Chapter 131:
Chapter 131
In the sky, the Soviet fighter planes flew like a swarm of bees, hindering the German retreat.
The German soldiers were terrified by the sight of the fighter squadrons that flew with a thunderous sound, imitating the Stuka’s siren.
“Shit, those bastards. They copied the Stuka…”
“Aaah! It’s a shock bomb!”
Bang! Bang!
The 500kg aerial bombs exploded on the German retreat column.
The road was pocked with craters, and the soldiers scattered like ants to the sides of the road, avoiding the planes.
The Soviet fighters were agile and relentless.
They swooped down and dropped aerial bombs on the targets with weak anti-aircraft defenses, and raked them with machine guns, focusing on the remaining vehicles.
“Ha… How are we supposed to drag that thing along?”
“Just leave it…”
The soldiers who were trying to salvage some of the remaining food from the smoking truck ran away again when the gasoline caught fire and exploded.
The Soviet air force did not seem to be very interested in killing the Germans directly.
When the German fighter planes came to protect them, they quickly turned around and flew away.
They only focused on destroying the German combat capabilities.
They avoided frontal confrontation and blocked the supply and movement.
While the 4th Army was buying time, the Army Group North had to escape to the relatively stabilized Estonian direction, but the Soviet army harassed the retreating Germans persistently.
Field Marshal Manstein gathered all the remaining armored vehicles for a final counterattack and formed an attack group to pierce the Soviet army’s protruding flank.
To the Holrit detachment, which was formed this way, Manstein ordered with a plea.
“Please, just buy us two weeks!”
“…We will do our best, Your Excellency.”
The Führer ordered to defend Leningrad, or rather, Adolfusburg, at all costs. But the frontline commanders, including Manstein, knew that it was impossible.
What finally exploded them was the arrival of the transport planes that were forced out by pressuring the opposing G?ring.
They came to support the city’s recapture by those who claimed to be the rear guard, not the attack group that was conducting the counterattack.
“Damn it! How can they need transport planes in this situation!”
“We are just following orders. Your Excellency.”
“…We are trying to disobey that bullshit order right now.”
<Supply the materials to defend Adolfusburg with the air force!>
It was easy to say. But reality was a bit more harsh.
The Soviet fighter planes were flying like a swarm of bees in the sky of Leningrad.
It was extremely difficult to build a sufficient runway and airfield in the ruined city, and to protect it.
The air force commander of the Army Group North, Wolfram von Richthofen, analyzed the situation coldly, contrary to his reputation of being crazy, and spoke the truth.
“The amount of materials that we can supply there is no more than 300 tons per day at most! This is an unbearable figure considering the amount of materials that the 4th Army consumes.”
“The reason why the operation is not performed properly is because of the lack of morale. Why do you only say that it can’t be done!”
Anyway, with that one word, the soldiers of Leningrad, who were exhausted and starved by the lack of supply, were forced to dig runways with shovels.
***
“No, what the hell are those crazy bastards thinking?”
“Maybe, maybe they have some kind of trick?”
The commander of the Northern Front, Ivan Konev, who was responsible for the entire Leningrad area, scratched his head as he received the absurd report.
The Germans were building an airfield in the city and trying to receive supplies from there. They were not fleeing, but dropping materials in real time.
What kind of nonsense is this.
“Are they trying to plant roots there, instead of running away?”
“…”
He could not understand it with his common sense. To build an airfield in that dangerous place where shells and rockets flew constantly?
“How much material can they supply there?”
“Well, ah… The NKVD says that they can’t catch more than a thousand tons per week at most.”
“Then who are they going to stick that to?”
His staffs all nodded in agreement. At least a few hundred tons of materials had to be supplied ‘daily’ for a field army-level unit to function properly. But the makeshift airfield they had built did not seem to be possible.
Rather, it would only make it easier for the Soviet army to encircle the Germans who were tied up by defending the airfield.
“Hmm… If it doesn’t work, just target the area around the airfield and sprinkle the Victory Rockets. Some of them will hit. Even if we just hit a few, they won’t be able to move, right?”
“Yes. The defense won’t be weak, but…”
“Then just shoot more.”
We started making a lot and just made a lot. This was a popular saying in the Soviet army these days.
‘We started making a lot and just made a lot.’
Tanks that were produced by hundreds, Victory Missiles that were supplied by thousands, and even food that was overflowing! Of course, there was the ‘grateful ally’ America’s help, but anyway, everything was really a lot.
The Germans were assigned the role of experiencing that quantity with their bodies, which was not very pleasant.
“Let’s just push them away.”
Konev ordered to deploy two tank armies to counter the estimated enemy counterattack of two army corps.
“Since the board is laid out like this, we can’t pick it up, that’s stupid.”
The war was going roughly as he had predicted. To be precise, as the chief of staff had pointed out.
‘If we stab the weak spot of their defense and block their retreat, they will counterattack to secure their retreat. The most likely part is the flank of our advancing army that has advanced rapidly.’
Well, they were doing some weird things to maintain the base of Leningrad, but that didn’t seem to be a big hindrance anyway.
The reports of victory had already begun to come in.
[The enemy is fleeing! The 3rd Tank Army has repelled the enemy’s regiment-level armored attack.]
[The 5th Shock Army has successfully broken through the enemy’s expected defense line! Now we are advancing to the rear of the defense line and heading to the Narva River. We are waiting for the commander’s order.]
[We are defending against the enemy’s corps-level infantry attack. We can repel the attack with our current strength without any additional reinforcements.]
The German commanders on the other side must be sighing. Konev chuckled softly as he thought so.
The recapture of Leningrad was almost complete.
***
“I won’t sell our soldiers to that damned tragedy.”
As expected, the makeshift airfield that the soldiers had dug and defended was quickly captured by the Soviet offensive.
The airfield became a useless thing in the midst of rockets and shells falling, and the landing transport planes were shot down one by one and eventually seized.
The airfield was not very helpful.
But the German morale plummeted as they sensed that the supply route was cut off.
The supply that they received across the Neva River was already diverted for the formation of the attack group.
Major General Heinrich decided to surrender to save the remaining soldiers.
That was the end of the fight for Leningrad.
The German prisoners were paraded in front of the ruined Hermitage Museum.
The Soviet people who returned to the city saw the cruel Germans who burned the city marching through the streets and hurled all kinds of insults.
“Boo! Dirty fascists!”
“Good riddance! You dogs!”
Stones and garbage flew into the column.
The NKVD agents were stationed on the street to maintain order, but they did not stop the people’s expression of anger. They only stopped the people who tried to throw too big rocks.
The German generals who walked in front of the column with handcuffs shed tears of blood and looked at their subordinates.
‘What happened to the Army Group North…’
They had become dead stones to save the remaining army, but they did not resent Field Marshal Manstein.
It was just a necessary choice. For the German army and the nation.
They only felt sorry for the soldiers who fell one by one as they marched in the cold rain, or the young soldiers who were like their sons.
The Soviet army was burning with fierce hatred.
The Soviet commander who received the surrender document, Ivan Konev, said that there would be no mistreatment of the ‘prisoners of war’.
But the Soviet army did not recognize the Waffen-SS as ‘prisoners of war’.
“What is the legal status of the Waffen-SS? Aren’t they just the soldiers of the Nazi party and your Führer? Is there any legal definition of them in the German law?”
“…”
The generals could not stop the Soviet army from sorting out the SS and dragging them somewhere, since what the Soviet army said was not wrong.
They only felt relieved that they did not touch the Wehrmacht soldiers, and that they kept their promise.
The Soviet army knew very well how the SS soldiers marked and distinguished themselves.
“Fascist fanatics! Find all the Hitler followers! They burned our homeland, stabbed and killed our families, and raped our sisters. Kill them all!”
“Yes!”
They sorted out the Waffen-SS thoroughly and dragged them to separate camps. Those who guarded the prisoner camps, or those who were related to that mission, were also sorted out.
The soldiers tried to hide and keep their mouths shut, but the occasional defectors found the targets.
“This is him! Do you see? The SS mark!”
A Soviet ‘HiWi’ (Hilfswilfiger = voluntary collaborator) who wore a Soviet uniform but only a black armband without a rank insignia dragged a soldier out of the column.
The emaciated soldier could not resist the strength of the well-fed and sturdy HiWi. The HiWi threw the soldier to the ground, and the Soviet soldiers surrounded him and pointed their guns at him.
“No, no, it’s not me! Please spare me!”
The SS soldiers were especially afraid of the Soviet army. Was it because they knew what they had done to the Soviets?
The butt of the rifle hit his head several times, and he soon quieted down. The Soviet soldiers laughed as if they were satisfied.
“Shut up. This bastard, take him over there!”
“Yes!”
The cold autumn rain began to drizzle. As if foreshadowing the imminent cold and frostbite.
“…Farewell, Leningrad…”
Field Marshal Manstein succeeded in taking out about 300,000 soldiers of the Army Group North to the other side of the Narva defense line.
He stared at the gray city on the other side of the river for a while, even after seeing the ragged retreat of the defeated soldiers.
The city where artillery fire and explosions were heard. Leningrad.
He turned around and headed to the staff who were waiting for him, as he heard the report that the Soviet pursuit force was approaching.
His back was miserable.
Like a defeated general.
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