Chapter 738 Do You Want to Fight to the Death?

Swoosh——

“Bombard! Take cover!”

Boom——

The screams of his comrades and the lingering buzzing sound in his mind were the only sounds that Delain could hear at this moment. He didn’t even know whether he was dead or alive at this moment.

He subconsciously exerted force on his arms and found that he could still feel the clear and wet touch of his fingertips. Delain, who slowly regained his intuition, finally realized that he was not actually injured. He was just knocked to the ground by the shock wave of the Russian mortar shell and lost consciousness for a moment.

Without bothering to wipe off the filthy mud that smelled fishy on his face, Delain, who staggered to his feet, immediately grabbed the submachine gun that fell in the mud beside him and continued to run quickly towards the trench that stretched in front of him.

"Hello? This is the command center. What happened? Hello, can you hear me? Please answer? Hello, hello."

"The 216th Regiment reported that their defense line was breached by the Russians. Commander Enverette requested immediate support or retreat."

"We have encountered a situation that even God would find difficult. Osheim, what are you going to do?"

All kinds of bad news and ringtones that almost burst the telephone line filled the entire front-line command post. The chief of staff, holding several telegrams in his hand, was standing aside anxiously waiting for orders to be issued, while Major General Osheim himself stood there like a stone statue, motionless.

"Damn it, Osheim! The troops need your orders, you can't continue to be stupid like this"

"Hey! You can't go in! Wait outside!"

"Get out! I want to see the general right away, it has nothing to do with you!"

A quarrel from the communication trench outside the command post interrupted the chief of staff's speech that he had not finished.

Major General Osheim, who was also attracted by the voice, slowly turned his head and immediately saw an infantry lieutenant who broke through the guards at the door and almost rushed into the command post with a staggering posture like a dog eating shit.

""

Major General Osheim, who was concentrating on watching everything in front of him, did not speak first. Major General Osheim, who had seen this kind of scene many times, knew that the infantry lieutenant would definitely have something to say to him next.

As expected by Major General Osheim, after standing firm and almost falling, Lieutenant Delane immediately raised his head and looked at the person in front of him, and soon found the familiar face he was going to report to from the two officers of different ranks.

"General Osheim, my soldiers, squad leaders, and platoon leaders are all dead. There are only a few people left in our company. I swore that I would be loyal to the Führer, but please replace us now, or at least let us retreat and rest for a while. Those Russians are going crazy! We are fighting in hell now!"

""

Major Osheim remained silent, staring at the messy lieutenant in front of him with increasingly sharp eyes that were almost piercing through him, until he was almost scared by the stare, and then he spoke.

"Which unit are you from? What's the number? Who is the commander? Who sent you?"

The four questions that came out suddenly made Delain, who was caught off guard, stand there on the spot. He was stunned for a long time before slowly coming back to his senses and answering.

"216th Infantry Regiment, the commander is Lieutenant Colonel Hoffman. No one sent me here. The battlefield is in chaos and no one can stop the Russians. I have to explain the situation, General, so I came here by myself."

Delein thought that his explanation was concise and there was nothing wrong with it, but Major General Osheim, who looked gloomy, obviously didn't think so.

After hearing this answer, Major General Osheim was silent for a moment without commenting, but after a short silence, his answer was cold enough to make people's hair stand on end.

"I just received a call three minutes ago. Lieutenant Colonel Hoffman has died. He was shot in the stomach by a machine gun when he was personally commanding the troops to resist the Russians. His entire waist was almost broken. He died miserably."

""

To be honest, when Delane heard the news for the first time, he even wanted to ask Major General Osheim how he knew such specific information.

But after thinking about the cause and effect, Delain gave up his crazy idea and chose to listen to Major Osheim's continued speech with some fear.

"The 216th Infantry Regiment is still fighting, and Major Kut has taken over the command. Your comrades are all paying their blood and lives to win the battle, but you are here to tell me about the problems you encountered that are not even difficult."

"You should feel lucky, Lieutenant Delain, if those Russians hadn't driven their tanks into our faces, I could have taken off your rank and treated you as a deserter!"

"Get back to your position before I regret it! Lieutenant! Each of us has our own loyal combat position, and we prove our loyalty to the Führer through practical actions! You are not discussing the problems you encountered in my command post, bargaining for a few marks like a small bank owner! Any other questions!?"

Lieutenant Delain could clearly feel that Major General Osheim, with a ferocious face, was definitely not joking! That face full of rage and anger makes him look like he's going to pull out a gun and shoot himself at any time!

Lieutenant Delane was very afraid of those crazy Russians, but compared to those guys who seemed to have crawled out of purgatory and killed people at all costs, Delane felt that Major General Osheim was just like the devil in hell, dozens or hundreds of times more terrifying than those Russians!

Looking at Delane's figure running away from the command post without looking back, the chief of staff who had been watching all this silently without interrupting finally asked quietly again.

"So, do you really plan to fight those Russians to the death? This will definitely cost unimaginable casualties, even if it fails."

The total number of reinforcements in his hands was more than two full divisions, and there were about 40 armored vehicles of various types left.

The tanks of the Russians on the opposite side were obviously superior in quality, and they also had heavy mortar support with a caliber and range that was enough to crush their own side. In comparison, the advantage of their own infantry numbers could almost be considered offset.

Major General Osheim, who silently calculated the enemy-to-us comparison in his heart, felt a strange bitterness in his mouth.

A week ago, I had proudly stated at a combat meeting that it would be easy to capture the city of Stalingrad. If all went well, all battles would be cleared up in less than a month and the final victory would be won. The vast majority of my colleagues and even superiors at the meeting expressed deep agreement with my statement.