Chapter 112: Desperate Defence

Time: 23rd of May

Location: Ural Mountain range

POV: Mackensen's

Dust fell off the ceiling as enemy artillery bombardments pounded the mountain range, ''How is the defensive line holding?'' I asked my second in command. ''We have currently taken 250 casualties from enemy artillery, while our artillery has estimated, caused 3000 casualties. We have lost 80 Fighter jets while the enemy has lost 300 Fighters. The enemy vanguard is preparing their first assault, we estimate 2 hours left until contact.'' He gave me the clipboard while stating briefly what is in it.

''SIR! ENEMY PARATROOPERS INBOUND!'' The radio officer shouted. The chair fell down as I stood up forcefully with disbelief written all over my face, ''SOUND THE ALARM!'' The second in command ordered acting quick.

Anti-air cannons were quickly pushed out of the bunkers to engage the incoming paratroopers, ''What Sector are they landing in?!'' I pointed at the map, the radioman quickly walked over and pointed on the map, the northern part of the Urals, my face turned white as I quickly realised their plan. ''I need the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Reserve Division to mobilise immediately towards the sector D3, no delays permitted, anyone halting this order is allowed to be executed... IMMEDIATELY!'' I ordered my second in command.

'Who. Who is it!' My eyes like an Eagle glanced at the men in the room, all of them showed no hint of nervousness, 'Someone has leaked our defence plan, or was it a spy who took a copy?' I quickly filtered out the answer taking into consideration the surroundings, 'No! Someone has betrayed the organisation. but who?' My mind sprung into action even further as I try to figure out the main culprit.

The forward observer knocked on the door with urgency, ''Marshall Mackensen, enemy movement detected, expected contact 5 minutes!''

My face turned grim as I knew our defensive plan is going to be exploited to the max as they knew the weak spots. ''Contact the Soviets... We are going to need reinforcements...'' I ordered. 'This is going to be tough one' I calmed myself down, I looked at the map again to fully understand our situation.

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Time: 23rd of May

Location: East of the Ural Mountain range

POV: Commander Zhukov (Tank commander in Chapter 110)

''Commander we can't walk any further! We have lost 40 men, we are only 60 left, we barely have any food left, please we need to take a break.'' My Lieutenant pleaded, My face was mostly frozen frostbite already set in hours ago, ''We can't stop now comrades! Our fellow allies are waiting at the Urals for the enemy, we must join them and fight while bringing valuable information about the Obj 629!'' I encouraged my fellow soldiers, some of them gained renewed vigour while others just slumped down unable to go any further.

We walked another hour or 2 before finally settling down to rest and warm up as the darkness sets in, I looked at the map, 'We moved up into Siberia to escape the enemies, from there we moved westwards to the Urals, from this we must be close to the Northern part.' I tried to deduce our rough location from the map. I felt a hand on my shoulder, ''Zhukov get some rest I'll keep watch.'' my Lieutenant smiled kindly, he was still young, only 21 when he was forced to join the red army. I nodded before heading towards our shared tent, luckily the tents were made against Siberian weather allowing us to gain some comfort in this hostile environment.

The following morning we continued onwards towards the Urals, ''ZHUKOV!'' A soldier shouted as he pointed in the distance, it looked like an old building for storage, we walked over to the abandoned complex and opened it up, ''Everyone split up and put everything in the middle what you find.'' I ordered the remaining 36 men, people were quick to find rations some old and mouldy but they made due, some found guns and ammunition. I was in the main office flipping through a diary of someone named Kalenkov, it turns out this was a supply station for convoys transporting troops towards the gulags, but as one of the Gulags got moved to a more resource-rich area this place became abandoned, High command ordered the abandoning of everything when a heavy blizzard was predicted, the men took the trucks, guns and most food, only leaving the excess amount.

After 2 hours we assembled back into the garage area, my Lieutenant walked forward and said what we found, '' 12 Mosin Nagants, 8 PPSh-41s, 3 hand grenades, ammunition for all weapons for 10 reloads, one DShK 1938 Heavy Machinegun and 50 extra Uniforms!''

I walked over to the back of the garage and removed the cloth that was covering some parts, but to my surprise there were 12 BT-5, all the men started to Laugh, not because they were happy but this signifies how old this compound is, T-34s have already been introduced (By our MC) early on. ''Check if these are operational if so we will use them to get to the Ural Mountain range,'' I ordered the men.

It took 3 hours but eventually we were able to get 8 back online, the fuel reserves were still there so we filled all the tanks and any extra that we could carry, after which we proceeded to link the 8 BT-5s like a train, so that no one gets lost and that all power is used while transversing the terrain. I manned the 2nd tank from the front, sadly only 6 of the men left were actually capable of driving correctly, so we spend another 4 hours training the other 2 men.

We packed everything on the Tanks tightly, 24 men crewed the tanks while the other 12 were packed tightly on cloth close to the engine to keep them protected from the elements, ''Men when we start we can't stop, else the fuel has a chance of freezing up the engines!'' I shouted while giving the Signal to start driving.