Chapter 797: Buying Time

What is a veteran? This question might have a thousand different answers for a thousand different soldiers. But at the end of March 1939, for the soldiers in the German army, there was a unique standard of measurement. This standard was that a soldier who, after seeing the remains of the dead lying on the roadside and the mangled wounded in the field hospital, still had the courage to go to the battlefield, to continue to fight and to fight better, to fight more fiercely, was called a veteran.

Rein scoffed at this standard. His own standard was very simple: to do everything possible to stay alive, to stay alive after killing all the enemies, and still be alive and well—that was a veteran. So he sat in his tank, his eyes fixed on the front, letting his body sway slightly with the bumping of the tank.

On both sides of his tank were hundreds of corpses, frozen into hard lumps of ice, waiting to be buried. And in a corner of the town was a field hospital where screams and groans could be heard everywhere. However, Rein had long since grown accustomed to these scenes. The specialty he had learned in school was to find ways to create these most cruel of images.

One after another, the Tiger tanks drove past the road. They stopped their advance behind the buildings at the village entrance. From here, they could clearly hear the sound of artillery fire from the front line. They could also see two concealed mortars in a corner, firing one shell after another at the enemy’s position according to orders.

To one side of the two mortars was a Kübelwagen. Behind this small car, a two-wheeled trailer was being towed, loaded with mortar ammunition and some miscellaneous items like shovels. A few artillerymen were opening a new ammunition box, placing the mortar shells inside in a row along the shoulder of the road.

“I’m glad you could personally bring the tanks over, Captain Rein. The enemy has four large-caliber anti-tank guns. They destroyed one of our Panther tanks this morning, and also a Panzer III assault gun, and repulsed our attack,” a grenadier company commander said, walking over and standing by Rein’s tank, speaking to Rein, who was exposed from the waist up in the tank’s turret.

Rein did not move from his position. He just pointed in the direction of the enemy position and asked, “How many Soviet infantry are on the position, approximately, and where are the four anti-tank guns located?”

“One of the anti-tank guns was destroyed by us while it was moving. The rest are hiding in their original shelters and don’t dare to come out,” the company commander said, pointing in the general direction. “There’s one left on the left flank, and probably one each at the one o’clock and two o’clock positions on the right.”

“Alright! Everyone, start your tanks! Mission: cover the infantry advance! I’ll take the center. 112, you cover my left flank. 111, you cover my right! The tanks on the flanks, 114 and 115, load armor-piercing and be on the lookout for enemy tanks. Let’s go!” After hearing the infantry company commander’s words, Rein did not hesitate. He pressed his throat microphone and gave the attack order. “There’s one anti-tank gun on the left flank! Markus, it’s yours… There are two on the right flank. 111, you and I will take care of them!”

One after another, the Tiger tanks started up. After a puff of black smoke from their exhaust pipes, these steel behemoths began to move. The heavy tracks began to move backward, section by section. The thick gun barrels pointed in the direction of the enemy, and they majestically drove around the wreckage of the buildings that were blocking their view.

Crack! Before Rein could reach up and close his commander’s hatch, a bullet struck the side of it, creating a shower of sparks. He frowned, then casually closed his hatch and pressed his eyes to the commander’s panoramic periscope. In the narrow slit, he observed the surrounding situation.

“Andre, do you see that thicket of bushes on the right? After you’ve aimed, have Baumann stop the tank and open fire. Pay attention to maintaining our speed. The grenadiers are following behind us,” Rein said, pressing his throat microphone and ordering his gunner to deal with the most threatening target.

“Alright! Stop!” Within two seconds of Baumann stopping the tank, Andre had already adjusted the angle of his cannon and had aimed at the unlucky target. With a loud bang, the barrel of this Tiger tank spewed a dazzling flame. A high-explosive shell accurately hit its target and exploded at the location of the thicket.

The fragments of the ammunition scattered like a storm, destroying everything in their path with their powerful kinetic energy. Whether it was the gun shield of the cannon or the bodies of the pitiful Soviet Red Army soldiers, they were all riddled with holes by these steel balls. And that anti-tank gun was also severely damaged in this huge explosion, turning into a pile of useless scrap iron.

While Rein’s tank was slaughtering the exposed anti-tank gun, Markus’s side was also fighting cleanly. A shell accurately hit that pitiful anti-tank gun. The Soviet soldiers around it were instantly killed or wounded, losing any ability to resist.

Bullets rained down on the German tanks, pattering like popping beans. An unlucky grenadier was hit in the knee by a stray bullet and fell to the ground, howling. More grenadiers hid behind the tanks, advancing slowly and cautiously. When they encountered a trench, they would jump in and begin to break through the Soviet soldiers’ defense bit by bit.

Tank No. 111 was also not polite. A shell was fired at the distant Soviet anti-tank gun position, kicking up a cloud of earth. This shot was a little off, so tank No. 111 had to fire another. This time it hit the target. The pitiful Soviet 76mm anti-tank guns were unable to continue their meritorious service when faced with the Tiger tank.

On the battlefield, not far to the left of a burning Panther tank, the wreck of a Panzer III assault gun that had been blown to pieces was still smoking. The German tanks drove around these pitiful remains of their comrades and advanced towards the deeper Soviet positions. And the grenadiers following behind the German tanks had already occupied a large area of the Soviet positions.

The Soviet Red Army soldiers hiding in the trenches endured the terrifying panic of the Tiger tanks’ tracks rolling over their heads. They had just managed to wait for these tanks to cross their trench, and before they could even feel a sense of relief, they were strafed by the German grenadiers who followed, who stood on top of them.

Bullets rained down into the trench, turning the pitiful young men inside into sieves. Most of these Soviet soldiers were new recruits with no combat experience. Against the elite grenadiers of G Army Group, they had no strength to fight back at all. The Soviet positions were torn open bit by bit, the breach growing larger and larger, and they were gradually showing signs of collapse.

However, the Soviet commander clearly did not want to give up his defense line so easily. It was also possible that because he knew that if a rout were to occur, the number of troops lost would be even greater than those killed in action, this Soviet commander had still not given the order to retreat, but was letting the troops in his broken defense line struggle to the death under the German attack.

Suddenly, from the other side of a small mound and a fence, a Soviet tank drove onto the position. And as soon as it appeared, it opened fire, hitting the frontal armor of a German Tiger tank.

This shell struck the upper frontal armor of this Tiger tank but did not penetrate. Like a small stone, it was easily deflected and rolled onto the ground in the distance, frightening a Soviet soldier who was observing nearby.

It was no wonder that this fatal blow was so easily deflected by the Tiger tank. The Soviet tank that had appeared out of nowhere was an already outdated T-26 tank, so it was impossible for it to cause any trouble for the thick-skinned Tiger. The gunner of the covering tank, No. 115, gave a cold laugh, then fired decisively, adding another kill to his record.

To use a Tiger tank’s shell to shoot a T-26 was a bit of an overkill. The shell very cleanly penetrated the entire T-26—it entered through the frontal armor, then tore through the crew inside, destroyed the tank’s ammunition compartment, and then pierced the engine compartment and exited through the rear.

Without any suspense, this T-26 tank cooked off, and the entire tank was torn into scrap metal by the massive explosion. At this time, from behind this Soviet tank, another T-26 charged out. It seemed that the Soviet troops stationed here really didn’t have any decent equipment.

And so, tank No. 114, which had not had a chance to get a kill just now, seized its opportunity. It destroyed that pitiful T-26 tank with one shot, adding a little more to its combat record. The German tanks continued to advance, and then destroyed several more Soviet tanks and armored cars that had charged out from behind the wrecks of those two Soviet tanks.

This time, the Soviet defense line really began to waver. Some of the Soviet soldiers who had been defending their positions to the death began to jump out of their foxholes and trenches and flee to the rear. The advantage that had not been obvious on the battlefield just now immediately evolved into a one-sided slaughter. The hull-mounted machine guns of the German tanks opened fire without any scruples, sending tracer and regular bullets into the bodies of the Soviet soldiers.

“These Soviets are all new recruits. They have no combat experience. They don’t know how powerful our tanks are,” Markus said in the headset. “Their fighting methods are too naive. They haven’t had much training.”

“This is a reserve division. It doesn’t have much combat effectiveness,” Rein said, watching the tracer rounds fired from his own tank’s hull machine gun turn one Soviet soldier after another into a sieve. He confirmed to Markus, “It’s obvious they are delaying our offensive speed to buy time for the real defense line behind them.”

“Seal off their escape routes with firepower! Leave the matter of taking prisoners to the grenadiers! We will stop our attack in the woods on the other side! Clear out all the enemies in that patch of woods!” Rein ordered coldly.

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