Chapter 409: Moving Out

Borol felt the cold, damp air on his face and listened to the familiar whistling of the wind in his ears, letting his body sway violently in

Borol felt the cold, damp air on his face and listened to the familiar whistling of the wind in his ears, letting his body sway violently in the gale. He felt like he was about to die. Bullets were constantly whipping past him, and he suspected his feet had been hit because he couldn’t feel the lower half of his body.

He screamed hysterically, but he couldn’t even hear his own voice. It wasn’t until his boots hit the ground with a solid thud that he knew he was still alive. Letting the parachute drift down on top of him, he dropped to the ground and began fumbling with the buckles on his harness.

“Lightning!” a voice called out in a low tone from nearby.

“Thunder!” Borol called back, his own voice hushed. No one knew that the password was actually Akado’s personal nod to the Operation Overlord of another timeline, a product of his own dark sense of humor. The person opposite him audibly relaxed.

“Thank God! It’s Captain Borol!” a soldier said with relief, holding his G43 rifle.

“Have you seen Baru?” Borol asked the young subordinate as he sorted out his own weapon and gear.

“No, sir.” There were about three or four other soldiers behind him. For now, this was the entirety of Borol’s force.

Crack! A gunshot rang out, followed by shouting in English. There were clearly British soldiers nearby. Without a second thought, Borol raised his rifle and emptied an entire magazine in the direction of the shouting.

As he reloaded, he barked out orders, “We’ve been spotted! You and you, flank left! You two, with me! Move, move!”

He scrambled to his feet and ran, hunched over and stumbling, while scanning his surroundings to get his bearings. When he saw a massive, still-steaming crater, he jumped into it without hesitation.

As he leaped into the crater, he shouted, “Lightning!”

When his rear end hit the bottom, Borol found himself facing two rifles held by three or four panicked German paratroopers. Baru was peering over the edge of the crater, scanning the area. Another veteran was sorting through supplies that didn’t belong to him; an unlucky new recruit lay dead in the crater, apparently hit in the head.

“Damn it! I almost blew his head off!” one of the new soldiers stammered, lowering his weapon. The other let out a deep breath.

“You’re supposed to say ‘Thunder,’ you idiot! If you’d killed me, everyone here would be finished!” Borol jerked his head downwards. The new soldier then noticed that Borol was clutching a hand grenade with the pin already pulled.

Wasting no more words, Borol crawled to the edge of the crater, still holding the grenade, and looked into the distance. There seemed to be an anti-aircraft position there, continuously firing into the sky. He gave a hand signal to Baru beside him and then threw the grenade towards the target.

Following the explosion, the British anti-aircraft gun fell silent. A few seconds later, a hail of bullets swept over their position, and then the gun began to roar again. It seemed Borol’s grenade had done little more than alert the British to their presence.

“Forgot to tell you, the machine gunner isn’t here,” Baru said, forcing an embarrassed smile. “We can’t suppress their fire.” As he spoke, British machine-gun fire kicked up sparks on the mound of dirt in front of him.

Fwoosh!… BOOM! Just as Borol was about to curse, a dazzling streak of fire shot out from behind a small bush nearby, flying in a straight line towards the anti-aircraft position and scoring a direct hit.

“A Panzerfaust! Beautiful shot! Flank them!” Borol yelled the order to attack. “Covering fire!”

Two veterans with assault rifles immediately poked their weapons over the edge of the crater and began firing wildly. The enemy machine gun position might have been reloading, or perhaps turning to deal with the Panzerfaust team, but in any case, their fire was suppressed.

Borol once again vaulted out of the crater, he and Baru splitting off to the sides. After running a few steps, he saw the British position illuminated by the flames and, without thinking, raised his MP-44 assault rifle and fired off his rounds at the British soldiers.

A British soldier who was scanning the area crumpled to the ground. The others dodged Borol’s fire. They saw the German paratrooper empty his magazine and were about to return fire when they were all cut down by an attack from another direction.

Several German soldiers ran up from behind and found Baru rummaging through the British corpses in the trench. Borol was at the nearby anti-aircraft position, firing a few extra shots into the British crewmen who weren’t quite dead yet.

The earlier Panzerfaust rocket had hit the base of the gun perfectly. The resulting shrapnel had taken out most of the British gun crew and, incidentally, turned the British anti-aircraft gun into a pile of scrap metal.

Gunfire was still intense in the distance, suggesting two units were in a fierce firefight. Borol used this brief lull to take a headcount and found he had only managed to gather 11 soldiers—and that was after linking up with the Panzerfaust team.

He set up a simple defensive perimeter, established a temporary command post, and then searched the bodies of the British soldiers, finding no useful information. The good news, however, was that one of his platoon leaders found him with over 20 men, which significantly increased Borol’s numbers.

With these soldiers, Borol expanded his defensive circle. They found the bodies of two more paratroopers and four of their own men who had been too afraid to show themselves. At 2:13 AM, they found the radioman and his platoon, and the German paratroopers had finally assembled a force of over 50 men.

Their luck seemed to be holding. They found an ammunition container that had been dropped with them, which contained a large quantity of bullets and grenades. With this, the German paratroopers no longer had to worry about running out of ammunition.

They soon discovered another British anti-aircraft position nearby. It was a large-caliber gun that seemed to have exhausted its ammunition during the earlier air battle, which was why it had gone unnoticed.

Baru personally led 20 soldiers to capture the larger British gun position. They found a concealed command post and a T-shaped trench. It was defended by a British infantry squad, and including the gunners and commander, there were about 30 men. The German paratroopers took the position by surprise, killing all the poorly trained British soldiers.

With a ready-made command post, Borol moved the rest of his men over. Inside this hidden air-defense command post, he saw a stove for making coffee and various other personal items.

“Are these British really here to fight a war?” Borol asked disdainfully, kicking the body of the British officer lying on the floor.

“More or less,” Baru nodded. “We have one killed, two wounded. This officer committed suicide after being surrounded.”

Borol walked over to a desk with a map hanging on the wall above it. He carefully examined the map, then sifted through the documents and local maps on the desk. He picked up a fountain pen that was holding a map down and, with a smile, waved it at Baru. “A trophy.”

After the joke, it was back to business. Borol pointed at the map on the wall. “I can’t find the translator, so I can’t read the map, but this square here should be a field barracks. We’ve taken out about two platoons of British soldiers on our way here. These soldiers clearly weren’t just deployed today; they’re a permanent unit. So there must be a place for them to live nearby.”

“Shall I take some men and check it out?” Baru asked with a grin.

“Take the 1st and 2nd platoons. This could be a battalion’s defensive area for all we know,” Borol said, frowning at the map. “If you run into any scattered friendlies on the way, have the 1st and 2nd platoon men join you. Tell any 3rd platoon soldiers to rally here.”

“Right! I’ll head out now. I’ll take half the ammunition and leave the rest for you,” Baru said with a nod. He turned and left the small room that had once been the British officer’s command post.

Borol took out his own map and began comparing it to the British one, trying to find common features to confirm his position. That was the only way to know where the objectives marked on his map were.

Before he could find anything, gunfire erupted outside. Borol immediately grabbed his assault rifle from the table and rushed out. He saw a dozen British soldiers lying in pools of blood, with the bodies of several German paratroopers nearby.

Baru and his men hadn’t left yet. While they were distributing ammunition, a British patrol had unexpectedly returned. They had discovered the Germans in their camp and charged out to try to retake it. A fierce firefight broke out. Five German soldiers were killed by the surprise attack, and the entire 12-man British patrol was wiped out.

“It seems this really is a battalion’s base,” Borol said to Baru. “It’s just that the battalion is dispersed.”

“Then this base should be the battalion headquarters, right?” Baru asked, checking the remaining ammunition in his weapon.

“Go! You have one hour. After that, we have to move out and head for our real objective,” Borol said, clapping Baru on the shoulder.

“1st and 2nd platoon! Grab your weapons and ammunition! Follow me! Move out!” Baru nodded and shouted the command. A few dozen German paratroopers quickly melted into the darkness.