Chapter 467: Fight to the Bitter End
The 130 tanks of the Guards Tank Regiment had been hit by a German tank assault, covered by rocket artillery, and then bombed by the German Air Force. Only 41 tanks managed to escape. As they frantically retreated to their starting positions, they discovered that the German tank unit was not in pursuit at all; it had long since vanished.
A Soviet tank army was roughly the same size as a German panzer corps, and during World War II, the organization of armies throughout the world was actually very chaotic (and of course, it is still very chaotic today). According to the standard table of organization, a full-strength German division had about 16,000 soldiers. But now, Germany had 470 divisional-level units, yet only 5.5 million soldiers, so you can imagine that the entire force was not at full strength.
An American division was composed of over 30,000 men, almost the same as a German infantry corps, so everyone should stop fussing about why one German division can’t beat one American division. A Japanese division, on the other hand, was actually a corps-level formation, similar to the American structure, but most of the time, the organization of Japanese divisions was even more chaotic.
Sometimes a Japanese division had 30,000 men, and sometimes it had only 10,000. So you can’t really say how strong a Japanese division was, because some divisions had the extremely belligerent slogan “Eternal Good Fortune in War,” while others had the rather shameful slogan “Come Back Alive.”
Rein and his unit were now blocking the main front of the Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army. The 502nd Battalion had 45 Tiger tanks. Including the command vehicles at battalion headquarters and the four self-propelled guns of the attached artillery, it had about 60 combat vehicles. At this moment, six tanks were out of action due to mechanical failure. The Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army had two tank divisions, each with two tank regiments, and each regiment was supposed to have over 150 tanks.
In fact, in the earlier offensive, the Soviets had already lost about one-third of their tanks and vehicles. The current Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army had only about 450 tanks. Factoring in the operational readiness rate due to mechanical failures and other issues, the number of Soviet tanks was a little more than seven times that of the 502nd Battalion’s combat vehicles.
Logically speaking, using a single battalion to stop an entire Soviet tank army was obviously very unwise. However, behind the 502nd Battalion was the 3rd SS Panzer Division, which was the key to repelling the Soviet breakout attempt.
On the other hand, because the Soviet forces were short on fuel and ammunition, it was impossible for them to attack the German army with their full strength. According to the calculations of the German generals, of the nearly 800 tanks among the surrounded Soviet forces (including the entire strength of the 3rd Tank Army), less than half were currently operational. So the balance of power was not as disparate as it seemed; at the very least, one could say they were evenly matched.
Now, as the main force of the breakout, the Soviet 2nd Guards Tank Division, which had barely maintained its tank numbers, had lost nearly a third of its strength in one go. This outcome was absolutely unacceptable to the division commander and the corps commander behind him. And he, the colonel, was probably the perfect candidate to be the scapegoat. The moment he returned to headquarters, he would be shot.
“Where are my tanks? Assemble the troops! Attack again! One more time!” Popov struggled, trying to salvage his defeat, but he was held down by his gunner.
The gunner sighed and pointed to Highway 9 in the distance. “Sir, the 1st Regiment is in even worse shape. They were ambushed by the 3rd SS Panzer Division. A full 110 tanks, not a single one came back. I hear the regimental commander was captured, and the last 50 tanks surrendered without a fight. We should retreat quickly. If we’re late, the enemy will probably come for us after they’ve cleaned up the battlefield.”
“The 1st Regiment… is finished?” Popov stood there, stunned, not knowing how many strange things had happened in the short hour he had been unconscious.
“Yes, finished. A few of the prisoners were released to our side. They came to deliver a message for us to surrender. Here are the German leaflets. They claim that as long as we surrender, we will be treated according to the international conventions for prisoners of war…” The gunner was clearly tempted. After all, if they kept fighting like this, he was very likely to lose his life here.
“Bastards! How can we surrender? We must fight to the bitter end!” Popov roared, his tone full of righteous indignation.
“Colonel Popov! During the retreat, our regiment’s political commissar was killed by the Germans,” a tank commander whispered.
“Killed? Go and see how much fuel we have left. Tell the logistics officers to come here!” Popov froze for a moment, then began to give his orders.
Soon, the few remaining officers from the regiment’s logistics department arrived at this temporary regimental headquarters, which was surrounded by a few parked tanks that served as a simple wall.
“Sir, all our remaining fuel is stockpiled here, about 40 barrels. This is all we could find… We’re better off here. Most of the units behind us are about to run out of fuel,” a logistics officer reported.
“Have everyone go and get it! We’ll take this fuel, and with the Germans…!” Popov said through gritted teeth. “We’ll tell everyone we’re fighting to the last man! We have to leave a path of survival for our wives and children back home!”
He stood up, looked at the small number of tanks around him, and finally added with a sigh, “And then we surrender… In this situation, it’s the only thing we can do.”
Soon, the logistics personnel who had been sent out to scavenge for fuel all returned, bringing with them a portion of the fuel from the units behind them, as well as their original supplies. Popov looked carefully. There were about 50 barrels of gasoline and some ammunition, delivered by truck. Another political commissar had also come along.
It seemed that this commissar didn’t have much authority. He just took a look and was eager to go back. He walked around a tank full of shell marks with his hands behind his back and said with a pout, “You are to continue the attack! I will report your bravery and loyalty to the Soviet Union to my superiors.”
As it turned out, he never got the chance to go back and report his loyalty, because a few of the tankers following behind Popov had already caved in the back of his fragile skull with a tank wrench.
Now, in this situation, these Soviet soldiers had no way out but to surrender. So, waving white flags, they walked out from their temporary positions, their hands raised high, shouting their surrender in German as they approached the German defensive lines.
Opposite them, two German grenadiers were aiming their machine guns at them. The assistant gunner, holding the ammunition belt, narrowed his eyes at the white flags waving in the hands of the Soviet soldiers and asked, “Hey, I say, are they coming to surrender?”
“Looks like it. Judging by their uniforms, they’re all Soviet tankers. They should be the men from the 2nd Guards Tank Division’s 2nd Regiment who retreated behind those bushes,” the machine gunner said, his eyes still glued to his sight. He kept his crosshairs on a Soviet soldier, waiting for the order to pull the trigger.
The expected firefight did not happen. A German tank crossed the temporary German defensive line and came to a stop in front of the Soviets who were waving the white flags. The Soviets were terrified by the sight before them, because they saw that on the turret of this tank was painted the number they feared most: 113.
Rein pushed open his hatch and stuck the upper half of his body out of the turret. As was his habit, he was still holding his MP-44 assault rifle. The Russian he had been studying so hard these past few days finally came in handy. In a not-so-fluent but still standard Russian, he asked, “Are you here to surrender?”
“Yes, sir!” Popov, in the lead, said helplessly, his hands raised. “Our tanks are parked behind the bushes. Forty of them are still operational, most of them are improved KV-1s.”
Rein had a Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves hanging from his neck, which made this grease-stained tank commander look quite sharp. And on his chest were a number of other medals, which hinted at his legendary experience: the German Panzer Commander Academy graduation medal, the Polish Campaign commemorative medal, the French Campaign commemorative medal. Apart from the ongoing Battle of Britain and the current German-Soviet war on the Eastern Front, he was almost a living history of the German army’s wars.
“Baumann! Start the tank, let’s go take a look at those tanks! Markus, you cover the flank. Tank 114, you take the right wing,” he said into his throat microphone, giving the order. At his command, the massive Tiger tank began to shudder and move forward slowly. And behind this Tiger, from the German positions, two more Tiger tanks crashed through the bushes and charged out from their concealed positions.
Soon, Rein’s 502nd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion sent mechanics and maintenance personnel. They sorted and took control of the Soviet tanks. This was the first time the German army had captured Soviet tanks on a large scale, and these tanks had to be handed over to the technical department to analyze their design features and technical parameters.
Rein’s defensive line was soon taken over by the troops of the 3rd SS Panzer Division’s 2nd Regiment. He was ordered to advance with his battalion towards the original German-Soviet border. By that afternoon, the 502nd Battalion’s headquarters had already crossed the border, becoming the first German panzer unit to counter-attack into Soviet territory.
In the early morning of April 8th, the German army began its counter-attack against the Soviet border forces. The situation of the German-Soviet war, which had begun with a Soviet offensive and a German defense, was reversed. The German army began to launch its counter-attack along the long border.
No one had expected that the Germans would begin a frantic counter-attack before they had completely digested the surrounded Soviet forces. From the moment the German army crossed the border, Khrushchev had frantically issued the supreme command: “No retreat! Begin an immediate counter-attack!”
Published: 2025-08-27T07:47:17.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-19T16:49:46.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c467-fight-137450429
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