Chapter 95:
Chapter 95
“What? The dogs that ate the chocolate are all dead?”
“Yes, sir. Commander.”
“Those filthy Soviets…”
Model muttered to himself.
They pretended to be friendly, offering a ceasefire negotiation and a birthday gift, and then they pulled such a cheap trick?
Was it because they couldn’t win fair and square on the battlefield?
The young frontline commander, what was his name, Chernyakhovsky?
He had an honest and diligent impression, so Model didn’t suspect him much. But just in case, he had fed some of the chocolate to a few dogs and prisoners.
And now the dogs were dead in a mass.
“Those Soviets are playing dirty… Are you sure there are no soldiers who ate the chocolate?”
“Yes, we haven’t distributed it to the soldiers yet. It’s under strict surveillance.”
“Hmm. Good. We can save it and use it as bait to lure the Soviet army. There’s no need to dispose of it… But what kind of poison did the dogs die from?”
“Ah, we haven’t received a report on that yet. Do you want me to order the veterinarians to examine them?”
Model nodded his head.
Let’s find out what kind of poison they used in such large quantities.
They told us not to use gas and biological weapons, and then they did this first?
Despicable…
“And send some of the chocolate back to the homeland for analysis. Let’s see what they used.”
“Yes! Understood, sir.”
Did the Soviets not think that we would try to experiment with it?
Stupid and wicked bastards… They made us lose five innocent dogs for nothing.
Well, if we exchanged 150 tons of supply chocolate for five dogs, it wasn’t a bad deal. But he felt sorry for the dead dogs.
***
“Hey, you guys! Didn’t they tell you not to eat that?”
“What? Mind your own business! Get lost!”
One of the defense soldiers shouted, and a group of SS soldiers confronted him threateningly.
The SS soldiers who had stolen a box of American chocolate that should have been given to the prisoners for experimentation and were munching on it looked at the defense soldier who was dumbfounded and laughed.
“Hey, bumpkin! The prisoner camp is under our SS jurisdiction. You should go and lick the asses of those aristocrats who are your masters!”
“Damn bastards, you don’t listen even when I warn you.”
The one who looked like the senior among the SS soldiers waved his hand and chased away the defense soldier.
The defense soldier snorted as if he couldn’t believe it.
He muttered loud enough for them to hear.
The SS soldiers heard all the curses that he spewed out, and some of them got up from their seats and stretched their necks with a crack.
“Heh… This little prick…”
The relationship between the defense army and the SS was getting worse.
The SS soldiers boasted of their pride as the ‘elite force’ and acted arrogantly.
The commanders crossed the line between legal and illegal and diverted supplies for the SS units.
Also, relatively ‘sweet jobs’ such as managing prisoner camps, interrogating, and handling civilians were assigned to them.
The defense army looked at the SS with a mixture of victimhood and contempt for their insane deeds.
On the other hand, many of the SS strongly agreed with the Nazi ideology and hated and despised the Prussian military aristocrats who made up the defense army. They boasted that they were the true ‘German people’s army’.
They also resented the defense army for being compassionate to Jews or Slavs who were inferior races.
They thought they were just servants of the Junkers.
Moreover, they sneered at them for coming back broken without winning any battles and complaining about jobs or combat.
“Hey, you stay there. What did you just say?”
“I said you’re damn bastards, damn bastards!”
“Fuck, this bastard is talking shit? Are you mixed with Jewish pig blood that you don’t know when to shut up?”
The SS soldiers who were gathered around the fire eating chocolate got up and surrounded the defense soldier.
The SS soldiers hadn’t received the order from above not to eat the chocolate yet, and they had seen the prisoners eating it fine, so they had stolen all of it and eaten enough.
The defense soldier had only heard that there was poison in the chocolate and hadn’t tasted it himself, so he was trying to warn them, but the situation had already turned sour.
He couldn’t beg for mercy now, that would hurt his pride too much.
The defense soldier muttered curses under his breath and gripped the pistol that he had tucked in his waist.
“Fuck off, you bastards!”
“What? This guy?”
The SS soldiers who were approaching him slowly backed off when he pointed the gun at them. But they also had guns.
Two of them drew their pistols, and some others thought he wouldn’t dare shoot at his allies.
“Let’s just beat him up and cripple him a bit!”
The defense soldier heard them talking and aimed at one of the two who had guns, trembling.
“Get lost? Get lost? I’ll shoot!”
“Go ahead! You little prick!”
“Hey, over there! What’s going on?”
A group of defense soldiers who were passing by saw the SS surrounding someone and shouted as they walked over.
The SS soldiers who were outnumbered by the defense soldiers quickly hid their guns and tried to act innocent.
Of course, the defense army was not stupid enough to fall for that.
“These bastards tried to kill me! They even pulled out their guns…!”
“Don’t talk nonsense! You fucking bastard…”
“Sigh… You guys are all under arrest. How long has it been since the Romanian army incident, and you’re doing this again, again, and again!”
They were armed with rifles and grenades because they were on a mission.
Compared to the SS soldiers who were lightly armed and just munching on chocolate that they had stolen, their level of armament was qualitatively different.
But the SS didn’t give up easily.
“Draw your guns! Hey! Hey! It’s an attack!”
“What, what is this…”
It didn’t matter why they started fighting or how it happened.
From the SS soldiers’ point of view, they knew that if they were taken by the defense army, especially the officers who hated them, they would be punished more than they deserved.
From General Model down to a mere captain, the defense army officers despised the SS.
Whatever their reasons were, they would not let them go if they caused a military disorder.
At least prison, or maybe… execution.
They had already disobeyed orders and stolen supplies, and their brutal treatment of prisoners could also be exposed.
To prevent that, they had to resist being taken away.
If more SS troops came out, these guys wouldn’t be able to do anything.
The SS soldiers who were bound by a twisted sense of camaraderie would never let their ‘comrades’ be dragged away and punished for such a trivial matter.
Their superior, the SS group leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, was notorious for stirring up trouble and reacting violently when his subordinates were touched by the defense army.
He even encouraged the harsh treatment of prisoners.
They just had to get through this situation.
That’s what the SS soldiers thought.
SS forces started pouring in from all directions, and among them were assault leaders who corresponded to officer ranks.
The defense soldiers, who were only a few dozen at most, couldn’t stand up to them.
“Fuck… Fix bayonets!”
***
“Are you out of your mind? I asked if you’re sane!”
“I’m… I’m sorry, sir.”
Model was furious.
He was already hot-tempered, and he despised those who abused the weak.
The other generals knew his personality well and were glad that they weren’t in his shoes.
Or rather, it was quite amusing to watch him scold the SS group leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who had been hated by everyone.
“Did you forget what happened when we had a conflict between our soldiers? And yet you failed to manage your subordinates and made them shoot at each other?”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“Sorry? Does that end your military service?”
“No… no sir.”
“Then is this inside or outside?”
Oh shit.
That’s what most of them thought.
Von dem Bach-Zelewski was one of the most infamous among the detestable SS senior officers.
He had killed so many civilians under the pretext of suppressing partisans that even those who could have cooperated with them gave up and joined the partisans.
His SS security division also suffered the most casualties in the clash with the Romanian army.
Yet he still wore a group leader rank equivalent to a defense army lieutenant general thanks to Himmler’s favor.
The generals couldn’t touch him easily.
But now he was in trouble.
Who could compare with Model in terms of Hitler’s favor?
Not only in terms of ‘backing’, but also in terms of military expertise.
There were few who could match him.
“Get out of here! You damn bastard. You’re court-martialed!”
Model scolded von dem Bach-Zelewski for a while and then told him to get lost. He slumped into his chair. Von dem Bach-Zelewski ran away like the wind.
“Huh… Damn it. Veterinarian, report.”
The young colonel who had been sitting with a blank expression as if wondering who he was and where he was jumped up and saluted.
He had the lowest rank of one star, and he didn’t know where to look or whether he could breathe.
He finally got permission and was able to breathe properly.
“Yes, sir. The… the chocolate that we gave to the dogs had no harmful ingredients for humans.”
“What?”
Model’s expression twisted as he looked at the veterinarian with a tired face.
The SS soldiers had eaten a lot of chocolate and were acting crazy as usual, but nothing else happened…
“Then why did the dogs die?”
“Yes, sir. The dog handlers may not have known because they had no knowledge of veterinary medicine… but chocolate is actually toxic to dogs. We examined the dead dogs and found that they died of heart attacks. The chocolate contains something that is bad for dogs’ hearts…”
“Huh…”
“Is that so?”
“We would have known if we had tried it…”
Sighs escaped from here and there.
This whole mess was caused by him not knowing that chocolate was toxic to dogs and ordering them to feed it to the dogs and prisoners.
Model realized that and buried his face in his hands.
Damn it…
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