บท 50: Chapter 50
France Late December 1943
December, a time of year in France for what would normally be spent preparing for the end of the year celebrations along with Christmas and other similar holidays was instead a shadow of its former self due to the looming specter that was the German/Nazi occupation. For two years, France had been occupied/controlled by Germany after using their blitzkrieg tactics to demolish the French/British attempts to stop their advance westward. After the Armistice of June 22, 1940, Germany occupied the Northern and Western part of the country while the remaining southern and eastern part was given to a puppet government that had become known as Vichy France because of its capital in Vichy. Marshal Philippe Pétain became the prime minister and Vichy France became a collaborationist regime. Initial the typical French citizen supported the regime but as the war progress that opinion began to turn as Germany began taking more and more from France and conditions worsened. In November 1942 after the Allied landings in French North Africa, Hitler and Germany assumed total military control over the Vichy France region. While the government remained in power for basic civil matters, Germany had now occupied all of France. The turning point for many and with the Allies success in taking Italy out of the war, Germany was tightening its grip as they knew that France was next.
With the winter weather, Germany was tightening their defenses and bolstering their forces on both fronts. Russian forces in their summer advance from August 1943 to December have pushed back the Germans into the borders of Ukraine and parts of Belorussia. The failure of the Germans to capture Stalingrad earlier in that year was coming back to bite them but with the winter months coming the lines were beginning to stagnate. The Russians were now preparing for an offensive push into eastern Ukraine after their success in pushing the Germans past the Dnieper river and later retake Kiev. They were keeping up the momentum, but the fighting was tough. With the Germans on the constant retreat in Italy from the US/UK, it allowed them to basically pull out a majority of their forces from country who were then pushed to other fronts. Many of their fighting forces were moved to the Eastern front and the rest were used to reinforce the Western Front and Atlantic wall. The additional troops, supplies, and armored vehicles made the Eastern push by the Russians cost them dearly and now the demarcation lines for the war were set for the moment. And with winter, those defenses were heavily reinforced with rumors and stories spreading that Hitler's various super weapon projects were being used in beta-phases on the Eastern Front. Stories of gas bombs being used in towns and mentions of giant monsters in metal suits probing Russian offensive lines were making the rounds, but no one was able to confirm or deny anything yet.
Things were quiet on the Western Front. Hitler and German High Command anticipated a Western advance into France now that Italy was captured by the UK and US. The most likely attempts would be the western shores of France as they were the closest to the UK via ships and the various shallow ports/bays would be perfect for their ships to land. General Eisenhower was still working out the specifics of the plan with Allied command, but the stage was set for a cross-Channel invasion into France. On paper, it was the most solid plan there was. Short distance from the UK shores to France and once a foothold was established, more could be pushed in to take the country and then push into Germany, then Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany. With half of Hitler's forces occupied by the Soviets it seemed solid enough, but it wasn't going to be easy. Hitler may be an idiot but the people advising him weren't and they had been reinforcing France ever since the Allied set foot in Italy. Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox himself, was put in charge of inspections and maintaining it for a Western invasion. While the plan seemed manageable enough on paper, the logistics would be a nightmare which would require specialized gear and vehicles for the invasion and a lot of troopers not to the mention the efforts to catch the Germans off guard so that they didn't run into too many problems. Time was both helpful and a hindrance for the Allies. Helpful in that time would make sure they could prepare but a hindrance in that the more time they had to prepare, the bigger the difficulties, hardships they would face and the more the odds of luck stacked against them.
That would be the case if this war progressed as normal without unusual circumstances but because of said unusual circumstances that were present…the Allied has a new opportunity.
Menton, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azurregion, France
Perched up on a mountain overlooking the city of Menton on the French Riviera near the Italian border was Clark, dressed up in a repaired Superman uniform with four large bags of supplies laid down in the snow around his feet. It was midday yet despite the fact that it was winter, and the mountain already had the first snowfall of the season which was pretty significant at over a foot in total, Clark stood there completely fine. The heat didn't bother him and neither did the cold in this instance as his body was always kept at a perfect temperature. A sort of fringe benefit of his powers as he could be naked right now and feel completely fine but that's beside the point. He was using his super vision to scope out the city/town of Menton and then used his x-ray vision so knew who was where. With this being a border town to the Italian border not to mention on the on the Mediterranean coast, it was of strategic importance for Germany, so it was heavily fortified. Blockades and roadblocks manned by the German Wehrmacht and French Collaborators with more stationed around in the town. A total of about a Battalions worth of soldiers mixed up between infantry, tanks crews, and artillery. Artillery positions were set up nearby with large guns such as Pak 36 and Pak 40 anti-tank guns and even larger artillery like the 15 cm sFh 18 guns set up in the German army camps around the town. Not to mention the Panzer 2 tanks set up around town to create kill corners and the lone Tiger 1 Tank protected by various squads of soldiers nearby. The Germans clearly put a lot of effort into the thinking out the defenses of this town to prevent it from being taken without heavy losses.
To bad for the Germans, their military planning and preparation didn't consider the Superman as there were no Blockbuster super soldiers or Maschinensoldaten there. If there were, Clark would be more worried but now? They were one step closer to ending this war.
Clark focused his sight on the radio tower in the German camp as his first target. With that, they couldn't radio for help or alert nearby battalions of what was going on. The veins around his eyes began to glow red which illuminated the skin around his eyes before said eyes glowed as well. Twin beams of red thermal energy erupted from Clark's eyes in a short burst, sailing through the air and sliced through the radio tower like a hot knife through butter before destroying a generator right below which knocked out the power to that antennae and nearby communications tent just in case. Clark looked around the town and fired more short bursts of heat vision all around the town taking out fortifications and weapons emplacements. The formidable artillery guns were now in shambled with the bursts of heat vision having sliced through making them useless. Various armored vehicles including the two Panzer 2 tanks were immobilized with half of their treads vaporized and burning holes in their engine blocks. The tanks crews were immediately forced to ditch and regroup with whatever nearby squad of company were nearby. Other than the random blasts of red energy there were no shots or sounds of mortars or artillery rounds, but they quickly mobilized into ready positions.
In the German camp in the town, the soldiers scrambled into positions while grabbing their gear and weapons while dealing with the bracing cold. Some Germans managed to get dressed and run through their tent camp when one of them ran into a steel wall and bounced off. He hit the ground and groaned in pain as the wall hurt when he realized there shouldn't have been a wall in the middle of the camp and saw that what he hit wasn't a wall but a man. The Superman.
"Guten Tag. Wir haben schönes Wetter. Bitte kapitulieren." Clark gave him his best smile and held his hand out, for the soldier to take. (Good day. Nice weather we're having. Please surrender.)
"Wir werden angegriffen!" The soldier scrambled away in a panic, shouting at the top of his lungs to the point where anyone nearby likely heard and they spread the news. (We're under attack!)
Clark just let out a sigh of defeat mixed with exhaustion. "So much for letting this go down the easy." He cracked his neck and began walking through the camp to follow the German soldier. He was likely headed into the town where the Germans were preparing for a force from the Italian border crossing. As he walked past some tents, one SS captain had hidden inside a tent waiting for him to pass so when he did he stepped out and aimed his Luger pistol at the back of his head before pulling the trigger at point blank range. The only thing that accomplished was having the bullet ricochet right back into his own head, killing him.
Clark turned around and saw the dead SS captain on the ground when two more SS privates came at him from the flanks with their bayonets attached to their rifles. They ran full speed to pierce him but the second they made contact their bayonets snapped and shattered into pieces. Clark turned around, knocked aside their rifles before grabbing soldiers by the chest and throwing them around. They crashed into nearby tents, and he kept walking. When he arrived into town, any civilians in the area quickly ran into their homes though with the weather there weren't that many standing around outside. He walked down the main street of the town and passed by a German Machine gun team perched up on the top of a water tower. They opened fire but the bullets from the MG-42 didn't have any better luck than the Luger pistol from the SS captain. Clark just turned his head to look at them and saw their looks of astonishment which quickly turned into fear as the soldier stopped firing and they raised their hands up in surrender.
"Thank you. Please get down safely and put yourselves here. I'll be back momentarily." Clark said in perfect German before he continued on. He navigated himself down several more streets in Menton and encountered a few more ambushes but like the two he just faced they had the no effect. Clark took them out quickly and tied them up to light posts or to the side of beings, but they seemed to surrender willingly once they saw that their bullets were nothing.
Clark turned from the intersection into the main road leading in and out of Menton where the heaviest defenses were set since it was the first line of defense before the border to Italy. There all the German soldiers and French collaborators were set up in defensive positions heavily fortified with sandbags and makeshift defensive covers for multiple firing lines and MG-42s. Once the SS commander for the town saw Clark step into view he smirked in delight.
"Fire!"
A cacophony of gunfire could be heard from a mile away as the Germans and French Collaborators unloaded everything they had at Clark. Bolt-action rifles, submachine guns, pistols, and then light-machine guns were fired at him with bullets zipping through the air. The barrels of the MG-42s quickly got hot because of all the bullets they were firing but the cold air of the winter months was actually helping them so they could fire longer before the barrels began melting. There were a few lulls in the gunfire as guns needed to be reloaded but they didn't stop and stoon enough grenades were thrown as well and a nearby mortar crew began launching rounds at Clark.
After nearly two minutes of continued sustained fire, the SS commander signaled everyone to stop so they did. Once the last bullet was fired there was an eerie calm and absence of noise over the area. One second too much and now not enough. From all the grenades and mortar fire at Clark's position there was a thick plume of smoke that completely covered him, but it started to fade and to the complete and utter shock of the German and French collaborators the Superman was still standing and very much alive. Clark stood there having not moved a muscle at all and not so much as a scratch or scuff on his uniform. Clark's super hearing picked up the sound of a powerful engine and a large series of treads moving which was the telltale signs of a tank. The Tiger 1 turned on to the street and fired it main gun at Clark, but he took two steps to the left and it zipped right past him, destroying part of the barricade and killing some Germans and French collaborators who were just shooting at Clark. The crew inside the Tiger quickly reloaded the main gun while also firing the MG-34 machine gun attached but before they could fire another shot Clark's eyes glowed red and he used his heat vision. Twin beams of intense heat melted through the main gun in seconds before he adjusted his sight and melted the treads on both sides.
Clark turned back around and stared down the Germans/French collaborators. They were all frozen in fear except for the Waffen SS commander in charge who quickly reloaded his gun, but Clark dashed forward in a burst of super speed and held him up off the ground by his neck before throwing him into a parked truck. The commander slumped to the ground unconscious and Clark's glowing red eyes were an ominous warning to the rest of the men who wisely threw down their guns, got down onto their knees and raised their hands up in surrender. If their guns and tanks couldn't do anything than why bother?
"Smart move." Clark told them.
It took a few minutes but soon enough all the enemy combatants were tied up together and disarmed. Their weapons were off to the side and the men were put in groups since there were so many of them, but he'd let the MPs take care of them and he was sure that command would want them interrogated for information. Once they were all secure, Clark super sped over to the border crossing into Italy about two miles away from Menton. The entire area was covered in thick snow, so Clark's eyes began glowing red before he used his heat vision. Several blasts later and his eyes stopped glowing revealing a perfect level crossing devoid of snow or any obstructions. He super sped back to Menton after going up to the mountain to retrieve his bags of gear and returned to the same spot he was before. He opened one bag to take a new type of radio backpack built and modeled after the variants Hydra uses and took the transceiver.
"This is Captain Elbert, Authentication Alpha-Bravo-Delta-57. Objective is captured and causeway is open. You are clear to move in."
"Roger that, Captain Elbert. We're coming in."
Now Clark just had to stand and wait. When Clark returned from his mission to Wakanda he brought back with him one of Hydra's radio backpacks he recovered. He did it not only for them to better crack Hydra's coded transmissions so they could listen to their communications, but its range was greater than anything the Allies had. Howard Stark had managed to figure out what made it tick and quickly began making more. The first two he made he gave to Clark which he had with him. One would be for Taskforce Vanguard and the other he'd give to Steve and the Howling Commandos. This way they could go into missions deeper behind enemy lines and still stay in contact with Command in London, all they'd need to do is encrypt their communications to make sure they weren't being snooped on.
15 minutes later…
Clark watched as a large convoy of trucks and tanks began moving into Menton from the Italian border into French territory. Elements of the First Army group began moving in and securing the town with many MPs taking the German and French collaborators into custody while British and American soldiers began setting up bases. The First Army group was a formation of British, American, and Free French forces who had originally fought as part of Operation Torch in French North Africa but were given a reprieve in Operation Husky and the invasion of Italy. Now they were reassigned to be a part of the first invading forces in Operation Dragoon, the name given to the Allied invasion of Southern France. Planning for it had begun as far back as the 1941 but it was really just planning until the success of Operation Husky and then the rapid success and lightning campaign on the Italian mainland. Thanks to the efforts of the Superman in pushing the Germans back and preventing any gridlock or excessive causalities in the Italian campaign, Allied Command have been working out the plans for invading France since September. They were also working on plans to go up into Central Europe through Yugoslavia after the Tehran Conference in an effort to get to Germany before the Soviets did but that was still ongoing. With Clark and Taskforce Vanguard essentially being the driving force in the Italian campaign, countless men and resources that would have otherwise been lost during the fighting were not. This allowed Allied Command to move into Operation Dragoon without needing to wait for additional resources and men.
After Clark returned from his trip to Africa and stopped the Hydra forces looking for Vibranium, he informed Colonel Phillips that he managed to control his heat vision. He still needed more training to control its intensity as it was basically just coming out at full power for now, but he was able to control its use enough to return to the field. Colonel Phillips had him stay at the SSR base for a little longer than expected as they had some intel he wanted to go over with Clark and before he reunited with his team he wanted to put his new ability to good use. With the winter months, the progress for the war would grind to a halt as the weather and coming snow would make their normal moves almost impossible to achieve. It would essentially put the war onto hold for three months and give the time for the Germans to solidify their defensive lines and with the reports about potential new weapons being used on the Eastern Front against the Russians than they risked losing the momentum in the war. The Allied Leaders agreed that they needed to keep up the pressure somehow and part of that would be the work of Taskforce Vanguard and the Howling Commandos, who would take out Hydra facilities and other German Weapons projects thanks to the information they got from Savage's lab at the Hydra facility in Austria. They could do serious work against the German war effort, but once Colonel Phillips informed General Eisenhower about Clark's new ability he suggested that Superman be used as the vanguard force into France. With the Italian borders secured, all they needed was to take the next step into France which they haven't done because the route was heavily guarded and impassible due to heavy snow, already accumulated in November. Any kind of travel would just get them stuck, which is where the Superman came into play. He was basically their battering ram into Southern France and cleared the way for the rest of the army to move in.
"Captain…Captain…Captain!"
Clark was brought out of his little contemplative thought by General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces. When Allied Command made the tactical decision to commence Operation Dragoon, General de Gaulle was the first to volunteer to lead his forces back into France. He wanted to be there when he and his men were returned to their country.
"Apologies, General. I was deep in thought." Clark spoke in perfect French that anyone could mistake for him being a native Frenchman. That was just how good Clark was with languages.
"It's quite all right, Captain. You especially out of anyone can be forgiven for a lapse in concentration." General De Gaulle said to him as he joined Clark's side as they watched the parade of men and vehicles move into the town. Many of the civilians in Menton greeted the Allied Forces with cheers, especially their French compatriots who were back home. "This will be something for history, Captain Elbert. For years, Philippe Pétain and the Vichy government have made a mockery of our land. My men and I were driven from our home but now we have a chance to reclaim it. I thought you'd like to say a few words of encouragement to the men. This is your victory."
Clark gave him a cordial smile and a nod of respect. "Thank you, General but that should be your prerogative. I think it would mean more to your men coming from you."
General De Gaulle smiled in appreciation, shaking Clark's hand, and patting him on the shoulder before he stepped up onto the back of a jeep. "Gentlemen!" His shout attracted the attention of the Free French Forces who gathered around him with some American and British soldiers as well since he was speaking English. "Two years…two years since we have been driven from our home. I know many of us have prayed for this day…I am one of them. From the shores of England to the sands of North Africa to mountains of Italy, through fire and blood we have come home!"
"YEAH!" All the soldiers shouted in unison.
"Hitler and his men have pillaged and sacked our cities…our homes…our people…but now we are back! And I swear that I die in battle before I'm forced to leave my home again! For so long, Hitler and his war machine seemed unstoppable, and France seemed to be forever trapped in their vice grip but here we are! And it won't stop here. We will not stop until all of France is free and then our way to Germany to end this war! Vive La France! Vive La Liberté!"
[Deafening cheers]
Military photographers and journalists snapped photos of General De Gaulle embracing the roar of the soldiers and managed to catch Clark standing behind him. Soon enough, the story would make the rounds in every Allied Nation and across all radio broadcasts.
The Allies have invaded France. The war was entering its final phase.
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