was confident they would be able to continue their advance west by early afternoon.

Chapter 4
    0410 6 JULY