Chapter 155: United Efforts

"Infantry... infantry... still infantry. There are already thirty or forty of them, they have surrounded the street position and charged in..."

Bruhl lowered his voice while staring through the infrared night vision scope, describing the situation he observed, while his immediate superior, newly promoted SS Obersturmfuhrer Linen Galgo, squatted back to back with him, making various gestures. About ten meters away was a partially collapsed building. Luftwaffe reserve corporal Rolf Bruck leaned against the wall, his gaze focused on Linen's side, decoding the tactical commands he saw every now and then to the two privates behind him - Tanzer and Techimel. The young men took turns running towards two heavy tanks nearby, which were already running, completing the final leg of this special relay of information.

"Poor souls... May the Lord forgive their sinful souls and let their tormented spirits ascend to heaven!" Hearing the final burst of intense submachine gun fire from the front, Bruhl couldn't help but utter these words, and behind him, Linen hesitated slightly before responding, "They will find redemption in heaven. Perhaps... it will be our turn soon!"

"Don't say that, we are still young, there is still a long journey ahead of us!" Bruhl said in a low voice. Everyone had a survival instinct, and in Linen's squad, he was the one who showed it most prominently, but that had nothing to do with cowardice.

Although this wasn't the time for idle chatter, Linen still asked, "Any specific thoughts?"

"I think after the war is over..." Bruhl didn't finish his sentence as he was immediately interrupted by the changes in the front. He changed to an urgent tone, "Uh, tanks, Russian tanks are coming! They've passed the street position, one... two..."

Setting aside the private conversation, Linen quickly made the tactical hand signals for "enemy tanks spotted" - something soldiers from the "Vampire" assault team were trained to recognize accurately. Wolfgang, Tanzer, and the others who followed Linen for some time now still only understood the basics.

Bruhl continued reporting, "Three... four... Oh, it seems like there are more behind them, damn it, so many!"

"The Soviet steel tide is already the most powerful armored force in the world!" Linen commented with a mix of resignation and fairness, making gestures as he spoke.

Bruhl probably counted silently in his mind, and quickly said, "Hey, boss, earlier you told Flinks that we would win the next war, do you really believe that?"

"Boss?" This seemed like a good title, and Linen gladly accepted it. After making the gestures, he turned to look towards the barricade, where the brightness provided by the gunfire had diminished to the point where only vague shadows could be seen with the naked eye.

"To be honest, I imagine the future world will be a rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union!"

"Oh!" Bruhl couldn't say much more, because the imminent threat kept him busy again. "Six... seven... seven tanks, probably all T-34s, and dozens of infantry, are coming towards us along the main road!"

"Seven tanks... many soldiers... coming this way!" Linen murmured to himself. Considering the distance between himself and Bruck, and the poor visibility at night, he deliberately slowed down his movements, making the crucial gestures in a slightly exaggerated way to ensure Bruck received them accurately.

Moments later, he saw the figure in the corner of the wall raise a single arm and make a circle, indicating "message received and action will be taken".

Bruhl quickly followed up with the latest information he observed, "Scouts are about fifty meters away!"

Although confident in his own abilities, Linen had to admit that Bruhl's accuracy was not solely due to his updated infrared night vision equipment; natural eyesight varied from person to person. Transmitting the message "infantry - fifty meters" through gestures to Bruck, Linen hoped the Soviet soldiers wouldn't hear the engines of the two "Tiger" tanks nearby too soon. In the current Berlin, where gunfire was constant, sometimes overwhelming and sometimes relatively quiet, the 700 horsepower Maybach engines of the Tiger tanks were noisy even at idle, enough to wake up people on the neighboring street - Linen could discern that from his position if he listened carefully.

"Thirty meters..."

As the enemy rapidly approached, Bruhl had to lower his voice even more, with a sense of urgency in his tone, implying "boss, if we don't act soon, we'll be in trouble."

The barricade in front had been cleared by the Soviet troops, but besides Linen's small squad, there were also SS soldiers who had temporarily stopped here after being withdrawn from the position, "freelancers" who chose to fight alone after being scattered, and possibly specially trained urban warfare snipers. Bullets from nearby or afar sporadically shot towards the street, sometimes hitting the target with a headshot, sometimes just slowing down the advancing Soviet infantry.

The increasingly clear sound of tank engines and tracks gradually emanated from the front of the street, Linen listened attentively, finally hearing similar noises coming from behind as well. Perhaps influenced by subjective psychology, he felt that the roar of the two Tiger tanks starting up was even more majestic than a squad of T-34s charging. With the extremely loud sound of tracks, he saw Bruck unload his assault rifle from his shoulder and join Linen's squad actively. The four SS soldiers who had been hiding in the ruins also stood up. In this exhilarating atmosphere, a long, black barrel finally protruded from behind the wall. Instead of charging straight onto the street, the lead Tiger tank used its powerful body to ram through the outer wall of the collapsed building, conveniently placing itself in front of a pile of rubble half a person high - the tank commander had personally inspected the position earlier, and it seemed that everything was according to his plan.

Next, the second Tiger tank knocked down the wall next to it with a heavy rumble, with fallen bricks still in front of the tank, but the steel beast paid no attention, adjusting its barrel slightly, waiting for its lead companion to give the first roar. Less than two seconds later, it opened fire on different targets.

Even on the battlefield of 1945, equipped with a precise 88mm KwK 43 tank gun, the "Tiger" tank was still a nightmare for every Soviet armored soldier, as no tank or other combat vehicle was powerful enough to withstand its attack at close range, so Linen was simply watching the show with anticipation. For targets less than 150 meters away in a straight line, German tankers wouldn't miss easily. With two loud bangs, blinding flashes erupted one after another on the front of the leading two Soviet tanks, and the immense force made the forty-ton vehicles sway sideways in an instant. The front one immediately stopped, a thick smoke rising from behind its rear; the one behind, like a stunned bear, finally bumped into its companion after advancing with its head down, making an extremely ear-piercing and frightening sound of metal and hard ground friction.

With this fierce and precise barrage as a signal, Linen's squad immediately began firing assault rifles and submachine guns at the approaching Soviet forces. At this moment, hitting or missing the target wasn't as important as giving a strong warning to the advancing enemy and boosting the morale of their own comrades. Soon, the remaining German soldiers around the street joined the battle spontaneously, especially when a machine gunner hidden nearby started firing his MG-42, the attacking Soviet infantry with the tank column were instantly suppressed.

"Fire fiercely! Stay concealed!"

As a commander, Linen issued these two contradictory commands at first glance, but considering the battlefield environment, it was easy to understand: when there's an opportunity, fire fiercely; when the enemy tanks are about to fire, take cover.

Through the infrared sight scope, the nearest dozen or so Soviet soldiers had already been taken down, and Linen shifted his attention to the Soviet tanks behind them. Seeing these big boys rushing from Russia to here, he listened attentively and finally heard similar sounds coming from the barricade behind them. Perhaps due to the subjective impression, he had a strong intuition that the new threat came from the Soviet tanks that had just tested the old barricade position. When the two Tiger tanks were about to roar again, he shouted along, "Take cover! Everyone take cover!"

Before his words had even settled, the barricade suddenly sounded gunfire, although much weaker than the suspected "Stalin's hammer" regular artillery, it sounded more powerful than the ordinary T-34 cannon. By the time the shells whistled down, the intense explosions confirmed his speculation. Although the direct confrontation between the Tiger and the IS-2 had not yet begun on various fronts, the atmosphere of the impending battle was already permeating the air.