Chapter 59: Spending Money to Kill Germans

  I pulled out a cigarette and stuck it in my mouth, calming the anxiety brought by the war. I took a puff of smoke and looked at John who was mixing with other soldiers in the distance. I thought to myself, this guy is learning fast, getting along with his subordinates so quickly, I guess assigning him to key positions now shouldn't be a problem!

  I was just thinking, but it was the people around John who burst into laughter. I found it interesting and walked over. John had sharp eyes, saw me coming, and immediately said: "Stop laughing, Captain is here!"

  The surrounding soldiers saw me coming, suddenly laughed and dispersed, leaving me looking puzzled. However, the soldiers who had gathered earlier did disperse, but their eyes kept glancing at me involuntarily before turning back to whisper to others.

  I guess John must have been talking about himself just now, otherwise these unruly soldiers wouldn't be looking at him like that. He deliberately sank his face and said to John: "John, what's going on? Why didn't you prepare properly and instead gathered a crowd in the war zone?"

  John knew I was intentionally blaming myself, but he didn't care, and with a smile on his face, he came up to me and said: "I'm telling the brothers about your glorious history! We must let them learn from your bravery, your outstanding wisdom! Only in this way can we inspire the morale of our brothers, defeat the German devils!"

  I smiled slightly and looked at John sideways, saying: "It can't be just these, right?"

  John was covered in goosebumps, and I had to say: "I was just talking about the Omaha Beach landing, there was a lieutenant who wanted to take command from you, but as soon as he took over, he was killed by the Germans within two seconds!"

  "Really, is this all there is?"

  John looked a bit anxious and said, "Kangdi, don't believe me? You can ask them, that's all!"

  I couldn't help but laugh and say: "What's there to say about this!"

  John didn't say a word, turned his back and muttered to himself: "For real, can I even tell you the truth? You'd strangle me to death if I did!"

  John didn't talk to others as he explained to me, John said to others: "You know what? Last time I went to pick up chicks with Lieutenant Kong! Something unexpected happened!"

  "What's going on?" As for his own captain's stinky business, of course everyone wants to know, and some soldiers hurriedly urged John.

  John mysteriously and somewhat exaggeratedly told the people around him, "I'm telling you, that's our captain! He was actually mistaken for a pedophile! Almost didn't make it back!"

  "Come on, come on, what's going on?" The soldiers closed in tighter.

  "John sighed intentionally: "That day, I and Captain Kang planned to go to the small town on our base to solve the loneliness of French women! As a result, as soon as we arrived at the place, we were surrounded by more than a dozen beautiful French girls! That day my mood was good, so I chose a beauty, ready to enjoy it well. Guess what Captain Kang did?"

  "Come on, Lieutenant John! If you keep this up, I'm gonna have to strangle ya!" one of the soldiers joked.

  "Good heavens! He's actually brought along a little girl of eleven or twelve!"

  "Oh dear heavens!" Some of the soldiers knew it wasn't that serious but still exclaimed in surprise: "How can something so small have any feeling?"

  "I also said that at first, but before our Captain Kanti could do anything, the little girl suddenly burst into tears and actually scared him so much that his hands shook. The little girl fell to the ground with a 'thud'! Our Captain Kanti said, 'Can't I just take a look?'"

  "Haha!" John's timely quip sent the surrounding soldiers into a fit of laughter, but as he spoke such frivolous words, his mind suddenly turned to the Shirley sisters and he felt a pang of boredom just as I happened to arrive.

  No matter what John and his subordinates say, I won't take it to heart anyway. In this purely masculine world of the military camp, men making some harmless jokes with each other is nothing, as long as they don't intentionally slander others. Besides, I believe John wouldn't do that either!

  I said to John, "It's okay, I estimate that after a few more battles like this, I believe you'll quickly climb up and become a military commander! Maybe you'll even be my superior!"

  John smiled and said: "That's not necessarily true! But I'm gradually starting to like the feeling of being under your command!"

  "I curled my lips and said: 'Others are eager for their official rank to rise higher, but you're actually fond of going down!'"

  John furrowed his brow, as if recalling something from the past, and said: "You know, the bigger the official, the greater the responsibility! The more things to deal with upstairs! Those interpersonal relationships that are full of intrigue all day long are even more disgusting! Look at it now, isn't it great? I'm fine with you, nothing needs my attention, and those dozens of brothers under me get along so well!"

  I looked at John incredulously and said, "Go ahead and lie with your eyes open, I see you're quite settled up there, at least our Colonel Rom has been made to obey you."

  John waved his hand and said, "Come on, I still don't know what you want to say. I'm not always racking my brains thinking about him, do you think I'm tired or not?"

  I said with some sympathy: "To be honest, it's not just you who are tired, I feel tired for you when I see you trying to please your superiors!" But then I changed my tone and said: "However, you don't have to work as hard as we do all the time, selling our lives!"

  "John said reluctantly: 'Hmph! You haven't even tried!' Just as John was about to continue talking to me, Jones and Linberna, along with Jimmy, the three squad leaders, came over."

  "Captain, the troops' ammunition is all set, what's our next move?" Jimmy asked.

  I saw that everyone was already present, so I stopped chatting with John and got down to business. I said: "Today's morning attack and action plan were very successful, the casualties of the troops are still within the acceptable range, this is what everyone has done very well in coordinating with the tanks, however, I require that in the next battle, we must combine the firepower and armor advantages of the tanks, step by step advance, let the armor protect the infantry while the infantry also shoulders the responsibility of protecting the armor! Eliminate the German armed strongpoints!!"

  "Jones suggested: 'I suggest the infantry continue to act as vanguard and attract German firepower, with tanks providing heavy firepower to suppress German attacks! The focus is on the German machine guns!'"

  Lin Borna retorted: "Not only that, for building a solid fortification, the flame of the alligator tank can be used to burn it!"

  I nodded and said, "You're absolutely right, let's just do it if there are no problems!"

  The troops quickly replenished their ammunition and began to advance towards the depth of Cherbourg under the leadership of officers at all levels, with tanks providing cover. As the Germans lost control of the city hall's large square, their anti-tank capabilities suddenly decreased, and the German infantry was forced to withdraw its forces under the pressure of tanks and artillery.

  The Germans' defense was still very tight, and the positions of their machine guns and anti-tank sniper points were perfectly textbook-like. If it were a war after World War II, it would have made the US attacking troops pay a heavy price. But here, once they didn't have to worry about large-scale destruction of cities and civilian casualties, its role and effect were greatly discounted.

  My unit's attack route, once the German firepower point was discovered by infantry, it wasn't met with an infantry attack first, but rather a barrage of American M29A1-81mm mortars pounding the surrounding armed strongpoints, followed by the dual firepower suppression of tank machine guns and cannons, and only then would the infantry move in to clear out the area. And even that required throwing a bunch of grenades at them beforehand. This also meant that my unit's demand for artillery shells and grenades was much higher than other units, leaving the logistics team constantly replenishing our ammo with strong discontent.

  In light of this situation, the command's instructions to me also repeatedly emphasized protecting the city's architecture. I just perfunctorily acknowledged my superiors' orders over the radio, and John, who was watching from the side, couldn't help but purse his lips in disapproval. However, my attack tactics, although wasteful of ammunition, resulted in a linear decrease in casualties for our troops.

  My officers and soldiers love this tactic of mine, but those selected as vanguard troops jokingly call me a human bait. However, I'm not stupid enough to use one troop as human bait, so I ask the four platoon leaders to draw lots, whoever gets picked goes first, and it doesn't take too long, just half an hour per troop. Anyway, I know these four guys aren't stupid either, they'll turn around and use this tactic on their own squad leaders when they get back to their troops.

  It's just a pity for the squad leaders under me. If anyone draws this "unlucky sign", they will be surrounded by their subordinates, who will keep talking nonsense in their ears, saying things like "So-and-so's luck is really bad, it's ruining us!"

  Although John whispered to me that this was also too childish, I said: "We Americans have so many supplies at home that we can't use them up. If I don't use more for him, by the time World War II ends, these supplies will still be destroyed. Wouldn't that be a waste! Hehe, as for those unlucky squad leaders, may God bless them!"

  In World War II, the Americans didn't defeat the arrogant Germans with brilliant tactics, but rather overwhelmed them with massive amounts of supplies. For example, a single ordinary American armored division of over 10,000 men consumed as much as 700 tons of ammunition and military supplies in just one day, which is three times more than what an elite German division would use. This shows the extravagance of the Americans. Anyway, I don't care about the complaints from the Allied transportation department; they can keep using all sorts of artillery shells to bombard the Germans! This tactic of throwing money at people only led to one result: wherever we went, we left a trail of destruction. The Germans could only retreat, and nearby American attack units saw my tactics and followed suit.

  "Damn it, you're actually learning from me!"