Chapter 78
After the Battle of Ploesti on September 12, the Germans can boast that they destroyed thousands of Soviet tanks, but... The Russians can still send out thousands of tanks. And the German victors have nothing - now their mobile tanks are not even a fraction of the Russian ones, although the Soviet Red Army lost many brave soldiers and hundreds of tanks in the battle on the 12th, however, in terms of troop ratio - in continuously replenishing troops far behind the Germans. Now is the time for the Soviet Red Army to prepare for a counterattack...
The German High Command acknowledged defeat and began ordering the armored troops to start withdrawing, and each unit began to hold its ground - this was the Fuehrer's order...
Fafnir's 223 was one of those that could still move after hasty repairs, so on the night of the 12th he received an order to retreat to a gathering point twenty kilometers away. On the way, he met Dick Karl's Tiger. Karl's Tiger was in good condition, and since it had been reinforced later that day, its combat time was relatively short, so the tank crew's situation was not bad. Therefore, he was ordered to defend the front line to gain time for the troops fighting on the front line to withdraw, while providing cover for the German battlefield rescue team to tow back damaged tanks. Fafnir greeted Karl and then saw Yang, a big man, appear in the rear of the troops. Fafnir also greeted Yang, whom he had not seen for a long time, before having to leave.
The Russian offensive began at midnight. Heavy artillery plowed the German positions into a sea of flames, the roar of the Soviet tanks' engines even drowned out the sound of exploding shells...... Thousands of Soviet Red Army tanks launched an attack simultaneously on the Salient front line!
Fahner's tank was towed away as soon as it arrived at the assembly point, and he and his crew temporarily took over a 4th tank that had been made available. Meanwhile, Ferdinand from the front line finally crawled back to the rear. Dek's Ferdinand benefited from the commander's shameless driving position and cowardly hiding behind ** black guns, but the main reason was still the 200mm thick frontal armor - he miraculously returned to the assembly point without a scratch, but the running gear was almost completely destroyed. The number of Ferdinands that were abandoned on the battlefield due to mechanical failures far exceeded those destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.
Karl was fighting hard in the front, using the cover of darkness to constantly maneuver and constantly use the 88 cannon to name Soviet tanks at a distance under the guidance of the throwing grenade soldiers. The situation worsened hour by hour, and the Soviet Red Army almost broke through the German defense line on all fronts. When the sky was dawn, Karl also received the order to start withdrawing, while Junker's Black Panther in another direction had already "transferred" early with speed. Yang and his throwing grenade battalion were ordered to delay the Soviet army's advance for at least 4 hours in place...
The iron torrent of the Soviet Red Army came rolling in, and Yang's troops engaged in a desperate battle. The Soviet soldiers jumped into the German trenches in groups and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the German soldiers. Yang fought an extremely hard battle, leaning against the bunker first using machine guns to sweep away the surging Soviet infantry, after the machine gun position was destroyed by the Red Army tank, Yang used grenades and submachine guns to kill large numbers of Soviet infantrymen in the crisscrossing trenches, until finally he picked up a shovel and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Red Army soldiers, killing dozens of Soviet soldiers before being stabbed multiple times by bayonets from behind under the cover of rifle fire... Heinrich Yang fell down, ending his 23-year life, the day before he had just received the Silver Close Combat Badge and proudly hung it up... He died in a pile of canned food he had collected.
The German troops, under the fierce resistance of warriors like Yang, finally stopped their initial retreat and began to resist and withdraw in an organized and orderly manner. However, just as this was happening, a bolt from the blue came - the Americans and British had landed in Sicily, Italy! The armored units that had been assembled and were ready to be thrown into battle were withdrawn, and the troops that had been the backbone of the force were also pulled out and sent to the Italian front. The entire Battle of Kursk can be said to have ended in complete failure for the Germans, who began a large-scale retreat, burning everything in their path.
The 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion, led by Lieutenant Colonel von Fehrn, was also part of the withdrawal sequence, but Field Marshal Manstein resisted Hitler's pressure and kept the 503rd for a few more days to launch a limited counterattack against an isolated Soviet tank force. Von Fehrn took part in the battle with a new Tiger - his confirmed score now exceeded 120 vehicles - and his unit successfully destroyed a Soviet Guards Tank Army, but was still unable to stop more Soviet tanks - not even Manstein could do that.
By October 23, the Soviet Red Army stopped its offensive after recapturing Kharkov, and the whole Kursk battle came to an end. The Germans completely lost their strategic initiative, especially the armored forces can be said to have been broken - the new Tiger and Leopard tanks suffered heavy losses, with more than 200 Tigers and Black Panthers being destroyed, 90 Ferdinands losing half, and other IV tanks and various assault guns totaling over 700 vehicles lost.
Fafnir is now going to the place he has always wanted to go - Italy. "Latin beauties are beautiful and passionate, hot and unrestrained! What can be compared with dragon riders?" Fafnir said excitedly to a group of friends. "And Americans and Brits are just meatheads compared to Russians, to say nothing of at least we're far away from the damned Russian battlefield, far away from the damned mud and the indestructible Russian tanks!"
Favniel and Karl arrived in Italy in November and quickly melted into the local bohemian circle...
Throughout 1943 until the end of the year, Fafnir had no combat missions; they were just stationed in northern Italy to keep an eye on the weak Italians. At the beginning of '44, Fafnir received orders to move to France while still indulging in their carefree life in northern Italy. By then, the US and British strategic bombing campaign against Germany had already begun. Along the way, Fafnir saw the remnants of nighttime American bomber raids several times. He also learned that his former pilot friend Leicht von Habel was now a member of a night fighter squadron. In his letter, he complained about the damned duty but also boasted about his own nighttime achievements - he had shot down three big ones.
As soon as they arrived in France, before Favniel had a chance to go out and have some fun, another order came and took them all the way to Germany. Everyone complained along the way until they saw what was inside the military camp...
