Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Tannenberg Battle (2)
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5 AM at dawn.
As light began to slowly appear over the horizon.
"Advance."
The German army's first regular Stormtroopers emerged from the trenches.
"No reaction from the enemy."
"They've dropped their guard."
It was just as he said.
The Russian Second Army was exhausted. Supplies were cut off, and their alert status had essentially been lifted.
However, considering that the Stormtroopers also had no artillery support, it wasn't easy to judge which side held the advantage.
But soon, everything would become clear.
"Planks."
Thud. At the squad leader's order, the soldier immediately laid wooden planks over the barbed wire.
The sun rose over the horizon, urging them on.
"Enter."
Bang bang bang! The hurried sounds of boots crossing the planks cut through the dawn air.
In that instant, an enemy soldier opened his eyes and lifted his head. The squad made eye contact with them.
"What the—!"
"Enemy attack! Enemy att—! Argh!"
Rat-a-tat-tat!!! Hastily spraying submachine gun fire, the squad entered the trench.
Luckily, a few rounds hit the enemy soldiers, but it made a huge noise.
"What's going on?!"
"Arm yourselves quick! Damn it, how did we miss the watch—!"
"Grenade!"
Boom!! Rat-a-tat-tat!! The curtain rose on full-scale combat.
The Stormtroopers gleefully sprayed bullets and lobbed grenades.
"They called this the Lieutenant's Period Cramps! It packs a punch!"
"Hahaha! Sweep away these barbaric Slavic pigs!"
"Don't get excited."
As Germany fully adapted to mass production methods, the MP40 submachine gun demonstrated reliability and accuracy completely different from before.
Of course, in the trenches, the rat-a-tat-tat of a submachine gun spraying bullets was far more threatening than the bang! bang! of rifles.
"Argh!!"
"Hans! Damn it, shoot already!"
Of course, machine guns were unbeatable, but simply enveloping their positions held great significance.
"Fire the mortars!! You lot, push in!"
Whoosh—!!! The heavy weapons unit that followed soon after spewed fire. Not figuratively, but literally flames.
"U, uwaaaah!!"
"Advance! Avoid combat and keep infiltrating!"
The Russian troops, just roused from sleep, couldn't regain their footing against the Stormtroopers' ferocious assault.
Especially the flamethrowers spewing fire appeared as true devil's weapons to these peasant conscripts who had been plowing fields until recently.
As the flames spread, even screams were swallowed up.
Some knelt right there, watching their comrades burn alive.
Flamethrowers were inefficient. But for setting fortresses ablaze, nothing was as reliable.
"Surrender! Surrender!"
"Hand them over to the follow-up units."
The Stormtroopers paid no attention to those surrendering and pressed forward.
If necessary, they confiscated or destroyed weapons, but that was it.
And so, Rommel's Stormtroopers achieved the first breakthrough of the Second Army's trenches.
The Eighth Army's large-scale counterattack commenced.
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"Report from 1st Assault Company: Enemy trench line breached!!"
"That's it!!"
"Wooo!!"
Cheers and shouts exploded in the command post.
But it was too early to claim victory. I quickly calmed my subordinates and issued orders like a storm.
"Send a messenger to division HQ immediately! Tell them to dispatch follow-up units!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Relay to 2nd, 3rd, 4th Companies and the rest to follow 1st Company!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Battalion HQ advances position. The deputy battalion commander handles operations, and I'll take a motorcycle to check the front lines myself."
"Y-Yes... sir?!"
"That's too dangerous, sir!"
Tsk, I thought the chaos would make it slip by, but they had some leeway?
But I'd already made up my mind.
For a perfect breakthrough and maximizing gains, it was unavoidable.
"Adjutant, let's go."
"At least take a car!"
"How do you use a car in those muddy trenches?"
"But..."
"No arguments. Grab my rifle too. Hurry!"
Urging the dawdling adjutant, I rushed outside.
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"What the fuck!"
The 22nd Infantry Division's 1st Battalion was being torn to shreds.
It felt like the defensive line had been breached in just a few hours—or mere minutes, subjectively—and Battalion Commander Mikhail was increasingly becoming a bystander to a major incident.
He could only grit his teeth in frustration, sending messengers to division HQ begging them to shell the enemy—and his own battalion.
"Tell them to retreat again, quick! Our own artillery will hit that position soon!"
"The messengers aren't returning!"
"We've completely lost contact with 1st and 2nd Companies..."
"What are we to do?"
Rat-a-tat-tat! Hearing gunfire in the distance, Battalion Commander Mikhail jerked his head up.
"Damn it! We're retreating too! Gather all important documents and burn what we can't!"
"No time!"
"No! Even in retreat, we must follow doctrine...!"
Rat-a-tat-tat! This burst of gunfire was much closer.
It was enough to make ghosts wail. How could they be this fast if they weren't phantoms?
"...R-Retreat."
Only then did the battalion commander grasp the situation and issue the retreat order, but it was already too late.
Boom!! A massive explosion startled the battalion commander and his staff, sending them rushing outside.
"Damn."
"Put out the fire! Get buckets, quick!"
"Arm yourselves! It's mortars!"
Smoke was rising from the supply depot.
"Sir! Get away quic—"
Boom! Boom! Not content with hitting the supply depot, shells kept raining down.
Rat-a-tat-tat!! Chaos gripped the HQ, and soon suppressive machine gun fire began from afar.
"Urgh..."
There were no defenses at battalion HQ, let alone any proper combat troops.
Contact with all subordinate combat units was severed.
"...Raise it."
"Pardon?! What?!"
"Raise the white flag..."
The battalion commander had completely lost the will to fight, and as the white flag went up, the gunfire died down.
His staff, hastily burning documents, quickly gave up.
Soon, a man who appeared to be an enemy commander arrived on a motorcycle.
There was someone in the sidecar too, whose pupils were trembling endlessly. He kept rapidly talking to the commander, who half-listened while driving.
"I inform you that you are now surrounded by friendly forces. I advise you to disarm and surrender immediately."
"...What is your name?"
When the battalion commander swallowed his humiliation and asked, the enemy commander grinned.
"I am Erwin Rommel, Battalion Commander. Follow-up units will handle you, so wait here."
"Wha-what?!"
Even in surrender, to abandon them? The battalion commander stared at Rommel in disbelief.
But Rommel was busy ordering the soldiers who had followed.
"Continue to the next point. We must move as fast as possible."
"B-But sir, the troops are exhausted."
"That's unfortunate. If you're done, resume the advance."
Coldly brushing off the soldier, he turned back to the battalion commander.
"I say again, you are surrounded. If you try anything foolish... you won't be treated well, so mind yourselves."
"At least treat us as prisoners! Who abandons surrendering troops and just leaves?!"
As the battalion commander snapped, Rommel chuckled softly.
"Sorry, but I'm a busy man, so that's difficult. Farewell."
"...Is this really how it ends?"
Vroom! As Rommel departed, the battalion commander stared blankly at his back.
The Germans glanced at him pityingly before moving on.
"...Fuck, my life."
Much later, the battalion commander finally received the prisoner treatment he'd so desperately wanted.
...Though he wasn't particularly happy about it.
In fact, upon hearing they hadn't actually been surrounded, they caused a suicide uproar in the camp.
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"Battalion Commander, this is insane!!"
"What now."
"We've advanced too far! Our retreat will be cut off!"
"No, the other battalions are following properly."
"Even accounting for that, this is too protruded!"
Whatever, I can't hear you.
The wind's too loud.
"Next, hit the regiment, maybe even the division."
"Fuuuuck!"
The adjutant wailed beside me, but there was nothing he could do.
Good thing I took the wheel.
"The trucks are keeping up? The roads didn't look easy."
"How should I know? We'd have to stop and get a report."
"..."
He's getting cocky because I've been too lenient.
Why do all my subordinates change like this? I'm a charismatic officer, you know.
"Ah, there it is!"
"P-Please, sir!"
Soon, the enemy regimental HQ appeared just as marked on the map.
With the front collapsing, people were rushing about issuing commands.
Hmm, the companies should arrive soon, but...
"No time to wait."
"...Sir?"
Sensing something ominous, the adjutant looked at me in alarm.
"No, right?"
"..."
"M-My pistol."
"Hey, calm down. You want a court-martial?"
As the adjutant fumbled tremblingly at his holster, I said that and hit the accelerator.
The adjutant's mouth fell open.
"This can't be...!"
"Surrender!!"
At my shout, a finely dressed officer in the distance whipped his head toward me in surprise.
The entire regimental HQ aimed guns at me.
I wasn't fazed at all and yelled again.
"You are surrounded! Surrender immediately!"
My lips curled up, and my fingertips tingled.