Episode 8: The Battle of Arras (1)
“Good work, everyone. For a first battle, you all did well.”
Captain Harrison seemed overjoyed that the battle had ended in victory, encouraging his subordinates with a bright smile most unlike his usual self.
The gap was so wide, one might think he’d been replaced by someone else.
It was a sorry affair for the fallen soldiers, but everyone rejoiced with one heart and one mind.
That they had won the battle, that they had survived the battle.
But this was only the beginning.
The German troops we still had to face numbered tens of thousands of times more than those we had killed in battle.
Moreover, the overall war situation still flowed in a direction favorable to the Germans.
With the first battle behind us, we took a rest.
We pitched a makeshift tent beside the tank, ate the tasteless slop cooked by the mess soldier, and fell right asleep.
But before long, I faintly heard someone calling me.
At first, I thought I’d misheard in my sleep, but the sound grew louder until it was right in front of me.
Unfortunately, it was a voice from reality, not a dream.
“Lieutenant, you need to wake up.”
“What is it now?”
“The Captain has ordered all personnel sergeant and above to assemble.”
Ah, this I couldn’t ignore.
At the mention of the Captain calling, I felt my sleep instantly vanish and immediately rose from my spot.
Forgetting to even rub the sleep from my eyes, I hurriedly put on my boots and ran to the captain’s tent.
Sure enough, everyone was gathered except me.
Haha, dammit.
“Late, Second Lieutenant Arthur Grey.”
In Captain Harrison’s eyes glaring at me as if I’d murdered his parents, it seemed lasers might shoot out at any moment.
I was clearly in the wrong, so even if I had ten mouths, I had nothing to say.
“I-I’m sorry for being late, Captain!”
“Now then, I shall explain the plans moving forward. Listen carefully, and don’t get distracted like someone here.”
Captain Harrison ignored my apology and explained the operation plan.
But though I was clearly hearing Captain Harrison’s explanation for the first time today, it felt strangely familiar.
Nothing else, because what he was explaining was the Battle of Arras.
The Battle of Arras was a battle between the Anglo-French Allied forces and the German army near Arras in northern France, a counterattack by the Allies to break through the encirclement of German forces charging toward the English Channel.
This counterattack succeeded in buying time for the British Expeditionary Force to escape to the Dunkirk coast, but the armored units that actually spearheaded the attack were brutally massacred by the combined assault of the famous 88mm anti-aircraft gun and Stukas that the Germans boasted.
But now we had to do that ourselves.
No matter how I thought about it, this was a bit over the top.
It seemed God had quite made up His mind to kill me.
“…Therefore, our mission is to pierce the German flank and halt their advance. Any questions?”
Captain Harrison looked around at his subordinates to confirm whether they had understood him properly.
In the midst of that, my figure standing there in utter despair entered his field of vision.
“Second Lieutenant Grey, are you listening?”
“Yes, Captain. I’m listening.”
“Is that so? I thought your face looked like death, so perhaps you weren’t listening and were thinking of other things. Women or drink, things you fancy.”
Snickering leaked from those around us, but I didn’t pay it much mind.
Considering what was to come, there was no value in caring about the teasing of those around me.
Perhaps because my reaction was different from what he expected, Captain Harrison soon turned his gaze away as if he’d lost interest.
“According to reports from our reconnaissance aircraft, the enemy has grown negligent in their vigilance, perhaps not having caught on to our plan. Furthermore, our tanks are far superior to those Hun bastards’—a term used to disparage German forces during World War II. So rest assured, understood!”
“Yes, Captain!”
These future corpses answered energetically, completely unaware of what was to come.
It was precisely because they knew nothing that they could be so confident.
Well, if you looked only at the current situation, Captain Harrison’s words weren’t entirely wrong.
At least up to this point, the tanks possessed by the German army were inferior in performance to those of Britain and France.
They were such formidable opponents that existing tanks and anti-tank guns couldn’t possibly face them, so as a last resort, the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, which had until then been used solely for anti-aircraft purposes, was brought in to barely destroy them.
Anyway… whatever will be, will be.
I don’t even know anymore.
All I could do was pray that at least the tank I rode in wouldn’t be hit by enemy shells.
I returned to the tent and lay down to sleep more, but perhaps because I’d woken up once, sleep wouldn’t come.
Meanwhile, Adam seemed to be in a deep sleep, snoring away and flailing his limbs as if swimming.
Whatever it was about, he seemed to be having a very good dream.
After tossing and turning a few times, I gave up on sleeping and went outside, boiled water in a kettle, and made tea to drink.
They say this country loved tea so much that they would brew it even on blood-soaked battlefields, but I never dreamed I’d actually be doing the same thing.
Still, as I drank the tea, my body grew warm and my mind seemed to calm a little.
While drinking tea and comforting myself with the thought that things would work out somehow, dawn had broken before I knew it.
The sun rising beyond the horizon felt unusually large and red today.
***
“Company, advance!”
At Captain Harrison’s order, the company’s tanks began moving forward. Slowly, like turtles.
The infantry also moved alongside the tanks, left and right.
Some seemed too lazy to walk and rode on the tanks entirely, and one such person had climbed onto my tank.
He was a sergeant whose notable feature was a mustache reminiscent of Wilhelm II, and he looked fairly old.
“Whoa, terribly slow, Lieutenant! At this rate, I wonder if we can reach our destination before sunset!”
“This is top speed, believe it or not.”
“Is that so? Our engineers will have to work a bit harder. A tank this slow, honestly! I heard those German bastards’ tanks zip around quite lively. Isn’t that right?”
“Hahaha….”
This sergeant fellow didn’t seem like a bad person himself, but the problem was he talked too much.
Troubled by what lay ahead, I roughly went along with it and brushed him off, but this man seemed to have absolutely no intention of closing his mouth.
“Lieutenant, cheer up! What’s with that face? Anyone would think we’re off to die!”
We are off to die, old man.
I was dumbfounded and thought about giving our sergeant a little hint of what was to come, but immediately gave up.
There was no need to scare him needlessly, and he wouldn’t believe what I said anyway.
Who would believe a green young second lieutenant suddenly claiming to know the future?
“Hm? How did you end up as a tanker?”
Perhaps having lost interest due to my lack of reaction, the mustached sergeant now spoke to Adam as well. Quite the lively old fellow, this one.
“My father was a tanker, so I wanted to become one too and volunteered!”
“Is that so! Like father, like son! It runs in the family, hahaha!”
Though I wasn’t sure that was quite the right expression…
He’d probably get annoying if I pointed it out for no reason, so I’d let it slide.
While the two chatted away earnestly, I looked around at our surroundings.
The types of friendly tanks committed to this offensive totaled three: the Matilda I I was riding, the Matilda II leading the vanguard, and the smaller Mk VI light tank.
Among them, only the Matilda II was capable of proper tank warfare; the rest were built purely for anti-infantry purposes, so one couldn’t even hope for them to fight tanks.
Come to think of it, the French army actually had better tanks if you considered performance alone.
Their armor penetration was pathetic, but they had proper guns mounted, making tank combat possible, and they also had high-explosive shells, making them viable against infantry too.
However, the major drawback was poor communication, as many vehicles lacked radios.
How much time had passed?
Perhaps because I’d been standing since departure, my legs had gone numb.
The sergeant who had been chattering away enthusiastically at first had gone silent since a while ago, perhaps having run out of things to say.
Just as I was wondering how much farther we’d have to go like this, a small village came into view. And with it, wagons positioned nearby also entered my sight.
The people busily moving between the small huts and wagons were… without a doubt, German soldiers!
“Enemy spotted ahead! All units, combat readiness!”
“The time has finally come!”
“It’s dangerous, get off the tank!”
This sergeant fellow, with god-knows-what confidence, not only refused to get off the tank but took a firing stance.
I panicked and tried to stop him, but it was no use.
“I’ll look after my own life, so you just do your job, Lieutenant! Hey, forward!”
“Yes, sir!”
Now he’d even taken to giving orders in my stead. And Adam chiming in was just the cherry on top.
“Damn it, then watch your back so you don’t catch a bullet!”
Well, he’d look after his own life.
Come to think of it, what was I doing worrying about someone else?
I was in a situation where I was barely managing my own life.
Anyway, having spotted the enemy, we advanced while unleashing a hail of bullets.
The Germans caught by surprise fell into utter chaos.
It was only natural to be bewildered when the enemy appeared out of nowhere.
Moreover, they weren’t even a combat unit but a supply unit.
Supply units weren’t without weapons or untrained, but there was inevitably a clear difference in terms of armament and morale.
A few Germans returned fire with rifles, but the majority chose to flee.
Officers and NCOs shouted desperately, but to no avail. Morale, once lost, never rose again.
The German soldiers who fought bravely were soon riddled with holes and fell.
“Surrender! We surrender!”
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”
The Germans quickly lost the will to fight and declared their surrender.
Our soldiers walked leisurely over to disarm them and gathered them in one place to watch over them.
It hardly qualified as a battle.
Most of the tanks hadn’t even fired before the enemy raised the white flag.
“Well I’ll be, only fired four shots and it’s already over. I was just starting to enjoy myself.”
Our sergeant clicked his tongue repeatedly, seeming disappointed that the enemy had surrendered so quickly.
I found his words somewhat absurd.
Hey, old man. You seem to have no idea what’s coming, but you’ll miss moments like this later.
That was when.
A booming roar was heard from behind, followed immediately by a violent gust of wind.
The soldiers shouting at the prisoners also turned around in surprise at the sudden roar.
A large crater had formed in the field, with thick gray smoke billowing up.
“Enemy artillery!”
The real battle was only beginning.