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Page 219
When they turned around, the smoke from the T-34 engines was getting bigger and thicker, completely covering the T-34s that were quietly turning their turrets.
"You can kill us, but don't even think about defeating us!" Captain Kamarov roared, and the tanks in the smoke roared like drums, their 85mm tank guns thundering.
"This is my tank! I will fight here until I die! We will become one with the lava and smash through the entire hell, while you will be burned to ashes!"
At a command, a full thirty T-34s, under the cover of attack aircraft overhead, recklessly charged from the town toward the highway leading south, firing incessantly and revving their engines, letting themselves be burned up on the way to the attack.
The rumbling tracks either trampled over obstacles blocking the road under direct artillery fire or stopped making noise after colliding with the enemy at full speed, leaving behind the wreckage of several T-34s and assault guns, as well as KMF debris scattered all over the ground, and then surged southward in a mighty procession.
"Calling, calling, please return to support immediately!" The smell of diesel fuel turned the ground black. Syndra, Julie, and the others drove their vehicles into a shell crater. The Kamenz encirclement had already been completed, but due to the crossing of the river by the Soviet army on the east bank, they had to be urgently redeployed. Otherwise, these tanks would have been sitting ducks.
The responses were sporadic, indicating that they could no longer rely on others. Meanwhile, Syndra moved all the nearby wounded soldiers into her infantry fighting vehicle, and Ypel, having inadvertently run out of ammunition, was rummaging around for anything she could use.
……
"Oh, Captain Kamarov, I've finally got in touch with you," the captain received Anton's voice from inside the turret.
"Please don't worry about us, comrades! Watch out for any further enemy reinforcements to the north. Hold them off. We'll continue along the road to Neschwitz!"
After speaking, Anton immediately called on his neighboring 8th Guards Army to prepare for defense on the spot, and then sent a signal to the reinforcements from Poland.
"And," Kamarov added, as if he had noticed something, "I saw some enemies to the south collecting weapons or something, probably planning a guerrilla attack. Keep an eye on them."
“Let’s go, after all, Comrade Anton might not like it.” At this moment, Lavlensky spoke up, “I’ll take a platoon, Private Kashlenko, you come with me.”
……
"Calling Captain Kamarov, this is the 1st Armored Brigade of the Polish People's Army. We are under enemy fire in Neschwitz!"
The sky was already obscured by the shadows and thick smoke of the fighter jets. This line of T-34s crashed into the road, firing at the enemy when they encountered them and smashing through any obstacles they faced. The long road, stretching for more than ten miles, burned with the blood of steel, like a Great Wall with smoke rising everywhere and flames raging.
The sky above was filled with the trailing ammunition of machine guns and the signal flares of Soviet fighter planes guiding tank columns for friendly aircraft. The remaining ten or so tanks all turned on their headlights and sirens, roaring and taking off like anglerfish in the deep sea sprouting wings, defiantly embracing the moon in the sky above the firefly-lit plain.
They fought their way to the grove of trees west of Neschwitz, where two large trucks blocked the road. The KMFs approached from both flanks, constantly firing their guns at the sides of the T-34s. Some even dared to charge forward with spears to wed the gaps between the road wheels.
Even more extreme, it seems they intend to use the grappling hook's steel cable to hang in the air, planning to smash the tank's turret?
"Help me!" Kamarov shouted, jerking his tank's turret and snapping the steel cable from the grappling hook, which then became entangled in the gun barrel. Immediately following, another tank accelerated and rammed into his rear as he suddenly turned. The captain's tank spun around sharply, throwing the other KMF like a flail, knocking down a large group of vehicles blocking their way back.
The two obstructive trucks were then loaded into the roadside ditch, and the next question was how to proceed.
The outskirts were muddy, unpaved roads. Taking this route would undoubtedly expose their flanks to enemy fire from the town; charging into the town would inevitably result in casualties. Just as they were hesitating over their choice, a burst of artillery fire rang out from the rear of the column. The Soviet tank crew turned around and saw that gleaming, green shield.
"They're catching up, aren't they?" Kamarov punched the turret in frustration. "Comrades, head to the outskirts! This truck is going to town!"
"What? Captain, you..."
"This is an order! Execute it immediately!" Kamarov tossed the Soviet flag from the turret to another vehicle, and his T-34 swerved and charged up the small hill leading into the town.
Once you get to this point, it's a completely downhill road. Seeing this, the driver took a big gulp of vodka from the bottle next to him, and with a sudden push of the two levers, the 5-ton T-34, along with all five people on board, plunged down the slope like a roller coaster.
"Keep your aim! Fire indiscriminately! Hahahaha! Hurrah!"
Clearly, the enemy inside the city hadn't expected a truckload of lunatics to rush in so haphazardly, leaving only infantry and two infantry fighting vehicles lined up longitudinally towards them. The T-34, taking advantage of its height, stepped on the frontal armor of the first vehicle, like a giant sea turtle performing a ski jump, leaving its tracks disfigured, before crashing into the second vehicle.
The heavy iron box, weighing over ten tons, was no match for the brute force. It was turned sideways by the speeding T-34, which acted like a shield under the 85mm tank gun.
"Watch out for the enemy!" Finally, an assault gun opened fire, the exploding shell blasting the infantry fighting vehicle in front of the T-34 away. "Aim! The hull!"
The 85mm gun fired and destroyed it, and the assault gun also fired its last shot, exploding in front of the T-34's tracks.
"Now we're one 'belt' short!" A piece of the left track flew right up to the driver's observation window, and he knew there was basically no chance of speeding up and escaping.
"My dear comrade, am I here to surrender by car?!" Kamarov shouted even more hysterically, "To hell with cyka blyat's parking and raising the white flag! I'm going to smash their beds and the negotiating table they've prepared for us to pieces!"
"understand!"
The main gun was still firing, and the driver pressed the throttle and pushrod even harder. Without tracks, the T-34's five pairs of road wheels could only scrape barely on the town's stone road. The wheels spun wildly, barely maintaining the vehicle's speed downhill, leaving behind a trail of flying gravel, sparks, and charred marks.
Soldiers, KMFs, streetlights, handcarts—anything on the street that wanted to, or didn't intend to, stop the tank either brushed against its hull, sending it sliding further down, or was kicked aside by its immense kinetic energy. The green paint on the armor, like a faded red flag, was riddled with bullet holes.
"Engine! The engine's been hit!" After running past another intersection, an infantryman in black hit the rear of the tank with a rocket launcher. Now the monster's speed was decreasing rapidly, and the people inside were already halfway to hell.
"Oh, what do I see!" the now frantic Kamarov cried out. He had just spotted a sign in the periscope: "Right turn! Right turn! Gunners, prepare!"
Just as the T-34 was about to come to a stop at the end of its taxiing run, the sturdy gun barrel knocked down a tree, revealing a large pile of things behind it, which the enemy called "Sakura Stone Energy Packs".
Looking back south, the hammer and sickle flag he had entrusted to them was slowly merging into rows of armored formations painted with Polish inscriptions. No regrets.
"Where were we born?!"
"The embrace of our motherland! —"
"Why are we fighting here?!"
"We are Guards tank crews!"
"What does Comrade Stalin want us to believe?!"
"Victory was won with courage and blood!"
"What are the fruits of victory?!"
"Long live the great Soviet Union!—"
"Fire! Hurrah!—"
……
After a thunderous cannon shot echoed across the clear sky, a sudden burst of flames erupted in the central square of Neschwitz, engulfing everything like the brilliant light of the setting sun or a tsunami of natural disaster. The raging firestorm swept past the tearful, receding national flag.
A chimney, blown away by the explosion, landed in the woods to the north, behind the footsteps of Syndra and the others who had just caught up.
"We can't go any further, it's dangerous." Juliet glanced at the large column of Polish tanks arrayed in the distance, and the fighter jets that occasionally swept overhead.
Immediately afterwards, they received communications from Angelina and Shisian, conveying orders from the commanding leadership.
"It's no longer realistic to pursue the Soviet troops who have broken out of the encirclement. On the contrary, the Soviet troops are tripping us up. It seems that some outposts have appeared in many villages, preparing to ambush us as we retreat."
“We will go back, we definitely will.” Ypel stepped forward to lead the way. “I know the safest way.”
Looking up, I was surprised to see that Xixi'an had landed. I noticed that there were sparks flashing on the wings of its aircraft for a long time—meaning that Angelie was left alone in the sky.
"Strange," the lieutenant said after looking up at the sky for a long time. "Where have all the enemy fighter planes gone?"
"North?" Xixi'an seemed to have thought of something. "The team that wounded me went north and never came back. It seems they went to chase some aerial target... Didn't they say there was no air support in this direction for the time being?"
They walked on in confusion, each person looking at their electronic map and identification signal, cautiously groping their way back. The surrounding earth was filled with the rumble of artillery fire, like the stands of an opera house, the deafening laughter constantly provoking the group of bewildered pantomime actors on stage.
“Ahead is the village of Ausel, which should be guarded by enemies.” After saying that, Angelie signaled the others on the ground to go around the village, while she flew over the village to make a feint and scout it out.
“Don’t worry so much, Lieutenant.” Vincent, who had seen Angelie fly over the village without a sound of gunfire, said, “They shouldn’t be able to fortify every village.”
“No…no…” All everyone could hear was Angelie’s trembling voice filled with disbelief over the radio.
Her Vincent hovered in the sky, the street below littered with scattered bricks and tiles, the bloodstains of Soviet soldiers, and an overturned 45mm anti-tank gun. A young man was bandaging another person on the ground when he saw her approach; he nearly dropped his pistol and frantically pulled the trigger at her.
……
"Is the village...safe?"
They bypassed two villages and several farms, as if someone had swept through the area before they even arrived. Although there weren't many people guarding each place, the helpless looks in the eyes of the Soviet soldiers were strikingly similar.
But over the radio, no one knew who was behind it all. No one had planned any cover or a surprise attack beforehand. Everyone was just like them, walking cautiously on the way back.
All around, more gunshots and explosions rang out, along with the roar of fighter jet propellers.
Uneasy, we made our way to the latter part of the retreat, arriving at a town called Porsnitz, only to find that there was nothing there at all.
The town was indeed in chaos, the kind of chaos that was desolate and uninhabited. There wasn't even a skeleton, let alone any wounded Soviet soldiers.
The silence was terrifying, and under such stimulation, when footsteps were heard from the church bell tower nearby, they immediately blasted it down.
What awaited them was not a moment of lingering fear, but rather a young man with only one arm who, clinging to the broken wall, finally lost his grip and fell, his head hitting the ground, where he died.
What should have been an embarrassing incident of accidentally hitting civilians turned into Syndra calling Angelie down from the sky.
"This guy?" He looked too familiar. Lifting the blanket painted with eagle wings, the missing right arm and the bullet wounds on the beggar's face were still clearly visible. "Isn't he the civilian I let go before?"
Instinctively, they stripped the civilian of his clothes and found a small German tattoo in the groove of his spine.
"I am Paul Schneider, an artillery observer of the 11th Infantry Division of the German Wehrmacht, and my home is at 11 Daubertstrasse, Dresden. If you receive my body intact, please remember to give the letter in my coat pocket to my grandmother."
But his clothes don't have any pockets.
"This is the tattoo he got before Germany was defeated by the Soviet Union?!" Angelie exclaimed in realization. "So, he was originally a German soldier?"
"Comrade Private Schneider, please respond!" At that moment, a pair of binoculars and a walkie-talkie were found in his blanket. The walkie-talkie, which originally belonged to a Britannian infantryman, suddenly switched from German to Russian, like the Grim Reaper, gripping everyone's hearts.
"Comrade Schneider has been killed! All artillery crews, prepare! Aim and fire at the position where he last contacted me!"
They pulled and pushed each other until they rolled into the nearby basement. The silence outside was eventually shattered by the scattered artillery fire.
Just as everything returned to calm and I was about to get up and leave immediately, the roar of engines approached from all around the town like a rising tide.
The infantry fighting vehicles were relatively unharmed, but their respective KMFs were scattered and broken. Although they could still stand up, they were no longer able to aim and fire. Angeli's flight wings were also shattered, making it impossible for her to continue flying.
On the main street to the south, half of an IS-2 tank was slowly turning around the street corner.
“Calling Lieutenant Angelie.” A mysterious yet familiar voice came through the radio. “Soviet troops are surrounding this area near Porsnitz. Please evacuate to the road leading south out of the city. I will provide cover.”
This must be an order from a madman—yes, towards the direction this tank is coming from.
Chapter 291, Section 374: The Fanatic's Finale, Ending in Silent Passage
A few minutes earlier, the artillery fire from Porsnitz had acted as a beacon, indicating the direction from which the Soviet soldiers would encircle the town. Lieutenant Lavlensky quickly led his comrades to the outskirts of the town.
"There are likely still survivors." The soldiers passed the message among themselves, and the lieutenant also gave a reminder to the IS-2 tank that was about to drive into the city.
"Is it really necessary to do this? The other side might not even have many people left." Kashrenko, who was "tethered" to the second lieutenant's side, clearly didn't understand such a big fuss.
"Several outposts nearby have either been taken out or their heavy weapons destroyed. Don't you understand, comrade? This time they're a stubborn mule. We even have to use 'flying tanks' to prevent them from escaping."
"Is that what you're talking about?"
The sound of a plane crashing through the sky echoed as a fighter jet, engulfed in flames, crashed into a distant street. Its out-of-control propellers bounced and flew towards the crowd. The lieutenant reacted quickly and kicked Kashrenko away, and the two who had fallen nearly lost their lives under the propeller blades.
"What did I just see? A black and white KMF clinging to an Il-2?"
When the lieutenant turned on the radio again, there was no movement from the IS-2 tank.
When they arrived there, the burning tanks and plane wreckage blocked half the road. The tank crewmen lying on the roadside were covered in wounds. They crawled out of their vehicles, exhausted, and used up their last bit of strength to point out the smoke and dust that was disappearing on the road to the south.
"Damn it... something's not right." The alert lieutenant seemed to realize something and quickly roused the Soviet soldiers who were surrounding Porsnitz. "There must still be enemies in the town. Tanks and vehicles, go after those who fled south. The rest of you, dig up the ground and kill them on sight!"
……
"Lieutenant! There's an identification signal in the town?!"
Angelie and her group had been bypassing the wreckage of the IS-2 for quite some time. Just as they turned back to return fire at the pursuing Soviet armored vehicles, a small light appeared on the map in Pulsnitz.
“Lilizia, it must be you, right?” Not only Angelina, but also Shishia realized that Vincent, who had just smashed the giant rhinoceros with the wreckage of the fighter jet, couldn't possibly have had another owner. “Your flight wings are damaged, aren't they? Get out of there quickly! The Soviet army is surrounding that town!”
There was no response on the radio; only on everyone's electronic screen, a large number of beacons representing the Soviet army were slowly, like ants, surrounding the street where the bright spot was located.
“Lily, listen carefully. I know you're suffering from illness, and I know how conflicted you are, but this time you must follow orders, understand? Retreat! Everyone is waiting for you!”
"I'm sorry." The familiar voice sounded exceptionally resolute and forlorn. "Please tell everyone I know that this time, I'm not going back... Mr. Griffin, it's so sad that you saved me last time, but in the end, you can't make it back in time..."
……
“I know you’re terrified of the Britannian soldiers hiding here.” At that moment, Lieutenant Lavrensky, speaking broken English through a megaphone, cautiously made his way down the street with his comrades. “I understand the nearby villages and farms, the destruction of our outposts, the shooting down and expulsion of our air support—it was all your doing.”
DShK heavy machine guns had been quietly set up in the surrounding houses, and each comrade had an anti-tank grenade or Molotov cocktail in hand, watching their surroundings warily for any strange noises from the mechanical arms.
"This battle is pointless. Why can't we lay down our weapons?"
"So," a girl's voice suddenly came through the lieutenant's radio, "that you've been wiped out here, how about that?!"
Suddenly, a KMF (Korean Motorcycle Police) jumped out of the bushes on the street behind, kicked over a jeep, and disappeared behind another house.
"Surround them! Surround them!" The lieutenant, clutching his rifle, hid behind a nearby bunker and continued communicating with Lilizia.
What else do you think you can do?
"I got my comrade to safety, how about that?"
"As invaders, wouldn't it be better to just run away?" The lieutenant looked at the giant figures fighting in the distance and was huddled in two living quarters firing machine guns at the outside.
"Brittania is my homeland, a country with millions of people just like me. I will not surrender! And many more will fight on forever!"
Soviet soldiers continued to be wounded or killed, and everyone began to concentrate heavy firepower to launch a fierce attack on her position.
When the machine gun ran out of ammunition, Lilizia stepped over the surrounding walls, grabbed two MVS rifles, and charged into the infantry.