A war to close to home

by Bronycommander

Chapter 5 Massive attack

Chapter 5: Massive attack

“Don’t worry guys, we got reinforced with captured Mark IVs. And also, we have the honor to test some prototypes of the A7V.” As Bergmann said that, some Mark IVs and A7Vs drove past us.

“That’s the A7V? Looks like a converted locomotive to me. With the driver cabin, it really reminded me of a locomotive.

“They got the idea from it as far as I know.”

“Interesting.” Babs looked at the tanks with great interest.

An A7V suddenly stopped abruptly and smoke came out of the engine room.

“Driver! The Engine is overheating!”

“You got to be kidding me! That’s the third time this week!”

“Looks like this one is out of action for a while. Let’s prepare for the attack,” Holger said and we all nodded.

Babs helped out as best as she could and got my comrade some haircuts.

Barbed wire, MG’s, FK 96s against tanks and some QF 1 AAs against planes.

We were prepared for an attack but was it enough? We would see.

I would send Babs home, but all means of transportation were gone by now.

Worried about her safety, I told her to go to the bunkers once it would begin. I hope she would survive this attack. While we expected it for today, there was none.

Instead, they shelled us the entire night while we were inside the bunkers and trenches.

While we were used to it, Babs whimpered and covered her ears.

All soldiers looked sad at her.

“it’s okay, Babs. Their idea is to soften us up about before their offensive. They want that we don’t get sleep so we’re too tired to fight back when they attack.” I hugged her.

“I-I had a nightmare where exactly this happed and some guy with a tank on his back with a hose attached to it stood before me, saying it was nothing personal before…”

She buried her head into my chest. “When does that stop?”

“Soon. Soon.” I patted her back and rocked back and forth with her. I will also never forgive myself if she gets traumatized.

My attempts to comfort her seemed to work, as she slowly fell asleep.

At least, they don’t gas us.

---

She slept until noon. “Morning, Babs.”

“Morning.” She replied before someone shouted,

“Enemy spotted!”

Wasting no time, I carried her to the bunker near the sickbay. “Stay safe.” She said and I saw her making the catholic cross as I left.

That attack was different from any I ever had experienced before.

Tanks, MANY tanks with infantry attacked our position.

We stood our ground and fired at them with everything we got.

The explosion and the canon fire was deafening but we all were used to it. An A7V destroyed an enemy tank, while a field gun destroyed another tank.

“Flame trooper!” a soldier shouted. I had fought them before. Their weak point was the fuel container on their back.

Holger managed to hit the Flame trooper.

A small jet of flame came out of the container. Then the trooper screamed it pain, as he was engulfed flames. The container exploded in a massive fireball, killing every British soldier that was near him. Not a pleasant death.

Our tanks were pushing back the British advance. “Keep on shooting your rifles; we got them running for real! Come on, follow me, we’re taking objective Apples!” Bergmann ordered, going in for the kill.

Taking a look over my shoulder, the bunker was still intact.

Running for battle, Enemy is attacking us, Yeah, They know we the baddest, this battle is almost over.

Unfortunately, our tanks got disabled but managed to take all MGs out.

We captured objective Apples, but suddenly as the Tommy’s retreated, I heard footsteps out of the smoke.

Holger fired, only to hear that the bullet ricocheted off.

Out of the smoke came a Tommy, outfitted thick armor plating and an MG08/15!

“Yeah, it’s the Juggernaut, Fritz!” He fired his MG, causing us to scramble for cover.

“Does nobody have a grenade?!” a soldier screamed.

I had an idea. It was dangerous but could work.

Seeing a FK 96 at the other side of the objective, I started to make a run for it while my comrades distracted the Sentry.

As I reached it, I dragged it so that it faced the sentry and fired.

One shot, one kill. “Yeah, it’s the field gun, Sentry!” I exclaimed at my kill.

“Ok, that’s over. Prepare for a counterattack.” Bergmann ordered.

Putting a new charger clip in, I prepared for a counterattack. A truck with reinforcements drove by. Babs was also along the soldiers, wearing saddlebags with supplies.

“Even if I don’t like to be on the front, got to help you out somehow.” She smiled.

If she’s just bringing supplies, she should be out of danger.

“Incoming!”

Me and my big mouth. I quickly got her into the trench in the back where she should be safe, then got out to fight.

My comrades had already taken out most of the infantry, so I shot 3 soldiers that were left and reloaded one bullet at a time.

The next wave arrived. Just when I was about to pull the trigger I heard Babs screaming. A Tommy held her at gunpoint. In rage, I charged at him with a scream and stabbed him into the heart while knocking him to the ground.

Babs had her eyes closed. She flinched as I touched her.

She realized it was me and just said, “It’s too much...” She didn’t notice that I killed the soldier.

“It will be over soon.”

This time, my rifle jammed, so I switched to my sidearm and fired.

As the last hostile was down, I reloaded, again by one bullet at a time.

I don’t know why but I liked it to reload that way. It was… exhilarating. So different from simply changed a clip or putting in a new charger clip. Also, I felt tension while doing it. Unknown to us, the Brits managed to send a message to their artillery.

---

“Sir, new fire mission.” A soldier gave his officer the message.

FIRE MISSION, URGENT! NEED SUPPORT! GRIND 317241 ELE60

“Grind 3 6 4 2”

Soldiers loaded the Artillery guns. “Fire!”

---

I was fighting off more Tommy’s, as I got hit from behind by a British soldier with a Shovel. Before he could kill me, someone shouted, “Artillery! Get down!” The soldier was distracted and we both got knocked out.

---

I slowly regained consciousness after some time. The battle was seemingly over. Dead bodies of both sides were scattered around me.
Picked up and fixing my rifle, I spotted a lone British soldier.

We both pointed our rifles at each other until we realized the pointlessness in adding ourselves to the high body count of the battle. Also, I recognized the soldier.

It was the British Medic that helped me freeing Babs.

“No! Babs!” I jumped into the trench where she was, the Medic close behind me.

Checking her pulse, she was still breathing, knocked out. “My little Babs, I thought I had lost you.”

She awoke by my words. “H-Herbert? Herbert!” She hugged me tightly.

“It appears we are the only survivors. We should move,” The Medic suggested.

“Yeah we should. How’s your name? Mine’s Herbert and she is Babs Seed.”

“My name is Tommy. Tommy Edward.” He said as I checked the bodies for my comrades, but none of them was among them. That gave me hope that they survived.

“There, that Mark IV is still intact. Maybe we can use it to get back to our lines. My brother showed me once how they work,” Tommy explained.

The crew was killed by the artillery as they appeared to make emergency repairs from the outside but we fixed it.

I started the engine. It started but died right away. Tommy knew the problem.

“Fuel line’s backing up!” He tried to fix it. “Give us a break, give us a break. Come on. Come on. Stop. Stop, stop!” He fixed it. “It stopped.”
I tried to start it again. Nothing.

“I’ve done everything right. Everything!” Tommy pushed me away and tried to start the tank. Again, nothing.
“My whole sodding life! All I’ve done is live my life by the manual. By the Manual!” He exclaimed and punched the tank.
“What’s wrong with you, you stupid, you stupid bloody machine!” He kicked it.

“Now, come on. Pull yourself together and work with me here.” He tried it again but it didn’t work.

Babs also got angry by it. “For Celestia’s sake! I thought you were built to like a bucking good fight!” She bucked the tank in anger.

“Come on!” Tommy started it and it worked!
We all laughed. “Hey Babs! He likes it when you say that, girl!” I commented with a smile.

I never thought I would see a tank from the inside, let alone drive in one.

Babs smiled as she enjoyed the ride. Tommy started to sing. Babs and I sang too.

---

---

We were driving along the abandoned road until it was evening and the beautiful sunset ruled the sky.

The Mark IV stopped abruptly. “What’s wrong?” Babs asked.

“Great. Sparkplugs are broken. Guess we have to walk.”

I could hear the sounds of battle in the distance and an Airship was about us.

Suddenly, the Zeppelin exploded. “AIRSHIP COMMING DOWN!! It comes down right above us! Run!”

I grabbed Babs and started to run as the burning Airship came closer to the ground.

The shockwave was so great it threw me to the ground and a piece of rubble knocked me instantly out.

Author's Note:

Did they survive? You will see

As a sidenote, the first prototype of the A7V was made in January 1917, so all A7Vs are prototyps for fieldtesting.

Also the line "Keep on shooting your rifles; we got them running for real!" is from this video I was listing to while making this chapter

Can you spot the reference I putted in here?

Comments

[Tank Commander]

I am going to guess the refernece is im the juggernaut or the mission from battlefield 1with the black bess

[Bronycommander]

8071902 they are both references, Yes.