Going Dutch

By Sandy Addison

It's early summer in 1947, and shortly after the Canadian offensive to breach the Siegfried Line, the Germans launched their own offensive to retake Antwerp and cut the Allied offensive in two.

The Canadian Army is in an excellent position to flank the German offensive, but the only unit available is an inexperienced corps of Dutch infantry. To aid them in their attempt to assault a Rift tech-strengthened army, the Canadian HQ has stripped the walkers out of the Canadian infantry divisions and sent them as aides to the Dutch units.

Sergeant Alex Mackenzie and her crew are definitely Going Dutch... paying for their role in helping their allies to achieve victory against a dangerous and fanatical opponent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sandy Addison
• Release date: Sep 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005518516

Sandy Addison

I'm a 50 year old neurodiversified guy who had come to writing thanks to the websites deviantART and Smashwords, and the encouragement of some really good friends. I started posting adult stories under a pen name got some good feedback and kept writing because I firmly believe in the 10,000 hour theory and that ultimately writers write.After posting a couple of stories on deviantART I checked out Smashwords and seeing how easy it was to publish an eBook and all the different things people were trying I decided there really wasn't any excuse for me not to throw my hat into the ring.

Book preview

Going Dutch

Characters and Story Copyright 2022, Sandy Addison

Background and Technical Information Copyright 2016 By Clockwork Goblin and Warlord Games

Permission has been granted to the Author to use this material to create fiction works within the setting.

Image and Logo Copyright 2016 By Clockwork Goblin

Cover Art by Scott P. 'Doc' Vaughn

Published by Sandy Addison at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Dedication

A Note regarding the Rank Spellings

Prologue

Chapter 1: Fall Dreizack

Chapter 2: An Evening Out

Chapter 3: Look to the Skies

Chapter 4: Step-Counter Step

Chapter 5: Setting Out

Chapter 6: Once More into the Breach

Chapter 7: First Blood

Chapter 8: Pushing Through

Chapter 9: The Duel

Chapter 10: Aftermath

Chapter 11: Proper British Ceremony

About the Author

Other books by this Author

Connect with Sandy Addison

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Cliff A and Matt O for their long-time support and editing help with both this and other projects. One could not ask for better brothers both actual and figurative. This has been especially the case in this year of personal health issues.

A big shout out to Scott Vaughn (www.warbirdsofmars.com) as well. Not only for his cover and layout, but his patience with me as I deal with life changing health concerns.

Finally, a big thank you goes to Chris Hale (www.clockworkgoblinminis.co.uk) at Clockwork Goblin for allowing me to play around again in his sandbox. If you ever make it out to Vancouver Chris; the first round is on me.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my all my friends and family who have stepped up and helped this year as I recover from a stroke. Their assistance has allowed me to live at home without having to pay strangers to come in and help me.

A Note regarding the Rank Spellings

As some readers may already know Lieutenant is pronounced as Leftenant within the British Commonwealth. As one of my ex-military friends put it. "Our officers do not manage toilets." In an effort to write a legitimate ‘Canadian Accent’ where Lieutenant is spoken by a non-American character, I’ve written it as Leftenant. In all other instances I’ve written it Lieutenant.

Prologue

From Walking into Germany: A Fighting Woman’s Story by Sarah May 1955

After the Siegfried line was breached, I thought that Winnie and his crew had just contributed to the battle that was the actual start of the end of the war.

The Germans however had different ideas. With a blast of artillery and their ever-present Nebelwerfers, they announced their new offensive directly south of the breach that the Canadians had just made in their line. Their goal was, in an acknowledged repeat of other German attacks, the port of Antwerp. They believed that this would rob us of our major port for supplies and cut our forces in half. Hitler and his generals seemed not to understand that the Western Allies had opened every port in France, Belgium, and Holland, and repaired and improved these countries’ road and railroad networks, to the point where we could lose Antwerp and it wouldn’t affect our offensive at all, either to the north or south.

I’m still not sure how much the German attack was a response to the Canadian offensive or just a horrible coincidence. The large pro-German contingent within many western historical circles would believe that it was the former, citing superior German planning and flexibility of command which allowed them to ‘instantly’ plan, organize, and create a logistical chain for an entire Panzer Army’s offensive, not just a local counter-attack. I don’t believe the German Heer was ever that good (even in the miracle years of 1940 and 1941).

Unlike many of these Academics, who never served, or if they did, never left North America, I fought the Germans and knew officers who had been fighting and beating them for years. The Germans weren’t that good. Solid fighters definitely, but they were fighting largely on the defensive, with shorter internal lines of communications. The Western Allies were attacking and were plagued with long lines of communications that always had to travel at least one body of water. Yet despite these limitations, the Allied material advantage over the Germans had been clear from the start of 1943.

Of course, it didn’t hurt the Allied cause that the Germans defended by attacking and the Allies attacked by defending so it was the Germans that ended up taking the higher casualties in many engagements since the start of the war.

I am convinced that if not for the presence of rift-tech this war would have been over months if not years ago.

Of course, this really didn’t matter to a young gunner in a walker who had just survived her first breaching battle. I was just glad to be alive and that Winnie had chalked up another victory. This exaltation was tempered by the heavy casualties we’d taken and the loss of Corporal Vergami. While we hadn’t been close, at least not as close as she had been with Sergeant Mackenzie, we had bonded over being the only two ‘proper’ Canadians (i.e., from Toronto) in a Battalion of Westerners with a sprinkling of Maritimers.

What I owed most to Corporal Vergami was her taking the time to explain Hockey to me. Becoming a lifelong Maple Leafs fan soon followed. The rest of my crewmates thought that this was a particular piece of heresy. Becky in particular never forgave me for this transgression. Why Becky, a Ukrainian girl from Saskatchewan, was such a fanatic Montreal Canadians fan was beyond me; yet she was.

Anyways, hockey gave Winnie’s crew something to talk about while we performed the endless hours of maintenance that were necessary to keep the Grizzly moving ever forward.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to talk hockey after the breach of the Siegfried line. While the Canadian Armour of the 2nd Canadian Corps made it to their objective through the line, the American 9th Army was diverted from its follow-up attacks, that would have gotten to Hamburg, to a blocking position to limit the German 5th Panzer Army movements north. The Canadian Army was tasked with hitting the Germans’ exposed flank. Unfortunately, the only force we had that could move quickly enough to actually do that was the Dutch Corps of three Dutch infantry divisions, one Dutch Armored Brigade, and the attached Polish Armoured Brigade Group.

Other than the Poles, the Dutch Corps was made up of untried units, with completely untried command staff. Oh, they were eager and no one questioned their bravery, but those traits, unless combined with first-rate staff work, usually resulted in high casualties with little to show for it. To help stiffen the Dutch Corps, in its attack, the Canadian Army high command hatched a plan that, while it looked good on paper, had an ‘interesting’ impact on the walker platoons of the three Canadian Infantry divisions.

Chapter 1: Fall Dreizack

As the sound of German rockets could be heard hitting the British Positions, SS-Hauptsturmführer Peter Fuchs waited with an icy calm within his Heuschrecke walker. The Heuschrecke was a new design for the German Heer. It was the first German medium walker that had borrowed heavily from the American walker models. Of course, the superior German engineers had improved upon the design. Like its American counterparts, it was roughly human-shaped, having a torso, two arms, and two legs. That was however where the similarities ended. The Heuschrecke packed a lot more firepower than the American walkers and