81_81266After a short march, Rennes' 113 tank returned to its battalion headquarters with tanks 112 and 115, where it joined up the repaired tanks 114 and 111.

Both commanders regretted missing such a great victory, especially the commander of Tank 111 who remained for Tank 114, and when he heard that Wren had fought a big battle, and that he had captured thousands of workers and hundreds of pieces of equipment, he was so envious that he vomited blood.

"Cheers! for victory!" Wren held up his lunch box, which contained beer purchased locally.

"Cheers! to Captain Rennes!" "Cheers!" and several commanders also raised their glasses and said gossiping.

They now had a month-and-a-half-long vacation, which was the envy of the German infantrymen rushing nearby. Stationed in the town that had been occupied for a long time, enjoying the sun and hot baths, the soldiers of the 502nd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion enjoyed the vacation in exchange for this desperate battle.

There is no need to arrange a guard, there is no need to worry about the shells in their tanks, and the rest of them is to squander their leisure time except for playing cards and shopping. This is simply wonderful for a unit that has been active on the front lines of the battlefield for a long time.

Unfortunately, for Wren and the others, their vacation was coming to an end in the afternoon, because they had to represent the entire 502 Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion back to Berlin to participate in the promotion ceremony personally presided over by the Army General Staff.

Wren's promotion was approved, and the ceremony for his promotion to captain was to be presided over by Field Marshal Brauchitsch himself, but it was puzzling that Army Group G's application for Wren's award was rejected by the Army General Staff on the grounds that merit did not meet the requirements, and that he should continue to work hard.

This is also a result that most people have long expected: although Wren is very good on the front-line battlefield, it is a little too reckless to award the Knight's Iron Cross with oak leaves and swords.

Brauchitsch added a sword to the Knights of Oak Leaf Iron Cross because he helped command the French campaign, Rundstedt added a sword to the Oak Leaf Knights Iron Cross because of his domestic credit for LinkedIn, and Rommel, who is collectively known as the Imperial Double, and Guderian now wear the same Oak Leaf Knight's Iron Cross around his neck.

However, this time Wren's battle table was really speechless, so after rejecting the request for the award, the General Staff decided to make a little compensation for Wren's military exploits, that is, Field Marshal Brauchitsch personally presided over the promotion ceremony of a captain. This is already a great honor for a mid-level commander on the front-line battlefield.

In this way, it is almost a sue to everyone, this young man is a promising future star of the General Staff, and he will definitely rise all the way in the future, and it is not impossible to become a general of the armored corps, and it is not impossible for an officer to become a general, so your eyes will brighten up a little bit!

With this in mind, Rennes' 15-day holiday turned into a long trip to and from Berlin. This time the tank did not need to be taken with them, but only five crew members followed the train transporting the wounded all the way back to Germany.

At the back town railway station, the members of the No. 113 tank crew, who had experienced the baptism of war, really appreciated the cruelty of war. The station was crowded with the lightly wounded, some of the soldiers lying on the ground groaning, some standing with empty sleeves and watching the end of the tracks in the distance silent.

Hidden under the glorious aura of victory of the main German forces and the armored army were the casualties of the traditional infantry of more than 100,000 people. The terrible price paid by the Germans for victory was something that only the soldiers themselves could appreciate. Some of them lost their fingers, toes, and more miserably their legs and arms.

Even so, the wounded soldiers who were able to come to this station were lucky, after all, there were still 100,000 German soldiers who remained on the way to Poland forever, and they became tombstones on the side of the road, watching over the roads through which the German troops passed.

"Excuse me, you don't seem to be injured, do you have a leave certificate?" a German officer who was temporarily in charge of the station walked over, looked at Wren and the others and asked, he had to confirm the identity of the people boarding the train to avoid the lack of seats on the train.

"Hello! We have a holiday certificate to go to Berlin and are ordered to take this train. Wren took out the certificate in his jacket pocket and handed it to the officer in charge of order at the station, asking him to check it.

After reading the testimonial, the officer raised his head and looked at the Iron Cross on Wren's collar in surprise, and said with envy: "It turned out to be Captain Wren, congratulations on letting the marshal personally preside over the promotion ceremony." Your heroic battle example also inspires me. ”

Wren smiled and shook the officer's hand: "It's nice to meet you, maybe I'll see you at this station when I come back." ”

"I hope you won't get off here......" the officer laughed and said, "Maybe you'll just take the train and get off in Kiev." ”

Wren was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "I hope so! If I can see you in Kyiv as well, I will invite you to drink in a bar in Kyiv." ”

To tell the truth, in order to save capacity, the German railways did their best to transport the resources plundered from the Soviet Union back home, and the carriages prepared for the wounded were not in good condition. These wounded soldiers were often crammed into hundreds of people in a single carriage, and the smell of disinfectant and blood was everywhere.

The whole train carriage was so noisy that it was impossible to rest properly, and even some wounded soldiers had no one to take care of their own excretion process in their beds, which made the whole carriage stinking. People nearby scolded, making the already noisy environment even worse.

The saved wagons were used to transport all kinds of raw materials, plundered metals and valuables, as well as fine timber and some important equipment. The hundreds of machine tools and equipment that Wren had seized by road made the train transporting the wounded a little more crowded, and he looked at the poor wounded with even more guilt in his heart.

The carriages of Wren and others were in much better condition, and most of their carriages were filled with works of art looted from various regions of the Soviet Union. There wasn't much room left for them, but there was a toilet and seats. Compared to the wounded soldier carriage on the other side, it can be regarded as heaven.

In this way, they left the front line, which had not yet ended, and returned to Berlin for the second time to represent the soldiers on the front line to be received by the big names. But Wren always felt that they couldn't represent the soldiers who were fighting on the front lines, at least not the wounded soldiers next door who were lying in hospital beds with no arms and legs.

Everyone has a different view of war, at least these soldiers who have lost their arms and calves in the war do not love the demon that has taken their limbs.

Before the young soldier went to battle, he raised his arms and shouted the slogan "Long live the Führer", and in a few hours he could lie on the ground and look at his bowels and shout loudly to his mother and God.

Who is going to ask the dead soldiers, in the moment they closed their eyes, did they ever hate the Führer, did they hate the fanaticism they once had?

The train moved backwards, across the plain, and Wren was silent as he watched puffs of black smoke rise in the distance. He was accustomed to seeing such a scene, and he did not sigh for the black smoke rising from the horizon that he could see every day. Around him, Andre Alice, as well as Bowman and Bruce, were accustomed to this kind of sight.

But who would have thought that the scene before them would be so strikingly similar to the description of hell? But who would have thought that the image in their eyes was the echo of the end that many people feared? The burning flames, the crumbling steel, the broken limbs, and the blood flowing all over the ground—when people are accustomed to such an environment, where is heaven?

But when the train passed through the plains of Ukraine and through the desolate and terrible eastern part of Poland, the rebuilding of central Poland reminded people that the place where they lived was indeed not the realm of death.

Patches of farms began to come into view, and it seemed to be far away from the war, like a paradise for people to linger in. Andre looked out the window with an imperceptible look of relief in his eyes, but it just so happened that this qiē was seen by Wren.

"Yes, only by seeing this qiē can our killing and sacrifice be regarded as having a little meaning. Wren smiled bitterly and said to Andre: "Your comfort doesn't have to be hidden, if we fight to the death on the battlefield, after we sacrifice our lives for this country, the people we love so much can't get the good life they deserve, then aren't we wasting our efforts now?"

"The Führer is building this country! So I feel we should be soldiers to protect this country. Andre glanced at Wren, then nodded and said, "You're right, our killing should and must be meaningful. ”

"If it's the right thing to do to destroy someone else's home for the benefit of their own loved ones. Wren added in his heart: "Then what we did today is all right and meaningful." ”

He didn't say what was in his heart, because the Führer needed him to go to war and kill. His own life and his own qiē were all given by that man, so there was no need for him to think about messy questions. He only had to be sure that the Führer still needed him to fight, and this qiē was enough.

In order to live, for a better tomorrow, in order to protect what he cares about, to fight, for a man, there is nothing to say about this qiē, only to do it