Chapter 194: The First Armored Battle

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“We’ve been hit! We’ve been hit!” Bruce screamed. Just a moment ago, a shell had struck the frontal armor plate of the Panther tank number 113. The entire tank shuddered, and the short, violent impact sent a strange tremor through the heart of everyone inside the vehicle.

“Stay calm! We weren’t penetrated! We weren’t penetrated!” the gunner, Andre, shouted to everyone in the vehicle. At that moment, Rein was leaning out of the tank, staring at the Polish tanks that were continuously firing opposite them.

After a while, he ducked back into the tank’s turret and, pointing to the right, said, “To our right, I can see three Polish tanks. To the left, there are two tanks and an obsolete armored car.”

“Traverse the turret! Fire on the tanks to the right! They are trying to get close to us,” Rein ordered Andre.

With a mechanical roar, the Panther tank’s turret began to rotate to the right. It quickly stopped in position. The coaxial machine gun fired a few bursts, and then Andre reported loudly, “I have the target!”

“Boom!” With a roar, a 75mm armor-piercing shell flew from the muzzle, rushing toward its target at a speed that was difficult for the naked eye to follow. A Polish Renault tank was pierced by the shell and instantly became a ball of leaping flames.

“My God! Reverse, quick! Another tank is aiming at us! Reverse, quick!” Andre saw another tank in his gunsight, and the dark muzzle of that tank was pointed right at him.

“Fire! Fire!” Rein shouted. “Don’t wait for my instructions! Fire at whatever you see!”

“Boom!” The Panther tank fired again. As the shell was fired, just an instant later, the tank opposite them exploded, becoming a pile of twisted scrap metal. Rein gripped the handhold in the vehicle tightly and praised him with a laugh, “Good shot, Andre! That’s two tanks!”

The melodious sound of music echoed through the magnificent ballroom. Gentlemen in aristocratic attire held glasses of red wine or champagne as they stood before noble ladies, politely discussing topics of mutual interest.

This was the Führer’s birthday party. Everything in the hall seemed so peaceful and warm. The sound of the cello, accompanied by the aroma of food, gave no hint that this was a country that had simultaneously declared war on several world powers.

“The Führer has arrived! The First Lady has arrived!” an attendant announced, pulling open the main doors. Everyone turned toward the entrance, where Akado, with Mercedes on his arm, walked into the hall with a smile on his face, his feet treading on the thick carpet.

Upon seeing Akado’s figure, whether they were the once-arrogant Junker aristocrats or the immensely wealthy monopoly tycoons; whether they were the new heavy industry capitalists or the military leaders who commanded armies, they all stood up straight, clicked the heels of their leather shoes together with a sharp “crack,” raised their right arms to a 45-degree angle to the sky, and gave a standard German salute.

“Heil Führer!” everyone shouted in unison.

“Long live Great Germany,” Akado said, waving his hand to signal for them to lower their arms. He then said with a confident smile on his face, “Welcome to my birthday party. I originally did not want to be so extravagant, but since Mr. Bosch was willing to pay for everyone to gather here, I have shamelessly come to ‘mooch a meal’.”

“Hahahaha,” all the high-society celebrities and aristocratic gentlemen who had come to attend the Führer’s birthday ball burst into laughter.

“Everyone must have fun tonight! Otherwise, it will mean that the two of us have been poor hosts! Just now, my dear Führer was telling me that anyone without duties or work tonight must not go home sober!” Mercedes, wearing a special black evening gown that revealed her sexy shoulders and back, looked beautiful and impressive. She snuggled up to Akado’s side and proposed with a smile.

“To not going home sober!” everyone raised their glasses and loudly responded to the First Lady’s proposal.

“Bruce! Reload, quick! That’s the seventh one!” Andre shouted excitedly into the intercom. “My God! The thick smoke from the burning wreckage of the enemy tanks is blocking my vision. I can’t find a target.”

“Tank 124 has been hit! Tank 124 has been hit!” the voice of the company commander, Carter, came through the headset. His voice was distorted with panic. “My God! Tank 114, can you see that tank of ours? Tank 124 is smoking.”

“Boom!” Rein’s tank fired again, but the shell hit an empty patch of ground, kicking up a cloud of black earth. A score of destroyed Polish tanks were smoking in the open field, and the thick smoke, carried by the wind, was severely affecting their aim. The German tanks’ hit rate had begun to drop.

“114, 115, you cover the hit tank 124! Rein, Marcus! You advance 200 meters! Establish a new defensive line!” After a while, Carter’s loud command came through the headset.

“Are the Polish tankers insane? They’ve already lost dozens of tanks. Why aren’t they retreating?” Marcus’s complaint made everyone feel a trace of unease. However, the dozens of Panther tanks still held an overwhelming advantage on the main front. The Polish tanks had surrounded this isolated German armored unit on three sides but were completely helpless against this piece of fat meat that was about to fall into their mouths.

“Andre! The Polish tank on the left! The left!” Rein patted Andre’s shoulder and commanded loudly. “Baumann, slow advance! We need to push the defensive line forward! We have a comrade who has been hit and needs our cover.”

“We need cover too!” Bruce complained loudly. “You want us to advance in this situation? You might as well find someone to collect our corpses!”

“Bruce, shut up! Clark, watch the infantry behind those Polish tanks! We don’t have time to deal with them. I’m leaving them all to you,” Andre shouted as he aimed.

“Where did they get so many tanks?” Clark asked, aiming his machine gun at the infantry and firing. “I’m almost out of ammunition! I have two drums left, Rein!”

Opposite them, on a small slope, two more Polish tanks charged up, followed by countless Polish infantry.

“Mr. Bosch! Thank you for organizing this ball for my husband. I believe this is an important step in repairing the relationship between the Führer and the aristocracy and the financial magnates. I thank you on the Führer’s behalf. Cheers!” Mercedes said gracefully. After speaking, she raised her glass of red wine, gestured for a toast, and then gently took a small sip, her lips touching the glass. It was unknown whether it was due to the color of the red wine or some other reason, but her lips seemed even redder.

“Not at all, not at all. This is what I should do,” Bosch said with a hearty laugh. With the outbreak of the war, the demand for synthetic rubber and synthetic oil in Germany had greatly increased. IG Farben had established refineries in seven regions. As the representative of IG Farben, Bosch had made a fortune, and his face naturally bore a few more smiles.

“I hope Mr. Bosch will continue to support my husband,” Mercedes said softly, a slight blush on her cheeks. “Your support can help him go further. And if he goes further, Germany will go further.”

“If Germany goes further, we will earn more! And if we earn more, we will support the Führer even more devotedly!” Krupp interjected from the side. “Miss Mercedes, no matter what, we are all loyal supporters of Akado. We will support him until the end of the world!”

“How are the design plans for the Tiger tank coming along?” Mercedes suddenly asked the head of the Mercedes-Benz company. “The Führer has been waiting for your proposal. This is wartime, and weapons development is one of the things the Führer is most concerned about. You cannot slack off.”

Krupp knew that in the development of the army’s main weapons, the Mercedes-Benz company, with the Führer’s continuous support, had come from behind to become number one in Germany. The Krupp factory had gradually been reduced to a subcontractor. This sense of crisis of being technologically surpassed lingered in his heart.

“Naturally, some of the various weapons the Führer has ordered to be developed will be transferred to the Krupp factory for production,” Mercedes said, subtly changing the subject. “I heard from the Führer that the super-light 150mm howitzer produced by Krupp seems to be very popular with the troops.”

“Eleven o’clock! A Polish tank! Load armor-piercing!” Rein commanded loudly. The front of their tank was already piled with the bodies of Polish soldiers. Not far away, the wreckage of ten FT-17s was burning fiercely.

The high-intensity combat just now had made Rein’s crew intimately familiar with their surroundings. They could now accurately traverse the turret according to commands and point their 75mm cannon in the desired direction with the greatest possible speed.

“Boom!” With another loud roar, tank 113 fired its 43rd shot in two hours. The last Polish tank opposite them was pierced by the immense force of the armor-piercing round. Inertia carried the tank forward another meter or so before it stopped. This tank did not explode, and it did not move again.

With the sound of this shot, the battlefield returned to its former tranquility. The tide-like attack of the Poles had receded, leaving behind a field of corpses and the wreckage of nearly 70 tanks.

“They’ve… retreated…” Rein said, leaning back against his seat, wiping the sweat from his chin, feeling completely drained.

Bruce found an empty shell rack and sat down on it, panting for breath and no longer talking nonsense. Andre still hadn’t taken his eyes off the cannon’s gunsight. No one spoke. The noisy sound of the engine had also disappeared. Only now did they realize that everyone’s clothes were soaked with sweat.