I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 210

“General, there are mutinies in every platoon and squad! What should we do…?”

“…”

“The Foreign Legion has fewer mutiny cases, but the government… no, the loyalist forces are building defensive lines around the Élysée Palace and resisting fiercely. The Foreign Legion managed to break through some of the lines, but the prime minister’s whereabouts are…”

The coup had failed. Leclerc knew it.

Who was Maurice Torres, the man who had evaded the Nazis’ piercing eyes, hidden and led the Resistance, and finally liberated Paris?

Could the clumsy coup plotters’ spies really find the hidden Resistance and stabilize the regime they had seized? No, could they even stabilize it?

The pro-communist unions had already secretly armed themselves and prepared to march on Paris. 

The troops around the capital pretended to be ignorant of the situation and waited to see which side they would join.

With this, the coup plotters had no chance of success without additional mobilization of troops.

The generals around him bowed their heads in despair or buried their faces in their hands, saying nothing and anxiously tapping their feet on the floor. 

They looked up at Leclerc desperately, but when they saw that he had no plan either, they bowed their heads again.

‘Surrender or flee?’

He pondered like Hamlet.

If he surrendered now, could he escape execution? He came to respect Pétain’s decision anew.

Pétain had pleaded with tears to spare the others who would serve France and execute only himself. 

The image of the old marshal kneeling and begging in the court was vivid in his mind.

But he had sacrificed his life for these cowards.

“Sigh…”

He wondered if it would be better to d*e than to beg for mercy or flee to save his pathetic life.

The Soviet Union had dragged the German generals who had surrendered to Siberia on various charges. 

Even the commander-in-chief Model, who had been appointed president, let alone Manstein, Guderian, Hoth, Rundstedt, Manteuffel, and even Falckenhausen, who had not fought the Soviets!

The Soviet Union was relentless and thorough in its vengeance. And now that it had the opportunity to cook France to its liking, it would never let it go.

I felt the weight of Holter’s gun.

He pulled out the gun and examined it as if he was possessed. He couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ha, hahaha! Hahahahahaha!”

He had never paid much attention to guns before, but he realized it now. The British-made Smith & Wesson Model 10 had a heavy and cold shine in his hand.

Damn limeys.

The British intelligence bastards somehow got the information about the coup and offered their support with their own conditions.

The French Patriotic Flag Army, or the coup army, and the British had similar goals. To maintain their colonies in Africa and Asia and assert their national interests as world powers. 

If the Soviet Union and the United States were eager to tear away their colonies, what could stop the two countries that had fought together in the last two world wars from joining hands?

Money and information flowed in. It was disgusting to see the Limey spies infiltrating our country, but I had no choice but to accept it. They were the people I had planted during the Vichy era.

From the beginning, he was nothing but a fraud. He followed the British exile government around, pretending to be a ‘Free French’ fighter!

Maybe I was played by the British from the start to the end.

Then, the ‘Great France’ would be nothing but a clown show. How pathetic to fall into the British hands, after struggling to avoid the Soviet ones!

“Sir, sir, we have an urgent report!”

“Yeah, what is it now?”

A middle-aged communications officer ran into the headquarters and shouted. How much worse could it get? 

It might have been better to be a pawn on the chessboard of this whole thing.

“The Soviets have crossed the border, sir.”

“Oh… I see.”

Leclerc’s hand went down to his right side again. He felt like blowing his head off with this damn pistol right now.

***

“Where the morning wind makes dreams soar! Where the new day hesitates and stretches~”

“People listen to our armored division~ To the low roar of the tanks, to the rough sound of the engines!”

The tank unit started to run. 

The tankers sang a new song cheerfully, as they raced across the plain without any resistance.

The Soviet tank unit, which had been stationed in the Rhineland Republic, was dispatched to suppress the unrest of the impure elements in France, <following the earnest request of the socialist brother country>.

The Soviet forces, led by the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, broke through the border area in no time. 

At first, the border guards tried to stop them, but when they received the orders from the top and learned about the situation in the capital, they changed their attitude and cooperated with the Soviets.

“Please smash the heads of those damn reactionaries and sweep them all away! Long live France!”

“Ah, haha, yes… Wow, long live France~”

The Soviets had no particular ill feelings towards the French, as they hardly met them, but they were not very happy to be pulled out of the sweet duty of occupying Germany.

The war was over, but they couldn’t go home, and they had to roll on the front line!

Nikolai Pyotravich Petrov, the captain who commanded the lead tank unit of the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, lost his appetite with regret.

“I have so much to do… Sigh…”

“Sir? What did you say, sir?”

“Ah, never mind…”

The captain was a huge position for him, who had been a soldier until recently. He was responsible for the lives of a hundred people, and a dozen tanks as big as houses were under his jurisdiction! Whenever he made a gesture, the countless soldiers around him tensed up.

Nikolai touched his chest medal with a strange feeling. The Hero of the People medal, which Comrade Stalin himself had given him, shone with a golden light higher than any other medals he had received.

‘Did I deserve this…?’

He was lucky. He was lucky to survive, lucky to become an officer, and lucky to be promoted to lieutenant for planting a flag on the Berlin gate.

It was more than enough to be a lieutenant and a platoon leader, but a captain? He was on the verge of being crushed by the increased responsibility and workload, and now he was involved in the first military conflict after the war.

“You are an excellent officer, a hero of the people, and an honor to our unit! I look forward to your achievements in the future!”

Even the colonel called him separately and said that. There must have been a reason why he put him, a rookie lieutenant, in charge of the core force of the brigade, the tanks.

It was nice of him not to call him, a local commissioned officer with poor military knowledge, to the staff.

“Huh? Sir, what’s that tank over there…?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Suddenly, the driver said something irrelevant, and Nikolai had to snap out of his thoughts.

The driver pointed to the front with his blunt finger.

“That… Isn’t that a T-34 tank?”

“It is?”

The mission of the lead unit entering the French territory was given to Nikolai’s brigade, Nikolai’s battalion, Nikolai’s company.

So there should be no allies in front of him. But why was there a T-34 tank in front of him?

Bang! They even fired a cannon at somewhere. Nikolai’s head was filled with all kinds of questions, but he couldn’t give any orders to his men because of that.

“Are we going like this? Sir?”

“Uh, uh, uh…?”

The fast-moving tank, despite its heavy weight, led the unit to the front of the T-34 tank in no time.

In the end, Nikolai’s company had to stop in front of the T-34 unit. To figure out what was going on, Nikolai got out of the tank.

And he had to face dozens of French soldiers who ran out.

“Je me rends!! Je me rends!!!”

“???”

They blabbered something strange at a fast speed, and they sobbed and sniveled in front of Nikolai. So many people rushed in that he was almost pushed back to the tank.

Nikolai, who didn’t speak any French, was confused and pulled out his pistol, and shot a bullet into the sky.

Bang! As the gunshot echoed, the French soldiers who had been begging in front of him lay flat on the ground. One of them did something that Nikolai could recognize.

“Why are they surrendering???”

The soldier, who was quick in his movements, threw off his jacket and took off his white underwear inside, waving it like a flag. He raised his hands to the sky and chattered something that sounded similar to the Italian word for ‘surrender’ (Mi arrendo) that he had learned briefly.

But Nikolai couldn’t understand it at all.

Why are they surrendering to me? Who are they?

***

“Ha… Are these the vicious rebels??”

“Yes, sir!”

He finally found out their identity after a few hours.

He radioed the brigade headquarters behind him to explain the situation and asked for an interpreter, and after a while, an interpreter arrived.

Of course, the interpreter’s French skills were also poor, so it took a long time.

“Let me summarize. So… They were on their way to Paris to start a rebellion, but they had another rebellion inside about whether to join or not. So they didn’t notice our unit approaching. But when they saw our unit, they were scared and surrendered, right?”

“That’s right, sir!”

“What a bunch of idiots…”

That was Nikolai’s impression. What? Is this an army?

They were the French army that had lost to the Soviet army that had lost to the German army. 

And they were also the ones who boasted of being the best army in Western Europe, but were kicked out in just six weeks after joining hands with the British. Somehow, that made sense to him.

“Hmm… So we just keep advancing?”

“Yes! There is a fierce battle going on in Paris right now. They hope that our rescue unit will arrive as soon as possible…”

“I see. Then let’s move on.”

He doubted that this would be a fierce battle with these rabble, maybe just like two teenage girls pulling each other’s hair and scratching with their nails, but anyway, an order was an order.

He had earned a merit that was not like a merit in this war that was not like a war, so maybe he could get a special leave and go home.

He had a lot to do.

He had to introduce Katya to his parents, and quit the soldier’s job that didn’t suit him, and farm in his hometown.

He had wanted to escape from the farming work so badly, but why was it so dear to him now?

“Advance forward! The target is Paris. Let’s go!”

“Ura! Ura! Ura!”