Chapter 835: Butcher

Napalm is surely one of the most detested weapon inventions in human history. Incendiary weapons, from ancient Greek fire onward, have always been the most feared of humanity’s great killers. After all, fire and water are merciless. Since the time when humans wore no clothes, the painful memory of fire has been deeply embedded in the mind, becoming a fixed part of our understanding.

And science has made fire burn more thoroughly, and for longer, clinging to any object, continuously burning and raising the surrounding temperature, until it achieves its purpose of igniting everything, of incinerating everything. This is what makes napalm so despairing. It burns and is not easily extinguished. It is so persistent it can melt steel and shatter bone.

It is precisely because of this power that napalm became the German Air Force’s favorite ground-attack weapon. Whenever they encountered a target they felt needed to be completely destroyed, they would have their planes loaded with this terrifying weapon, fly over the target, and drop the bombs, watching the ground turn into a sea of fire.

Every time this type of bomb was dropped, the intense explosions and fires on the ground would often create a huge amount of thick smoke, blotting out the sun and making it impossible to see the remaining targets. Therefore, the German army would generally use this weapon in the final bombing run, to completely destroy the target before stopping the air raid.

This time, they had dropped several hundred tons of napalm on Smolensk, on this city that had already been surrounded by the German army. A full day had passed, and the sky-blotting fire was still burning. The Soviet defenders in the city, due to casualties and chaos, had not yet launched any effective rescue efforts.

The fire ignited the houses. The burning substance of the napalm clung to the buildings and to people’s skin, roasting everything it touched. People were roasted into charcoal, houses were burned to ruins. Then, with the dry, cold wind of late winter, the flames spread across the streets, igniting the houses on the other side and turning into an uncontrollable behemoth.

This rampaging behemoth devoured anything it encountered that could be ignited, burning the bedsheets, cabinets, and clothes inside the houses, along with the people inside the clothes. In short, it grew as it devoured, eventually becoming as huge as the entire city of Smolensk.

The houses were burning, collapsing, but the Soviet defenders could not come up with any effective disaster relief measures. Their forces were already extremely limited, and now, having lost even more men in the large-scale air raid, they were stretched thin on the defensive, let alone being able to help the local civilians rescue their supplies and houses.

These pitiful civilians could only rely on themselves. But in this time of war, the fire trucks and fire engines had long been requisitioned by the army. The fire simply could not be extinguished. In the end, the people also gave up the idea of putting out the fires. They let the fire spread, to burn down the entire city.

“Only when dropping napalm does the ‘Butcher’ bomber truly live up to its name.” This was a comment made by General Dick, the commander-in-chief of the German strategic bomber force. He felt that the combined use of napalm and bombs could maximize the destruction of a target and break the enemy’s will to resist.

This time, he had put his idea into practice at Smolensk, dropping a large number of bombs and napalm. These weapons had turned the entire city into a pile of rubble, and a burning pile of rubble at that. In fact, according to the German, or rather, European understanding of war, under these circumstances, the defending forces inside the city should have long since given up resistance and surrendered. After all, the city they were defending no longer existed.

But the actual situation was that the Soviet army, which had been encircled by the German army, its defensive positions on all four sides compressed, the city it was defending destroyed, and its personnel suffering heavy casualties, had not surrendered. Instead, they were waiting in the ruins for the German attack. They were determined to share the fate of the ruins behind them, to buy more time for their motherland.

Every person has a faith, and every nation has its own backbone. This kind of spirit is not something that only a specific individual or nation possesses, but something that every nation that stands tall among the nations of the world must have. This kind of spirit of choosing death over dishonor cannot be understood with common sense. Sometimes, knowing it is death, some people, some, will still follow their own beliefs.

“When Comrade Zhukov left, he told us that if we hold out for a month, our motherland will have a greater hope!” a Soviet division commander said, staring at his men. “For the Soviet Union, for all our compatriots, we will not be slaves of a conquered nation! We will not be cowardly traitors!”

“We will defend Smolensk to the death!” all the regimental and battalion commanders answered loudly, shouting their oaths and raising their right hands, clenching their fists.

“The enemy’s tanks can roll over our corpses! But we will never surrender!” After the division commander had spoken, he gave the order to defend every inch of territory to the death. He knew the German offensive was about to begin, and no one wanted an enemy city to exist behind their own defense line.

In another sector of the position, the German experimental infantry battalion had already begun their attack. Two self-propelled anti-aircraft guns led the way, giving these German soldiers, who were clearing out the Soviet soldiers along the street, super-strong fire support. They carefully cleared out two collapsed buildings, established a forward base, and then used the anti-aircraft vehicles to clear out another large building. There they set up an effective defense and began to advance on the next city block.

A regular infantry battalion following behind took over some of the cleared buildings. They found this slow but very efficient offensive amusing. After all, watching the troops in front of them carefully and methodically carry out the task of clearing the buildings, anyone would feel it was a bit amusing, and also boring.

The battle began when it was supposed to. A Soviet soldier fired the first shot of the counter-attack, and then the German anti-aircraft guns opened fire fiercely. The 20mm ammunition struck the walls of the buildings, kicking up a cloud of white smoke. And the German soldiers, concealed in the corners, desperately suppressed the Soviet positions opposite them with their automatic weapons.

“This is Special Experimental Unit, 1st Company. Artillery, extend 100 meters in front of my position, fire! I repeat, artillery, extend 100 meters in front of my position, fire!” a German signals runner, squatting in the middle of the squad, called in artillery support from the battalion with a new-style walkie-talkie. He looked very calm, because the procedure before him had been rehearsed countless times.

Right on time, just as in the rehearsal, the German 105mm howitzers quickly paid a visit to the Soviet defenders’ positions not far in front of the German army. The shells fired by the four howitzers landed accurately around the buildings, turning the Soviet positions there into a pile of rubble.

When the first round of four shells landed, the Soviet position had already been torn to shreds by the shockwave of the explosion. Immediately after, the second round of shelling arrived. The Soviet soldiers, who had just been wanting to fight to the death, were wiped out by the artillery attack. The German artillery fire had come too quickly. Compared to the support of the past, it was almost so fast that it was impossible to move. The ambush tactics of hitting and running had become meaningless in the face of the Germans’ cautious probing and could only increase casualties.

Just as the shelling had ended, the Soviet soldiers who had barely survived the barrage by huddling in corners and other places were met with another hellish test. The self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, having replenished their ammunition, once again opened fire fiercely, combing through the blind spots that the shells had not taken care of. Under cover, the Germans quickly entered these ruins, and with practiced coordination, they began to clear out every possible place where personnel could be hiding.

Soon, the Germans had cleared the battlefield. Four Soviet Red Army soldiers were captured. According to them, 54 of their comrades had been killed. They had attempted to ambush the German troops and then quickly withdraw, but they had not expected to be immediately suppressed by the Germans’ powerful firepower and then hit by a round of artillery.

Subsequently, the Germans began to continue to clear the positions ahead. They cleared the nearby large buildings and some of the burned-out structures, captured more than 300 Soviet Red Army prisoners, and killed another 88. And the German army had only suffered one soldier killed and two wounded.

“This steady and methodical clearing of the enemy positions one by one is indeed a very safe method of attack. In coordination with our different types of infantry, we can also leverage our superior firepower in street fighting,” Field Marshal von Rundstedt said, standing on a cleared position and watching his own troops advance, building by building, through his battery commander’s scope. “But… the consumption of ammunition is also increasing geometrically.”

“There is no perfect solution in this world,” one of the German officers in charge of observing this battalion’s urban combat said, chiming in from behind Rundstedt. “In fact, we have already deployed small special forces units to coordinate with the sniper detachments. We will soon have feedback on the effect. Coupled with this unit’s advance on the main front, I believe it won’t be long before the Soviets will understand that fighting a street battle with us is also not a good deal.”

He had just finished speaking when a series of dense artillery shells landed on a place that was really not very conspicuous. To have used 150mm heavy artillery, it was clear that some infiltration team had found a big fish and had directly called for army group-level fire support.

A dozen or so 150mm shells landed in that area in the distance. In an instant, the ground shook. By the time everything had returned to calm, the rising smoke was still several stories high. The artillery had fired very accurately, so accurately that it had directly turned that area into a huge, interconnected crater.

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