"Come on, we're almost there." Alex called over his shoulder to others in his group.
They have walked for hours now in a forced march like this. At first they were among thousands of others, as they marched out of camp with pride and vigor. But now, they are just one of many small unorganized groups wandering aimlessly west to what will either be their finest, or final hours.
As they continued on, the signs of battle became more and more evident. With the ever-increasing sound and intensity of the German bombardment of the city, and the resulting plumbs of black smoke rising above the steppe.
"I'm guessing that that's our destination." Vlad said to no one in particular.
"Looks like it."
All of them looked very tired, but none of them even dared to rest, not even for a moment. Having heard the stories about the work of the commissars on anyone that they found resting.
"What was the name of this anyway again?" Asked
"Stalingrad I think." Kimek Answered from the back of the group.
"Seems more like hell to me." Everyone turned towards the source of the statement, seeing Nonna's slumping figure as she simply continued on towards the burning city ahead of them.
Speeding past heavy artillery pieces and columns of marching infantry, the armored convoy was also making its final stretch for the besieged city, and with the majority of the men in eager anticipation of experiencing combat for the first time.
Maho held her normal lack of expression as she stood out of the copula, the rest of her crew raging about their upcoming first taste of battle.
"Uh, Lieutenant?" Muller said, stopping the festivities of the others.
"Yes?" Was Maho's response as she brought her head back in.
"Their informing us that we will be entering the city in a short time, the rendezvous point will be just within the city's suburbs." He forwarded from the column's lead tank.
"Everyone in high alert. Now that we're in a battle zone, and I don't want to get caught by surprise." She ordered before raising her head back out the cupola.
"Move forward comrades!"
Nonna, along with the rest of her group reached the Volga several hours earlier, all very exhausted from the grueling march under the scorching sun and flowing dust. They luckily given a brief span of time to rest, as the whole division was absolutely broken apart, and command needed time to reorganize whatever they could before sending them out into action.
But now they were being packed onto countless rafts and barges off to slaughter.
"Keep together. I don't think we'll be able to get back together if we end up on different boats." Alex said to the others. Though Nonna was the one nominated to take command of the group, Alex was the one that really stepped up as the leader one a day-to-day basis. She didn't seem to mind however, more relieved than anything else at not having to carry the responsibility of the group on her shoulders.
"I'm just hoping that we're able to get across at all." David said as he saw a pair of German aircraft swooped down for a pass over several boats on the river.
Along with several other vehicles, the Panzer III turned into the outskirts of the once sprawling metropolis. Around a few hundred yards down from the intersection, a fairly large grouping of soldiers could be seen.
"There's the rendezvous point." Maho said to Hayden, who then slowed down to a stop near to the group along with the other vehicles with them.
As soldiers poured out of the trucks and armored halftracks the crews exiting their vehicles. The men that were sitting by the roadside stopped what they were doing beforehand, whether it was cleaning their equipment, exchanging stories, eating saved rations, or simply trying to rest between engagements, and moved into line.
As Maho and the rest of the new arrivals started to get in line as well, an officers came out in front of them. He was young with messy dark brown hair. Because of the worn state of his uniform most of the new arrivals assumed him just anther ordinary foot soldier.
Everyone watched him as he walked in front of the new infantry.
"Well men, welcome to Stalingrad!" He announced to the newcomers. "I don't think I can stress how important this city is to us and the Russians. Apart from its name, it is one of the most vital shipping points in the southern half of the Soviet Union. We capture it, and they'll have no way to protect the vital oil fields to the south, and no way to keep up with the demand for fuel in the north. We take Stalingrad, and everything else will fall as well." The officer announced, before pausing.
"Normally when we do these sorts of things, we would be miles away from where we are now… But." He stated as he rose his hand behind his head. "Because of the timing that you guys had arrived. All of you will be going into combat within the hour. Division wants all available assets put onto the enemy without exception. Orders will be handed out to all squad leaders, and as soon as your men are ready, we'll be pulling back to the front lines. That'll be all!"
'He can't be serious.' Maho thought as she watched the men around her nearly all showing the same reaction as her. She had been expecting at least a several day period for the battalion to properly integrate for combat readiness. But after hearing what she heard, she could only assume that her first experience in combat will be much sooner than she had ever thought possible.
Either way however lieutenant or not, she would have no option whatsoever than to comply with her situation and merely prepare as best as she can, for both her and her men.
Seeing that the unit commanders were still working to organize the newly arrived infantry with already existing squads. She merely turned back towards the parked vehicles to assisting her crew inspect the tank.
"Status report." She called to Hayden and Karl as they were examining the engine.
"Well sir, while the engine doesn't have as much dust in it as before, there isn't anything else in it either." Hayden answered as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "The oil is thirty percent below the recommended level, and were down to less than twenty liters of fuel left sir."
"We'll have to manage with that at the moment, I don't think we will be able to take care of that for now." Maho said as she wrought in a note for later on the concern. She was about to head back to check in with the other tank commanders for a debriefing on the situation, when the abrupt sound of heavy footsteps, and someone clearing their throat right behind her caused her to slowly turn around, face to face with a slightly older NCO than herself.
"Sir." She addressed the officer, who then spoke up.
"Well well well, look what we have here: the new regiment's morale booster. Do me a favor and come to me first, before the others have a go at ruining you." He stated, with a malice expression.
"What was that?" She simply asked him after he said something she might have misheard.
"You heard me. Or is it staff officers only? Your loss."
"I suggest you get back to your men."
"Ha! Too cute. I tell you what 'lieutenant', I'll follow your orders, but you'll have to do something for me in exchange later."
"I'd prefer not."
"Are you sure about that?" He asked as he edged slightly closer to her.
"Something wrong!?" Karl asked as he landed off the tank next to her facing the other man.
"Oh I see, already taken. But like I said before, your loss… I can find much better gals out here just begging for me to take them than some stuck up bitch like you!"
"WHY YOU-!" Karl started as he began to approach the man before Maho placed a hand in front of him practically standing in the middle to keep Karl from doing something that both of them will regret.
"SERGEANT!"
Looking over a few meters
"Yes Sir." The NCO immediately stood at attention, holding a straight face.
"How dare you insult an officer in such a manner!" The new comer boomed to the enlisted man before him.
He was a reasonably old officer, though his completion didn't make him seem weak in the slightest, and his large trench coat and peaked cap only added to his imposing stature, which he was using every bit on the young man before him. While the same officer from before stood at attention next to him doing the same.
"Yes sir." He replied to the older man before him.
"Captain. Escort this private out of my site!" The older man said to the other next to him.
"Yes sir." He simply replied as he harshly shoved the recently demoted man away.
After harassing the ex-sergeant, he turned towards Maho. "I'm sorry for his behavior, I'll see to it that it doesn't happen again."
"Thank you sir." She said with a quick salute, which he happily returned.
"No need to mention it." He said before offering his hand to her. "I'm Major Jacob Moller, and the man over there is Captain Manfred Glaas."
"Second Lieutenant Maho Westernkrieger." She said in a calm voice as she shook his hand.
"Yeah, I know who you are. I read through the list of all the newcomers. And I also served under your father back before…you know."
"Yes I remember." Ever since she first left home, that same memory of meeting her father in Munich all those years ago kept coming back to nearly every day now that she had followed in his footsteps.
"He would talk about you and your sister all day, even when we were practicing."
She nearly broke into a smile thinking back to how he would always run up and take her and her sister into a tight hug whenever he got home. "That sounds like him alright, never taking things seriously until the situation really called for it."
"And I see you're starting to look like your mother was when they first met. How is she doing?"
"Mother's doing fine. She still runs the school, and she's more involved with the party than ever, she even got a role in the resettlement operations."
"Ah yes, she was always the textbook party member."
"Yes she is."
"And your sister?" He asked.
"...Miho's left to study in Karlsruhe shortly after I left, I'm guessing Mother's training her to be a backup heir now that I'm on the front."
"Well hopefully she won't need her for that." He said to her with a grin. "I'm attaching you to Captain Glass's unit, he may be a little…" He paused as he looked over to the young man in question grasping the sergeant by the collar against a nearby halftrack. "…rash at times, and has the tendency to not act his rank, but he's the best I got."
"Yes sir." Said Maho as the Major stepped into the vehicle and drove off with a final farewell.
Only several minutes went by with the men preparing to move towards the fighting zone in the city, and getting acquainted with their new comrades. Manfred inspecting his unit, and Maho helping her crew do what they could to keep their tank at top shape before they finally were given their orders.
"Alright everyone, we're moving out! I want infantry on the sides of the roads, and tanks in the middle. We're expecting them to use everything they got at us today, so keep on high alert!" Manfred called out from atop a high mound of rubble with the unit's radioman.
"Is that true lieutenant, are we finally going to see some action." Asked Muller as the crew were making their way into the tank.
"Yes we are." Maho answered in an indifferent tone. "Like I said before, I want everyone on full alert. This isn't a game; we don't get second chances if we mess up."
"Don't worry lieutenant." Said Hayden while he was getting seated at the driver's station. "We won't let you down."
"Yeah, and I can't wait to bag me some Ivans as well." Karl had to add in at the end.
Nonna struggled to breathe among the packed conditions of the small ferry as they made their way across the wide river.
From where she sat down on the raft's deck, she could see scores of other small craft dashing across the massive stretch of water.
The water around them was a dark brown and dotted with partially sunken vessels from the constant barrage from German artillery and aircraft, continuously bombarding the river as they made their way across. But in the midst of the shouts and explosions, everything seemed to have been drowned out by the ever bombing voice of the commissar standing at the front of the boat.
"Comrades, you have been given the great honor of defending the great city of Stalingrad. The barbarian hordes has come to this great city soaked with the blood of countless women and children, and has come with the intention of defeating our great Red Army with one last desperate blow."
As the speech continued, Nonna quickly scanned around where she was to ensure that everyone from her village made it onto the same boat. 'Ok, there's Alex… Kimek… Vlad… David… Denis…, Vic and Roman.' She let out a quick sigh of relief.
"You are to stop them here, for there is now no other bank on this river for you; and it is your duty to see to it that they never cross it, even if you must block them with your own dead bod –"
The next thing she knew, she was in midair. She never heard the explosion, actually she couldn't hear anything apart from a painful ringing. She didn't know whether it was a diving stuka that nobody was able to hear over the Commissar's ranting, or a very lucky artillery shell, all she knew was that something hit the boat she was on, and that it was no longer under her feet.
Before she had a chance to make any form of rational thought, the icy waters of the Volga hit her like a brick wall. It took her several moments to realize her situation, and break through the water surface. She filled her lungs with fresh air for the first time since before her little boost into the air, she was able to make out exactly what happened several moments earlier.
All that remained of the boat was a burning mass of debrief on the surface, and the water around it was turning into a sickening shade of dark red from scores of mutilated bodies that could be seen bobbing in it.
Several of the other craft were immediately forming a perimeter around whatever was left. She noticed that while most of the survivors swam as fast as they could towards the small vessels, and a few tried to get away only to be gunned down on sight, others seemed to be unable to go either way. Making an on the spot decision, she decided to make her way towards the stricken craft where those to maimed to swim were trying their best from simply sinking into a watery grave. It was at that same moment that she first realized how far she was actually flung, seeing herself a good thirty feet from where the majority of the debris remained.
Reaching were the small craft use to be, she immediately swam towards the one that seemed in the greatest need of help: a young man who seemed to have a broken arm, and a leg cut off from the shin down. After having to get him to stop flailing for help, she started to make her way to the nearest boat, drastically slowed down by her payload it took several minutes to cover the thirty feet to the waiting craft. She was able to get the man up out of the water with help from the men onboard, but was stopped by the guard onboard as she started to turn back towards the remaining survivors that needed help.
"Hey you, get in here before I shoot!" He warned with his PPSH aimed at her.
Nonna looked up to him, unwilling to leave the others to die. "Please sir. There are more men in there."
"We cannot stay here long. Onboard now, or I'll have to put you down." The guard explained to her, the tone of sentimental betraying the tone of his voice.
Seeing that she could do no more, Nonna simply pulled herself into the boat, at least knowing that she was able to save one person, and seeing that several other craft were continuing to pick up survivors as they passed by.
However, she was by herself now. She was in a boat packed with many others, but a stranger every single one. She had no idea how the others were faring, who was alright, who was hurt, and who was… didn't want to think about it anymore, and simply cleared her mind as best she could, and watched as the besieged city came closer and closer into view.
Authors Note:
Sorry for the very, very long delay in the update, first semester if college was a handful. I really hope to be able to update more from now on.
While I was in college I was going over the anime and manga a few times over, I', still unable to find any site that got past chapter 12, and I also prefer the English sub over the English dub (you can never beat the original).
I hope you liked this chapter and the first bit of action in the story, the next one will be filled with it, (I have a lot of OCs I need to get rid of).
Please Read and Review.
Writer's recommendation of the day:
So how many stories do you think there is in fan fiction with a panzer officer, and a female Soviet conscript off in Stalingrad? Apparently two as far as I can tell. So if you enjoyed this story, check out Stalingrad 1942 by GasmaskedMook. Following the actions of Captain Roy Mustang of the 4th Panzer army "The Hero of Kiev", and sharpshooter Risa Hawkeye of the 39th guard division; along with a colorful array of supporting characters including Officer assistant Edward Elric, Political Commissar Oliver Armstrong, SS Captain Kimlee, and volunteer runner Salem Bradley. And also with its own helpful list of historical terms and translations.
Important terms/translations:
Commissar: Soviet Political Officer, often assigned to blocker and disciplinary units.
Karlsruhe: Capital city of Baden
Stuka: German dive bomber operated during the second world war
Oh, before I forget: Ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!
