World at War: Protectors of Harmony

The convoy of six Sherman tanks and two Cromwell tanks are moving towards their newest objective. The marines and the paratroopers are in desperate need of help and are under heavy fire of the enemy artillery barrage. The rest of the Infantry Divisions were being tasked to destroy the 105 mm as soon as possible. Slowly and cautiously, your convoy move further into the town, while menacingly watch your surroundings. Lots of sounds from rockets, explosions in the air and the artillery barrage goes onto the located target were heard everywhere.

"Keep your eyes on the ground lads." Your commander speaks while looking around the area.

"Shall we load the HE shell next?" Your loader, known as Jack asks. "Because I’m thinking that we are about to face a bunch of infantries."

"We’ll cross that bridge later son," your commander calmly replies, "Right now, we just have to focus our eyes on the road. Keep your eyes peeled, we don’t know what is out there."

With a shrug, you look through your scope and readied yourself. With a deep breath, you let it out steadily to control yourself. This isn’t the first time you’re in war, but you don’t know why, you have a sudden feeling that this is a really bad idea. But luckily for you, your tank came the third in your convoy. At least you’re not going to get shot first, but who knows. In war, death is possible. You shake the thoughts off and continue to focus on your surroundings.

As you nearly arrive at a T-junction, the party starts. "Twelve o’clock! Second floor windows!" The radio shrieks and the voice of the commander is from the lead convoy. Through your scope, you can see the first Sherman is shooting its machine gun at the building in front of him, while it’s main gun slowly makes its way to the target. A Panzerschreck fires its rocket and hit the Sherman’s right side turret. You watch it with wide eyes as the rocket bounces off the turret of the first Sherman with a loud ‘TING’ and hit the building right next to your tank. Your commander quickly pull down the hatch to avoid the falling debris.

"Bloody hell that was close," your commander says while adjusting his helmet, "Anon! Fire the main gun!"

You gladly comply. With a smirk, you aim towards the building that is full of German troopers and prepare yourself for your first shot of the day.

"FIRE NOW!!"

BOOM!!

Your shell hit directly to the window where the Panzerschreck just fired. The second Sherman fires an HE shell to the building, followed by the first Sherman and the three of you quickly wipe out the entire building with your shells and your machine guns.

"Hell yeah, we got ‘em!" The commander of lead Sherman says in excitement.

"Give ‘em our bullets!" The commander of second Sherman says while firing with machine gun.

"Good hit Anon." Your commander gives you a pat on the back, making you chuckle slightly.

"Thank you, kindly Sir." You reply with a smile and satisfaction.

"All right, all tanks listen up," the lead Sherman says, "We have to split up if we want to help our friends fast."

"But won’t that be a bad idea, mate?" Your commander asks through his walkie, "The Germans are everywhere."

"We can’t split up, it’s just six of us," the commander of one of the Cromwell says, "I know this is a bad idea, but we have no choice. If we stick together and surrounded, we’re all just sitting ducks. Best if we split into two groups but stick to the path. Don’t go too far. If one of the groups gets into a fight and they have no back up to request with, the other group must pick their own choice whether or not to help them. This is war brother, it’s between the hunter, or the hunted."

"Understood." Your commander replies. After lowering his walkie, he sighs in defeat.

"I know right." Your machine gunner says.

“He doesn’t even know what hell out there that is waiting for us.” The driver complains.

"This will make us easier to be the ducks." You say in annoyance.

"God help us." Your loader mumbles.

"All right ladies let’s move. Time is of the essence here." With that said, your convoy starts to continue your way to the square. With that said, your convoy starts to continue your way to the square. The first Sherman slowly takes its way to the left, followed by the second Sherman and your Sherman as well. While the rest make their way to the right, one Sherman on the front with two Cromwell tanks on the back.

~

"FIRE!!" Your commander shouts.

"ON THE WAY!!" You reply. Immediately, you fire the main gun of your tank with an HE round and hit it directly where your commander spotted a Kraut with his Panzerschreck was hiding.

“Nice hit Anon.”

"My pleasure Sir." You smile triumphantly.

"It’s just a lone trooper, you should’ve shot him with the machine gun." Your driver says.

"All right lads, let’s focus back on the street." The commander orders.

As the first Sherman turns right at a crossroad, it suddenly stops, making the second and your Sherman stops too. With a sigh, your commander speaks up through his walkie, "What’s with the hold up?"

"There are ruins everywhere here. Bloody hell, obviously we can’t make it through. Like it or not, we have to make our way around."

"Is it far enough?" Your commander asks.

"Well how am I supposed to know that."

"Bloody hell." Your commander slumps back on his seat while rubbing his forehead. Without another word, the lead Sherman decides to move forward again. You can hear your commander mumbling something but you didn’t sure what it is. It’s not like you care about it either. All your mind now is to help the desperate paratroopers that are surrounded on the square.

Another intersection. The sound of screeching tracks from your tank fills your ear as your convoy slowly makes their way to the town square. Your loader sits quietly as he waits for what might come. Your driver calmly looks at his periscope, alongside the machine gunner. A slight ‘ting’ causes you to turn your head to the loader and see him is lighting his cigar rete. Putting back the lighter inside his pocket, he notices that you’re looking at him. With a smile, he offers you a cigarette.

"Want some?" He asks while handing out his cigarette.

"No thanks, I’m good." You answer politely.

"I want one." The machine gunner suddenly speaks up.

"Here." Jack was about to pass the cigar rete to the machine gunner when suddenly, there’s a loud ‘BOOM’ fills the air and it’s very close. You were about to ask what the fuck was that when your commander suddenly shrieks.

"TIGER!!!!"

"GO!! FORWARD LOSE THEM!!" The commander from the Sherman in front of you shrieks. As you see through your periscope, you realize that the sound was from the destroyed Sherman. It’s the lead one that got destroyed.

"GO, GO!! GET US OUTTA HERE!!" Your commander shrieks again.

"BUT HOW?!" Your driver asks, "WE CAN’T ESCAPE AGAINST THAT THING!!"

"THEN WE’LL FIGHT ‘EM!!" You respond while rotating the turret of your tank to the right.

"ANON, YOU BETTER NOT WASTING OUR SHELLS!!" Your commander says.

"YOU KNOW IT WON’T PENETRATE THE FRONT ARMOR!!" Your loader yells.

"AT LEAST IT’LL GIVE US SOME TIME!!" You respond just in time when you aim the Tiger’s turret armor, in an attempt to shake the tank so they can’t fire correctly. The other Sherman already move from the intersection, make it a clear spot for your tank to move forward.

"DRIVER, GET US OUTTA HERE NOW!!"

BOOM!!

You fire the main gun, and just as you expected, it bounces the Tiger’s turret armor; and just in time when the Tiger shot, the bullet missed inches away from your commander, who is currently peeking outside, yelling the driver to move. With that happened, your driver put on his power to escape the Tiger tank. Your commander quickly sit down on his seat while panting heavily, looking at you who are currently rotating the turret of the Sherman back to its normal position.

"Bloody hell Anon, I never want to pick you as my gunner again." He says in annoyance.

"You should’ve thanked me though," you reply after taking your eyes off of your scope, "If I never take that shot, we’ll probably be nothing more than just a wreck right now."

"He got a point there," your loader says while loading a shell, "If Anon didn’t shoot before, I’m afraid we’re not gonna make it this far."

"Besides," you add, "The shell hit the gun mantle, and that was a perfect time when the Tiger shot and missed it because I believe, the gunner shocked."

"THERE’S ANOTHER PANZER UP AHEAD!!" The radio suddenly shrieks as you see that the now lead Sherman is making its way to the right. Now, you can see a good view that there’s a huge park here. There are small hills here and there, making it perfect to provide some cover for a tank fight. In front of you, you can spot a Panzer IV with its gun aiming at your tank and is ready to release its shell in the middle of the street.

"TURN RIGHT!! TURN RIGHT!!" Your commander orders. Your driver quickly swift your tank to the right just in time when the Panzer shoot its shell. The shell lands on the street next to you. "ANON!! SHOOT THAT DAMN THING!!"

With that said, you instinctively fire the main gun without aiming correctly at the Panzer. But like God is watching up there, your shell hits a building and send the debris to fell on the Panzer. But it’s not much to hold the Panzer on the ground as it move forward and starting to chase you.

"Dang it." You mutter.

"Next time learn to shoot, Anon." Your commander says.

"WE’RE GODDAMN MOVING RIGHT NOW AND IT’S NOT THAT FUCKIN’ EASY!!" You yell back, not taking your eyes off of your scope.

"HANKS!!" Your commander yell through his walkie to the other Sherman commander, "MOVE YOUR TANK AROUND TO FLANK THEM, WE’LL BE HERE FOR A DISTRACTION!!"

"WHAT?!" The machine gunner seems to be taken aback by this, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING SIR?!"

"WE WILL DISTRACT THEM SO HANKS CAN EASILY GO AROUND THE PARK AND SEND THEM STRAIGHT TO HELL!!" Your commander replies.

"And we’re going to hell too." Your loader says.

"This is already hell my friend." You say while looking through your scope.

"SLOW DOWN AND LET ‘EM HAVE US!!" Your commander orders.

"LET THEM HAVE US?!" The machine gunner yells, "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

With a loud groan, your driver slows down the speed while you’re desperately turn your turret to shoot the advancing Panzer. It felt like a year until you can see the Panzer on your scope.

"TURN LEFT AND INTO THE PARK!!" Your commander orders again.

The tank starts to turn left and move forward into the park. The park is very huge, making it perfect for you to fight the Panzer on hull down position. But right now, you must move and distract the Panzer in order to make a clean shot for Hanks.

"THIS BETTER BE A GOOD IDEA SIR!!" Your driver complains while looking through his periscope.

"WE WILL WIN THIS, TWO ON ONE!! ANON, FIRE THE MAIN GUN!!"

You can’t aim correctly as the Panzer is moving from right to left and your terrain isn’t that good too. The small hills are annoying to you as it makes the tank goes up and down, up and down, making you have to wait as hell for a clear shot, but it never came. You can’t aim clearly and just pray to God that the shell will hit.

"FIRE NOW!!"

"ON THE WAY!!" You fire the main gun and missed for the second time. But you can see that the shell missed just inches away from the front side of the tank before hitting the ground.

"DRIVER, TURN RIGHT!!"

Your driver slowly turns your tank to the right as you turn your turret to take your aim on the Panzer. The Panzer suddenly fires the main gun and the shell bounces off your turret, making your tank shake slightly.

"Shit." You mutter under your breath.

"God bless Sherman’s armor." Your loader says calmly. Though, his face looks serious as hell.

As your driver move forward while your loader is reloading another shell, you take advantage to see how’s the other Sherman doing. As you spot the tank you’re looking for, it just fires it shell, which immediately hit the Panzer’s right side, sending that German tank to pieces.

"They got ‘em!" You shout as you see the Panzer’s turret fly off from its body.

"Finally." Your driver sigh and slump back to his seat. Same goes for your loader before he put another shell in.

"This isn't over yet." Your commander says.

Just as he said that, a shell passes your right side and land on the ground behind you. The Tiger tank is still on the loose. You look back through your scope, and now you can see that Hanks is getting away. Though, the Tiger tank has locked him on his sight.

"WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING!!" Your loader shrieks. Before your commander's command, you take the advantage to save Hanks.

"Load smoke shell now!!" You yell. The loader comply quickly as he reload a smoke shell.

"LOADED!!"

You aim perfectly between those two tanks. "ON THE WAY!!"

BOOM!!

Your shell explodes between the Tiger and the running Sherman, the smoke shell immediately pops smoke in front of the Tiger's sight, making the tank to change his target. Back to you.

"Bloody hell Anon." Your commander mutters. Before anyone can say anything, he yells in desperation, "GET US OUT!!"

Your driver quickly put on the gas and run away from the angry beast. Hanks is now speeding in front of you while you're rotating your turret to shoot another smoke shell between you and the Tiger behind you. As you can now completely see the Tiger, the 88 mm gun is already aiming at you. Your eyes widen, but your tank suddenly turn right just as the Tiger shot another shell. You see the shell passes by your scope and hit a building. You wasting no time to aim on a building and fire another smoke shell.

Hanks suddenly turn right on an intersection, making your commander confused for a moment. "I'll take the right flank and try to flank them. Buy us some time will you?" Hanks says through his walkie.

"Fine, but this better be work!!" Your commander replies, "Driver, turn left, we need to buy Hanks some time to hit the Tiger's weak spot!!"

Your driver complies as he quickly turn left, just as Hanks disappeared a couple of blocks away. You can spot the gun of the Tiger appears. You tell your loader to quickly load an AP shell. Now the Tiger's left hull is really exposed. Without a word, you immediately fire your main gun.

BOOM!!

But sadly, luck is not on your side. As you fire, a bump makes you missed your shot as it flew pass the Tiger's turret.

"FUCK!!" You yell in annoyance.

Now the Tiger is aiming at you again. The turret slowly rotate to the left and the gun is fiercely aiming towards you. Seeing this and knowing that there's no way out, you slump back to your seat, still looking through your scope. The Tiger now have you on sight. The 88 mm gun is ready to destroy any tanks that are on it's way. You close your eyes, thinking of this is your last moment in the tank.

BOOM!!

Nothing happen.

And you just realized that it's not an 88 mm you just heard. You open your eyes to see what just happened. The Tiger is still in good condition, but it's not firing at you yet.

"I think Hanks got the gunner!" Your commander says. Hanks just fired and hit the Tiger's side turret and pierced through the other side. "Stop and end this!"

Your driver stops the tank and now your aim is ready to take down the beast. You still controlling your breath while seeing the sight. Another shell hits the Tiger's engine, making the engine slowly creating smoke and fire.

"ANON!! FIRE NOW!!" Your commander yells.

Shakily, you aim and wasting no time to shoot the Tiger.

BOOM!!

You can see your shell hit it's side. And now, smoke slowly coming from the hatch. The Tiger.. is dead.

"Bloody hell, that took awhile." Hanks exhaustedly say.

"We're here for too long lads. Let's go and help our friends," Your commander orders, "Well done Anon. Excellent work."

You rotate your turret slowly to it's proper position and slump back to your seat. As you see your loader is smoking, you shakily take the cigarette from his mouth and do what mostly a soldier do in war.

Smoke.

"Thought you didn't smoke." Your loader says with a smirk.

You pull out the cigarette from your mouth and look at him. "Neither do I." Your loader only chuckle a bit and take another cigarette.

~

"We're almost here," The voice of your commander regain your vision, "Wake up Anon, let's help our lads."

Opening your eyes slowly, you look at your commander and then to your crew mates. You slowly readied yourself and take a look through your scope. Hanks is just right behind you and the sound of gun fires and artillery barrage are everywhere.

"This should be it." Your commander says while looking at a wall in front of you. The huge gray wall blocks your sight from seeing the other side that's full of screaming noises, gun fires, explosion, even the sound that you mostly fear of. The 88 mm. "Let's push through."

You never liked those words. It's just the same as a suicidal mission. You close your eyes and take a deep breath before opening your eyes and regain your strength to walk into another bloody fight. Through your scope, the wall is nothing when your tank pushes through. The wall collapses and now you can see clearly there's a road behind it. And on the road, to your right, there's a Tiger tank.

"ANON!!" Your commander yells, "ANOTHER TIGER, 3 O'CLOCK!!"

You quickly turn your turret to the right and just as you see the Tiger, it's gun is already pointing at you. Your eyes widen and know that you cannot escape from this kind of hell. You close your eyes and wait for the inevitable to come.

"ANON!!!"

BOOM!!