Chapter 720: Resounding Slogans
The plane’s engines roared in the air. Borol looked at Donner, who was sitting next to him, silently staring at his own left arm, which no longer had a hand. In the cabin, which was constantly vibrating slightly due to the airflow and the engines, the light to prepare for the jump was already flashing.
Paratroopers are always thrown into the most dangerous environments, always carrying out combat missions alone and without support, always facing the most powerful enemies under the most difficult conditions. But they are the edelweiss that blooms on the Alpine peaks, those small white flowers that love to bloom in the face of the cold wind.
“Gentlemen! This is our first airdrop without any anti-aircraft fire! It can be said that this is no different from training! The real test is how to build a strong defense line in a short time after landing and hold the position to the death!” Borol slowly stood up, grabbing a handhold on the swaying plane, and said loudly to his men, “If you’re afraid to die, you don’t have to jump! Now! Check your equipment, prepare to jump.”
At his command, everyone stood up. They were silent, helping their comrades check their parachutes and the securing ropes for their equipment. Apart from the roar of the plane’s engines, the entire cabin was unusually quiet. No one spoke, just worked on their tasks without pause.
“Check complete!” “Check complete!” With one answer after another, all the soldiers in the cabin patted the shoulders of the soldiers in front of them. Everyone hooked the static lines for their parachutes onto the long anchor line cable of the plane and then waited for the moment Borol would push open the cabin door.
When the green light came on, Borol yanked open the door beside him. A cold wind immediately rushed into the plane, making everyone sway. Everyone squinted their eyes. After all, the wind at high altitude was biting, making one involuntarily frown.
Borol looked at his soldiers and shouted what he wanted to say with all his might. In the whistling wind, this full-throated roar did not sound piercing. On the contrary, one had to listen with all one’s might to hear it clearly. “Gentlemen, in the past, I was always the last to jump, to make sure every paratrooper had jumped out of the plane… Today, I will be the first to jump! The brave will follow me to kill the enemy, the cowards can go back in peace!”
After speaking, he pushed off with both legs and jumped out of the plane. At the moment of the jump, he shouted a slogan. This slogan was not very loud in the noisy wind, but it echoed in the hearts of every veteran: “Damanhur!”
“I have to go down with him, to take care of our scruffy battalion commander! Otherwise, he won’t know how to write a summary report,” Donner said with a smile, following him out of the plane. The moment he jumped out of the hatch, he also shouted the slogan that all the soldiers who had been through that battle had agreed to shout: “Damanhur!”
“Damanhur!” The third soldier didn’t say much. Dragging a pile of supplies with him, he jumped out of the plane’s hatch. In his years as a paratrooper, his specialty was killing, endlessly opening fire and taking out the enemy opposite him, not talking. So he just jumped out of the plane’s cabin quietly. But even someone as silent as him shouted this phrase: “Damanhur!”
As one German paratrooper after another jumped out of the plane, the shouts of “Damanhur” echoing in the sky grew louder and more uniform. These shouts created a ripple in the monotonous roar of the engines, allowing all the soldiers swaying in the sky to feel that indomitable spirit.
Yes, they were German paratroopers, the German paratroopers who would never retreat, no matter how harsh the conditions, no matter how bloody and cruel the battle. This was the pride of the edelweiss, the pride and nobility in the bones of the German nation. They were the most resilient warriors, the most powerful and most terrifying warriors!
From the rear of the plane, one small white parachute flower after another bloomed. These parachutes seemed tiny in the sky, but they grew more and more numerous. At first, there were ten, a hundred, and in the end, they became thousands, tens of thousands. Not a single coward remained in his plane. Everyone had jumped out, slowly descending in the cold wind that blew through the sky.
The paratroopers landing in Malyn were using parachutes, because there were no large military airfields near Malyn. At the same time, a large number of transport planes arrived at Ivankiv, unloading thousands of German air-landed paratroopers at the field airstrips there. The scale of the airborne operation was unprecedented. Because it was not deep behind enemy lines, the German army had dispatched a large number of planes, disregarding losses, to drop even more soldiers than in a normal airdrop.
In fact, there were no losses. As the airflow continued to descend, these paratroopers all landed safely in the suburbs near Malyn. They were to assemble nearby, then receive the supplies that had been hidden nearby long ago, and build a strong defense line in Malyn to resist a possible desperate attack by the Red Army.
As one paratrooper after another landed on the ground, Borol was even a little unaccustomed to the environment without the sound of enemy gunfire and artillery. He packed up his parachute and ordered the surrounding soldiers to start collecting these materials. After all, some things could be recycled. Germany’s strategic reserves were not abundant, and every bit that could be saved was saved.
Some soldiers began to collect the parachutes of the nearby soldiers, while the rest began to assemble and sort themselves into their units. Some paratroopers who could not find their units for the time being waited on the side for their direct units, while most of the soldiers who had found their units began to sort through important things like ammunition and food.
From a forest not far away, a train slowly drove out. On a dozen or so flatcars were piled ammunition, tents, and other military supplies. The German soldiers on the train held their rifles. The train stopped in the center of the paratroopers’ assembly point, and only then were the seals on the flatcars broken. The iron doors were pulled open, and tons of supplies were unloaded to resupply these airdropped paratroopers.
“There are 3,000 anti-tank rocket launchers here, as a supplement to your weapons and equipment! Malyn is the last line of defense north of Kiev! I’m leaving it to you!” a German officer in charge of escorting the train saluted Borol and the other paratrooper officers. He then left a copy of the receipt record and pointed to the soldiers on the train. “They are also being assigned to you, under your command!”
Further in the distance, an independent heavy tank destroyer battalion, with more than 40 Tiger tanks lined up in a row, was being reported on by its battalion commander to General Student, who had arrived earlier. “This heavy tank destroyer battalion has been ordered to reinforce this position, General! I am now under your command! The battalion is not at full strength. There are currently 41 Tiger tanks, all lined up here. Please exercise your right of command!”
“Rest outside my command post and await orders! We still have to build the defensive works for Malyn. You can participate as well. I am not a professional armored commander. I need you to judge whether it is better to use the tanks in the open country or to commit your battalion in the urban area to achieve greater results,” Student said to this battalion commander as he walked towards his temporary command post.
“That depends on whether you are considering a counter-attack later. If…” the battalion commander said, keeping pace with Student.
“Major, we don’t need to counter-attack,” Student interrupted him, stopping to look at the major. “Prepare to shed your last drop of blood here in Malyn! This place is a grave, a grave for the enemy, and for ourselves!”
“Use every means possible to annihilate as many of the enemy as possible here. At the specified time, or after the specified time has passed, still hold your defensive positions. This is the combat style of our paratroopers. We do not attack, because we have already completed the task of attacking from the sky. We only defend, because the ground beneath our feet is already the territory of the Empire!” After saying this, he continued to walk forward with his aide, while the commander of the SS independent tank destroyer battalion stood there, watching the tall figure that had already walked a long way.
“Bury all the mines in front of the defensive position! We will set up a crossfire in the fields on both sides of the road! Set up foxholes, make good use of those farmhouses and the nearby high ground! Set up observation posts, sniper positions!” Borol said, pointing to the surrounding terrain and assigning tasks to his soldiers.
Several paratroopers, carrying MG 42 machine guns with bipods, ran to both sides to set up intersecting fields of fire. Combined with the mines and obstacles, they could pour out a full belt of 1,000 rounds in the shortest possible time, then retreat with their guns, leaving this forward defensive position.
Every paratrooper was an expert, a supreme master of defense. Their specialty was to complete the toughest defense with the simplest of arrangements. Because most of the time, they did not have time to build elaborate fortifications. All they could rely on was the rough terrain, the weapons in their hands, and their inner tenacity.
And so, the paratroopers began to set up simple, protruding defensive positions like tentacles on the several necessary routes to Malyn. They deployed a small number of soldiers to hold these positions, and after the enemy arrived, they would launch a surprise attack and then immediately retreat to delay the enemy’s advance and buy more time for the defense.
For the paratroopers, no defensive work was forever unbreakable. They held on for a certain amount of time, and before that time was up, they would use every means possible to stop the enemy’s attack. This was what they were best at: gradually attriting the enemy, attriting them until they themselves were dead.
“Send out reconnaissance units to confirm the enemy’s position! Send a telegram to General List! Tell him we have reached the designated position!” Student said, lowering his binoculars and speaking to his aide.
Published: 2025-09-21T03:39:35.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-03-09T18:13:35.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c720-slogans-139373375
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