Chapter 910: Each Other's Envy

Leaning against the side skirt of the new tank, Rein gnawed on a green apple. Fresh fruit was a rarity for frontline troops, but luckily there was an apple orchard here, offering a “free” supply of unripe apples to anyone with an assault rifle.

The King Tiger tank held a clear advantage against Soviet armor. In open country, not even the newest Stalin tank could stand against it. The irony was, ever since Rein had taken command of this new model, he hadn’t had a chance to fight.

Guderian was keeping them in reserve, not letting them show their faces. Rein and his crew followed a large group of grenadiers, the journey as effortless as a drive through Germany. If it weren’t for the occasional Soviet corpse on the roadside, the craters, and the ruins, they might have thought they were already home.

Hearing the order, Rein stood up, still holding the apple, and walked to the front of the tank toward the officer who had shouted. He heard the command and realized this time it was for real. The Tiger tank with the number 113 on its turret roared to life, pulling out of the field and onto the road, heading for the distant horizon.

As a new German weapon, the King Tiger’s suspension system was a completely different concept from the Tiger’s. German engineers had long studied the structural advantages of the torsion bar suspension. As a classic tank connection structure of later generations, it had its own irreplaceable advantages, making this structure much more powerful than the Christie system.

First, this structure was simple and reliable. It could be said that it almost never failed, which was a huge and tempting advantage for the German army, which emphasized tank reliability. In addition, this structure saved space, so the total amount of ammunition carried by the King Tiger was much greater than that of the Tiger, which was conducive to long-term combat and allowed elite units to exert their full combat power.

Of course, another advantage was that the shock absorption of this suspension system was slightly better than the Christie structure, so as Rein leaned against the turret hatch, he felt a wave of drowsiness.

The entire 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion had replaced the weapons in their hands. Most had been re-equipped with the King Tiger. The battalion’s original Panther tanks had also been replaced with second-hand Tigers. So now the entire 502nd had no gasoline-powered tanks, which was also a simplification of their logistics.

The final result of Field Marshal von Brauchitsch’s deliberations was to support Guderian’s G Army Group’s independent operations as much as possible. Because there were really no other support units available nearby for G Army Group. But Germany now had a lot of cards in its hand, so Guderian was by no means isolated and helpless.

At least, while Rein was dozing off, at a German frontline field airfield dozens of kilometers away, the busy ground crew were preparing the final steps for a sortie. Several days of rainy weather had made the roads difficult to travel, but after the rain stopped, it had brought a clear sky to the entire war zone. The weather was no longer causing trouble for the soldiers of either side. Everything was within everyone’s expectations.

“Ready to go! Can take off at any time,” two ground crewmen said to the pilot who was confirming his mission. “The fuel tanks are full. I hear the field airfield on the Romanian side is almost finished. It can fully support this unit.”

“I’m not worried about the infrastructure over there. I’m worried that such a large-scale maneuver will affect the aircraft’s subsequent sortie rate,” the pilot said, signing his name on a record sheet. He then kicked at a loose rope on the ground and walked towards his plane.

The NCO in the co-pilot’s seat nodded, and both of them put on their headsets. These pilots were a little different from the air force pilots. They were not wearing thick leather jackets, nor were they wearing leather flight helmets. Their goggles were also casually slung around their necks.

The two of them checked the instruments in the cockpit and then waved to the ground crew on standby, signaling that everything was normal. The co-pilot then flipped a switch overhead, and the massive, horizontally mounted rotor on the outside of their cabin began to spin slowly.

The rotor on this Odin helicopter began to spin slowly, accelerating bit by bit, and finally kicked up a small amount of dust from the ground, forming a gust of wind that made it hard to open one’s eyes. The helicopter slowly lifted off the ground, and the ropes on the ground began to tighten under the immense tension.

Then, a lightened German 75mm infantry gun was lifted off the ground. The personnel on the ground waved their hands, directing the aircraft to fly safely into the air. The Odin helicopter’s powerful towing capacity began to show, easily lifting this 500-kilogram infantry gun into the sky.

Not far away, a similar Odin transport helicopter was also taking off. This aircraft, besides being filled with soldiers, also had a case of cannon shells slung on the outside. In the sky further away, two Odin helicopters had already begun to fly into the distance. Without exception, these planes were all laden with supplies that needed to be transported far away.

“If this were in the past, you wouldn’t even dare to think about it. A whole battalion of infantry, just transported away so easily,” a pilot of a taking-off Odin helicopter lamented. “Sent to the flank to reinforce the Romanian troops’ positions, and it only took a few hours… truly unimaginable.”

“What’s that?” the co-pilot said with a laugh into his throat mic to his pilot, while flipping the engine’s ignition switch. “This battalion is much more powerful than an ordinary battalion, because they also have our support!”

The rotor of their aircraft began to spin, and then the aircraft also lifted off. This plane was not carrying any materials on the outside, because two small wings had been added to its sides, on which were dense rocket launch pods. And on the nose of this plane were two 20mm cannons, looking very majestic.

“This is the escort squadron! We have taken off! We have taken off!” the pilot shouted, while piloting his aircraft to chase after the transport helicopter that had taken off first, and at the same time contacting the ground command post by radio. Dozens of Odin helicopters had taken off from this airfield, heading straight for the area they needed to reinforce.

Rein was still on the road, lulled to sleep by the slight bumping of the tank. In front of him was the lead tank, No. 111. Following it was No. 112, with the chattering Markus inside, who had been complaining all along about the recent decline in their food supply. Behind tank No. 113 were 114 and 115. In short, they had been replenished to full strength and sent to the battlefield to face another life-and-death separation.

“Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom…” A dense roar of engines came from the sky. Rein squinted his eyes and looked at the distant sky. Even if German fighters would sometimes fly low to greet friendly ground troops, they would never fly so low.

So Rein curiously turned his gaze in the direction from which the sound had come. Because he was wearing a headset, and there was also the noise of the tank engine beside him, by the time Rein looked over, the other party was already very close.

An Odin helicopter flew over his head, the rocket launch pods slung on both sides of its fuselage looking menacing. Then, following close behind this Odin armed helicopter, a helicopter pulling an infantry gun flew past quickly. Rein squinted his eyes. A gentle breeze blew across his face, making him feel very comfortable.

“Look at them, now that’s how you travel,” Markus also looked up at the sky, admiringly watching the helicopters flying overhead. “No need to worry about landmines, and you don’t have to follow the road. Just a straight line to your destination, convenient and fast.”

The helicopter had received unprecedented attention from the German military. The navy had equipped a large number of helicopters, and the air force was also frantically demanding an increase in production. Some of the more extreme generals had even begun to clamor that the helicopter would be the end of the tank.

And as ground troops, of course, they envied the army aviation that could fly high and come and go as they pleased. At least in the process of traveling, the helicopter looked extremely comfortable, and it was also convenient and fast—and it had a very cool and stylish air (otherwise, how could those special forces soldiers sitting on the sides of the helicopter with their guns be so cool?).

“Alright! Markus! Stop being envious. We’ll stop and rest in the small town ahead. You’ll be in charge of setting up the security around us,” Rein said, withdrawing his gaze. He then pressed his throat mic and instructed Markus, “Contact the reconnaissance company ahead and ask them if they’ve found anything.”

“Yes, yes! I was just admiring those people on the helicopters. Look at them, even the way they travel is so handsome and stylish,” Markus said with a sneer, and then went on to chat with the reconnaissance company commander ahead about whether there were any Soviets in the village in front.

Above them, a co-pilot in an Odin helicopter was looking down at the King Tiger tank unit, an envious expression on his face. “Look at them, so majestic. Just looking at that gun barrel makes you feel how powerful it is.”

“Yeah! Isn’t it… not like us unlucky bastards… have you ever heard of an idiot who’s willing to get into a plane with no parachute and fly only a hundred meters high in a hail of bullets?” the pilot said with a smile. “That’s us…”

“Hahaha! The flying coffin, isn’t that what they call us… how fitting,” the co-pilot said with a self-deprecating laugh. The two of them then fell silent and flew their helicopter into the distance. What they didn’t know was that there was also a group of people who envied them for being able to fly, just as they envied the other for being invulnerable.

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