Author's notes: Nothing important to mention for now. Let's continue with the story.
The small convoy paused in the view of the Volksgrenadiers. Then the tank commander of the Panzer III jumped out from his cupola to meet up with the Volks.
"Good cloudy day today sir," greeted Wolfhart. The tank commander carved a smile as soon as he heard Wolfhart's greet and they both got into a handshake.
"I guess that is the case for now, we weren't informed of any friendlies present in this village so we were honestly quite close to shoot you down." Wolfhart chuckled at the statement which crept the German tank commander out a bit.
"Anyways, do you mind us joining the fight?" asked Wolfhart, itching out to test a fight in this universe of whatever 'God', also popularly known as RNG, sent him and his men.
"Sure, ride on our panzer then." The tank commander's offer sounded a bit odd considering from where the Volksgrenadiers came from, because they never transported on tanks. The only ride they could afford were on half-tracks. They did it anyway by their instincts and experienced their first tank ride to battle.
"I could guess the soldiers in this world take this feature for granted," said Richard in a low voice in which he thought inaudible to the others. He was probably thinking how lucky they are to experience something this unique.
"I understand that feeling too, Kamerad…" replied Bernhard who happened to sit next to Richard. The convoy continued its adventures down the road through the small village. Combat was absolutely expected, so everyone kept an eye out for the surroundings.
A few minutes later…
"Achtung, enemy Panzer ahead!" yelled the tank commander who was buttoned up looking for targets in the village. In the convoy's view was an M5 Stuart, which was an upgrade from the previous M3 Stuart especially in terms of protection, escorted by a squad of American riflemen. The Volksgrenadiers dismounted and the Panzergrenadiers got out of their comfy, and probably also stinky, half-track.
It did not take long for the Americans too to realize that they were spotted and took cover behind anything they could find, be it houses or simple wooden carts.
The Germans ran towards a nearby cobblestone fence and huddled against it which faced towards the Americans and began opening suppressive fire. The Stuart fires an AP round onto the Panzer III's hull but the buffed armour absorbed the impact. Of course the Panzer too was in a disadvantage only stacking High Explosive shells for its rather downgraded 75mm KwK 37 took from the early versions of the Panzer IVs. However this gave it a boost of damage towards soft targets such as infantry and weapon emplacements like Heavy MGs and AT guns. Given with enough range, it could perform indirect fire missions although with the sacrifice of accuracy.
The Panzer III returned fire anyway by firing a High Explosive shell. The shot missed but it hit a nearby building causing it to cover the Stuart in dust for a few moments. Using this moment the German infantry quickly advanced towards the next fence for cover.
"Richard, use that machinegun to suppress the Americans and so do Bernhard and Hans," ordered Wolfhart to his men. Of course the Panzergrenadiers were not that silly to follow orders from another squad leader so they just continued pouring down fire upon the Yankees.
After the smoke clears, the Stuart immediately fired on the Panzer III, this time towards the turret. Luckily for the crew, the shell hit the main gun and lost its momentum before it could penetrate the turret. The Panzer, now without its main gun operational, immediately attempted to suppress the Stuart by firing its coaxial machinegun at it. As ineffective as it looks like, any gunner would hesitate to look through the gun sight in fear of losing an eye to one of those rounds.
Meanwhile the infantry combat became increasingly tense as both are stuck within their covers returning fire to each other. Richard then complains about a problem the Volks have never heard of before within their original universe.
"Scheisse, I'm out of ammo and I can't reload." Wolfhart looked at him with a confused expression.
"What do you mean, can't you just check your pocket like usual?" asked Wolfhart.
"I just did that and I can't find any ammo," replied Richard. Of course, he was originally a rifleman so the only ammo he carried were rifle rounds and some machinegun rounds since that is standard-issued for the Germans. He looks around and saw a dead Panzergrenadier with a Gewehr 43 rifle by his side. Wolfhart grabs the rifle and gave it to Richard.
"You've got rifle rounds right? Then make this rifle sing." Wolfhart throws the G43 at Richard in which he immediately caught it and started firing at the Americans. Meanwhile, the suppressed Stuart attempts to fire back blindly which thankfully for the Panzer III, missed. This opportunity left the crew with no other choice but to withdraw to make quick field repairs.
This left the German infantry vulnerable and since they noticed the Panzer III retreating, they popped some smoke grenades and began splitting up.
"Oh, looks like they deployed some smoke grenades. Franz, you're coming with me. The rest of you, try to stay alive," ordered Wolfhart. After a while the smoke began rising and becoming bigger which allowed Wolfhart and Franz to move up from house to house. The Stuart began firing into buildings with its rather underpowered 37mm main gun hoping to get at least one of the Germans. The Volks and Panzergrenadiers managed to flank the Americans and began sweeping them out of their covers.
The Stuart has yet to be dealt with and it slowly began turning its turret to face the Germans behind it, before it could do so however, suddenly the turret was blasted out of the Stuart's hull by an explosion. Turns out, it was the Panzer III which retreated just now and managed to repair its main gun.
The short skirmish was over leaving around two Americans retreating while the rest of a total number of 9 Yankees killed. The Germans also lost two Panzergrenadiers but for the kills they got, it was worth it. The Germans took notice of a nearby flag point, which was crucially needed to call in reinforcements of all kinds. They halted their advanced and began building light defenses around the flag point.
