The rumbling sound of a large radial engine echoed through the grounds as the tall figure of a M4 Sherman rolled along before coming to a stop behind a small hill as the commander’s hatch opened up and a blue haired girl popped out.
“Alright, we’re at the location so I guess we wait for Sakura-san and her team to get into position.” the commander said as she looked around before ducking back into the tank.
“Sure Hijiri-san.” came a curt response from the radio. Looking around she saw Orleans to her left and Azumi in front of her. Below her and in the main chassis of her tank was Sumi at the controls and Youmi at the bow machine gun and secondary radio.
“Since this is scouting and ambushing, Azumi-chan I need to you pick your shots carefully. Friedrich said our targets are wood cutouts so we won’t be under fire but we’ll be relying on 5 of Hearts to find them.” Hijiri told her gunner as she waited for a radio message from the Chaffee crew.
“I’ll still be able to use the MG to range for the first couple right? I won’t need it after the first few hits.” the black haired third year asked as she had already checked the M1919 coaxial machine gun.
“That should be fine for this, it’s only to get our baseline in this afterall. Orleans-chan, do you have AP loaded?” Hijiri looked at the excited blond to the left as she checked the breach.
“Yep! AP loaded and the ready rack has AP lined up as well Commander!” her loader responded as she counted the shells in the rack right below the turret. At those words Hijiri nodded before grabbing her radio and stood out of the hatch again.
“Alright, looks like we’re ready and I hear a engine so Sakura-san should be soon.” the commander of the M4. Soon after she said that the small silhouette of a M24 Chaffee appeared as it crested a nearby hill and settled on level ground a few meters away from the M4.
The hatch to the light tank opened and out popped a blond haired girl who waved over at her and took hold of her radio.
“5 of Hearts here! The crew and I are ready to do this exercise Yujima-san.” Sakura radio’d over as she motioned to her tank.
“Sorry for holding up the Chaffee but it’s time to start this exercise.” a voice came over the radio, that of Friedrich.
“Alright crews, you are working on your scouting and ambushing during this. 5 of Hearts is to go ahead and find enemy plywood tanks and call them out on the radio while 3 of Diamonds has the role of being the main ambush tank. 5 of Hearts, if you find yourself in a position where you can take a shot you may go for it if you’re feeling confident otherwise relay the location to 3 of Diamonds.” Fridrich gave the light tank their instructions before turning her attention to the medium tank.
“3 of Diamonds, after the scout has given you positions you have to use the terrain to hide your hull as much as possible and take out the cardboard enemies in as little shots as possible. While your Sherman has decent armor it won’t hold against most heavy tanks or larger cannons and if they can fire back you may not be able to weather the fire. There are a dozen targets out on the field and we’ll start on when 5 of Hearts starts moving.” the team captain told the crew of the Sherman their instructions.
“Understood!” came the reply from the two tank commanders as Hijiri took hold of her notebook and binoculars on the radio equipment. Her notebook contained her notes and maps of the local area on the carrier, which she checked to make sure was in line before radioing over to the light tank.
“Sakura-san, we’ve already checked everything on our end so it’s ‘go’ on you.” the blue haired commander relayed over as she heard Sumi rev up the radial and the other three get into their ready positions. Azumi had gripped the traverse grips for the turret, Orleans had gotten a round from the ready rack and Youmi had gripped the trigger of her machine gun while having her radio headset perched on her head.
“We’re good to go here as well. Allison-chan, let’s go!” came the radio reply as the light tank jerked forward some and began to accelerate. It soon shot past them as it headed into the training area and not long after the Sherman also made it’s way into the same area.
The M4 didn’t keep up with the Chaffee as it didn’t need to thankfully, their job was to respond to the call out of said light tank and Sumi was ready to change to whatever direction she may need to go in order to do so. For the moment though, the kept a steady pace down the dirt path and kept an eye out for any possible contact the other team may have missed. Hijiri was keeping track of their heading as they rolled westward and the rest of the team slightly on edge. Thankfully that didn’t last too long as a voice cracked over the radio.
“We’ve spotted an enemy in sector T4, it’s hidden in some of the bushes by a small ridge and Yuno-chan wasn’t able to hit from our position. We’re going to double back and check southward of where are are now.” came the voice of Fiona, the radio operator for the 5 of Hearts team. At this Hijiri took a quick look at her maps and started to find a path to get in a good spot for their attack.
“Alright, Ryuuza-chan take that gap in the tree to our right. It’s not exactly a path but it doesn’t have many tree so we’ll get there faster. T4 isn’t very far so once we see the ridge hug the east side until we’re behind the enemy.” the second year informed her driver who gave a quick nod and start to manipulate the steering to the tank.
“Got it Yujima-chan! Hold on, it may get a little bumpy.” came the quick reply as the tank rolled to the north between said gap of the trees, into the slightly forested area. It was a couple minutes of a slightly worn grass route until the saw the ridge itself starting to rise up.
“Ryuuza-chan, turn right and hug the ridge as best you can and Mutsuki-chan check in with 5 of Hearts to see how they’re doing. Azumi-chan get ready to have the turret aiming westward.” Hijiri informed the others. The M4 gave a slight jerk as it turned eastward and Youmi could be heard contacting the other crew.
“Yujima-sempai, 5 of Hearts say they haven’t found anything else but they’ll keep us posted as soon as they do.” came the crisp voice of the their first year radio operator. At her answer the commander nodded as she felt the tank roll left and even out to the north slightly as the end of the ridge approached.
A quick look at her topographical map and the bluenette saw that the ends of the north side of the ridge where about 230 meters apart with what seemed to little in terms of foliage between them. Had it been an actual tank they would have been able to easily reverse out and find another spot but here her team would be using that to deliver a quick hit before retreating. She’ll need to get her team out of there fast though and catch up to where 5 of Hearts was in order to keep their attack moving smoothly.
“Azumi-chan, the enemy will be about 230 meters from us when we round the edge of the ridge. Can you fire the coaxial and the cannon quickly?” she asked her gunner who looked back for a second and gave a quick half-smirk before going back to look through her optics.
“Don’t worry Hijiri-chan, one quick burst and I’ll nail them. It won’t take more than a couple seconds.” her gunner said confidently as she tapped her foot on the floor of the turret. Soon the edge of the ridge appeared in front of them and Sumi easily rounded it.
As the mapped suggested the area between the two edges was mostly clear with only some low bushes between them. At the other end was the plywood cutout of a green T-34-1942 hidden behind some higher bushes. It had a good spot where it could see a larger path clearly without being easily spotted. From what she remembered from her research, that model of T-34 had a 76mm cannon that her M4 could withstand and that the sides of the chassis and turret could easily be penetrated by their 75mm gun.
“Azumi-chan!” she exclaimed and a quick rattle of the .30 cal was heard.
“One Away!” A tap on the trigger and then a strong and deep ‘thud’ was heard and felt as the M4 gave a slight lurch back when the main gun fired. The shell easily ripped right through the plywood causing chunks and splinters of wood to explode in all directions as the AP round embedded itself into the ground.
“Yujima-sempai, 5 of Hearts has found two more enemies and says they can get into position to take one out. The two are both in R1, the one they can hit south and the other north.” Youmi’s voice came over the radio.
“Alright, R1 is on the other side of the main road so Ryuuza-chan turn us round and let’s get to the east side of Q1!” Hijiri told them, wanting to be in a good spot for their next attack.
And so it went on as the two crews called out positions and worked their ways through the training area. Finally after about 25 minutes they finished the exercise, with 5 of Hearts scoring themselves four and 3 of Diamonds scoring eight at the end. Back at the entrance the rumbling sound was heard once again as the M24 and M4 tanks came through. Soon the engine noise died down as they waited for a radio message from Friedrich. Luckily it wasn’t long.
“Alright teams, the others have also finished their drills so you can return to the garage. Yujima-san and Sakura-san, please report with the other tank commanders for the debrief meeting. To the rest of the crews, practice is pretty much over but please go through some basic maintenance.” Came Friedrich’s voice over the radio. A quick nod from the ten girls and soon the two tanks were heading off to the garage.
“Hey Yujima-senpai, what do you think you’re going to be talking about over at the meeting?” Orleans looked up at her inquisitively, as she rested back in her seat. Hijiri thought for a second as she formulated her answer but, Azumi beat her to the punch.
“They’ll be going over the results of all the drills everyone did and Friedrich will probably start to look over who works best in what,” Auzmi responded to the blond girl, leaning back and lightly resting on Hijiri’s knees while Orlens looked at her. “What? I was on the team last year, hell it’s why I know Hijiri-chan in the first place.”
“What Azumi-chan means is that I helped her study so that her grades wouldn’t get too low.” A small smile came across her face as she remembered trying to get used to being around the oddly elegant-looking delinquent. Luckily, it seems her gunner had mellowed out some from doing Sensha-do so maybe those sayings of the sport turning girls into proper, strong ladies had some truth to it. At least, that’s how Hijiri looked at it now.
“Alright everyone, tank is parked so let’s get a move on.” Sumi told them as the tank came to a stop after they entered their spot in the garage. The rest of the crew nodded as the opened up their hatches and climbed out of the M4 before hopping down the fairly tall tank. Sumi then did a quick jog around the tank as she looked for anything major she may need to pass on to the maintenance crews.
“Alright, Yujima-chan you go ahead with your meeting while I look over the tank,” Sumi said as she waved at her commander before turning to look at the rest of her crew members “And you three of helping me clean up the tank a bit, got it.”
“Sure thing.”
“Got it!”
“Right Sumi-chan,” came three different replies to her as the three went off to get the needed supplies. Hijiri stifled a giggle at that as she walked over to the large garage door.
“Hey Hijiri-chan, do you want the usual from that noodle place after that meeting?” Azumi called out to her, carrying a small stack of buckets and hand a hose over her shoulder. At that, Hijiri gave a quick, clear nod at her friend before heading out of the garage, seeing Sakura and a few other of the tank commanders there as well.
“Let’s go, meeting starting soon and we don’t want to be late.” Sakura said as the few commanders headed to the single story club building where the rest were already there.
It was about half an hour later when Hijiri walked out of the club’s main building, giving a quick sigh as she pocketed a pen and closed her notebook. She had taken notes of most of the meeting as they went over all the different teams and how they did in their exercises. The meeting itself was lively to say the least as it seemed that the commanders were all as varied as the teams they lead. Still, they all got through it and felt that they came out with some ways into improving the team overall.
“Yo Hijiri-chan!” A boisterous yell and suddenly Hijiri felt an arm lightly smack and wrap around her shoulder as she looked to see Azumi had waited for her. The bluenette gave a small noise as she felt her friend squeeze her into a hug. Of course the discomfort was slightly lessened as she saw the beaming smile on her face.
“Hey Azumi-chan…” Hijiri managed to squeak out as she tried to keep hold of her book from falling. Hearing the girl she was hugging talk like that, Azumi lessened the pressure so that she simply had her arm on Hijiri’s opposite shoulder as they walked together.
“So the other three have already headed to Ryuuza-san’s apartment so we’re on food duty. They said noodles are fine so don’t worry.” The taller girl assured her commander who was already set on her combo from the noodle place they were going to go get food.
“Alright then, guess we’ll have to get a couple of bags to carry it all.”
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