Battle of France
28 May 1940
France
In the warm morning air of May, French and British soldiers have retreated from their positions in Amiens. Neither had expected the German army to expand this quickly. In less than a day Luxemburg fell, The Kingdom of the Netherlands has fallen in a week, and Belgium is still resiting but it is all but certain that it would soon fall in the day. Denmark and Norway fell in April. It was heavily unexpected that the German war machine is able to advance so much. The blitzkrieg style of warfare took many by surprise, even yet is that German armor managed to get through the Ardennes forest.
The French soldiers stationed in Lilie are holding out the best they can against the Wehrmacht assault. Being bombarded by the Luftwaffe in the early morning and later in the early afternoon attacked. The French soldiers make their stand against the Germans. The general of Army Group A ordered his tanks to halt a couple of days prior as he left the infantry behind and worried that his tanks would be exposed to a flanking attack, which Hitler approved later.
Seeing the desperate situation in France, the British government ordered that all soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force are to evacuate at the city of Dunkirk. French and British troops soon followed. For the past two days, thousands of British troops begin to evacuate.
Esdeath and her company of two hundred soldiers make it into France. Though they have been used little in main battles, Esdeath and her soldiers, the Ice Jaegers, have been able to sweep up many resisting French squadrons and pushed back many French attacks. A few times, she used her Imperial Arms, freezing an entire village, garrisoned by French soldiers. These small acts that she considered minute to her managed to reach all the way up to the French and British High Command. Though hearing about a woman in the SS who can control ice and freeze anything in her midst would make any general rethink their plans and pull their troops out, they laugh it off as some delusional tale created by soldiers wanting to get out when the fighting got tough. But the situation on the ground is desperate for all armies. The French still are holding resistance against the Germans while the British can make a retreat, saving up precious manpower that can be used later in retaking the continent or to use for British home defense. But the situation in France is certain, France will fall.
30 May 1940
Bergues, France
The French rearguard has been in their positions since the 26th. Fending off against German attack. They know it's only a matter of time until the Germans arrive at their position and surround them. Even then, they know that their British allies would help them evacuate from Dunkirk but aren't seem hopeful of the fact that it might happen. In the small village of Bergues, a company of three-hundred men are tasked to keep the village and to stall the Germans as much as they can before having to pull back.
"Hey, have you heard of the rumors Pierre?" A French soldier asks his comrade.
"What of?"
"Apparently, there are rumors about a woman who can control ice and leads a detachment of two hundred."
"Where are you coming up with these rumors? How can there be a woman who can control ice?"
"It's true. 5th and 7th companies were forced from the city of Cassel. Apparently, three platoons were wiped out, not by gunfire but by ice. Frozen over and left to be shot like statutes. Those that are wounded apparently lost a limb and an arm and have gangrene infection. You can only catch that around the winter, not spring."
"It's all just tall tales Garcon. You shouldn't be making this stuff up, or else the captain would hear you and you'll be severely punished." Pierre responded.
"The Germans are coming. Everyman to arms! Don't let the Germans through here. Make sure these Germans pay for deflouring our French soil again!" An officer stood up, calling for the order to arms. As every man gets into position, blocking the town streets with sandbags or using the exterior of the houses as cover, they take aim at the encroaching Germans. As the Waffen-SS encroach on the city, a small detachment of two hundred is sent out to face the three-hundred. In one street, Pierre and Garcon's platoon of thirty men guards a major road passing into the village.
"Brrr, is it me or has it gotten cold here?" Pierre shivers.
"I don't think it's her. Could it?" Garcon spoke out.
"Would you shut up! Concentrate on the Germans that might pass through. You see them, you shoot them. Simple as that. Make sure they pay for attacking our lands again." A French sergeant responds. The men concentrate on their rifles. Out of the corner, a Waffen-SS soldier passes through the open street. Followed by a few members of his squad.
"Fire!" The sergeant cried out. The French soldiers begin to open fire, taking out a couple of the SS soldiers. The French machine gunner begins to open fire aswell, providing suppressing fire.
"Argh! It hurts, it hurts!" An SS soldier of the Ice-Jaegers responds as he is being dragged back after he was shot in the arm and the chest. His comrades near him begin to cross the street too providing covering fire and firing back at the French. One soldier, Oppenheim peers over with his Kar 98k and takes a shot, and pulls back behind the wall.
"Hauptsturmführerin, what do we do? There are about twenty or thirty on the other side of our position! And Reinhart has been shot."
"Hm. Well then, I guess only one way to destroy the enemy is to overwell them at their weakest point." Esdeath responds. "Send out the other troops to flank around the enemy here. Give me covering fire, I'll clear a path for us." Esdeath responds. She walks up to the middle of the street, confident that she won't be shot.
"You heard the Hauptsturmführerin, give her covering fire! MG team move up and provide machine gun fire!"
"We aren't taking orders from a Sturmmann rank." A Sturmann and his MG assistant tells Oppenheim.
"We're the same rank. Now move up and provide covering fire!" Oppenheim berates them back. The two move up and set up the MG-34, they open fire, firing three-second long bursts. As Esdeath walks to the middle of the street she can see French soldiers aiming and firing around her. Her own men around her provide covering fire.
"Cette femme est-elle folle? Qui pense-t-elle être?" (Is that woman mad? Who does she think she is?)The French spoke out.
"Non, c'est elle. C'est elle! Nous devons reculer ! Se retirer!" (No, it's her. It's her! We need to fall back! Fall back!) Garcon cried out as he turns away and flees.
"Garcon non!" (Garcon no!) Pierre turns around.
"Weissschnabel." Esdeath forms several sharp ad jagged icicles from the air and fires at the French. Several of the icicles are trapped in the sandbags or flew by and hitting their mark. Garcon as he flees is struck in the back of the neck and collapses.
"Mon Dieu, non!" (My God, no!) Pierre cried out seeing his comrade get struck by an icicle. The sight of such is engraved into his mind, but little chance is given to him to mourn as he himself is struck by a German bullet.
"Now then you Frenchmen. Let's see how you can resist the cold?" Esdeath then fires a blast of ice. Several of the French infantrymen are frozen
"Merde, repliez-vous ! Repliez-vous!" (Shit, fall back! Fall back!) The French sergeant orders. As he tried to move out, he sees his hand and lower arm are frozen. He freed himself but lost his arm, crying out in excruciating pain.
"Sergeant!" (Sergeant!) A French infantryman cried out, helping his NCO up from the ground.
Esdeath can hear their cries and orders of retreat spoken in the French language. "Now then my soldiers. Mop up whoever you can find and leave none alive standing in our way. Now move forward!" Esdeath orders her men. The Ice-Jaeger squadron begins to move up, taking shots at the retreating Frenchmen from their positions. Not even if they surrendered to them will they be shown mercy.
1 June 1940
Dunkirk France
On the sandy beaches of Dunkirk, many British soldiers of the BEF are left waiting to get on board ships set from their homeland. Day and night they're being harassed by constant attacks by Stuka dive bombers and the ever-encroaching of the Wehrmacht, leaves the British soldiers tense. Many are hopeful that they would return back to their home of Britain so that they can fight another day, yet others have little hope because there is a possibility that the Wehrmacht can simply punch through and encircle them. Many naively assumed that this war was going to be similar to their father's in the Great War, but the horrors of the trenches were now replaced with lightning speed attacks of combined air and land forces making that an impossibility. But, there is one rumor going around the camp lines.
"Say, Thomas. Have you heard of the rumors?" A British private poses a question to his comrade.
"Of the Jerry advancing to our positions? Of course. They made short work in such a quick time. I'm honestly all tired out by this. I'm more worried that they might encircle us and capture all of us before being able to return back home."
"That, but there is one rumor spreading around by the French. It's about a woman who can control ice."
"Now that sounds a whole lot of bollacks those bloody Frogs would come up with to take them with us."
"No, it's true. Whilst coming here, I came across a French med-bay, and outside are men who lost an arm or a limb. Some actually have frostbite at this time of year. I don't know how that is possible."
"Listen, Robert, there is no ice woman. We'd all be in a much bloodier situation if there is such a woman." Thomas responds, being annoyed by a rumor. Yet a very true rumor that some had known.
"Are you two talking about that ice woman? I heard she froze an entire charging company of French men in place. She's very dangerous from what I heard." A lance corporal in front of them turns around. "From what was told, is that she would freeze you solid like a fish in an ice block. It is said that they are frozen in such a fast time, that very little of what's left of that unit can report about her."
"Did they tell you what she's like?" Robert asks the lance corporal.
"Not much because I can't speak French. But from what I can make out, they said something about long blue hair and skin white as porcelain. Apparently, she's sadistic and laughs like a maniac."
"Ey, don't spout such udder rubbish. A woman that can control ice is only found in bloody children's books, not here. I can promise you, that a woman like that who can control ice can't possibly exist."
"Make Way! Make Way for the wounded!" A British officer walks through having a caravan of wounded men on stretchers follow behind him. The three men look at the wounded and see some commonality in all of them. Half of them are French soldiers who are missing a leg or an arm. With bits of ice shards reflecting like glass coming from their exposed limbs, while some have been frostbitten and are slowly experiencing a gangrenous infection.
"Jesus Christ, just look at these men. They're missing a bloody limb." Thomas comments. He pulls a French soldier to the side that is following with a stretcher.
"Excuse me you. What happened to these men?"
"Je ne sais pas de quoi vous parlez." (I don't know what you're talking about.) The French soldier responded.
"Il demande. Ummm, Que lui est-il arrivé? To him. Him with no arm." (He demands. What happened to him?) Robert speaks in what little French he knew, pointing at the French soldier on a stretcher with his arm off.
"Je ne sais pas. Tout a été rapide. Un moment il est bon et maintenant cette femme de glace lui a gelé le bras. Tout est dans la glace. Je dois y taller." (I don't know. It was all quick. One moment he's fine and now this Ice Woman froze his arm off. All is in ice. I must go) The French men turns around and leaves, catching up with his compatriots.
"What did he say, Robert?"
"I was right. I was bloody right." Robert starts to become worried. Causing others to be worried around him aswell.
"About what?"
"That Ice Woman. She's here. She's coming, she's coming to freeze us all!" Robert panics. "CAN THIS BLOODY LINE MOVE ANY FASTER! WE'RE ALL GONE FREEZE TO DEATH YOU WANKERS!" Robert shouts out.
"You! Get back in line and shut your mouth! Do not cause a disturbance!" A British Major catches the scene rolling out.
"You don't bloody get it! Those French bastards are losing ground quickly and are being attacked by the Ice Woman the bloody Jerries have! If we don't move soon then we'll all die!"
"You're out of order private!"
"Robert calm down!" Thomas and the lance corporal bring Robert back, trying to calm him down about the Ice Woman rumor.
"You don't get it we're all gonna bloody die!" Robert cries out in fear. His two comrades try to calm him down as the apparent rumor about the ice woman begins to spread all around the beach.
4 June 1940
Dunkirk France
In the late morning hours, as the sun rose high above the horizon line, the fresh and salty cold breeze from the English channel blows into the sea. After several days of fighting and resistance by the French rearguard, they at last surrendered. The evacuation from Dunkirk was only a miracle, the British Expeditionary Force managed to pull out all remaining soldiers from the beaches including over a hundred thousand French and Belgian troops who escaped. Though the lives of their men are important, what they left behind hampered the rearmament of their army. During the evacuations, the BEF is forced to leave behind valuable tanks and equipment, all to be only picked up by the German Army of the Wehrmacht and the SS.
Esdeath, now wearing the field grey shortened skirt, walks through the sandy beach of Dunkirk. Taking in the salty breeze of the English sea, hearing the crashing sounds of the waves, British equipment and helmets are left scattered about. As she walks through the beach she comes across a lone pier. The pier was in part damaged by Luftwaffe's attack but she didn't mind, this was indeed a victory for the German army and so she takes in the pride that came with it. As she walks through the pier, walking toward the sea a thought came up.
"The British Empire, France, I honestly expected a better fight than this. Previously they were able to take down the German Empire during the Great War but now have stood little resistance against the Nazi Reich. I assumed that these nations with such illustrious pedigree in history and culture, spanning the globe with their colonies. Now, these two nations are already retreating in defeat. Britain ran with its tail in between its legs and the French capitulated and surrendered. Now it would only be a matter of time before Paris would fall." Esdeath speaks out loud as she looks out the pier and into the English Channel. The enemy of the Reich, the homeland of the British Empire, the United Kingdom seems so close and yet so far away. "Thinking about it now. This is my first time actually seeing the open sea of this world, this is certainly a different experience. I certainly do wish to share this moment with Tatsumi." Esdeath looks out with longing in her eyes out on the pier.
Esdeath then takes out her journal and a pen. She has finished her first journal the week prior and is now writing on her second, documenting all of her experiences so that she can soon show them to Tatsumi if and when she sees him again.
"4th of June 1940
Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, and now France. All of them have fallen within a matter of days. All of them are strong and have powerful armies, but they're weak compared to us. They fell quickly and now are under the boot of the Third Reich. Now their powerful ally, the British Empire, has retreated like a neutered dog with his tail between his legs. Over the past year, the Reich has expanded and triumphed over his enemies like a tidal wave. May their downfall be the foundations of the New Order under the National Socialist rule.
I am however a bit saddened by the fact that I have little opportunity to use my Imperial Arms. Yet it appears that they have made an impact on the soldiers here. But what has impressed me the most are the technologies of the world here. Some that aren't even conceivable in my wildest dreams. Vehicles like Panzers, Stukas, bomber planes, tanks, armored vehicles, anti-tank and anti-plane armaments, etc. All of these are such impressive toys for me to play with.
I hope I get to fight once again as I know my Imperial Arms will not be outdone by these advanced weapons of war that would even put the Empire to shame. Yet there is something my heart yearns for more than fighting. That is for the reunion of my Tatsumi. Everywhere I look I can see him. I can reach out to him but alas, we are worlds apart. Him a revolutionary with Night Raid and I a General of the Empire in our old world. Once I see him again, I swear that he will be mine."
As Esdeath writes in her journal, an SS soldier under her command approaches Esdeath and stands at attention saluting Esdeath.
"Heil Hitler, Hauptsturmführerin." Esdeath closes her journal and places it back inside of her tunic. She turns around to salute the soldier.
"Heil Hitler. What is new Sturmmann Oppenheim?" Esdeath asks the soldier.
"I'm here to you that the surrendering French have been secured. Almost 40,000 stayed behind to act as the rear guard for the British." Oppenheim responded.
"Anything else?"
"We've taken a casualty count of the men lost on the way here. In total, we only suffered ten wounded of the two hundred we started out. Relatively average throughout the rest of the SS units and the Wehrmacht."
"That's good to hear. Though I want my men to be the best, the most loyal, and the most courageous soldiers. So I will accept my soldiers who have wounds that won't hamper the rest of the Ice Jaegers. Aside from that, anything else to report."
"Yes. You are being recalled back to the city of Stuttgart to meet with the Führer."
"Is that so? Well then. I assume the rest of my unit will follow. Now, I believe it's time to go."