8 Volume 1 (RE) Chapter 8: Invasion of Stavanger

(AU: This used to be called the Tromso Incident but looking at a map of Norway and where Wallaceburg should be it was inappropriate. Also Tromso is fairly inland even as an island. Stavanger fitted better and had more importance. Luckily the airport located there was constructed in 1940.)

(AU: I also never really explained the 'Vanishing' lore. I will sum it up as best I can right now. I'm going to add it a bit later. The 'Vanishing' is an event in a parallel Earth where nations would 'Vanish to other worlds with reincarnators as their leaders. This is what caused Poland, Norway and France to 'Vanish' during the 'Vanishing' according to the Germans. They themselves hundreds of years later suffer the same fate since Justin Wang is now the leader. Since the 'Vanishing' just is basically a Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V of everything the land stayed the same for the Germans to occupy when the 'Vanishing' occurred in the parallel world but the people 'Vanished').

Municipality of Stavanger, Norway

Smoke drifted from various fires which were lit outside the homes. The houses were constructed with tightly packed stone and wood which was meant for cold, harsh weather.

However since the 'Vanishing' the people of Norway would cook outside since it was way too hot to do so inside. However the nights were very cold while the daylight hours were scorching.

The skin tone of the people were starting to darken with tans while the local hospital were getting more and more cases of sunburn.

Located in southwestern Norway it was known for its natural oil which it exported to the mainland.

Several drilling rigs floated off the coast and the municipality was home to the Stavanger Airport which was constructed the year earlier.

The port city of Stavanger was very large but its surrounding towns were rather small.

As part of Festung Norwegen the entire western part of Norway was covered in fortifications as part of the Atlantikwall against Britain. In total 400,000 German garrisons were stationed in Norway to man the costal forts and guard important facilities.

Due to this municipality being of high strategic value a total of 12,500 soldiers were stationed here. Half of the troops guarded the north of the municipality near the main port and airport. The rest were scattered around the south among other oil fields and rigs.

On the coast inside Stavanger Bunker 13 a group of five soldiers lazed around. Two sat on the floor, helmets off, playing cards. The leutnant was looking out of the casemate next to two others who were cleaning a MG34 lmg on a tripod.

(AU: a casemate is another name for a structure which is encased usually with concrete and facing a fixed position).

"Hit."

"Fold."

One of the soldiers playing cards slapped his hand down revealing a mismatch of random cards, a bad hand.

"Damn it. Why do I keep losing Achim?"

"Get better Michael."

Michael sighed and glanced at the two cleaning the machine gun. The leutnant had his buttoned uniform top removed where a dark gash was covered with white bandages. The uniform rubbed against his wound and caused discomfort.

"Make sure to check the barrel."

"Jawohl."

The leutnant struggled to fish a pair of binoculars from his satchel and scanned the beach.

"Foggy day huh leutnant."

The leutnant looked away from his binoculars.

"The fog is bad. I don't know why the brass even defend this land."

"Sir, its for the oil."

The leutnant argue against that. Oil was vital to the nation since they no longer had access to the Romanian oil fields.

The importance of the island-turned Norway was just beginning to be appreciated amongst the populace. It provided seafood, rare chemicals and materials as well as most of the oil in the entire Empire.

Since the North Sea was no longer part of Norway due to the 'Vanishing' more sea rigs have been set up since the new waters were better suited to drilling. Older problems of harsh coldness and the treacherous nature of the North Sea prevented many attempts to access gas sources.

The fog was rolling quite heavily so visibility was significantly hindered.

German radar was by 1941, highly inadequate. However they could detect ships at close range which was a problem for the radar units. The government was investing in better radar technology by advancing its computing power with more powerful computers. However these new devices would not be ready for some time.

Suddenly air raid sirens started wailing outside.

"Man positions! Unknown fleet inbound! This is not a drill!"

An officer ran by the open casemate's door while screaming while other soldiers rushed by from both directions in the trenches which connected all of the casemates.

These were the other squads which were living in the underground barracks behind the defensive line.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and scrambled to get ready.

"Get that gun ready! Achim! Get more ammunition!"

"Sir!"

Achim ran out of the door and disappeared in the mix of rushing soldiers.

The cards were left on the floor as Michael threw his helmet on and manned the other MG34 on the opposite side of the room.

Since his co-gunner Achim was out he had to do all the checks himself.

The gun swung on the tripod and scanned the foggy coast while the leutnant watched with anxiousness through his binoculars.

From the grey fog came the silhouettes of numerous small row boats which inched towards beach.

The leutnant walked to the back wall and grabbed a telephone.

"Bunker 13 to communications! What are our orders?"

"Your orders are to repel the unknown force! Glory to Germany!"

"Glory to Germany."

He slammed the phone on its receiver which hang from the wall.

"Fire!"

The two guns ripped into the air and tracer rounds flew towards the silhouettes of boats.

Thrrrrrrrrr Thrrrrrrrrr

The other bunkers hearing the machine guns of bunker 13 also opened fire.

A chain of bunkers started opening fire on the unknown force which echoed all the way down the coast.

Michael could see dark shapes of people trying to disembark the rowboats and scramble onto the beaches.

Bodies were being struck with bullets and flew back into the sea.

The screams of heavy shells echoed over the bunker as high explosive shells impacted on the shore carving holes in the sand and demolishing several of the boats.

Michael could see thousands of enemies pouring onto the beaches as a second wave raced towards the shore.

Giving the Germans no time to react a second wave landed but this time they came with armor.

Iron boxes unloaded from larger barges which had three sets of wheels on each side and a cannon extending from its front.

"Panzer! Call in artillery!"

The leutnant responded to Michael's cry by picking the phone up again.

"Artillery support! Enemy tanks have landed!"

"Affirmative! Give your location."

"100 meters in front of bunker 13!"

"Shells arriving in a few minutes."

He slammed the phone down and pulled his Kar98k from the corner of the bunker and joined the firing line.

Above the bunker reinforcements from the port arrived and took positions on entrenched sections of the room and around the side of the bunkers firing with small arms. A team of six soldiers pushed a Pak36 anti-tank gun to the top of the bunker and set it up.

They set it up and lowered the gun which pointed at the closest tank.

A shell was passed up from a crate and loaded into the breech stock of the cannon.

"Fire!"

The gun's KwK 36 L/45 gun threw its barrel into the carriage and ejected an empty shell. The loud sound of the gun's discharge did not startle the soldiers who were used to it. The ejected shell bounded off of the concrete roof of bunker 13 and fell down the slope onto the beach.

The tank which was fired at took the shot head on. The Pzgr shell easily pierced the hard armor which had no sloping and killed the gunner of the tank instantly.

The round cut through many sensitive magical components and rendered the tank useless. The magical engine in the rear was struck and leaked fuel which caught fire. This fire raged uncontrollably inside of the boxy tank.

Inside the bunker Michael with Achim who arrived with four boxes of ammunition were reloading the MG36 when suddenly the nearest tank exploded.

The damaged tank from anti-tank fire burned out and caused the ammo to explode, taking the entire roof of the enemy tank off and showering the surrounding beach with fire sparks.

"Whew, what the explosion. What poor welding that one shot can rip the entire chassis apart."

The tank pour fire and smoke from its smoldering ruins as the onslaught of more enemy tanks and infantry poured into the beaches.

The machine gun Michael was using started to glow. The barrel after firing several hundred shots started to glow red.

"Michael! Cease fire!. We need to change the barrel out!"

Achim slid the barrel's safety lock off and rotated the entire barrel upwards. After that he picked up a special asbestos pad to remove the hot barrel which a cool one was inserted after removal. Achim then snapped the barrel back in place and loaded more ammunition into the gun from a ammo box.

Michael placed the gun's butt on his shoulder and peered down its irons again.

Thrrrrrr Thrrrrr Thrrrrr

The guns kept blazing as the numbers of enemy troops kept diminishing. As the tanks were being knocked out with artillery fire one after another, a third wave approached.

"We don't get a break!"

Michael readjusted his aim towards the new threat.

Suddenly Michael was hit by something on his head, an arrow had knocked into his helmet.

"Michael! You alright?"

Michael put a hand from his head where he felt his brain get jarred.

"I am alright. But they are shooting arrows? Where are we, the 15th century?"

The leutnant was screaming into his phone.

"Air support! Where is the air support!"

As if on cue several Ju87 'Stuka' close support dive bomber appeared overhead followed by Bf-109 air superiority fighters.

The bombers broke formation and made diving runs against the land targets knocking more tanks out.

The aerial reinforcements allowed the defenders to throw the third wave back to the sea. The enemy force never got close to the sandbar which was the closest natural obstacle to the seawall. Barbed wire, mines, machine guns, artillery, air support and small arms overwhelmed the invading force.

The enemy kept charging at the defensive line even as no more reinforcements arrived. Soon the entire landing force was decimated.

There was a collective sigh of relief from the defenders who just fended off several thousands of enemies.

As the men in the bunker started to relax the sirens started bellowing once more.

The men scrambled back to their position and stared at the wreckage of the initial attack.

Inside the fog appeared three large shapes which approached the beach.

"What the fuck is that?"

The other gunner cursed at the new threat.

From behind them an ear-shattering explosion echoed.

Boom!

A coastal artillery battery fired on the larger targets. They were not fired earlier as no enemy ships were visible but this threat garnered larger guns to be used.

The 12.7 cm naval cannon discharged and the shell arced and hit one of the targets.

The shell made the object stagger but it kept moving.

The machine gunners watched with horror as the fog lifted to reveal three giant sea monsters harnessed to a huge ship approaching the shore.

All around them naval guns of all sizes started firing at the new threat which was larger than even battlecruisers.

The serpents tanked many shots and breathed jets of water at the shoreline.

The first jet missed entirely and carved a new trench in the back rear. The second jet took out a bunker emplacement and several infantry.

The last one flew high in a futile attempt to shoot down the planes which were harassing the sea serpents.

More Ju87s and Ju52s started appearing due to alarms being sent to the central command of the entire Norwegian land referred to as Nord Command.

German tank reserves started to appear from Stavanger to support the defense. This threat must not land.

Around the serpent-pulled ship were numerous smaller warships which were firing their broadsides now that they could see the shore.

These wood and iron boats were no match for the naval guns who due to clear visibility now were scoring kill after kill.

Hundreds of these small warships and thousands of even smaller rowboats were inching towards the shore.

"Holy shit. That is a lot of enemies."

"Except for that dragon thing, we can handle them."

Their guns opened up on the softer targets as the fighting intensified.

The faster warships and rowboats landed a final wave onto the beach which was already covered with bodies and soaked red with blood.

Because of the bad visibility earlier Michael couldn't see the equipment of the enemy but he could now see how poorly equipped the enemies were.

Judging from how far the bodies were from the water Michael could tell about which group of corpses belonged to which group.

The first three waves were made up of lightly armored people of various ages and genders.

The beaches were covered with bodies of the dead first three waves. Iron collars hung around the necks of many as they were maimed and punctured in various places from the guns.

Michael leaned over and threw up out of the casemate.

"Ugh, that is disgusting."

Achim looked out and glanced at the bodies, he waited for his gunner to finish puking.

"Get back to your post."

The leutnant barked at them and turned around.

The serpent was getting closer to the shoreline as the Germans desperately pounded them with a huge amount of shells and bombs from dive bombers.

One of the sea serpents collapsed after a 10.5 cm shore cannon ripped a huge gash in its head, killing it instantly.

The other two kept going while pulling the large ship.

The deck of the enemy ship opened to reveal a large cannon which aimed towards the sky and started collecting blue light in its barrel.

The planes noticed this and started desperately bombing the ship in order to stop the cannon but a magical shield blocked many of the bombs.

"Keep firing! Keep them from the sandbar!"

The guns kept firing at the infantry which were landing. Michael noticed that these soldiers were more heavily armored than the first three waves but they were still being cut down by the intense amounts of machine gun fire.

"Ammo! We need ammo!"

The other machine gun crew ran out of ammo which forced the lieutenant to run to fetch more.

The other assistant gunner picked up a MP40 and started firing out of the casemate.

Pa papapapapa papapapapa

Casings and belt pieces showered the floor of the casemate.

The leutnant returned with more ammo just as the assistant gunner for hit in the shoulder with an arrow, dropping the submachine gun.

"Ahhhh! I'm hit!"

The other gunner helped him on the ground while the leutnant took over the machine gun. He loaded it and cocked the gun himself before firing the gun.

The assistant had the arrow removed from his shoulder after he screamed in pain.

"Morphine! Hey Achim! Get the first aid kit!"

Achim abandoned his post to grab the kit from the wall behind him and quickly gave it to them before returning to his post to feed more ammunition.

"The dragon is getting to close! Its going to annihilate the coastal defenses!"

Then suddenly the ship being pulled by the serpents exploded.

On the horizon outlines of a fleet floated on the water while puffs of smoke wafted from the cannons.

Above bunker 13 Michael could hear a cheer.

"Its the 4th Fleet! We are saved!"

The Tirpitz, one of the newest Bismarck class battleships commissioned in February of 1941 along with the cruiser Nuremberg and destroyers Z11- Z14.

The Tirpitz fired its larger main guns of the 15 and 10.5 cm naval guns which ripped through the rear of the large enemy ship.

The magic cannon stopped gathering energy as the bow lifted out of the water and the stern slipped under.

Several seconds later the hull fractured from the strain and the bow fell back into the water.

The energy being collected by the cannon now with nowhere to go became unstable and emitted outwards.

The ensuing explosion ripped the entire ship into pieces sending debris into their friendly fleet damaging several ships and injuring the serpents.

The ship sank within seconds.

The smaller vessels started turning to flee but they were intercepted by the destroyers and dive bombers who decimated the remaining fleet.

Another serpent went down after a Ju52 dropped a 500kg bomb into it's wound on its back from the magical explosion which scarred it.

The other one decided to flee into the sea.

The battle was over.

Michael leaned over his gun, steam rising from its barrel. He shuffled around, scattering empty casings and belt pieces on the ground.

"Its over."

Achim sat on the case-covered ground and took his helmet off, sweat dripped of his face.

Over the next few hours the Germans swept the defenses and beaches to clean the spent casings and make damage reports.

The engineers went to work to repair the damaged bunkers and replace the mines.

The reserves climbed down onto the beach to clean the bodies.

Clad in dark grey fatigues and wearing gas masks with filters without the use of asbestos, the reserves piled the bodies onto horse drawn carts and carried them to be buried to prevent diseases. They also took prisoners from the wounded and survivors of the battle.

The destroyers used nets to rescue enemy sailors who were disarmed and brought to Stavanger for interrogation.

Michael was part of the group sweeping the beach since his casemate needed repairs due to the Pak36 gun leaving a dud on the roof caused problems for the engineers.

"What the hell is this?"

Carrying a MP40 from the casemate his team was in front of his bunker.

Bodies were scattered everywhere which created a grotesque image of blood and black gore.

Achim walked over to a body and flipped it over with his boot. It revealed a woman in her twenties or so. She was so gashed that it was hard to tell what she was initially.

"They send women and children to fight?"

Achim glanced over to a group of dead children who were under the age of adulthood.

Michael stifled his urge to puke at the disgusting scene.

The leutnant picked up a piece of driftwood and poked a body. He poked several unusual parts such as animal ears and tails. Furry bodies which were not familiar to the Germans.

"Furry bodies, ears, tails. What is this, claws? These are not people. These are monsters that landed here."

The leutnant was disgusted with the invaders but he started to notice something wrong.

"I don't understand. These people from the first three waves are strange. They have no weapons and armor, only metal collars."

"Sir, I think they were slaves."

"Slaves? Slavery is banned worldwide. It does not exist."

"You heard the news three weeks ago right leutnant?

"Yes, the 'Vanishing'. I heard that we 'Vanished'."

"This is not our old world. You hear the new regulations announced. Anything can happen now. They even legalized the use of poison gas in the military."

The leutnant was now starting to understand how precarious the situation of Germany was. They were alone in a new world where anything goes. Only the strong will survive and they just faced the first hurdle.

All of the bodies were removed in several hours and all of the POWs were gathered in a group.

Humans with collars, sailors, men in metal armor,what looks like nobles and monster people with collars.

The slaves were separated from the soldiers where the Germans tried to get the POWs to talk. They understood none of the languages.

The most senior officer was a major who was yelling at a injured man in armor. Several others tried more calm ways of communication using hand motions.

After several attempts of communication they forced the prisoners to walk to a temporary camp where they were to be under KST custody.

Michael watched women, children, elders and men walk past, many injured. Before the POWs could leave they were stopped by a more senior officer.

"Leave the ones with collars here. March the others."

"Jawohl."

The major obeyed his superior and ordered the prisoners forward with the majority of the reservists.

Michael's group remained behind.

The senior officer walked over to Michael's group.

"Anyone know any other language?"

"Jawohl. I speak Dutch and French."

This was Achim who walked over to the mass of captured slaves.

Michael watched Achim try to speak in Dutch to the group. After some time of trying to communicate in Dutch he gave up. Then he tried French and got a response.

(AU: Assume this part is in French. I'm not going to attempt to make translations).

"Does anyone speak French?"

"Yes! I do!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"What is a French person doing in a foreign army?"

"My family and I 'Vanished' here like in the stories in my homeland. I live in France which 'Vanished' several hundred years ago from the world we called Earth. I come from the France which 'Vanished' like my family did. These people did something to us. They put collars on us which forced us to do their bidding. I do not know where my family is, I don't want to be here.... I…"

The voice came from a small male child who was relatively unharmed from the battle.

Achim kneeled next to the boy and took his helmet off. He put his hands on the boy's shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"I am a German. You probably heard of us from your history books. We come from Earth as well. Germany 'Vanished' to here not long ago."

The boy stopped muttering and paid attention to him. The other slaves were watching the conversation even if they didn't understand the language. It was obvious what was happening.

"You come from Earth? Like my people?"

"Yes we do."

The boy started to tear up and hugged Achim while crying.

"I'm free, thank you! Thank you!"

The outburst from the chil calmed down the slaves who allowed the Germans to move them into separate groups based off of apparent race and bonds with those around them.

The Germans didn't want to separate those who knew each other as they were to be sent to temporary camps.

From the cliffside there was a passageway hidden by rock near the edge of the shoreline. From there a large convoy of Opel trucks arrived to take away the slaves to a separate camp than the captured soldiers.

They were of more importance due to their unusual story of being from other worlds.

The French boy stuck to Achim like glue and refused to let go. Achim tried to free himself but to no avail.

"Ah forget trying to get him off. Take him with us."

The leutnant took his officers' cap off and beat it against his right leg to remove sand.

Achim asked the boy to release him which he reluctantly did. He took the child by the hand and they walked back to the staircase which led to their barracks.

.