Chapter 602: A Kindly Face

Historically, Bulgaria was actually pro-German and pro-Turkish. However, in this timeline, Germany sold out Bulgaria to Turkey and Romania for its own benefit. Who could blame them, when Germany was getting so much oil from Romania? In the end, territory had to be exchanged for such resources.

The Bulgarian government, to use a modern phrase, was simply caught in the crossfire. Ultimately, they could only cede territory to Turkey and surrender their northern ethnic minority regions to the Romanians. The final result was that Bulgaria’s remaining territory was allowed to be self-governing, existing as an independent region surrounded by several other nations.

When German tanks and armored cars entered Croatia, they were met with a warm welcome from the locals. The German soldiers were clearly a bit bewildered, unsure how to handle such a heartwarming scene. The invading force had prepared bombs, artillery, and hundreds of aircraft to deal with resistance, but instead, they were greeted with flowers, applause, and the cheers of countless citizens.

“I simply can’t believe my eyes, dear Mother,” one German soldier wrote in a letter home. “When I swore my oath to the flag, I made a resolution that I would strive to do anything the Führer asked of me for Germany, even if it violated my humanity. Now, such worries are entirely unnecessary. I know that I am doing the right thing. I came here, and the local people welcome me, throwing flowers to me. The young women smile at me. God be my witness, I have become a hero here.”

Another true event occurred the day after the German army occupied all of Croatia. The circumstances were rather incredible: several British infiltrators, intending to attack German forces, were hiding in a house making explosives and contacting personnel to ambush a German logistics convoy. Their operation was very secretive, and they rarely left the house, so no one discovered their plans.

However, when these British agents went out for a meal, a thief paid a visit to the empty house. He saw the bombs and submachine guns inside, so without touching anything, he left. This local Croatian thief quickly found the German occupation forces and returned to the house with 70 fully armed German soldiers.

With no way out, most of the British agents were killed in the ensuing fierce firefight. The survivors, knowing death was inescapable, detonated their explosives, choosing suicide to end their suffering. They probably never imagined, even at the moment of their deaths, that they would be betrayed by a local—and a thief at that.

Of course, fighting still broke out as the German army pushed south. The Yugoslav resistance was incredibly stubborn. Although they had already lost a large amount of weapons and equipment in their clashes with the Italian army, they still bravely charged the German armored forces to defend their homeland.

They hastily organized a defense line, dug trenches, and reinforced some machine-gun bunkers. But when the magnificent forms of the Panther tanks appeared on the battlefield, the Yugoslavs were routed. They were no longer facing the chaotic, albeit heavily armed, Italians, but the well-organized and perfectly coordinated German troops. Stuka bombers swooped down from the sky, daring to drop bombs just a few dozen meters ahead of the German army’s front line. The Yugoslav army had no way to withstand this terrifying combined-arms assault.

In the sky, above the clouds, one Stuka dive-bomber plunged downward, followed by a second, a third, and finally ten, even twenty. These planes, which were already becoming somewhat obsolete, found a second youth in the underdeveloped lands of the Balkans. Here, they could recklessly approach ground targets, using the most precise bombing methods to destroy everything they saw. Yugoslav ground anti-aircraft fire was weak and scattered, completely unable to affect the German aircraft’s operations.

The friendly welcoming ceremonies were gone, replaced by crowds of refugees huddled on both sides of the road. With terrified eyes, they watched the German armored vehicles roar past, kicking up clouds of dust. The first to appear were the wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicles of the German panzer divisions, the vanguard of the tank forces. Accompanying these armored cars were column after column of motorcycle sidecars, trucks filled with grenadiers, and T-26 tanks providing cover. These troops didn’t stop to bother with the civilians on the roadside; they were in a hurry to press forward, chasing the routed Yugoslav regular army.

“Hey! Does anyone here speak German?” A convertible Kübelwagen pulled over to the side of the road. A German captain stood up in the vehicle and asked the terrified Yugoslav refugees nearby.

No one answered him. Everyone stared blankly at the German who had stood up to shout at them. Someone saw the German guard in the passenger seat holding an assault rifle, and a few civilians, afraid the Germans would suddenly start killing people, instinctively took a couple of steps back into the crowd.

“Does anyone know the way to the next town, the one with a bridge?” the German officer asked again, seemingly unwilling to give up. It appeared his efforts were still in vain, as no one answered his question.

“Damn it! None of these people speak German.” Not all invasions could be planned to perfection. Germany’s long-term cooperation with the Soviet Union meant that there were quite a few Russian speakers in the German army. At the same time, because Europe is not a vast continent, French and English were also relatively common languages. Furthermore, due to Germany’s previous rise, many people spoke German.

This provided a certain cultural foundation for Germany’s invasions: many Germans could speak foreign languages, and they could ensure that every unit was equipped with qualified translators. For some meticulously planned attack operations, language preparations were even extended down to the platoon or squad level. But evidently, there were not many German speakers of Serbian, at least not in this German armored unit.

The German captain finally gave up asking. An armored car that had caught up and stopped beside him had its commander, who had taken off his headset, waiting for the captain’s new orders. The captain turned his head toward the commander and said, “These people are clearly unwilling to cooperate with us. There’s no choice, we’ll have to find the place ourselves.”

“Captain, I will search seven kilometers to the east, then continue south,” the armored car commander replied with a nod. “I’ll go until I see the river, then I’ll follow it west on my way back. If I find the target town, I will notify all nearby units.”

“Alright! I’ll continue straight ahead along the road! Maybe I’ll find something!” The captain reluctantly agreed to the commander’s plan. The commander gave a casual, traditional military salute, then patted the turret’s steel plate and gave an order into his throat microphone, “Turn left, search to the east.”

The armored car spewed out black exhaust fumes that filled the air in front of everyone. The quality of German gasoline had never been very high; after all, Germany was still a country with a shortage of oil reserves, and everything had to be used sparingly. Even the tank forces, considered the trump card by the German high command, had to make do with gasoline engines due to the lack of quality fuel, let alone the reconnaissance units attached to the armored divisions.

The German Kübelwagen also started up. With a roar of its engine, the two German vehicles parted ways. One continued south along the highway, while the other drove off the road and headed into the distance along a dirt track.

“These Germans are more polite than our own troops,” a woman carrying a bundle on her back muttered as she watched the German vehicles disappear. This group of refugees had just been robbed by a unit of their own Yugoslav army. They had to hand over their valuables and a lot of food to get rid of the routed soldiers.

“Shut your mouth!” an elderly man grunted. “No matter what, these people are invaders! We can’t have anything to do with them! We keep moving, and as long as we don’t stir up trouble, we’ll be fine! Understand?”

In fact, there was someone in the group who understood German. This old man could speak some German, but they were unwilling to cooperate with the German army, so they pretended not to understand. Adhering to the principle of “less trouble is better than more,” they did not engage. In war, not many people step forward to fight to the death, and those who betray their country are also a minority. Many ordinary people just live lives similar to peacetime. The only difference is that some become refugees to escape the war, while others, unable to leave their homeland, become subjugated people.

They would not choose to support the invaders and might even create trouble for them when they could—working unenthusiastically, living day to day in a daze. But if you asked them to actually take up arms and resist, they would absolutely not dare. They had their own lives, and as long as that peace wasn’t shattered, they would continue to eke out a meager existence. This isn’t a lack of patriotism, but the inevitable trajectory of an ordinary person’s life.

What truly drives civilians to the path of resistance is cruel oppression. Akado 1 knew this well from the experiences of a later era, so he did his utmost to avoid oppression. If it was necessary, he chose to divide and oppress a small portion of the population. He gave the majority hope, so the majority chose to live in peace. Resistance would inevitably exist, but it was compressed into a small, tolerable scope.

And so, in the Balkans, the Germans brought out this theory once again. They handed the difficult, stubborn elements over to the Italians to manage, while they themselves played the part of the kind gentleman, making the locals feel that the Germans were their saviors, their liberators who would lead them out of their sea of suffering.

These liberators had kindly faces and were very gentlemanly and polite. If only they weren’t carrying rifles on their backs, grenades on their chests, and bayonets at their waists… the effect would have been even better.

Published: 2025-09-10T05:06:33.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-17T14:14:58.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c602-kindly-138560994

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