Post by scoutsout on May 31, 2010 19:31:11 GMT -5
So I came across this excerpt from a book on the internet regarding Soviet use of M4A2-76 (W)'s. Since I've been toying around with the Emcha list anyway and have found that the main weakness is against heavy tanks, I thought I'd see if I could figure out a conversion rate for the list.
So here's the gist of the article:
Excerpted from "Commanding the Red Army’s Sherman Tanks:
The World War II Memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza"
Edited and translated by James F. Gebhardt
"Red Shermans Take Vienna"
"...Early April 1945. Formations of the 6th Guards Army had seized the cities of Sopron and Sombatkhey in northwest Hungary. Vienna was about sixty kilometers away. We had to interfere with the Germans’ efforts to mine and destroy historical monuments and bridges, to move industrial equipment and cultural treasures out of Austria’s capital. The army commander, Colonel-General A. G. Kravchenko, made the decision to send a detachment to Vienna. This detachment consisted of the 1st Tank Battalion, 46th Guards Tank Brigade (eighteen Shermans), three SAU-152 guns [Samokhodno-artilleriyskaya ustanovka, self-propelled gun, of 152-mm, or 6-inch, bore diameter], and a company of airborne troops—eighty men from the 1st Airborne Battalion of the 304th Airborne Regiment, commanded by Guards Lieutenant Nikolay Georgievich Petukhov. The detachment was ordered to function as a raiding detachment in the enemy’s rear area, hurriedly reach Vienna, penetrate into the city center from the south, and seize key objectives: the parliament building, art history museum, opera house, Belvedere Palace, and Academy of Sciences. We were to hold the captured buildings and surrounding blocks until the arrival of the main body of the 9th Guards Mechanized Corps..."
So..to model this fabulous force, I began with the Emcha 75 list and added 15 points per Sherman for the 76 upgrade, scaled from 20 by the rules in Cobra for American CT Shermans using a .75 multiplier as indicated in 5 tank Sherman platoons (345 for US vs. 260 for Soviet) compared from Cobra to FE.
To fit it into 1750 points here is what I came up with:
1st Tank Battalion, 46th Guards Tank Brigade, 6th Guards Army
Guards Colonel Dmitriy Loza, 1750 points
Fearless Trained
Battalion HQ- 1 M4A2-76 (W) (75 points) Includes .50 AA
Guards Colonel Dmitriy Loza- (45 points), counts as Kapitan Nevsky special character
Guards Tankovy Company- 8 M4A2-76 (W) (530 points) Includes .50 AA, no stabilizer, Hen and chicks
Guards Tankovy Company- 7 M4A2-76 (W) (480 points) Includes .50 AA, no stabilizer, Hen and chicks
Guards Heavy Assault Gun Company- 3 ISU-152 (370 points)
Guards Parachute Tank Rider Company- 2 platoons (250 points)
It looks like fun...But note that it is a 2 tanks and an infantry platoon short of the real thing.
For further reading enjoyment, here is some more of the excerpt focusing on the fighting. In it you will see the rationale for giving the Emcha 76's their AAMGs and for having the Paras not being Desatniki, as well as the special character.
"The enemy made his first strong attack in the morning.
Not long before this, the Germans had begun to fire with an antitank gun at an Emcha parked under an arch. During the night, they had dragged it to the upper floor of one of the houses north of Ratush’. The enemy managed to damage the tracks on two tanks. We quickly had to take appropriate measures to prevent the majority of our vehicles east of Ratush’, the university, and parliament from being damaged. We wanted to leave them in those positions because from there they could better engage an attacking enemy.
I called the commander of the SAU-152 battery and ordered him immediately to suppress the enemy firing point. The self-propelled gun, sliding along the asphalt on its broad tracks, took a position on one of the streets on the southeastern side of the square.
All of us were curious. We wanted to watch the self-propelled gun blow the German gunners and their cannon to pieces. The tankers and paratroopers poured out into the street and began to wait. Now, recalling those minutes, I cannot excuse myself. As an inexperienced commander, I committed a serious error. At the time, I permitted these spectators to line the street. We paid a high price.
The Viennese lanes that ran in various directions from the central square were not wide. Beautiful houses with Venetian blinds on their windows rose up on both sides of these lanes. Each soldier and officer would learn to his misfortune that these windows would end up on the street.
The shot of the self-propelled gun’s large-caliber cannon roared forth. The air itself shook. One and one-half floors of the house, together with the enemy antitank gun and its crew, crashed to the ground. And in our own position? With a crash, the powerful shock wave of the shot broke the thin window glass in the houses near the self-propelled gun. Heavy shards of glass poured down on the heads of our spectators. The result was lamentable: scores of wounded arms and backs and two broken collarbones. Thankfully, the tankers were wearing their headgear and the paratroopers their helmets. Their heads remained intact. What now! We were fighting our tanks inside a large city for the first time. Bad experience is experience, just the same!
There was no time to moan or complain. Enemy tanks were already moving along several streets toward the university and the parliament. Infantry were attacking behind them, using the tanks for cover. The enemy was beginning an attack on a broad front. Very well, then, the hour had come to cross swords—armor with armor, fire with fire! We had the advantage. The battalion was deployed in combat formation. The Sherman fired more accurately from a stationary position.
A Panther, the thick armor of its turret and hull forming a shield, was leading the attackers on every street. The long-range cannons of the heavy tanks that stopped outside the direct fire range of our Shermans’ 76-mm main guns enabled them to strike our combat vehicles from a significant distance. In this unfavorable situation, the Emcha crews, on general command, employed a minor but important deception. They backed their tanks deeper into the archways. They remained ready to reoccupy their position, on command, and spray the enemy with machine-gun fire. Battles are decided in seconds. The driver-mechanic of Guards Junior Lieutenant Bessol’tsev’s tank tarried a bit too long and was unable to reposition his vehicle immediately. This small lapse turned out to be fatal. The Emcha was hit. The commander and assistant driver-mechanic were wounded, but the main gun was undamaged. The crew bandaged themselves and remained at their stations on order of the junior lieutenant. The immobile Sherman was prepared for an unequal duel with an antitank round loaded in the main gun. The radio operator prepared a smoke pot; its dark gray screen at the right moment would effectively conceal the tank’s position.
The rapid disappearance of our tanks, it seems, somewhat discouraged the enemy crews. The Panthers stopped. They hesitated, then slowly moved forward. One of the Panthers turned toward Bessol’tsev’s tank, in all probability intending quickly to close the range in order to fire the killing shot. The junior lieutenant understood the enemy tank commander’s intention. He ordered the radio operator to throw the smoke pot forward. The thick cloud of smoke began to obscure the archway and the street in front of it. Now let the enemy try to find the target.
At this time, assistance sent by the company commander, Guards Senior Lieutenant Ionov, came to Bessol’tsev by the rear courtyards. Knocking down the intervening fence, the Sherman of Lieutenant Abib Bakuridze approached Bessol’tsev’s tank from the rear, quickly hooked a tow cable onto it, and towed it to a safe place.
The Panthers did finally reach the line where they could be destroyed by the fire of the Emchas’ 76.2-mm guns. The command went out over the radio: “Take your positions!” Ten seconds later, the archways of the houses on the eastern edge of the central square were bristling with the Shermans’ long barrels. A cannon duel commenced at close range.
Combat in cities is a great number of violent isolated engagements, in which success depends on the quickness of actions, the coolness of commanders of all ranks, the mastery of each crew member, and the skill of the infantry support troops. Guards Lieutenant Konstantin Drozdovskiy’s tank was in a very good position. The archway entrance into the courtyard was ten meters from the corner of the building. Adjoining the house was a small square. Earlier, Konstantin had prepared a good route for maneuver out from under the archway into the square and back. And not in vain.
Up to one and one-half platoons of enemy submachine gunners were advancing on Drozdovskiy’s position. Behind them were two Panthers. The forces were unequal. But the Guards Emchisti did not flinch. They skillfully engaged in a one-on-one firefight. The lieutenant ordered the full weight of his main gun to rain upon the infantry, who represented a great danger to the tank.
And then immediately to change positions. Volley fire with high-explosive rounds cut through the enemy submachine gunners very well. Those who survived immediately turned back and took cover behind the tank and in a house. The sector of observation and fire was better from the new position. Konstantin saw two armored vehicles approaching the square. They were almost in one line, in places shielding their vehicles behind house walls.
There was deep thought shown in this combat formation. The Germans correctly figured that our tank could simultaneously knock out both targets with a single shot. An intact Panther managed to detect and hit an Emcha before the Sherman’s crew was able to reload their main gun. In this single action, the enemy tank commanders demonstrated that they were not novices on the battlefield. Drozdovskiy accepted the enemy’s challenge and turned out to be more clever than the Germans. The first antitank round struck the right flank Panther on its left track. The intact right track drove this tank to the left, pressing the adjacent tank into a wall. Both enemy tanks froze in place. At the same instant, a smoke pot flew from the turret of Drozdovskiy’s tank. The thick cloud of smoke filled the square and street, depriving the Germans of any possibility of conducting aimed fire. Konstantin again changed his position. When the whitish shroud of smoke dissipated somewhat, the guards spotted a backward-moving Panther. A precision-fired antitank round forced it to stop in the middle of the street.
My command observation post was in the opera house. My reserve, the SAU-152 battery, was nearby. Radio reports were coming in from the company commanders. I was monitoring the conversations of platoon leaders with their subordinates, describing the axis of the enemy’s main attack from a position north of Ratush’ and the university to Belvedere Palace. The enemy’s intentions were manifestly obvious: to divide our detachment’s combat formation into two parts, press the larger (eastern) portion toward the Danube canal, and destroy it.
As a result of an almost forty-minute fight, the attacking tanks and infantry were halted at the approaches to the central square, three Panthers were destroyed, and we lost two Shermans. Not less than fifty enemy submachine gunners were killed or wounded. Our method of combating tanks—”hunting with Borzois”—that we had tested in past battles was not used in beating off the Germans’ attack. Although I reminded everyone about it before the battle, I did not require its employment during our first encounter with the enemy. Drozdovskiy made one unsuccessful attempt, from out of a narrow alley. Not one Panther presented its flank to him, therefore he did not engage them. The damaged track of a heavy tank can be repaired in a short time. Meanwhile, this armored pillbox is capable of conducting powerful fire with its long-range gun. The enemy, gathering up his forces, could once again launch his attack with the support of the immobilized Panther.
I had to turn the developing situation in our favor. And the quicker the better for our subsequent presence in Vienna. Our self-propelled guns were an effective means at my disposal. I discussed a plan of action with Senior Lieutenant Yakov Petru-khin, the battery commander of the big salts. We agreed on the following: the self-propelled guns, employing the long range and firepower of their 152,-mm guns, would strike first at the mobile Panthers. Their second priority was to fire on vehicles that had already been hit. This method would minimize the expenditure of ammunition. We faced many hours of combat before the arrival of our own troops. The battery commander would pay special attention to concealing the movement of his self-propelled guns into firing positions. The Sherman crews would try at this time to distract the attention of the enemy tankers, conducting fire in order to blind them.
Yakov Petrukhin reported that he had selected two very suitable firing positions: they had good cover in front to defend the hull of his vehicles from enemy armor-piercing shells.
The firing intensity increased from our side along the entire eastern line. The Emchisti were attempting to solve two problems at once: to prevent the Germans from spilling out onto the central square by blocking them up in the surrounding streets and to cover the movement of the self-propelled guns to firing positions.
How slowly time passes when one awaits the decisive moments in a fight with the enemy. There was no doubt—the turning point was near. The long-awaited time had arrived. Two thundering shots assaulted our eardrums, blowing the glass out of the windows of nearby houses and rattling other windows some distance away. “Pardon us, beautiful city, that we cause you to tremble, and at times, we destroy parts of you! The laws of war are ruthless!” I wanted to cry out loudly, seeing the destruction we were causing.
The second Viennese spectacle turned out to be no less impressive. The strike of a large-caliber projectile (Yakov had ordered a concrete-breaking round loaded, for greater effect) knocked the turret off one of the Panthers that had already almost crawled into the square. The second heavy tank blazed up in an enormous fire. The SAU-152 immediately abandoned its position. It was as if they had poured boiling water on the enemy. The awkward armored vehicles hurriedly began to withdraw rearward. The enemy infantry, now lacking tank support, ran away through courtyards and alleys.
And so the enemy’s first attempt to divide the raiding detachment suffered defeat. The Shermans and paratroopers stubbornly held the center of Vienna. I reported the battalion’s situation to the brigade commander. He informed me that corps units were conducting a successful attack on the southern approaches to the Austrian capital.
Our chain of command took all necessary measures to provide air cover for the detachment. Thanks to their efforts, the battalion was not once subjected to German air attack during our entire time in the city. On the morning of 10 April, our fighters appeared in the sky above Vienna. We signaled our positions to the pilots with red rockets and sent them a radio password.
An air battle took place a bit later. One after the other, two Messerschmitts went down in flames. Trailing streamers of black smoke, they crashed into a forest. One of our aircraft was also shot down. A small speck separated from it, and several seconds later, the canopy of a parachute opened above it. The pilot was descending into the city. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt dove on him out of the clouds. An instant later, it was going after the defenseless pilot. Two Shermans simultaneously fired their antiaircraft machine guns. The enemy fighter broke off without firing the deadly burst...."
I hope you like it...David
So here's the gist of the article:
Excerpted from "Commanding the Red Army’s Sherman Tanks:
The World War II Memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza"
Edited and translated by James F. Gebhardt
"Red Shermans Take Vienna"
"...Early April 1945. Formations of the 6th Guards Army had seized the cities of Sopron and Sombatkhey in northwest Hungary. Vienna was about sixty kilometers away. We had to interfere with the Germans’ efforts to mine and destroy historical monuments and bridges, to move industrial equipment and cultural treasures out of Austria’s capital. The army commander, Colonel-General A. G. Kravchenko, made the decision to send a detachment to Vienna. This detachment consisted of the 1st Tank Battalion, 46th Guards Tank Brigade (eighteen Shermans), three SAU-152 guns [Samokhodno-artilleriyskaya ustanovka, self-propelled gun, of 152-mm, or 6-inch, bore diameter], and a company of airborne troops—eighty men from the 1st Airborne Battalion of the 304th Airborne Regiment, commanded by Guards Lieutenant Nikolay Georgievich Petukhov. The detachment was ordered to function as a raiding detachment in the enemy’s rear area, hurriedly reach Vienna, penetrate into the city center from the south, and seize key objectives: the parliament building, art history museum, opera house, Belvedere Palace, and Academy of Sciences. We were to hold the captured buildings and surrounding blocks until the arrival of the main body of the 9th Guards Mechanized Corps..."
So..to model this fabulous force, I began with the Emcha 75 list and added 15 points per Sherman for the 76 upgrade, scaled from 20 by the rules in Cobra for American CT Shermans using a .75 multiplier as indicated in 5 tank Sherman platoons (345 for US vs. 260 for Soviet) compared from Cobra to FE.
To fit it into 1750 points here is what I came up with:
1st Tank Battalion, 46th Guards Tank Brigade, 6th Guards Army
Guards Colonel Dmitriy Loza, 1750 points
Fearless Trained
Battalion HQ- 1 M4A2-76 (W) (75 points) Includes .50 AA
Guards Colonel Dmitriy Loza- (45 points), counts as Kapitan Nevsky special character
Guards Tankovy Company- 8 M4A2-76 (W) (530 points) Includes .50 AA, no stabilizer, Hen and chicks
Guards Tankovy Company- 7 M4A2-76 (W) (480 points) Includes .50 AA, no stabilizer, Hen and chicks
Guards Heavy Assault Gun Company- 3 ISU-152 (370 points)
Guards Parachute Tank Rider Company- 2 platoons (250 points)
It looks like fun...But note that it is a 2 tanks and an infantry platoon short of the real thing.
For further reading enjoyment, here is some more of the excerpt focusing on the fighting. In it you will see the rationale for giving the Emcha 76's their AAMGs and for having the Paras not being Desatniki, as well as the special character.
"The enemy made his first strong attack in the morning.
Not long before this, the Germans had begun to fire with an antitank gun at an Emcha parked under an arch. During the night, they had dragged it to the upper floor of one of the houses north of Ratush’. The enemy managed to damage the tracks on two tanks. We quickly had to take appropriate measures to prevent the majority of our vehicles east of Ratush’, the university, and parliament from being damaged. We wanted to leave them in those positions because from there they could better engage an attacking enemy.
I called the commander of the SAU-152 battery and ordered him immediately to suppress the enemy firing point. The self-propelled gun, sliding along the asphalt on its broad tracks, took a position on one of the streets on the southeastern side of the square.
All of us were curious. We wanted to watch the self-propelled gun blow the German gunners and their cannon to pieces. The tankers and paratroopers poured out into the street and began to wait. Now, recalling those minutes, I cannot excuse myself. As an inexperienced commander, I committed a serious error. At the time, I permitted these spectators to line the street. We paid a high price.
The Viennese lanes that ran in various directions from the central square were not wide. Beautiful houses with Venetian blinds on their windows rose up on both sides of these lanes. Each soldier and officer would learn to his misfortune that these windows would end up on the street.
The shot of the self-propelled gun’s large-caliber cannon roared forth. The air itself shook. One and one-half floors of the house, together with the enemy antitank gun and its crew, crashed to the ground. And in our own position? With a crash, the powerful shock wave of the shot broke the thin window glass in the houses near the self-propelled gun. Heavy shards of glass poured down on the heads of our spectators. The result was lamentable: scores of wounded arms and backs and two broken collarbones. Thankfully, the tankers were wearing their headgear and the paratroopers their helmets. Their heads remained intact. What now! We were fighting our tanks inside a large city for the first time. Bad experience is experience, just the same!
There was no time to moan or complain. Enemy tanks were already moving along several streets toward the university and the parliament. Infantry were attacking behind them, using the tanks for cover. The enemy was beginning an attack on a broad front. Very well, then, the hour had come to cross swords—armor with armor, fire with fire! We had the advantage. The battalion was deployed in combat formation. The Sherman fired more accurately from a stationary position.
A Panther, the thick armor of its turret and hull forming a shield, was leading the attackers on every street. The long-range cannons of the heavy tanks that stopped outside the direct fire range of our Shermans’ 76-mm main guns enabled them to strike our combat vehicles from a significant distance. In this unfavorable situation, the Emcha crews, on general command, employed a minor but important deception. They backed their tanks deeper into the archways. They remained ready to reoccupy their position, on command, and spray the enemy with machine-gun fire. Battles are decided in seconds. The driver-mechanic of Guards Junior Lieutenant Bessol’tsev’s tank tarried a bit too long and was unable to reposition his vehicle immediately. This small lapse turned out to be fatal. The Emcha was hit. The commander and assistant driver-mechanic were wounded, but the main gun was undamaged. The crew bandaged themselves and remained at their stations on order of the junior lieutenant. The immobile Sherman was prepared for an unequal duel with an antitank round loaded in the main gun. The radio operator prepared a smoke pot; its dark gray screen at the right moment would effectively conceal the tank’s position.
The rapid disappearance of our tanks, it seems, somewhat discouraged the enemy crews. The Panthers stopped. They hesitated, then slowly moved forward. One of the Panthers turned toward Bessol’tsev’s tank, in all probability intending quickly to close the range in order to fire the killing shot. The junior lieutenant understood the enemy tank commander’s intention. He ordered the radio operator to throw the smoke pot forward. The thick cloud of smoke began to obscure the archway and the street in front of it. Now let the enemy try to find the target.
At this time, assistance sent by the company commander, Guards Senior Lieutenant Ionov, came to Bessol’tsev by the rear courtyards. Knocking down the intervening fence, the Sherman of Lieutenant Abib Bakuridze approached Bessol’tsev’s tank from the rear, quickly hooked a tow cable onto it, and towed it to a safe place.
The Panthers did finally reach the line where they could be destroyed by the fire of the Emchas’ 76.2-mm guns. The command went out over the radio: “Take your positions!” Ten seconds later, the archways of the houses on the eastern edge of the central square were bristling with the Shermans’ long barrels. A cannon duel commenced at close range.
Combat in cities is a great number of violent isolated engagements, in which success depends on the quickness of actions, the coolness of commanders of all ranks, the mastery of each crew member, and the skill of the infantry support troops. Guards Lieutenant Konstantin Drozdovskiy’s tank was in a very good position. The archway entrance into the courtyard was ten meters from the corner of the building. Adjoining the house was a small square. Earlier, Konstantin had prepared a good route for maneuver out from under the archway into the square and back. And not in vain.
Up to one and one-half platoons of enemy submachine gunners were advancing on Drozdovskiy’s position. Behind them were two Panthers. The forces were unequal. But the Guards Emchisti did not flinch. They skillfully engaged in a one-on-one firefight. The lieutenant ordered the full weight of his main gun to rain upon the infantry, who represented a great danger to the tank.
And then immediately to change positions. Volley fire with high-explosive rounds cut through the enemy submachine gunners very well. Those who survived immediately turned back and took cover behind the tank and in a house. The sector of observation and fire was better from the new position. Konstantin saw two armored vehicles approaching the square. They were almost in one line, in places shielding their vehicles behind house walls.
There was deep thought shown in this combat formation. The Germans correctly figured that our tank could simultaneously knock out both targets with a single shot. An intact Panther managed to detect and hit an Emcha before the Sherman’s crew was able to reload their main gun. In this single action, the enemy tank commanders demonstrated that they were not novices on the battlefield. Drozdovskiy accepted the enemy’s challenge and turned out to be more clever than the Germans. The first antitank round struck the right flank Panther on its left track. The intact right track drove this tank to the left, pressing the adjacent tank into a wall. Both enemy tanks froze in place. At the same instant, a smoke pot flew from the turret of Drozdovskiy’s tank. The thick cloud of smoke filled the square and street, depriving the Germans of any possibility of conducting aimed fire. Konstantin again changed his position. When the whitish shroud of smoke dissipated somewhat, the guards spotted a backward-moving Panther. A precision-fired antitank round forced it to stop in the middle of the street.
My command observation post was in the opera house. My reserve, the SAU-152 battery, was nearby. Radio reports were coming in from the company commanders. I was monitoring the conversations of platoon leaders with their subordinates, describing the axis of the enemy’s main attack from a position north of Ratush’ and the university to Belvedere Palace. The enemy’s intentions were manifestly obvious: to divide our detachment’s combat formation into two parts, press the larger (eastern) portion toward the Danube canal, and destroy it.
As a result of an almost forty-minute fight, the attacking tanks and infantry were halted at the approaches to the central square, three Panthers were destroyed, and we lost two Shermans. Not less than fifty enemy submachine gunners were killed or wounded. Our method of combating tanks—”hunting with Borzois”—that we had tested in past battles was not used in beating off the Germans’ attack. Although I reminded everyone about it before the battle, I did not require its employment during our first encounter with the enemy. Drozdovskiy made one unsuccessful attempt, from out of a narrow alley. Not one Panther presented its flank to him, therefore he did not engage them. The damaged track of a heavy tank can be repaired in a short time. Meanwhile, this armored pillbox is capable of conducting powerful fire with its long-range gun. The enemy, gathering up his forces, could once again launch his attack with the support of the immobilized Panther.
I had to turn the developing situation in our favor. And the quicker the better for our subsequent presence in Vienna. Our self-propelled guns were an effective means at my disposal. I discussed a plan of action with Senior Lieutenant Yakov Petru-khin, the battery commander of the big salts. We agreed on the following: the self-propelled guns, employing the long range and firepower of their 152,-mm guns, would strike first at the mobile Panthers. Their second priority was to fire on vehicles that had already been hit. This method would minimize the expenditure of ammunition. We faced many hours of combat before the arrival of our own troops. The battery commander would pay special attention to concealing the movement of his self-propelled guns into firing positions. The Sherman crews would try at this time to distract the attention of the enemy tankers, conducting fire in order to blind them.
Yakov Petrukhin reported that he had selected two very suitable firing positions: they had good cover in front to defend the hull of his vehicles from enemy armor-piercing shells.
The firing intensity increased from our side along the entire eastern line. The Emchisti were attempting to solve two problems at once: to prevent the Germans from spilling out onto the central square by blocking them up in the surrounding streets and to cover the movement of the self-propelled guns to firing positions.
How slowly time passes when one awaits the decisive moments in a fight with the enemy. There was no doubt—the turning point was near. The long-awaited time had arrived. Two thundering shots assaulted our eardrums, blowing the glass out of the windows of nearby houses and rattling other windows some distance away. “Pardon us, beautiful city, that we cause you to tremble, and at times, we destroy parts of you! The laws of war are ruthless!” I wanted to cry out loudly, seeing the destruction we were causing.
The second Viennese spectacle turned out to be no less impressive. The strike of a large-caliber projectile (Yakov had ordered a concrete-breaking round loaded, for greater effect) knocked the turret off one of the Panthers that had already almost crawled into the square. The second heavy tank blazed up in an enormous fire. The SAU-152 immediately abandoned its position. It was as if they had poured boiling water on the enemy. The awkward armored vehicles hurriedly began to withdraw rearward. The enemy infantry, now lacking tank support, ran away through courtyards and alleys.
And so the enemy’s first attempt to divide the raiding detachment suffered defeat. The Shermans and paratroopers stubbornly held the center of Vienna. I reported the battalion’s situation to the brigade commander. He informed me that corps units were conducting a successful attack on the southern approaches to the Austrian capital.
Our chain of command took all necessary measures to provide air cover for the detachment. Thanks to their efforts, the battalion was not once subjected to German air attack during our entire time in the city. On the morning of 10 April, our fighters appeared in the sky above Vienna. We signaled our positions to the pilots with red rockets and sent them a radio password.
An air battle took place a bit later. One after the other, two Messerschmitts went down in flames. Trailing streamers of black smoke, they crashed into a forest. One of our aircraft was also shot down. A small speck separated from it, and several seconds later, the canopy of a parachute opened above it. The pilot was descending into the city. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt dove on him out of the clouds. An instant later, it was going after the defenseless pilot. Two Shermans simultaneously fired their antiaircraft machine guns. The enemy fighter broke off without firing the deadly burst...."
I hope you like it...David
???Wow..no wonder people aren't posting here anymore.