Chapter Twelve: Counterattack from Desperate Straits

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  "Attack! Attack! Don't let a single American get away!" The German offensive was extremely fierce, with the infantry advancing almost as fast as Jones and Bruce were retreating. Jones and Bruce found it very difficult to resist, and sweat began to appear on their faces!

  "Damn it! We can't keep going on like this! Let's counterattack once more and knock the wind out of them!" I gritted my teeth, saying to Jones and Bruce.

  In the face of such intense artillery fire and the German army's relentless pressure, it is not easy for troops to switch from a retreating defensive posture to an offensive one. This requires absolute obedience to orders from commanders at all levels, well-trained soldiers, and most importantly, a fearless spirit that dares to sacrifice lives. Since the dawn of human warfare, most counterattacks have been launched by forces at a disadvantage, seeking to catch their opponents off guard and disrupt their momentum to achieve certain goals. However, I now wonder if my troops, who normally behave like a bunch of American big shots, can put aside their lives and engage in a desperate fight with the Germans under such dire circumstances. If they continue to collapse like this, all our plans and arrangements will be for naught.

  "Brothers! Stop the retreat! Counterattack! Counterattack! Anyone who retreats again will be killed without mercy!" I don't know if there is a provision for summary execution in American military law, and I couldn't find it in Conti's memory either. But I do know that Chinese military law has such a provision, and that's enough!

  The American soldiers, who were retreating, heard my loud shout and stopped in their tracks. Perhaps it was the last sentence "Kill all those who retreat" that made the American soldiers finally stop their hasty footsteps and turn around to entangle with the German army again. The German commander seemed very cautious, our sudden counterattack made the German pursuit troops immediately stop again.

  The German attack began to get cautious again. Several German soldiers, led by a German officer, crouched and jumped in under the cover of the bunker, advancing towards my right side. Jones on the right immediately discovered this group of German soldiers and directed several American soldiers to seal off the Germans' advance with Browning light machine guns.

  Rat-a-tat-tat, the bullets hit the German's hiding bunker, and this firepower instantly pinned down the Germans, but the Germans apparently did not want to be suppressed by the American soldiers like this, still sticking out their guns, continuously firing back.

  "Grenade! German grenade! Ah——, I'm done——"

  Boom! The hand grenade thrown by the German soldier exploded under the feet of an American soldier, and the long-handled ST-G39 wooden handle grenade had a huge killing radius of nearly ten meters, making it impossible for this American soldier to escape. He let out a desperate cry of despair. In fact, such scenes were being staged repeatedly on both sides, with gunfire, explosions, curses, and the dying screams of the wounded blending into a strange war symphony. The soldiers on both sides gradually became calm at first, then frenzied, and finally just mechanically followed their commanders' orders to shoot at each other, as their comrades fell one by one beside them, without even having the heart to look at each other.

  The battle is still ongoing, the German offensive and my counterattack have actually reached a stalemate. Village Mouth put on the military uniform stripped from the dead German soldiers, and cooperated with Joessen to perform, holding the MG42 to sweep the sky, feeling particularly anxious in his heart. This task was not as easy as it seemed, the Germans were not fools, how to act, had to be close to the direction of both sides' fighting, but also couldn't let the Germans hear from the strength of the gunfire that there was a trick, this was absolutely a technical job. Fortunately, the previous battle left many German weapons behind, allowing Linberna to use them freely. Although the Germans didn't notice in such an intense situation, if time went on for a bit longer they would definitely discover Village Mouth's anomaly. I absolutely couldn't let that happen!

  "Jones, Bruce! The German offensive has been temporarily suppressed! You continue to alternate cover and retreat! Retreat to the temporary command post! Be ready to launch a counterattack at any time!" After a pause, I scanned the remaining American soldiers who were still biting their teeth and firing back at the Germans, my heart aching as I said: "Tell the brothers to hold on for a while longer. That damn Linberna will soon thrust into the Germans' backsides! At that time, with Linberna's unexpected attack added to our own, these Germans in front of us are sure to die!"

  I used to fantasize about shouting on the battlefield, "For the motherland, for victory, charge!". But it wasn't until later, after I experienced the Omaha Beach landing, that I realized this kind of battle cry was never uttered by any commander I knew. In the eyes of soldiers, someone who would shout like that is either crazy or has already been driven mad by war. When war reaches a certain level of cruelty, anything about sacrificing one's life for a cause, singing patriotic songs, and all that, becomes meaningless to soldiers. They have nothing but their own heads on their shoulders and the hatred for revenge for their fallen comrades. The intense fighting doesn't allow them to think about much else! Their own lives and loved ones are already forgotten, how could they be stirred by empty slogans?

  A more subtle and heartening way, absolutely more effective than those loud slogans on movies and TVs, the American soldiers who had been beaten to almost shapeless, once again heard of Lieutenant Colonel Lindbergh's move was to stab the Germans in the back. For those who have survived several battles and become old soldiers, this news means what they know best! Just like two evenly matched people fighting, suddenly someone stabbed a knife from behind, most likely going down, this knife would make the opponent completely paralyzed, becoming a dead man. War can also be used as a metaphor.

  The US military's retreat has more momentum than before, and the battle is also more organized than at first. However, as the sound of Johnson's gunfire approaches, a company responsible for acting with Johnson has already withdrawn into the troops. At this time, my heart began to worry again, actually more regretful about assigning Linberna to execute this task of piercing and surrounding! "Linberna, what the hell are you doing now? Even if Johnson catches the Germans off guard, coordinating with my pincer movement, the highly skilled German commander will not be routed, at most the Germans will retreat back to their stronghold and never come out again! A great opportunity has been missed!"

  Lindbergh's platoon, advancing with great difficulty, in order to ensure the victory of the battle and the suddenness of the attack, once again chose the strategy of covert assault on the key point of the valley highland. However, unlike the last time at Jossen, this time the Germans left behind half a squad of soldiers here, and set up an MG42 machine gun inside the building in the valley, which was a very deadly weapon. If he were allowed to open fire easily, then no matter how many Lindberghs there were, they would not be enough for him to tear apart.

  The MG 42 was undoubtedly one of the best all-around machine guns in the world during World War II, whether it was in the Soviet Union's minus 40 degrees Celsius icy tundra or Normandy's low-lying scrub forests; whether it was North Africa's scorching deserts or Berlin's rubble-strewn streets. The MG 42 was the German army's absolute firepower pillar and the Allied soldiers' nightmare! American soldiers called the MG 42 "Hitler's buzzsaw", while others crudely referred to it as "Hitler's zipper" implying that Hitler couldn't get it out of his pants; even German soldiers called it "Hitler's saw" or "bone saw"; Soviet soldiers were more straightforward, calling the MG 42 a "flax cutter". British soldiers simply referred to it by its manufacturing location, "Spandau".

  The most lasting impression that Allied soldiers had of the MG 42 was its sound. The MG 42 machine gun could fire at a cyclic rate of between 900 rounds per minute, and over 1,500 rounds per minute when the gun was overheated. At these rates, the sound of the MG 42 was not unlike a very loud electric saw or a "ripping" sound similar to that of a piece of canvas being torn in half.

  The MG 42 gained its reputation in the Battle of Kasserine Pass in early 1943, where it first saw combat and immediately caused 2400 US soldiers to surrender. The captured US soldiers kept saying: "This rifle is so fierce!" Although this also reflected the combat quality of the US military to some extent, it can be said that the German MG42 thoroughly destroyed the morale of the US military with its terrifying sound like "Hera Hera" and its massive power! The prestige of the MG 42 was built up by countless lives.

  Lin Berna, since graduating from a foreign language major at an American university and joining the army, is also considered a veteran who has rolled out of the dead sea. Facing the MG42 that had been set up, he was absolutely not daring to be careless in the slightest. The German army had learned from its previous lesson, and the MG42 heavy machine gun was hidden inside buildings, with many German soldiers closely monitoring the possible routes and corners where the US military might launch an attack. Such a tight defense made Lin Berna somewhat worried, and I hadn't expected that as the German army advanced, the German commander would once again deploy such a dense guard at the valley, which completely exceeded my expectations.

  "David! What's your plan for getting rid of the German's machine gun?" Lin asked quietly, furrowing his brow as he turned to David, whom I had sent to assist him.

  David shook his head. "No way! The Germans' defense is too tight!"

  Lin Bona clenched his fists and pounded the ground in frustration, saying, "Is it really that there's no way out?"

  David meditated for a moment, his eyes lit up, but suddenly went out.

  "David! What is it? Speak quickly! If we delay any longer, Lieutenant Conti's position will surely collapse!"

  David gritted his teeth and said, "Now there is only one way, that is to enter the German army's defensive machine gun position unexpectedly, and then blow it up from the inside!"

  Lin Borna was furious and cursed, "Damn God, is this the kind of stupid idea you come up with? If I could blow him up from the inside, would I still need to ask you?"

  "David explained: "I was also inspired by the method of that bastard Josen from Lieutenant Konti! We send a few people, put on German uniforms with explosives, disguise themselves as wounded soldiers withdrawing from the front line, enter the German defensive circle from the highway, and the Germans will never think that at this moment we will use this method to mix into the machine gun position of the Germans in the valley, and then boom! Blow him up to heaven!" As he spoke, his expression suddenly darkened, "But these few people are definitely not going to come back alive!"

  Lin Bona couldn't help but feel a sense of desolation. A task that was almost impossible to survive, no one would be willing to go, not even if they wanted to. One misstep and the person would be slaughtered by the Germans without any value.

  Thinking of this result, Lin Berna couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. Listening to the intense gunfire gradually moving away from the temporary command post of the German army, Lin Berna finally couldn't hold back anymore.

  "I'm going!"

  "You can't go! We still need you here to command!" David grabbed hold of the somewhat impulsive Linberna. Linberna suddenly shook off David's grasp and said in a tone that brooked no argument.

  "Among all the people here, who else can handle it besides me speaking a few words of German? Damn it, do you think everyone here is willing to go? No way!"

  Yes, that's right! Any dangerous mission is not like in the movies where everyone rushes to execute it without hesitation. People are afraid of death, especially when the outcome is doomed to be fatal. Although war makes everyone put their heads on the line, being able to survive or die later than others is also a good thing! However, sometimes they stand out, not for any great cause, but just for that small thing in their heart called conscience!