21 March - Ambush at Velbert

Crusader III 'Irksome' headed out from Dusseldorf forward base, tasked with interdiction of enemy armoured assets heading south from Velbert to attack friendly french forces stationed in Vohwinkle.

After a few minutes travelling, we encountered a bizarre French AT vehicle, seeminlgy made from an Anti-tank gun bolted to the back of a truck. We acknowledeged each other, and in broken english the driver suggested I move up a few hundred metres further north of him, where enemy tanks had been spotted.

I moved up, and took position in some trees behind a bank of earth. Soon enough, I heard the ominous rumble of heavy enemy tanks. Spotted the first one, a Stug III G at around 700 yds. Two shots hit his rear quarter, causing smoke and a broken track. 3 minutes later, a Pz IVG broke through some bushes to our left at about 200 yds. A hit with a single AP round caused a massive explosion, blowing his turret off.

A couple of enemy trucks came through, and I left those to my French comrade to take out, also missing the chance on a light grey panzer (probably a IIIF) that was just a little too far out.

There was some chatter over the radio of enemy infantry in the woods to our north, but we stuck it out for a bit longer, seeing another IVG at around 600yds come barreling along the road. 2 or 3 AP shots caused his engine to give up, and he stopped pretty sharpish and began scanning around with his turret. I waited until he was looking in the wrong direction, and hit him in the rear third again causing a catastrophic explosion!

Our final kill of the day came when a second StuG left his forward base, probably looking for us now in the woods. he came straight towards our position, and I was sure we had been spotted but at the last minute he turned full flank on us and headed south, unfortunately presenting us a perfect shot on his sweet spot. He brewed up nicely, but I was now very sure we had been spotted and we withdrew to the north of the woods. unfortunately straight in to the view of a waiting StuG, who took his revenge on our poor tank killing the entire crew and destorying the Crusader...