Chapter 92: Alternative Elites

Standing in front of Colonel Bach once again, Lynn, the "defeated general," was able to hold his head high. According to the statistics of the training officers, the village they defended persisted for one hour and ten minutes from the first shot fired by the attackers before it was declared lost. According to the rules of the confrontation exercise, all defending troops were wiped out, while the attackers lost thirty-eight elite night combat soldiers.

Under the gaze of all the trainee soldiers, Colonel Bach stood with his chest held high, his hands naturally behind his back, slightly lifting his chin, and his gaze leveled straight ahead.

"We deployed eighty elite assault team members and two armored vehicles equipped with high-power infrared searchlights, and deprived you of the right to use night vision goggles and illuminating grenades, which indeed disadvantaged you. However... I want each of you to understand that there is no fairness on the battlefield! Most of the time, you have to face powerful opponents, and you have to fight in adversity or even dire straits! Gentlemen, mastering advanced weapons and skills does not mean controlling the battlefield. There is still much for you to learn, and the road ahead is long. Only by continuous learning, reflection, and improving your thinking and vision can you become truly qualified battlefield elites!"

This statement was very sincere and had an encouraging effect on these soldiers who had undergone rigorous training. Lynn increasingly felt that Bach possessed extraordinary leadership qualities. If it weren't for the empire being on the brink of collapse, young officers like him with strong personal abilities and charm would have had great potential for advancement, and they might even have become talents akin to Rommel!

"After three weeks of formal training, all courses have ended today. Congratulations to all of you for successfully passing the graduation test! Next, you will join the glorious and mysterious 'Vampire' assault team, becoming special warfare elites that make the enemy tremble, fighting for the Fuhrer — for Germany!"

On this cold night, the fervent slogans were like a shot of adrenaline, sweeping away the fatigue of the soldiers, all of whom responded with loud voices.

The atmosphere was so enthusiastic, but Bach walked to the side with a calm expression, and a lieutenant officer who looked somewhat similar to de Gaulle took his place in front of the troops.

After a brief introduction, he told the group of soldiers who had just finished their training that before they were assigned to the assault team's various squads, he would serve as their training officer, arranging their daily lives and equipment distribution, and organizing their daily training. Although this period might not be long, he hoped that everyone could be prepared to join the battle at any time and unhesitatingly sacrifice their lives for Germany when necessary.

For real German soldiers, Lynn felt that sacrificing themselves was not unreasonable, but from the beginning, he had a strong desire for survival and hoped to achieve something significant after the war. Therefore, he felt somewhat repelled by the lieutenant officer's tone.

After saying these words, the lieutenant officer directly took over the role of the training officer. Under his personal command, the soldiers boarded vehicles according to the new platoon arrangement and returned to the barracks. They were informed that they would assemble and depart at 4 a.m. the next day to their new station.

After returning to the barracks, Lynn hastily washed up, packed his belongings, and prepared to take a half-hour nap. However, a training officer unexpectedly arrived and ordered him to report to the headquarters immediately.

Although he didn't understand why, Lynn immediately obeyed the order. On his way to the destination, he met the four soldiers who had been elected as squad leaders by their peers. He roughly knew that they all came from various grassroots units of the Waffen-SS, three of them being senior privates and one being an experienced private. Although their performance in training was not the most outstanding, they had good popularity and demonstrated good overall situational awareness and leadership in some training subjects.

Their appearance seemed to be expected, and the five of them walked silently together. The headquarters was located in a semi-underground bunker made of reinforced concrete, resembling a large rock from the outside, with ordinary soldiers having no chance to approach it. Led by the duty guard, they crossed the cold cement corridor and entered the core part of the underground bunker for the first time. What greeted them was a circular command hall covering an area of about two hundred square meters. The wall directly opposite was painted in snow white, with a soaring eagle pattern in the middle and a long flag strip with the words "For the Fatherland" on both sides, forming a strong visual impact with the red, white, and black colors.

Similar to scenes Lynn had seen in some movies, this circular command hall, divided into upper and lower levels, served as a communication hub, with radio equipment placed around it. Since it was the early hours of the morning, only three non-commissioned officers remained on duty. Following the guard, they went up the clockwise staircase to the second floor — due to the entire hall, including the arched dome, forming a hemispherical space, this floor only had a platform set up for people to walk around the edges, and a conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows was located on this second floor, facing directly opposite the eagle pattern and flag strips — through the spotlessly clean glass, Lynn saw Bach, several officers responsible for various training subjects, and "Lieutenant de Gaulle" were present at this moment.

Entering the conference room, where the air was mixed with tobacco and hot coffee, there was a strange atmosphere.

Seeing the five soldiers filing in, Bach stood up very politely and said, "Gentlemen, please sit down!"

Although they had failed to lead their subordinates to victory as temporary platoon leaders, the confidence of these five soldiers had been somewhat shaken. After the duty soldier brought them hot coffee, they became even more restrained.

These were not missed by the young colonel's eyes, and he smiled slightly, "Here, I want to congratulate each of you first! Because of your superior abilities and thinking demonstrated during the training, according to our unanimous evaluation, you will enter the second phase of special training as alternative elites. Normally, this phase will last for about half a month, but considering the recent battlefield situation, we plan to shorten it to about ten days."

Upon hearing this, the five soldiers looked at each other, and apart from feeling relieved, they also felt varying degrees of joy.

It seemed that to create a relatively relaxed psychological atmosphere for these "alternative elites," Bach deliberately maintained a rare smile, "Gentlemen, go back and have a good sleep! You don't need to change the camp. Come to the headquarters after breakfast tomorrow to report!"

After a two-second hesitation, the five soldiers hurriedly got up one after another. The wooden backrest chairs inevitably made a squeaky sound as they rubbed against the clean floor.

"Sorry!" Lynn was the first to apologize to the officers, and

 the other four then remembered this basic courtesy.

Bach nodded slightly.

When they walked out of the conference room, the guard did not come to guide them.

In fact, with the size and structure of this building, guiding them once was enough.

As they walked down the spiral staircase to the main hall, the five soldiers unconsciously slowed down their pace. Looking down from above, the central floor of the hall was a magnified map of Europe, with different colors indicating the territories of various forces. At a glance, the green representing the Allied forces and the black representing the Soviet forces had squeezed the red into a very narrow space — on the Eastern Front, several isolated red areas had become lonely islands in the sea of black.

Looking at this map and thinking about the precarious situation of Germany, the soldiers' faces became solemn one by one. Even if there was a chance to become elites among the elites, with only a small group of people, even if they tried their best, they could not change the vast tide of war!

A sense of powerless disappointment filled their chests once again, making Lynn feel suffocated. However, since things had come to this point, it was better to give up those unrealistic fantasies, seize the time to understand and familiarize themselves with their colleagues, and recruit those who were worth recruiting, so as to quickly have a small team that he could control. In any case, they needed to be prepared before the arrival of the empire's doomsday to avoid being at a loss and missing opportunities in the final collapse.