Free Team Yankee: a novel of World War III by Harold Coyle

idea of letting his FIST go with the scouts, pointing out that they might not be able to rejoin the Team. But he had always been reassured that the FIST track would be back long before Team Yankee had any contact.
    This was one time he was sorry he had been right. Not only did he have to fight the Team, now he also had to play forward observer. Contacting the battalion S-3, Bannon asked him if he had any bright ideas on the subject. Major Jordan informed him that Team Yankee now had priority of artillery fire and all calls for fire would be directed to the battalion fire-support officer, or FSO. Jordan also informed him that Team Bravo had taken a lot of casualties, including its commander, who was dead. The battalion commander was going over to Team Bravo to attempt to rally the survivors. In the meantime, battalion was writing off Team Bravo as combat ineffective. Both the S-3 and the battalion commander were depending on Team Yankee to carry the fight.
    Two company teams fighting a motorized rifle battalion would have been no problem. But one company team, even with priority of artillery fire, would have a hard time.
    Bannon contacted the battalion fire-support officer and made sure he had all the Team's preplanned artillery targets. The FSO had them. Quickly they reviewed his plans for fire support.
    Bannon intended to let the Soviet lead elements reach the valley floor. When that happened, the Team would engage them with both tank platoons and the ITVs simultaneously. The 2nd Platoon would engage the lead element, the
    3rd Platoon would hit the enemy still on the opposite slope, and the ITVs would engage supporting vehicles on the far hill. He wanted the artillery to impact along the crest of the opposite hill at the same time the Team began to fire. First, DPICM, an artillery shell that scattered many small armordefeating bomblets, would be fired in order to take out as many Soviet PCs and self-propelled guns as possible. Then the artillery would fire high explosives, HE, and smoke rounds, laying down a smoke screen to blind any Soviet antitank system or artillery observers that might take up position there to engage the Team. That would leave the Team free to slug it out with only a portion of their force isolated from the rest. The FSO assured Bannon the artillery could handle the mission. All he needed was the word. A sudden detonation in the village followed by the hasty retreat of alone PC out of the village back to the Team's positions reminded Bannon that the first sergeant hadn't been told to blow the bridge in the town and withdraw. In the scramble to sort out the artillery fire plan he had forgotten the first sergeant. Fortunately, either Harrert had monitored the battalion net, figured out what was going on, and taken the initiative, or Uleski had ordered him out after hearing that the scouts would not be returning on the planned route. Either way, it worked out, and the first sergeant was headed back.
    "ROMEO 25-THIS IS MIKE 77-SPOT REPORT-5 T-72 TANKS MOVING WEST-GRID
    190852-CONTINUING TO OBSERVE-OVER." Bannon snapped his head to the left. There was no need to use a map. There was only one place where the Russians would be, and that was on the hill 2200 meters away. All the training, planning, and preparations were over. Team Yankee was about to learn if the Team's seventy-nine men and twenty-five million dollars worth of equipment could do what they were supposed to do: close with and destroy the enemy by fire, maneuver, and shock effect.
    The five T-72 tanks began their descent into the valley in a line with about 100 meters between tanks. One of them had a mine roller attached to the front of its hull. He would have to be taken out in the first volley. As soon as the tanks started down, a line of Soviet armored personnel carriers, BMP-2s, appeared on the crest of the hill and followed the tanks down. There were fifteen of these personnel carriers deployed in a rough line about one hundred meters behind