Chapter Two Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-Eight
3rd May 1976
Finike, Turkey
What was left of the Greek Panzer was still burning, belching black smoke into the air. Every once in a while the wind blew it in his direction and Erich caught a whiff of burnt diesel, plastic, and cordite. Muller made a joke about how there wasn’t a lot of the roasted pork smell this time and that he should be thankful, at least Erich hoped that the Oberfeld was joking.
As Erich watched, the last of the medical personnel were herded onto the waiting landing craft. As it was slowly winched off the shore he wished that he was on it…
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud explosion that reverberated through Finike.
“That is who we are dealing are dealing with here” Muller said, “Remember that if you have complaints about shooting Greeks or Turks.”
“What are you getting at?” Erich asked.
“Our Greek friends just blew up the local Mosque, if I had to guess” Muller replied, “Perhaps they are busy enough desecrating the graveyard to have forgotten about us.”
“Won’t the people around here get pissed about that?”
“Aside from the people in the Hospital, have you seen any civilians around?” Muller asked in reply.
The implications of that were delightful, Erich thought to himself. When he had been assigned to this Company, Erich had been told that he was supposed to learn from the experience. Exactly what lessons was he going to learn from being involved in this madness? What the Hell were they even doing in this place? As it turned out the Greeks had not forgotten them, Erich learned this when artillery shells started landing on the east side of the river among the buildings that the Marines were sheltering in.
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Karl could hear the radio chatter of the command net. Mostly ships and airplanes talking to each other. It was the ships that provided the counterfire against the Greek artillery. He saw the earth erupting skyward as the shells pulverized the hilltops. He knew that there was a road up there, the odds were high that was where the bulk of Greek forces were coming from. The Coastal Highway would be too exposed. The whole idea was to buy them time to withdraw in good order, before the Greeks were really able to bring the hammer down. That was why he had done his best to identify the obvious choke point, the highway bridge over the river which was strong enough to support Panzers crossing it. If he were in the shoes of the Greek Commander he would know that it would be critical to take that first. It was what Karl was counting on for his plan to work, he just needed to get the timing right…
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As Erich watched, dozens of T-72s and what must be hundreds of Greek solders came into view. This wasn’t like that first lazy attack that had happened only an hour earlier. They were moving from cover to cover. Erich could hear the sound of rifle fire. The idea was to get the defenders, meaning Erich himself, to keep their heads down so they could advance unmolested. There were bursts of rifle fire that he knew were coming from G44 Rifles, which sounded very different from the Simonov Rifles that the Greeks used, going the other way.
Looking through the two-power rifle scope, Erich took aim, but his nerve failed him. Those were people and he wasn’t at war with them, this whole thing was just so much bullshit. At the same time, he knew that Muller was watching him. If he revealed any cowardice, the Oberfeld would tell the entire Company, which would be impossible to live with. He squeezed the trigger, not really aiming at anything, praying that the bullets wouldn’t hit anyone.
Distantly, Erich heard the thud and thump of the 50mm Knee Mortars and 40mm grenade launchers. Those would do nothing more than scratch the paint on the T-72s. It slowed the Greek Infantry down though. That was when the Anti-Tank team tried to reassert itself by firing rockets at the lead T-72. And it didn’t work nearly as well as it had the last time. The Greek Panzer fired on the right building this time and as Erich watched, half the AT team was obliterated by the 120mm shell. As if to ad emphasis, the Panzer sprayed the buildings with the coaxial machine gun before firing another shot from the main gun. Erich ducked to avoid the fire but found that he couldn’t bring himself to look back over the windowsill.
With that the Greeks resumed their advance onto the bridge, and the explosives underneath it detonated. The weight of the Panzers completed the collapse into the water which was rushing out with the ebb tide.
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“Fall back!” Karl yelled into the microphone over the tactical net. The order was repeated among the men. They knew that they were supposed to retreat for the Landing Craft which were coming to pick them up. It was also the riskiest part of the whole operation. The Greek Commander wouldn’t need long to figure out what was going on, nor would it take much time for him to figure out a different way across the river. As Karl left the shelter of the building that had been his command post and was running across the beach along with the radio operator and artillery spotter, he heard the shriek turbine engines and explosions as jets from the Luftwaffe pasted the other side of river.
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Erich could see the gunners on the Landing Craft were firing their guns, 2-centmeter Flak and MG42s he thought absently to himself as he half walked-half crawled aboard the LC to find that it was already packed full of men from his Platoon. There came the clatter as the LC winched itself by the anchor chain off the beach. The craft was rocking as it turned and to put to sea. It was then that Erich ventured to look above the gunwale, he saw that the Fleet ships were pummeling what was left Finike.