Chapter 889: Chapter 18 The Everlasting Throb in Your Heart Is the Waves of the Baltic Sea_2

“Captain! Tanks!”

The officers gathered in a meeting immediately grabbed their weapons, ready to disperse back to their units. Evans raised his hand to stop them, loudly asking, “Which tanks?”

“From the beach!”

At this moment, everyone could hear the engine noise, indeed coming from the direction of the beach.

Evans led everyone on a jog to the edge of the woods, where they saw a strange “tank” coming along the road in this direction.

As the tank approached, Evans asked on behalf of everyone, “Where’s your turret?”

Tank Operator: “The turret couldn’t fit this 90mm gun, so the higher-ups said not to mount it.”

Evans looked at the huge 90mm anti-aircraft gun, which indeed didn’t seem like it could fit inside a Sherman’s turret.

He asked again, “Then what about your armor protection?”

The Tank Operator patted the mantlet on the gun, “Just this, it can withstand .50 caliber machine gun fire.”

Evans’ mouth hung open wide, “You’re going to take on Prosen’s armored troops with just that?”

“Hey, listen up, paratrooper, I’ve seen the enemy’s heavy tanks in the Kingdom of Sardinia; they call it the Kong Taige (Prosenese pronunciation of Tiger King). Our Shermans are like paper mache in comparison. If we come up against that thing again, I’d rather not have armor; at least we can run away faster. We can still fire a shot before we run! ”

Evans glanced at the Purple Heart ribbon on the senior officer’s chest and immediately felt his words were credible.

Evans: “Alright, I’ll get you some great camouflage, so maybe you can fire two shots.”

“That would be a big help, paratrooper.”

The senior officer directed the “tank” into the woods as a Jeep arrived at the forest’s edge. The major on board asked, “82nd Division?”

“Yes.” Evans replied while saluting, “Salute to you, sir.”

The major returned the salute and extended his hand. “Salute to you. The main forces of the Third Armored Division are unloading from the ships; these tank destroyers are lighter, so they’re offloaded first. Hold until the afternoon, and the bulk of the Third Armored Division will reinforce you!”

Evans shook the major’s hand, “With these Headless Knights, we’ll hold until the afternoon.”

“Headless Knights?” The major laughed, “It’s quite a fitting name; their 90mm guns aren’t to be trifled with!”

——–

The commander of the 21st Armored Division turned and said to the Deputy Officer, “Take this deputy battalion commander and the seriously wounded who surrendered to the rear. Count the tanks.”

“The count is already done. There are still 61 Leopard Tanks and 56 No. 4 Tank Destroyers available for use.”

Commander: “Very good, tell all the tank platoon leaders that the enemy is a group of paratroopers without anti-tank weapons, head for the beachhead!”

“Yes, sir!”

Soon, the sound of tank engines rumbled over the entire town.

The commander himself boarded the armored command vehicle and said to the communications officer, “Report to the Western Front Command, we are counterattacking towards the beachhead, the last obstacles have been cleared, and my unit is unobstructed, unobstructed!”

——–

Captain Evans heard the rumble of the tanks.

So, Evans looked at the major officer commanding the anti-tank battalion and saw him meeting with several junior officers. The officers of the newly landed Tank Destroyer Battalion hadn’t suffered any losses yet.

Unlike the 506th Paratrooper Regiment, where Evans as a captain was the highest-ranking officer.

Evans then looked towards the “tank” not far beside him, where the senior officer stood on top of the vehicle, observing with binoculars, while his gunner wasn’t looking through the scope but was instead looking around.

Evans and the Gunner locked eyes, and the latter gave a slight smile. Evans guessed he hadn’t yet been baptized on the battlefield, or he couldn’t possibly smile so nonchalantly.

The senior officer shouted, “Enemy tanks! Dead ahead, just beyond the hedgerow!”

The Gunner immediately tensed up, pressed his eyes to the sight.

The major battalion commander conducting the officer meeting shouted “Dismissed,” and the junior officers immediately ran to their respective companies.

Evans also looked towards the opening in the hedgerow and indeed saw a Leopard Tank, with a tank destroyer expanding to the right.

Soon, more Prosen tanks appeared. The enemy armored division deployed into a strike formation; on the tank mantlets, you could see the division’s insignia, which appeared to be a combination of the Prosenese letters B and D.

(In Earth’s history, the 21st Armored was annihilated in North Africa, and the re-established 21st Armored used a new division insignia, but in this dimension, it’s the original 21st Armored.)

Evans put down his binoculars; he knew whether they could stop the enemy depended entirely on these recently reinforced Headless Tanks.

When he looked towards the Headless Tanks, he noted the senior officer was already crouched behind the mantlet, with the entire company’s command evidently handed over to the young captain company leader.

The Captain stood on his command vehicle, raising his right hand high.

“Fire!” He shouted, sharply swinging his hand down, ignoring whether the gunners could see his gesture.

The 90mm gun fired.

The muzzle blast instinctively made Evans shrink his neck.

When he looked at the enemy, several Leopards had already erupted in flames.

The enemy’s counterattack arrived almost immediately, but the camouflage Evans and his team helped set up paid off. Only a few unlucky “Headless Knights” were hit; the others were busily reloading.

The second wave of firing commenced; the front armor of the Leopard Tanks clearly couldn’t withstand the attack of a 90mm gun at a distance of five hundred meters.

The enemy’s second wave of counterattacks followed closely.

Evans heard the sound of hits nearby and turned his head to see the senior officer tumbling and crawling off the tank, his subordinates scattering like birds and beasts.

At that point, a burst of flames shot from the tank’s cooling vent.