Before the Weser

Reader(s) listen to the opener, the bass the looming menace of the line:

Now close your eyes, imagine a crisp morning, the mist coming off the Weser, the fog off the low, rolling hills. Visibility is less than a klick. Off in the distance you hear artillery booming, the fires landing somewhere to the east.

A Bundeswher column comes west, their vehicles battered, the soldatten marching, bruised but undefeated. Coming the other direction is a fresh column of American tanks rolling toward the fog bank ahead, the spear of an American armored division. Somewhere to the south a British column rolls into battle.

Gradually the American column disappears in the fog and then the morning peace is shattered and the fog pierced by yellow and orange flashes as NATO desperate counterattack begins...