Chapter 28: The Warrior's Dilemma

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  For Germans, to be honest, as a Chinese at heart, I really can't muster up any interest in fighting with them to the death. In fact, I think it's even more inappropriate for Chinese people to chant slogans like "German fascism", which is actually slapping ourselves in the face.

  The Second World War was originally caused by the uneven distribution of interests among empires, and this should be viewed correctly. Just like in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, all countries in the world were indifferent to Japan's invasion of China, and the United States and Britain were even more so, watching China as a joke. The only two countries that dared to thoroughly offend Japan and aid China were the Soviet Union and Germany.

  Yes, Germany! The entire German nation, from Hitler to his troops, showed the greatest sympathy and assistance to China in its suffering under Japanese aggression. Due to geographical distance, they didn't have to cross oceans to provide large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and various supplies to support China. Some of these weapons were even equipped with German army equipment that was not yet available to their own troops, but were prioritized for supporting China's resistance against Japan. The most representative example is the Battle of Shanghai, where three German-equipped divisions trained by German instructors under Chiang Kai-shek inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese military. Unfortunately, there were too few German-equipped divisions and Chiang did not make rational use of this force, leading to defeat in the first battle, but only at the tactical level. However, during this difficult period, Germany's assistance was not just verbal condemnation like other Western countries; their selfless aid was the most practical and substantial at that time. Even if we look at it from today's world perspective, I'm afraid there are few countries willing to bear the cost of such sacrifices!

  Some people say that the Germans are making a fortune at high prices and it's not worth being grateful. But in my heart, I smiled slightly, at this time even if begging others, buying at high prices from them is impossible, let alone the Germans who can also sell to others, they can completely use other means to exchange interests with the Japanese and gain benefits for supporting China!

  However, I don't know if it was Chiang Kai-shek's high political acumen or his exceptional foresight that he remained unimpressed by Hitler's selfless assistance for nearly two years and still only sought aid from Britain and the US. In the end, this led to Germany choosing to withdraw its support for China and parting ways with her. Otherwise, history would have been altered once again. Nevertheless, regardless of one's stance, I believe that the Germans will always be remembered as having shown some kindness towards the Chinese people. I think it is human nature not to forget past hatreds or kindnesses. Unfortunately, however, for the sake of my own life, I am now fighting against my conscience and the Germans on foreign soil.

  "Hasn't Germany's main force been determined yet?"

  "Yes! However, judging from the current statistics, the Germans are ahead of us, and they probably have a reinforced battalion's strength already! If it's true according to Colonel Heber's reconnaissance of the German army's strength, the Germans are probably planning to concentrate their forces together to swallow us up in one go!"

  "This is absolutely impossible!" I flatly contradicted Jones's calculation. "The Germans would never concentrate all their forces here!"

  "Why?" Jones asked directly.

  "The Germans may have the power to wipe us out, but they can't do it in a short time. Moreover, we are only two hours away from Colonel Heber's main force, and they also need to consider whether we can hold them back! Once we hold them back, Colonel Heber's troops won't be waiting at Monastery Hill to watch the joke!"

  "Also! So what exactly are the Germans trying to do?" Jones also began to wonder about the Germans' moves.

  "Let's not worry about what the Germans want to do for now, we just focus on steady and solid progress! Control the key points everywhere, then we can force the Germans to show up automatically!"

  "It can't be helped!"

  As Jones and I and a group of officers were talking around the map, suddenly a crisp German rifle shot rang out, and one of the sentries standing beside me fell.

  "Sniper! Take cover!"

  I knew the bullet was meant for me, but in a sudden twist of fate, I stood up and the guard took the hit instead. The sudden sniper fire made the hairs on my back stand on end, without any hesitation, I immediately jumped to the other side of the jeep and hid behind the wheel.

  "Damn it, where is he?"

  "Captain, at one o'clock position!"

  "Mortar, damn it, blast him out!" My heart is still racing and the cold sweat on my forehead keeps dripping down. To be honest, I almost really went back home just now. "Lin Berna! Lin Berna! Get him out for me!"

  "Machine gun squad, suppressive fire at one o'clock! The rest of you, follow me!" Lin Berna yelled as he charged forward.

  Rat-a-tat-tat, the machine gun sprayed flames wildly, and powerful bullets poured towards the direction of one o'clock like a storm. Although I didn't know where the German sniper was hiding, knowing the general direction was enough!

  I cautiously poked my head out from behind the car, raised my binoculars and looked in the direction where the sniper was firing at me. Over there were sparse bushes, now being ravaged by machine gun fire, with branches and leaves flying everywhere. I thought to myself, if one shot didn't hit the target, this German sniper probably would have already escaped, so I steeled myself and poked my head out again!

  Bang!

  "Ah no, my neck!" The massive kinetic energy of the bullet sent me tumbling to the ground in an instant!

  He's been hit! That sniper never left, he was determined to take him down!

  "Captain!" Jimmy looked at me and suddenly covered his neck and fell to the ground, rushing over in shock.

  "Damn it, German! I fuck your mother!" Scared out of my wits, I sat up with a start, covering my neck and cursing loudly.

  "Is the captain hurt?" Jimmy suddenly saw that I had been holding my neck, thinking that my neck might have been hit by the Germans, and hurriedly called for a medic. "Medic! Medic! The captain is hurt!"

  "I'm fine! Catch him first!"

  Perhaps the lives of travelers are always as hard as Xiao Qiang's, and I'm probably one of them. The German sniper only hit my helmet, leaving a small dent about the size of a thumb on it. Although the bullet's huge kinetic energy made my neck feel like it was broken, fortunately, the distance was too far, and it didn't completely break my neck. But now it still hurts me to death. I really don't know which damn movie it was where bullets hit helmets and nothing happens except for them grazing past?

  "I see him, he's in that clump of bushes! Keep suppressing him! Don't let him lift his head!" A soldier pointed towards a small thicket and loudly called out to the soldiers beside him.

  "Ah~"

  With another gunshot, the soldier's skull was thoroughly blown open like a red cap by the sniper's bullet. Due to the obstruction of the steel helmet, white brain matter mixed with bright red blood poured down along his cheek, and the soldier unwillingly opened his bulging eyes and fell out involuntarily.

  "Damn it, where's the mortar?" The short distance of only 500-600 meters had cost Lieutenant Lin's men three more lives!

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The mortar finally fired, and immediately there was a burst of rapid gunfire, covering the place where the sniper was hiding with a barrage. The area was instantly blown to pieces, with craters everywhere, like the ground had been hit by a meteor shower.

  "Charge!"

  Lin Borna held a Browning light machine gun and swept forward while firing.

  “Don‵tFire！Don‵tFire！”

  Yes, everything just now has ended.

  The thick smoke has not yet dispersed, the earth that was blown up still retains the smell of gunpowder, a young German soldier lies there with blood all over his face, he was killed by an anti-tank gun, at the moment of death, his hand is still tightly grasping the machine gun, his eyes are full of unwillingness, as if to say, why didn't I kill him?

  "Damn it all!" Lin Berna kicked the corpse hard, still wanting to vent his anger on the body for me. I stopped him with my hand and tried to move my sore neck.

  "Don't insult his corpse anymore! You all should remember, although our positions are different now, as a soldier, he was a true German warrior! Let's have a few people bury him properly!"

  I don't know if the American soldiers around me can understand my words, but since I'm dead, everything is over! Although being buried properly is just like throwing a dead dog into a shell hole and hastily burying it, on the battlefield this is already a very good treatment. Maybe when I die, being burned together with many other corpses will be my good fortune, or maybe I'll be thrown into some corner to slowly rot away. But for now, this can also be considered as a small repayment for the kindness Germany has shown to China, even though I almost died at his hands!

  "Damn it, looks like the Germans are going to start playing for real with us!" The medic crouched beside me, continuously wrapping layers of gauze around my neck, making me feel annoyed. I waved my hand and stood up from the ground. "Okay, okay! No need to wrap anymore, I'm fine!"

  Qiao Sen heard that I was attacked and immediately ran back from the front. He looked at me with a bit of tension, saying in a low voice: "It's all my fault, my search team didn't discover this German sniper!"

  My command post was maintaining a certain distance from Josen's search party, conducting a dragnet search in the past, but I really didn't expect to let a German sniper slip through. Just one German soldier made D Company look like fools, and my life can only be said to have been salvaged. Of course, although Josen's search was not thorough, he is also responsible, but on the battlefield, you can't ask too much of an officer, this kind of sudden situation is unavoidable, if something unexpected really happens, I can only blame my own bad luck.

  "Put this matter aside for now! I'm certain that the Germans have set up a decoy array to confuse us, making it impossible for us to truly determine where the German main force is!"

  "Could it be that the Germans who appeared earlier were from the same group?" Jones muttered to himself in puzzlement.

  "No, there should be at least two German armies! And these two German armies must have a strength of at least one regiment or more, otherwise our reconnaissance units would not have been misled!"

  "Where are the others? What is their purpose?"

  Are they going to devour one of the two branches of Charlotte and me? This is also impossible, our two forces, the Germans can have the power to harden, but for the Germans who lack troops, it is absolutely not worth it. Whether I or Charlotte's troops are attacked by the Germans, Colonel Heber's reinforcements will arrive immediately! What do they want to do after all? My heart secretly speculates about the German army's combat intentions

  I had long expected that Captain Herb's purpose was just this, searching with these two companies, neither of which would make unfavorable adjustments to the entire region for Captain Herb's defense of the entire Munsterburg area, nor could the Germans retreat because they were worried about the search troops being too strong. By arranging only two search companies, it made the Germans unable to swallow or spit out, like a needle stuck in their throat. If the Germans retreated just for these two US companies, the Germans would not be willing; if they swallowed them, they would definitely be held back by these two companies and subjected to more US encirclement. The German troops hiding in the forests north of Munsterburg were likely to be wiped out by the Americans at one stroke.

  How can we both defeat the US military searching and preserve the remaining German main force in Monschau Castle? This is indeed a difficult problem! If I were a German commander, what would I do in this forest? My head started to ache.