"This stable is locked. I can still hear some horses in there. Get some tools here."
Two soldiers were trying to break the lock outside of the stable with rifle butts.
"We will be staying here tonight."
The commander sees that it is already evening and orders.
"They were glorious in defeat."
Some other German soldiers who entered the houses said.
He sees that every one of the man's body comes with 2 or 3 Soviet bodies.
The Soviets defeated them with human waves and high casualties.
But just as he turns around, the 'dead bodies' move, with his submachine guns.
"Brrrr..."
Following with a shout from outside.
"RPG!"
Almost simultaneously, two rockets flew towards the commander's Pz IV. It is not hard to recognise that the commander vehicle normally has an extra antenna.
When the two rockets hit, the tank ammunition exploded.
Sidorov, after firing the rocket, immediately moved to his next position, together with 3 submachine gunners, 3 riflemen, one machine gunner and 1 marksman.
It was Gromov's order.
After the death of Petrov, he knows that they will be a prioritised target by the enemies on the battlefield.
So he used what he remembered, how the Chechen army organises its soldiers to perform anti-tank operations.
On the east, the sound of an engine suddenly came from a pile of hay.
Bodanov's KV rushed out from it, its cannon aimed 45 degrees to the right. After moving out of the corner, a PZ III was in front of him.
"Fire!"
At such close distance, the 45mm shell penetrated the armour and exploded, killing all the crew.
The armoured column has fallen into chaos, and their commander has also been killed.
Meanwhile, Elena and her marksmen company have already taken up every position of the village, targeting the enemy's important targets, such as officers and machine gunners.
Gromov, who sees these from its RTS-view, knows it's time.
"Move! Move! Move!"
His driver stepped on the accelerator, the tank unleashed its powerful momentum, smashing open the entire stable gate.
Following with a whole squad of soldiers who were hiding with them in the stable.
And now, their mission will be to lock the exit, not letting anyone run from here.
The remaining Pz IV is just in front of them.
The two unfortunate men who were banging on the door were immediately pulled under the tank tracks.
"Ram it!" Gromov shouted in the turret, even with the help of the throat microphone headset, the noise in the tank is still loud.
"Bang!"
The violent impact suffered by the crews in both tanks.
But also because of this, the KV cannon has almost touched the turret of the Pz IV.
"Fire!"
Gromov can see from his RTS view, three of the enemy crew inside the turret were immediately torn into pieces by the shell shot from close distance.
"Reverse!"
After destroying the Pz IV, there are still 10 Pz III waiting for them. His KV position now is showing his sides to them. It is not a problem for them to penetrate a KV from its side.
He has to readjust his position before they react.
Luckily, some of them are still turning their turrets blindly to search for enemies, some turn the whole tank direction, they are still in chaos and haven't spotted that there is a tank behind them yet.
When they finally spotted Gromov, it was too late. He had already finished turning and firing at them.
The destroyed tank blocks the sight for those in the middle. They will have to move, and this Gromov chance.
Dense gunfire was everywhere. More and more hidden Soviet soldiers climbed onto the roof, mounted their MGs, took positions on the house, and many German soldiers who remained on the street fell into the blood.
Some tried to break through from the ambush.
Organise squads to secure the village exit, but Gromov's tank and squad repel them.
The surviving officers and veterans immediately try to stabilise the situation. They occupied the church and gathered the surviving soldiers to defend it.
However, the last hope has fallen.
In the church, Kirov and his NKVD soldiers appear from the basement of it, shooting the Germans from behind.
"Haha! Try this, fascist."
Kirov laughs when firing, taking down one enemy after another satisfies him a lot.
The result of the battle has been determined since they entered the village.
Similar to the tanks, they were getting blown up one by one, either by the Bodanov tank, Gromov tank or the RPG.
The battle has ended when darkness has fallen.
With only a few surrendered German soldiers.
"What a great victory! We have destroyed a whole German armoured column and an infantry company with little casualties, plus a few prisoners."
"You should be awarded for this. Such a waste that your ex-commander threw you here. But never mind, you could be doing excellence here as well."
Looking at the street that is filled with German bodies and tank remnants, Kirov really feels happy about it.
He saw scenes like this before, but most of the time, it was the Red Army bodies more than the German ones.
Gromov also feels proud of it. It was his second battle he commanded, and he had achieved such a victory that most Red Army commanders could not have done in this time.
But soon, he could not feel it anymore.
Alexee was in charge of arranging the cleanup operations on the battlefield.
Gromov was in front of a row of Soviet dead bodies, and he could not say anything.
"We lost another 20 men, plus those earlies, we lost 60 men today."
With such casualties, of course, it was a great victory.
For Gromov, an unspeakable feeling arises from his heart.
He knows this is war, and people die in war.
But these people die because of his order.
He just questions himself, was it his order wrong, or was there a better way?
Elena seems to realise his thought.
"This is how it works. Our men will also die just like the Germans. The moment the war starts, you should realise a similar scenario will happen all the time."
"Soldiers of ours and theirs have faith. We believe what we were doing was right, they believe what they were doing was right. Believe me, this war will be the cruellest in human history."
"We will fight until the end, same for them. The war will only end when one side has no one else to die. You gotta adapt and prepare for it."
Gromov listened, remained in silence.
He knew what she said was right. He just needed some time to adjust.
After a day of battling, he is tired and just wants to find somewhere to rest.
Gromov found a house that only suffered light damage and decided to sleep here tonight.
Lying on the bed, despite many things still being confusing, he decided to think after he woke up. If he still got the chance to wake up.
Elena followed him into the house and hugged him from behind.
"You changed a lot... People said war forged boys into men. You just seem different, especially after you got shocked by the shell."
Gromov listened and sighed. He knew what had happened.
As someone close to the original Gromov, of course, they can spot the difference.
"Have some rest, we never know when the next chance to have it will come."
He could only comfort her. After saying that, he fell into a deep sleep.
However, he was awakened shortly after falling asleep by a series of urgent knocks on the door.
"Comrade Captain! Comrade Captain, are you awake? There is some news from Zythomyr, I think you should come and listen." Alexee's voice came from outside.
Startled awake, Gromov immediately went out of the house and followed him.
"What happened?" Gromov asked as he walked.
"The NKVD soldiers have stopped a group of deserters from Zythomyr just now, and I don't think the situation is good for us now."
Soon, they had entered the church, where the deserters were now on trial by Kirov.
Before entering, they can already hear the Kirov voice.
"By the order of 227, you, as a commander, have abandoned your post and position without receiving the order from a higher order. I hereby declare you the death penalty."
"The rest of the soldiers, you will be added to our penalty company, to wash away your shame with your blood."
Listened to this similar speech again, Gromov frowned.
After entering the church, he sees one guy being controlled by NKVD soldiers, just like how he experienced earlier.
While there are about twenty soldiers who have already been disarmed
When he gets closer, surprisingly, the person being controlled is someone he knows, Captain Yukin.
The company commander whom he met in Zhytomyr.
Yukin also recognised him at the same time.
A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, and he gave him a pleading look.
Something is wrong. Gromov thinks.
"Comrade Commissar, what happened to these people?"
"Isn't it obvious? They are coward who run away from their positions."
Kirov only sees the fact that Yukin ran away from the positions, but Gromov has seen something deeper.
"Comrade Commissar, have you ever thought about what has happened inside the city? There should be NKVD units there as well. If they are the deserter, they should have been stopped there."
Kirov gives his answer in a second.
"Because they are lucky enough to escape from the inspection of the NKVD units there. No worry, I will report about their misduties."
What a stubborn person. Gromov thinks. No matter what, what is important now is to know what has happened to Zhytomyr.
"Captain Yukin, tells the commissar what had happened in Zhtomyr."
Yukin listened, showing a painful expression.
After a moment of silence, only he started to say.
"It all happened suddenly."
"When the night comes, my company has already fought for a whole day and wants to rest."
"Just at this time, we received the news that the German troops have already taken down the east exit of the city..."
Before Yukin could finish his sentence, Kirov had broken it.
"Bullshit! How could the Germans take down the east exit without alerting troops in the front? You are just giving the excuse for your cowardness."
Gromov calmed him down immediately.
"Let him finish speaking, commissar. I believe there must be something wrong with this matter."
Yukin continue.
"Commissar, you are right, this is how I was wandering also."
"Besides that, the enemies strike at all of our battalions, regiments, and even the division command post at the same time."
"Our troop have fallen into chaos."
"In a moment, our line collapses, and our unit ran away from the battlefield one after another. I try to stop it, but at the same time, the Germans launch an attack."
"They rarely do it in the night, but this time, they just did it."
"My company suffered heavy casualties, without anyways, I could only order to break through."
"That is all of the story. But commissar, I only request you to give me the chance like my soldiers, wash away my shame with my blood."
The church fell silent instantly.
"We lost contact with the battalion and division for some hours."
A soldier whispers to Kirov.
Meanwhile, Gromov listened, only feeling cold sweat pouring down his back.
Bypass the front troops to behind and take down the exit without alerting them, there is some way Gromov could think of.
The first way is through tunnels or sewage pipes. But Zhytomyr is just a small town in this era. Will there be a sewage pipe? Even if there is, could it allow the Germans to send enough men and ammunition to take down the exit?
But adding the strike on the command post, Gromov can think of another two possibilities.
It is either that someone in the Wehrmacht has an RTS cheat like him that allows him to bypass all the gaps of the Red Army and knows the exact position of the command post.
Or, a more rational guess, the Brandenburgers. Wehrmacht special forces, who like to camouflage themselves as enemy units and infiltrate deep back into their lines.