Siege of Vraks - First Assault on the Outer Defences (212.813.M41): The 149th regiment was chosen to make the first assault in sector 46-39, for intelligence reports indicated that the defence line might be cracked here. On the 149th regiment's immediate left and right flanks the 143rd and 150th regiments would provide strong supporting attacks, pinning down enemy units and drawing enemy reserves into their sectors and away from the main effort. Behind the 149th regiment, units of the 11th Assault Korps were brought up and made ready. Should the first attack breach the enemy position, then the assault korps' tanks could drive through and thrust deep into the defence zone.Over the course of two days, 500,000 infantry attacked in waves. The first wave was not expected to make much progress, but was to attack with strong infantry probes to find weak spots in the enemy lines. The second wave, led by Death Korps Grenadier units were to hit the weak spots hard, gaining a foothold in the defences lines and hold them until day two, when the third wave, would move through them and expand the breach. Once this was completed, the 61st Tank regiment would be released from reserve to smash through the hold. All this would follow days of heavy bombardment in 46-39 and its adjoining sectors.As the Death Korps prepared for the assault, they brought forward large numbers of guns from the bombardment korps and more men in the infantry companies, all the time under harassing enemy mortar and artillery fire. When the guardsmen went over the top of their trenches, the infantry's own mortars would provide plunging fire into the enemy positions. Behind them, in the second line of trenches would be heavy mortars and quad launchers, targeting identified enemy heavy weapons positions. Still further back would be Medusa Siege Tanks, targeting enemy bunkers and pillboxes. Further behind even these would be the Earthshakers, providing a dense rolling barrage that would precede the infantry companies to pin the enemy infantry in their shelters. These guns would then switch to counter-battery fire against suspected or detected enemy artillery positions. Finally, there were the Bombards. These monstrous guns would be adding their considerable weight to the rolling barrage, then switch to hit enemy strong points deeper in the defence zone. Over 4 million artillery shells had been stockpiled to support the offensive, it would be the heaviest barrage of the war yet, concentrated across three sectors.The guns of the 21st bombardment korps opened fire, assisting the siege regiment's own artillery companies. It began five days of shelling that would soften up the enemy for the coming attack. The remorseless guns of the Death Korps turned no-man's land and the forward enemy positions into a cratered landscape. The drumbeat tempo of the devastating display of firepower pounded the enemy day and night. It seemed that when the attack went forwards, there would be nothing left to stand in the way. At 212813.M41 the first attacking companies were in place, filling the front line trenches as the squads packed shoulder to shoulder. Overhead the barrage intensified, crescendoing into a rolling thunder of noise as the explosions followed each other so quickly they became a single wall of noise. Then suddenly, it was over, as horrible silence engulfed the battlefield as the guns lifted their barrage. The order to advance was given over the vox-net.As one, the first squads surged forwards towards the scaling ladders and appeared above the parapet and moved forwards, dodging through their own wire to form lines of dark, hunched figures advancing through the craters of no-man's land. But despite the ferocity of the bombardment many of the enemy had survived, hidden deep within their personnel shelters underground. As the bombardment stopped, the enemy squads rushed to man their defences. After advancing more than twenty yards, the guns of the enemy opened up. Even as the shells exploded amongst the ranks of advancing guardsmen, the Death Korps, resolute and steadfast, continued to advance in parade ground order. And so, they died, scythed down by enemy fire, as they walked long into a pitiless hurricane of enemy fire.To add to the Death Korps' misery, the pre-sighted enemy artillery began to land all around them, no-man's land lighting up with explosions, plumes of flames and earth fountaining amongst the attackers' lines. Bodies were flung into the air like rag dolls by the shell impacts. But still the advancing lines did not falter, on they came, walking ever forwards into the firestorm. As the intensity of the fire grew, some squads went to ground, scrambling into shell craters for cover, only for more plunging enemy artillery to land amongst them. Officers urged their platoons onwards, only to be cut down in turn. Back in the trenches the next squads were assembling, as the shells and bullets whined overhead, they fixed bayonets and waited their turn to charge into the maelstrom.As they next squad of men climbed the ladders, many were immediately hit, and fell backwards onto their comrades in the trench behind them. Those that did make it over the parapet could barely make it ten yards before being forced to ground. A few squads made it to the enemy lines, charging at the defensive units, bayonets level, hurling grenades ahead of them. But even here they were met by an enemy who fought hard, holding their positions to the last man. In sector 469-391 nowhere did any platoon reach the enemy lines. Of 32nd Company's nine platoons some 600 strong at the outset, 542 were killed or injured in the first wave. Every officer was killed. At roll-call that evening, the 58 survivors were not enough men to constitute a single full strength platoon.Despite the slaughter ahead of them, in the second line trenches and communication trenches the second wave stoically prepared for its turn to attack. Amongst the jostling men, grenadier squads lumbered forwards under their heavy armour. They faced an advance into almost certain death. Such it was to be a soldier of the Death Korps. The second wave would walk the same ground over which the first had been all but destroyed. On cue, the second wave launched their assault as planned, adding their bodies to the first wave. All day long the slaughter continued, until nightfall saw a halting of the attack. Throughout the night the wounded crawled back over the parapet as the occasional star-shell exploded overhead to reveal a hellish scene of writhing figures. Some survivors held their position in no-man's land throughout the night. Sporadic firefights ensued as brave men still attempted to press forwards towards their objectives.The cost had been horrific and the gains negligible. At dawn, the slaughter continued. The third wave launched their attack as well, and it too, paid a heavy toll in blood for no gains. The desired breakthrough never came. The defence lines' construction work had been completed, and if anything, improved upon, and the line held. At 218813.M41, the enemy launched its own counter-attack, hoping to exploit its victory, against the surviving Krieg units now back in their trenches. They traitor's counted upon their attackers being weakened by the heavy losses. But the battered men of Krieg manned their heavy weapons, most of these were still in place having never been committed to the ill-fated assault across no-man's land. All along the line determined fire halted the attack, and the quad-launchers and heavy mortars of the second line quickly adjusted their fire, pinned the enemy down. By nightfall the enemy attack had spent itself, their dead piled on top of the men of Krieg. The opposing sides were again at a stalemate. The artillery duel continued, but the fury of three days of battle had subsided.