Chapter 959: Giant

The distant sounds grew steadily closer, a clear sign that something was approaching. But the two men, grievously wounded and on the verge of death, had lost their basic, keen senses. They didn’t know whose reinforcements would arrive first. Neither gave up; both were still trying their utmost to put the other down.

Rein was crawling towards his pistol. His leg wound made movement difficult. Wolf, however, could still manage to move, inch by inch, on his own two feet. Though he was further from Rein’s pistol, he was several times faster.

A cool breeze swept over them. Rein stopped reaching for his pistol. He realized it was no longer necessary. An Odin helicopter was hovering a few dozen meters away, the dark muzzle of its side-mounted MG42 machine gun pointed directly at Wolf.

Ropes snaked down from the aircraft. German special forces soldiers in black uniforms were rappelling to the ground. The first to land was a second lieutenant. He pointed his assault rifle warily at Wolf, making no move to help the heavily wounded Rein.

Wolf gave a bitter smile, the scar on his face still twisted in a grotesque grin. The thing he had feared most had finally happened. Even with the Soviets on a full-scale offensive, the German reinforcements had still arrived a step faster. This fateful duel had felt wrong from the very beginning, wrong until the very last second.

Now he finally understood, understood completely. This was no longer a primitive fight to the death between two men. Though he was indeed strong in that regard, it could not make up for the chasm of difference that existed between the two sides in other areas. The outcome of a battle was no longer decided by the bravery and ferocity of two men, but by the crystallization of the efforts of thousands of men, of thousands of links in a chain.

Thousands of kilometers away, in a spacious and bright factory, a skilled German technician had machined a gear with perfect craftsmanship. This gear had ultimately performed with stable reliability in a tank, deciding whether a German tank could continue to fight after being hit.

Operating a Friedrich rocket launcher manufactured in France, the German artillery units, with little preparation time, had rained a terrifyingly dense barrage of fire down on the Soviet tanks, and these artillerymen were also several kilometers away.

Above the clouds, the German Air Force’s Stuka II attack planes, like vengeful ghosts that could not be shaken, had appeared in time, pulling the desperate German tank units back from the brink of annihilation. That storm of bombing had completely shattered the Soviet armored forces’ attempt to outflank the Das Reich Division, and had also completely ended Wolf’s advantage over Rein.

Still thousands of kilometers away, on the lathes of the Belgian Browning company, one after another of the small, reliable pistols had been born. They had helped Rein to gain an overwhelming advantage at the last moment. This pistol, born in 1935, was much better to use than the 1895 revolver in the hands of the Soviets.

Even the tactical vest that Rein wore was the culmination of the painstaking efforts of many master designers—with almost no impact on his movement, Rein was carrying far more ammunition than Wolf, which had laid the most solid and reliable foundation for his ultimate advantage.

Unknowingly, Wolf was no longer fighting Rein alone. The technical workers who had produced the most advanced tanks for Germany, the textile factories that had designed the tactical vests for Rein, the people in the occupied territories of France and Belgium who had provided Rein with weapons and equipment, the air force and artillery who had provided long-range support…

The war was no longer a fight between frontline soldiers, or rather, it was no longer just a fight between frontline soldiers. Even when scaled down to the level of individual combat, the industrial and technological strength of a nation was beginning to show its indisputable, decisive role. Wolf had not been defeated by Rein, but by the collective efforts of millions of workers.

A stream becomes a river; a sand pile becomes a tower. When Wolf’s tank, due to its rate of fire and reliability, had ultimately failed to destroy Rein’s King Tiger, it seemed the outcome had already been decided. Wolf had lost. The numerical superiority he had so painstakingly gathered had, in the face of the German army, which was a condensation of countless wisdom and production capacity, ultimately been defeated—a glorious defeat, but an indisputable one.

At this very moment, every German soldier seemed to be standing on the shoulders of a giant named “Industry.” To defeat such a powerful German army, the Soviet Union would have to fill the gap with countless lives… Although it was bloody, although it was brutal, this was war. This was the “German domain” that Akado and countless German engineers and scientists had striven for with their efforts. In this domain, the Germans had their own advantages. For a period of time, Germany’s advantage would crush any opponent, guiding the German legions to be ever-victorious, invincible!

Now, it was no longer a bloody, cruel, but slow and clumsy duel between two wounded men. The German special forces soldiers held assault rifles in their hands, and the aircraft had the terrifying “Akado’s Saw,” the MG42. Even if he had a tank now, Wolf would have no certainty of victory, let alone now, when he had no weapon, only three holes in his body that were constantly bleeding.

The second German soldier to arrive knelt by Rein’s side, slung his weapon over his back, and began to check his injuries. The helicopter’s engine was too loud, so loud that Rein couldn’t even hear what he was saying. “Sir! You are safe now!”

A second Odin helicopter landed not far away. A medic with a white armband with a red cross on it, holding his helmet, ran quickly to Rein’s side. He put down his medical kit and, without even glancing at Wolf not far away, began to treat Rein’s wounds.

The German special forces soldier following behind the medic also held an MP-44 assault rifle and pointed its muzzle at Wolf. He didn’t speak, but his wary eyes told Wolf one thing: “If you move, you might get turned into a sieve.”

And behind him was another fully armed special forces soldier. He also had a simple stretcher tucked under his arm, his weapon slung over his back. This soldier was clearly in charge of carrying heavy objects, so he was carrying less ammunition than the others.

Everything had happened too suddenly. Even Rein found it a little hard to believe. After a few special forces soldiers had set up a circular security perimeter around them, Rein suddenly felt someone do something to his thigh. In an instant, he felt his body become much lighter. The bone-deep pain that had been tormenting him was gone.

“Look at me, Captain. If you’re willing to tell me a little bit about yourself, like your hometown, it would be very helpful!” The medic had clearly given Rein a shot of morphine to relieve the pain. In just an instant, Rein had found a glimmer of life again. He could once again hear the noisy roar of the engine and could clearly see the special forces soldiers around him, armed to the teeth.

“Ha… it’s good to see you,” Rein said, grabbing the medic’s sleeve with his bloody hand. “Help… me… finish off Wolf… save my crew, save them! Quick!”

“Yes, sir!” The German second lieutenant, who was standing not far from Rein, suddenly pulled the trigger. A puff of white smoke erupted from his assault rifle, and the metal casings were thrown far. But the bullets blossomed into small, bloody flowers on Wolf’s body.

Rat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat! From overhead, the machine gunner on the side of the armed helicopter, seeing someone on the ground open fire, instinctively followed suit. The dense rain of fire from the MG42 immediately enveloped Wolf’s body in a cloud of smoke. The tracer rounds, like a woven net of fire, covered the spot where he was standing.

The lone wolf had finally fallen. The seemingly invincible body was pitifully weak under the strafing of the MG42. The nickname “Akado’s Saw” was definitely not an undeserved reputation. When a helicopter was carrying a large amount of ammunition, the terrifying instantaneous burst of the MG42 was a nightmare for all targets.

“Cease fire! I can’t see the target! Cease fire!” beside Rein, a liaison NCO with communication equipment was having the armed helicopter overhead cease fire. A few seconds later, the strafing finally stopped. The smoke and dust eventually dissipated. Wolf’s body lay in the center of a patch of craters, a gruesome sight.

He hadn’t had time to cry out before he was engulfed by the bullets. After all, for the German special forces, their firepower advantage was not just a little bit. They were accustomed to pouring ammunition on a target to ensure that the target they were attacking was completely and cleanly destroyed. As special forces, their only function was to finish off their opponents cleanly. Other parts were secondary factors.

“The wounded’s condition is very bad! He needs to be sent to a field hospital in the rear as soon as possible!” the medic beside Rein said loudly to the commander not far away, while performing a simple hemostasis on Rein.

And the commander of the special forces also felt that to leave as soon as possible was a very correct thing to do. He signaled for everyone to prepare to return to the aircraft, and then put two more shots into Wolf’s body. “The Das Reich has already begun to fall back. The Soviets will be here soon. We need to leave as soon as possible!”

“Go and check… the wreck… of the King Tiger! Near there… there are our… wounded!” Under the stimulation of the medicine, Rein was still muttering repeatedly as he was being moved onto a stretcher. He was soon carried onto a landing helicopter, and the other special forces soldiers, because there was no more room, could only leave here on foot.

Rein finally passed out on the plane. He felt the slight vibration of the fuselage. It was indeed a little more comfortable than the King Tiger… But that damn noise was really loud.

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com