I was feeling very confident in my abilities as a tank driver, so I decided I needed to set my sights a little higher.
This time, I set my sights on Germany – the lion's den.
I wasn't completely sure of what awaited me, but I was sure I could handle it.
My first stop in the heartland of the Third Reich was a bombed-out city with a field to the east of it.
At the city limits, I saw a sign that said "Wilkommen in -berg"*
The sign had been damaged, so I didn't get the city's entire name.
Thus, I decided to call it "Ruinberg".
It was a fitting name, given the general condition of the city.
First, I was sighted by an A-20.
However, thanks to careful aim and a quick trigger finger, I mauled the A-20.
After careful analysis, I decided that it was better to flank left or right into the city rather than to go straight to the heart of it.
Hopefully, this maneuver would also give me some added protection from the artillery strikes that my foes had unleashed.
With little thought, I went left, which, according to my instrumentation, would put me at the south of the city.
Suddenly, a T-34 popped out of the city from the right!
For a moment, I got a good look at the emblem on the tank:
Instead of the usual red star, it was a red wolf's head with yellow outlines.
Almost immediately, I knew that I was facing The Red Wolves.
I had never faced them before, but I had heard a few things about them: They were hard-line Stalinists and were said to be one of the more dangerous tank companies.
In fact, there were some rumors floating around about them too.
Regardless of which ones were true or not, there was one truth: People who ran into them never came back again.
Thus, I decided to be more careful.
In the meantime, I destroyed the T-34 with a single shell.
Before proceeding any further, though, I briefly hopped out of Goliath to check the intersection.
Satisfied that nobody else was going to tag me as I crossed it, I drove on, missing another artillery shell.
Just as I was about to take a right into the next intersection, I spotted another KV-2 with…an M-10!?
I froze for a brief moment.
Never in my entire career had I ever seen another KV-2 equipped with the 152mm!
It was almost like a mirror image of me!
The only difference between Goliath and this tank, though, was that – as with the other tanks of the Red Wolves – it was painted in a primarily tan "large spot" camouflage scheme, similar to what certain units in the western Soviet Union painted their tanks in.
Goliath was still painted in ordinary green paint.
Anyways, the opposing KV-2 fired a shot at me, which, although it missed, came too close.
I could even feel the blast wave from inside Goliath!
Now I know how my foes felt when they were facing me off.
Combined with the surprise of seeing another KV-2 with the same gun as mine, and my heart rate had gone up.
Never before had battle ever gotten me so agitated!
Despite my agitation, I managed to get the gun aimed properly at the other KV-2 and…
BOOM!
Scratch another bad guy!
After destroying him, I made a right turn down the intersection, my heart still beating wildly.
Another T-34 popped out of an intersection to the left, which only added to my fury.
He fired, but only did minimal damage.
When the cannon was loaded, I didn't take a lot of time to aim; I just fired and killed the tank.
I tried to keep my head clear, but I was still pretty shocked, so I took a deep breath and backed away a little.
While it didn't totally calm me down, it did seem to help.
With my gun reloaded, I pressed forward, only to encounter a KV-1S.
I was all ready to aim at it and fired…
BOOM!
Surprisingly, just as I fired, a T-34 got in the way and took the brunt of the round, saving the KV-1S at a cost to its own life.
That was also pretty shocking, but the shock of that wore off because I realized, "Hey, as long as I've eliminated one of their tanks, then why should it matter which one I've killed?"
In the city streets, I had some cover from artillery, but each shell that hit a building damaged it even further – not that they weren't already damaged, of course.
Nevertheless, given how Goliath had fared against a KV-1S, I felt pretty good about pressing onwards.
Sure, going around a corner was risky when they were expecting you, but I had Goliath's gun ready and a quick trigger finger, so I killed the KV-1S with no problems.
Pressing further, I decided to make a right, but not before verifying that the intersection was clear.
Satisfied that it was, I kept driving, and it was a good thing too because two ISes had just emerged from around a corner way ahead of me.
Unfortunately, I don't think I did so well going around this corner either, because I encountered another IS.
However, this one had a different turret, a low, dome-shaped one, in addition to a hull with a "pike"-shaped front.
It was here that I realized something:
That's the IS-3!
That handbook didn't have a misprint!
I now comprehended that I was in deep trouble.
The IS-3 confirmed my fears when it fired a shot at me, severely damaging Goliath and shattering a track.
Naturally, I fired back, but given the nature of the IS-series tanks, it didn't die with that one shot.
While it did back away a little, it didn't retreat.
Instead, it opened fire again…
BOOM!
Goliath was destroyed for the third time in its life.
Again, while my armored suit saved me, I certainly felt the power of the blast.
Maybe the suit's losing its effectiveness.
Regardless, I'd been through this before, so until the IS-3 turned away, I played dead and jumped out of the tank when it turned away.
I got an anti-tank grenade ready, when all of a sudden…
"This is Lieutenant Petrushkin!" shouted another tanker from behind me. "We have you surrounded! Remove your weapons or you will be destroyed!"
How did I fail to hear that tank sneak up on me!?
Guess it was the adrenaline talking.
I stood there trying to think of any way to get out of this.
I could throw the grenade at the IS-3 anyways, but then the tank behind me would tear me apart.
I could try to throw the grenade at the tank behind me instead, but there was a good chance that he'd destroy me first.
No matter what I thought of, I was going to be destroyed, so instead, I just resigned myself to the fact that there was no way out of this.
It was a very bitter pill to swallow, especially since I'd always made it through tough situations before.
Oh well, I guess maybe I was tired of fighting anyways, so I should just go along with this and see what I can do.
In the meantime, I shouted, "OK, you got me! Don't shoot!"
I calmly put the pin back in the grenade I had out and dropped it on the ground.
I also removed my equipment belt, which included my Tokarev, ammo & extra grenades, and dropped that, too.
Then, somebody released a cloud of gas.
I tried to stay awake, but it was no use.
I could feel the darkness taking hold of me…
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.