On the battlefield, time sometimes seems to pass quickly, and other times it feels slow. Lying in the cold snow, Lynn felt like a long time had passed, until the call of "Butcher" came, and he turned his head once again, only to see his injured companion tightly shut his eyes, his chest no longer rising and falling, filling Lynn's heart with infinite sadness.
"Lynn!"
The Butcher called Lynn's name, but the rest of his words were incomprehensible to Lynn at the moment. The SS sergeant lay flat on his back, his head turned towards Lynn, his face covered in blood and mud stains. Though his uniform was dirty and wet, it was evident that it was from the muddy ground rather than from excessive bleeding.
Aside from the old wounds, Lynn felt that his limbs and head had not sustained any new injuries, and lying down had restored some of his strength. He shook his head at the Butcher, unsure if he understood the gesture. As for getting up and continuing to run, Lynn briefly considered it, but he soon realized that since the Soviet artillery had gradually receded after he was knocked down by a shell, lying down was safe. Why attract enemy shells and bullets by getting up?
With this thought in mind, Lynn turned his head to the other side. There were quite a few Soviet tanks in sight, but their size had "increased" by more than twice, estimating they were less than 500 meters away. In this situation, getting up recklessly would likely result in being shot to pieces by the T-34's machine guns. Perhaps that's why the Butcher didn't dare to make any big movements.
In the intervals between Soviet tank artillery fire, the Butcher muttered something with difficulty. Lynn was both anxious and helpless at this moment - how much better would it be if they could communicate directly with language?
Seeing Lynn still not responding, the Butcher turned his body and crawled closer. It was then that Lynn was surprised to find three fingers missing from the Butcher's left hand, blood still flowing profusely from the severed fingers, his palm and cuff already stained with blood. Lynn wanted to take out the first aid kit, but remembered it was already used on Blondie. He had to settle for taking out a handkerchief from his pocket.
As Lynn wrapped his left hand with the handkerchief, the Butcher gritted his teeth in silence, his eyes fixed on the Soviet tanks. After crossing the hill, they had clearly slowed down their pace, allowing the infantry dismounting from the vehicles to catch up. The Soviet infantrymen, wearing white winter coats and basically each armed with a PPSh submachine gun, were constantly firing at the remains of German soldiers lying or crouching along the way. In this situation, even if Lynn and the others had the courage to sacrifice themselves, they could not find an opportunity to attack the Soviet tanks.
After struggling to bandage the wound, Lynn saw the Butcher's expression of frustration and helplessness. Just as he was about to turn back, he unexpectedly saw several moving giant white shadows outside the village. He quickly pointed behind the Butcher. The Butcher turned to look, his right fist clenched!
Seeing their own tanks, Lynn also felt a burst of joy in his heart. After careful observation, he counted a total of 7 tanks with gray-white camouflage, among which two were particularly prominent, with tall and wide bodies resembling a thick wall when viewed from the front, with wide spacing between the tracks, and the foliage used for camouflage couldn't hide the long gun barrels.
In the past three days, Lynn hadn't seen a real German tank. But judging from the size of the two half-track armored vehicles encountered earlier, these two behemoths should be Tiger I or King Tiger tanks. Despite their drawbacks such as slow speed, short range, and high mechanical failure rate, their thick armor and superior firepower still made them unparalleled kings of land warfare, formidable opponents feared and dreaded by both Eastern and Western fronts.
The Butcher turned his head back, the dimness in his eyes vanished, and he said excitedly, "Tiger! Tiger!"
Lynn hesitated for a moment, suddenly realizing that what he said as "Tiger" should be the English word "tiger". According to the historical records of previous battles, with proper use, these two Tiger tanks had a good chance of taking out a dozen T-34s and retreating unscathed. Moreover, there were five other types of tanks from the German combat units advancing from the village to this side — judging from their silhouettes, three of them should be late models of the Panzer IV, and the other two were likely some type of assault gun or self-propelled anti-tank gun.
Boom!
The first shot was fired by the "Tiger" in the middle of the armored column, and a bright yellow flame and gray-white smoke erupted from the muzzle brake on both sides of the gun, making it look like a steel monster puffing on a cigar. Purely in terms of spectacle, this was much more spectacular than the T-34s without muzzle brakes. The shells whizzed overhead, and Lynn turned his head just in time to see one shell accurately hitting a T-34, engulfing the white-painted Soviet tank in a huge explosion, halting the several-ton beast in its tracks. The turret and frontal hull of the tank were charred by the flames, the hatch of the driver's compartment was wide open, and billowing black smoke poured out from inside, but there were no tank crew members visible escaping. Although the bullet holes and breaches couldn't be seen from hundreds of meters away, it was basically certain that this one was directly scrapped.
The exhilarating "opening move" almost made Lynn clap his hands in excitement. Following that, the second "boom" sounded, and he stared at the Soviet tanks without blinking. After the appearance of the German tanks, they dispersed their formation while accelerating, trying to reduce the probability of being hit. However, the first shot fired by the second "Tiger" still hit a Soviet tank accurately, hitting its track position from the side. The shell pierced the tank and caused an explosion inside, followed by an even more violent secondary explosion. Although the turret and hull of the T-34 did not separate, the billowing black smoke still indicated its battered fate.
"Gut gemacht!"
Finally venting out his anger, the Butcher clapped his hands with excitement. Lynn smiled back at him, although there was no mirror, he knew that this smile must be radiant like the sun after the rain!
After taking two consecutive blows, the Soviet tank crews couldn't help but feel anxious. At this point, the distance between the two sides was about 1500 meters, and even the T-34/85 couldn't penetrate the armor of the Tiger tanks head-on at this distance. However, several T-34s still fired short bursts. Lynn and "the Butcher" both turned their heads instinctively to look at their own armored combat group. The shells screamed as they landed in the wilderness, with the closest one to the nearest German tank about seven to eight meters away, showing the disparity in shooting accuracy between the two sides!
The impressive "opening act" didn't make the German tank crews forget themselves. The two Tigers restarted their engines, their massive bodies moving forward slowly amidst the roar of the engines. They stopped about twenty meters apart, and after about four or five seconds of aiming and adjustment, they opened fire again.
People lying in the center of the battlefield—aside from Lynn and "the Butcher," there may have been other survivors—busily turned their heads to see the results of the artillery barrage. After leaving the barrel with a velocity of over 800 meters per second, the 88mm armor-piercing shells only needed two seconds to fly across the battlefield. One shell from the second volley landed slightly off-target, hitting the side of a T-34's tracks, while the other hit its mark perfectly. Although the impact point was the thickest part of the T-34's armor, the powerful force still tore through the steel plate and penetrated the tank's interior...
Seeing the third Soviet tank being fiercely destroyed, Lynn's mood suddenly became ecstatic. He even felt like the main referee in a football match, with a position and perspective that no luxury box could match.
Obviously, high-ranking officers would never lie prone in the center of the battlefield to watch the fighting.
After the two rounds of Tiger tank fire, the distance between the two sides was reduced to about 1,200 meters, and the situation became more intense. On the Soviet side, the remaining 11 T-34s fired intensively, and soldiers in the rear began firing artillery towed by trucks at the German formation. The area where the German armored group was located quickly became filled with smoke from the explosions of shells. It seemed that one or two shells hit the Tiger tanks, but none caused direct damage to these two steel beasts with gray-white camouflage and black-white iron cross markings. On the German side, besides the Tigers, the other 5 tanks also began firing in succession. From the landing points of the shells, the shooting skills of the German tank crews were indeed impeccable. Of course, based on the information Lynn had read, the optical aiming equipment of German tank vehicles was also superior to that of the Soviets. With the combination of human and technological factors, 2 out of 5 shells hit their targets directly, with one shell directly blowing up a Soviet tank, one damaging the tracks of a T-34, and the other three shells landing within about three meters of the Soviet tanks.
The progress of the battle was extremely unfavorable to the Soviet side. The few small-caliber infantry guns were of little help, and the remaining T-34s finally stopped stubbornly advancing. Led by the lead tank, they stopped one after another and adjusted to reverse gear. During the retreat, they always kept the front of the tank and turret facing the Germans, and occasionally fired short bursts of shots for cover, although the effectiveness of these shots for cover was not very good. After two more rounds of firing and destroying another T-34, the German tanks also stopped firing one after another and slowed down. Both sides tacitly disengaged from the firefight. Those T-34s continued to retreat over the hills and eventually disappeared from view, leaving only 6 destroyed or damaged tank wrecks and the bodies of fewer than 20 Soviet soldiers—just a small part of the Soviet tide that breached the German defense line this morning.
As Lynn and "the Butcher" helped each other stand up, Lynn looked back at the path he had traveled, where several dozen bodies of German soldiers were scattered around. Thinking about the frantic and desperate journey, he suddenly felt as if he were in a different world...