23rd August, 1942: Outside Gumrak, USSR
The Earth shook. Waking Werner from his sleep. He dashed out of his room, grabbing his MP40 and Mauser C96. Werner had slept in full combat gear, as he had lost a bet to his squad-mate, Stabsfeldwebel Otto Vëgel, who was somewhat known for inventing the "dancing gunman" fighting style by grabbing the nearest automatic weapons, and firing them while twirling like a ballerina. This incident killed 9 Russians and injured 12 more. He was somewhat of a joker.
Otto appeared at the doorway. "Holy hell, Hauptmann, look at the sky.", he said. Otto's blond hair was unkept, evidence that he too had been woken by the earthquake. The two of them rushed outside. Werner looked up, flabbergasted. The sky was darkened in shades of red, orange and black. "What in the name of the Lord!", Werner exclaimed, as the sky was darkened even more by the Luftwaffe's incendiary bombardment.
Otto looked over at his commanding officer. "Do you have a book, sir?", Werner nodded. It was the Führer's biography, signed by Werner's wife and dated 14. April, 1940. "Open it.", Werner glanced disapprovingly at his comrade. Werner was easygoing, but his authority was best kept in high regard. He opened the copy of Mein Kampf, and flipped to Page 1. Despite the darkness, it was illuminated as if someone was suspending a candlestick at the rim of Werner's stahlhelm.
"The 72nd wasn't lying..the fire can illuminate a book from this distance."
"What city is that?", Werner asked. "Stalingrad. The Führer expects a clean win by Christmas.", Otto said.
"So that's where Iwan is hiding?", Werner asked.
Otto nodded Erhardt came up behind them. He simply fell silent. "Well...that's nice.", Erhard said.
3 hours later, at 6:00 AM, Werner was given his orders. "Hauptmann. Your platoon is to strike at Gumrak. There is an airfield there. That airfield has anti-air batteries. Eliminate the batteries, and secure Gumrak and the airfield.", Oberst Seeglüitz said.
"Jawohl mein Herr!", Werner said. He put his cap on a shelf in his platoon's barracks. "Gentlemen, the target is Gumrak."
They nodded. The artillery started firing on the small suburb, raining down. As they rose from the trench, tank were rolling into Gumrak. "URAAAAGGH!", Werner shouted and charged down the hill towards the Soviet trenches. Machine guns fired at them. Werner dove to the ground, firing on the machine gun nests. A Schütze from another squadron tumbled to the ground, littered with red holes in his torso.
"Take cover or die, you fools!", Werner shouted. He reloaded, and dove behind some charred wood, and fired on a Soviet rifleman, who fell dead. Or, Werner guessed he was a rifleman, but this one didn't have any weapons. He pondered the thought, as a bullet whizzed by his head, and he bore witness to a wave of Soviet forces.
BAM! A Panzer IV's barrel blasted a hole in the ground, sending the bodies of enemies into the air. Their rifle fire making thak sounds against it's hull, followed by the sound of an MG42 gunning down a hundred men. One Panzer blew up. Werner got a hold of a Soviet machine gun, and used it to fire against a wave of defenders. He sprayed it in a zigzag pattern, attempting to cause as much damage as possible. Explosions rocked the ground, one shell going off 7 meters away from Werner
"Scheisse!", he shouted, crawling towards a hole in the ground near the trench made by the mortars. He fired on the advancing Soviets. His own gunfire drowned out by the gunfire his comrades and the explosions. A Soviet threw a grenade his way, and he jumped out of the way. It detonated a safe distance away, and Werner fired on the Soviet soldier, who fell clinging to his exposed entrails.
A VHWOOOOOOOSH sounded above Werner, and a Stuka dropped a cluster of bombs on enemy positions in the distance. More explosions sounded, and the Stuka crashed into a row of houses. The smoke cleared. And all sounds stopped, aside from the cries of the wounded and the distant thumping of artillery and flak shells.
Erhardt came behind Werner. "Well Hauptmann. Orders?", he said. "Stay put!", Werner shouted, still on edge from the waves of Soviets that had just been gunned down. "The tanks will go in first, clear those bastards out and save us a lot of trouble."
Erhardt nodded. Otto and Heinrich came around the corner. "Here Hauptmann! Dietrich is wounded!", Otto shouted.
Dietrich was Otto's brother. He had a more rounded chin and darker hair than his brother. He had a good sense of humor, but was a little more intent on not playing jokes than his younger brother. "Mein...Gott.", Dietrich muttered. He was bleeding badly. "Kameraden..get to cover.", Dietrich muttered. "Otto...you especially."
Machine gun fire was starting up again. Werner interrupted,"He's right. We'll be too big a target in the open like this! OTTO! DECKEN SIE NARR!"
A sound like the breath of ghost amplified to match that of a dive bomber ripped through the air, followed by the rain of explosions across the ground. Otto retreated to cover, leaving his brother to his fate. The sound of a thousand voices shouting,"ZA STALINA!!!" filled the air. Otto dove to a machine gun and fired. Unsuccessful shots pelted the wall. Successful shots caused Russians to belly over and die.
Erhardt bolted his rifle, and fired, his bullet smashing into the skull of a Soviet captain. He climbed out of the trench and charged the Soviets. "URAAAAAAGH!", his cries were magnified a thousand times. Werner dived behind a mound of dirt, and fired his MP40 into the crowd of Soviets. He spun his gun by the stock, and smashed an enemy's skull in. He reloaded, bullets buzzing around him, and fired again.
Erhardt's bayonet pierced the neckbone of a Soviet soldier. He lifted his rifle up, and fired at another. They started pouring into Gumrak, bombs falling overhead. A Soviet machine gun fired on Werner, who only survived because he crouched behind a fence and threw a hand grenade at the emplacement. Werner glanced over. Otto had deployed his machine gun, and a Soviet conscript charged him, and was gunned down. Werner lifted his head up, and a sniper's bullet grazed his cheek. He grabbed the rifle from a dead Soviet rifleman, bolted it, and gauged the distance. Werner fired, and the enemy sniper fell backwards. He dropped the Mosin-Nagant, and jumped over the broken fence, and sprinted towards a small chapel. Out of the corner of his eye, Werner could see a man behind withdrawn from the battlefield. He was dead, no doubt about it. Werner took cover as the whistle of artillery came down near him, leveling houses as they exploded. Werner leaned out from cover and fired, gunning down a Soviet machine gunner and four other enemy troops. "GRANATE!", he shouted, throwing a grenade threw a hole in the building. It detonated, sending bits of wood into the air.
As he ran into the chapel, machine gun fire came down on him, grazing his arm. Several gunshots rang out next to Werner, and the bodies of dead Soviet troops fell down the stairwell. Another pair of gunshots rang out, and the German that fired the previous rounds fell dead. Werner fired into the stairwell holding his MP40 sideways, and the Russian fell dead.
On the top floor of the chapel, Werner found a machine gun, and a perfect view of the enemy sniper. He fired down on the man, who fell from the house he fired from. Werner redeployed the gun, and fired on a group of Soviets that were out in the open, killing all of them. "URAAAAGH!", Werner heard a Russian shout, nearly stabbing Werner in the throat with his bayonet. Werner disarmed the man, and shoved the bayonet through his heart, blood spilling over the windowsill.
Werner left the chapel as a T34's explosive shell flew towards him, knocking Werner off his feet. The tank exploded after that, and Werner got up, and ran to the edge of the chapel complex, firing on Soviet soldiers under and around the railcars. Werner climbed over the railcars. He could see the airport. Very few buildings stood in Gumrak.
Werner rendezvoused with his squadron. "How many dead?", he asked his compatriots. "Twelve.", Erhard said. "Good news? We should have the airport by sundown."
"Good." Werner vaulted into the building they had rendezvoused at. "Follow me!" Werner fired into the second floor, and the broken wood caved in. At the far end of the room, Otto dived to the ground, firing bursts of machine gun fire on the stairwell. Russian riflemen pounded them with rifle fire. Another squadron appeared from the front door of the building, and fired on the Russians. Their cover destroyed, they died. Werner threw his final grenade at a stairwell, and the stairs exploded. Otto deployed his machine gun, and fired on the Russians, killing two enemy machine gunners.
Screams echoed down the hallway. As Werner advanced. As he walked into the final room, a number of Russians held up their hands, and shouted in Russian. "Please don't kill us!", one said as Werner brought up his SMG again. "Landsers! We gotta room full of prisoners! You know what to do!" Werner left the room, and Otto took his place. "Te Cyka blya-" the Russian was cut off by bullets that tore him and his comrades to shreds.
Otto deployed his MG42 on a windowsill, and fired into the courtyard below. "I'll hold them here, Herr Hauptmann!", Otto fired a few more bursts of his machine gun at the approaching Russians. "You and the others can get resupplied!"
Werner nodded. "Alright. Restock on ammo, Squadron 7! Los!" The Russians had a stock of ammo underneath the caved in stairwell. Werner constructed a magwell for holding two clips of ammunition at once, then refilled.
Otto came down the stairs. "All ready?", he said. "Ja. Let's move."
They filed out in front of 3 Russian platoons, preparing to charge. "Otto, Erhardt. Defensive positions!", Werner commanded, though he had noticeably less troops than when the battle began, a rough platoon was here.
Sniper fire rang across the square, followed by the enemy's charge.
Werner fired from cover, and Otto's machine gun tore through the enemy ranks. Erhard bolted his rifle, and fired. Then, the squadron's combat engineers moved into place, a line of rifle fire cut into the enemy, dispersing them. Otto traced them, hunted them, with his sights, and cut the enemy down where he stood. Werner opened fire on a Russian behind cover, and he fell dead. The infantry moved up, now in a crest formation, and fired, finishing the Russian platoons off. "Focus on the snipers!", Werner commanded, and the wall of rifle fire smashed into the Russian snipers. The second row moved into position, and fired, finishing off the snipers. A tank then rolled into the courtyard, and fired on the building. It exploded, sending Russian bodies catapulting threw the air. Then the whole structure collapsed.
They advanced towards the airport. Fire now evident against the smokey backdrop of Stalingrad. Werner noted, for the first time, that the injury he had suffered to his arm was beginning to swell. "Gefreiter Alois Neideran!", Werner called. "Ja, Herr Hauptmann?", Neideran asked. "Address this flesh wound on my elbow.", Werner showed him were the flesh was torn. "Do you think that will be enough for me to die of infection?"
Alois regarded it. "Does it hurt?", he asked. "Not more than what you'd expect from a flesh wound."
"You should be fine, Herr.", Alois said, and ran to join his comrades. Just then, a Russian anti-air battery fired on the ground. Werner fired on the Russian controlling it, and noted that...these people...they weren't soldiers....they were civilians. A woman dropped from the seat, dead. "Hauptmann look out!", Alois shouted, pushing Werner out of the way of machine gun fire. Alois hit the ground, limp and covered with blood. Dead. "RAAAAAGH!" Werner shouted, firing from the cover of the Anti-aircraft gun at the Soviet machine gun emplacement. A bullet smashed into the Russian's skull, and he fell dead. Werner ran to the top of the mound of dirt that the Russian was on, and fired down at the Soviet troops pouring out the airport. Panzer IV's pounded the entrance, sending flames billowing from inside the building, followed by the best of machine gun fire. Werner made it to the inside of the building. Only to find it empty.
The Soviets had fled.
