Codegease: Air and Land Warfare 1946

Page 221

Howitzers and heavy mortars had already been deployed in the mountains behind, but they were hidden quite deep before they were ready to unleash their full firepower.

The Soviet army's deployment was naturally aided by guidance from the Czechoslovakian military and former German mountain troops. Britannia, having not tackled such terrain in a long time, was naturally at a loss.

Therefore, they could only engage in a head-on confrontation using heavy firepower. Before Syndra and her team set off today, the armed transport planes had already bombed the mountain area for a while. Now, at the foot of the mountain, squadrons of assault guns are crowding around the Canterbury troops, relying on information gathered from frontline units like themselves, taking hits while counterattacking the fire positions from the mountains.

“You go down the slope, Torres, I’ll lead everyone to the west slope.”

Kan Hu sent the lieutenant and his Sunderland down. The road ahead was difficult to traverse as they had to feel their way along the grass, and the KMF was too conspicuous; exposing them would expose them to artillery fire, which was something they didn't want.

The western slope faces a mountain road, and at the bend of the road is a low cliff. Looking down along the edge of the road, one can see a Soviet truck towing an artillery piece that has crashed below.

However, the cannon at the rear of the vehicle was clearly not Soviet. Kan Hu probably thought that its shape and color were very similar to the German weapon he had seen not long ago. What fell down was a Flak 36 88mm anti-aircraft gun, which had turned two advancing tanks and KMFs into a trail of smoke in just half a minute.

……

Throughout history, the Soviet Union and Germany have shed countless blood and lost countless lives.

On today's defensive line, Red Army comrades and German soldiers who have taken up arms again are in the same trench; ZIS-3 field guns, along with other 88mm anti-aircraft guns that have been placed on the hillside, are in nearby positions, spewing flames and death at the same enemy.

In the future, perhaps right beneath these low cliffs, the steel creations born on the banks of the Rhine and in Siberia will be transformed into two indistinguishable piles of rust, quietly merging into one, returning to particles, becoming a grain of sand in the mountains.

The sergeant major, who probably knew very little about the Soviet-German War, could never have experienced such a bizarre and inexplicable situation in his entire life.

Looking up, just as their own two armed helicopters were about to launch a surprise attack on the Soviet trenches on the hillside, a cluster of lightning-fast ammunition belts, like sharks smelling blood, rushed towards them from under the camouflage netting in the distance.

Through the binoculars, Kan Hu had to pray for a moment. What he saw was a boxy tank with a turret on top that looked like a lotus bud, revealing four linked anti-aircraft guns. Fortunately, the helicopter managed to evacuate and hastily dropped a cluster of rockets.

Imagine if such a presence had appeared on the streets at the very beginning of the Expeditionary Force's battle in Berlin, how many KMFs would never have had a moment's peace.

"So, how did the Soviet Union defeat the Germans in the first place...?"

No one wanted to answer his question anymore. Just as he was about to get up and leave, two fighter jets he had never seen before roared past him.

They were painted gray-white all over, with red, white and blue triangular insignia painted on their tails. One of them also had the words "Defend the Sudetenland" written on it. They followed two Soviet La-7 fighters as they swept over the valley and rushed into the sky.

"Could this be an aircraft built by the Germans in the past? Are the skies of the Soviet Union now being defended even by the wings of Germany?"

……

"Report from the front, Your Grace! A large formation of aircraft is approaching Dresden from the south of the Ore Mountains. Many of them are aircraft we have never seen before."

At that moment, a large number of tanks and KMFs were refueling and replenishing ammunition in Pierna. Colonel Sasler and Colonel Carri were inspecting the situation there when the message came through the radio of an assault gun that had not yet been shut down.

"Report! We are under bombing by enemy aircraft!" Kari listened to the radio, puzzled by the deep, piercing air raid siren. "The enemy bombs are hitting with great accuracy! Most of our air defenses have been crippled!"

"I will continue to gather information here, sir. Please return to command post first."

The Duke was escorted away by the Colonel, and as he was on his way back to headquarters, Vincent, carrying a shield and a machine gun, slowly descended beside him.

"Sergeant Julie reporting for duty, Your Excellency!" The girl jumped hurriedly from the cockpit. "I've heard a lot of air raid sirens in the sky, may I ask..."

"I haven't given the order to sound the alarm for the entire army yet, could it be that..."

Suddenly everything became clear. Juliet and the Duke looked up sharply and saw a flock of fighter jets with outstretched wings and fixed landing gears flying over Pierna.

“This way, Your Excellency!” Juliet picked up an infantry fighting vehicle hatch from the side and used it as a shield to block the Duke’s head, leading him to the nearby wine cellar where they could take shelter from the attack.

It's clear now, everything is clear. That air raid siren, like a thunderstorm, wasn't a combat order to guard against enemy aircraft at all, but rather a deep, claustrophobic howl as the gates of hell open.

From Guernica in 1937 to Poznan in 1939, from Amiens in 1940 to Minsk in 1941, the Jericho horn, a symbol of war and destruction, once again descended from the sky like a slaying angel, carrying flames, after a year of silence.

The bombs landed beside the trucks on the side of the road, among the neatly parked weapons and equipment. The fireworks that burned into the sky were like great white sharks breaking through the sea. All the prey burned by the flames were eventually turned into decorations in the bomb craters left by the dive bombing. Only the departing bugle call wrote "Stuka", that terrifying name like a nightmare in the middle of the night.

“Juliet! Your Grace!”

The bombers flew away, and Pirner lit some smoke signals. Ipper anxiously pried open the collapsed cellar door and rescued the two men.

"We're fine, we're fine."

Just as the two and the others who had taken refuge in the wine cellar were brushing the sand off their bodies, the Duke's gaze fell on the area where the KMFs and tanks that had been piled up for supplies were now engulfed in flames.

"Oh no, Colonel?! Firefighters! Fire! Immediately!—"

……

Meanwhile, on Mount Ore, Marshal Konev, accompanied by Gottwald, the leader of the Czechoslovakian GC, watched through binoculars the chaotic enemy below, listening to the BF-109 fighter planes inscribed with "Defend the Sudetenland" flying past their ears as they flew back towards Prague from the front lines.

"What did I say? Sending Czechoslovakian Air Force comrades and former German pilots to support the front lines in their familiar German planes is definitely a fantastic decision in the short term."

Konev handed the binoculars to Gottwald, dusted off his hands, and in the dazzling spring sunshine, the flags of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia were rising in the wind at Klinovets, the highest point of the Ore Mountains, fluttering in this land where the flames of war were beginning to ignite, together shining with the cry of certain victory.

“Tell me when you want to come down the mountain, comrade,” Konev said, patting him gently on the shoulder.

Where do we go next?

"Warsaw, just wait and see what Comrade Rokossovsky has in store for us."

Chapter 294, Section 377: The Warsaw Rally

Since the birth of the Polish nation, Warsaw, as its capital for over a century, has been just like everything this nation has experienced.

War, plunder, from the rise of the British Empire to the outbreak of World War I, from the German blitzkrieg in 1939 to the desperate uprising in 1944, every brick and tile of the city became a scattered punctuation mark of past history, and the elegant Royal Palace of Warsaw was reduced to ashes.

Fortunately, the city map painstakingly drawn by the faculty and students of the University of Warsaw before the outbreak of war was preserved intact in an unknown cave. When the shadow of war faded, every detail of this ancient city reappeared in the sunlight in this way.

One of the few landmarks that survived the ordeal was the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. So today, on April 10, 1946, as the Polish people next to the Presidential Palace worked together to repair the surrounding houses, a large pile of weapons and equipment that the Poles had never seen before was placed in the clearing.

Indeed, those were “alien weapons” captured in the past six months—Britanian KMFs, infantry fighting vehicles, and assault guns, as well as a variety of assault rifles and rocket launchers, displayed under the national flags fluttering in front of the presidential palace and in front of soldiers from various countries, much like the German officers who surrendered in Stalingrad in 1943 and were taken to Moscow.

The hammer and sickle flag fluttered in the Warsaw sky, standing alongside the flags of Poland and Czechoslovakia. In front of the flagpole, several officers from the three countries were curiously surrounding something that looked like a camera, pointing it at the "familiar strangers" walking in the distance.

Looks familiar, doesn't he? Yes, it's Field Marshal Paulus, the German general who had already surrendered to the Soviet Union. He glanced at the camera with a puzzled expression, then had another man with an Asian face, dressed in Soviet military uniform, accompany him into the presidential palace.

The marshal did not know who this yellow-skinned major was, only that he was told that his real name was Liu and that he had participated in the Soviet army's invasion of Northeast China in August of the previous year, annihilating the Japanese Kwantung Army that had invaded his homeland.

……

At this moment, in the main conference hall of the presidential palace, Rokossovsky, as the main speaker, had already begun his speech, facing the high-ranking military officials from various countries below. Meanwhile, two high-tech projectors, not yet turned on, hung from the ceiling, pointing directly at the two screens behind the marshal.

"Why must we rearm? Why, despite the immense blood we have just shed in the Great Patriotic War, cannot we yield to the invaders?"

"As Comrade Stalin once said: 'Even the shortest grass does not grow easily; it cries out, shouts, and insists on its right to live.' A few months ago, the Britannian Empire, as a guest from another world, stepped into our living room and brandished its hammer, causing destruction everywhere."

"That's right. Everyone is like a blade of grass. No one has the right to suppress others unreasonably. When this suppression even takes away the hard-won peace of others, there is no doubt that he is a robber, a destroyer of order, and a person condemned by everyone."

"We reclaimed our homeland by force and defended justice. Are we to be overwhelmed and bow down to anyone who comes swaggering in again?" Rokossovsky slammed his fist on the table. "Absolutely not! We must never surrender the fruits of victory and the future of freedom! We witnessed the demise of Nazism, and now we will witness the invaders fleeing in terror once more!"

"We are on the same land, we are all children of freedom and peace, we are all indomitable warriors and great fighters. We have the ability and the obligation to take up arms and stand shoulder to shoulder in the same trench."

"I have another question." At this moment, General Volos, Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian People's Army, raised his hand. "What is your attitude towards the Germans, and towards the soldiers who were on the Axis side in the World War?"

“It’s very simple, General.” Rokossovsky spread his arms and rested his hands on the lectern. “The World War is over, and there are probably no more armed Nazis resisting on the European continent. So, for us who are striving to build peace, why can’t we trust our former enemies when they won’t shoot us in the back?”

How can you guarantee that?

……

Just then, one of the large screens lit up, and on the colorful screen, Paulus, who had just passed by the presidential palace, looked at the camera with a bewildered expression.

"Did you see that, General?" Rokossovsky grinned, slamming his hand onto the screen. "What did you see in Marshal Paulus's eyes? Was it a profound realization of his crimes? Or the grief of losing his homeland? Or perhaps an attitude of working together from now on?"

"Of course, I understand that everyone has more questions, so I'll ask another comrade to answer them."

The crowd below the podium watched as Rokossovsky picked up a PDA from the lectern—just like the weapons and equipment outside, it had been taken from Britannia.

Then another projector was turned on, and the signal connected to the PDA projected the image onto his back. The audience was immediately stunned. On the screen, Marshal Zhukov's face appeared as he held up the PDA and chatted and laughed.

In modern terms, Rokossovsky and Zhukov were in 1946, using palm-sized smartphones to make video calls in front of everyone, and the whole thing was in high definition, high frame rate, and color!

“Oh, let me see, comrade.” Rokossovsky widened his eyes comically. “You’re in an airplane, aren’t you?”

"Correct answer, so shall I reward you with a medal?"

"No, no, no, this medal belongs to you." The marshal laughed heartily. Although the audience was still a little confused, they gradually became relaxed and cheerful. "I bet you're watching your victory from the sky right now, reviewing your report to the people of your motherland, aren't you?"

“That’s right!” Zhukov pressed against the cockpit window in the video. “I can see Britannia’s armored vehicles and assault guns, and all those strange dolls of theirs, so many of them. But they’re not moving now, because they were all captured by my Red Army comrades, laid out like a chessboard in front of the hammer and sickle. Oh right, I should land now.”

The call with Zhukov continued. On another screen, everyone saw a plane that looked like a C-47 make a vertical landing in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. Soviet soldiers opened the door, and Zhukov cheerfully stepped out, following the shaky camera in the video call.

"What do you think of this plane?" Zhukov laughed even harder, patting the fuselage as he did so. "A Britannian vertical takeoff and landing troop transport aircraft, quite unique, isn't it? Sorry, this was also brought back by Soviet soldiers. From today onwards, it will have to obey the Soviets like the PDAs in your and my hands."

……

As Zhukov stepped into the hall, Bagramyan and Konev, who were sitting below, led the way in standing up and applauding him along with several Soviet generals and marshals. Gradually, the hall was filled with enthusiastic applause and warm gazes, leading Zhukov to the podium.

Rokossovsky was also pleased by his arrival, but there was an unspeakable bitterness in his applause—yes, who knew the pain in Zhukov's heart?

"Thank you, everyone." Zhukov stood in front of the lectern, looked around, and said, "I understand your concerns. Marshal Rokossovsky has already provided answers for you. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. So, as the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Army in Germany, let us understand the significance of our gathering here today."

"First and foremost, it is clear that Britannia was indeed a formidable adversary, but its strength was far from comparable to that of the Nazis. Two figures can prove this: Operation Barbarossa in 1941 lasted six months and ended in German failure. So how much did the Soviet Union suffer? The loss of over one million square kilometers of territory, the loss of three million Soviet soldiers, and the displacement of millions of people in occupied territories."

"And what price did we pay for this six-month-long war in Germany?" Zhukov paused, then held up four fingers. "I can tell you with certainty that we suffered fewer than 500,000 casualties. The Britannian Empire launched an attack on fewer than 15 Soviet armies stationed in Germany with what they considered the most insane force. This is the result when we completely withdrew from Germany."

"Why should we tremble at the enemy's massive mobilization? Some might say they possess more advanced technology than we do." Zhukov waved his hand. "Yes! But can technology solve all problems? Like the gadgets in Comrade Rokossovsky's and my hands, can they solve problems that we, as their adversaries, cannot exploit?"

"We need not fear anything our opponents possess, for true warriors are those who know how to learn and grow in the face of setbacks and the unknown. If our opponents have weaknesses we can exploit, then we will strike them with all our might; if our opponents have strengths that surprise us, then we will smash those strengths into pieces, turning every red star on the Kremlin, every heroic street in Warsaw, and every fluttering battle flag in Prague into sparks that will consume our enemies!"

"Please believe me, comrades, believe in the lessons learned from the bloody battles of the past six months, believe in the sacrifices of the hundreds of thousands of great soldiers who died or were wounded. Their sacrifices will not have been in vain. They have proven to us that the enemy can be defeated and that we can surpass them."

"A single T-34 tank can be easily destroyed by the Germans, but when their numbers multiply, even high walls and ramparts cannot stop them. Do not be afraid to fight, my dear comrades. I can also responsibly tell you that the Soviet Union has enough power to let every brave warrior who is willing to stand up fight for freedom and the motherland within the steel walls."

"The Oder and the Ore Mountains will bear witness to our conviction that we were born on this land and have a duty to defend it to the death! In the name of the United Eastern European Armed Alliance, victory will surely belong to everyone who loves peace and freedom!"

Chapter 295, Section 378: Goodbye, Old Comrade

The hammer and sickle flags of Leipzig and Dresden had long since vanished, and twilight had fallen on Rügen Island. Colonel Kozelevsky's successful counter-offensive was merely a flash in the pan before the fall of this large, near-shore island. The Britannian landing forces, with their overwhelming numerical superiority, quickly regrouped after being bombed by B-29s.

Once Britannia captured Putbus, a small town in the center of the island, the colonel and high-ranking officers had already led a large number of troops onto the evacuation ferries. The Baltic Fleet's two cruisers and four destroyers, along with a large number of gunboats and torpedo boats, as well as a large number of civilian ships from Sweden and Poland, evacuated the tens of thousands of soldiers defending the island.

Now, Kozelevsky is on the terrace outside the bridge command post of the Kirov, looking through binoculars at the Prora Resort on Rügen Island, three or four kilometers away.

This place was originally built by the Germans in 1936, but unfortunately construction stopped when World War II broke out. What should have been a scenic area with restaurants, cinemas, swimming pools, gyms, railway stations and cruise ship ferries was transformed into a military hospital and refugee camp.

Today, all the beautiful scenery of Rügen Island has been vanished by the smoke and fire behind the distant hills, becoming the last line of defense to prevent the enemy from reaching the crossing. Not only are there piles of abandoned artillery and tanks, but the destroyer HMS Fierce, which was severely damaged in the previous Battle of Rügen Island, is also stranded here.

The 130mm main guns were either destroyed by subsequent bombing and artillery fire, or their ammunition magazines were emptied, leaving only the anti-aircraft guns and machine guns still usable to drive away aircraft attempting to approach the evacuation beach. During this period, many Soviet Air Force fighters were providing cover for this beach, to the point that support for the Dresden direction had to rely heavily on Polish and Czech air power.

Surviving the rearguard action was no easy feat, and Ekaterina and Ilya were two of them. Of course, the decisive Zilinkov and most of his comrades also survived and ran towards the beach.

The resort was surrounded by three things—burning forests, anti-tank mines on the road, and the approaching enemy. Only three or four rowboats remained on the beach, moored to the shore with wooden stakes. There were about twenty comrades and they were all preparing to catch the last train.

However, just as they were about to escape, the sound of a KMF recoilless rifle came from the hillside deep in the island.

"Lie down!" Before the words were even finished, a rowboat carrying wounded soldiers was capsized by a shell that had landed in the water. Amidst the dust and the smell of gunpowder, Ekaterina and Ilya were the first to jump into the water and swim desperately toward the small boat.

Along with the shells, the radio used to communicate with the sea was also destroyed. Being so far from the sea, it was impossible to call out to the Baltic Fleet with gestures or shouts. It seemed that these twenty or thirty comrades were going to be buried by sea fire when the retreat deadline arrived.

When Lieutenant Zilinkov fell into a ditch, he discovered two familiar faces: weren't they the commander and driver of the KV-1 tank?

……

It appears that a small squad of KMFs and two infantry fighting vehicles have carved a path through the forest fire as an advance team in an attempt to annihilate or capture these escapees.

They had used up all the recoilless rifle ammunition, aiming not only at the small boat, but also at the houses in front of them, and at the Matilda and Valentine tanks piled up outside the resort, even though they were long gone.

Firstly, their relatively pristine appearances might suggest they were being used to impersonate corpses, from their perspective; secondly, during the month-long battle on the island, these little guys had been relentlessly battered by the soccer cleats that were being kicked up.

Imagine this: after getting used to the massive size of Soviet tanks like the T-34 and IS-2, you suddenly see the Matilda's harmless turret and Valentine's slightly aggrieved look. You'd definitely breathe a sigh of relief—those long-forgotten UL rounds are finally going to be useful.

Then, Valentine's 50-60mm armor almost rendered the UL bullets ineffective, and Matilda's 70mm or more homogeneous steel in all directions infuriated a group of KMFs armed with machine guns, who almost all died in frustration at the hands of those slow road wheels.

Damn, if we need to treat these little devils like we're dealing with a T-34, what's impossible for District 45?

Feeling that the village was safe, the group decided to split up and prepare to surround the beach.

"Watch out!" A strange cannon shot rang out from the resort, sounding very similar to the large number of T-34/76s they had encountered on the island earlier.

As they prepared to drive into the street, the KV-1 tank, which had been buried under rubble and looked dilapidated from their shelling, charged towards them head-on, its body covered in wreckage.

Few Britannian soldiers on the island had ever seen this strange vehicle. Its compact 76mm tank gun and rapid rate of fire quickly destroyed an infantry fighting vehicle and a KMF, leaving them in a pile of wreckage.

No one cared about the inconspicuousness of the small cannon, because no one could underestimate the power of the massive, rhinoceros-like vehicle. Once the machine gun and UL rounds were aimed, they unleashed a terrifying barrage of fire. The clanging and clattering of bullets and shrapnel etched every wrinkle on the slow, clumsy body of the KV-1 like a carving knife.