Chapter 1059: Begging for Bullets

Germany’s methods for dealing with Soviet partisans were not sophisticated; one could even call them primitive. They forcibly relocated entire villages from the deep mountains, concentrating everyone in areas where they could be monitored. Then, they began to comb through the ancient mountain forests with helicopters, armored cars, and mountain infantry, opening fire on any target they saw.

This method was inefficient and time-consuming, but the German army truly had no better way to deal with these troublesome partisans. They were elusive, far more flexible than the Wehrmacht. Apart from a few mountain divisions and special forces, it was difficult to find any unit in the German order of battle that could effectively counter these scattered enemies.

Even decades later, the United States was tormented to death by the partisans in Vietnam, and in the end, the world’s number one superpower had to tuck its tail between its legs and leave that battlefield of mountains and jungles. Similarly, in Afghanistan, the powerful Soviet Union was also battered by local partisans, which indirectly accelerated the Soviet Union’s collapse.

The current German army certainly couldn’t compare in equipment to the US in the Gulf War, and the current level of technology did not allow the German army to use asymmetric warfare to slaughter those troublesome little guerrilla groups. Because even up to the era of Akado’s transmigration, the world still had no particularly good military means of dealing with partisan activities, so at this moment, the German army could only “cross the river by feeling the stones” (learn as they go).

Fortunately, Germany had now entered a wartime footing in all aspects. The country’s mobilization was also relatively thorough. This gave the German army more leeway in enduring casualties and in large-scale troop movements, so for the time being, they could cope with the partisan activity, which was still considered bearable.

Of course, the Germans had creatively developed an effective tactic for large-scale annihilation of partisans, a tactic that was very similar to the helicopter tactics used by the Americans in the Vietnam War. It involved using troops to advance and encircle, and when they made contact with the partisans, they would call in highly mobile helicopters to transport more troops to join the fight, until all the encircled enemies were finished off.

This tactic had helped the German army achieve good anti-partisan results in Poland and Ukraine, and now, when used against the partisans in the Caucasus, it seemed there were no major problems. In half a month, the German army had lost a total of 24 helicopters and about 300 soldiers, but they had successfully wiped out dozens of partisan groups, with the total number of enemy troops annihilated exceeding 4,000.

At the same time, the German army had sent a full 80,000 draftees of various types to the concentration camps in Ukraine and Poland. These people became the lowest stratum, exploited by the labor system in the concentration camps. They had to endure the exploitation of the Germans, and at the same time, the bullying of the Ukrainians and Russians in the camps.

Of course, on the battlefield as a whole, the fighting was still going on. Marshal Manstein’s “three fires” as a new appointee were far from over. At the very least, the number of German troops engaged in clearing out the partisans in the occupied territories had, in half a month, increased from 140,000 to 210,000. And in the same area, the number of partisan attacks on German transport convoys had, due to the intensive encirclement and suppression work, dropped to only two or three times a week.

Of course, at the end of June, the transportation situation for the German army in the Caucasus had suddenly improved. On the one hand, it was because of Marshal Manstein’s outstanding results in clearing the occupied territories. On the other hand, the main reason was that the railway line from the Baku oil fields to Saint Rudolph had been repaired. The German army had concentrated its main transport tasks on the coastal plain railways, which were easier to guard.

On the other hand, the Americans weren’t having an easy time either. In the Pacific theater, large-scale Japanese suicide aircraft attacks on American warships had begun. This caused a certain degree of panic in the U.S. Navy. After all, if this was a tactic that the Japanese army was beginning to deploy on a large scale, it would undoubtedly increase the U.S. Navy’s casualties.

Although the effect of this kind of suicide plane attacking a warship was not that great, it could still plunge the American soldiers into a state of fear. The sight of the other side piloting a plane and crashing into a warship with a one-way-ticket-to-hell attitude, and then the plane exploding into a ball of fire, was indeed shocking enough and terrifying enough.

So the Americans began to nervously deploy countermeasures against this kind of suicide plane, hoping to make their soldiers braver in the face of this kind of life-or-death attack. For a time, the entire Pacific theater was on edge, and the U.S. Navy fleet was driven to a state of paranoia by these planes that were constantly sallying forth to crash into their warships.

An American heavy cruiser, equipped with a new type of radar, had, because it had detected a returning American carrier patrol, entered a state of full martial law. All its anti-aircraft weapons were aimed at a few of the American’s own planes in the distance. If it hadn’t been for them receiving a call from these planes at the last moment, a farce of “friendly fire” would have been staged.

This frantic move by the Japanese army had indeed, to a certain extent, relieved the American offensive pressure. The U.S. Navy’s commander-in-chief, Admiral Nimitz, had, because of this kind of attack, been forced to abandon a portion of his offensive plans. He felt that he should wait until the United States had more aircraft carriers, and then use a safer method to assault the Japanese-occupied islands.

Even so, the island-hopping campaign that had already begun had to continue. For example, on the island where Takemoto Tarō was, the U.S. Marine offensive had, for these reasons, become even more ferocious. The second line of defense, which the Japanese were defending to the death, was beginning to collapse, bit by bit, under the frenzied attack of the American soldiers. Because of a lack of ammunition and supplies, the Japanese counter-attacks and resistance were also becoming weaker and weaker.

In these few days, Takemoto Tarō had seen more and more wounded and routed troops arrive at the port he was guarding, which had already been demolished. Some of these soldiers were from the Nakamura Battalion, which had originally been stationed at the port. But when these men had returned, dejected, they were no longer the spirited troops they had been when they had left, but a routed, broken mob.

“Hey, I say, is the Nakamura Battalion finished?” Takemoto Tarō asked, holding his rifle, as a soldier was assigned to the foxhole where he was. He really wanted to know the war situation at the front, but he had no other way, so he could only ask the soldier who had just been routed. But to ask like this would often get him cursed out by the other.

However, the soldier he had asked seemed to be of a weaker character and did not have such a strong desire to defend his unit. He just leaned against the wall of the foxhole and replied numbly, “Over 400 men assembled to charge in the night. In the end, less than one-tenth of them made it into the American lines. I was on support. After I ran out of bullets, I was ordered to pull back. It was only at dawn that I learned that of the battalion commander and over 400 men, only 28 of us made it back alive.”

Swallowing hard, Takemoto Tarō could only comfort him in a voice that he himself could barely hear. “Er… you fought very bravely. We’ve been announcing your combat results here. It’s good to meet you. My name is Takemoto Tarō. Please take care of me in the future.”

“My name is Kimura Jirō. Please take care of me as well,” the other replied very politely. It was clear that he was also a new recruit who had not been in the army for long. The two of them, as if brought together by fate, began to quietly discuss the war situation on the island.

It turned out that by the time the Nakamura Battalion had begun its counter-attack, the Japanese’s second line of defense had already been on the verge of collapse. The Americans had broken through the Japanese line in several places, and the entire Japanese army was on the brink of collapse. The Nakamura Battalion had been ordered to launch a counter-charge, and only at the cost of a full 700 men had they been able to push the U.S. Marines back from the line.

But these exhausted Japanese soldiers simply did not have the strength to expand their gains, so the front line had once again become a stalemate. Some of the trenches were still in American hands, but the Americans, for a time, were not clear on just how many reserves the Japanese garrison had, so they did not dare to rashly launch an attack.

“Soldiers of 3rd Company! 3rd Company, fall in!” an officer in the distance shouted. He had been unlucky enough to draw the short straw and could only take his own troops to be replenished to the front line, to continue to fight the Americans. A few soldiers straggled to their feet. At a time like this, no one would cover for anyone. They would even report the deserters who didn’t stand up. After all, everyone wanted someone else to go to the front, while they themselves stayed in a safer place.

Dozens of soldiers, carrying their Type 38 rifles, stood up and listlessly formed a line. As if it were a routine, they began, as ordered, to beg for bullets from the surrounding soldiers. After all, at a time like this, with no effective resupply, they had to scrounge for their own ammunition.

“I’m out! Really, I’m out! I’ve only got these few rounds in my rifle!” a soldier said, waving his hand at the comrade who had been sitting with him just now. These routed soldiers who had retreated to the port had already been scavenged several times. They really didn’t have much ammunition left. After all, in the beginning, everyone had given, but later, seeing that troops were being drawn back to the front more and more frequently, no one was willing to contribute their own bullets anymore.

After all, no one could guarantee that they wouldn’t be the next to be drawn back to the front, so everyone was also trying their best to save their own ammunition, just in case. Takemoto Tarō himself had also saved about 20 rounds, which he had scavenged from the bodies of some sappers. Originally, he had had more than 50 rounds, but after being scavenged several times, he was no longer willing to give up a single bullet.

“I just got back from the front… I don’t have a single bullet on me,” the soldier named Kimura said, turning out his pockets to show the other. “If we still had bullets, they wouldn’t have let us come back…”

The soldier who had been begging for bullets, his expression a little unnatural, twisted for a long time, and then he nodded, which was his end of the conversation. He turned and walked towards another foxhole.

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