The Panzers will Roll...

Iron_Skull said:

I'd rather he expand at the historical rate and lose, than do the classic "and then Russia collapsed" in a year.

The difference between a great Axis AAR, and a bad one: You must always lose. Remember that and your AAR shall never fail.

Lets face it, adversity is far more interesting than success.

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1) So would I

2) I shall take that into account

3) Of course it is, wait to you see what I have planned for the future...

Joseph looked around. There was an eerie silence inside the factory. Nobody was firing a weapon, nobody was diving for cover, nobody was nervously glancing around for fear of their lives…

He loaded his MP40.

Most of the Soviets had crowded at the far end of the factory, and only a few were scattered here and there, probably told by their Commissars to "Die for the Motherland." The though 'what a waste of manpower' passed through his mind, but those men could still cause his troops some problems, hamper them, slow progress, and leave them in the firing line of the main Soviet force, but similarly those men could be taken out easily.

His men were rallying around him. Talking to each other, trying to see where the enemies were and load their weapons. Some were acting mighty bravado, but they were all scared.

The attack would take the form of a staggered advance, with the rightmost company would advance first, and then one of the left divisions would advance, then another from the right, so they would not advance as one to be easily countered, and the main Soviet force could not focus their fire on one particular company. This was a well used tactic in Urban Warfare, and had been widely taken on by the German Armed Forces.

Joseph was ready.

"Ok men, get ready." He cried "We will split into the three platoons."

Men mixed around to form into the positions.

"You've all loaded, I hope. We'll be attacking soon…"

This was interrupted by a roar from his far right, the first company had started the ball rolling and had started to attack. Gunfire raked through the air, and the sounds hammered against his ears.

"We haven't got a lot of time. Be careful of debris, and find cover." He paused, only for a second "And there are some Soviets still hiding, so don't get caught out."

The next two companies had started forward. Already the sounds betrayed the fact the Soviet fire had been split, and was less effective. There were some disjointed burst of gunfire from the enemy troops left behind but the advance continued. There were no only two companies left in their starting positions, and Joseph's would be required to run down a corridor ignoring all the enemy fire saved for the Russian stragglers. Joseph was dreading this.

Joseph turned to his troops.

"Men. It's our turn now!" he shouted "Ready, CHARGE!!"


The Panzers rolled through the empty street, ruins were burning either side of the road, and the sound of gunfire and artillery could be heard as a distinct rattle-and-pounding from afar.

The tanks stopped for a moment.

The commander looked at his map and turned to the driver. "Do you have the co-ordinates then?" he asked. There was a moment as the driver looked for them. "Yes sir, where just slightly North-West of the Industrial Sector and our objective at the moment, around a mile." Good, the commander thought, not long at all. He gave the order to advance, the engine rumbled and the tanks lurched forward again towards the front.

A few minutes later they turned the corner.

The factory stood out as a foreboding silhouette on the horizon, and up to it there was only burning rubble and flattened buildings. There was smoke rising from the distance, breaking the sun's light.

"Ok men." The commander said. "We'll get there as fast as we can, and then blast them to hell."

There were some smirks.

Though the panzers went as quickly as they could through the devastated Urban roadways, the factory didn't seem to be getting any closer any quicker. The commander didn't like this, he wanted to get a piece of the fight.

"Come on! Faster! They'll have taken it by the time we get there!" he screamed

This and various other shouts and insults seemed to make the time pass by much quicker, and soon they were up to the close vicinity of the building. It was easier to hear the roars of the men, and the incessant chattering of the guns, and, above all, the screams. Time to intervene, capturing this factory would secure the position of the German forces in the Northern part of Kharkov, defences could be set up, and the Soviets could be pushed away.

"Right!" the commander shouted, "Have we loaded?"
"Yes!" was the shouted reply from all the crew
"Have we got them within our sights?"
"Yes!"
"Are we ready to blast them to oblivion?"
"YES!"
"All right then!" he cried "OPEN FIRE!!"


The explosions rippled down the side wall of the factory, tearing it open and blowing it apart. All the men in the factory leapt down into cover. Joseph sneaked a look through the thick smoke; and he could make out the shadowy outlines of German Panzers. He grinned, they would surely win now, even if the Soviets outnumbered them in numbers, they had tanks! It was only a matter of time, and Joseph would not let many of them get out alive.

"FORWARD MEN!" he roared, and dashed forward towards the Russians.

He could barely see through the choking smoke, he fired his MP40 at the noises he saw, and picked himself up when he fell into some rubble. From what he could tell, most of the other Germans were doing the same, and the Russians seemed to be in flight, telling from the sound of the voices and the lack of bullets flying his way. Joseph sprayed an area where he thought he heard a rifle sound, and suddenly the thick smoke lifted.

There was a gaping hole in the far wall, and the Russians were pouring through to escape, and were running down the hill. Many of them had dropped their weapons and ammunitions in their hurry.

Karl suddenly appeared beside him, he was pointing his rifle.

"Hold you fire Karl." Joseph said.

Karl looked at Joseph with a confused expression on his face. "Why?"

"Well Karl." Joseph replied "We can keep the ammunition we have, we'll let those Panzers take down the stragglers."
"Ok sir." Karl said, but he seemed slightly disappointed not to have the shot. "What do we do now?"
"Wait for new orders I suppose. I don't think we'll be seeing anymore fighting in this factory, do you?"
"No sir."
"Good. Round up the men Karl, we can celebrate this victory."

Swollen Goat said:

Still loving your writing Edge. I don't know how you can write your updates so quickly. Must be nice to have talent for creative writing! And why do I have a feeling that at some point in this story Karl is going to have a much bigger part to play? Wishful thinking? Hmmmm?

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What..but...this..but...er....but

I forbid you to use your imagination!!

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the AAR, to some degrees anyway. Soon Part 1 of this AAR will be over (don't worry, it's a story of many parts...) and I shall start a short one for the public before turning my attention back to this one.

Joseph looked at his men. Grim smiles clung to their faces, some were chuckling quietly to themselves after the bitter fighting in the battle for the factory, which had shaken all of them in some way.

"Well men." Joseph said "We can safely say that that job is done."

Some more chuckles.

"Anyone for decent rations tonight?" he said
"Sir?" someone said "Are we staying here for the night?"
"Of course we are, our objective for the city campaign has been taken."
"So are we just going to stay here until Kharkov is taken?"
"That won't be very far into the future, matter of days I imagine."
"So what are we going to do for those few days?"
"Would you prefer to be charging at Soviet machine gun nests?"

There was silence

"Exactly. Karl has the new rations packs, the Battalion just got them and we got the best of them."
"Hopefully it beat the usual rations." A voice said
"I hope so too."

The men collected their rations and grouped together, exchanging stories of how they were nearly hit by a snipers bullet and how they were nearly brought down by 20 charging Soviets, but from what Joseph heard the numbers that they claimed kept getting bigger and bigger. But it brought a welcome change from the crawl around the Soviet streets when all you could hear were shouts from the living and screams from the dying.

A Stuka roared overhead. Night was falling.


The Commissar halted the soldiers.

"Alright Comrades." He said "Tonight, you shall advance for the glory of this Russian soil!"

He paused for effect.

"Today, we shall launch a counterattack against the northern factories. And in this attack next against many of you will die, but remember that your deaths will be a worthy sacrifice for the future of our nation!"

Another pause.

"The Germans are just a few miles through the streets in that direction! Be silent comrades, they must not know our presence!"


"Anyone hear the war situation?" Max asked

There were some scrambled suggestions.

"I heard that the Finns were advancing into the Kola Peninsula." Said one
"Weren't they getting stuck at Murmansk?" another replied
"We surrounded Leningrad."
"We're advancing to Archangelsk."
"We're at the borders of Moscow!!"
"Hey, Hey!" Joseph said "Don't get too far ahead, does someone know the exact position of the borders?"

No-one really knew.

"Oh well, we'll have taken the whole Ukraine soon!" he shouted as the men cheered.


As of 23rd October 1941, the German Forces had penetrated deep into the Soviet Union, taking millions of square miles and capturing millions of Soviet troops. Stalin had, since German forces had crossed the Bug river in Ukraine, ordered a policy of scorched earth, which meant all things that could be of use to the Germans if the gained control of them, such as farms and other agricultural bases, or stocks of supplies were to be taken with the troops or destroyed. This was preceded by the movement of industrial equipment to the west of the Urals.

This made it incredibly hard to get supplies to the troops on the front line. Keitel's earlier orders, to be received at the start of winter, was to "Live off the land", and as this was now impossible, the trucks of supplies had to be taken from depots in Eastern Poland to the front, which has made with each advance. Depots built on Soviet territory were almost instantly attacked (and almost inevitably destroyed) by rampaging hordes of Soviet partisans which were getting harder and harder to control.

Already, seeds of trouble and doubt had appeared in the German plan.

However, the advance was an impressive one. Mannerheim, leading the Finnish forces, had taken back the territory lost in the winter war and had pressed down the banks of Lake Ladoga, now about to be frozen, towards Leningrad.

Winter had already started to arrive in Northern Russia, and so progress towards Archangelsk had to be stopped. The Panzers were destroyed by warming their engine up, letting out excess fumes and giving away their position to the enemy.

Stalin had himself ordered a large portion of Soviet reserves to bulk up the defences around the Moscow area, which we now impossible to describe as anything but formidable, advances were suicidal.

Timoshenko, commander of the South-West front, (the line between Bryansk and Kharkov) had proven himself about as able as the German Generals and was giving ground grudgingly, making the Germans pay for every step they took.

In the South, Advance forces were driving into the Donbass, and the 72nd and 85th Soviet Armies, as well as the Crimean Reserves, had been trapped inside Sevastopol, now under siege from Erich von Manstein.

So the Germans marched still, but winter was coming and the advances were getting slower and slower.


It was in the thick of night, as it is always darkest before dawn. And the Commissar halted the troops once more in plain view of the factory, to the surprise of many of the men.

"Comrades." He said "We must make them feel as invincible as they wish, wait until dawn, when they think nothing can touch them; and then we shall strike, and you can take your revenge upon them.

Timoshenko's counterattack was well underway.

Max yawned as he woke up. It had been a long night, but not as rough as the nights that he had spent on the front. It was a new sensation to wake up to a calm morning knowing you are only a few miles from the front of a war that will change history forever, instead of having incessant artillery pound over your head and numerous bullets raking past your torso. It was eerie, an almost betraying silence, but Max wasn't worried.

He shook off the tension of his body after the sleep, cleared out his eyes and attempted to change his mind from its current slow, groggy state to a sharper, more alert one; one befitting of a soldier.

He took his water and drank some, he didn't have a lot left for the morning, but with the new supplies, water was plentiful, and no man didn't have some extra to go around. The rations had also improved, though packed and far-travelled food never tastes at its best, Max noted. However, today was the second day of relaxation from the stressful campaign in Kharkov, one that Max thought the Germans should learn from and take to heart.

The Soviets were improving.

Yes, they were still loosing, and they were clinging around for longer. They were getting better at the game, they knew the Germans better. They had better defences and better generals.

That Timoshenko was a devil, as well. He was previously unknown to the troops of the Southern Front until he had masterminded the breakout of the Kiev pocket. This lead to Soviet morale reaching a high, after being shattered in a campaign. The Kiev pocket had turned for Decisive Strategic Victory to Inconclusive Pyrrhic Defeat. It took the Generals a lot to get over that. And the withdraw to Kharkov, had, for the most part been organised.

Infact, Soviet resistance had never been stronger. Timoshenko had the cheek to launch counter-raids and counter-attacks, and vastly improved weaponry. Despite their best efforts, the Germans still held the technological trump card but new rumours had been spreading about a new Soviet tank. One that was more than a match for any of the tanks currently in the service of the Wehrmacht, and rifles said to be as good as the Karabiners. Even the new Gewehr models being produced weren't said to be that much better.

It was going to get harder, Max thought. Much, much harder.


The Commissar smiled, a disturbing grimace stretched across his tight face.

"Well comrades, you have exercised patience, and now it is time to exercise vengeance!"

There were shouts of agreement from the troops.

"Attack, take the factory, and do not let at single one live!!"

More, louder shouts.

"DRIVE THEM OUT OF THE MOTHERLAND!!!" he roared "DEATH TO THE GERMAN INVADERS!!!!!!"

With a roar of fury that could be heard for quite a distance, the Soviets surged forward, not far from the Factory, a gap that could be closed within a minute. The men were all in the midst of the red battle lust that grabs so many. They forgot family and friends and charged single-mindedly to what, they thought, was the only enemy that their country had ever had. The German sentries, the few that were there, knew they were doomed. They were brutally killed.

The factory would fall.


When Max first heard the roar, he thought 'That sounds like Russian Language.' And then his tired brain leapt into gear, thinking 'Then why would so many Germans be speaking Russian. They are Russian!!'

He immediately rushed to Joseph and woke him up. He grabbed his rifle and fired a shot in the air. Any that were not woken were soon by the barrage that had ended the lives of the other men nearest to the offenders.

Joseph was almost frozen with shock and fear as he leapt up.

He grabbed his MP40 and rushed into cover, simultaneously trying to loud and thinking how this could have happened with a slow morning brain. It didn't work. He shouted to his company to take cover as well, it was the only thing to do. Those that hadn't got the picture, or were too scared, soon managed - or died. Joseph decided not to think how or why the enemy had appeared, but just to do - that is - to kill them all, and ask questions later.

His brain was getting more and more alert with every passing second.

"KARL!" he yelled. "GET THE HELL OVER HERE NOW!!"

The sergeant quickly came towards Joseph, firing a few shots at the advance enemy.

"What is it sir?" Karl asked
"What do you think Karl!" Joseph snapped back
"So what are we going to do."

Joseph paused

"We will…we will beat a fighting retreat back to the end of the factory, killing as many of them as we can."

Karl nodded. "Men!" he shouted "Here! Fallback to me!"

Joseph could see the men running as fast as they could back to their positions. This was a disaster. He estimated three companies had suffered losses, like his; two had suffered heavy losses and one may have been obliterated entirely! Surely they were doomed. There seemed to be hundreds more Soviets than there seemed to be Germans, and they were advancing all the time. There was no way out that he could see, a simple retreat would be end in the same result.

Death.

It had to be avoided somehow, he had to do something to stop this surprise attack, for if he could not, then he and all his company where dead men. But he had to think fast, there was not a lot of time left.

He fired his MP40 at an advancing group of Soviets, and reloaded.

The battle for the factory had begun - again.

Fire raced past Joseph's left ear.

He crouched down and moved behind some rubble before unleashing a salvo at the oncoming Russians. They were pressing forward like the devil himself was chasing them from behind.

He turned a fired again, unleashing all he had, and threw away the empty cartridge and struggled for a new one. He saw many Russians pressing towards him fall from his bullets, but he knew that he and the rest of his company (and the Battalion) were fighting a loosing battle, and they were slowly loosing ground to their enemies. They were inflicting horrendous casualties of the Soviets - yes, but the factory was falling, bit by bit.

He looked for the rest of his company, they seemed to be falling back with him well enough. He was sure a few were separated and currently scattered around the factory, and a few were probably dead, but the bulk was alive and relatively close together, and it didn't seem that bad. Joseph would rather face enemies with his soldiers than by himself, who wouldn't for gods sake, you needed support. He could see the Soviets pushing his men back and back though, like they were to him.

Joseph fired one more with his MP40 and slowly retreated, back to another pile of rubble.

The fight continued like this, shooting at the advancing Russians, dodging bullets, and then retreating just before they got to his position, and trying to cause maximum casualties. It seemed to be working, but the Soviets showed no signs of giving up.

The kept pressing on, harrying Joseph, directing large mounts of fire to each of the troops hiding place, and trying to hit them with at least bullet. Joseph had dealt with this before, the Russians like using that tactic; however, here in a confined space with large amounts of enemies and small amounts of allies, the outcome could be slightly different. After retreating past of mound of debris for the umpteenth time, Joseph decided to bring together the company - if he could.

The Soviets seemed to be laying off the attacking for a moment, so he tried to see who was near him. There were two privates - and Max. He dashed towards the Corporal as fast as he could, some Soviet bullets narrowly missing him.

Max helped the tired Joseph behind some cover.

"Looks bad, doesn't it Lieutenant."
"Sure does Max, sure does." Joseph replied as he fired off more MP40 bullets. Max put down his Karabiner.
"Sir, what - are - we - going - to - do?" Max asked between rifle shots.

Joseph paused, he was thinking that very same question.

"We need to round up the company, if we fight them like this, they'll just pick us off piece by piece."
"I see sir." Max answered "So how are we going to do it then. I can hardly hear you over all the bullets, and we can't just go running around with all these Soviets!"
"Well, if that's the only way, that's the only way." Joseph replied

The two men continued to fire, and then retreat. However, there task was made easier, for they found two more men behind the same broken wall. And soon some men in the company could see a group getting bigger and bigger.

So those men joined, and it became more obvious, until all those in Joseph's company (save for those that weren't scattered or dead) and a few others from unknown companies had grouped together. The next step was to stop the Soviet advance and press back against them. Perhaps using their better numbers with their better weapons might give them an advantage? Joseph hoped it would, because their lives depended on it.

He stopped behind a wall of destroyed objects which had obviously been piled up there before the Luftwaffe came. It provided good cover, he could hardly been seen and it would take one of the best snipers in the world to put a bullet through the tiny gaps in the chain. The alternative for the Soviets was to get closer, and then get shot down by the other waiting Germans. Joseph also noticed than broken walls and unusually large piles of rubble made this are an effective bottleneck.

As he fired he noticed Karl away to his right, helping some men across the debris and firing at the advancing enemy. He saw fellow riflemen bravely standing in the way of the red army troops, and he saw the bodies of those who had already given their lives so the others could have a chance. Some of those bodies looked so young….why did they have to suffer first? It was a cruel world this one, Joseph thought as he fired more bullets in the general direction of his aggressors.

However, after a minute or two, his company settled round the so-called "Bottleneck" and formed a tight seal around it, shooting at any Russian that tried to get through, and for that part it was very successful.

But this did not remain forever, because the Soviets began to fire as one at the defenders, and no advance. This created a fierce firefight between Joseph's company and the Russians on the other side. As far a Joseph knew, the position of his company was unique on the battlefield, only a few Russians tried to climb over the mounts of debris, and were cut down by waiting Germans. However, some other companies had started to reform like his.

These thoughts were going through head as he fired at a squadron of Russians who tried to run through the fire, when he noticed a German rifleman by himself, just outside of Joseph's cover firing at the Soviets. He had tried to find cover, but and failed, and would be hit any second.

Looking back on it, it was probably that Joseph had the possibility of saving him that made him do what he did.

He started running towards the man, left his weapon and dived towards him, grabbing him by the arm and heaving him back to his position. Just in time, around a second after Joseph had moved him Soviet bullets raked the entire area (killing a few other Germans) and caused Joseph to jump back. He got back to his weapon and looked back at the soldier. It was Erich. He had a few scratches and bruises, and the shock of battle, but apart from that had no major injuries.

"Th-Th-Thank y-you, sir." He said, no realising that he had just escaped death.
"No problem Erich." Joseph said, and turned away.
"How are we going to be them back?"
"I don't know."
"Will we."

Joseph didn't answer that one.

However, the tide was turning. The Germans had regrouped into formal companies while the Russians remained as a rabble. Joseph still held the bottleneck, and the Soviets had lost the element of surprise. As well as this, the Germans were full of fighting spirit and the Russians were wavering due to heavy losses. Finally, the Germans had shaken off the morning tiredness and were alert as could be, while the Soviets had been on the march for a day and awake for a night.

Slowly, this began to tell, as Joseph saw other German companies starting to advance.

Of course, this wasn't very fast to begin with. Firstly it was tentative, but it was gaining momentum, and eventually the sides of the factory were beginning to slip back into German hands.

Joseph also noticed that the Soviets were, man by man, falling back from 'The Bottleneck', he could see groups of dead corpses were they had fallen. He ordered his men to keep up the fire, and the effect could be seen, visibly, in the faces of the enemy troops closest. Finally there came two breakthroughs that changed the battle. The first was Joseph's company advancing out of 'The Bottleneck' and firmly pushing the Soviets back. The second was the flanking companies taking the edges of the factory.

This opened up the entire Russian force to the Battalion's fire from three different angles, and, with the circumstances as such, the Soviets could not take it any more. There came an attempt at a half-hearted fighting retreat, but it quickly transformed into a full scale flight.

Joseph smiled as he charged forward, gunning down the Soviets who were not quick enough to move. He chased them and chased them, firing upon them and cutting them down, until they were gone.

But by that time, there were few enemies left.


The battle of Kharkov was then over. Timoshenko's plan had failed, though it had nearly succeeded. However, he withdrew his troops before they suffered high losses, and his armies lived to march again, once more to the chagrin of the German generals.

Resistance stopped on October 25th and the city was officially in German hands on the 26th. After that, the armies were given orders to rest and regroup while the commanders of Heeresgruppe Sud worked on a new plan.

On the 30th October, unexpected but certainly welcome news arrived. In the Crimea, the Russians in Sevastopol had surrendered after a few weeks of siege! Not only did this consist of 120,000 Soviets from the 72nd and 85th armies, it also contained the 250,000 Crimean Reserves which Cherevichenko had put there, Erich von Manstein had somehow conquered the city (through a mix of heavy Luftwaffe bombings against the city and supply ships, as well as his superior Tactics & Strategy, it was a fiasco for the Soviets).

This greatly boosted the morale of all the German troops and consequently lowered than of their opponents. The momentum was now gathering even larger on the Germans' side.

Rundstedt, Commander Heeresgruppe Sud had finished consulting his generals, but the news was not as good as Joseph had hoped. Commanders had been switched around, and commanders replaced, objectives changed. The news was that, as winter was spreading rapidly down form the North, effective advances would soon be rendered near impossible. So the objective was for List and Kleist to take the Donets Basin, with Kleist driving along the coast of the Sea of Avoz and List advancing through the middle, before winter came.

That would be the whole of the Ukraine, and all its wheat fields and factories (or places to build them - anyway) in German control.

Well that's nearly done then. For anyone who is a "Last Page Reader" of AARs (like I - sadly- am, I read the last page and barely anything else, just see what the newest thing is an consequently sometimes miss important things)reading the story, there is a Contents for Part 1 on the first page so you can read the AAR and not have to trawl through endless comments.

Secondly, Comments are welcome for Chapter 9 or for the entire story. Numerous comments appreciated (with different opinions, suggestions and even negative points if they help build the AAR).

Thirdly, you're lucky today, I gave you the title of the next Chapter in advance. I should be finished with this Chapter Tomorrow or Sunday. I do have a lot of work to do over the course of the next few weekdays, however, i'm virtually free next weekend, so avid readAARs of this AAR will be welcome to read my new AAR, which is short, but hopefully good and starting as soon as I have finished Part 1 of 'The Panzers will Roll...'.

So enjoy the conclusion of Chapter 9 then.

Joseph waited until the Soviets had stopped firing before returning his fire. It was hard to accurate in the fog, you had to fire at sound and the rare flashes of light that burst their way out of the mist.

Kharkov had fallen, and since then the Russians had fallen back in a planned retreat.

However, the German plans were far superior. Kleist's Panzers again the provider, as they crushed the Soviet resistance across the coast of the Sea of Azov. This meant that the enemy had an entire exposed flank, and the proposed plan to slowly retreat, causing maximum casualties to the Germans, had to be abandoned before large amounts of troops were cut off. The Soviet generals were working hard to prevent a repeat of the Sevastopol fiasco.

However, his company had run into some spirited resistance while crossing a small stream. Trees provided cover, and a fog reduced accuracy. But crossing a stream, even it is small enough to be crossed with a good jump, is made much harder when there is a band of people who want to kill you on the other side. But Joseph wasn't going to give up, quite the opposite, he was going to push the enemy, his troops had faced better resistance than this.

Joseph saw a flash of a rifle infront of him. He didn't think the gun was aimed at him as he didn't hear the load sound of a bullet rushing towards him.

But Joseph aimed at where he had seen the sight and the sound, and pulled back on his trigger. He heard a person scream in pain. He grinned, another worthless Russian soldier down, on less to fight. He scanned the area for other tell-tale signs of Soviets, but he couldn't find any. Joseph pondered through the idea, in his head, that there were only a few Russians ahead of them, and no around a hundred, as he expected. It would be embarrassing to order a charge and find only a couple of enemies.

Still, he had to fight on. He loaded his MP40 and tried to listen for more enemies.


Christensen had learnt a new skill in warfare.

If you fired a rifle in these conditions, it was best to move to some cover straight away, otherwise the enemy would start spraying the area where you were to try and hit you; and with the amount of bullets fired, odds on that one would.

With his rifle loaded, he aimed into the fog. A sudden noise alerted him and he fired at it, and quickly dived into a nearby bush. The space in which he had just been standing was suddenly filled with Soviet bullets. Another lucky escape. He knew that some of his friends had not been so lucky, and had lost their lives by not changing their position quick enough. He hoped the same went for the Russians, they deserved to be slaughtered.

He reloaded his rifle, and fired again.

This time though, his shot clashed with others, and his position was not given away. Smoke from rifle-fire was already beginning to add to the fog, making it harder and harder to locate the enemy. Something had to be done about this, Christensen thought. They couldn't sit hear and take pot-shots until all the Russians were dead, they had to think of a way of breaking this deadlock, and fast. A stalemate here was as good as a defeat.


Meanwhile, Joseph was having much the same thoughts.

He didn't precisely know where the enemy was exactly, but was sure that the main bulk of the opposition was somewhere to his left. If they could be neutralised, then this resistance could be finished.

He turned to Karl.

"Sergeant." He said
"Yes sir?" Karl answered
"I want you to spread the word to the men, tell them all to hold fire. Then, when I fire, the order is for them all to fire at once at where I was shooting. We will repeat this until we are sure we have caused some damage."
"Ok sir."
"Right; well get going then! We need to be moving forwards! Not stuck here!"


A few minutes later, Karl reported back.

"It's done sir."

Joseph didn't look at him.

"Good. Load your weapon. You'll need it."

Joseph heard a rifle being loaded behind him. He already had his MP40 ready, and he waited for the tell-tale signs of massed enemy fire. He could almost touch the thick silence that was wrapped around him. It seemed so tempting just to fire - to break that silence, but he knew that he couldn't. He had to be patient, and wait for the enemy, they had to make the first move - the first mistake. Then, and only then, victory would be assured.

It seemed like eternity, waiting there for the Soviets.

And then, some of them fired. They were a bit displaced but Joseph could still make out where the main bulk of the enemies were. He had time for one sly grin, before aiming his gun and firing.

He had a split-second to see his bullets pierce through the fog, before guns blazed from all around him.

The mist was lightened by numerous flashes from his soldiers' guns. Smoke rose thick from rifles backed close together, and bullets rushed through the fog. The sound was overwhelming, a roar of cold lead speeding to meet the enemy. Joseph also heard some embed themselves in trees and bushes, but he also heard enemy screams, and what sounded like a dead Russian falling into the scream. He loaded his gun and fired again…

The process continued like this, and Joseph lost the amount of time he heard the guns and the screams. The Soviets tried to replicate this effect, but they were too shocked or too under-strengthed to have any large effect on the Germans. Eventually, the amount of cries from the enemy died away, and Joseph though he heard dropped weapons, and footsteps getting fainter and fainter. Finally, there was silence, and nobody moved.

Joseph waited for around half a minute, before walking out of his cover. "Hold your fire men." He said, as he walked forward. The mist was lifting, and was less dense. By the time he had put both feet on the other side of the stream he knew that the enemy had been defeated. Dead bodies of Russians, young and old, were strewn across the damp ground, with horrified expressions in their eyes. Joseph looked away, that was all he needed to know.

"Come on men." He shouted "We've one, and we've got to advance. The rest of the army isn't going to stop for us."

He marched forward, and heard the rest of the company doing the same. The march across the Donbass continued under a starry sky that betrayed the acts of war carried out below it.

Joseph sighed as he fired his MP40 again. The Russian in the window ducked - just in time - and splinters fell in all directions from the small wooden home. He spared a second for a glance around.

The scene was pretty much the same. On this village in the Donbass, some Soviets had holed themselves up in the small buildings and had attempted to hold off the German advance for as long as the could. There were probably around 70 or so holed up in around 15 small houses, and the entire of the Battalion in which Joseph's company was serving had been sent to take care of them and stop this incredibly small thorn in the regiment's side.

Of course, it would be a long process, Joseph thought, as he ducked behind a statue to hear a rifle bullet smash against behind him. These Soviets started to fight, and then hid, determined to make themselves hidden and cause more irritation than damage to the Wehrmacht; however, Joseph still couldn't believe that they were still pursuing these tactics, after all, it was this sort of fighting that had pushed the Russian all the way from Mid-Poland to the edge of the Ukraine.

He finished loaded, turned, and shot again. Once more, his opponent had ducked.

Joseph decided that different measures needed to be taken. In the few seconds he had, he rushed up to the window. He took a grenade hanging from his belt, paused, and pulled off the fuse.

His heart skipped a beat.

Several thoughts raced through his mind in a second. What if the Soviet didn't re-appear? What if he saw Joseph? What if he died while holding his own grenade? But then, the face returned. Joseph gently threw the grenade through the window, and dived. He heard the clunk as it hit the floor, and the gasp of horror, before the explosions. It rattled the house and shook it badly. Some of the wall was displaced, and thick smoke was appearing through the windows.

What was more, it was on fire.

Joseph took his MP40 and rushed to the entrance, beckoning two soldiers to follow him in case the enemy soldiers tried to breakout. He needn't have worried though, because a few seconds later around 6 other Soviets ran out, with no weapons and shocked expressions on their face. A few of them were saying something very fast in Russian, which Joseph did not understand. Still, at least they had surrendered. Less fighting to do.

One on the privates marched forward with his rifle and cried "Handy Hoch!" and gestured upwards with his weapon. The Soviets seemed to understand this, and (eventually) all their hands were raised. Joseph ordered the privates to take the prisoners away.

He turned, how was the rest of the battle going.


Christensen was enjoying this. He and Gerwald and formed a sort of two-man team. They had taken two houses already and had earned much praise from various other German troops around.

The plan, in itself, was quite simple.

Christensen had a new rifle, and Gerwald a Maschinenpistole (Though this looked quite small on him. Christensen thought that he could use one of the MG - Heavy Machine Gun series weapons in much the same way). The idea was for them to both, at first, start far away from the objective. Then, when Christensen saw Soviet heads through a window, he fired. The confusion and shock that this would cause amongst the enemy would be ample time for Gerwald to burst in and quell any more resistance.

Despite enhancing Gerwald's reputation as a one-man killing machine, Christensen had also started to create for himself a reputation for skill as a marksman. This boosted the Morale of the company, as they had lost their best pair of riflemen (the brothers Otto and Kristoff) to a partisan attack when they were marching on Kharkov. This lost the company an ability to be able to hurt the enemy first, and this new news was welcome by them all.

But for Christensen, they had another house to take.

"Alright Gerwald." He said "Over there, see that house, we'll go for that one."

The large man nodded

"Same thing?" Christensen asked
"Ja! Gerwald bellowed
"Allright then."

Christensen turned away, and set out to load his rifle while finding himself a better firing position. He saw Gerwald slowly move to a point where he could easily run forwards.

Christensen was ready, and he aimed his rifle, looking for the targets.

There, through the window on the far right. There was a face - no two faces, two enemies by the window. They were taking it in turns to fire out, and Christensen saw a group of his friends being pinned down by the alternate fire. He adjusted his aim slightly, waited for the wind to die down slightly…and fired. The bullet raced forward and found it's target. It cut through the face of the first man and buried itself in the head of the second. Christensen saw blood flying through the air.

And those few seconds were all the Gerwald needed. With surprising ability, he reached the door in a matter of seconds, and apparently ran straight through it, as if it wasn't there. There was a loud noise of Machine gun fire which lasted for a while, and then Christensen saw Gerwald lead a few other Russians, now prisoners, out through the front door. He grinned, another one down. This battle couldn't go on for much longer, could it?


Joseph smiled. Yes, it had been done. The enemy had been decisively beaten. All of them were either dead or had been taken prisoner. This was just too easy, the enemy only seemed to put up a fight in the cities.

But he couldn't deny the facts any longer, winter was on its way, and it was already late November.

Joseph thought that they had gone as far as they could go for the first part of "Barbarossa", because soon there would be snows in the north, which would effectively stop all military action, and rain and muds in the south, which would (basically) do just the same. But the main objectives had been attained; the majority of the Ukraine, the Baltic States, Byelorussia and Western Russia had been taken into Germany territory. The next targets, Joseph thought, would probably be Moscow and the Caucasus.

Still, they had to take another town by the end of the week, and it was better to get going sooner rather than later.