Chapter 705: The Beginning of Chaos

Rein exhaled a puff of white breath and held out his hand, watching a snowflake sway as it landed in his palm, then instantly vanished from the heat, turning into a single drop of water. The entire camp was unusually quiet, so the rumbling of cannons in the distance could be clearly heard.

The firelight illuminated the distant, burning city, illuminating the rolling black smoke that stretched across the horizon. The sound beat against the earth from the depths of the horizon, like a whimper from hell. This was the graveyard of human civilization, a place where all normal people went mad. But Rein was actually somewhat glad, because he felt that only in a place where humans could not survive could he live better.

It wasn’t that the noisy cannon fire kept Rein from sleeping. In fact, he had gone to sleep as soon as he had finished dinner in the evening, without even giving detailed instructions to Bruce and the others. This was the quality a veteran should have on the battlefield—seize every moment to rest.

While on the move in the afternoon, news had come from battalion headquarters. In the latter half of the night, the entire 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion was to move out, reach the designated attack position before dawn, and then break through the enemy’s defense line to attack the predetermined target. This was the time to get up. Rein, as if he had a built-in alarm clock, was only 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled time.

In the distance, someone was preparing food. Wisps of blue smoke drifted up, clearly visible against the light on the horizon. With such a large-scale German operation stretching for dozens of kilometers, it was impossible for the Red Army not to have noticed. Therefore, the nighttime concealment work was not too strictly required. Besides, they were at least 20 kilometers from the combat zone, so it was not a place where strict battlefield discipline needed to be enforced.

The more battles you fight, the more veterans you have. And these veterans have their own experience and ways of doing things on the battlefield. They are not as dogmatic as new recruits, but they are not well-liked by their commanders either. These veterans often like to do things their own way, which causes some new recruits to pick up some not-so-good habits.

However, on this night, the officers were generally not too harsh. After all, these soldiers would be facing the enemy’s artillery fire in just a few hours. They had already offered their lives for this country and for the Führer far away in Berlin, so there was no reason not to let them enjoy their own lives one last time at this moment.

“Baumann! Start the tank! Bruce! Final check on the ammunition positions! Alice! Adjust the channel! Andre… check if there’s anything wrong with the sight!” Before setting off, Rein began to nag again. After all, they were about to drive this dozens-of-tons steel behemoth, the most powerful in the world, into battle. To not check it thoroughly would be an absolute irresponsibility to themselves.

Apart from the King Tiger, which had not yet been equipped by the frontline troops, the Tiger tank could be said to be the most sophisticated war machine on the entire battlefield. Its powerful engine was paired with a surprisingly efficient transmission. It was equipped with the most reliable long-range radio equipment in the world at the time, and the most precise optical sights, used to aim the 88mm cannon that was sufficient to penetrate any opponent.

Such a complex machine required very professional maintenance. Of course, thanks to the efforts of German engineers, the reliability of this machine was already astonishingly high—but it still needed careful care from its crew in normal times, so that it could exert its maximum power on the battlefield.

As the tanks started up one after another, reports of completed checks also came into Rein’s headset. Some of the new crews assigned to the 502nd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion seemed very nervous. For them, this was truly the first battle of their lives.

Originally, the soldiers assigned to an elite unit like the 502nd were all elite members from other tank units. However, this method of selection and replenishment had eventually come to an end with the expansion of the German armored forces. On the one hand, excellent tank crews were also very precious “assets” in other units, and these units did their best to keep these elites in their own ranks. On the other hand, such a replenishment method indeed made the high-level commanders feel that a semi-independent armored unit like the heavy tank destroyer battalion was a bit too “precious,” which made them somewhat reluctant to commit it to battle.

Another important reason was the issue of promotion. Rein was already a captain and a company commander, which was simply unimaginable for a regular tank unit. In other ordinary Wehrmacht armored units, a company commander was at most a second lieutenant. But in a heavy tank destroyer battalion, a company commander could be a monster who had destroyed 50 enemy tanks. How could those who were originally the elite of various units be promoted? Therefore, these people were often unwilling to serve in such an elite unit because there was too little sense of accomplishment.

And so, no one knew when or from which unit it started, but the new tank crews assigned to the heavy tank destroyer battalions also began to use brand-new replacement soldiers. These crews were all “academics” trained in the rear, with no combat experience but better discipline.

The benefits were obvious. The German armored forces had now expanded to several times their original size. Model’s Army Group D now had the newest SS panzer division, the 14th, in its 10th Panzer Corps. And in Manstein’s Army Group M, the panzer corps designation had already reached the 13th. The entire armored strength of the German army had been unprecedentedly strengthened.

According to the basic configuration of two panzer divisions under one panzer corps, the German army now had 26 panzer divisions. Including some independent panzer divisions attached to the army groups, the number of German panzer divisions exceeded 35. Although their elite level had declined, their numbers could be described as astonishing.

A large number of new recruits were assigned to the panzer divisions, ensuring that the rear production lines, which had significantly accelerated their industrial production speed, did not waste their capacity. The average tank strength of a German panzer division was now even higher than at the beginning of the expansion, with most being able to maintain a base of around 300 tanks. Generally speaking, as long as there was a tank, there was a qualified crew to operate it. As for their combat level, it could only be described with the four words “well-trained.”

Rein’s tank company had always been understrength. The first platoon of five tanks was relatively complete, but the second platoon usually only had three tanks to make up the numbers. Before this battle, they had also been brought up to full strength, so he had two new tanks and two new crews under his command, which was an extra combat force.

At 4 o’clock in the morning, the 502nd Battalion finally entered the combat zone. The sky was still pitch black, and the rumbling of cannons on the battlefield was no longer distant. At this time, the entire battalion’s speed of advance suddenly slowed down. It was not because the road was rough, but because the road was crowded with soldiers.

Yes, crowded with soldiers. As far as the eye could see, the area was filled with captured Soviet soldiers. These dejected infantrymen watched with terrified eyes as the tanks of the 502nd Battalion slowly drove through their ranks. They had no weapons and were wearing shabby military greatcoats. They were being escorted by German soldiers holding rifles, walking along the road to the rear.

“What’s going on? Are these troops so easily defeated? There are too many who have surrendered, right?” Looking at these prisoners, Markus was taken aback by their sheer number. It was as if there was no end to them; it could be described as a sea of people.

“Hey! Hello! May I ask where all these prisoners came from?” Rein was also a little frustrated by the slow speed of advance and had no choice but to ask a German officer who was passing by his tank. The other man was carrying a Mauser rifle, and from his rank, he should be an infantry company commander.

The German officer looked up and, seeing Rein’s captain’s rank, gave a military salute and then pointed into the distance. “This section is the junction of two Soviet fronts. A tank regiment of the 10th Panzer Corps cut through here, and the two nearby divisions composed of local Ukrainians immediately laid down their arms and surrendered. They heard that we treat Ukrainian prisoners well, so they were very cooperative. We’ve been counting all night and still haven’t finished counting how many people have surrendered with these two divisions… probably about 20,000, maybe 30,000.”

As if the floodgates had opened, this infantry company commander told Rein almost everything he knew. “These troops don’t have much combat effectiveness. Their rifles are only issued with a small amount of ammunition. Some of them haven’t eaten for almost 10 hours due to the chaotic supply situation. In addition, they don’t have many heavy weapons, and their fighting will is very weak.”

The fruits of Germany’s policy of divisive rule in Ukraine had finally become apparent on this day. The Ukrainian officers had no fighting spirit, and the Ukrainian soldiers were hostile to the Russian soldiers who were monitoring them. So, just as the German offensive had begun, the local Ukrainian troops had begun to turn against them. The two poorly equipped Ukrainian divisions had surrendered very readily, allowing the German army to smoothly capture their first strategic objective: the small village codenamed N182.

And so, the combat mission of the 502nd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion had changed from capturing N182 to directly striking at Pavlohrad, to capture and control this small city with its bridges. Once Pavlohrad was taken, the German army could easily seize the initiative on the battlefield. Whether they attacked Kharkov to the north or swept through Donetsk to the south, it would be a very fatal problem for the Soviet Union.

“Hey! Rein! It looks like our attack objective has changed to Pavlohrad. It’s a lot further,” Markus’s vehicle was following Rein’s tank. The entire 1st Company and the prisoners were crowded on the narrow road, with almost no efficiency to speak of. For the entire 502nd Battalion, their Eastern Front war had begun in such a chaotic situation.

Published: 2025-09-20T03:08:48.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-03-02T19:10:34.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c705-of-139307893

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