Battle of Bloody Gulch

Battle of Bloody Gulch
Part of 10 Days War
A machine gun crew of the Verteidigungsstaffel fires their MG-12 at entrenched Porantan soldiers during the battle
Date 20 January 1913 Location Auerbach, Hundermenschen Result Decisive Rotgeheiman victory
Belligerents
Rotgeheim	Porant
Commanders and leaders
Viktor Falkenberg Walter Karl Ulrich	Unknown
Units involved
1st VS-Panzer Division Kaiser Florian von Horn 5th VS-Panzer Division Wiking	Unknown Infantry Regiment
Strength
38,181 soldiers 200 tanks	2,500 soldiers
Casualties and losses
Dead: 340 Wounded: 482 Missing: 74 Captured: 2	Dead: Over 900 Wounded: Over 1,300 Missing: 200 Captured: 1,400

The Battle of Bloody Gulch (also known as the Battle of Auerbach) was an engagement between military forces of Porant and Rotgeheim that took place on 20 January, 1913, in the small town of Auerbach, Hundermenschen. This engagement was the first contact between Porant and Rotgeheim in the 10 Days War and resulted out of a surprise confrontation between the opposing forces. It lasted from 6:14 a.m. to roughly 5:00 p.m., when the 5th VS-Panzer Division under the command of Generalmajor Walter Karl Ulrich took control of the town.

Background

This battle was the first in a series of engagements between the militaries of Rotgeheim and Porant. Rotgeheim arrived in Hundermenschen with the 1st VS-Panzer Army of the Verteidigungsstaffel (which was not the formal military, rather, it was a paramilitary quick-reaction force) in response to the Poratan invasion of the country. Rotgeheim sent roughly 230,000 troops of the Verteidigungsstaffel to counter the threat that Porant posed. The II VS-Panzerkorps - comprised of the 1st VS-Panzer Division Kaiser Florian von Horn, 5th VS-Panzer Division Wiking, 11th VS-Panzergrenadier Division Selbstständigkeit, and 16th VS-Panzer Division Sturm - was the first Rotgeheiman formation to land and head off toward its ultimate goal of eliminating the Porantan invaders. It was expected that the Porantan military would have a defensive perimeter about 30 km around the beachhead, but in reality the perimeter stretched 50 km around. Auerbach was just inside this 50 km-long defensive line.

Opening Engagement

First Encounter

Early in the morning on 20 January the 5th Reconnaissance Battalion of the 5th VS-Panzer Division Wiking was ordered to begin scouting the area around Auerbach. This reconnaissance trip would precede the main advance of the whole of Wiking, as well as elements of the 1st VS-Panzer Division Kaiser Florian von Horn once it caught up. A patrol of armored cars was dispatched and began probing the area around Auerbach before they began to receive small arms fire from hidden emplacements and trenches in the outskirts of the town. A few casualties were sustained and at least one armored car was lost while attempting to contact help. At 6:14 a.m. the lead armored car radioed battalion headquarters for assistance, which subsequently relayed the message to all available units in the area.

Reinforcements Arrive

The first available units to come to the scouting column's aid were the lead tanks of the 3rd Panzer Battalion of Wiking. These units were equipped with the main battle tank in service with the Verteidigungsstaffel, the PzKmpf XI Panthera. The high-velocity guns and thick armor were able to withstand all hits sustained while relieving the beleaguered scouting column. The tanks encircled the reconnaissance units in an iron sphere of safety to allow for the evacuation of the wounded and dead. In the next hour the rest of the 3rd Panzer was able to link up with its vanguard and draw a definitive line between the two opposing factions.

Later in the morning, as the fighting continued between the 3rd Panzer Battalion the entrenched Porantan troops, the first armored units of the 1st VS-Panzer Division Kaiser Florian von Horn and 5th VS-Panzer Division Wiking began to trickle into the battle area. By 11:00 a.m. half of the armored strength of both Kaiser Florian von Horn and Wiking were present, numbering roughly one hundred tanks. Accompanying infantry arrived at 11:30 and began to prepare for the assault on the town.

Main Engagement

Assault on the Town

At roughly 12:20 p.m. the tanks of Kaiser Florian von Horn and Wiking revved up and began to move out. The 1st VS-Panzer Division was tasked with circling around the left flank of Auerbach and assaulting once they arrived on the western-most edge of the town, while the 5th VS-Panzer Division was responsible for attacking head-on with the brunt of the armored strength of the two divisions. Kaiser Florian von Horn met weak resistance on the left flank and overran the western trenches with the Panzergrenadiers that joined the fight. Once they reached their stopping point, the division hooked east and plowed straight into the weak defenses on the west of the town. Wiking was met with stiffer resistance, but did not suffer any casualties. Rotgeheiman infantry flooded the trenches and killed or pushed back all Porantan defenders.

The trenches on the western, southern, and eastern sides of the town were quickly overrun by advancing Rotgeheiman infantry supported by armor. Retreating Porantan soldiers hastily fortified buildings and reinforced the northern trenches in anticipation of the advancing armor and Panzergrenadiers. Armor columns from Kaiser Florian von Horn and Wiking changed their course and hooked left and right, respectively. The encirclement of Auerbach was completed around noon.

Destruction of the Porantan Garrison

After the encirclement of the Porantan forces was complete the objective of destroying the remaining defenders was at hand. The 2nd Panzer Regiment of the 1st VS-Panzer Division began making thrusts southward from the northern side of Auerbach to break the line, but was initially unsuccessful. The last 1,600 Porantan troops put up stiff resistance on the northern flank, although the eastern, southern, and western sides had already fallen and the surviving troops had pulled northward to link up with the last bastion of defense (which happened to be the Auerbach Town Hall). Repeated attacks of both armor and infantry were repelled by the defending Porantan soldiers within the building they were holed up inside. By 3:00 p.m. roughly 1,000 able-bodied defenders were still engaging the attacking Rotgeheiman troops.

At 4:30 p.m. StuG VI assault guns of Wiking arrived on the northern flank of Auerbach and began to give close fire support to the advancing Panzergrenadiers of Wiking and Florian von Horn. The western half of the building collapsed due to the firing of the StuG VI assault guns and claimed the lives of roughly a hundred Porantan soldiers. This prompted the commanding officer of the defending troops to attempt a break out as soon as possible. Roughly 500 able-bodied troops in the Auerbach Town Hall abandoned the 1,300 wounded troops taking refuge in the lower levels of the building and rushed out of the eastern hall into the murderous fire of the Panzergrenadiers of Wiking. The Porantan troops scrambled for cover in a low gully between two roads on the eastern side of Auerbach, only to be trapped there under intense fire for roughly half an hour. Less than one hundred troops survived the breakout attempt.

Aftermath

Panzergrenadiers of Kaiser Florian von Horn were the first to enter the front entrance of the Auerbach Town Hall and were able to capture all 1,300 wounded Porantan troops were captured without firing a shot. The division Pioneers cleared enough rubble that it was able to start moving men and materiel into the town before nightfall. The less than one hundred surviving troops from the so-called "bloody gulch" were rounded up and transported to a holding area with the other 1,300 troops apprehended.

This engagement marked the first usage of the Rotgeheiman Verteidigungsstaffel and proved its effectiveness in combat. The vast technological and strategic superiority of the Rotgeheiman troops proved to give them the upper hand in battle. The ability for the Rotgeheiman troops to react quickly and efficiently in battle with the resources provided allowed them to encircle and destroy the entirety of the Porantan forces, eliminating the chance that they would escape to fight another day.

The remaining two divisions of the II VS-Panzerkorps, the 11th VS-Panzergrenadier Division Selbstständigkeit, and the 16th VS-Panzer Division Sturm, arrived in Auerbach the next day at 8:00 a.m. The II VS-Panzerkorps, now at full strength, could utilize the town as a center launch off from towards the next objectives.