Chapter 61: Tanks! German tanks!

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  When death is dancing around you and blood is splashing before your eyes, you will never think of those crappy things again! —— I

  "Officer John, why have we stopped!" An American soldier was very puzzled as to why John had suddenly ordered a halt in the charge.

  "John furrowed his brow and said, 'This is Captain Conti's order. He says we've lost contact with the other troops and are now isolated and deep in enemy territory! That's right, that's how it is!'"

  "Oh, my god! We just took down two more streets than others!" The soldier exclaimed in astonished surprise.

  "I think Lieutenant, this is just to save face for others, otherwise, our cavalry would have driven the Germans into the sea, and it wouldn't be said, oh my god, our cavalry is simply dashing!" Johann exclaimed.

  "Haha!" The soldiers around John burst into a fit of laughter.

  "Alright, alright, stop laughing! Hurry up and set up a defensive line for each of your squads! Although the German devils won't do anything to us, putting on a show for Lieutenant Colonel is also good! Otherwise, Lieutenant Colonel will deduct your salary subsidies!" John arranged with a smile, having his several squads establish a semi-circular defensive line under the cover of the tank's solid armor.

  "It can't be that Lieutenant John wants to cut our allowance, that would be too terrible. We were counting on it to find some beautiful girls and have a good time!" The soldier's joke brought another burst of laughter.

  John feigned surprise and said: "Good heavens, I wish those girls would bite your little brother to death!"

  "Sir, I curse you! May you spend the rest of your life kissing Eskimo women's fat asses!" The soldier who spoke looked lewd, and John took a cold breath.

  "Good God, this curse is more than I can bear! It would be better left to Lieutenant Conti, he's probably more fond of a woman's fat ass!"

  I didn't know that John had somehow put a label on his own head that he liked women with fat buttocks, but now he is finding out from the feedback of other troops that the other attacking troops on both sides are being counterattacked to death by the German army, and the resistance to advancing has increased several times. On the contrary, one side of his own was still not much resistant, combined with the fact that he was already in a more prominent position than other troops, I had some doubts in my heart, could it be that under this circumstance, the Germans still have the strength to launch a surprise attack on him?

  The answer given to me by the headquarters of the front line before the attack on Wesel, the Germans may launch a local counterattack against me, but combined with aerial reconnaissance and intelligence gathered from all parties, if the Germans do have a plan for this counterattack, then with the remaining German forces, they will be defeated and retreat, which will only accelerate the collapse of the entire German front line. Therefore, the sudden increase in resistance by the Germans is only intended to create doubts among the Allied attacking troops and lower their morale. As a result, the Allied command required my unit to stop advancing and wait for other units, and also required me to actively dispatch troops to attack the resisting German army from the flank, coordinating with the expansion of the occupied area!

  I listened to the analysis from headquarters, and it's not just a headache. No matter what the outcome is, for myself, although the Germans may not be able to cause much trouble, this tactic of dividing troops still makes me somewhat unwilling, and I even feel like scolding the attacking troops on both wings, why are they moving so slowly!

  "Jimmy, you take the street corner over there, occupy that building and make a lateral attack to our left flank, pull those slowpokes along! Hey, Jones, after you occupy that street corner, leave a small squad behind and continue attacking to the right! I'll go forward with Linberna, or else that little John will disobey orders again and try to run forward!"

  "Jones had an idea and said to me: 'Captain, surely the Germans' target isn't us?'"

  I patted the Thompson submachine gun, pulled out the magazine to check the bullets inside, and reinserted it into the gun. At this time, I heard Jones' concern and smiled: "Jones, don't worry! Even if the Germans are capable, they can't rush past the blockade of these few tanks, let alone the Germans aren't stupid, right?"

  Jones nodded and felt he had indeed thought too much, so he led his troops to charge forward on the right flank.

  "Let's go too and see where this young John goes!" I said to Linberna.

  John puffed on his cigarette, enjoying the distant sound of machine guns and artillery fire, but in his heart he was somewhat skeptical of my orders. If it weren't for our relatively good relationship, John would have had the urge to report me to a higher authority for missing this opportunity. However, John just thought about it and didn't act on it. After all, relying on my prestige in D Company, if John wanted to continue mixing with D Company, it was absolutely impossible. Through his interactions with the soldiers of D Company over the past two days, John had deeply discovered that my prestige in this unit was extremely high. He could joke around with me, but if there were any actions unfavorable to me, he would be ostracized by the original officers and old soldiers under my command at the first opportunity.

  John's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but feel a little amused. No matter which country's army it was, they were all just a group of "gangsters" enjoying legal status. Among them, the ones wielding weapons, openly displaying their passion for violence, were the young hot-blooded men who admired not the strategists hiding behind the scenes, but the leaders who fought alongside them, bleeding and sweating together. And I happened to be that kind of guy, always charging forward and almost always winning battles with good luck. John admired him, and at the same time, felt a little envious!

  John was lost in thought when a soldier rushed up to him and shouted loudly: "Colonel John! Germans have been spotted ahead of us!"

  "Then just go back!" John said without even lifting an eyebrow.

  "Sir, why are there so many Germans?!" Some soldiers also began to exclaim.

  John's whole body gave a sudden thrill, and he sprang up and rushed to the side of the machine gun emplacement. "How many Germans?"

  Across from John were an unknown number of German soldiers, using the rubble of buildings destroyed by artillery fire to cross over and close in on him. Then John heard the rumble of tank engines approaching him - the Germans had brought up tanks!

  The sudden change in the situation made John's face turn pale. The Germans would never attack themselves without a reason, and they wouldn't do so unless they had an upper hand! Although the Germans might be desperate, but the first one to suffer would definitely be themselves! Even though he had two tanks that could work together, this advantage was instantly gone when the enemy also had tanks! John couldn't help but regret not listening to his superior's words.

  "Tanks! The Germans have tanks!" John yelled loudly!

  Two Sherman tanks stood by, their gun barrels pointing straight at where the German tanks might appear, and even the German soldiers' mutual covering advances couldn't afford to open fire. John commanded the machine guns to desperately block the Germans' advancing route, the Browning machine guns' rhythmic "da-da-da" sound stirring up wisps of smoke and taking away a German soldier's life at any moment.

  "Bang!" A shot rang out, and the machine gunner next to John fell forward onto the machine gun. John was shocked again - that damned sniper! The deputy machine gunner saw his companion die, immediately pushed the body aside, and fired a burst of bullets at the shooter from earlier, forcing him to retreat under continuous fire.

  "Hurry up and reload! Hurry up and give me more ammo!" The machine gun assistant, seeing that the ammunition chain was almost exhausted, shouted loudly.

  "Here I come!" John sprang up from behind the cover, grabbed a string of bullets and connected them to the machine gun! The continuous strong firepower of the machine gun did not stop, and the bullets poured towards the Germans like water! The German offensive momentum suddenly stopped! The infantry was suppressed by the machine gun and couldn't even lift their heads!

  John understood that everything now depended on the duel between the tanks. If the Germans knocked out their own two tanks, then they would be forced to retreat! But facing the sealed cannon mouths of the two Shermans, John also wondered how the German tanks could get through?

  Lieutenant Colonel Ropp had learned through infantry feedback that two American tanks were aiming at the location where his tank would appear. Lieutenant Colonel Ropp did not dare to recklessly push the tank up and engage in a duel with the two American tanks! Lieutenant Colonel Ropp asked the tank crew: "Do you have confidence in taking out those two tanks?"

  "Sir, if we can just get their attention, I'll be more confident!" said the tank gunner.

  "Alright! Feldwebel is coming over here! I'll go with the East Wind tank from that side and draw the American's attention!"

  "Yes! Colonel Ropps!" said Staff Officer Vurld.

  John watched as the German tanks hesitated to come out, relying only on machine gun fire. The Germans still dared to occasionally pop up and shoot at him. John commanded: "Tank crew, listen up! Alternate your shots! Suppress the German attack! Mortar, open fire!"

  The mortar, a portable artillery piece, has great power in close combat and is also a highly concealed weapon. Through the principle of curved trajectory shooting, it can bombard enemies behind buildings, especially with a firing rate of one shot every two seconds, which is a deadly blow to infantry hiding behind cover! Just like the M29A1-81mm mortar that John is currently equipped with, its rapid fire of nearly twenty rounds per minute makes the attacking Germans cry out in despair. However, John's cannon fire did not last long before it attracted the German's retaliatory mortar bombardment. In just one round, John got a taste of struggling in the artillery fire. Without solid fortifications, facing the sudden attack of mortar fire, there is nothing left but to pray!

  "Ow, mama...mama..." An American soldier who had been hit by a German mortar and had his intestines blown out was lying on the ground, groaning in agony.

  "Medic! Medic!" John shouted in horror, "Get him down at once!"

  "Sir, the German artillery fire is too intense! We can't get up there!" The medic shouted loudly to Johann.

  "Damn it!" The sentence had already sealed the fate of this soldier. John slapped the ground in annoyance and turned back to order the mortar, "Mortar, blast them for me! Don't let him throw bombs at my head!"

  "Sir, we still don't know where their mortar positions are?" a gunner loudly explained to John.

  "Then get the German in front of me to blast him back!" John is now tightly shrinking behind the temporary cover of the machine gun, and he has been bombarded by the German mortar to a point where he can't tell which direction is north!

  "Boom! Boom! Boom! Come on, blow it up!" Moni, the sniper who escaped from the city hall battle, shouted fiercely from behind a building. The American machine gunner he had just shot was his credit! Although several hasty counterattacks did not knock down several more Americans, his precise marksmanship still made the opposing US troops break out in a cold sweat!