Chapter 1626: Master of Smoothplay

"The Allies were everywhere. They rushed to the beach in speedboats and launched intensive charges against our machine gun fire and artillery bombardment. Our machine guns kept firing, and all four spare barrels were all burned red. We had no new barrels available, but the Allies still rushed to the beach in waves. There were too many of them! We couldn't hold on, and the defense line was broken."

"The enemy was very tenacious. They were not the mob that was rumored earlier. It even reminded me of the days of fighting in Russia. The Russians rushed up with bayoneted rifles and screamed like this. The Allies who rushed to the beach were no different from them."

"Yeah, who would have thought that the battle would be so cruel? Only we withdrew, and everyone else, everyone else..."

Wittmann, who led the vanguard at the forefront of the column, did not encounter the expected enemy. He encountered only a group of beach defenders who had just been defeated by the Allies.

The situation was not as bad as he had expected. At least the Allied forces were still hovering on the landing beach and could not continue to advance deeper. Wittmann thought this was good news.

However, Ensher, the commander of the 101st Heavy Armored Battalion who was standing next to Wittmann, did not think so. Now he was shouting in an angry and shocked manner.

"You bunch of cowards! Look at the time now, it's only 2:35 in the afternoon! You only guarded for half a day and were driven here by the Allied scum!? You abandoned your comrades and became a deserter who lived a miserable life? Shameful! You treat the honor of soldiers and the orders of the Führer as nothing. This is a cowardly act that is expressly prohibited by the Führer. You will all be shot!"

Unlike Wittmann, who can still maintain his rational self and sober thinking in most cases, Ensher, like Wittmann, is a veteran of the SS who has finally made an oath and finally served the Führer and has experienced many battles. He has a command mind and sophisticated experience, and a tenacious and thorough combat command style that is enough to take on this important task.

However, Ensher is too fanatical, and he can't tolerate any sand in his eyes. Sometimes even Wittmann thinks this is not a good thing.

If it comes to a critical moment, this fanaticism is likely to affect Ensher's correct judgment and then issue wrong orders.

Seeing Ensher so excited, Wittmann, who saw that the situation was not good, hurried forward, pulled Ensher aside, and immediately spoke in a low voice.

"Hey, pay attention! They are members of the Wehrmacht. We are two different factions. Even if they are wrong, you and I have no right to deal with them. This will cause big trouble!"

"Tell me the truth, if I didn't pull you, did you want to take out your gun and kill one of them first to set an example? Have you forgotten how much shock the Cherkassy incident caused? We are the passive party now. Do I need to remind you of this?"

Wittmann's nervous and serious face obviously did not seem to be joking. As Wittmann said, Ensher, who was really a little bit overwhelmed, also heard the reminder of the "Cherkasy incident" from Wittmann's mouth. This was like a cold water pouring on his head, and he calmed down instantly.

"Thank you, thank you for reminding me. Thank you very much."

"You are right, Wittmann. We cannot let Cherkassy happen again, or we can't afford it. I was too impulsive just now. Thank you for reminding me in time."

The so-called Cherkassy incident refers to the vicious battlefield incident in which the Wehrmacht and the SS, which were surrounded by the Soviet army in the final encirclement of Cherkassy, ​​disagreed on whether to surrender or not, and eventually led to fratricide and fighting.

Although the troops were trapped in the encirclement, the war in those days was far from the extent that electronic warfare in later generations could cut off and shield signal transmission.

So even though they were surrounded and had no hope of escape, the remnants of the Wehrmacht, who were tricked by the SS at the last minute, still spread the explosive news that was enough to cause a sensation and sent it to Berlin.

The news of the "Waffen SS troops attacking friendly Wehrmacht troops on the battlefield" spread quickly throughout the German armed forces system and the city of Berlin like a prairie wildfire in autumn.

Before long, almost all the top leaders of the Third Reich knew about this sensational and vicious incident.

The senior generals of the Wehrmacht were the first to stand up and publicly attack, to defend the Wehrmacht troops who died tragically at the gunpoint of their own people, and to vow to seek an explanation.

The first person to be verbally attacked and even to be asked for an explanation was the chicken farm owner and the actual person in charge of the SS: Himmler.

It can be said that Himmler, who was almost roasted on the fire, fell into an extremely embarrassing situation. Today it was Keitel, tomorrow it was Jodl, and the day after tomorrow it would be Krebs. These three idiots could even come to him together to ask for an explanation.

The annoyed chicken farm owner Himmler was so angry at these three idiots that he wanted to curse! I almost yelled at these three: What's your ability to bully me without looking for the Führer!? Why don't you say that it was you cowards of the Wehrmacht who surrendered first? Can traitors who are willing to be prisoners of the Russians be called comrades?

Although I thought so in my heart, I couldn't say it out loud.

Himmler knew very well that if he said this, he would completely offend the entire Wehrmacht from top to bottom. Even if he had the trust of the Fuhrer to rely on, it would be useless. If he had to make a choice between the Wehrmacht and himself, Himmler had no doubt that he would be dragged out and shot by the Fuhrer himself.

Compared with losing the entire Wehrmacht, what was the loss of Himmler?

This was not called lack of confidence, and it had nothing to do with distrust of the Fuhrer. This was a basic truth that any adult with a normal IQ and a little political thinking could understand.

Himmler, who could only hold back no matter how angry he was, was actually more angry about another thing.

As core members of the Fuhrer's team, the dirty champagne dealer Ribbentrop, the lame liar Goebbels, and the fat pig-like Meyer, at this moment, all "did not care about it" and no one stood up to help him say a few words and deal with these Wehrmacht bugs.

Fortunately, Himmler's troubles did not last long. The Fuhrer, who was also alarmed by the incident, soon intervened in person.

The solution given by the Fuhrer in the end was quite in line with his personal style of compromise.

There is sufficient evidence to show that it was the Wehrmacht that first surrendered and willingly surrendered to the Russians as prisoners in the Cherkassy encirclement. This act violated the orders of the Army High Command and the will of the Fuhrer. This was first of all the fault of the Wehrmacht.

The Waffen SS troops' attack on the Wehrmacht was also a serious vicious incident. Although the Wehrmacht made an incorrect decision, it could have taken other methods to correct it. This was a wrong decision made by the besieged SS from top to bottom, and the SS soldiers carried it out without knowing it due to the wrong order. The fault was on one person, not the entire SS.

It is worth mentioning that in the final incident report that the Fuhrer personally reviewed, the Waffen SS troops did not use "betrayal" to describe this behavior, but only added the simple modifier "vicious incident".

And considering that the relevant responsible persons have died in battle and sacrificed their lives for the country, and followed the orders of the head of state to lead the troops to fight until the last moment, there is no subsequent investigation, which is equivalent to offsetting the merits and demerits.

The Wehrmacht should also strengthen the ideological education of the troops to prevent the recurrence of such large-scale surrenders before fighting.

Although this result sounds a bit far-fetched, this kind of compromise has always been Hitler's best trick.