43 43

De Invasion (2)

While the battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire and the Germans landed at Westerplatte engaged in combat with the Polish army, Ju88 bombers taking off from the air base in Breslau launched an air strike on Wielun.

The anti-aircraft guns opened fire, but there were not enough numbers to stop the German air attacks.

Polish pilots who heard the news of the air raid quickly launched a sortie in PZL P.11 fighter planes. But there were different enemies they had to deal with.

-It's the Polish guys at 2 o'clock!

"Now, time to show your skills, gentlemen!"

German pilots tasked with escorting the bombers were flying Bf109s and Fw190s, which had far superior performance than the Polish PZL P.11s.

The older fighter planes, which were inferior in all aspects, including speed, defense, and armament, could not fight on equal footing against Germany's new fighter planes.

Soon, a one-sided massacre by German planes took place in the sky.

"I caught one."

As soon as the battle began, Gallant, who had shot down an enemy plane, whistled.

Unlike his colleagues who preferred the new fighter Fw190, Gallant insisted only on the older Bf109 and flew on the familiar Bf109 in combat.

Gallant skillfully controlled the aircraft and caught up with the Polish aircraft that was rushing at him so aggressively.

The guy didn't even know that the enemy was behind him, and his eyes were only focused on the enemy in front of him.

That's stupid. I don't know how you became a pilot when you're so dull.

When the button was pressed, sparks flew out from the MG151 cannon. The PZL P.11, covered in 20mm cannon rounds, quickly plummeted to the ground, emitting smoke.

"Two of these."

Gallant's comrade-in-arms and ace, Werner Mölders, had already shot down two Polish planes.

Moulders' triumphant voice reached Gallant's ears through the radio.

-Did you just see it? Watch this body cook red flags with incredible skill!

"It's noisy, just deal with the rest."

The junior pilots taught by Gallant and Moulders followed them and were fighting hard against the Polish army.

Gallant smiled in spite of himself as he watched the Fw190 piloted by the novice lieutenant he taught turn the enemy plane's fuselage into a rag.

The training so far was not in vain.

Although I am still inexperienced, it was not a bad performance considering this was my first actual match.

The battle ended in a landslide victory for the Luftwaffe.

All Polish planes that fought were shot down, and there was no damage to the Germans. Cheers of victory erupted from the radio.

-Hey, I did it!

-You look bad, you pigs!

- This is the power of the German Air Force, this is it!

"This is deafening, you guys. Stay alert until you return. "It's no longer training, it's actual combat."

***

SS Sergeant Michael Wittmann stuck his head out of the hatch and looked out at the Polish landscape. He could not feel any difference from that in Germany.

The Leibstandarte Schutzstaffel Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) division he belonged to was assigned to Army Group North, commanded by Senior General Fedor von Bock, and was tasked with occupying Danzig.

Born into a poor farming family in Bavaria, all Wittmann knew how to do was help his father with the farming work.

Wittmann, who had been working as a farmer since graduating from elementary school due to family circumstances, applied to the Imperial Labor Service Corps in 1934, when he was 20 years old, with the intention of serving his country.

Wittmann, who was employed in the construction of the Autobahn, joined the Wehrmacht in the same year and served as a soldier for two years.

However, even after his mandatory military service ended, he chose to remain in the military instead of returning home.

Even if I go back to my hometown, will I be able to do anything more than farming? It would be of greater help to my country and family if I remained in the military.

Wittmann applied to the SS, which promised elite treatment and high pay, and was promoted to SS sergeant ahead of the start of the war.

When crossing the German-Polish border, Wittmann thought his heart would burst from tension and excitement.

The radio was playing the Nazi Party's official party song, Horst Wessel's song, and the Fuhrer's speech to the nation repeatedly.

-Dear citizens! We are now returning fire from Poland!

Wittmann could not believe that he was still at the scene of history.

Randomly grown bushes, trees, and roads are common sights in Germany, but even they looked quite different here in Poland.

LSSAH, which had been advancing without stopping, had already entered Danzig. In Danzig, fighting between German and Polish troops was in full swing.

-From here, it is the front line. Everyone, take heart.

"Caesar (Caesar) 1, received."

Following the company commander's instructions, Wittmann strained his eyes and looked around.

The sight of gray smoke rising between the buildings destroyed by the bombing felt as if the souls of the dead buried in the ground were ascending to the sky.

Although there were limbs that had lost their owners scattered around, the soldiers felt even more anxious about not knowing when and where the enemy might come out.

Someone's screams heard between machine gun fire and the occasional bomb explosion made me realize several times that this was a real battlefield.

About 10 minutes after entering Danzig, Wittmann finally encountered the Polish army.

The moment his 38(t) tank turned a corner, the Polish machine gun opened fire.

"Wow!"

As the bullet bounced off his gloves, Wittmann flinched without realizing it.

However, he soon came to his senses and went into the turret to attack the enemy and turned the turret around.

"Load grenades!"

"Load grenades!"

The ammunition operator repeated his command and pushed a 37mm grenade into the chamber.

"Loaded!"

Wittmann took aim at the muzzle flame of the enemy machine gun and fired the main gun.

One second after flames spewed out from the muzzle of the 37mm main gun, the Polish machine gun emplacement was swept away by the explosion.

"Hit!"

It was Wittmann's first victory in this war.

After destroying the machine gun emplacement, the remaining enemy soldiers were eliminated by the operator with a ZB-53 machine gun. In an instant, three or four Polish soldiers were scattered around, forming a beehive.

"It's a terrible sight."

"······I can't help it. Because it's war."

At the driver's words, Wittmann frowned in a bitter tone.

Even though they were enemy soldiers, it was not a very nice sight to see dead people lying around. However, it was also a sight that I had to get used to from now on.

Because the war has just begun.

In the future, we will see more terrible scenes than this.

"Hey, stop!"

An officer from the Self-Defense Forces blocked Wittmann's tank and waved his arm. Looking at his rank insignia, he was an SS major.

"What's going on, SS Major?"

Since the members of the Self-Defense Forces wore the same uniform and were given the same rank as the SS, Wittmann treated him with respect as his superior. The SS major who blocked the tank approached and shouted.

"Go to the post office immediately! "The Polish resistance is so fierce that our troops are unable to advance!"

"Which direction should I go?"

"Turn to the right and you'll see it after about 80m!"

At the Danzig post office, 56 Poles were fighting with German troops.

These were employees who worked at the post office during peacetime, and when war broke out, they were fighting against the German army as members of the Polish reserve force.

The German army attacked twice to occupy the post office, but the resistance of the Polish army was so fierce that they were unable to advance.

Wittmann immediately led his platoon to the post office.

Even the precious ADGZ heavy armored vehicle was deployed in front of the post office, firing a 20mm cannon at the post office building.

A Polish soldier who tried to throw a grenade out of a window was hit by a 20mm machine gun and was blown to pieces.

The grenade he was trying to throw exploded inside the building. A horrifying scream that could not be attributed to a human being erupted.

"Oh, it's a tank!"

"Good, good."

When the 38(t) tanks appeared, the SS soldiers who were hiding behind the wall and watching through the gap in the charge smiled.

They were all wearing grey-green military uniforms instead of the existing black uniforms, and they were newly issued military uniforms because black uniforms were too conspicuous on the battlefield.

However, some officers were still fighting in black uniforms.

Wittmann aimed his 37mm main gun at the main gate of the post office.

"Platoon, open fire!"

As four tank guns fired at the same time, the wooden front door was shattered and wood fragments flew everywhere.

Wittmann fired the machine gun on the front of the hull and the co-axial machine gun on the turret, making it impossible for the Polish troops to aim at their allies.

As he expected, when the tanks fired a volley of fire, the Polish army could not raise its head.

"Now! charge!"

"Gazua!"

With the support of tanks, the German army launched a simultaneous assault.

They entered the post office through the front door and fired submachine guns at Polish soldiers who were crouching under the window to avoid tank fire.

"Kill them all!"

"Wow!"

There was nothing to stop the soldiers who were excited by seeing the blood of their comrades.

The German soldier stabbed the fleeing Polish soldier in the back with a bayonet and pulled the trigger, aiming at the head of a wounded soldier who was groaning after being hit by a bullet.

The surviving Polish soldiers took refuge in the basement, but a soldier carrying a flamethrower fired a stream of flames at the entrance to the basement.

Polish soldiers who took refuge in the basement were suffocated by the smoke from the flamethrower.

The fate of those who escaped through the back door was not so good. German troops were already stationed behind the post office waiting for them.

"Shoot!"

A volley of shots was fired at the Polish soldiers who opened the back door and jumped out.

None of the escapees could go more than ten steps before they fell to the ground with a thumping sound.

With the main gate breached and the escape route blocked, there were only two things the Polish army could do: fight or surrender.

I promised myself that I would fight for my country, ready to sacrifice my life, but as the moment of death approached, my resolve wavered.

Will he die and be revered as a hero, or will he live and endure the humiliation of being a prisoner?

"Don't shoot! "Don't shoot!"

"I surrender! "Don't shoot!"

The survivors chose to surrender rather than be imprisoned.

They were human, and they still wanted to live. Even if it means being stigmatized as a loser.

The German soldiers waiting on the first floor let out the breath they had secretly been holding when they heard the Polish army's intention to surrender.

Since they also wanted to avoid fighting an enemy who was prepared to die, they felt that the enemy's surrender could not have been more welcome.

***

"Joseph! Josef!"

Corporal Jan Czubik shook the body of his comrade Josef, who was already covered in blood. Josef had no answer.

When German artillery shells landed near the trench, Josef had the misfortune of sticking his face out of the trench to observe if the enemy was coming.

When a shell fragment pierced his helmet, he fell without even being able to scream. The red blood that flowed from his wound was mixed with white brain fluid.

"Holy shit."

Jan, who finally recognized Josef's death, lifted his helmet and sighed. He was alive and well just a few seconds ago, but somehow...

It was a moment when I realized that on the battlefield, life and death are just a page apart.

"yarn! "You bastard, don't you go back to your seat quickly?!"

Yan, who came to his senses after hearing the company commander's swear words, quickly returned to his seat. German tanks appeared over the horizon.

"It's a tank!"

"Oh my God, it's a tank!"

"Why don't you all shut up?"

The soldiers fell into panic at the appearance of the tank.

After the company commander started swearing, things quickly quieted down, but the soldiers still stared at the approaching tank with fearful eyes.

Jan remembered that it was the No. 2 tank used by the German army. I remembered seeing a picture of him during the enemy identification training I took just before the war broke out.

A total of 3 enemy tanks appeared.

The turrets seemed to be facing different directions, so they seemed to be wary of their surroundings. Judging from the fact that only tanks were moving without infantry, it appeared to be a scouting party.

Yan's company commander decided to destroy the enemy. Even though the opponent was a tank, there was no infantry to follow, so it was a fight worth trying.

"launch!"

The company's only two Wz.35 anti-tank rifles opened fire almost simultaneously.

Both shots hit the enemy tank, but the bullets bounced in vain because they aimed at the front, where the armor was thick, rather than the side, where the armor was thin.

"Fuck, shoot again!"

The company commander shouted as he saw the bullet ricocheting. German tankers also realized that it was an enemy attack and immediately engaged in combat.

The anti-tank rifle fired again, but this time the result was a ricochet. To make matters worse, the location was exposed to the enemy.

When Tank No. 2's 20mm cannon fired, the exposed anti-tank gunner's body was shattered like a glass that fell on the floor.

Pieces of military uniforms with flesh stuck to them flew everywhere, and soldiers covered in blood screamed in panic.

"OMG! Aaaah!!!"

"Shoot another shot! "Aim for orbit!"

The last remaining anti-tank gunner in the company aimed at the track of the No. 2 tank and pulled the trigger. This time it was a success.

Tank No. 2, whose tracks were broken, tried to move forward while its tracks were broken, but its body ended up turning sideways.

The anti-tank gunner did not miss the opportunity and fired again, hitting the side with a bullet.

As the bullets hit twice more, smoke began to rise from the tank's engine.

Soon the hatch opened and the wounded enemy tank crews jumped out. It was a defeat.

"Shoot! "Shoot and kill!"

As soon as the tank crew came out of the tank, the Polish soldier immediately pulled the trigger.

All bullets from one company were focused on three tank soldiers escaping from the tank.

The German army was left lying in ruins. When our troops were defeated, the remaining two units stopped fighting and retreated.

"They're running away!"

"We won!"

The soldiers who won the battle cheered, but Jan could not smile.

I was thinking about the dead Josef and at the same time wondering whether barely capturing one tank could be called a proper victory.

Moreover, the enemy was a scouting party, not the main force.

The main unit hasn't even appeared yet.

However, seeing his colleagues cheering as if they had achieved some great victory, Yan was overcome by an inexplicable anxiety.