Little Danzig, south Bridgehead
Koume
March 1st
Koume ducked into her tank, the fighting hadn't let up for over a week since they had started pushing into the city. The constant bombardment on her forces had rendered all the buildings and streets into a tanks nightmare. While Maho and Erika still had intact streets and buildings to fight over. Compared to her it was practically a field of rubble and bumps, the rubble practically negated all the effectiveness of her tank as mobility was cut down.
Her tank jolted to the side, she hadn't been a commander for more than two months with one of them being her baptism through fire as Maho had described it not to mention that most of the girls in her command were recruits.
She was following another tank that was in front of her it, it was a Panzer 38t that had insisted on being in the front as it climbed up the rubble of a fallen building in an alley, distant shots could be heard when a bright white streak of light slammed into the Panzer 38t from the front immobilizing it and sending it sliding down the rubble. Some of the girls that had been on the back of the tank riding it were shot as the others dived off the tank into the rubble.
Her tank which was a Panzer III rolled up behind it some more Panzer 38t following her, the infantry on her tank disembarked and set themselves up on the hill of the rubble and started firing back. The infantry that had been pushing alongside the tanks set themselves up in some ruins and started firing back.
Koume had to say that her troops had massively improved, from the fragile inexperienced unit they had started as into an actual effective fighting force that was able to hold its own. Her tank levelled upon the top of the rubble and the MG34 on its hull opened fire and began to pepper the windows of the destroyed building in front of them.
A tank was hidden in some of the rubble fired at her bouncing off the front and Koume's gunner zeroed in on him with Koume's help. The gun fired and hit the tank dead on, they reloaded once more and fired again and saw some smoke start exiting the tank.
All the tanks were on top or at the foot of the rubble now, the infantry slightly behind them scattered in the debris of the building and the ruins of the buildings themselves.
"All tanks move forwards infantry follow us"
The tanks slowly moved forward as the infantry started darting from debris to debris. The gun of the tank shot once more as the shell slammed into the building causing parts of it to collapse. Continuing to move forward as the Bonple soldiers were slowly being pushed back, her machinegun's blaring at any enemy girls within her sight.
This was repeated throughout the day across both frontlines, Koume arrived at the small bridgehead defended by some Bonple tanks. They had finally been pushed to their final defence, a small island with an area of around 2km. She set her tank up in some rubble along with the other tanks, the night would soon be upon them but hopefully, she would be able to take out their defences positions in that last hour.
Her tank's cannon fit through the window of a small building, the standard factory grey paint camouflaging her in the rubble of the city. Her gunner locked onto an enemy tank which had rubble positioned in a way as to cover everything but the turret.
"Is everyone in position" Koume calmly asked
"Infantry is in position, *mortars are zeroed in and machineguns have been set up." one of her infantry commanders answered
"Tanks are in position just waiting for the order to fire" One of the girls commanding a tank division answered
"All tanks and infantry fire"
The tank kicked back as it fired, dozens of shells slammed into cover and tanks hiding throughout the area, the infantry started firing at the enemy trench line, Koume saw smoke start rising out of the surprised enemy tanks.
Shots were fired back, one of the tanks that must have been overlooked had shot and ripped the concrete wall Koume's Panzer III had hidden behind causing the wall itself to come crumbling down in front of them and creating a dust cloud in front of them. Koume could hear the whistling in the distance as Bonple Artillery started dropping on them, meanwhile the smaller mobile mortar pieces did the same.
"All forces forward, Force them back across that bridge"
A chorus of yes could be heard as the tanks and infantry started moving forward, cover to cover. Koume's tank crashed through the rubble and the dust cloud exiting out into the street. Her tank continued moving forward only stopping when it needed to fire.
Crashing through another building she saw the infantry follow in behind her tank, fighting the shocked soldiers around her. Suddenly the sound of metal being shredded could be heard and next the Radio Operator/ Machinegunner in Koume's tank screamed out in pain as her legs were ripped off her.
Spinning the turret around they found the Bonple girl on the ground a large anti-tank rifle set up as she fired once more, hitting slightly higher and this time killing the girl as her torso now had a gaping hole from the right to the left.
The Machine-gun fired and filled the girl up with holes, The infantry moved pass them as Koume's tank remained unmoving for a while longer as all the girls stared at their friend which had died a gruesome death.
"Kommandent, all objectives have been completed we will start setting up some defensive measures," one of her sub-commanders told her
"Kommandant?"
"Kommandant!"
"S-s-sorr-ry, were a b-it shaken up, set up some positions for tomorrow and get ready to assault across the bridge" Koume's words were all choked up as she stared at the dead body in her tank, when suddenly almost as one all the girls poked their heads outside the tank and threw up on the outside.
"get us back to HQ Otake," she told her driver as the girls silently made their way back to the new temporary HQ.
—
Little Danzig, West Bridge defence
Anna, Commander of the "Iron Divison" 12 Bonple Division
March 2
Rifle in hand, eye looking down the sights, finger on the trigger, her rifle was perched on a small little foxhole that had been dug out by her division. Then sounds of war surrounded her, what use to scare her be it gunfire, tank engines and the sirens of a Stuka had become comforting to her and her girls.
Her sight's landed on a soldier running towards a smoking tank.
*bang*
The soldier fell as Anna quickly cycled her bolt and looked for another enemy. She and her girls had been fighting since the war had started. One month of non-stop fighting, they had become famous within the Bonple army. They were the division that had stopped Erika in the east during the first week. They had stopped Erika once more on the river once she broke through before being sent back to R&R, stopping Erika once more just outside Little Danzig, they had been relocated and had halted the southern thrust for a few days before once more being relocated and stopping Maho's forces. Now here they were at the bridge holding off Maho's forces once more, so far they had yet been able to fully halt her attacks always having to withdraw as they were overwhelmed.
Another shot rang out as she killed another soldier, there were 5 smoking tanks stuck on the bridge, destroyed and the first attack had failed. They had set up their anti-tank gun's in positions that had quickly reduced their armoured thrust into a simple infantry attack.
They had become so good at holding these enemies off that they had been nicknamed as the "Iron Division" for holding like an iron wall. Their patches on their arms had been changed for a wall with the top part white and the bottom part red. Another shot rang out and a barrage of artillery started hitting the bridge and the areas around it, hitting the water and throwing it up onto the bridge.
They had been told that they would be only able to fire today as they wouldn't have the ammo to fire any longer. Even then they wouldn't have anything close to a proper artillery barrage as they conserved ammo.
Her ears picked up the sudden rumbling through the gunshots, recognizing it as some more tanks being committed to the battle. She saw the destroyed Panzer 38t get pushed out of the way as a Panzer IV D took its place, they had to be on its side or within 100 meters of it to penetrate it.
She continued to fire as she yelled out "Where is my radio operator!"
Crouching into the foxhole she reloaded her gun, slipping a *clip into the breach of the rifle when a girl rolled into the foxhole behind both girls. She had a radio on her back as she got up and stayed below the dirt line. Slamming the bolt of her rifle she switched it to the left hand.
Grabbing the phone on the side of the radio she yelled into it "This is Anna commander of Iron Division requesting artillery on the west bridge"
"We hear you, Anna, artillery coming in *ETA 5"
Grabbing the dial she switched to her division's radio "All forces begin withdrawal to secondary positions in 5 minutes"
Switching the dial back to HQ she spoke "This is Anna Commander of Iron Division requesting a broken arrow on my position ETA 10"
"Understood, *broken arrow ETA 15."
Clipping the phone onto the radio operators back she cussed, of course, they would push the broken arrow back, they probably had another *fire mission lined up for the southern bridge.
Popping over the trench she aimed and fired once more as the tanks rolled forward. The anti-tank guns all shot at once at the Panzer IV as most shells bounced off but one shell seemingly pierced its armour and set it ablaze. The next tank another Panzer IV shot its *howitzer at the grouping of anti-tank guns killing a few of the girls and forcing the others to relocate.
They continued firing at the tank as it moved forward when artillery shells could be heard whistling in before it crashed into the area in front of the bridge. Getting out of her trench Anna followed by the two other girls ran back towards a building before starting to shoot at some soldiers that ran through the bombardment.
They continued a fighting retreat in till they reached their secondary positions and set themselves up. Anna was once more in a trench as the artillery fell where they had been, a little late as the Kuromorimine tanks and infantry had already passed that location.
She fired another shot into the charging enemy troops when suddenly a loud voice started blaring from a pole with loudspeakers, she realized that Jajka was giving a speech amid battle, she hadn't done this yet always reserving speeches to personal speeches in front of the troops travelling from division to division to reinforce moral.
"Soldiers of Bonple, I call upon you for the greatest favour a general can ask of you. I ask of you to fight on, to fight the dastardly cowardly enemy to the last. I ask you to fight in the streets, in the buildings in our sewers and our tunnels. I ask you to defend the last holding of Danzig like a cornered animal.
The enemy shall try their best to convince you to give up on the dream of a free Bonple but I tell you that Bonple lives within each one of us. I Jajka ask all my soldiers to fight to the last man no matter the cost, they shall have to pry Little Danzig from our dead fingers and all of our allies, old and future shall remember the brave stand at Little Danzig. Our soldiers who were evacuated will charge across all of Little Europe crying out remember Little Danzig and our Heroic stand here today."
As the speech finished Anne saw a 7TP tank rush out of the streets followed by 15 other tanks. The first shot that was fired hit one of the enemy tanks, destroying it. This was followed by a continuous non-stop fire from the anti-tank guns.
Grabbing the radio Anne saw the opportunity to for once go on the offensive, with armoured support and morale at an all-time high she said "All forces attack the enemy, Force them back across the bridge with their tails between their legs"
After saying this she grabbed her rifle and hopped out of the foxhole crying out "For Bonple, For Little Danzig!"
The war cry was echoed by all her soldiers as they jumped out of their cover and started charging forward. The surprised Kuromorimine troops started to retreat almost immediately and by the time they decided to defend most of the girls were already entering their buildings.
With her bayonet at the end of her barrel, she aimed down the hall and shot one of the soldiers before rushing forward and piercing the next soldier through the chest. The other girls followed her.
She saw one of her girls fall next to her due to a gunshot, bringing her gun upon them she squeezed the trigger and watched as the body hit the wall and slid down. Continuing forward she saw that they were 1 building from the bridge. Spotting an enemy tank she rushed over to one of the Kuromorimine girl's dead body and grabbed their two grenades.
Rushing to the tank she ignited the grenades and threw them into the turret ring of the tank. The subsequent explosion wedged the turret of the tank. Continuing past the tank she headed to the foxhole she had started this entire day inside when a Kuromorimine soldier popped out throwing herself to the side she heard the shot whizz past her as one of the girls that were following her stopped and shot the girl.
Once she had reached the foxhole and jumped into it ignoring the dead girl in the foxhole, she saw the enemy troops running or driving in the case of their tanks across the bridge. The first successful assault had just been done by her men. A quick look back and she saw that it hadn't come without a cost but they would certainly be able to hold Danzig for one more day.
—
Little Benelux, Near the german border
Erich, fighter pilot
March 3
Erich was in her fighter plane around 3000 meters above the ground, she was in formation with two other planes, she was wearing her grey uniform and her aviator hat pushing her brown hair to the back keeping it out of her face.
Before she had joined up in the newly created Kuromorimine *Luftwaffe club she had been a simple student bored with school and going through the motions of life. She had gotten swept up with the excitement and had joined the Luftwaffe. Now here she was feeling free and enjoying every day as she flew her plane up into the sky, she had already scored one kill, the first one from her *JG 52 squadron.
The liberation of being so high in the air, of controlling a plane that responds to your every movement. It was exhilarating and made her glad that she had decided to join up.
She was following the patrol route that she was ordered to take when she saw a group of five planes below her. Turning towards the enemy she informed her two Wingman over the radio.
"contact spotted 9 o'clock, get ready for a fight"
Her plane the famous *Bf109 E flew closer and closer to the enemy in till they must have been around 800 meters away from the enemy and she suddenly turned the nose of her plane downwards toward the enemy planes. She could count all five of them right now and she smirked as she watched her plane pick up more and more speed.
Closer and closer they got to the enemy in which she placed the sights for the guns in front of the enemy plane. She squeezed the button on top of the joystick and smiled in satisfaction as a stream of bullets hit the first plane along the *fuselage as the engine caught on fire and the plane started spiralling down towards the ground.
Pulling the joystick back her plane lifted up and made a half loop, she could see that one of the other planes had been shot down and the other one was being chased. Her analysis was suddenly interrupted as she heard over the radio.
"One of them's on my tail, I can't shake him off."
Spotting the plane in question she saw that one of her wingmen was being chased by an enemy plane, bringing the throttle into overdrive she sped towards them as both planes jerked around in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
"drop-down Morikawa"
Without hesitation, her wingman turned her plane and dropped downwards in a dive. The enemy plane made to follow her and flew straight towards where her guns were pointed, a burst of gunfire and she saw smoke start spewing from the plane as it headed turned away from the two planes and headed away in a fast dive trying to getaway.
She noticed the other plane falling through the sky with a small girl in a parachute floating downwards.
"Let head back to base"
They turned their base towards home and flew off.
—
Little Britain
Assam
March 5
Assam watched as tanks and soldiers boarded the troop transports, she had been tasked with a small expedition force and to be sent over to The Confederation to reinforce their lines. She had been given around 250,000 soldiers and 7,000 tanks as well as the GI6 teams.
The GI6 teams of which she was the leader of was an intelligence-gathering department that specialized in foreign Intel. Meanwhile, the 5 infantry divisions and 3 tank divisions that had been granted to her were a mix of *green and elite troops.
Grabbing her suitcase she made her way to the jeep parked outside her house that she had been granted. She entered it and was driven towards the docks to board one of the troop transports.
—
Little Danzig, north island
Erika
March 7th
Erika was outside of her hatch as she guided her tank across the makeshift wooden pontoon bridge. She had to make sure that her tank didn't slip into the water as they silently made they're way across the bridge. Once she reached across the bridge she waited for around 500 infantry to cross and a group of 30 tanks.
This operation was a risky one, she had split her army and two and had her engineers work non stop to build two bridges one connecting the north-east and the other connecting the north-west. It created a connection to the north of the island and would speed down and try to capture both bridges.
She drove forward with her tank as fast as possible down the road, this part of Little Danzig was one of the few places not turned into rubble. She the infantry was ridding on the tanks with the others running behind them.
They had reached the main crossroad leading to the bridge where she saw some troops camping out with makeshift tents. Stopping her tank she stared wide-eyed for a few seconds before ordering her girls to start shooting at the sleeping and unsuspecting girls.
The rest of the night and into the morning she would be fighting against the bulk of the reserve troops who desperately held onto every little inch of land, the same had happened in the north with the other part of her army. They had been bogged down 800 meters away from the bridges, failing in their objective but had nailed one extra nail into the coffin of the bonple girls in Little Danzig.
—
Little Danzig
Anne
March 9th
Anne had been called to Jajka's office, her division had been in R&R after a day-long fighting retreat from the bridge after Erika's forces had outflanked them. Walking through the hall's her uniform which had started off as a light grey uniform and blue pants had become torn and ripped in all kinds of places and its colour had shifted into a dusty grey with spots of black from ashes.
Her long brown hair which had been tied in a ponytail for the past month had been let down for the first time. Her hair was caked with dust making it look more grey than brown, her face had the same phenomenon with the dust making her look like she was a piece of a building. It had frustrated her at first but the pro's of being the same colour as all the rubble all over the place had won out.
She entered the office and stood at attention in front of Jajka. Jajka herself had bags under her eyes and her hair which had been normally well-combed was all over the place, maps were strewn over the table and there was a pistol on the left side of the desk with papers strewn all over the place.
"Please sit down Captain Anne"
Sitting down in the old wooden chair in front of Jajka she looked at her commander.
"Why did you call me commander?"
"I'm sure you've realized now that there will be no victory in Little Danzig only a heroic and valiant defence"
"yes but I'm ready to fight to the death for it"
Jajka looked at her with some pride " I promoted Maika into being the Marshal of the Bonple forces. It's tradition to only have one marshal but considering the unique situation I'm going to promote you to Marshal as well"
"Why I don't see this battle lasting for much longer as we run dangerously close to being out of ammo and food. I predict that in the next few day's we will all be dead."
"I have a specific mission for you and your division as well as a few other divisions. While I need to stay here so that the enemy doesn't suspect that around half our army sneaks away. I need to die to confirm that all Bonple forces died in Little Poland."
"What will be my duties then."
Jajka got up and searched in her drawers for a few seconds before grabbing two small badges that showed two swords crossing each other. She also grabbed a letter and made her way to next to Anne.
"Your final orders before you become a Marshal is that you will need to hand this letter into Miho herself. It contains critical information that could change the course of this war. I will tell you this information after you become a Marshal. You will be commanding the Iron Division, Winged Hussar tanks and a few other elite divisions, in total you will command around 45,000 girls."
Saluting Anne said " of course Marshal Jajka"
Clipping the two badges to the girl she congratulated " Congratulations Marshal Anne on your new position. The information in that letter is top secret, only Marshals are allowed to see this and Miho is the only one you're allowed to show this too."
"thank you Jajka, I understand the secrecy behind it but what is the message in this letter" She grabbed the letter from Jajka.
"Some spies from some good friends have passed to us that Kuromorimine made a deal to allow Pravda to attack Ooarai without any interference. The only requirement is that only 2 cities be taken. Now tonight you'll take the sewers to the outskirts of the city and make your way south to the Ooarai border. You will need to find Miho at all costs."
"Yes of course. I'll have the girls under my command out of here by darkness. I'm assuming that we can't fit any tanks into the sewers."
"No... we also need to have all tanks destroyed here. It'll only confirm things even more, also take this piece of paper. It'll confirm that you were promoted by me. " she handed a small piece of paper with Jajka's signature.
—
Little Danzig
Maho
March 10th
Maho directed her forces from her tank as the last building containing Jajka and the last of the Bonples held onto false hope.
She had her tanks bombarding the outside of the building as they fruitlessly fired back at the infantry, they had destroyed the rest of the tanks and had captured the artillery earlier today.
The bonple flag on top of the building waved in the air, it was riddled with holes and had almost a quarter of the end having been ripped off. Suddenly it went quiet from the building, she ordered the infantry to move even closer to the building having it surrounded. They were around 10 meters from the entrance itself as they stopped and stayed in cover aiming at the windows.
She rolled her tank closer to the building as she yelled out "Jajka surrender right now, there is no point of continuing this fight we know that you are out of food and ammo. Will, you really sacrifice your girls for nothing, you've lost accept that and spare any more blood being spilled."
She stopped for a second when all of a sudden the doors swung open and out came Jajka with her sword raised in the air yelling some battle cry in polish followed by what was left of her army which numbered in the hundreds.
They charged towards the infantry when Maho ordered her gunner to cut them down, the MG34 of her tank fired off sounding like a buzzsaw as the other tanks followed her lead. Hundreds of bullets cut down the girls in rapid succession.
They had barely made it 2 meters outside as they laid on the ground dead and stacked on each other. At the front was Jajka in her famous uniform on the ground the sword still clutched in her hand as she coughed up some blood before laying down.
Her blood stained blond hair had been spread out in a weird halo around her head as she closed her eyes and whispered "For Bonple... and... Lit-tle Da-nz-ig" her breathing stilled and her hand holding her sword loosened as the sword rolled out of it.
—
Word Ledger
Clip: A small metal strip with 5 bullets attached to it, considered cheap and throwable after use.
ETA: Estimated time of arrival
Broken arrow: used for emergencies to call artillery on your own position as a last-ditch attempt to stop the enemy. (basically, your artillery shoots at you)
Fire mission: An order for the artillery to bombard a specific location.
Howitzer: A large artillery piece (sometimes mounted on tanks) that usually shoot large slow-moving explosive shells.
Luftwaffe: German for Air force
JG 52: the first part is an abbreviation that means Jagdgeschwader (Fighter squadron) and the 52 means that it is the 52nd squadron created.
Bf109: also known as the Me 109 is the most used German fighter during ww2. The variant Bf 109 E does not have any cannons, unlike the future versions.
Fuselage: the central part of a plane.
Green: in the context of talking about a military unit it refers to that unit being inexperienced and not trained into battle effectiveness.
Thank you for reading this chapter. The invasion of Bonple has come to an end which means that the subsequent chapters will have a little less action as the armies take some time to do some R&R. Let me know what you guys think will happen next or what you want to have happened next. As always let me know if there are any mistakes in the chapter and what parts you like, feedback both in construction criticism and in theories/speculations are always welcomed and are actually encouraged. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter sorry for it being shorter than the last three ones had some college things that distracted me from the book.
Signed Irish ️