I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 134

The Japanese army was momentarily flustered by the sudden attack on the base, but soon began to deal with it calmly.

“The commander is being held hostage in there… Hmm…”

“Unknown forces have already attacked the research facility! It seems that the confidential documents have been stolen!”

The commander of the 731st Unit’s security battalion was in a headache. Damn it, how did they know about this place?

He knew very well that this was the top secret facility of the Kwantung Army. But how did they know about the facilities inside the base and who the commander was?

And his head was throbbing because of the commander screaming inside.

“Save me! Please spare me!”

For more than twenty minutes since he was taken hostage, he was shouting in a hoarse voice to spare him, not to shoot. 

The battalion commander did not know what to do. 

He had no control over the situation, such as who the attackers were, what they had taken, and so on.

Bang! A huge explosion was heard from the outskirts of the base.

“What the hell! Damn it…”

“W-what should we do?”

He wanted to snap at him for asking him that, but what could he do? He was the battalion commander. 

He was annoyed that he couldn’t set up a defense in this damn corner, and he thought they were safely sucking honey in the rear, but now their military careers seemed to be over.

“Listen up! You sons of bitches of the Japanese imperialism!”

The ones who had taken the commander hostage inside started shouting something. 

It was fluent Japanese, but somehow the battalion commander felt that the accent was strange.

“We came here knowing your heinous crimes of enslaving and torturing people. We want to kill you all without leaving a single one alive, but it is unfortunate that we are weak!”

“…Koreans?”

Three attackers came out dragging the commander. 

One of them held the commander and pointed a pistol at his head, and the other two pointed their pistols at this side with grim expressions.

They sounded like Koreans. How did the Koreans know about this place… The battalion commander muttered that, but they had no intention of telling him that.

Pshhhhhhh… Bang! One of the attackers fired a flare into the sky. 

The commander, who thought it was a gunshot, screamed louder and begged not to shoot.

The red flare was clearly visible even in the bright sky.

“Hahaha! Are you afraid to die? Long live the independence of Korea! You bastards, long live the independence of Korea!”

“Koreans, if you let go of the commander, we will let you go safely…”

Bang. A gunshot rang out. The head of Ishii Shiro, who had been screaming until then, burst like a watermelon and spilled his brains.

“Damn it, kill them!”

“Long live the independence of Korea!”

The words of those who killed the hostage in the hostage drama were always the same. But they were proud and brave until the end.

They did not beg for their lives like Ishii Shiro, but they faced death with dignity, shouting the slogan of Korean independence. The battalion commander glared at the three people who had turned into rags along with the commander’s corpse.

“Damn… We’re in trouble. Hurry up and catch the rest of them!”

“Yes, sir!”

The commander’s corpse was also transformed into rags with the attackers. His head was smashed and his body was torn like a rag. How was he supposed to face his family… The battalion commander had a headache.

‘Well, at least my head is safe.’

***

“Ah… Salute to the captain!”

“…”

The special forces who saw the red flare soar from afar saluted the captain.

As they entered the operation, Yun Se-ju declared that.

‘I will kill him and die with him. I won’t be lonely if I have a companion on the road to hell.’

If he captured Commander Ishii Shiro as a hostage and could not escape, he would shoot a red flare. 

If possible, he would shoot a green flare and they would shoot a green flare too. The captain ordered that, but a red flare soared from the other side.

He must have died. But they had to take the data with them. The data in the commander’s office was over there, so they had to at least bring the data from the experimental facility to the world.

Many of the special forces did not return. They probably died in the firefight with the Japanese.

The soldiers who could fill two trucks tightly were gone and there was extra space in the armored car. The soldiers forgot to speak.

“…”

“Anyway, we can avenge them. With this data alone…”

Fortunately, they were able to bring back two cameras that had filmed the experimental facility. 

And a bunch of data.

The soldiers handled the precious data they had exchanged for their comrades’ lives carefully, as if they could recognize them.

“Stalin’s secretary-general… will surely avenge us…”

“Ye, yes… then…”

***

“Spread the word about these bastards as widely as possible. Beria! Zhdanov! Molotov!”

“Yes, comrade secretary-general!”

The Korean special forces successfully attacked the 731st Unit and returned. 

Of course, many people died, but they did not value their lives as they had already devoted themselves to the independence war. 

As a result, we were able to obtain evidence to expose the atrocities of the 731st Unit to the world.

“Let the United States, Britain, and the Republic of China know. What these bastards have done… damn…”

“Yes, comrade secretary-general.”

They seemed to have started conducting human experiments at the 731st Unit early on. 

Data came out that thousands of people had already died. 

Even the Soviet high-ranking officials, who were relatively indifferent to human lives, were shocked.

Maybe something similar is happening at the Nazi’s human experimentation facility, the SS Sanitation Squad. 

They are the ones who run extermination camps like Auschwitz, Birkenau. They have been dragging Jews somewhere since early last year, but did they just make them work?

“The brave actions of the deceased will be remembered for a long time. I swear.”

“Thank you… comrade secretary-general.”

Captain Yun Se-ju had said he would kill Ishii Shiro and die with him. His comrade, Kim Won-bong, who was also a loyal soldier, shed hot tears when he heard the news. 

The Korean special forces were all awarded the Soviet Hero of the People medal. But the living ones could not help crying for their dead colleagues.

They all wrote their wills before they left. 

At the memorial, Kim Won-bong recited the wills of the deceased soldiers one by one.

“If Korea is liberated, please bury my ashes in my hometown, Jeongju Yeounangol… Sob…”

What could they put in front of the portraits to appease the spirits of those who left without even seeing the independence of their homeland? 

Medals and bouquets piled up, and the Soviet Politburo members and high-ranking generals visited to comfort them, but the Korean soldiers spat on them.

“Please let us lead the fight against those damned Japanese bastards!”

“Good, General Hong. It will be so. Did you hear that, Captain Batutin?”

The old General Hong Beom-do held my hand tightly and shed tears on his wrinkled face. I ordered Captain Batutin, the commander of the Far Eastern Front Army, to promise.

The Korean Volunteer Army was now being trained as an armored division. They were retreating on the European front, but they would be at the forefront of the war to liberate their homeland. Until then, would the old General Hong Beom-do be alive…

The situation in this world was subtly similar to the real history. I thought so as I saw the explosion of Louis Mountbatten and the death of Yun Se-ju.

In real history, Yun Se-ju died in 1942. Louis Mountbatten lived much longer, but he was blown up by the Irish, which was similar.

Of course, General Hong, who saw the hope of Korean independence, might live longer…

Let’s cheer up. 

Anyway, Ishii Shiro, who ate well and lived well after the war, died miserably. 

It’s a pity that I can’t mock his death right away, but the time will come.

“When will the next offensive start?”

“It is estimated that the ground will be hard enough for the mobility of the armored units by November, comrade secretary-general.”

“November… November.”

The state of truce continued because of the muddy swamp. The air battle was at its last peak before the blizzard made it difficult for the planes to take off, but the ground was in a quiet ceasefire.

“By the way, comrade secretary-general… A report on the personnel trends within the German army has arrived.”

“Is that so? What is it?”

Beria fiddled with his glasses and pulled out another thick pile of reports. Personnel changes within the German army… Did Manstein retreat miserably and the Northern Group Army was reorganized? It was hard to call it a group army now.

But Beria’s expression was somehow not good.

“It’s a bad report. The German commander who stopped the southern offensive last winter, Walter Model, has been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front.”

“What!?!?”

***

Walter Model called all his field army commanders under his command.

They all had a lot of troops, and they would have resisted a young superior, but they dared not raise their flag against Model, who received the love of the Führer and showed brilliant leadership last winter.

For the past week, Model had been traveling back and forth between the front and rear lines across the entire front, assessing the situation. 

Now it was time to lay out the results.

“We will retreat.”

“Yes?”

And a thunderbolt fell from the clear sky.

“We don’t have enough power to defend all the occupied areas. With this much force on this wide front, we will only be pushed back. First…”

Everyone knew it, but they couldn’t do it because of the Führer’s whip. Withdrawal. But Model had obtained permission from the Führer to officially have autonomy in the operational plan.

He withdrew the 9th Army from the Smolensk salient, gathered the remnants of the French and Italian armies, and created a new operational reserve. 

All those plans poured out of Model’s mouth. 

The generals regarded him as a savior.

And the soldiers regarded him as something more than that.

“The lion is here! The lion of defense!”

“We can win!”

The internal despair was more frightening than the poor supply or the powerful enemy.

We can’t win anymore, it’s a futile operation, the fear and giving up of that mind quickly ate away at the power.

But now that the hero of the southern front, Model, had arrived, the anxiety quickly washed away. 

Model, who had wiped out ten times the enemy in an unfavorable situation! With just one reinforcement, Model raised the morale of the entire army.

And the Führer promised more reinforcements.

“I will organize the ‘National Assault Force’ and send it.”

“Thank you! Führer!”

Goebbels’ ‘National Assault Force’, which he had been babbling about, would arrive before the Rastputitsa ended. 

The Führer told Model that. He said 1.5 million, more than the 500,000 reinforcements he had hoped for.

‘But where does 1.5 million troops come from?’

Somewhere in his heart, he was uneasy.

He knew very well that the manpower resources were exhausted. Wasn’t that why he squeezed out the allied countries like France, Italy, and Spain last year and forced them to make troops?

But even after squeezing them to the limit, he conscripted 1.5 million more? How?

Of course, it was fortunate that it made it much easier to plan the defense and counterattack. 

It was also a reassuring factor that Guderian, who had retired from the front line as an armored general, also promised to send as many tanks as possible to Model by overseeing the production and development of tanks.

Now it was entirely up to him to stop the Soviet army.

“We must win, for the German people!”