Chapter 35: Airborne Operations (I)
Armand is also a veteran now.
Ever since he had seen the power of Manstein's Panzer Corps during an exercise a few years earlier, he had decided to join the German Panzer Corps. It's a pity that God didn't fulfill his wish, and he changed from a recruit to a squad leader, and his superiors didn't approve his application.
Now Armand is no longer in Gust's troops, he was transferred to Frankfurt a year ago, and then a few months ago he went to Berlin with his troops for reorganization, and he is now part of the Wehrmacht's 1st Division.
Soldiers are born to fight, this is how Armand perceives his profession. But where is war in peacetime? Living in boring training day by day, Armand thinks that maybe this kind of boring training day after day will continue throughout his military career.
It is only today that this boring tranquility is broken.
"Hello all the soldiers of the 1st Division, I am Jonas, the secretary general of the presidential palace." A deep voice spread over the radio throughout the 1st Division's station, and all the soldiers stopped what they had been doing and listened quietly. "Here I would like to announce the outrageous news that a party called the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, led by its leader Hitler, staged a coup d'Γ©tat in Munich, in which all members of the Munich city government were killed. The mob also brought terror to the people, many Jewish shops were smashed, and according to what I received, many Jews were caught and executed in the streets by Nazi stormtroopers, including women and children. β
"Oh my God, the whole city hall is dead?"
"How so? And what about the troops stationed in Munich? Don't they care? β
"How so? It's too inhumane, isn't it? β
"God, why did they kill the Jews in a coup d'Γ©tat? Even women and children are not spared? β
"Damn, you must punish them!" The soldiers were incredulous at first, and then they began to grow angry.
"I think you must be wondering, what about our soldiers? Where are they? I am humiliated that our soldiers, the infantry battalions stationed in Munich, betrayed us, who openly declared their support for Hitler, joined them. The railway operating companies in Munich were also on Hitler's side, and they closed all the railways to Munich, which made the movement of our troops to Munich unusually slow. To make matters worse, there were also mutinies in some other cities in Bavaria, where some of the renegade officers were seized by soldiers, but a large part of the army was still joined by the Nazis, and these troops held back our men, which made it impossible for us to enter Munich by land in a short time. "But there is also good news that General Lyon has another unit in Munich, armed with a secret weapon, led by Major Manstein." At the moment, they were holding on to the outskirts of Munich, but they certainly could not hold out on to the rescue of the surrounding troops. So General Lyon authorized me to come to the 1st Division to draw troops and temporarily form a commando team to airdrop Munich through Lufthansa planes and seize Munich Airport to clear the way for the follow-up troops. You sign up voluntarily, the requirement is that there is no fear of heights, and the registered soldiers are led by the squad leader to report directly to the regimental headquarters. Gentlemen, we have to find a way to save the people of Munich and Major Manstein, the German soldiers will not let persecution and massacres happen! β
As soon as the soldiers heard that they had the opportunity to go to the battlefield to teach the group of bastards, they immediately ran to the squad leader one by one and asked to participate.
It was the same with Armand in the class, everyone asked Armand to join the war, and Armand ran to the regimental headquarters with the soldiers without even thinking about it.
In fact, even if his soldiers didn't want to go, Armand himself would go, because the battlefield had always been what he longed for, let alone to rescue the armored unit he had always dreamed of joining.
Thousands of people had already gathered in Armand when he arrived at the regimental headquarters, but the rigor of the Germanic people made them all lined up neatly, and there were no crowds, but most of them still talked about their opinions on the events in Munich, which made the scene a little noisy.
The officer next to him shouted to the crowd: "Everyone, be quiet, keep quiet!" Listen to me, there are 200 places in our regiment, and now there are too many people here. Once again, I emphasize that the requirements are definitely not afraid of heights, and the priority of jumping over the parachute! β
"Hey! Sir! I fought drills with Major Manstein! I think I can help! Armand raised his hand and shouted at the officer.
"Are you afraid of heights? Come over here if you're not afraid of heights, man! The officer glanced at Armand and beckoned.
Armand happily squeezed through the crowd when he heard this, and his comrades and others looked at him with envy.
Thousands of people competed for 200 places, and there were almost no hard rules other than no fear of heights, which made the whole selection particularly fast.
"First of all, boys, I want to say that this mission requires a parachute jump, and there will be people from the flying club to teach you later. Remember, be sure to remember what they teach you, or you'll be a lump of meat sauce by jumping thousands of meters into the air! The officer in charge of selection told the 200 soldiers in a neat formation.
"Sir, what do we need to prepare? None of us had any weapons with us. A soldier asks his own question.
"You don't need to bring your own weapons, the War Department has prepared weapons for you. Alright, lads, let's go! Go and teach the betrayal of the people a lesson! With a wave of the officer's hand, 200 soldiers boarded the truck next to them neatly and quickly.
Armand was a little excited on the truck, he was finally going to set foot on the battlefield, and after so many years of training, his combat skills were finally going to come in handy!
A soldier next to him glanced at Armand and said, "Mr. Sergeant, I don't think you're nervous?" Armand turned his head to look at the soldier next to him, he was a very young man, Armand smiled and said, "What's so stressful about this, soldiers are born to go to war." What, you're scared? β
The soldier smiled embarrassedly: "A little." I wasn't nervous when I signed up just now, but I'm a little scared when I calm down now. By the way, sir, my name is Lune, what's your name? β
Armand looked at the soldier in front of him. reminded him of the old squad leader's care for him when he was a recruit, but unfortunately the old squad leader had retired.
"Sir?" The soldier looked at Armand and did not answer, and called out cautiously.
"Oh, my name is Armand. When you go to the battlefield, you can follow me. Armand patted Rune on the shoulder.
The car stopped, and an urging voice sounded outside: "Hurry up!" Hurry up! Boys, bastards are waiting for us to kick them in the ass, and it's not in our German habit to keep people waiting. β
The soldiers laughed and quickly got out of the truck lineup, and the originally tense atmosphere was diluted a lot.
Sixty commandos from three regiments arrived, waiting for the Wehrmacht Supreme Commander, who was at the front of the queue with the rank of major general, to speak.
Leon straddled the queue and said solemnly: "I won't say more nonsense, this mission is very dangerous, if you can come back alive, I invite you all to drink!" β
"Good!" The soldiers replied loudly, their eyes full of ferze. Now the army is basically a young man, and Lyon is equivalent to Hitler's status in the Nazis in their hearts.
After the brief pre-battle mobilization, the officer leading the team shouted an order: "Everyone rest, get their weapons and equipment separately!" Then 16 people on a plane, the highest rank as the team leader, set off! β