Dusts kicked up wildly behind the Crusader as it followed along the within the Panzer squadron. Several half-tracks, trucks and armoured cars were also heading the same general direction at a steady pace. They bypassed a Flak 88 battery firing upon British positions accurately from a comfortable kilometer distance on the flat sands.
They could not wait for the barrage to finish as their mass assault relied on speed on a strategic level so that they could attack while the British are still recovering. The Panzers opened up firing on the bunkers whenever they could. The British responded with their QF2 40mm and even a few QF6 57mm anti-tank guns positioned in fortified emplacements along the defensive line. A few shots missed but managed to hit a few of the many charging Panzers, de-tracking them or damaging the hull.
Fortunately enough Ju-87 Stukas arrived in time to assist the battle escorted with Me 109s. Although the British had 40mm Bofors to hinder them, they were not available enough in numbers. First the anti-air gun emplacements were struck along with the anti-tank guns critically saving the Panzers from more harm. Trenches along the line were also strafed by the Stukas and 109s potentially killing a few Brits.
Soon enough the German infantry dismounted from their transports charged towards the defenses, taking casualties mostly due to mortar fire firing from within the trenches safely. With the help of the half-tracks serving as a mobile machinegun support team suppressing the British machineguns the Germans soon got close enough and began throwing stick grenades onto the British positions as much as they can.
The Volksgrenadiers' Crusader however got too close for comfort to the trenches and an N73 Grenade had landed on the rear compartment, killing the engine and setting it on fire. Wolfhart, noticing this shouted at his crew.
"GET OUT, THE PANZER'S GONNA BLOW!"
The Volks soon evacuated as fast as they could and thankfully the British were not able to take a shot on them as they got out the tank. The fire luckily had a considerably long time before it caught on the ammunition rack and exploded barely killing Richard as he was the last to exit the Crusader. The Volks panted in exhaustion.
"Well, now we're back as infantry. Let's do what we're supposed to do," ordered Wolfhart. The rest nodded and began clearing the trench in front of the now wrecked Crusader. Franz came up first with his MP38 and sprayed lead, killing two Tommies. The trench was linked to a pillbox which was still operating, before Hans threw a stick grenade into it killing the crew operating it.
On the opposite side of where the pillbox was, the trench seemed to lead into the ground. While Franz was dealing with the pillbox Wolfhart entered the tunnel without the rest of the Volks knowing. He encountered two British riflemen and killed them off, almost getting hit from one of their bullets. Wolfhart then found what seems to be an armory, or a headquarters, probably even both at the same time.
The bunker had a large table and on it were several documents and maps. On the wall showed the defensive line of the British detailing to the smallest bit including the explicit locations of weapon emplacements as well as tunnels. On either side of the walls were weapon racks along with ammunition, but what he was interested was a certain weapon left alone in the racks, a Lee-Enfield No.4 rifle (please read the note below this chapter) with a scope. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from behind. He took aim with his Beretta before Bernhard appeared, almost spooked by Wolfhart.
"Phew, I thought my heart stopped beating there. What did you find in there?" asked Bernhard, lowering his K98 to lax off his muscles.
"Just some maps, documents and a scoped rifle," answered Wolfhart, to which Bernhard suddenly widened his eyes. He rushed into the bunker before getting out with the scoped Lee-Enfield in his hand. He reloaded individual bullets into the rifle while laughing maniacally in a creepily joyful expression. Wolfhart was about the question his sanity, but then again no one in a war technically has it.
"Let's move on then," ordered Wolfhart. Bernhard responded with a "Jawohl" before they both exited the tunnel. At the exit, Hans, Franz and Richard awaited for them. Wolfhart looked around and saw the legendary Afrika Korps resting for a while on the now neutralized defensive line.
The Volks decided to rest for a while as they enjoy the vast sandiness between the bunkers and a town ahead a few kilometres in sight. Wolfhart looked through his binoculars searching for enemies while Bernhard did the same except with his newly-acquired sniper rifle through it's scope. For a moment Wolfhart thought he saw a mirage, but when he looked through the binoculars again, it wasn't.
A massive British force was assembling for a counter-attack. Wolfhart could only assume they were fresh enemy reinforcements, probably a battalion in size and an armoured one if his estimates were correct. Almost all kinds of British tanks were there, Stuarts, Crusaders, and to the misfortune of the Germans, Grants and Shermans since they had not packed proper anti-tank weaponry to take them head-on.
The other Germans soon were also aware of the situation and took cover in the trenches disregarding the pile of dead British soldiers lying in them. Every usable fire-support weapons such as HMGs, mortars and anti-tank guns were re-manned and redeployed or turned towards the general direction of the enemy. Panzers were re-positioned in suitable 'pockets' in the terrain where they could fire at the enemy while in the same time suffer less of a chance of being hit. They practically had no time to hull down so natural defenses would do for them.
If anything though, they were not expecting the British receiving reinforcements especially this big. It was sure the enemy commander was holding back his or her resources to initiate the massive counterattack. Still, if the Germans can manage to annihilate them, it would mean all that economic value would go wasted for the British.
Soon enough through the binoculars, Wolfhart spotted a lot of dusts kicking up which indicated the counterattack had started. Suddenly he heard what sounded like claps of thunder, in the middle of a desert no less where there's not enough water to accumulate and condense into thunderclouds, unless in certain times. There were no thunders…
"ARTILLERIE!" shouted a German soldier. Everyone rushed into cover since they were after all, in a defensive line. Half-tracks tried to reverse hoping to get out of the shells' way while tank commanders buttoned down and hoped for the best.
Shell after shell rocked the Germans. After 20 more shells the barrage stopped, and the Germans quickly rose up from cover. A few half-tracks and trucks were destroyed rendering them anything less than wrecks while a Panzer III was de-tracked. It also looked like one of the shells landed right into a trench blasting the unlucky Germans inside them into oblivion. The British were approaching them at a rapid pace with the Shermans and Grants covering the weaker tanks and infantry in the rear.
"Open fire!" At around 300 metres the Germans fired their weapons towards the British, not even minding what they were actually aiming after seeing how hopeless the situation looked. Panzers and anti-tank guns did not even care about the leading Shermans and Grants and instead picked off the weaker Stuarts and Crusaders in the rear. It was at this time Bernhard utilized his sniper rifle to the fullest capability dropping British infantry by every shot, two if he missed but it never took more than that.
There were no obstacles in the way of the British such as tank traps or barbed wires to delay their advance. For the British however this meant that there were no covers for infantry to protect themselves from. Soon the menacing Shermans were at the face of the Germans waiting to run them over, while the British infantry began clearing out the Germans from their defenses.
A Sherman was about to run over the trench the Volks were in when Hans threw a Geballte Ladung, an anti-tank or demolition weapon depending on how you use it with upgraded firepower by tying six more warheads onto a single stick grenade, onto the hull of the Sherman. When it exploded it punched a hole through the top armour, killing the driver and possibly injuring the bow gunner while in the same time damaging the main gun.
Richard relentlessly fired upon the British with his MG26. Although it was a different gun it gave off a similar feeling to his BAR, which made him feel better when operating it. Czechoslovakia is a pretty underrated country considering how much military innovation it had such as having the first standard-issued semi-automatic rifle and tanks that were a notch better than the Germans while having similar design features for their tactics.
The combat had quickly turned into a close quarter situation as melee engagements were becoming apparent. One by one the unmoving panzers were taken out by overwhelming British infantry with the help of satchel charges. Every trench was slowly being cleared by the British forces as the Germans' defeat came close.
Suddenly a loud boom from the rear sounded and before the Volks could register what it was, a Sherman got hit on the hull. A louder boom roared and this time the Sherman was completely blasted with it's turret sent flying before landing on a Grant. Franz looked behind and saw Tiger tanks, plural.
Two Tiger tanks, supported by several more Panzer IV Ausf F2s. Along with them were trucks, half-tracks with one equipped with a Flak 88, armoured cars with several non-armoured ones, and motorcycles. Reinforcements had arrived and they were almost late. The counter-counterattack was a curbstomp on the British as their armour were diminished by the feasting Tigers, unable to penetrate its front armour.
German infantry dismounted as their numbers by more than a hundred began regaining lost territory from the British. Trenches were cleared once again and bodies of Germans and British soldiers were piling up in them, sometimes tripping off the ones who were careless.
The trench the Volks were in was fortunately not under heavy attack and thus they were not killed in the brutal battle. The last shot fired and left an echo throughout the North African desert as the last of the limping and injured were captured and sent for medical attention by the Germans. The Volks lied on the edge of the trench as they watch the new reinforcements approached towards the town, probably the last holdout of the British before the round ends. A familiar face soon came to where they were.
"Ernst," greeted Bernhard who was the first to notice him. The rest turned their faces towards Ernst.
"Hello there kameraden, enjoying the view aren't you?" replied Ernst as he sat on the edge of the trench leaving his feet hanging. His torn uniform which also had burnt marks hinted something to Wolfhart.
"Did your panzer get destroyed again?"
"Yeah…" said Ernst as he scratched his hair, most probably in annoyance.
"And you survived again…" continued Wolfhart.
"The gunner I brought along earlier was killed this time, along with the rest of the crew," replied Ernst. His expression was left unchanged as if things like that were normal in that universe. It caught Wolfhart by surprise, which then made him decided that they introduce themselves for real.
"Alright then Ernst, maybe you'll think I'm insane but if I tell you we're from another universe, will you believe us?" asked Wolfart with his fingers crossed. Ernst took a good look at the Volks and raised his hand out.
"Got any cigarettes?" The Volks looked at each other for confirmation. It was quite obvious none of them carried any.
"Fine then," said Ernst as he walked over to a nearby body of a British soldier. He checked his pockets and found a box of what he needed, along with a lighter. He walked to where he was before and put a cigarette into his mouth before lighting it. He puffed out some smoke which sounded he was quite relaxed.
"Not quite all surprised. I can see how your behavior is quite the polar opposite what combatants here usually are." The Volks looked at each other confused. Ernst took it that they might need some elaboration.
"For one, the five of you always seem to be close wherever you go," Ernst said before pausing, seemingly as if intentionally waiting for Wolfhart to respond.
"Well a squad must stay together wherever they go. It's my duty as squad leader, and their guider to lead them to battle."
"There's no 'squads' in this universe, hell maybe an 'officer' wouldn't. Of course they do exist but they are just by name and equipment. Any Volksturmm can be an officer just by taking his cap, binoculars and Luger," replied Ernst before puffing out more smoke from his cigarette.
"The commander which is the player is in direct control of everything down to individual soldiers and the number of bullets they carry. I guess I'm lucky I only command a single tank. So, by his own will he can order Wolfhart to be in another squad, for example." added Ernst. The Volks nodded as they understood what he said.
"What's a Volksturmm?" asked Hans.
"They're the lowest of all units in the German army. Their 'training' would be how to operate weapons, and only that. They will have to figure out the rest in combat training on instincts, or maybe from a senior if lucky. Historically speaking they're quite full of child, female and elderly combatants although maybe the God above us decides it's best not to follow history too straightforwardly. So we have ordinary soldiers except they can't hit a standing Yankee at 10 yards with a machinegun."
The Volks were shocked at Ernst's explanation. Volksturmm technically meant "Storm People" and sounded intimidating enough. Was Germany really that desperate of manpower? Without them realizing, several Opel Blitz trucks had arrived carrying leFH 18 105mm artillery along with several Flak 88s just in case there was another counterattack from the British. As soon as they were deployed, they fired upon the town raining hell to whoever was on the receiving end, be it ordinary riflemen or tanks.
"You said you were a tank commander. Would you mind telling us why we can't see our hitpoints when we operated them?" asked Franz.
"Hitpoints… Well only individual infantry have them. The tanks or basically any vehicle don't and instead they have several parts that can be critically damage."
"But how do you make sure the vehicle is fully destroyed?"
"Despite all the complexity all armoured vehicles have a core which can render everything else the tank has useless if damaged or destroyed, which is the hull itself. The reason you can individually damage other parts of a tank is that so even with a weak gun you can still stand a chance, big or small. Another way to neutralize a tank would be to kill all of it's crew." Wolfhart then remembered that you could practically do the same from where he came from, but only RNG will decide if it will happen. As he thought about it, he remembered something.
"Do you have some sort of "God" that sometimes makes mortar shells fly like homing missles?" Ernst was nearly about the blow his cigarette out of his mouth before he laughed quite hard.
"I didn't expect your world to bethat insane. Well we sometimes have something similar only which he only decides the direction of the bullet travels. If you fire all over the place, then definitely your bullets will go everywhere. He won't make mortar shells home towards an enemy panzer because that is nothing more than illogical."
The fighting that went on in the city gradually slowed down as fewer cannon shots were heard. From such distance there'd be no way they can hear gunshots clearly. Their victory had been secured awaiting for the last batch of resistance to either surrender or face it's fate.
"Last question Ernst…" said Bernhard. Ernst naturally then turned his attention towards him.
"How many friends have you made as long as you have existed here?" That question probably had hit Ernst right in the spot judging from his change of emotions. His calculating eyes were saying,"Whatisa friend?"in a quite serious way.
Ernst raised his head to give his final answer, "I could say I knew a lot of Panzerman and I died quite a few times, just to clarify that I'm not a madman or anything because that is what I read on your faces. Mutual friendship other than panzer crews, very few. You could quite say I'm more interested in panzers than my own life.
So, I'll ask you back then. What kind of unit are you?"
"We are Volksgrenadiers," replied Wolfhart. Ernst thought about it for a second.
"Grenadiers and Volksturmm, between them would be you then. Lower grade of training than standard soldiers but have fighting quality above simple militias," said Ernst to himself under his breath. He was about to ask another question before he along with the Volks got the strange similar feeling.
"Oh god, I don't think this is what-" before Franz could finish his complaints, everything ceased to exist.
Author's notes: Regarding the sniper rifle, I quite have trouble remembering that specific British rifle which was most likely a Lee-Enfield, but with a 5-round magazine. Right now my Internet is severely limited while I can't play Assault Squad 2 for now as I am currently using a shit laptop, well at least for gaming. I found it from a mod for Battlefield 2 called "Forgotten Hope 2" where there are hidden kits around the map you can pick upand this specific British sniper rifle was one of what I am trying to figure out.