Chapter 2: The Overbearing Lieutenant Colonel

  Chapter 2

  An MG 42 was hiding in a bunker right in front of us, spitting out flames and blocking our advance!

  "You, you, you! I count one, two, three, and with me, suppressive fire on the machine gun above! The rest of you, prepare to continue the charge!" He casually pointed at three men armed with Thompson submachine guns.

  “owo,three!fire!fire！”

  "Rat-a-tat-a..." Three submachine guns simultaneously fired at the German machine gun position, unleashing a burst of intense fire. Nearly a hundred bullets were emptied in an instant, and the German MG42 machine gun was instantly suppressed by this brief but fierce firepower, falling silent!

  “go！go！go！”

  The charge is still going on, but unfortunately it didn't succeed! The people who rushed out fell down in front of the German machine gun position, and the black soldier who was chewing gum earlier also fell to the ground with a bullet wound. He wasn't dead yet, his mouth was foaming with blood, his body kept twitching, his eyes had lost their luster, but suddenly he convulsed violently, his head turned to one side, and he died!

  Damn it, and soon died out! A few minutes ago I was a lieutenant commanding thirty people, and in the blink of an eye I became a real sergeant! Me, three submachine gunners and one rifleman!

  Huh? This rifleman is actually holding a Springfield M1903A4 sniper rifle.

  "Are you a sniper?" I asked in bewilderment, for the snipers were one of the most feared troops during the entire WWII, with their accurate shooting, terrifying killing power, and excellent scouting ability, known as the nightmare of battlefield commanders. In the wild, facing an experienced sniper, the best way to avoid huge casualties was to use artillery to bombard all possible hiding places! This was a bloody experience summed up from countless facts throughout WWII. I admired them!

  "Yes, sir!"

  "Oh, God! This is really good news! What's your name?" For someone like that, I'm really willing to remember his name.

  "Job David! Sir!"

  "David? I hate that name! I really don't know why your parents had to give you such a terrible name! Don't they know there are millions of Davids in America?! Don't blame me for being talkative, actually I don't want to be either. War makes everyone's nerves tight, and the only way to prove we're still alive is by constantly talking, cursing, and venting our anxiety. Yes, still alive! A real battlefield, whether it's soldiers or commanders, will never be as calm and collected as actors in movies and TV shows amidst a hail of bullets. People like that are either crazy from shell shock or already corpses!"

  "Oh no, no, no! Sir, this is God's will! We can't change it!" David shook his head and interrupted me.

  "What you said makes sense!" I unconsciously shrugged my shoulders. "However, you're in trouble now. See that crater? I'll cover you as you rush over, and then you can show off your marksmanship and take out those German guys!"

  "Yes, sir!"

  “owo，three！fire！fire！”

  The Germans inside the bunker were very obedient this time, knowing that our firepower suppression could not last long. As soon as they heard the sound of guns, they cooperated and lay down their bodies. War always makes people learn things quickly, in order to avoid repeating the same mistake again, we tried to extend the time of firepower suppression as much as possible, this time we divided the four submachine gunners into two shifts. This method made the Germans suffer a small loss, just in the interval after finishing the first shift, the Germans thought our firepower suppression had stopped and ventured out to continue firing, only to be beaten back by the other two submachine guns.

  Bullets "zip, zip" hit the sandbag fortifications of German machine gun nests. This is the first time we have been able to exert real tactical firepower on the Germans since landing on Omaha Beach. It's clear that the German forces are not sufficient. It wasn't until later that I learned that during the Omaha landing battle, the entire 53-kilometer-long defensive line of the Germans had only one third-rate division with less than 8,000 men, while the Allies deployed nearly 45,000 troops in this small section. If history could be replayed, if the Germans had just deployed another division's worth of troops, the American landing would have ended in failure. Unfortunately, history cannot be replayed!

  David took advantage of our firepower suppression and jumped into the foxhole I pointed out earlier! The sniper's marksmanship is indeed not to be underestimated, we've been fighting for a long time but couldn't eliminate the machine gun position, and it was solved by him one shot at a time! The real D1 breach has finally opened up!

  “GO,GO,GO!”

  As soon as we climbed up the gentle slope, we saw a team of German soldiers rushing to support the gap under the command of an officer. There was no time to catch our breath, and just in time to take advantage of the cover of the German machine gun bunker to wipe out this team of Germans who had not even had time to deploy their attack formation.

  Hit!

  In an instant, we launched a surprise attack on the enemy, and in no time at all, we had caught them off guard. The Germans clearly hadn't anticipated our breakthrough at D1 would be so swift, and they fell to the ground one after another, riddled with bullets! A small squad of over ten men was thus wiped out due to such carelessness, annihilated in less than a minute! War is equally brutal and bloody for both sides.

  The battle is still going on, the permanent concrete-reinforced pillbox built by the Germans on the cliff is still singing its siren song! And the people around me, with the weakening of the German suppressive fire, have returned to their original number, but I am still the highest and luckiest commander here, I was just a small sergeant!

  "Keep pushing forward on both sides! Destroy the pillboxes! Don't stop!"

  However, at this time, a small episode occurred. Among the crowd that rushed here was a junior officer who saw that my military rank was not as high as his and bluntly said: "Sergeant, I'm taking over command here!"

  "God, whatever! Sir! Just let me survive!" I have no attachment to this position whatsoever. In fact, among the people here, I know there are several who outrank me - some are Master Sergeants, others are Sergeant Majors. They just don't bother to take command from me. At this point in the battle, it's not like we need a commander anyway. Besides, in this hellhole, our own troops have been decimated and aren't even under my direct command. Even if I were to take command, as soon as the battle ends, the unit would disband immediately. What's the use of fighting for command then?

  Fate has always been predetermined, and mine is forever mine. The unlucky lieutenant had just stood up from the sandbag bunker, not even having time to speak, when his body shook violently and he fell to the ground with a "thud". It turned out that a stray bullet from an unknown direction had hit him. Miraculously, I regained command!

  David looked at me in astonishment and muttered: "God, it seems that no one can compete with you for power, otherwise the next one to die will be him!"

  My old face turned red and I kicked David. "Shut up! That's God's unlucky illegitimate child!"

  David gave me a sinister glare and jeered, "Oh God, please don't scold him! Maybe this illegitimate child is you! Otherwise, how could you have been so lucky to live until now!"

  "Hmm! What you said makes sense!"

  After the addition of more American soldiers, the clearing battle on both sides was very fierce! Both sides have already fought out of fire, countless people died, and countless people joined! And the most striking thing in the battle is the shooter with a flamethrower on his back. They are simply the saint warriors against these strongholds. As long as they let their gun barrels extend into the entrance of the stronghold, the huge flame can instantly drown the entire stronghold. Countless German soldiers cannot bear the pain of being burned alive and escape from the stronghold, but are shot and killed by American soldiers hiding on one side!

  Victory is already certain! The follow-up troops are now like a burst dam, instantly flooding the German position, leaving only cleanup work. And I'm exhausted to the extreme, my mood relaxed, and suddenly I couldn't hold on anymore! I squatted down on the ground and didn't want to get up again.

  David was pretty good, leaning against the trench wall, slowly lit a cigarette and handed it to me.

  "Let's have one!"

  To be honest, I was really smoking this American cigarette for the first time, and the strong aroma stimulated my nerves, making me, who had been tense all the time, suddenly relax a bit. It turns out that smoking has such benefits, no wonder people around the world are shouting to ban smoking! On the other hand, almost every country's army is turning a blind eye to this kind of collective smoking on a large scale. It's not that they don't want to control it, but because this thing is cheap and can eliminate fatigue and boost soldiers' morale, so they can't bear to give it up. At least it's cheaper than giving everyone liquor!

  "It feels pretty good!" I said relaxedly, exhaling a big ring of smoke.

  "It's clear that you're doing a great job commanding today! I think it's wrong to put you in the position of an officer!" David said sincerely, looking at me.

  I shrugged and said indifferently: "Who knows! As long as I can survive until the day the war ends, I'll be satisfied!"

  This is the truth, David nodded and was about to speak. He saw a lieutenant colonel and several officers walking this way! He kicked me with his foot, also counted as revenge for my previous kick, reminding me: "The officer is coming!"

  As for military discipline, I still understand it. As soon as I stood up, this lieutenant colonel and several officers came forward, obviously they were coming for me!

  The major looked at me with a glance, my left arm's guerrilla battalion sergeant sleeve badge, frowned, possibly he didn't expect that the first to break through D1 gap was actually an unremarkable little sergeant! However, his subsequent reaction was quite exaggerated, and I didn't care.

  "Guerrilla troops! Haha, God bless our guerrilla troops! You are the pride of our guerrilla troops!" The lieutenant colonel was like a proud rooster, constantly showing off this achievement that didn't belong to him to several officers behind him.

  "Colonel! I...I..." I couldn't bear it anymore and involuntarily interrupted the lieutenant colonel's brilliant performance!

  The major's expression didn't show any embarrassment at all, and he didn't even bother to ask for my unit number. He simply said: "Sergeant, you're in luck! From now on, you're the lieutenant colonel of my regiment, sir!"

  I stared at him in astonishment, this dictatorial decision left me wondering what to do. "And, and, and what about my original troops?"

  The lieutenant colonel said indifferently, "As long as you're a guerrilla soldier, it's easy to handle. I'll call the regimental headquarters and have them take care of it directly!" He pointed to an officer behind him. "John, accompany him to complete the formalities, don't let him be taken away by other troops!"

  This Lieutenant John, laughing and putting his arm around my shoulder as if he was afraid I would run away, said proudly: "Sergeant, no, no, no, it should be addressed to Lieutenant Colonel Mr., Major is a very good talker!"

  This stark naked threat makes me shudder, it's even more terrifying than facing the Germans' machine guns. Damn it, who said Americans are stupid like a donkey? I really want to slap the guy who said that! Tell him straight to his face, he's stupid like a donkey!

  Just as Officer Johnson was about to take me away, Major seemed to remember something and called out to me: "What's your name?"

  "Reporting officer! I'm Konti!" That damned bastard, and he's only asking for my name now?!

  "Alright, Konti, I've remembered! " He said, waving his hand, indicating for me to leave.

  David stood beside, obviously unable to intervene, looking at me with a mixture of anxiety and envy, which made my heart skip a beat and stop in my tracks. I pointed to David and, plucking up the courage, asked the major: "Reporting for duty! Can I also bring him along?"

  The lieutenant colonel apparently didn't think much of such a request and casually said: "Since he's your soldier, bring him along then!"

  David was also surprised by this result and asked: "Report to the superior officer, I am from the 29th Division of the Army."

  The lieutenant colonel not only didn't get angry, but instead pointed at David and laughed to the officer beside him: "It seems that this little guy is an elite from the 'Grass Bag Army'! With such talent, how can we not want him?" He then burst into loud laughter.

  The US 29th Division is not strictly a 'meat grinder' division, but because this division was newly formed in the United States for war needs, it is a young force with almost all new recruits. To know that on the battlefield, about 80% of casualties are new recruits, such a young force, the US military is even more hesitant to use or not to use, always carefully stored like bacon, and eventually being called 'meat grinder' division by colleagues, 'bacon division', meaning that meat buns hit dogs without going back!

  David was infuriated by the major's ridicule. "Sir, the 29th Division is not a 'ragtag division'!"

  The major was taken aback, but then remembered the bloody battle of Omaha Beach and the bravery of the US 29th Infantry Division, which was second to none. Although they had suffered heavy casualties, their spirit was not something to be ridiculed. The major's expression immediately turned serious, and he solemnly apologized to Dave: "Sorry, sniper! I formally apologize for my previous words, and I hope you can forgive me!"

  David hadn't spoken yet, but the major made another unexpected move, walking up to David and extending both hands solemnly: "Sniper Mr., we also need you very much, I hope you can join my team with this lieutenant!"

  David looked at me with an expectant gaze and ultimately did not refuse, walking together with me.

  Heaven may have been too tragic, giving me good fortune at the same time, but also depriving me of everything, all my peace and quiet! If heaven gives me another chance, I will absolutely refuse Colonel's brutal conscription this time, because it was he who sent me on a bloody road to no return!