Team Yankee
Encyclopedia
Team Yankee is a speculative fiction
novel
written in 1987 by Harold Coyle
, then a major in the United States Army
, whose subject is the actions of a company-sized armor unit of the United States Army in the World War III
scenario as depicted by General Sir John Hackett in his novel, The Third World War
. General Hackett's scenario takes place in 1985; Coyle never specifies the year, but it is assumed to take place in the late 1980s.
The novel achieved best-selling status and became a series of comic book
s, an Origins Award
-winning board
wargame
and later a video game.
and East Germany in the months of August and September; the year is unspecified. The place names and geographic features in the novel are fictional, with the exception of the Thuringer Wald and the Saale River
.
Team Yankee ("Y" in the ICAO and NATO phonetic alphabet
) is an armor-heavy company-sized unit (a "Team" in Army parlance). There is nothing special about his team, either; it is an average company
-sized American unit in an average battalion
of the Regular Army.
Team Yankee is composed of: First Platoon
(Lieutenant Murray Weiss), Second Platoon (Second Lieutenant
McAllister), Mech(anized Infantry) Platoon (Staff Sergeant
Polgar), and Third Platoon (Second Lieutenant Gerry Garger). Captain Sean Bannon is company commander; First Lieutenant
Robert Uleski is the executive officer
; and company first sergeant
is First Sergeant Raymond Harrert.
Captain Bannon is 27 years old, married, and has three children. He studied military history, with a graduate degree, but is seen as an average officer; Coyle notes in the preface that Bannon will probably never rise in rank above lieutenant colonel
.
The team has 10 M1 Abrams
tanks, 5 M113
armored personnel carriers, 2 M901
TOW
missile vehicles, and the infantry is armed with Dragon antitank missiles and 66-millimeter LAWs
. The Team also has a tracked ambulance and an M88 recovery vehicle.
There are four M1A1s in each tank platoon, numbered 11, 12, 13, 14, 21... to 34. The XO's tank is numbered 55; the CO's tank 66.
The parent unit of Team Yankee is the First Battalion, 4th Armor. Currently it is part of Task Force
3-78 Mechanized Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds. TF 3-78 is formed from the First Battalion, 78th Infantry. The brigade commander is Colonel
Brunn.
The task force is composed of: Team Yankee, C Company (Captain Craven) a standard infantry company, D Company, and another armor-heavy Team Bravo. In addition, there is an artillery
support team (a FIST) (Second Lieutenant Rodney Unger) attached.
, particularly in the Persian Gulf
, from July 15 to August 1, when NATO forces are mobilized and moved to the inter-German frontier.
The novel begins with Team Yankee deployed forward towards the frontier with the German Democratic Republic
. Captain Bannon is awakened by a radio check from his Third Platoon Leader, Lieutenant Garger—the third straight day Garger has used his radio to break radio silence. Unable to go back to sleep, Bannon inspects his unit and meets the other principal characters of the novel. He finds Garger, berates him, and decides that with a war coming on, Garger would need to be replaced as a liability.
Meanwhile, at the Army base, Pat Bannon, Sean's wife, understands that the possibility of war is high, and prepares to evacuate her small children while exercising the informal leadership over the other Army wives of Team Yankee.
Colonel Reynolds inspects the forward positions of his task force, including Team Yankee, when the war starts. The Soviets push through the armored cavalry screen and attack the team, in dug in positions under cover. Team Bravo's company commander is killed in combat. Team Yankee repels the Russian attack. To Captain Bannon's pleasant surprise, his problem lieutenant is proving to be quite competent in combat
.
At the base, Pat serves as the informal head of Team Yankee's dependents. She makes a trip into the nearest town to make sure Sandy Garger, Gerry's wife, is recovered. The roads are choked with military and refugee traffic.
Pat Bannon, her children, and all the other dependents make it to Rhein-Main Air Base
, where they await evacuation. As soon as an aircraft lands and offloads American reinforcements, dependents are loaded on the plane. A Soviet air strike occurs while the dependents wait; Pat and her children must run past dead civilians to make the flight.
Meanwhile, the task force and the Team recover from the first firefight. Bannon finds that the attitude of those who have actually seen combat differs from the staff, who are more "rah-rah."
Team Yankee is ordered to attack Hill 214 with C Company in support. There is confusion in orders; Major Jordan, the battalion S-3, orders the attack be halted, while Colonel Reynolds, the battalion commander, orders Bannon to attack. 2LT McAllister, in Tank 21, is killed during the attack.
In the fighting, Bannon's tank, 66, is crippled and his driver is killed. The surviving three crewmen in 66 defeat three T-62
tanks, which did not suspect 66 was still in action; the crew destroys 66 to prevent its capture. Bannon rejoins the Team and takes over Lt. Uleski's 55 tank. C Company never arrives and the Team is forced to fight to hold Hill 214 on its own.
Team Yankee holds off an attack by a Soviet battalion on Hill 214 during the night. Bannon's loader, PFC Richard Kelp, and Private McCauley volunteer to lead a Dragon gunner to engage the enemy on foot. The Dragon gunner is killed and Kelp and McCauley race against time to kill a T-72
before it kills them. Kelp is later awarded a Silver Star for his efforts.
The Team was scheduled to withdraw at 0330 to American lines, but every man in the company, fatigued from the fighting, falls asleep. Bannon wakes up two hours later, wakes up his tank crew and platoon leaders to the universal chorus of "Oh, shit!" Bannon works out a way that the Team can withdraw in daylight with minimal casualties.
Lt. Avery, who has yet to enter combat, finds himself isolated from the other members of the Team. He finds himself even more isolated when the Team starts to paint kill rings on the barrels of each tank.
The brigade to which Team Yankee belongs is ordered to follow up a West German counter attack into East Germany though the Thuringer Wald towards Leipzig
and Berlin
to cut off the Soviet attack in Northern Army Group. Because of the Team's combat experience, Bannon is ordered to lead the attack. Bannon expresses doubts to Colonel Reynolds that the rest of the battalion, in particular C Company, can carry out their role in supporting the armor teams; he is promised that there will be no more "rat-fucks".
The attack is delayed because the enemy, a Polish T-55
tank battalion, launches its attack first, which gives the Team a chance to fight from defensive cover. The Poles fall back and the Task Force pursues. Avery gets his first kill.
The Task Force attack stops to consolidate its gains; the Polish unit that was scattered by Team Yankee reforms and attacks C Company. The Task Force, assisted by a German company, moves to support Captain Cravin's company. In the fight, the battalion XO is hit and taken out of action. D Company, Team Bravo, and the German unit, assisted by American artillery, crush the Polish battalion.
The Task Force halts to reorganize. Bannon sends the Mech Platoon to secure the nearest town. An East German teenager, apparently a member of the Free German Youth
, wounds one of Polgar's infantrymen with an AK-47
rifle and is killed immediately.
The task force headquarters is attacked, severely wounding Colonel Reynolds and cutting off the XO, Major Jordan, from communicating with the Task Force; Bannon finds himself in command of the Task Force and leads three companies to defeat the Soviet counter attack and rescue the Task Force staff.
When asked to give his after-action report, Bannon flippantly quotes the Duke of Wellington
, "They came, you know, in the same old way and we beat them in the same old way."
The Team is assigned a screening role to the main effort, and is ordered to feint as if they intend to capture a bridge over the Saale River. However, due to speed of their attack and a divided command between the Soviet Army and the KGB, Lt. Weiss' platoon is able to capture the bridge intact.
, England
; NATO retaliates by destroying the city of Minsk
. The Task Force is ordered to prepare for nuclear warfare (by dispersion, deeper cover, and protection against the effects of a blast on electronics and optics). Bannon immediately orders a tightening on hygiene and equipment maintenance to lessen the long-term effects of nuclear war.
Bannon prepares for the next attack when the news comes that a cease-fire was declared and the war is over.
in the World War III
scenario as depicted by General Sir John Hackett in his novel, The Third World War
. It also deals with, to a lesser degree, the reactions of men facing combat for the first time, and how they react after seeing combat.
While not directly based on the novel, the game "World at War: Eisenbach Gap" by Mark H Walker http://www.locknloadgame.com/Section_Cat_Content_Detail.asp?SID=33&SCAT=59&ID=55 is based on events and units as laid out in the Team Yankee book and Gen John Hackett's book "The Third World War".
There was a counter and map wargame based directly on the book, that came out in the early 1990s.
published a six-comic book series based on Team Yankee, which was reissued as a graphic novel in 1989. David Drake
wrote the strip. http://david-drake.com/tyankee.html
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written in 1987 by Harold Coyle
Harold Coyle
For the Irish architect, see Harold Edgar Coyle.Harold Coyle is an American author of historical, speculative fiction and war novels including Team Yankee, a New York Times best-seller. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1974 and spent seventeen years on active duty with the U.S...
, then a major in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, whose subject is the actions of a company-sized armor unit of the United States Army in the World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
scenario as depicted by General Sir John Hackett in his novel, The Third World War
The Third World War: The Untold Story
The Third World War: The Untold Story is a novel by Sir John Hackett of a fictional third world war between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces breaking out in 1985, written in the style of a non-fictional historical account...
. General Hackett's scenario takes place in 1985; Coyle never specifies the year, but it is assumed to take place in the late 1980s.
The novel achieved best-selling status and became a series of comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, an Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
-winning board
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
wargame
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
and later a video game.
Plot summary
The novel is set in West GermanyWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and East Germany in the months of August and September; the year is unspecified. The place names and geographic features in the novel are fictional, with the exception of the Thuringer Wald and the Saale River
Fränkische Saale
The Franconian Saale or is a 125 km long river in Bavaria, Germany. It is a right-bank tributary of the Main, in Lower Franconia. It should not be confused with the larger Saxon Saale , which is a tributary of the Elbe River....
.
Team Yankee ("Y" in the ICAO and NATO phonetic alphabet
Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds . The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet....
) is an armor-heavy company-sized unit (a "Team" in Army parlance). There is nothing special about his team, either; it is an average company
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
-sized American unit in an average battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
of the Regular Army.
Team Yankee is composed of: First Platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
(Lieutenant Murray Weiss), Second Platoon (Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
McAllister), Mech(anized Infantry) Platoon (Staff Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...
Polgar), and Third Platoon (Second Lieutenant Gerry Garger). Captain Sean Bannon is company commander; First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
Robert Uleski is the executive officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
; and company first sergeant
First Sergeant
First sergeant is the name of a military rank used in many countries, typically a senior non-commissioned officer.-Singapore:First Sergeant is a Specialist in the Singapore Armed Forces. First Sergeants are the most senior of the junior Specialists, ranking above Second Sergeants, and below Staff...
is First Sergeant Raymond Harrert.
Captain Bannon is 27 years old, married, and has three children. He studied military history, with a graduate degree, but is seen as an average officer; Coyle notes in the preface that Bannon will probably never rise in rank above lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
.
The team has 10 M1 Abrams
M1 Abrams
The M1 Abrams is a third-generation main battle tank produced in the United States. It is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and Commander of US military forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972. The M1 is a well armed, heavily armored, and highly mobile tank designed for...
tanks, 5 M113
M113 armored personnel carrier
The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier that has formed the backbone of the United States Army's mechanized infantry units from the time of its first fielding in Vietnam in April 1962. The M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S...
armored personnel carriers, 2 M901
M901 ITV
The M901 ITV is a United States Army armored vehicle designed to carry a dual M220 TOW launcher. It is based on the ubiquitous M113 Armored Personnel Carrier chassis.- Equipment :...
TOW
BGM-71 TOW
The BGM-71 TOW is an anti-tank missile. "BGM" is a weapon classification that stands for "Multiple Environment , Surface-Attack , Missile ". "TOW" is an acronym that stands for "Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire command data link, guided missile"...
missile vehicles, and the infantry is armed with Dragon antitank missiles and 66-millimeter LAWs
Anti-tank warfare
Anti-tank warfare was created by the need to seek technology and tactics to destroy tanks and their supporting infantry during the First World War...
. The Team also has a tracked ambulance and an M88 recovery vehicle.
There are four M1A1s in each tank platoon, numbered 11, 12, 13, 14, 21... to 34. The XO's tank is numbered 55; the CO's tank 66.
The parent unit of Team Yankee is the First Battalion, 4th Armor. Currently it is part of Task Force
Task force
A task force is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology...
3-78 Mechanized Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds. TF 3-78 is formed from the First Battalion, 78th Infantry. The brigade commander is Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Brunn.
The task force is composed of: Team Yankee, C Company (Captain Craven) a standard infantry company, D Company, and another armor-heavy Team Bravo. In addition, there is an artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
support team (a FIST) (Second Lieutenant Rodney Unger) attached.
Prologue
The prologue begins with a series of quotations from international news sources listing the deteriorating international situation between the United States and the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, particularly in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, from July 15 to August 1, when NATO forces are mobilized and moved to the inter-German frontier.
Chapter 1: Stand-To
(August 3, early morning)The novel begins with Team Yankee deployed forward towards the frontier with the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
. Captain Bannon is awakened by a radio check from his Third Platoon Leader, Lieutenant Garger—the third straight day Garger has used his radio to break radio silence. Unable to go back to sleep, Bannon inspects his unit and meets the other principal characters of the novel. He finds Garger, berates him, and decides that with a war coming on, Garger would need to be replaced as a liability.
Meanwhile, at the Army base, Pat Bannon, Sean's wife, understands that the possibility of war is high, and prepares to evacuate her small children while exercising the informal leadership over the other Army wives of Team Yankee.
Chapter 2: First Battle
(August 3, 0730 hours)Colonel Reynolds inspects the forward positions of his task force, including Team Yankee, when the war starts. The Soviets push through the armored cavalry screen and attack the team, in dug in positions under cover. Team Bravo's company commander is killed in combat. Team Yankee repels the Russian attack. To Captain Bannon's pleasant surprise, his problem lieutenant is proving to be quite competent in combat
Combat
Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....
.
At the base, Pat serves as the informal head of Team Yankee's dependents. She makes a trip into the nearest town to make sure Sandy Garger, Gerry's wife, is recovered. The roads are choked with military and refugee traffic.
Chapter 3: Change of Mission
(August 3, late afternoon/evening)Pat Bannon, her children, and all the other dependents make it to Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base was a U.S. Air Force / NATO military airbase near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It occupied the south side of Frankfurt International Airport. Its airport codes are discontinued....
, where they await evacuation. As soon as an aircraft lands and offloads American reinforcements, dependents are loaded on the plane. A Soviet air strike occurs while the dependents wait; Pat and her children must run past dead civilians to make the flight.
Meanwhile, the task force and the Team recover from the first firefight. Bannon finds that the attitude of those who have actually seen combat differs from the staff, who are more "rah-rah."
Chapter 4: Into the Vacuum
(August 4, morning)Team Yankee is ordered to attack Hill 214 with C Company in support. There is confusion in orders; Major Jordan, the battalion S-3, orders the attack be halted, while Colonel Reynolds, the battalion commander, orders Bannon to attack. 2LT McAllister, in Tank 21, is killed during the attack.
Chapter 5: Hunter and Hunted
(August 4, daytime)In the fighting, Bannon's tank, 66, is crippled and his driver is killed. The surviving three crewmen in 66 defeat three T-62
T-62
The T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank, a further development of the T-55. Its 115 mm gun was the first smoothbore tank gun in use.The T-62 was produced between 1961 and 1975. It became a standard tank in the Soviet arsenal, partly replacing the T-55, although that tank continued to be...
tanks, which did not suspect 66 was still in action; the crew destroys 66 to prevent its capture. Bannon rejoins the Team and takes over Lt. Uleski's 55 tank. C Company never arrives and the Team is forced to fight to hold Hill 214 on its own.
Chapter 6: On The Razor's Edge
(August 4/5)Team Yankee holds off an attack by a Soviet battalion on Hill 214 during the night. Bannon's loader, PFC Richard Kelp, and Private McCauley volunteer to lead a Dragon gunner to engage the enemy on foot. The Dragon gunner is killed and Kelp and McCauley race against time to kill a T-72
T-72
The T-72 is a Soviet-designed main battle tank that entered production in 1970. It is developed directly from Obyekt-172, and shares parallel features with the T-64A...
before it kills them. Kelp is later awarded a Silver Star for his efforts.
Chapter 7: Check and Checkmate
(August 5, 0530 hours)The Team was scheduled to withdraw at 0330 to American lines, but every man in the company, fatigued from the fighting, falls asleep. Bannon wakes up two hours later, wakes up his tank crew and platoon leaders to the universal chorus of "Oh, shit!" Bannon works out a way that the Team can withdraw in daylight with minimal casualties.
Chapter 8: R and R
The Team reaches the nearest town, where, to his fury, Bannon finds soldiers from C Company lounging around. Bannon reports to the task force commander; the Team is placed in reserve, where it can recover and receive reinforcements. 2nd LT. Avery, a classmate from Armor School with 2LT Garger, reports as Lt McAllister's replacement. Avery is puzzled by the slightly distant reception he gets from the Team's officers, including Garger.Chapter 9: Deep Attack
(August 8 to 11)Lt. Avery, who has yet to enter combat, finds himself isolated from the other members of the Team. He finds himself even more isolated when the Team starts to paint kill rings on the barrels of each tank.
The brigade to which Team Yankee belongs is ordered to follow up a West German counter attack into East Germany though the Thuringer Wald towards Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to cut off the Soviet attack in Northern Army Group. Because of the Team's combat experience, Bannon is ordered to lead the attack. Bannon expresses doubts to Colonel Reynolds that the rest of the battalion, in particular C Company, can carry out their role in supporting the armor teams; he is promised that there will be no more "rat-fucks".
The attack is delayed because the enemy, a Polish T-55
T-55
The T-54 and T-55 tanks were a series of main battle tanks designed in the Soviet Union. The first T-54 prototype appeared in March 1945, just before the end of the Second World War. The T-54 entered full production in 1947 and became the main tank for armored units of the Soviet Army, armies of...
tank battalion, launches its attack first, which gives the Team a chance to fight from defensive cover. The Poles fall back and the Task Force pursues. Avery gets his first kill.
Chapter 10: Red Dawn
(August 11, morning)The Task Force attack stops to consolidate its gains; the Polish unit that was scattered by Team Yankee reforms and attacks C Company. The Task Force, assisted by a German company, moves to support Captain Cravin's company. In the fight, the battalion XO is hit and taken out of action. D Company, Team Bravo, and the German unit, assisted by American artillery, crush the Polish battalion.
The Task Force halts to reorganize. Bannon sends the Mech Platoon to secure the nearest town. An East German teenager, apparently a member of the Free German Youth
Free German Youth
The Free German Youth, also known as the FDJ , was the official socialist youth movement of the German Democratic Republic and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany....
, wounds one of Polgar's infantrymen with an AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
rifle and is killed immediately.
Chapter 11: Counterattack
Lt. Avery, in Tank 21, is wounded in an air attack by a Soviet helicopter. First Sergeant Harrert and the maintenance crew salvage the tank, grimly noting it would be back in combat in 24 hours.The task force headquarters is attacked, severely wounding Colonel Reynolds and cutting off the XO, Major Jordan, from communicating with the Task Force; Bannon finds himself in command of the Task Force and leads three companies to defeat the Soviet counter attack and rescue the Task Force staff.
Chapter 12: "They Came in the Same Old Way"
The surviving Task Force staff, led by Major Jordan, resume command. C Company is effectively wiped out and its survivors are integrated with D Company. The Task Force plans to ambush a Soviet battalion heading westward into their position, centered on an East German town. Jordan plans a reverse slope defense, not attacking the Soviets at the logical choke point. The Soviet attackers, harassed by the Task Force scout platoon and U.S. artillery-delivered mines, fail to take the town or the hills to the north of the valley. The Soviet commander moves the south—into Bannon's Team's guns.When asked to give his after-action report, Bannon flippantly quotes the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
, "They came, you know, in the same old way and we beat them in the same old way."
Chapter 13: To the Saale
NATO as a whole, and the Americans in particular, are running short of equipment and manpower. Units that are no longer capable of going on the offensive, or are not holding key terrain, are stripped of their most effective units. Team Yankee is thus moved from Task Force 3-78 to Task Force 1-4 Armored, which is their parent battalion, to continue the attack into Leipzig and Berlin.The Team is assigned a screening role to the main effort, and is ordered to feint as if they intend to capture a bridge over the Saale River. However, due to speed of their attack and a divided command between the Soviet Army and the KGB, Lt. Weiss' platoon is able to capture the bridge intact.
Chapter 14: The Day After
The next day, Bannon finds out that the Soviets have launched a nuclear attack on the city of BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
; NATO retaliates by destroying the city of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. The Task Force is ordered to prepare for nuclear warfare (by dispersion, deeper cover, and protection against the effects of a blast on electronics and optics). Bannon immediately orders a tightening on hygiene and equipment maintenance to lessen the long-term effects of nuclear war.
Bannon prepares for the next attack when the news comes that a cease-fire was declared and the war is over.
Epilogue
The cease-fire holds. Life slowly resumes a routine closer to peacetime. A National Guard division relieves Bannon's division, and Bannon returns to his quarters only two months after he left, to reconnect with his family life.Major themes
It has as a theme the actions of a company-sized armor unit of the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in the World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
scenario as depicted by General Sir John Hackett in his novel, The Third World War
The Third World War: The Untold Story
The Third World War: The Untold Story is a novel by Sir John Hackett of a fictional third world war between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces breaking out in 1985, written in the style of a non-fictional historical account...
. It also deals with, to a lesser degree, the reactions of men facing combat for the first time, and how they react after seeing combat.
Significance
Team Yankee was Coyle's first novel, and its success made Coyle a prominent writer in the field of military fiction.Board Game
Link to information about the board game. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/8101While not directly based on the novel, the game "World at War: Eisenbach Gap" by Mark H Walker http://www.locknloadgame.com/Section_Cat_Content_Detail.asp?SID=33&SCAT=59&ID=55 is based on events and units as laid out in the Team Yankee book and Gen John Hackett's book "The Third World War".
There was a counter and map wargame based directly on the book, that came out in the early 1990s.
Comic book
First ComicsFirst Comics
First Comics was an American comic-book publisher that was active from 1983–1991, known for titles like American Flagg!, Grimjack, Nexus, Badger, Dreadstar, and Jon Sable...
published a six-comic book series based on Team Yankee, which was reissued as a graphic novel in 1989. David Drake
David Drake
David Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the premier authors of the military science fiction subgenre.-Biography:...
wrote the strip. http://david-drake.com/tyankee.html