He could sense it, Fritz had become complacent, he’d slipped up and now Lieutenant Harbajan Singh was going to resort to some good old fashioned ‘Teutonic’ efficiency and make them pay.
The intel was that a modest DAK force was isolated around a barely used track by an old dilapidated fort. Singh would surprise the Jerry’s and ‘degrade’ their ability to function. He hoped to catch them in a pincer. The DAK were north of the fort and surely wanted to move south to link up eventually with their main column. Singh though wasn’t entirely sure of their exact location so had to spread his own forces in something of a loose net and try to concentrate once the enemies’ exact intentions became obvious.
He was hampered with temperamental radio comms - his command squad approached from the north-west while his two infantry squads - one Indian Army, the other from the New Zealand division - approached from the north-east. The Bosch were sighted, loosely drawn up infantry cowering around some scrub supported by a Panzer III and possibly a weapon team of some sort but they couldn’t be made out. Damn those radios Singh cursed. He called in an artillery strike on the DAK but the blasted radios failed to transmit. As the British infantry moved towards the Germans that was enough and like startled geese the Bosch were off parallel to the track and trying to maintain as much cover from the low scrub as they could.
The British 6pdr A/T gun moved up in support of the infantry sections. The Panzer III must have not seen it and was probably readying itself to tear into the infantry when it took a direct first hit and was knocked out - wham-bam! Singh was relieved.
Meanwhile an Indian jeep-borne MMG team emerged from the south-east and raced towards the fort where they might be able to ‘intercept’ the fleeing Hun. A MK II Humber from the recce squadron arrived on the western flank and immediately set about pursuing the infantry with their own MMG. They had limited success against one team but driving
over rocky ground firing against darting infantry was not what the manual recommended!
The New Zealand section were making towards a low sand dune where a sub-command unit were taking pot shots - and scoring one hit against the brave Kiwis. More of an issue was the radio operator spotting for a mortar team behind the dune. This inflicted more damage on the NZ section and the LMG team had to rally back and get out of the firing line. Nevertheless the small command unit was shot up by Lieutenant Singh and his team coming up behind them forcing them to flee. The mortar was now blind and Corporal Hadlee leading the rifle team drove the mortar crew off at the end of some viciously cold steel. These successes though were scant reward as the main bulk of the DAK infantry was streaming south. The Indian MMG and Humber tried their best to slow down the retreating Fritzes but were unable to inflict sufficiently high casualties. The Indian infantry section now moving up behind the DAK infantry similarly tried to stem the flow but with little impact. The DAK Leutnant was almost taken out by the Indian MMG as he disappeared into cover but he too managed to extricate himself with the bulk of his infantry.
The Bosch sub-command unit didn’t make it as it tried desperately to follow it’s kamerads.
Singh could reflect on destroying a Panzer III and capturing a medium mortar as well as inflicting casualties on the infantry but ultimately this kleiner kampfgruppe had slipped through his fingers. Damn those radios!
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