Chapter 647: Thank You

“Th-thank you.” The young German, having escaped death, felt as if he had almost pissed his pants. He had heard about the Soviets mistreating prisoners, but hearing about it and experiencing it firsthand were two different things.

A moment ago, he wasn’t trying to be a hero by not confessing. Western military tradition is not the same as in the East. He truly didn’t know anything, rather than clenching his teeth and refusing to speak until death. Like most people, swearing to give one’s life for the Führer and the fatherland is one thing; actually doing it is another matter entirely.

“Your German is very good. Have you been to Germany?” Now that one prisoner was dead, the atmosphere suddenly relaxed. The tension and pressure eased considerably, replaced by a sense of battlefield camaraderie.

“No, I have not been to Germany,” Scarface Wolf snorted, his eyes seeming to recall something. He casually holstered his pistol, the same one he had just used to blow apart the head of a German youth not yet twenty years old. Yet now he was chatting warmly with another young German, as if they were old friends.

He put away his weapon, then walked over to the kneeling German youth, an expression of regret on his face. “I learned German because I want to kill a German. I want to ask him a few questions before I kill him, like whether he’s been living well all these years… and whether the leg bones and shoulder I shattered still hurt.”

Gulp. A soft sound of swallowing. The young German was clearly terrified by Wolf’s words. At his age, he couldn’t yet understand what kind of hatred could drive a person to learn his enemy’s language just to torture him.

“Alright, that’s about enough time for a cigarette. My temper has improved a lot over the years, and I’m more willing to talk nonsense with people… Of course, thank you for chatting with me for so long,” Scarface Wolf said with a self-deprecating laugh. Because of the scar, his originally handsome face now looked even more ferocious and terrifying.

“I…” The young man seemed to want to say something more, but Wolf had already shot out his hands with lightning speed. Like steel pincers, they crossed around the young German’s neck. With a violent twist in opposite directions, there was a loud crack. The German soldier, who had been about to speak just a second before, collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud.

“I only chat with dead people. It’s been a habit for many years. Dead people are safe. They won’t jump up and attack you, and they won’t spread your secrets around,” Wolf said, turning away from the two corpses. He walked to his tank and looked up at his silent loader and gunner, then gave his head a slight shake.

Rein! I am right here, killing your countrymen, killing your comrades. Are you still as indifferent as before? If you protect these weaklings who don’t deserve to live, just like you protect Marcus, then even if you come, you will be killed by me, crushed like an ant!

With this thought in his mind, Wolf leaped onto his tank in one bound, then deftly jumped into the turret and leaned against the open commander’s hatch. The gunner handed him a captured MP-44 assault rifle. Wolf took the rifle, removed the magazine, and worked the charging handle, hearing a crisp clatter.

“A really nice weapon. German things are just good. Just by touching it, I know this weapon is reliable and powerful. An ideal individual weapon! It’s absolutely perfect for me. Not bad! Really not bad,” the driver said admiringly as Wolf inspected the gun. Seeing Wolf nod and reinsert the magazine, he continued, “We should produce this kind of weapon too, shouldn’t we? At least we should come up with something similar!”

“Shut up! Stay alert!” Wolf was much more concise when speaking to his crew. His men would immediately fall silent. In this brutal war, following a commander who could keep them alive was a stroke of immense luck, and no one failed to cherish this opportunity.

As Wolf and his tank team withdrew from the German position, in an observation post not far behind, Zhukov was continuing his discussion with his aide about the current battle situation and the terrifying Wolf Knight Academy. “Before they graduate from the Wolf Knight Academy, they have to kill people every day. A lot of people. Old people, children, pregnant women… They kill until they can do it without hesitation, until they can pull out a pistol and fire without a second thought.”

Zhukov’s aide suddenly felt something churn in his stomach, wanting to surge up his throat. He covered his mouth and dry-heaved twice, almost throwing up his lunch. Not since humanity had experienced the slaughter and devastation of the Mongol cavalry under Genghis Khan had such an inhuman army appeared. Of course, if one counted those Japanese dwarves in the East, then adjectives like “barbaric” and “bestial” were not at all an exaggeration to describe these criminals who extinguished civilization.

“I’ve heard that we had some cooperation with the Germans in this area, but wasn’t this program canceled?” the aide asked with a frown, forcing down the urge to vomit. Because he had been assisting Zhukov for a long time in handling the difficult command of the army group, he had some slight knowledge of the secret cooperation during the German-Soviet honeymoon period.

In fact, the Germans had proposed ending the cooperation on this super-soldier training program long before the end of the first phase, citing inhumane reasons. Therefore, the training plan that Akado had summarized from the novels of his past life was not fully provided to the Soviet side. However, this incomplete but terrifying training guide, proposed by Akado and with details refined by military scholars from both sides, was still retained by the Soviets.

Stalin adopted it as a training program for his trusted soldiers and had been carrying it out ever since. Even though Germany and the Soviet Union had been at war for so long for various reasons, Stalin still had not given up on this crazy plan from Germany and had unilaterally expanded upon it.

“The program was not terminated, and it is sending thousands of soldiers who can faithfully carry out kill orders without hesitation to the front lines. I’m not sure about the German side, but some data analysts in the General Staff firmly believe that German special forces and snipers have all undergone this kind of inhumane training,” Zhukov, as a high-ranking Soviet commander, had to do his best to defend the terrible actions of the Soviet high command. Although he knew that this speculation about German special forces was most likely not true, in this situation, he had to insist on this view.

While the Soviet frontline commander was defending Stalin over the matter of the Wolf Knight Academy, at the German frontline command post, the commander of Army Group G, Guderian, was overwhelmed by reports of recent frontline engagements.

German losses had been somewhat high recently for many reasons. One of them was that the Soviets had deployed an elite unit similar to German special forces, which was conducting small-scale raids on ordinary German infantry units at several points. These short, sharp raids, combined with the relatively advanced Stalin and T-34 tanks, had caused considerable trouble for the Germans.

However, another reason came from Germany itself. Germany was currently carrying out a large-scale frontline training program, sending 700,000 newly trained replacement soldiers to the front lines and using actual combat to brutally weed them out. Just as the Soviet army was preparing for a large-scale winter offensive, the Germans were also pouring resources into this major campaign, part of which was to improve the combat quality of the new replacement troops.

“Sir! Several division commanders and some corps commanders at the front have submitted requests, asking us to dispatch similar units to restrict and counter-attack the Soviet raid teams,” a staff officer said, walking into Guderian’s office with a large stack of reports. He placed these reports from the mid-level command system on the general’s desk. “The losses at the front are really heavy. This afternoon, I signed the death reports for 14 platoon leaders and 1 company commander. Many of them were the old foundation of the Wehrmacht. It’s a bit of a losing proposition!”

Guderian put down the document in his hand and nodded in agreement with the staff officer’s opinion. After all, if a combat operation intended for training purposes ended up crippling the units, it would truly be a losing proposition. So Guderian had to make the Soviets back off and pull back those elite troops that were as precious as gold.

He thought for a moment, then pointed to a document that had already been prepared in a corner of the desk and said to his staff officer, “It’s time. Issue the order to execute the local counter-attack operation plan. Hand the battle over to the commander of the special forces, Major Mancher. Tell him, either we don’t fight, or if we do, we beat these Soviets in one go!”

“Yes, General! It’s time to make the Soviets back off!” The staff officer had been waiting for this operational plan for a long time. The German commanders at the front were also waiting for Army Group G headquarters to react. After all, being on the receiving end of attacks was not a good feeling. After being hit by the Soviets several times recently, the morale of the German frontline troops seemed to have been affected.

Ring! Ring ring! In a certain office, the telephone rang. A huge man whose wrists were as thick as his arms picked up the phone, which seemed too slender for him, and shouted in standard German, “Heil Führer! This is the Eastern Front Special Operations Command!”

“…” Suddenly his expression became grave, as he was clearly listening carefully to the mission being assigned. Finally, he replied, “Yes! We are ready to counter-attack at any time… Yes! Launch the counter-attack immediately. Codename: Viper! Heil Akado Rudolph, our Führer!”

Published: 2025-09-14T06:58:38.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-02-06T20:39:06.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c647-thank-138854589

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