Chapter 471: New Enemy
With a clatter, some loose items that weren’t secured inside Rein’s tank fell to the floor, but at that moment, no one had time for such trivial matters. Because as the tank slid down the road embankment, Baumann discovered that the Tiger’s engine had stalled.
“Rein! The engine’s stalled! I’m working on it,” Baumann said, checking the gauges on the transmission. “I need some time.”
“Damn it! Time is what we don’t have!” Rein saw that his tank was now stopped at an incline, in a state similar to climbing a hill. “Fix it, quickly! We have to get out of here, or the Soviets will kill us all in a moment.”
“Lieutenant Rein! I can’t see you! Have you driven off the embankment? Confirm! Have you driven off the embankment?” Through the headset, the commander of a Panther tank was repeatedly calling for his commander, Rein.
Rein pressed his throat microphone and ordered in a rushed voice, “Get off the highway! Get off of there, quickly! There are Soviet tanks in ambush in the wheat field!”
As he was speaking, another shell tore through the air and struck the side of a German Panther tank like a heavy fist. Due to the range and the thinness of the armor, the shell penetrated the Panther’s vulnerable side, leaving a black hole about two centimeters in diameter.
“Number 2 is hit! My God! Tank number 2 is hit! Speed up! Speed up! We’re falling back to the embankment! Quick! Quick!” the commander of the battalion headquarters’ Panther, number 1, screamed through the headset.
“Damn it!” Rein quickly grabbed the MP-44 assault rifle that had been with him for so long. He had no time to grab a grenade; he just snatched the rifle, threw open his hatch, and scrambled out of his tank’s turret at top speed.
The moment he opened the hatch, he saw a Panther tank charge down the embankment. A shell skimmed over the top of the Panther’s turret, sending a shower of brilliant sparks into the air. Rein glanced at the distant village of Tupos and saw that the Soviet soldiers inside were not charging out. He let out a slight sigh of relief, then quickly grabbed his rifle, jumped off his tank, and crawled up the embankment to the highway.
“Rein!” Alice shouted at his back, opening her hatch behind him.
“You guys try to start the tank! I’m going to check on number 2!” Rein shouted back without turning his head, still scrambling up the embankment.
Kicking a loose stone from under his foot, Rein climbed to the top of the embankment, poked his head out, and looked towards the wheat field, which had now fallen silent. This highway was worlds away from the ones in Germany; it was basically just compacted dirt, pitted and full of ruts.
Rein took a quick look and then pulled his head back. He had no desire to get his head blown off and die an ignominious death in this nondescript place. He crawled along the embankment to the stricken tank, number 2, and saw that the hit Panther was not on fire, only its engine was lightly smoking.
He quickly jumped onto the highway, but at the same time, he heard the sound of “Urrah!” shouts from the Soviet soldiers in the distant village of Tupos. Rein gritted his teeth, continued to climb onto the Panther tank, and then yanked open the commander’s hatch and looked inside.
The commander’s face was covered in blood, but he was clearly still breathing. The wounded officer was moaning, and it seemed the concussion from the shell impact had injured him badly. Rein didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the back of the commander’s collar and, with a heave, pulled him out of the tank’s turret.
The sequence of movements was fluid. Rein dragged the unlucky commander and jumped off the embankment, only then taking a breath. At that moment, he saw the commander of the other Panther tank run to the cover of a large rock not far away.
“Get back! Start your tank and prepare to withdraw! Suppress the Soviet infantry in the village! Cover me while I rescue the men!” Rein shouted. He was relatively safe for the moment. After all, the side closer to the village of Tupos was covered by a Panther tank. He only had a short distance to cover that was exposed to the enemy’s line of fire.
“Bruce! Come and help! Get the wounded onto the tank!” Seeing the other commander return to his tank, Rein turned and shouted towards his own tank.
He shouted once, and when Bruce had half his body out of the tank, he turned again and laboriously climbed back up the embankment. This time, he didn’t have much trouble getting back onto the highway. He picked up the assault rifle he had dropped on the ground, climbed onto the tank again, went around to the side facing the wheat field, yanked open the gunner’s hatch, and skillfully pulled the unconscious gunner out of the tank.
This time, he wasn’t so lucky. It was clear the Soviet tanks in the wheat field were aiming at him. One bullet whizzed past his helmet, and another struck the ground not far from the tank, kicking up a cloud of dust. He laid the gunner flat on the ground, then went back to the tank.
Rein ducked around the turret for cover, waited a few seconds, then leaped up and jumped through the commander’s hatch into the Panther’s turret. There was a smell of something burning inside. Rein knew it was best not to stay long in this situation.
He had spent more time fighting in a Panther than in a Tiger, so even though it was dark, he quickly found what he was looking for. Two hand grenades were, as expected, placed in a convenient location. He pulled the pins and, at a specific angle, threw the grenades out.
“Anyone still alive? Anyone still alive?” he shouted as he threw the grenades.
“Yes!” a weak voice came from the driver’s compartment. “The radio operator and I are alive, but we’re both injured. We can’t open the hatch ourselves.”
Rein reached out and grabbed the loader. He poked his head out of the hull first. The black smoke from the two exploding grenades in the distance obscured some of the view. As expected, Rein was not attacked this time. He pulled the loader halfway out and then realized that the man was already dead.
Rein, moving quickly, left him on the turret, then jumped down to the front of the hull, opened the hatch, and pulled out the radio operator. This crewman had also lost consciousness, but from the looks of it, he had no wounds and had probably just passed out from the concussion. As Rein was pulling him out of the tank, a bullet struck the tank’s gun barrel.
When Rein jumped off the tank with the wounded man, he saw Bruce climbing up the embankment. As he shouldered the wounded gunner, he reported to Rein, “I’ve carried the wounded back to the tank. Andre told me to come and help.”
“Get these two back,” Rein said, pointing to the two men on the ground. As he spoke, he climbed back onto the Panther, braving the hail of bullets to grab the last remaining crewman, the driver. He had just jumped off the tank with the wounded man and reached the edge of the road when a Soviet KV-type tank charged out of the paddy field.
This KV-type tank was distinctly different from the majority of the improved KV-1s. The difference was that this tank had a massive, square turret, so huge that the sight of it made Rein freeze for a split second.
A thought flashed through Rein’s mind: this was a new tank, a new Soviet tank designed specifically to deal with the German panzer forces. Looking at its thick cannon, Rein estimated its caliber to be at least 120mm. It was clearly a “secret weapon” prepared specifically to penetrate the armor of German tanks.
Although this tank had charged out of the wheat field, it did not drive up the embankment onto the highway, and its speed was not much faster than walking. Rein, carrying a wounded man, was moving faster than this heavy, “big-headed” tank. He slid down the embankment with the wounded man and saw Andre and Bruce carrying two more wounded men onto the Tiger.
“Andre! Traverse the turret, watch the other side of the highway! A new Soviet tank is here, a big one! Bruce! Prepare armor-piercing rounds!” Rein shouted as he ran.
Boom! A huge explosion rang out. It was clearly the behemoth firing. The shell directly hit the disabled Panther on the highway, and the tank was engulfed in a massive explosion. It burst into flames, and its turret was blown high into the air by the violent cook-off.
Rein got back to his own tank, put on his headset, and pressed the throat microphone to give the order to retreat. “Number 1, this is Rein! Retreat! Retreat! Baumann! Pop the smoke! Number 1, pop smoke!”
The Panther tank on the other side had been wanting to leave for a long time. In the village of Tupos, hundreds of Red Army soldiers were charging towards it. The Panther’s machine gun ammunition was almost gone, and its high-explosive shells were about to run out. Hearing the order to retreat, the Panther immediately began to reverse.
The roar of the engines sounded again. Rein felt his tank begin to shake. The mobility of the Tiger and Panther tanks was far superior to that of the Soviet tanks, so the two tanks quickly retreated, widening the distance between them and the Soviet tank that had charged out of the wheat field.
“Rein, you said you saw a new type of Soviet tank?” Andre asked, peering through the smoke in his sight and seeing a T-26 charge onto the highway.
“Yes, that’s right. A KV-type with a very large turret, equipped with at least a 120mm cannon. It looked like its armor had been thickened as well, which is why it was so slow,” Rein said with a nod. “Report this to battalion headquarters immediately, so they don’t get caught off guard.”
On the afternoon of April 9th, the German offensive temporarily halted, because the troops near the village of Tupos had reported some shocking news: the Soviets had deployed a new type of tank to the battle.
Published: 2025-08-28T05:01:57.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-21T16:03:23.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c471-new-137526254
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