Chapter Fifty-Three: John's Choice

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  Thank you, my friends! You gave me the motivation to keep writing! Thank you!

  When I saw Colonel Rome, his face was still pale, and the entire office except for him who kept scolding Captain Morel just now, all the confidential personnel in the command center did not dare to breathe a word. My heart couldn't help but rise up.

  "Captain Konti, what's going on with your troops? Why haven't you taken the city hall yet? Can't two companies of our troops take down a small bunch of Germans?" Colonel Romm expressed his dissatisfaction with my progress as soon as he saw me.

  "Reporting, sir! The terrain of the city hall area is quite special! Sir, take a look!" I pointed to the military tactical map of the Serburg assault in the command center of Colonel Rom, marking the location of the city hall. "The city hall is surrounded by high-rise buildings on all sides, with a square in the middle, and our main direction of attack is here! If we want to take the city hall by force, we must go through this 500-meter-wide open space!"

  Rom obviously had a good understanding of the architecture and terrain of the city hall area, but what he was really interested in was how the German army deployed. He furrowed his brow and said, "Get to the point!"

  "Yes! Today, when attacking the city hall, I chose to attack from the flank and pin down the front. We took down the buildings on the side of the city hall and then used them as cover to suppress the German firepower in the city hall. But what I didn't expect was that the Germans had deployed a considerable force on their left flank, consisting of machine guns, snipers, and anti-tank teams, forming a crossfire that blocked my attacking troops!"

  "The German defense forces are not sufficient, so many buildings they cannot all occupy and build armed strongpoints, why don't you take advantage of it?" Colonel Rom asked directly!

  "Yes, in the initial attack, we wanted to use the cover and concealment of the flank buildings to get close to the enemy, but the Germans had set up a large number of booby traps and landmines in the many vacant buildings. We were unable to clear these things under German firepower with our engineers, so we could only launch an attack against the Germans with our heads held high!"

  "How many German troops are defending City Hall in your estimation?"

  "Reporting, sir. There are approximately forty to fifty of them! However, the Germans guarding the city hall aren't that scary, but what's got us stumped is a new type of tank the Germans have. Its firing speed is extremely fast, almost two or three seconds per shot, and its armor-piercing capability is very strong. Ordinary cover can't stop its penetration power. In actual combat, this is even more terrifying than their MG42 machine gun! As long as our people are exposed outside solid cover, they'll be hit by it. The casualties I and Lieutenant Roberts suffered were almost all caused by it! Therefore, I suggest we must find a way to take it out, only then can we truly reduce casualties and capture the city hall!"

  "My intelligence shows that this German tank is an improved version of the Wirbelwind self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, its firepower is considerable, but it seems not very effective against tanks!"

  "Yes, the Germans were also aware of this and had two anti-tank guns in ambush there to support their new tanks. As soon as the battle started, Major Roberts realized that the German ability to fight with these weapons would increase exponentially, and ordered the two Sherman tanks assigned to him to take them out. However, they came under fire from both the ambushed anti-tank guns and a hidden anti-tank team in the sewers. Although Major Roberts also called for artillery support in time to knock out one of the German anti-tank guns, he still allowed the German tank to escape! The Germans had turned their vehicle into a mobile firepower support platform to protect it."

  "What's a good way to take him down?" Colonel Rome's emotions finally cooled down quickly, and he began to ask for my opinion.

  "We have successfully occupied the left wing of the city hall, and the German infantry has been driven out from here! The Germans are unable to retake our occupied territory due to their limited troop strength." I pointed at the map and continued. "Therefore, my idea is that after the new armored support troops arrive, we will attack again from the right wing, occupy the German armed strongholds in the right-wing buildings, compress the German army's mobile space, force them to retreat to the city hall line, so even if the Germans have more advanced weapons, they will definitely be useless."

  "What's going on with your anti-tank guns? I've been circling around and haven't heard a thing," Major Romm said, somewhat displeased.

  "Reporting to the superior, my two anti-tank guns, due to the environmental influence in combat, cannot be deployed to the front line position and can only serve as supporting firepower to attack the German armed strongholds." I whispered another sentence, "The German snipers and machine guns are not easy to deal with, pushing forward like that is asking for death?"

  "Major Conte, remember that although our cavalry is an elite unit of the US Army, we commanders cannot afford to play with the lives of our soldiers. We must not do anything without being sure of it. Of course, I won't hold this against you for this unfavorable attack. I hope you can take the city hall with minimal losses!"

  "Yes!"

  "Also, report the vacancies in the troops, we must replenish fresh blood as soon as possible, and cannot let our combat effectiveness decrease due to personnel shortages caused by war losses!"

  "Yes, sir!" The task had been handed over and I was about to leave when Colonel Rom's next words left me stunned.

  "What are your thoughts if John is assigned to your unit?" Colonel Rome asked me expressionlessly, leaving me unable to tell what he was thinking.

  "This, this won't do!" I stuttered, with some doubt in my mind whether John had done something to displease Colonel Rome, and Colonel Rome was dissatisfied and kicked him out, or if he was going to let John replace me. But if it was the latter, there was no need for me to continue commanding this unit.

  "Why?"

  "As a lieutenant colonel deputy to John, the army captain's rank is higher than mine in my unit, how can I possibly let him follow my command unless I give up my position to him?"

  "This is no problem, wait a while for John, after he comes back, you take him to your troops and temporarily arrange for him to be in charge of a platoon!" Colonel Rom said without allowing any discussion.

  "Sir, did Lieutenant John do something wrong to warrant this treatment?" I had the urge to speak up for John, but didn't dare offend Colonel Rom, my direct superior, so I asked cautiously.

  Rom looked at me with a glance, as if he had seen through my thoughts, but he didn't explain, just said lightly: "John has been following me to take care of the documents, I should also let go and give him some space!" After finishing speaking, he waved his hand and drove me out.

  It's really true that the bigger the official, the more people are oppressed. Although Lieutenant Colonel Rom was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel, due to the small size of the cavalry unit, he still served as a battalion-level actual commanding officer, which means he is still my direct superior. As for his behavior like shooing away flies, maybe it's not actually the case, but I still feel uncomfortable in my heart, although maybe I'm just overthinking.

  John waited outside for a while and came back with his head down, thinking about something.

  "Hey John!" I pulled him into a quiet corner as soon as he returned and asked, "John, did you offend that Rom?"

  "What's wrong?" John asked me in a daze.

  "You're fired!" I sighed.

  "What did you say? Even if I'm fired, how come I didn't receive any notification?" John still looked disbelieving.

  "John, calm down and listen to me. Colonel Rome is going to transfer you to my company as a platoon leader, and you have to follow my command!" I said with some sympathy. Frontline commanders on the battlefield are not as comfortable as those desk officers in the headquarters, where it's really a matter of life and death, and many officers risk their lives to get transferred to the headquarters for a desk job, at least they don't have to worry about their lives every day like soldiers do.

  "Really?" John asked with a delighted expression.

  "Are you crazy? Are you happy about something like this?" I reached out my hand to touch John's head, wondering if he had a fever that had fried his brain.

  John smiled and tilted his head, saying: "Last time I mentioned to Colonel Rome that I wanted to be transferred to a front-line unit, I didn't expect him to agree so quickly!"

  "But arranging for you to be a company commander is also possible, how could it let you be a platoon leader?"

  John said with some embarrassment, "You know I've always been a desk officer. Although I'm in contact with various military commands every day, it's still different from going to the front line to command personally! However, I didn't expect that I would end up arriving at your company first and becoming your subordinate!"

  I really can't understand, John gave up being a good deputy commander and ran to eat bullets with me. I said: "John, let's discuss this, if you don't want to be a deputy commander, then why not switch positions? I'll be the deputy commander of the regiment, and you can be the captain here, how about that?"

  John couldn't help but laugh and said, "Kang Di, Kang Di, only you and I dare to say such things. If it were someone else, they wouldn't dare. However, I'm not saying that about you. Do you think being someone's deputy is easy? Although you have the ability to be a senior captain, but I don't think you can necessarily do this deputy job!"

  After hearing John's words, I didn't speak anymore. What he said was not wrong. With my temper and personality, I really don't fit in with following behind someone's butt every day, saying flattering words all the time. Although being a deputy officer is similar to being a secretary, there's an old Chinese saying that says "serving a king is like serving a tiger". If one day I say something wrong, won't I be the one who gets punished?

  "Go find Colonel Rom and get it processed, otherwise I really don't dare to bring this great god into my unit!"

  "Alright, you wait here!" John said and went off to find Colonel Rom.

  John was transferred to my regiment without demotion, but I also understand that he is just going through the motions and will be transferred to another unit at some point in time to become a military commander. After all, people can't always be under someone else's shadow. However, choosing to transfer him during the most intense period of the war seems a bit untimely, but as for whether there are other reasons, I don't know.

  It wasn't until later that I found out John's transfer was actually because of that woman, the girl we met a few days ago. Because John said he wanted to end the war early!