Chapter 989: Daybreak

Aksel was completely stunned by the sudden firepower from his flank. He had just given the order and had retreated to the old man’s side, intending to check on his seriously wounded leader. This had made his position in the crowd less obvious, so he had not immediately become a target.

But his men were being cut to pieces, crying for their mothers. After all, the Germans had a full thirty-odd men, and the pitiful Norwegian resistance fighters now numbered less than ten. With a fundamental disadvantage in numbers, in this close-quarters fight, they were immediately suppressed, unable to even raise their heads.

“It’s over! Old man! We’ve been discovered by the Germans! I’ll carry you and retreat immediately! Let these men cover our rear!” Aksel asked, squinting his eyes at a comrade who was being cut into a mess of flesh and blood by the German machine gun fire as he fled.

The old man, leaning against the ammunition box, was already lifeless. The only reason he had held on until now was the glimmer of hope that the cannon had given him of completing his mission. Now that hope was shattered. The facts proved that a single anti-aircraft gun’s destructive power against a factory building was very limited. So the breath the old man had been holding had now been released, and his whole face had turned ashen.

He grabbed Aksel’s arm with his last bit of strength, as if using all his might. He then squeezed out a faint word from his mouth, which in the noisy environment, Aksel almost didn’t hear. But Aksel still made out the word from the shape of his mouth: “Run!”

Yes, now the only option left was to run. If he didn’t take advantage of the chaos and flee now, then he would really have to die a meaningless death here. Compared to being alive, who would be willing to die? Feeling the strength in the old man’s arm fade, and seeing in the light of the other’s gunfire that the old man’s hand had already fallen limply, Aksel bent his waist and stood up, wanting to escape from this place that was destined not to be his, by the same path he had come.

Unfortunately, before he could even take a step, he saw a comrade who had run to the small path that had been cleared of mines being cut down by the Germans’ blocking fire. The force of the impact made the unlucky fellow lose his balance and fall directly on the side of the small path.

Then, in the night sky filled with the dense sound of gunfire, a landmine was triggered and exploded, blowing the poor, wounded Norwegian to a bloody mess. Of course, in the pitch-black darkness, no one could appreciate this bloody scene, but when the landmine went off, a picture of a blood-soaked corpse automatically appeared in everyone’s mind.

Aksel looked at the not-so-safe retreat route, gritted his teeth, and charged towards the breach in the factory’s outer wall that had been blown open by the cannon. He felt that to escape into the factory under the cover of the night, to first shake off these pursuing Germans, was the best policy. Then he would calmly think of a way to escape this desperate place before daybreak.

As he approached the jumble of rubble and debris and ran towards the other side of the outer wall, the last two resistance members who were using the cannon’s body as cover were also turned into sieves by the dense German bullets. They fell backward unwillingly and finally, there was not a single breath left in them.

Now, apart from the lucky Aksel, all the Norwegians who had invaded this place had been killed. The only one left, Mr. Aksel, holding his submachine gun, crossed the outer wall. Although the hope of escape was very slim, after all, everyone has their own desire to survive. Even if it was to live for one more second, it was worth a fight.

Unfortunately, the moment Aksel’s foot crossed the outer wall, he felt a dangerous aura. At that moment, he felt a trip signal from under his foot, and he involuntarily began to fall forward.

The German patrolman had not been finished off by the dense fire just now. When his opponent was firing frantically, he had lain prone behind the wall and had dodged the fatal bullets, ultimately waiting for the arrival of the reinforcements, unscathed. Just as he was preparing to get up, he saw a foot appear in front of him.

In that split second, the German patrolman, without a second thought, reached out and grabbed this approaching foot. He then felt the other lose his balance and fall forward with the inertia. At this moment, he had the upper hand. And so, while shouting for help in German, he crawled forward another step and began to grapple with this fellow who was not wearing German military boots.

Yes, when he had discovered that the other’s shoes were the ordinary shoes worn by civilians, he had confirmed the other’s identity was not one of his own. So his attitude had changed from hesitation to determination. He was resolved to have a life-or-death struggle with this person who had just been firing at him.

Aksel had realized that things were not good the moment he had fallen. He knew that every second he wasted, the probability of him being killed on the spot here would increase by thirty percent. But when he wanted to grab the submachine gun in his hand, it was clearly too late. His face slammed heavily on the ground, and the gun in his hand also flew a long way off.

Before he had fully recovered his senses, he heard the German soldier’s German shout behind him. This was clearly a call for his own comrades. The opportunities for him to get away were already not many. And so, with the ruthlessness he had honed in his ten years as a small-time hoodlum in the local area, he drew the dagger he had not used in a long time from his pocket.

He then forcefully turned his body, his face towards the sky, and saw the German soldier behind him pouncing on him. And so he deftly thrust out the dagger. Perhaps because the firefight outside had ended, perhaps because his palm had felt that obstructive force, in any case, he felt he had heard the sound of the dagger piercing skin, and his opponent had clearly grunted.

“Ugh!” A muffled groan. The German patrolman had been stabbed in the body. His luck seemed to have been used up when he had hit his target with a single shot just now. So this time, the dagger had directly hit his heart, and he had lost all his strength before he even had time for regret.

Aksel heard this muffled groan. This muffled groan, for him now, was as sweet as the beautiful notes of a star’s singing. He struggled to get up, his two feet kicking frantically, trying to kick off the body of the German patrolman that was lying on top of him.

His groping hand had already touched the cold body of the submachine gun. At this moment, he felt that fate was once again in his own hands… Unfortunately, the goddess of fortune was very fond of playing such jokes. Just as Aksel felt that the danger was about to be shaken off by him, he saw in the light of the dawn, three German soldiers on the other side of the outer wall, raising their weapons at him.

“Wait! I surrender!” Aksel pulled back the hand that was touching the submachine gun and then raised both his hands to the three German soldiers. He shouted this sentence, a sentence he had once thought he would never shout in his life, and he shouted it with great fluency.

“Fire!” the leading German squad leader said coldly to his men, holding his G43 rifle. And so two Mauser 98k rifles and one G43 semi-automatic rifle opened fire at the same time. Aksel felt as if a sledgehammer had struck him in the chest, and then an endless darkness came, and the light of dawn receded from him.

“Heil Akado Rudolph, my Führer! Report, General! The local saboteurs have all been eliminated by us!” an officer, his face weary, walked up behind General von Kleist, stood at attention, gave a military salute, and then reported. “The specific numbers have not yet been fully counted, but a total of over 4,700 have been killed.”

“This number… means that in the Norwegian province, which I am in charge of the security of, there was a whole light infantry division of saboteurs hidden, and I didn’t notice it at all in the past year?” Kleist turned his head and asked his incompetent subordinate coldly.

“…” The subordinate who had come to report had cold sweat on his forehead. He stood there with his head bowed, not daring to say another word. After a few seconds, seeing that General von Kleist did not seem to have any intention of continuing to reprimand him, he quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, General!”

“Report the numbers as they are! We definitely won’t get any credit for this. Just pray that we won’t be sent to a military tribunal by the Führer!” Kleist said, turning his back on this subordinate. The battle last night was an absolute stain on his record, a loss of face.

The Führer had entrusted him with the most important lifeline of steel production, and the result was that he had produced a combat record that was even uglier than G Army Group’s at Kursk. He looked at General Kesselring, the overall commander of the air force, whose face was also not looking good, and knew that this time, in the Norwegian air battle, he was not the only one who had lost face.

“Call General Hauke! Have him execute the interception plan! We must, with the greatest possible possibility, shoot down all of these bastards who have brought shame to the German Air Force into the Atlantic!” General Kesselring, of course, also saw General von Kleist looking at him. With a hint of anger, and to cover his shame, he hurriedly gave the order for the interception plan.

The morning sun still looked so gentle and beautiful, but for the German occupation forces in Norway, this morning was a busy and oppressive one. They had to clean up the ruins that were everywhere, and also to help put out the fires in several of the small towns and villages that had been burned to ashes.

The American bombers had not only attacked a portion of the ports, but had also destroyed a very large iron ore processing plant. Although most of the bombs had been dropped in the desolate mountains and in the towns, the entire bombing was, for Norway, an absolute catastrophe.

The German steel production had dropped by a twentieth the next day. Although it didn’t seem like much, it was enough to shock the German high command. Everyone felt that they could no longer tolerate the Allies’ so-brazen provocation. Almost everyone was in favor of launching an immediate counter-attack in the Atlantic theater.

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