Teufelslied: Italia

Chapter 5: Counterattack at Nice

31st May, 1965: R.R.A Camp, Nice

          Idigerion paced frantically. He would've preferred execution. But, the Germans had captured the Hohekommandant and decided to make an example of him. "When the hell are my reinforcements going to get here? I was promised they were going to be here yesterday."
      "Sir, maybe they changed position to avoid the Italian breakthrough.", General Marco Idilliya reassured him.
     "No, remember that the Germans also have both the Waffen-SS and the Geistkorps, the latter of which is under the command of Generalfeldmarshall Wilhardt Von Kaisertum II. If they don't arrive soon, we'll launch our attack ourselves."

        Anto had always wished to see France. The ocean flowed beside him. Nice would be under their control before long. And he would retire here, his country free. Build a cabin in these woods. Which would belong to Italy before long. Stop daydreaming, he told himself. Despite the fact it was night. We're still at war. Then he woke himself to the world. The airplanes roared overhead. Enemies. They dropped a cluster of bombs, and he and his squadmates fled as the forest exploded. The flak guns couldn't return fire without getting them discovered. Generalfeldmarshall Benitonitti was clear about that. They would not live to see tomorrow if they were discovered. Unless they already had been.
        A second later, rocket artillery blasted to life, creating a hellfire of northern lights, turning the woods into sawdust. "HOLD YOUR GROUND!", Anto said, but he was drowned out by the bombardment. They heard a shout, and saw the enemy tanks storm towards them. "FREDIRICO, EXPLOSIVE ROUNDS, NOW!", Anto shouted, and Corporal Nicea Fredirico loaded his Anti-tank rifle with explosive rounds, and fired on the attacking tanks, destroying several of them. Machine gun blazed to life around them, and Private Aloi Burgmann returned fire with bursts of his own machine gun, R.R.A troops falling dead. Anto fired on the foes from a perch of fallen trees, and after he wiped out two squadrons, a tank gunner fired on him. Nicea fired at the tank, destroying it, and killing the entire crew. "WITHDRAW TO THE PEAK!", Anto commanded, and they withdrew to the peak of the hill. When they reached the peak, Nicea again opened fire of the approaching enemy tanks. Bürgmann's machine gun forced them behind cover, and a thin birch tree doesn't work as cover, so they fell down. A tank shell blew up  Frederico, and Anto detonated an explosive charge on the wheel of the tank, blowing it up and, since it was incendiary, set the crew on fire, Anto gunned down an enemy soldier. A tank shell came flying after him, nearly killing him, a nearby tree fell down, and crushed a small wooden cabin. Aloi  switched to an MP60, and fired on the attackers, slashing one's throat with a bayonet. Anto freed a batch of AT mines, and threw one right underneath an enemy tank, blowing it up. A flash of light appeared from a child's treehouse nearby, and Anto ducked as a sniper's bullet flew towards him, bouncing off his helmet, causing a sizable dent. "HÜNDI!", Anto shouted, hopping into the destroyed tank, and firing on enemy Infantry.
      Meanwhile, Aloi was barely hanging on. Stained, head to toe in blood. Most of it his. "RAAAAAAAAGHHH!", he screamed, pressing down on his MG60's trigger so hard, his arm felt numb, turning it slightly to gun down foes from different angles. One threw a frag grenade, and he threw it back, it exploded, leaving a young Spanish man's entrails hanging out, and another enemy with a missing cranium. An R.R.A soldier flanked him, and he picked up the MG60 and swung it like a baseball bat. With a sickening SNAP, the man flung backwards, dead. "Surrender or die, dogs! We cannot be beaten!" Several pairs of hands shot up from the enemy lines. The mountain of bodies and the blood that covered Aloi was likely convincing enough. "We are not your enemy!", one shouted in Hochdeutsch. However, out of spite, Aloi and Anto gunned them down.
        Anto walked over to his subordinate. "We're almost out of ammo. Withdraw."
     "Where's the front line, Staff Sergeant?", Aloi asked, right before a bullet pierced Anto's knee, and Aloi's head.