Chapter 117 Help Is Coming

The Wehrmacht asked the SS for help, which was definitely a shocking and rare event in the early stages of the Soviet-German war in the summer of 1941.

Since the moment Kaiser Wilhelm I was crowned king in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles after winning the Franco-Prussian War, the German Wehrmacht, which is mainly composed of the Junkers Noble Officer Corps and has been passed down to this day, has always been the only legal armed force guarding the German flag. strength.

As for the SS, a Nazi political and military organization that in its own eyes was composed of "gangsters, thugs, and ruffians", the Wehrmacht, which had been "glory despite defeat" since World War I, initially looked down on the other party. Even with a very contemptuous attitude.

This was true even after Hausser, who later became known as the "SS Sword Master", introduced the Wehrmacht's formal military training, transforming the SS into a loose group that could only engage in espionage operations and political police activities. Even after becoming a powerful militarized group, not much has changed.

The SS, which has no glory at all in the hearts of most Junkers aristocratic officers of the Wehrmacht, can only be regarded as a group of militarized regime thugs at best. This arrogant and narrow-minded prejudice did not completely change until the end of World War II when Germany was defeated in 1945, and this was one of the important reasons for the poor and irreconcilable relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS.

Therefore, even the soul of the Waffen-SS like Hausser, after hearing that the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht was asking for help from its own SS-Reich Division, he still couldn't help but show a look of genuine surprise. .

He silently took the telegram from his chief of staff and flipped through it. The tense smell of gunpowder between the lines was like burnt bread, which made Hauser frown.

Between personal emotions and the overall situation on the battlefield, Hausser, who was born in a Prussian military family, finally made the right decision.

"How many reserves do we have on hand now? Ostendorf."

After hearing Hauser's sudden question, the chief of staff, who was thoughtful for a moment, quickly gave an accurate answer.

"The combat engineer battalions have all been filled into the fire line. Now the only available reserve team at our division headquarters is the combat engineer team directly under the division headquarters. I plan to use it to put out fires at the most critical moment. How are you? Serge, are you planning to send our reserve team to those cold nobles?"

Facing the almost unbelievable rhetorical question from his chief of staff, Hauser, who had already comprehensively coordinated the overall battle situation in his heart, immediately continued to speak.

"The city of Yelnya is now a steel furnace churning with hot molten steel. The Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment is now half-dangling, and is about to be pushed into the steel-making furnace behind it by those Russians. If they are defeated, they will be defeated. The Russians who rush into our rear lines will also drag us into this abyss of fire!"

"Even to save ourselves, the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment must not be defeated."

From these words, Hauser has realized the determination in his heart, and Chief of Staff Ostendorf, who has worked with him for a long time, can naturally understand the meaning of it.

"Okay, now that you have decided, there is no problem on my side. I will go down and arrange support troops."

"etc"

Just as Chief of Staff Ostendorf turned around and led his two guards to the entrance of the field division connected to the traffic trench, he had been facing the battlefield and his back to Ostendorf. Husband Hauser suddenly stopped the other party at this moment and spoke again.

"Deploy some troops from other regiments to make up the reinforcements to a battalion size and then send them there. The Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment is in a more difficult situation than us, and sporadic support troops cannot make much difference at all. "

After hearing the additional orders from Hauser, he immediately moved his lips and wanted to say something. However, Chief of Staff Ostendorf, who hesitated to speak after thinking again and again, finally kept silent and glanced at Hauser. The figure that was still standing there immediately strode away.

On the first-line defense position of the Waffen-SS Imperial Division, the SS soldiers who had become red-eyed in position defense operations were using everything they could launch to fire at the enemy.

The red-beaten MG34 barrels were piled randomly beside the machine gun team like scrap steel, ignored, and the 92X57mm Mauser shells clicked under the soldiers' feet like a hot carpet. The SS rifleman, who repeated the action of pulling the bolt and loading the gun over and over again, was almost numb to the point of forgetfulness.

Wave after wave of Soviet soldiers surged toward the Imperial Division's position like tidal waves, like marmots emerging from the ground, and they were impossible to kill.

The corpses of Soviet soldiers and various burning tank wreckage piled up in front of the Imperial Division position. Ernst Bachmann, who was so exhausted that he began to tremble all over, swore he had never seen such a horrific scene.

Those Poles who boasted that they were one of the strongest armies in Europe, in Bachman's mind, compared with these Soviet troops, they were just a group of docile sheep!

"Everyone is crazy! This is not a war. This is a scene only found in hell. This is not why I became a soldier!"

While complaining in his heart, he replaced the MP38 submachine gun in his hand with the magazine that he didn't know how many times he had filled it. He forced his will to barely overcome the fear in his heart and was about to stick his head out of the trench and shoot again. Squad leader Haynes, who was carrying a steaming MG34 general-purpose machine gun on his shoulder, suddenly grabbed his shoulder with a crouching posture.

"Stop fighting, Buckman! Take everything you can take and follow me! We have a new mission, hurry up!"

After being ordered by his squad leader, Ernst Buckman followed his infantry platoon and began to retreat in a daze.

Buckman had no idea what was happening at the moment. At first, he thought that his front line had collapsed and he had to retreat and organize defense.

But when Bachmann, who was in a state of confusion, with ringing ears and even a shaky walk, stopped with his MP38 submachine gun in hand and followed the squad leader, a group of troops from the Imperial Division who looked no better or even worse than him had already assembled behind the front line.

"Everyone get in the car! We are going to support the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, let's go!"