Rolling Thunder (Independent Story)

730th Tank Battalion Staging area
Somewhere in France
August 12, 1944 0930 Hours

Part I: Tankers

=I sit on our tank destroyer and look at a letter a buddy sent me from back in the States.=

He gets to stay home and relax while I’m over here and defending that right for him to do that

=I sigh and put the letter in one of my jacket pockets. My crewmates as well as the rest of the battalion are up and around, enjoying a well deserved rest from the fighting. For once in this war, I felt absolutely content=

Mike: (curious) “John, you must have a good tank to be in. How good is it?”

Me: (sarcastically) "Your tank could be one of the best in the battalion; that’s if your gunner could hit the broadside of a barn.”

=When this was heard, the other guys in the battalion start to laugh; some were pounding the sides of the tanks and adding to the noise. There was a bitter truth to the humor: Mike’s fellow crewmate was scared shitless of the Tiger tanks. In fact, all of us were scared to take on a Tiger tank; and some of the guys still have nightmares from the Normandy hedgerows, including me=

=I pat Mike on the back=

Me: (humorously) “Don’t worry; we’ll keep you safe from the Tigers and whatnot.”

=Mike gives me a silent nod of thanks=

=We—my crewmates and myself—lucked out when we got one of the new Hellcat tank destroyers instead of the tried and true Sherman. So when the Shermans needed to get out of a spot, my vehicle—and the three other tank destroyers attached to the battalion—get the call, since we could actually take out the tanks that they can’t handle by themselves=

Dan: (authoritavely) “Saddle up boys. Command wants to support and infantry assault on a village not far from here. There’s artillery in there that the infantry are going to take care of, so we’ll be covering them if we run into trouble along the way.”

Trouble...That usually means tanks, German tanks

Mike:(curious)“Is there anything else, sir? Such as tanks?”

Dan:(with authority)"That we don’t know. If there are any they won’t be hiding when we show up. Move out.”

=Hearing this, we got into our respected vehicles, fired up the engines, and rolled out to face the Nazis=

Somewhere in France
August 12, 1944 0930 Hours

Part II: Calm Before the Storm

=Dan calls out roll=

Dan: "Tank Destroyers, sound off"

Joe: "Boston Bruiser, I hear ya"

Grant: "The Detroit Wonder, hears you loud and clear"

Vic: "Uncle Sam's Fist, is coming out swingin'"

Me: "Wolverine, ready to fight"

Dan: "Roger that, we have the village in sight and the infantry are moving in. Watch our backs for us'

Joe: "We copy, Chicago Slugger. Good hunting."

Dan: "Yeah, just save some for us will ya. Dan, out"

=Dan goes silent as we go to intersquad communications=

Joe: "You heard the boss boys, watch out for the Jerries now."

Vic: "Shouldn't the opposite way around Joe?"

=Laughs errupt along the channel=

Joe: "I'm being serious Vic, we need to be careful here"

Vic: "Copy that Joe. Just having a laugh, is all"

=I sigh, and shake my head=

Me: "Could we focus and watch, guys?"

Joe: "Copy that, John. Operational from now on"

=I hear the radio go silent as we approach the village=

I have a bad feeling about this...

French Countryside
August, 12, 1944 0930 Hours

Part III: A Baptism of Fire

=I then hear a frantic call on the radio=

Dan: "We got Kraut tanks! I say again, we got big cats inbound!"

Joe: "Got it, boss." "You heard him boys. Time for some Tiger huntin' time!"

=All the Hellcats rumble to life and head toward the smoke=

Why do feel that we are rumbling into a trap...?

=I hear an 88 open up and all hell starts to break loose=