Chapter 949: Cold Gaze

A terrifying 122mm armor-piercing round screamed over the turret of Rein’s King Tiger, the searing jet of its passage melting and tearing away a section of the machine gun mount. Clearly, the Soviets understood the principle of finishing off a wounded animal. Seeing Rein’s King Tiger immobile, they had immediately concentrated their fire, wanting to eliminate another thorny problem.

So, after Rein’s crew had lost their mobility, the attacks they faced instantly became more than three times as intense. Shells of all sizes rained down around the King Tiger, some grazing past with a terrifying nearness.

Suddenly, a 76mm armor-piercing round slammed into the King Tiger’s turret and then, ricocheting at a sharp angle, flew up into the sky. This shell from a T-34 had failed to penetrate the King Tiger’s frontal armor. Compared to the powerful blow from a Stalin’s 122mm cannon, the T-34’s hit was nothing more than a tickle.

This 76mm round, striking the King Tiger, had failed to penetrate and destroy, but it had jolted the stalled engine back to life with a roar. A puff of black smoke erupted from the exhaust pipes of King Tiger No. 113, and the entire tank began to reverse.

“Baby! I knew you could do it! I knew you were the best! I love you, baby!” Baumann was so excited he nearly bent down to kiss the control levers beside him. He laughed and shouted, as crazed as if he had just won the lottery.

“Reverse! Baumann! Keep reversing!” Rein commanded Baumann, then gave Andre the order to continue firing. “Keep firing! Find opportunities to take out as many Soviet tanks as possible! The Tigers don’t have a large ammunition load. The rest is up to our two King Tigers!”

In that instant, everyone seemed to be exultant. The fact that the King Tiger, the main force of the battle, had regained its mobility was equivalent to giving the German army another sliver of a chance of victory. The German tanks were at an absolute numerical disadvantage, and every tank lost was a very serious weakening and blow to them.

Rein’s crew was back in the fight, and as the command tank, their return to battle was a huge morale booster for the Germans. Although there was no time for cheers or celebration in the midst of the battle, one could hear from the gradually calming voices that everyone had breathed a slight sigh of relief at this moment.

This was the stabilizing effect of an ace crew in battle, the courage a commander brought to the other personnel on the battlefield. As Rein’s tank reversed, the Germans fired another volley of shells, destroying two of the Soviet Stalin tanks that had been so swaggering just a moment ago.

BOOM! Just as all the German crews were breathing a sigh of relief for Rein’s crew’s escape, a shell directly struck a Tiger tank not far behind Rein’s. And this blow was of unparalleled force. From the sound, one could guess it was a 122mm shell.

“Rein! Tiger 2 is hit! It’s on fire! My God!” Markus’s position was further back, and he could see some of the situation on the battlefield. The shell had just hit that Tiger tank and had pierced its frontal armor.

And so this German Tiger tank burst into flames. The men inside must have all been killed, because no one was seen climbing out of the burning tank. Everyone knew what this meant. It wouldn’t be long before that burning Tiger would cook off, and the men inside would not even leave a corpse behind.

It was just as the song of the panzer troops sang: “Even if we die in battle in the end, at least we have a steel coffin.” Most of the panzer soldiers ended up lying in this steel coffin. At least they had a resting place they were satisfied with. In the cruel years of war, this was perhaps a good ending.

This sudden shell had knocked the newly recovered German momentum back to the brink of collapse. The German force, which had originally had only five tanks, now had only three left. Even if the German tanks’ rate of fire was several times that of the Soviet tanks, the absolute numerical disparity meant that the density of their fire was not on the same level.

Although the Germans had destroyed another three Soviet T-34s that were trying to close the distance, in terms of the most threatening Stalin tanks, the Soviet Red Army still held an overwhelming advantage. And this advantage was constantly expanding, expanding to a despairing degree.

What the Germans didn’t know was that the Soviets didn’t just have these dozen or so tanks in front. More tanks were continuously pouring out of the woods. In fact, the number of tanks the Soviets had committed here was more than sixty. These tanks were desperately crossing the roadbed, charging towards the German tanks.

Once these Soviet tanks had wiped out Rein and the other crews in front of them, they would have a chance to outflank and completely finish off the under-strength SS Das Reich Division. And if the Das Reich Division were to be surrounded and annihilated, then a gap would appear in Guderian’s defense line, a fatal gap.

Just as more and more Soviet tanks were deploying on the battlefield, an armor-piercing round flew over Rein and the others’ tanks from the rear, directly destroying a Stalin tank at a long range. And at the same time as this shell found its mark, the voice of another Tiger tank commander sounded in Rein’s headset: “I will provide covering fire for you! Continue to retreat in my direction.”

The other Tiger tank that had been assigned to cover them on their return route had finally appeared in time. Rein’s delay and blocking action had finally had some effect. At least now it seemed they still had a chance to continue to be entangled with the Soviets, which meant there was still a faint hope of victory.

There had been dangerous times like this before. The Soviets would ultimately give up the attack due to excessive losses. After all, to rout a main German armored force head-on was not an easy matter. The Soviets, when facing the German armored forces, would more or less have a little bit of a lack of confidence. And it was this momentary lack of confidence that had let many opportunities to win slip away, and had also created the myth of invincibility for countless German ace tank crews.

“Fire! Try to eliminate the Soviet Stalin tanks! No matter how many of those T-34s we take out, they won’t retreat!” Markus yelled in the headset. His tank then fired a shot. The shell was a little off its original target and kicked up the dirt on the ground between two Stalin tanks.

Andre aimed at his target. He centered the precise markings on the King Tiger’s sight on a Stalin tank that was driving straight at them. The crosshairs stopped at the junction of the tank’s turret and hull, and then, in that instant, he pressed the firing plate.

A tungsten-core armor-piercing round flew from the muzzle of the 88mm cannon, followed by a thick cloud of white smoke. The huge recoil made the King Tiger shudder, but its good suspension system filtered out the excess force. The King Tiger continued to reverse as it swayed.

And that shell flew a long distance and finally struck the upper frontal armor of the targeted Stalin tank. It then slightly changed its trajectory, and after striking a shower of sparks, it happened to hit the curve below the Stalin tank’s turret, and then produced a perfect downward ricochet.

This shell easily penetrated the roof of this Stalin tank’s driver’s compartment from above and then, along with countless metal fragments, rampaged through the cramped interior of the tank, riddling everything it encountered with holes. With a dense clattering sound, this tank finally stopped advancing and was paralyzed on the spot, not moving an inch.

“Rein! We’re almost out of shells!” The crew of the battalion’s Tiger No. 1, which had been fighting with Rein and the others from the very beginning, was now running low on ammunition. This Tiger had only a dozen or so armor-piercing rounds left, which was clearly not enough to face such a large number of Soviet tanks.

“Number 1, you can retreat at full speed. We’ll cover you! You and Number 3 rendezvous and try to protect my and Markus’s flanks!” Rein ordered this Tiger to accelerate its retreat. After all, if they were to leave after they had run out of ammunition, it would be easier for them to not be able to get away. Now they only had four tanks left. Every tank had to be used to its maximum potential to have a chance of repelling this long-planned Soviet attack.

“Don’t just sit there when you’re retreating! Contact the battalion! Have them notify the Das Reich to accelerate their retreat! The enemy looks like they’re going to try and outflank them from the side and rear!” Rein, of course, had not forgotten the reason for this battle. They had to save the endangered Das Reich Division as much as possible. This was their main purpose in coming here.

BOOM! A Stalin tank was destroyed by Markus’s King Tiger No. 112. The force of the explosion twisted and blew open all the hatches of this tank, and dazzling flames shot out from inside. The burning black smoke blocked the Germans’ aim and also blocked the vision of the nearby Soviets.

Wolf, who had been taking cheap shots from the rear all this time, frowned and then gave the order to his driver to continue advancing. His Stalin tank began to move forward slowly, following behind two other Stalin tanks, and through the burning thick smoke, it inched closer and closer to the German armored forces.

“Rein! Rein! Do you only know how to use a more powerful tank to cover up your own incompetence?” Wolf muttered in a hoarse voice, the scar on his face twitching. In such a chaotic battlefield, he seemed to have no intention of ducking into his tank. The upper half of his body, exposed, swayed slightly with the advance of the tank, his cold gaze fixed on the distant King Tiger No. 113, which was firing without stopping.

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