Chapter 648: Someday
On a peripheral position of a German infantry defense line, several German soldiers were on high alert, watching their surroundings. Recently, some elite Soviet units had been appearing on the German-Soviet front. They were swift and decisive, launching short, sharp raids and retreating immediately after achieving victory, causing several hundred casualties for the Germans.
At this point, anyone who didn’t know to be more cautious was a real idiot. All German frontline units were required to be on their highest alert to ensure that their personnel were not wiped out by these small-scale raids.
“You know, these Soviets are quite cunning. They must have studied our fire support configuration. They know that attacking our small frontline units won’t be met with a barrage from our heavy artillery,” the highest-ranking commander on the position, a Wehrmacht platoon leader, said while vigilantly watching the area in front of him.
“There’s nothing we can do. We only have Panzerfausts, which are a bit inadequate against the new Soviet tanks,” a general-purpose machine gunner squatting next to the platoon leader replied. As the supporting fire for the core position, he and his platoon leader were often in the innermost part of the defense, covering the flanks of the entire fan-shaped position.
BOOM! As the two were chatting, a huge explosion suddenly came from a patch of grass not far away. A booby trap that had been planted there had gone off. This signaled that a new battle was about to begin.
“Enemy contact!” the platoon leader roared. He pointed his arm towards the weeds not far away and indicated the direction of fire to the machine gunner beside him. “Open fire! Suppress that direction, the enemy is sneaking up on us from there!”
Rat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat! The assistant gunner next to him quickly fed the ammunition belt, and the MG 42 began to roar wildly, letting out its unique firing sound! The Soviet Red Army soldiers who had just gotten up to launch their charge were cut down in swathes like wheat in a field. They were still a long way from their ideal charge position, so this attack, forced upon them after being discovered, would naturally incur much heavier losses than anticipated.
From the woods to their front, a Stalin tank charged out. Following it were two more Stalin tanks and five T-34 medium tanks. It seemed the enemy was once again employing the small-scale raid tactics the Soviets had been using frequently. A sense of powerlessness suddenly welled up in the hearts of all the German defenders. They felt that their fate was sealed today.
Just as the battle had begun, not even five minutes in, the situation suddenly changed. Just as the Soviet soldiers were closing in, step by step, and were about to encircle the German soldiers under the cover of their tanks, something terrible suddenly happened.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM! Artillery from an unknown location tore the flat ground in front of the German position to shreds. Shell after shell, as if they were free, rained down on the open ground where the Red Army was attacking, flinging the mangled bodies of soldiers and the pitiful wheels of tanks into the air. One T-34 tank and about 50 Soviet soldiers were taken out, while on the German side, the price was only one soldier wounded.
The second artillery barrage was even more shocking. The German cannons, as if they had eyes, accurately dropped their shells into the midst of the Red Army soldiers. Evasion and dispersal were almost futile. Soon, the Soviet soldiers lost their will to fight and began to run around like headless flies.
The small Soviet attack force retreated like a receding tide, leaving behind a field of corpses and the pitiful wrecks of tanks. The battle had begun so hastily and ended so suddenly, as if it had never happened at all. If it weren’t for the many bodies lying on the ground, everyone would have thought they had just had a dream.
Only the German platoon leader had a strange smile on his dust-covered face. From under a small, inconspicuous bush not far away, two German soldiers stood up. They were clad in camouflage suits covered in strips of cloth, their faces painted with grease paint.
“Thank you! Thank you for coming here to help!” the platoon leader said, shaking one of the soldiers’ hands with a smile, his gratitude mixed with apology. “When they first sent the two of you, I thought they were just going through the motions. I never expected they would send an entire 105mm howitzer regiment to support us!”
“We were just doing our duty, coordinating the artillery regiment to provide covering fire here, guiding and directing the artillery,” one of the soldiers, who was carrying radio equipment, said, scratching his head in embarrassment.
They were two snipers from a frontline special forces detachment. Their mission was to guide and call in artillery strikes on pre-designated targets. Because of their presence, the divisional support artillery, which would not normally be used to support a platoon-level unit, could now react to the target area in the shortest possible time.
Looking at the routed Soviet forces in the distance, the lead sniper shook his head in regret. “It’s a pity that more than half of them still got away!”
And in front of another German position, the Soviet troops who had come to raid were not as lucky as the Red Army here. Just as they were attacking the German position, they encountered a new German weapon and were completely annihilated.
Just as their attack began, two heavily armored helicopters appeared. This new type of helicopter was highly sought after by the German special forces, army aviation, and air force as soon as it went into production. It could carry more weapons, reach the battle area faster, destroy the enemy with its powerful firepower, and then use its agile performance to leave the battlefield before the enemy could counter-attack.
Each of the two helicopters carried four huge rocket pods, capable of unleashing 28 60mm high-explosive rockets onto the enemy position in one go. A few seconds after the Soviets saw the two German helicopters, they were hit by a barrage of over 50 rockets. Almost their entire force, including the tanks, was engulfed in a sea of fire. Only a few survived.
In just a few seconds, the entire area under attack was filled with smoke and flames from the explosions. The few who had escaped the initial barrage had not even had time to recover before they were finished off by the 20mm cannons strafing from the helicopters. It was a suppressive battle that was over in a flash. The Germans had paid no price other than ammunition, while the Soviets had lost at least two companies.
Such incidents were constantly being played out along the long German-Soviet line of control. After suffering several major losses, the Soviets finally gave up on this suicidal plan. The Germans were technologically superior, and their special forces had well-coordinated tactics. By using these tactics to leverage their firepower advantage, the Soviet strategy of using elite troops for opportunistic raids was ultimately defeated.
Scarface Wolf had not participated in this round of raids because he had been ordered to escort the supreme frontline commander, Zhukov, back to the front headquarters in Minsk. But when he heard that the Wolf Knight units had not gained any advantage against the German special forces, he was very eager to meet those German “Wolf Knights” in person.
“I want to see if the men these Germans have trained can defeat me, Wolf! Give me some soldiers, and I will go to Brovary myself! Let them know that the Wolf Knights are the true warriors!” Wolf said to Zhukov, who was reading a battle report.
Zhukov waved his hand. “This is not the time for us to act on impulse. I don’t have many elite soldiers and Wolf Knight Academy graduates left. I still want to use them in the defense and counter-attacks to come. I can’t waste them.”
There is an old saying, “to show off one’s skill with an axe at the master carpenter Lu Ban’s door.” The Soviets probably had not heard this insightful phrase. As the first country in the world to train and use special forces on a large scale, Germany had the most mature methods for using them, and also the most powerful special forces in the world. It was an unwise choice to fight a war of attrition with such a country through continuous small-scale conflicts. At least for now, it was not a wise choice.
“I will do what I promised you. You don’t have to be in a hurry to find that Rein and settle your personal grudge. If that Rein is as skilled as you say, then he will definitely live long enough to meet you!” Zhukov said, looking at the impatient Wolf. “I know you hope these scattered, small-scale raids will draw this person named Rein out, but instead of drawing out the person you’re looking for, you’ve drawn out other enemies.”
“I can take out these so-called German special forces!” Wolf said again.
“Yes, you can! But others cannot!” Zhukov explained the current situation to Wolf with a sigh. “The German special forces have the advantage in intelligence and firepower. Except in a few cases, we do not have the advantage in small-scale engagements. These Germans use tactics to compensate for individual bravery, so even your Wolf Knights cannot gain much of an advantage.”
“And we can no longer afford to lose elite troops. To support the Wolf Knight units, we have also detached elite troops from various Red Army units. These are all veterans from previous battles, and now they are almost all gone. If this continues, the situation will spiral out of our control,” Zhukov said. He then walked over to Wolf and adjusted the two medals on the cold-blooded soldier’s chest. “Believe me, I will let you fight on the battlefield until the very last moment!”
Published: 2025-09-14T07:00:37.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-02-06T20:39:06.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c648-someday-138854622
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