THE WAR TO END ALL WARS: A GIRLS UND PANZER FANFICTION
BY: ZACHARY TREADAWAY
The year is 1941 and Germany has invaded the Soviet Union in a bid to destroy the communistic ideals of the Soviet boar. In the midst of the fighting and among the death and destruction, Maho Nishizumi spearheads the assault with Army Group Centre. A seasoned tank commander, she leads the attack with the 2nd Panzer Division at her back. But facing such a powerful enemy, what will happen to her and those under her command? Can she bring them victory? Or does the Soviet Union have other plans?
2nd Panzer Division Operations Staging Area
"Look at this place. It's disgusting. A filthy hole for rats to drown and die in. We need only kick the door in and the whole thing will come crashing down." Maho Nishizumi turned to her friend who was peering though a pair of binoculars.
"What are you going on about now Erika?" she asked as she took a drag on her cigarette. She heard Erika snort.
"It's just a vast empty wasteland out there." Erika said. "Nothing but mud and snow for miles and miles." she brought the binoculars down from her eyes. "Whens the word from command gonna come?"
Maho shrugged. "Command will tell us to go when command is good and ready. You know this by know Erika. Be patient." she took another drag and exhaled the smoke.
"Can I get one?" Erika said holding out a hand. Maho smiled slightly and reached into her uniform chest pocket, pulling out a cigarette and handing it to the other girl.
"Must really be on edge, Erika. You don't really ever smoke much unless you're nervous about something. Think we're all going to get killed?" Maho said in a kidding manner.
Erika frowned slightly as she turned away and lit her cigarette, taking a long drag on it. Then she turned back to Maho.
"I hope not Commander. I've come too far in this war to die now. All of us have." she said. Maho laughed silently.
"We may have come far, but that's not to say we're invincible my good friend. We've got a tough assignment ahead of us and not very much time to get it done before the harsh winter befalls us." Maho explained leaning back in her chair and looking up to the drab ceiling above. The pair had been awaiting their orders to move out for some time now. Waiting in this abandoned rickety house on the edge of German lines was indeed nerve-racking. Suddenly Mahos field radio blared.
"Commander Nishizumi speaking." she answered. Erika looked on with a hopeful stare, her cigarette still burning in her hand. She could hear muffled German on the other end of the line.
"Rodger Commander. Right away." Maho said before hanging up the radio mic and standing quickly.
"We move out now." she said proudly. Erika grinned and the pair grabbed their caps and extinguished their cigarettes before rushing outside where the entire 2nd Panzer Division awaited them in a large field. Light snow was already covering the ground and they shivered as they began running to their tanks.
"Mount up!" Maho shouted to the lounging crews who had been waiting all the same. The entire area quickly became abuzz with activity as crews made up of both men and women rushed to their tanks and armored vehicles.
Maho was the first to reach her tank, a mighty Tiger I. Her driver, Hans, followed right behind.
"Glad to see you decided to show up on time." she teased to Hans who took it in stride. He was followed quickly by the bow-gunner Klaus.
"Lets find us some Soviet scum to kill." Klaus cheered happily as he cocked the MG-42. He always got in one of his crazy moods when they started an operation like this. Maho just shook her head in wonder.
"Sorry we're late Commander." Helga, her loader and Karin her gunner said as they filed into the turret of the large war machine.
"What were you two doing? Having drinks at the pub?" Maho scolded at them. These two were always messing about when they weren't on official duty, but Maho had told them to be ready hours ago. They didn't answer their commander and went about making themselves ready.
"This is Commander Nishizumi to all units. All units report." Maho said into her mic. A chorus of acknowledgments rang out, ending with Erikas final report. "All units are manned and ready to commence operation Commander." The sounds of engines filled the air around them and Mahos Tiger I rumbled to life as well. White smoke billowed into the air as the vehicles revved their engines to quickly warm them up for the long trek ahead.
"All elements forward."
2nd Panzer Division- Somewhere West of Pripet Marshes
"Scouts report." Maho said over the roaring of her advancing column. The radio crackled to life.
"This is scout 22 reporting. Nothing to see up here. More mud and snow though. It's going to be tough to maneuver the heavier panzers through this muck." Maho sighed heavily. They had advanced over 30 miles and so far had seen nothing but mud and muck the whole way.
"Rodger 22, advance to grid section 31 and report back." Maho replied before switching her comms channel.
"Erika copy, over." Maho awaited her reply. She didn't have to wait long.
"Copy Commander. Go ahead." came her reply.
"My scout reports worsening terrain ahead of me. How are things on your end?" she asked. Erika had been leading a column about a mile North of Mahos position since the beginning of the operation. Maho secretly hoped that Erika would have better news to report.
"Sorry Commander. It seems there's a pretty large marsh just ahead of us. My vanguard report says it's quite impassible to our heavy armor." Maho growled silently, but not so silently that her own crew could not hear her.
"Don't worry too much about it Commander. We'll just have to go around it." Hans chirped in, keeping the Tiger going at a slow pace along with the rest of the column. Maho grabbed her map.
"Shut it Hans. If my latest estimates are correct that means this marsh stretches for miles on both our forward flanks. The lack of descent terrain has slowed our advance and according to HQ we're almost an hour behind schedule." Maho rubbed her head. She could feel a major headache coming on.
"Here you go Commander, looks like you could use one of these." Karin said handing the commander an aspirin. Maho smiled lightly and took the small white tablet from the girl and drew her canteen. After taking a long drink she grabbed her mic again.
"Erika see if you could-"
"CONTACT!" Erikas driver suddenly screamed. Maho clearly heard it on her end as well.
"T-34s at 11 o'clock! Lots of 'em!" Erikas scout suddenly reported. Erika didn't waste any time.
"All units traverse! Traverse! Targets approaching!" Erikas column came to a lurching stop and the turrets of several Panzer IV's and Panzer IIIs began tracking the enemy tanks. The T-34s began opening up.
Rounds exploded all around Erikas column, throwing up tons of muck and snow. Erika could hear and feel shells impacting her Panther as they bounced off the tanks armored plating. "Fire fire fire!"
With a reverberating answer the German column erupted in a volley of tank fire as the panzers answered the attacking Soviets with their own firepower. Erika covered her ears as her Panther fired off several rounds along with the others. A couple of T-34s went up quickly but more poured in to replace those losses.
"Load AP!" Erika shouted.
"AP loaded!" her loader answered. A loud click could be heard as the round was rammed into the breach of the cannon.
"Gunner, target T-34 at 9 o'clock, 500 yards!" Erika ordered to her gunner.
"Target acquired!" her gunner shouted back.
"Fire!"
The Panthers gun spouted a torrent of fire as the shell left the barrel, sending a sizzling hot round right into the T-34 and bursting it into flame. "Good hit, good hit!" she shouted to her crew.
Through her binoculars Maho could see everything happening before her. Suddenly her own radio crackled. "This is scout 22 Commander. We've spotted an enemy attack force moving in from the Southeast!" the transmission stated.
"Numbers and composition?" Maho hurriedly asked.
"Several T-34s and looks like a KV-2!" came the scouts reply.
"All units, full stop!" Maho ordered quickly as her Tiger came to a stop with the others around her.
"If they're approaching from Southeast...all units traverse right to 3 o'clock." she ordered. Within seconds the first T-34s came thundering towards them, guns blazing.
"All units, Fire!" she yelled into the mic and the air around her was suddenly deafening as cannon-fire exploded all around them. She saw many T-34s go up instantly in balls of smoke and fire. The ground shook all around her as enemy shells narrowly missed her tank. A massive explosion sounded somewhere behind her.
"We lost a Panzer IV!" came the report from one of the Panthers in her column. But Maho didn't have time to deal with it right now. Instead she calmly continued to issue her crew orders.
"Load AP, Helga."
"AP loaded Commander!"
"Karin, T-34, 3 o'clock, 450 yards." the Tigers turret traversed slowly.
"On target, ma'am." Karin reported.
"Fire."
With that the T-34 was turned into a gigantic fireball of molten steel and metal. Maho watched as the remaining Soviet forces began wilting away under the intense German firepower. But Maho was impressed. The Soviets fought. Down to the very last tank. When the cannon-fire had finally died down in what felt like an eternity, Erika and Maho began taking count.
"I report 12 enemy tanks destroyed Commander." Erika chirped in through her mic.
"Rodger that Erika. I've got 15 over here." Maho said continuing to peer through her Tigers view ports. Then she noticed something and clicked her mic again.
"Scout 22 didn't you report there was a KV-2 in that enemy group?" she waited for a moment but only static sounded in the foreground.
"Scout 22 do you read me, over." she said. Then her radio crackled again.
"Tiger 212 this is Opel in the lead panzer, we're seeing a column of smoke up ahead. Want us to check it out?" the man asked. Maho knew Opel well. He was a very good tanker and an even better friend. They had long seen much of each other during their tank training days.
"Roger Opel. Be careful. Over." she said. "Commander, no survivors from the stricken Panzer IV I'm afraid. They're all dead. Over." another tank from her division reported. Maho hung her head a bit and frowned.
"Damn-it. Brave souls, all of them. See to it they receive a proper burial." Erika said over her mic. Maho nodded along with the rest of her crew. After another few minutes Opel radioed in.
"Commander, we found what is causing the smoke. Scout 22 is completely destroyed. I mean, gone. There's just part of a smoldering hulk here but hardly anything that even resembles what use to be a Panzer III at all. Over." came the grim news. Maho felt her heart skip a beat.
"No round from a standard 75mm could do something like that..." Maho clicked her mic. At the wreck the large Opel nodded in his commanders chair.
"I agree. But if Scout 22 reported a KV-2, I see no KV-2s that we killed." Opel said in another grim tone. Maho ran a hand through her hair, her crew looking to her.
"Well it couldn't have gone far. The KV-2 is slow. We'll have to find him before he finds us again." Maho said with a growing anger.
To be continued...