- Local time
- 8:40 PM
- 158
- 211
Mission
The formidable German forces have laid siege to the city of Stalingrad, relentlessly advancing towards Pavlov's House, at the heart of the battleground.
Halted by nightfall, German troopers must entrench themselves, bracing for the imminent counterattack by the Soviet Forces.
Harnessing all available assets, stand resolute in defense and hold the line against the onslaught.
Once Air support arrives, counterattack to reclaim any lost ground.
The formidable German forces have laid siege to the city of Stalingrad, relentlessly advancing towards Pavlov's House, at the heart of the battleground.
Halted by nightfall, German troopers must entrench themselves, bracing for the imminent counterattack by the Soviet Forces.
Harnessing all available assets, stand resolute in defense and hold the line against the onslaught.
Once Air support arrives, counterattack to reclaim any lost ground.
I was cold, hungry, and tired when the order was received and read out to us. It seemed as if whoever was behind the typewriter fancied themselves the narrator of some movie created to inspire the folks back home. We were not inspired. What it communicated to us is that we had fought through to the center of this cratered city only for the higher ups to expect more of us to die and for the ground to be lost again. Furthermore air support was a long way off, as were the armored divisions. We were alone and knew that we were dead men walking. Yet something stirred within us, as underdogs we had nothing to lose and everything to gain so we leapt to action preparing our defenses.I hopped onto a transport to the front with my small squad, lead by PFC.Laroche.P and our sole other member Machine Gunner PFC.Canaday.A. On arrival Laroche set to constructing an OP for us while Canaday and I filled the craters, doorways, and rubble with antipersonnel mines. We picked the most defensible looking shell of a building and set on either side of Canaday and his MG-42. As if on queue the Russians began their approach and it was a sight to behold. Like rats escaping a sinking ship they scurried and swarmed throughout the darkened fog sprinting and dying amongst the debris. I couldn't think, I could only shoot at everything that moved and anything that didn't. It was utter chaos yet Laroche kept his wits about and skillfully kept our OP alive moving it to safer and safer places guaranteeing that we wouldn't be cut off from our own. For a time it seemed possible, we thought we would hold, but then the Katyushas struck. It was madness, no it was Sparta! Our initial siege had destroyed all potential cover and there was nowhere left or right to hide. We had to retreat to the Yellow House.
Despite the retreat, our confidence soared once we reached the house. While we were holding out to the East good ole German engineering had been taking place. Our engineers had ignored the forecasted loss and constructed barricades, bunkers, and the largest spiderweb of barbed wire I had ever seen! The Russians thinking they had us on the backpedal were actually falling directly into our trap. We received our new orders and good news "Defend South of the Yellow House and our tanks are coming". There was a long night ahead of us but there was high hopes of seeing the sunrise.
PFC.Laroche.P had prior experience leading many reconnaissance mission to successful completion and commanded us as such. We swept wide and low, rapidly clearing city block after block. With precise callouts and coordination we sighted, triangulated, and extinguished multiple squads at a pace I had never known to be possible. The small size of our team became our greatest advantage as we were able to move with speed, precision, and flexibility. The fluidity of our operations enamored me as there were many callout scenarios of "2 men crossing East to West at 190, hit one missed the other" immediately being followed with the response "Dropped him". The few standing buildings that we fought for with teeth gritting CQB situations served as our cornerstone once recaptured and allowed Laroche to spot and call multiple OPs and Garrisons. PFC.Canaday.A and I would then bound and cover for each other on route to these objectives foiling the Russian attempts at spearing our strongpoint from below.
While our armor battled it out on the point Canaday spotted a T-34 advancing from the South West near my location. I threw smokes in front of it to stall their approach and Laroche radioed in its location. Canaday and I raced for the nearest garrison to equip ourselves for the task at hand. Returning to our position relieved that we weren't too late we watched as it struck an Anti-Tank mine and careened into the bones of a duplex. I sprang from one side and placed a satchel for insurance while Canaday from the other leapt out and struck it with a rocket ultimately destroying it. Our proximity from the blast injured us both severely however we were ordered back to the strongpoint for one last hold against a no holds barred push from the Russians.
We thought we'd been in a warzone, we thought we'd seen carnage, we hadn't seen shit until we saw what remained of the Yellow House. While we had been acting as a strike team down South the House had been shelled beyond imagination. Half of those shiny new defenses I praised earlier were nowhere to be seen and chaos rained down as Russian paratroopers fell upon us from the sky. Both sides huddled behind walls around ammunition crates throwing grenades at each other like a snowball fight from Hell. Letting loose any hope of survival we fixed bayonets and charged headlong claiming it as German land for good. That night we sadly weren't able to retake our initial position. However against superior firepower we held on to more than anyone believed possible and held out long enough to see the sun rise again.
This operation was a complete blast to take part in. Both teams really gave their all and it was really cool to see units executing and succeeding with tactics and tools taken straight from their SPs. The communication between everyone was amazing and some awesome hail Mary plays were made. Huge shoutout to the squad leads and commanders coordinating with their teams to keep the match competitive and rewarding. Big thanks to the organizers of this FTX for all of the hard work and thought put towards it. It was very apparent and resulted in an awesome and cinematic Stalingrad night.
I'm sure everyone that was involved is walking away from this with some fantastic and unique memories!
I'm sure everyone that was involved is walking away from this with some fantastic and unique memories!
