Chapter 855: A Choice

A German soldier parted the bushes in front of him and carefully watched the disorganized mass of Soviet troops assembling not far ahead. The white camouflage cloth had been removed from his steel helmet, revealing the netting underneath. He had come all this way with his unit, relentlessly pursuing the retreating Soviet army.

There was a pontoon bridge of considerable size here. On the Don River, due to the needs of the Soviet retreat, there were many such temporarily constructed pontoon bridges. As soon as the Soviet troops crossed these bridges, they would immediately blow them up to prevent the German army from continuing its pursuit.

On paper, these pontoon bridges seemed very convenient, a lifeline for the Soviet army. But in practice, more than half of these temporary river crossing tools had been destroyed by the interference of the German Air Force. Although the Soviet army had desperately used its anti-aircraft guns to cover these temporary pontoon bridges, it had still left countless troops crowded by the bridges, unable to escape to safety immediately.

If you were to ask who the boldest soldiers in the world were, would it be the German armored forces? Those German tank units, who dared to launch an attack on thousands of enemies with just a few tanks, were incomparably brave, but they were not the most reckless military branch in the world.

Because there was always a group of people who liked to drive their vehicles, speeding ahead of the entire German armored force. They were the eyes of the armored force, the scouts of the entire army group. They created opportunities for the armored force with their lives, and they proved with their most ferocious attacks that they were the bravest and most fearless warriors in the world. These were the reconnaissance detachments of the German armored forces, the units that were closest to the enemy in every battle.

The German soldier let go of the bush he was holding, quietly retreated down the roadbed, carefully jumped over a ditch, and then returned to the side of his reconnaissance unit’s armored reconnaissance vehicle. He walked to the side of the armored car’s commander. “Sergeant, there are about 4,000 enemy soldiers. I saw some heavy weapons and equipment, a 122mm howitzer, and some trucks and T-26 tanks. There are no signs of deployment. They are retreating. Every minute, someone is crossing the river.”

As he spoke, the soldier sketched a simple battlefield situation map with a pencil on a piece of white paper. The level of cultural popularization in the German army was the highest among all the armies in the world at present. New recruits had to receive various cultural training, and most of them had to obtain a junior high school education or above to be promoted to non-commissioned officer within the German army.

So, in just a few seconds, he had intuitively drawn the chaotic scene of the Soviets crossing the river on the white paper spread on the engine cover of the armored car. The cannons were all piled up on the riverbank, waiting to be pulled across by trucks. The tank crews were not around their tanks but were gathered together, arguing with the infantry about which unit could use the pontoon bridge first.

The enemy was in the open, and he was in the dark. The mind of this reconnaissance sergeant immediately began to work. This unit had no decent outer perimeter security, and they hadn’t even set up a basic defensive position. The entire unit was crowded together, even more vulnerable than a unit on the march. At a time like this, if the German army had the strength to cut into this Soviet position, it might cause this Soviet unit to collapse directly.

But what did he have in his hands now? A 20mm cannon, which might be able to pose a threat to a T-26 tank at a certain distance. But if he were to face several thousand Soviet soldiers at the same time, this matter would not be very optimistic. Once the armored car was caught in the enemy’s heavy encirclement, then the fate of the two or three German soldiers could well be imagined.

“This is Sergeant Eduard of the reconnaissance company! Yes, my current coordinates are 07-55 on page 7 of the partial operational map! There is an enemy pontoon bridge at position 08-57. Requesting air support.” The sergeant, named Eduard, climbed onto his armored car and called for air support with the radio on it.

“This is the ground-air combat coordination office. I have received your request. Confirming, the requested bombing location is 08-57 on page 7 of the partial operational map! The location is 08-57 on page 7 of the partial!” In the headset, the voice of the operator from the coordination department came through. After confirming the bombing target, the connection was cut off.

The sergeant on the armored car raised the high-powered binoculars hanging on his chest and stood on the roof, looking again in the direction of the Soviet army in the distance. He finally ducked back into his turret, exposing only his head, and said to the reconnaissance soldier who was still standing to one side, “I’m going to launch a surprise attack, to see if I can buy some time for the guys in the air force. You and Kent set up a covering position on the other side of the road. If we return, provide us with some cover.”

“Understood!” The German soldier nodded, shouldered his assault rifle, went around the started four-wheeled armored car, and sat in the sidecar of a BMW motorcycle with a sidecar. This motorcycle also started up. The person in the driver’s seat was the guy named Kent.

The two of them did not act together with the armored car but instead trudged through the muddy fields. After getting onto the road, they came to the side of the bushes on the other side, aimed the machine gun on the motorcycle through the bushes at the position where the enemy might come, and then the two of them lay prone not far from the motorcycle, waiting for the sound of gunfire to come from the distance.

They did not have to wait long. Just as the Soviets were in a chaotic state, preparing to flee across the Don River, a German armored car quietly arrived behind them and aimed its dark gun muzzle at these unsuspecting Soviet new recruits.

“Hey! Look, that looks like a German armored car. Where did it come from?” a Soviet soldier, his Mosin-Nagant on his back, asked his comrade, having accidentally seen the German-gray armored car rolling over a patch of not-yet-revived bushes and heading towards them.

As he spoke, he nudged his friend behind him with his elbow. And after hearing what he said, the surrounding Soviet soldiers all looked in the direction he had indicated, and only then did they discover that there was indeed an approaching German armored car there. The huge, solid black, white-bordered Iron Cross painted on its front indicated its enemy identity.

What should they do now? Shouldn’t they immediately open fire and counter-attack the suddenly appearing enemy? Why was everyone just watching as if it were a show, as that armored car got closer and closer, without a single person taking their rifle from their back? the Soviet new recruit who had first seen the German armored car thought in confusion.

But before he could set a correct example for everyone, the small 20mm cannon on the German armored car, along with the turret’s MG42 machine gun, suddenly began to fire. The machine gun’s muzzle flashed, and tracer rounds swept into the dense crowd of Soviets. In an instant, blood splattered everywhere, and the soldiers, still not knowing what was happening, began to fall in swathes.

“Ger…Germans!” Finally, a not-so-stupid Soviet soldier shouted the warning that should have been shouted long ago. Unfortunately, this shout did not make the nervous and panicked crowd remember what they should do. On the contrary, because of this hysterical shout, the already despairing crowd became even more chaotic. And so, the crowd began to trample each other, and the officers could no longer restrain the soldiers under their command.

The Soviet troops near the pontoon bridge began to desperately crowd onto it. The soldiers who were already on the bridge began to run desperately towards the other side of the river. The slower ones were pushed by those who caught up from behind and fell into the river, or fell directly on the pontoon bridge and were trampled into a pile of mud by those who ran past.

The sound of gunfire began to intensify, not from the Soviets returning fire on the German attack, but from their own people firing desperately at each other in order to stabilize their position or to fight for the right to get on the pontoon bridge. This place had completely lost control. Everyone just wanted to get away from the Germans behind them as soon as possible.

As for just how many Germans were behind them, this important matter was not shouted by anyone, nor did anyone want to know. Everyone just knew that the German army seemed to be invincible, and everyone seemed to just want to get to the other side first before worrying about all these messy things.

The German reconnaissance battalion’s four-wheeled armored car, numbered 224, sped past the crowd, its turret turned sideways towards the weak, lamb-like enemies, easily pouring merciless bullets into their fragile bodies. Although this battle was not yet over, it now seemed that the process was countless times easier than Sergeant Eduard had expected.

BOOM! BOOM! The 20mm cannon fired continuously, destroying the Soviet T-26 tanks that were parked on the riverbank, their operators having abandoned them, one after another. In fact, the Soviet armored soldiers, who had been scared out of their wits, had no intention of returning to their tanks, because almost all the Soviets knew that a so-called tank like the T-26 was no different from a coffin when fighting against German armored units.

A few bullets struck the side of the armored car, leaving a few shallow marks on it. The Soviet counter-attack had finally begun, but it seemed to have come too late. The Soviet soldiers, with only rifles, had no way to deal with the German armored car, which had already had its armor thickened. And the equipment they had that could deal with armored cars was now a pile of burning scrap iron.

Clank! Eduard opened the hatch above his head, poked his head out, and, with the words he had learned from a Russian handbook, put together a simple and easy-to-understand sentence: “Surrender! Or die!”

His voice was powerful and resonant, leaving the Soviet soldiers who were cowering in a group on the other side of the armored car not knowing how to react. The number of Germans was not such that they could make everyone cooperate and lay down their weapons. Many seemed to still be holding on to a glimmer of hope.

“Surrender! Or die!” with great confidence, Sergeant Eduard shouted again.

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