They Came from Hell

"Don't think about hunger or exhaustion. Think of the great German Empire!"

"The people of Prussia are expecting a great victory!"

"We will win this war!"

"Fight for His Majesty!"

In the trench, an officer of the Stormtroopers roared. As he shouted, flames kept spitting from the muzzle of his gun, and a line of American soldiers ahead fell like wheat before a scythe.

As the commander finished speaking, the Stormtroopers around him fired even more fiercely. Dense, overlapping fields of fire swept across the American soldiers arriving as reinforcements, leaving them increasingly unable to hold their own.

A Stormtrooper leaped into the trench, firing his carbine at the American soldiers pouring out ahead. Just then, a bullet struck the gun in his hands dead-on. When he tried to fire at the soldier who had shot at him-

"Click, click."

The gun jammed with a series of clicks. Glancing at the American soldier, the Stormtrooper drew a hammer from his waist, leaped high, and brought it crashing down on the soldier who was about to fire at him again.

The gun instantly shattered into pieces beneath the hammer's blow. Looking at the hammer in his hand, the soldier was somewhat bewildered. He was strong, but not strong enough to smash a gun to pieces with a single blow.

But the battlefield was no place to dwell on it. Although he did not quite understand why his strength had suddenly increased, being able to kill the enemy was enough.

Whatever he could not explain, he would put down to His Majesty the Kaiser's blessing.

Watching the German soldier draw closer step by step, the American soldier kicked wildly. He wanted to turn and flee, but his body would not stop trembling.

"No, no, no-"

In his eyes, the German soldier slowly approaching in a poncho and gas mask was now more terrifying than any demon described in the Bible.

As the soldier backed away, his lips quivering, the hammer grew larger in his eyes.

With a sickening crunch, the American soldier fell utterly silent.

After finishing off the American soldier, the Stormtrooper raised his head. His gas mask was now covered in blood and bone fragments, a sight that utterly terrified the American soldiers arriving on the scene.

They scattered, shouting about devils as they fled.

"Clop, clop, clop."

A dense clatter of hooves rang out. The Stormtrooper looked behind him and saw masses of mounted German soldiers charging toward his position.

Their horses' hooves sent muddy water splashing from the ground, but their speed was not affected in the slightest.

This was the final step of stormtrooper tactics: the Stormtroopers seized the positions and created chaos, while cavalry and large formations of infantry moved up from the rear to occupy the defensive lines and clear away the remaining obstacles.

Across the American positions, successive artillery barrages kept advancing the front, and the Stormtroopers pushed forward in the direction of the advancing shellfire as though unafraid of death.

Wherever they went, the Americans suffered heavy casualties.

At the distant artillery position, Eitel listened to the artillery commander beside him repeatedly shout the order to fire. Watching the German soldiers fighting bravely ahead, he too felt his blood stir.

"These are the German army's finest soldiers-the Stormtroopers."

Konstantin, too, looked with admiration at the newly enthroned emperor before him.

"Your Majesty, our army owes its smooth advance to the unheard-of tactic you proposed just now."

"This creeping barrage-I feel only a genius could conceive of something so imaginative."

Listening to Konstantin's praise, Eitel blushed. After all, he was standing on the shoulders of giants from later generations. He knew countless tactics like this.

What he had not expected, however, was that the German artillerymen could execute the task almost perfectly after hearing him describe it only once. That impressed him even more.

They truly were Germany's finest soldiers. Their caliber was beyond reproach.

And there were also the Stormtroopers ahead, who dared to attack in the direction of the bombardment.

"With such outstanding soldiers, how did the war come to this?"

With that heartfelt remark, Eitel looked once more toward the distant battlefield.

By now, the Germans had completely taken the Americans' first defensive position, and the Stormtroopers were rapidly advancing toward the second.

The Americans defending the second position stood there, somewhat stunned as they watched large numbers of routed soldiers from the first position stream toward them.

Only half an hour had passed since they first heard the shelling. They had never expected the first defensive line to fall so quickly.

But before they could think further, a series of sounds of objects in free fall caught their attention.

"Look, what's that?"

"No idea. Birds, maybe?"

"You idiot! Since when do birds fly straight at defensive positions? Take cover!"

"Boom, boom, boom-"

Volley after volley of shells crashed down on them. Soldiers who had no time to take cover were blasted into the air, falling back down amid the dirt.

The sudden bombardment left them dazed, but before they could recover, Stormtroopers wearing blood-covered gas masks charged right up to them.

Another fierce battle broke out.

At the command post behind the American lines, Commander Pershing and General Liggett had been awakened by the intense shelling.

Beside them, the staff officer Marshall was presenting the two generals with reports from the front.

"What did you say?"

"The Germans have launched an attack?!"

"How dare they!"

In a fury, Liggett slammed the report in his hand onto the table, making the cups wobble.

Pershing's face had turned utterly grim, and his hand tightened around the report.

"A bunch of useless fools! I should have proposed making these good-for-nothings drill for a few years before sending them here!"

After venting his anger, Pershing took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. After all, things had already come to this; he needed to think of a solution.

If he kept raging helplessly here, the Germans would be able to storm the place by dawn, twist his head off, and kick it around like a ball.

"Get me the commander of the second defensive line."

Pershing spoke coldly. Behind him, Staff Officer Marshall, who had been trying to shrink into himself like a quail, hurried forward and dialed the second defensive line.

"Put me through to the commander of the second defensive line."

"Yes, sir."

"Hello, is this headquarters? This is the commander of the second defensive line. We can barely hold on!"

"Requesting reinforcements!"

Hearing the commander's voice over the telephone, Pershing felt a vein bulge on his forehead. He snatched the receiver from Marshall's hand.

"I don't care how you do it. Do everything you can to hold the line for twenty minutes. In twenty minutes, reinforcements of every kind will reach the second defensive line!"

At Pershing's words, the defensive line's commander looked as though his parents had died.

"Sir, it's not that I'm incompetent. Those German soldiers are like devils that crawled out of hell. Nobody knows where they came from."

The commander's words, laden with terror, traveled down the telephone line into Pershing's ear. Enraged, he hurled the telephone to the ground.