Chapter 56:
Chapter 56
The German camp in Romania was in a precarious situation.
By the order of General Model, any soldier who acted hostilely towards the Romanians could be executed on the spot without a trial.
The Einsatzgruppen members who tortured Romanian soldiers were shot, and their photos were circulated around the barracks.
The soldiers realized that their habitual cruelty towards the ‘inferior races’ would no longer be tolerated under the new commander. But their habits did not go away.
“What! What are you looking at? You bastard!”
“Did you just curse at me?”
A German soldier swore in German after seeing the glares of the Romanians. But by chance, one of the Romanian soldiers knew German, and the German soldier had to face their terrifying eyes.
He tried to act tough in front of his comrades, but he ended up punching a Romanian soldier in the face.
The Romanian and German soldiers rushed into a brawl.
“Stop! Stop! Everyone stop!”
“Shit! It’s the military police!”
The fight that involved dozens of soldiers was only calmed down after an armed platoon of military police arrived.
The lieutenant of the military police did not want to worsen the hostility between the soldiers, so he let the incident go and advised them to apologize and end it peacefully.
He sent them back to their barracks.
But the incident started there.
A sergeant who hated Germany and Germans gathered the beaten soldiers and incited them to attack.
“Those fucking Germans… Let’s kill them all! Damn it, are they so great? Do they think they can survive even if a grenade explodes?”
“Then what about next…?”
“What do you mean? Either way, we have plenty of places to run away. Frankly, our unit is lucky that they let us go when they capture us, but why can’t we escape to their side?”
‘Their side’ meant the Soviet Union. The unit had a favorable impression of the Soviet Union because all the soldiers who were captured by their agents received generous gifts and returned.
The Germans were ‘equal’ allies who tried to exploit them, while the Soviets were… old enemies who recognized and helped us by the king’s decree?
The king’s broadcast was heard by radio and spread as a rumor in the barracks.
The Soviet Union agreed to return Bessarabia, Transylvania, and Dobruja to us!
The restoration of Greater Romania, and peace!
The peace we dreamed of!
“They won’t treat us badly if we bring them the heads of the Germans. If we keep getting beaten like dogs and stay quiet, we’ll only be treated like dogs here!”
“…I’ll join too.”
The plot to escape spread quickly in the barracks. The soldiers discussed their escape plan at mealtime and in their barracks.
The date was… tomorrow morning.
“What about the German guards?”
“We’ll take care of them… ‘take care of them’!”
A Romanian sergeant secretly handed over the key to the armory he managed to a soldier who joined the plot.
Grenades and machine gun bullets were hidden in each barracks before the battle.
Some soldiers refused to escape. But they agreed to keep their mouths shut.
The main reason was that they hated the Germans too.
A minority opinion was that they would be found dead first if they leaked their plan.
Those who planned to escape glared at those who did not participate eagerly.
They fiddled with their rifles and grenades.
But as they say, a long tail gets caught.
“Hey… hey, Hans?”
“What’s up? You look terrible.”
Romanian soldier Ion trembled and grabbed his friend, German soldier Hans, and hid in the barracks.
He looked around nervously and collapsed on his seat as if his legs gave out.
God, please save me!
“They… our soldiers are planning to escape in large numbers today. And they’re going to kill you guys first! They already took out all the weapons and ammunition from the armory!”
“What? Oh my God! Are you serious?”
Ion nodded his head vigorously and Hans turned pale. He had to report this to someone right away.
Platoon leader? Squad leader? Company commander? If it’s ‘large-scale’, it’s not one or two people.
So many allied soldiers are trying to sabotage and no one noticed. If they escape this morning?
“Stay here and hide well. I’ll go and… anyway, I’ll tell someone higher up. Come on, you look awful. Have some water.”
“Okay… okay… thank you…”
Hans hurriedly handed him a canteen.
Ion drank water as if his throat was burning.
He didn’t know when they planned to escape, but it must be soon at dawn.
If they find out that he’s hiding in the German barracks, he’s done for.
He had to hide somewhere else again. Where, where should he go?
Hans ran towards his squad leader.
Until he was stopped by some sinister-looking Romanian soldiers.
He didn’t know Romanian well, but he could tell they were not friendly.
“Hey, hey. There, you German sir. Where are you going so fast?”
“Oh… nothing!”
“Really? Then how about we have a little chat?”
They approached him with a menacing attitude, and Hans raised his gun.
“Back off! Back off, you traitors! Where’s the military police? Military police!”
The Romanian soldiers also pointed their guns at Hans when he became hostile. Eight rifles aimed at Hans, and they looked at him with cold expressions.
“Lower your gun, if you don’t want to die.”
As Hans was about to retort that it didn’t matter how he died, the Romanians spat on the ground.
“We’ll count to three. If you don’t lower it, we’ll shoot. One… two… th…”
Bang! Ratatat!
Hans closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
Ratatatat!
The Romanians also started shooting, and soon Hans fell to the ground like a beehive. In his fading consciousness, he vaguely heard
“The fucking Nazi shot our soldier! Rise up, Romanians! It’s an attack by the Germans!”
“What? What did you say?”
The soldiers who plotted to escape heard the scream and grabbed their guns. Were they exposed? Or was it time to escape? Either way, they had to act quickly.
It was only a matter of time before they were all caught if a few of them were captured, since the plot spread from mouth to mouth.
There was no way back if they failed.
They didn’t know if there was a way forward if they succeeded, but anyway, they were sure to die if they failed and had a chance to live if they succeeded.
The soldiers moved towards their designated barracks.
The German barracks had no guards inside, only around the perimeter.
Some Germans heard the screams and rubbed their eyes and got up, but they soon saw grenades thrown into their barracks and died in shock.
Boom! Boom!
As the explosions sounded, the soldiers ran outside.
A Romanian soldier who knew German shouted.
“It’s the Soviets! It’s a surprise attack by the Soviets!”
That was a shocking news for the Germans, but the Romanians were calm.
The signal for the surprise attack was the Soviet invasion.
They calmly attacked the Germans who were in chaos.
The Germans died under the weapons that their families made and supplied by their own trains and trucks.
A sword pierced their chest, a grenade flew into their barracks.
The Romanians had an overwhelming numerical advantage.
Even if there were loyalist Romanian soldiers, they had no idea what was going on.
Who was friend? Who was enemy?
The rebels wore white bands on their left shoulders, and shot indiscriminately at anyone without one.
They saw their allies shooting at each other and froze.
“Run! Run!”
Now they had to run away.
Outside the camp, they heard the sound of engines.
Whether it was trucks taken by their allies or forces coming to suppress them, it was time to escape.
Holding a large white flag made of rags, the rebels ran towards the Soviet camp.
And those who stayed in the camp had to face the forces that came to quell the riot.
“Suppress the traitors!”
“We’re not! We’re not… Aaaah!”
This was not something that happened in one place.
Many Romanian soldiers attacked the Germans in groups at night and ran away to the Soviet camp or Bucharest where the revolutionary headquarters was.
The Germans thought that Soviets in Romanian uniforms had infiltrated and shot at loyalist Romanian soldiers too, and the front line fell into chaos for a few hours.
The headquarters managed to assess the situation calmly.
According to the scout’s report, there was no basis for a Soviet offensive, so they judged it as a mutiny of the soldiers and deployed suppression forces led by military police.
To prevent friendly fire, the suppression forces ordered all soldiers to lie down on the ground.
“Everyone down! Anyone who doesn’t is considered a traitor!”
“What? What’s going on?”
Tatatatatata, machine guns spewed fire and tore apart those who didn’t lie down.
Some Germans lost their nerve and couldn’t understand the situation and stood up to look around, but they ended up as corpses on the ground.
Loyalist Romanian soldiers who didn’t understand German suffered a similar fate.
Some of them saw their comrades attacking them and thought they were invaders and pulled their triggers, only to be killed or kill a few ‘enemies’.
***
Most of the German divisions managed to restore order in chaos.
Only a few Romanians were involved, so they suppressed them and attacked the Romanian units that were confused by the turmoil in the camp.
“Ah, ah, I’ll inform all troops. Surrender troops will arrive. As soon as surrender troops arrive, execute planned offensive. All troops ready!”
And… The real Soviet offensive was about to begin.
In the Soviet camp, artillery units, Katyusha rocket launchers, and victory missile units filled with high explosives were waiting for the commander’s launch order.
“Comrade commander! The surrender troops have arrived!”
“Really? Relay that to each unit. From now on… start firing in 30 minutes!”
“Yes! Comrade commander!”
‘Oh yeah, if you are your Führer’s firefighter, then I am the Soviet army’s greatest general.’
Zhukov smiled arrogantly.
Kirponos, who commanded the Southwestern Front, did well.
He inflicted ‘acceptable’ damage with a limited offensive and caught the attention of the other commander, and now the Romanian front of the Axis was on the verge of collapse.
The Germans were surrounded and captured even though they fought well in the front line held by the Romanians.
The Romanians raised their hands and surrendered or sang the Internationale as soon as they met the Soviets.
A new phase of war opened for the Soviet Union.
They could pressure Bulgaria from Romania, connect with the Yugoslav partisans, and open a direct route to Italy, the homeland of the Axis.
The chief of staff prepared a new operation with Marshal Voroshilov himself for this phase and boasted to each unit commander.
Zhukov laughed when he heard about the new operation alone.
‘No, are you doing that?’
He liked the operation. Indeed, war was most fun when he hit them and they couldn’t hit back.
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