Re: Blood and Iron

As Germany’s technological capabilities improved with each passing year, so too did the training and doctrine it began to implement.

New ideas for warfare, and the machines behind them, were first field-tested with the Werwolf Group, whose numbers had by now grown into a full-fledged division.

Currently, along an unnamed jungle river deep in the Philippine interior, German mercenaries sat silently beneath the deck of a patrol craft.

Although, to call this vessel a mere patrol boat was a misnomer. In reality, it was an experimental fast-attack landing craft.

Seventeen meters in length, constructed from advanced composite materials, it boasted armor capable of deflecting small arms fire while remaining light enough to skim across the water at speeds exceeding 40 knots.

It was a weapon designed specifically for coastal and riverine asymmetric warfare.

Its very existence was inspired by the longships of ancient Norse raiders; engineered from conception for speed, for terror, and for disappearing without a trace.

The same way the Vikings had struck fear into the hearts of greater armies a thousand years prior.

The men aboard were no different: trained in land, sea, and airborne operations. They were the sharpened edge of a new kind of warfare.

A template for the future, unleashed early in the year 1930.

For now, however, they sat in one of two staging areas, waiting. Above them, the sudden burst of automatic gunfire shattered the silence.

The unit’s radio operator quickly tuned to the local frequency, head cocked, brow furrowed. Moments later, he sighed in relief.

“It’s just a USAAC recon plane. Flak gun up top took it out. From the sound of it, the pilot managed to transmit a burst before going down, but I doubt he saw much. With our camouflage netting and the paint job on this thing? He probably didn’t even know we were here before he got blown out of the sky.”

The unit sergeant narrowed his eyes, processing the implications. “This far out? USAAC running recon? That’s not right. Something’s changed. Our intel might be obsolete.”

He turned to leave. “I’m going up top. I want to know what the hell is going on out there.”

The boat’s crew was already on the radio, speaking anxiously with high command. But their tension wasn’t just about the drone. From the chatter, it sounded like a full-scale battle was taking place nearby; exactly where there wasn’t supposed to be one.

This was meant to be a quiet mission. A precision strike. Sabotage work. The target was a reinforced railway bridge; a crucial artery for American logistics. Nothing glorious, nothing that would make it onto a propaganda poster. But it was vital.

Now it seemed something had gone terribly wrong.

“What the hell is going on out there?” the sergeant demanded as he stepped onto the bridge.

One of the sailors gestured him over and relayed the update. “U.S. troops are engaging Anak ng Silangan in a village near the target. Our orders stand: we drop you, you plant the charges, you exfil to the FOB. No delays.”

The NCO growled but nodded. He ducked back below deck, where the mercenaries waited in tense silence. “Change of plans. The Yanks are distracted with the locals. That’s our opening.”

The Werwolf riverine raiders made landfall under cover of chaos. The Americans, distracted by the insurgents, never noticed the black-hulled craft glide into the riverbed.

As the landing ramp dropped, the soldiers poured out, weapons raised. Their STG-25K carbines, fitted with 12.5-inch barrels, quick detachable suppressors, and retractable stocks, made exiting the tight landing bay seamless.

They fanned out quickly, moving like wraiths through the reeds.

Keeping low, they scaled the slope toward the bridge, pressing themselves against the cold stone supports as a convoy rumbled overhead.

Trucks filled with infantry thundered across, no doubt headed to reinforce their comrades at the burning village.

The Germans waited in absolute stillness until the last truck passed, then moved swiftly. Plastic demolition charges, experimental high-yield bricks wrapped in wax-paper. were affixed to each structural joint of the bridge.

They worked methodically, without a word. Each man knew his role. Knew the price of failure.

Once the last charge was laid, they slipped back to the waiting boat. Inside, the NCO pulled a wireless transceiver from his pouch. A crude, compact unit.

“I really hope this thing fucking works…” he muttered, thumb hovering.

Then… click.

The bridge vanished behind them in a blinding cascade of fire and stone.

A roar like a thunderclap rolled across the jungle as the explosives triggered in sequence, reducing the span, and the railway atop it, to a twisted, flaming wreck.

The river choked on the debris. Flow disrupted. Mission complete.

The sergeant exhaled slowly and crossed himself.

He hadn’t expected such a perfect detonation. But there it was—textbook annihilation. Strategically devastating, and utterly deniable.

Already the landing craft was reversing course, cutting through the river at full speed. By the time American forces arrived to investigate, the jungle was quiet once more.

No bodies. No tire tracks. No signs of the raiders who’d brought down the bridge.

And it wouldn’t be the last time.

Because by the time the sun rose again over the Pacific, similar strikes had already begun; on other rivers, on other bridges. Silent hands in the dark. Sabotage by ghosts the Americans couldn’t see, let alone stop.

The Werwolves had come to the islands. And they weren’t leaving anytime soon.

Rumors would begin to spread among the soldiers of the United States that there were ghosts or demons living within the river mists, especially during the dead of night.

They were the kind of horror stories that would transcend a single generation and inspire an entire genre of fiction in the future.

In the following days, as these tales spread from unit to unit, the cohesion of American morale would be severely affected.

With Soldiers entering a state of paranoia and terror as they entered rural regions to begin sweeps for Anak ng Silangan revolutionaries.

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