Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 118 This is Verdun
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
The 210mm heavy artillery slammed into the ground, and a surging shockwave swept across the land. Tall trees were blown to pieces, and the rubble on the ground mixed together and shot out in all directions like bullets.

Dangdang! ! !
The stones made a screeching sound as they hit the truck's metal roof, like a Maxim gun being fired right in front of them.

All the windows on one side of the Renault truck were smashed, and the two people inside could only keep their heads down.

Qin Hao started reversing almost entirely by feel!

The Renault truck struggled to swerve and roared toward the fortress.

At the last moment, several trucks rushed back into the semi-underground bunker in Belleville Heights. The apocalyptic scene outside left everyone with lingering fear.

"My God! What am I seeing?! Is this the end of the world?" The terrified truck driver collapsed to the ground.

"Get up! Don't block the way! Let the people behind you in!" The lieutenant colonel grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him away from the middle of the road.

After counting the number of people, only six trucks in the entire convoy returned to the bunker; the rest were all destroyed by heavy artillery fire on the road outside.

Looking around, many people were left on the ground outside, some of whom had just shared a pack of cigarettes with Qin Hao that morning.

The older man who used his conversation with Qin Hao to strike up a date with the nurse he admired—Qin Hao witnessed his truck being hit by a shell and turning into a giant torch in the night.

Boom boom boom!!! Boom boom boom!!!
The German artillery began to extend, the sound of gunfire continued, and the entire bunker seemed to be shaking. Powdered dust fell from the roof from time to time, landing on people's heads and shoulders.

The shelling continued for hours, almost until dawn. (Historically, this shelling lasted for 9 hours, with the Germans dropping 50 shells on the 12-kilometer-long attack front at Verdun.)

When the artillery finally stopped, the lieutenant colonel's expression became extremely serious, as did the foreign legion soldiers.

One by one, they picked up the weapons beside them and walked silently toward the trenches.

Lieutenant Colonel Eugen glanced at the black-robed priest beside him and asked in a deep voice, "Do you know what this silence means?"

"Yes, the shelling has stopped. The German infantry should charge now."

The lieutenant colonel drew his pistol from his waist and ordered the man in front of him, "I'm going out to find the officer in charge. You and the driver stay here! Don't wander off!"

Without waiting for a reply, he walked out along the trench by himself.

The sounds of Maxim and Hotchkiss machine guns firing filled the air, and the French trenches were thrown into complete chaos.

The recent heavy artillery bombardment seemed to have caused chaos in the French command. Three groups of soldiers from different directions were crammed together on one stretch of road, especially the foreign legion soldiers, who were all blocking the passage in a disorderly manner.

With no one stepping forward to take command, everyone was momentarily at a loss.

Upon noticing the anomaly, the lieutenant colonel pushed aside the soldiers around him and sped across the trench. After turning two corners, he discovered the source of the problem—the smell of gunpowder and blood emanating from a hidden command post.

The shattered reinforced concrete crashed down, burying several men dressed in the uniforms of mid- to low-ranking officers haphazardly beneath. None of them had any external injuries, but blood seeped from their faces—the bunker had been hit head-on by a large-caliber siege cannon, and these men had been killed by the shockwave.

Reaching into an officer's pocket, the lieutenant colonel's face darkened—most of the dead were commanders of the Foreign Legion.

Although military orders are issued in French according to regulations, the ordinary foreign legion soldiers who have just been transferred back from Africa simply cannot learn so many words.

Aside from the most basic commands like attack, retreat, and defense, any slightly more complex commands could only be issued by officers who had also been recalled from Africa. This was a huge problem!

But when the lieutenant colonel looked up and forward, he found that the trouble was even greater right in front of him.

Looking through the collapsed observation port, French heavy machine guns on the high ground were constantly spraying bullets, while German troops below were rushing over like ants in a dark mass.

After being plowed by large-caliber artillery, the barbed wire on the French front line was blown to shreds, and the German troops only paused briefly before pouring in through the gaps.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang! ! ! ! ! !
French heavy machine guns began firing at the breach, and soldiers fell one after another on the road. The Belleville area had been a quarry before, and the terrain was very steep. The German troops, who were attacking uphill, could not pick up speed and could only suffer heavy casualties on the way to the attack.

In a battlefield less than 500 meters wide, the French army deployed at least 10 heavy machine guns, not counting the bunkers hidden in the area. Under the interwoven barrage of fire, German soldiers fell one after another.

However, the previously perfect crossfire now had a gap, with gunfire noticeably sparser in one section of the position—the direction where the lieutenant colonel was located.

"Assemble! The Germans are charging!" The lieutenant colonel tried to command the others to return fire, but in the chaos, only a handful of people responded.

The Germans quickly discovered this weak point in their firepower and launched a full-scale assault on it.

As the first German soldier jumped into the trench, the lieutenant colonel drew his pistol from his waist.

boom! boom! boom!
Three shots were fired in quick succession. Two shots grazed the enemy's body, while the third hit him in the abdomen. However, the opponent was surprisingly brave and fierce, still charging forward with his bayonet despite being hit.

puff! ! !
The lieutenant colonel hastily dodged, but the gleaming bayonet sliced ​​across his shoulder and embedded itself in a sandbag beside him. As he tried to raise his gun to fire again, the German soldier dropped his rifle and pounced on him.

The two men wrestled! The German grabbed the lieutenant colonel's wrist to snatch the pistol, while the lieutenant colonel tried to knee the German in the injured abdomen.

Between life and death, there is no room for gentlemanly etiquette. The two sides are like stray dogs on the roadside, fighting desperately for a bite of food!

Something terrifying happened: a voice in German rang out behind us.

"Weg da!" (Make way!)
The German soldiers instinctively rolled to the side. The lieutenant colonel looked up and saw a blurry figure raising a rifle at the exit.

Light shone through the broken roof, revealing the dark muzzle of a gun just inches away, while the gunman's finger was already on the trigger.

Finished!

This was the last thought that flashed through the lieutenant colonel's mind, and the trajectory of his past life began to flash like a revolving lantern.

boom! ! !
Gunshots rang out, but the expected pain did not come. Instead, the German soldier on the other side looked at the other side in disbelief and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Gua! ! !
The mournful cry of birds pulled the lieutenant colonel back from his lifelong memories.

The figure in front of him gradually became clearer. The black-haired priest in black robes stood in front of him, holding a smoking British Enfield rifle in his hand.

"How many languages ​​do you know?" These were the first words spoken by the lieutenant colonel who had miraculously survived.

(End of this chapter)