Chapter 255

< World War II - Moscow Race (3) >

April 27, 1942

Front lines near Moscow

"Uraaaaa!"

The enemy charged while letting out the very battle cry they themselves had once used.

A gunshot rang out, and the charging enemy soldier collapsed.

A Soviet sniper drafted from the Special Naval Landing Forces, Vasily Zaitsev, mechanically pulled the bolt of his Mosin-Nagant, aimed, and- fired.

[People of the Soviet Union! They mocked our desire for peace, murdered the General Secretary, and launched a surprise attack against us!]

He had already killed so many that he gave up counting, but the enemy soldiers were surging in with the vigor of a wave that could fill the horizon.

[This is the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against their invasion! Our cause is just, the enemy will be defeated, and victory shall be ours!]

Even so, Zaitsev flawlessly repeated the action of pulling the bolt and firing, whittling down the enemy soldiers.

The resolve of the Soviet Army defending the front line was no different from his.

The execution of communists carried out by Free Russia in the occupied territories had already spread widely through the NKVD.

Since the very people who had trampled upon the end of the war they so desperately desired with a despicable trick had invaded, this was no longer a continuation of a war of invasion, but a Great Patriotic War for survival.

Even if they were absolutely inferior in terms of military force, the morale of the Soviet Army was no longer what it was back when they were carrying out an offensive without justification and engaging in a stand-off.

But even so-

"The 94th Division's front line has collapsed! They say they can no longer hold off the enemy!"

"The 138th Division is also requesting reinforcements! There are too many enemies!"

Enrique Líster bit his lip.

The morale of the Soviet Army was high, but the fatigue accumulated from consecutive defeats and the shortage of troops could not be ignored.

Mental fortitude alone could not completely overturn an overwhelming physical inferiority.

His military force was less than 400,000 at best, while the surging Free Russian Army reached 2 million.

Líster was executing a delaying action using all available means, but at this rate, it would ultimately collapse, and the fall of Moscow could not be avoided.

-They Shall Not Pass (No Pasarán)!!

Most of his subordinates who had cried out that slogan in Spain were lost.

Once again, just like back then.

Would it ultimately fall in the end?

It was then that a radio transmission came in.

-Comrade Enrique Líster.

This is Field Marshal Voroshilov.

"…! Comrade Field Marshal. This is Líster."

-Budyonny and I will attack Smolensk from now on to cut off the Free Russian Army's supply lines.

"Will you be alright, Comrade Field Marshal? Your forces are currently blocked by the Free Russian Army, so there's a risk you might be encircled if you're not careful…"

-Hmph. It's just death, what more could happen? …Like a certain idiot who died, all we have left in our lives is the glory in the Union and the Red Army.

Even obsolete old men like us can manage to cause the dispersal of the enemy.

"…"

-Comrade General, thank you for stepping up first.

Let's see each other again if we're lucky enough to live. Soviet Ura!

"…Soviet Ura, Comrade Field Marshal."

Even the old field marshals who were treated as mere followers of Stalin and has-beens by Georgy Zhukov and the Anti-Stalin Faction threw their lives away to buy time.

And that was the beginning.

-

April 28, 1942

Capital of the Soviet Union, Moscow – STAVKA (Supreme High Command)

"Damn it, this is a mess! Even ten bodies wouldn't be enough for this!"

Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army Alexei Antonov clicked his tongue.

After Stalin's sudden death, he had to entirely handle the military production, administration, and supply systems of the Soviet Union that had essentially fallen into a state of paralysis, all while having to individually persuade the Soviet forces scattered around that weren't moving.

Fortunately, Voroshilov and Budyonny said they would strike the Free Russian Army's flank to assist Líster, who was buying time, but if the US Army or the Allied Forces made a move, it was glaringly obvious that their efforts alone would be inadequate.

While Antonov was desperately struggling as he frantically issued orders to his staff officers, the telephone rang.

Antonov immediately picked up the telephone.

"STAVKA, Chief of the General Staff Antonov speaking."

-Comrade Chief of the General Staff.

This is Rokossovsky.

"Comrade Rokossovsky, what is the matter?"

-Give me an order, Chief of the General Staff.

From now on, my unit will follow Moscow's orders.

"Is, is that true?"

It was glad news, but Antonov couldn't erase his doubts.

Konstantin Rokossovsky had been released from the Gulag through a petition by his former subordinate, Zhukov, and was now a person who could clearly be considered part of Zhukov's faction.

Zhukov is staying still, but Rokossovsky is making a move?

"Is Comrade Zhukov making a move as well?"

At Antonov's question, Rokossovsky remained silent over the phone for a moment before speaking.

-…I once fought alongside Comrade Líster in Siedlce, Poland.

"Yes, you did."

-I, who was always treated as a Pole no matter how loyal I was to the Soviet Union, asked him.

I asked him, someone in a situation no different from mine, what he was fighting so fiercely for.

"…"

-He said he didn't know the reason himself, but asked if a general needed a reason to reduce the deaths of his subordinates.

A low laugh could be heard over the telephone. However, the voice that followed the laugh was extremely resolute.

-The people are shedding blood, and I am a general of the Soviet Union. So give me an order, give me an order, Chief of the General Staff.

Not the man who suffered through the Great Purge simply for being born in Poland, but a general who wanted to fight for his fatherland was waiting for an order.

"…Please depart in the direction of Moscow first, Comrade. I will prepare the operation plan as quickly as possible and issue it."

-Understood, Comrade Chief of the General Staff.

…Soviet Ura.

"Soviet Ura!"

Antonov, who put down the telephone, smiled for what felt like the first time in a while and threw himself back into his work.

And a short while later, a knock was heard from the door.

Because the staff officers were bustling in and out so busily, the door wasn't even closed, so Antonov, who turned his head with a puzzled face at the sound of the knock, widened his eyes.

"Comrade Vasilevsky!"

Aleksandr Vasilevsky, who had been dragged to the Gulag after taking the blame for Operation Liberation, was leaning against the door with an awkward smile.

"Could you perhaps make a spot for me, Comrade?"

"Even if there isn't one, I'll have to make it! I'm glad you're safe!"

Vasilevsky stepped in, smiling with a slightly thinner body than before.

"Is your health alright?"

"Honestly, I was a bit scared when I first entered the Gulag, but it was more manageable than I thought. Thanks to Comrade Andropov."

"That's a relief."

However, it wasn't a situation where they could leisurely catch up, and Vasilevsky immediately put on a serious face and spoke.

"Has Comrade Zhukov still not made a move?"

"I-It's regrettable, but yes."

Vasilevsky smiled bitterly and replied.

"May I use the telephone?"

"Of course!"

Vasilevsky immediately picked up the telephone and requested a connection.

-…How am I supposed to fight without my Comrade Chief of the General Staff?

Georgy Zhukov's words still lingered vividly in his mind.

When the phone was finally connected, Vasilevsky gladly welcomed the voice he hadn't heard in quite a while and opened his mouth.

"Comrade General, your Chief of Staff has returned."

-

April 28, 1942

Capital of Germany, Berlin

"Extra edition, extra edition!"

Starting with the Frankfurter Zeitung on the 26th, newspapers featuring special reports on Free Russia were continuously printed and scattered across the streets all over Germany.

The citizens, who had been expecting their husbands or sons deployed to the front lines to return soon since the peace negotiations began, were flustered by the sudden breakdown of the peace negotiations.

The news that spread to those citizens began with doubts about the publicly announced facts.

[Soviet General Secretary heading to the negotiation venue dies in a mysterious fall over Free Russian Army stationed area]

[Free Russian Army's claim that it was an accident during return fire against a Soviet surprise attack is denied by local Colonel General Walter Model.]

The true state of affairs, which essentially did not differ much from what the Allied Powers' high command knew, was revealed exactly as is.

[Free Russian Army, with a low degree of contribution, continuously expresses dissatisfaction with the peace negotiation terms]

[The lost end to the war. An accident, or terrorism to continue the war?]

And it led all the way to articles containing suspicions about the Free Russian Army's course of action up to this point.

Once the most credible Frankfurter Zeitung broke the ice without worrying about the government's reaction, the press's characteristic competitiveness led to them releasing more provocative articles one after another.

Anyway, at a point where Dietrich Schacht's Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Propaganda had fully permitted war correspondents to operate on the front lines, materials that could serve as news fodder were overflowing.

Since they were at war, the media had merely been restraining themselves while gauging the atmosphere.

Not only the grim reality of the battlefield gathered by the war correspondents over that time, but also the tally of casualties reaching into the millions.

Interviews with soldiers who had been severely disheartened after waiting only for the day they could return home from the front lines as the peace negotiations were underway.

When the photograph of the corpses Kaminski had hung up in Free Russian Army territory was also published as is in the newspaper articles, the German citizens, who had been struck with horror after seeing the reality of the Nazi concentration camps during the German Civil War, displayed extreme disgust at the resemblance.

[Chairman of the Soviet Emergency Committee, Yuri Andropov, requests the resumption of peace negotiations]

[The Parliament is deliberating between the resumption of peace negotiations and the resumption of the war]

[Party Leader of the Social Democratic Party Kurt Schumacher expresses opposition to the resumption of the war, 'This is no different from the Opium War']

Under those circumstances, when the fact that the parliament was deliberating between peace negotiations and the resumption of the war because of the peace negotiations that broke down due to Free Russia became known, the citizens began to boil over.

-

April 29, 1942

Capital of Germany, Berlin – In front of the Reichstag

The wars Germany had experienced were long enough.

The civil war with the Nazis, the war with Italy, the war with Poland, followed by France, and again the Soviet Union.

No matter how strong the German Army was and how well they fought, the deaths Germany had accumulated during all those wartime periods reached 2 million.

Even if it was small compared to World War II in the original history, it was a sacrifice that no one would dare call small.

In a society that found freedom after breaking free from Nazi oppression, the Germans who had come to know the reality of it without any concealment no longer wanted to participate in an unjustified war solely for anti-communism.

Even if it was due to Soviet maneuvering, the Germans who had already experienced an anti-war protest once no longer hesitated.

The front of the Reichstag was filled with citizens.

Even without relying on the charisma of the politician Dietrich Schacht as an individual, and even without the Ministry of Propaganda inciting the citizens through the radio, the people gathered voluntarily.

"Send my husband home!"

A wife who had only been waiting for the day to welcome her husband returning alive once the war ended.

"Would you still say we should fight if your sons were on the battlefield!"

The parents' generation who had experienced the last great war and were only waiting for their sons or grandsons to return safely.

"Tell those damn Russian bastards to fight among themselves!"

Even those who claimed they couldn't continue an unjustified war for Free Russia, and not a war for the glory of Germany.

[Why must we die for Moscow!]

The citizens held up pickets with such words written on them.

The slogan 'Why must we die for Danzig!', shouted by the French protesting against World War II in the original history, ironically echoed in Berlin.

Although there were voices crying out for anti-communism and singing of Germany's glory in the midst of it, they were soon swept away by the massive voice of the people and disappeared.

Had peace negotiations not been underway at all, the German citizens might have also cried out for an advance to Moscow, intoxicated by the victory visible right before their eyes.

However, to convince those who were filled with the hope that the long war that had caused countless sacrifices would now end since peace negotiations had already begun, and who were only waiting for their families to return, the justification for the war itself was far too lacking.

All the parliament members entering the Reichstag etched into their eyes the miraculous scene of Germany that had undeniably changed in a short period of time.

Things like political parties didn't matter. Because all the parliament members understood that casting a vote in favor of resuming the war after seeing that scene would be an act of risking their political lives.

There was neither Hitler's madness-filled charisma nor Goebbels's devilish propaganda.

There was no great Aryan hero, nor a powerful nation.

There was no speech from a leader filled with conviction who knew the future and persuaded the citizens.

However, with just the hopes of ordinary people wishing for their families to return safely.

With just the citizens who hadn't forgotten to contemplate what they were fighting for and whether there was a reason.

A war without justification could be brought to a halt.