Burning Moscow

I observed for a long time and found that the area behind the barbed wire was the most threatening to our offensive forces. Thinking of this, I couldn't help but put down the telescope and touched Kolobtin next door with it. He moved the binoculars away from his eyes, turned his head to look at me, and asked with a puzzled face; "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, do you have anything to do?"

I pointed to the front and said to him, "Comrade Colonel, do you see the barbed wire at the foot of the mountain?"

He heard what I said, took a binoculars and looked at that location, and then asked me: "I saw it. This barbed wire fence was laid by the Germans overnight. Is there anything wrong with you?"

In front of him, I had nothing to hide, so I bluntly expressed my concern: "I think behind the barbed wire, there may be a minefield laid by the Germans."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, he just smiled and said: "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, I also thought of the problem you mentioned. But you don’t need to worry, as long as our tanks drive past and crush them, they will be able to help assault infantry. Open up a way."

"Our tank?" I asked with a blank face: "Where is our tank, why didn't I see one of them?" You know, the tank that Kolobtin said, I'm here. I didn't see it on the road, nor in front of the position. It is impossible for tanks to drive into the tunnel. Will our tanks drop from the sky or emerge from the ground when there is a battle later?

Kolobtin smiled without answering. He just raised his hand and looked at his watch, called the lieutenant colonel who called the artillery battalion next to him, and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, time is almost up. You can let the attacking troops Prepared. Send them a signal."

The lieutenant colonel agreed with a smile. Flashed out of the observation post. Then I heard a long and two short whistle sound from outside. With the whistle. I heard neat footsteps coming from outside, and looking out the window, I saw a team of commanders crawling out of the trenches and marching down the hillside.

Seeing that the infantry had begun to assemble, but the tank hadn't been seen yet, I couldn't help being a little anxious, and kept asking: "Comrade Colonel, where is our tank?"

Kolobtin looked at me with a smile. I just pointed my hand to the foot of the mountain and said, "Dear Comrade Oshanina, please stay calm, look down at the foot of the mountain." Hearing what he said, I could only be patient and leaned down and looked down the slope. There was a distance of more than 100 meters from the observation post to the foot of the mountain, and the fast-walking commanders seemed to be approaching the foot of the mountain, but I still did not see the trace of our tank.

Just when I wanted to ask Kolobtin again, a roar of a tank motor came from under the hillside, and then a piece of mud suddenly exploded in the flying dust. A T-34 tank of our army rushed out of the ground. Immediately afterwards, another five or six tanks arched out at the foot of the hillside.

Looking at these dusty tanks moving forward slowly. I can't help but look stunned. It took a long time before I came back to my senses and said to Kolobtin excitedly: "It's amazing! Comrade Colonel, no wonder I can't find your tanks. They were all hidden underground, let alone the enemy. I didn't expect it either."

Kolobtin let out a sigh of relief, and said with emotion: "Because the defense line of our division is often bombarded by enemy aircraft, the tank regiment under the division suffered heavy losses in air strikes. Look at the original more than 80 vehicles. Tanks, these are the only ones left. Thanks to your proposal for overhauling the tunnel, which gave us an inspiration. Since tanks are easily targeted by the enemy air force outside, then we will find a way to hide them. That’s it, I Let the soldiers of the engineering regiment dug a few underground tank depots at the foot of the mountain, hiding our only tanks in them. In this way, not only can we avoid the enemy’s air attack, but when the enemy attacks, our tank detachment You can also attack suddenly and hit the enemy by surprise."

Although I know what he said is the truth, I really contributed to the idea that they could come up with the underground tank depot, but in this kind of thing, I am not a decision maker after all, so I don’t have the qualifications to claim credit. I can only say it euphemistically. "Comrade Colonel, if you want to thank someone, please thank General Cui Kefu. You know, I only put forward my own ideas, and it is General Cui Kefu who made the final decision." At this point, I won't wait for him to speak. , Changed the topic in time: "Comrade Colonel, how come I see that the army is all down here, and I haven't seen the commanders and fighters of the Marine Corps?"

Kolobutin glanced down and replied: "I have just instructed the division chief of staff to let the Marines and your troops serve as reserves. The first wave of offensive will be completed independently by the two infantry battalions of our division. ."

Hearing what he said, I didn't refute it, because I knew that in this kind of counterattack, the later the troops went into battle, the less casualties they would suffer and the greater the results they would achieve.

As soon as the artillery battalion ended its shelling of the enemy's position, a red flare flew into the sky.

Seeing the signal flare in the sky that represented the beginning of the offensive, the tanks and infantry gathered at the foot of the mountain strode towards the enemy's position.

I raised the telescope again and looked at the German position on the opposite high ground. As the gunpowder dissipated, many German helmets were shaking back and forth in the empty trenches.

Due to the open ground between the two high grounds and the numerous craters, which affected the forward speed of the tank, many infantrymen gradually came to the front of the tank.

"Report!" Oleg's voice came from the door. I put down my telescope and called out: "Come in!"

Oleg entered the door, raised his hand and saluted me and Kolobtin, and then reported to me: "Report to comrade commander, the special camp has been assembled, and you can go into battle at any time, please instruct!"

"Comrade Major," I glanced at Kolobtin, who also put down the binoculars next to him, and said to Oleg: "Your troops, as the second echelon, stay on the ground for the time being."

"Comrade Major, what kind of gun are you? I don't seem to have seen it before." The chief of staff of the division, who didn't know when he came back, stood beside Oleg and looked curiously at the gun on his shoulder.

I only glanced at it, and immediately recognized that Oleg was carrying the m39 submachine gun seized from the Hungarian camp. I stretched out my hand to Oleg, and he took off the submachine gun immediately. He held it in both hands and handed it to me.

After I took the gun. Introduced to Kolobtin and his division chief of staff: "Colonel, chief of staff. Please see, this is the m39 submachine gun we seized from Hungary yesterday. This gun looks like an ordinary rifle from the outside. The magazine stuck under the handguard, if pulled out of the groove, you can see the appearance of the submachine gun." After saying that, I pulled the magazine out of the groove and asked the two of them to carefully Watch.

Kolobtin took the submachine gun from my hand and looked at it over and over for a long time. He was not willing to hand it over to the chief of staff who was waiting anxiously. Seeing Kolobtin's love for it, I also deliberately repeated what Major Sergeikov told him yesterday, "...m39 uses a double-row double-entry magazine with a capacity of 40 rounds. Its ammunition. The magazine holder design is quite unique. When carrying or not in use, the magazine holder can be folded forward so that the magazine is stuck in the groove under the hand guard. When the magazine is inserted into the hand guard, the mouth of the magazine will be exposed. The elastic dust cover covers the mouth of the magazine to prevent dust from entering the magazine and causing failure of the ammunition supply." After the introduction, I turned to ask Oleg: "Comrade Major. How many of these submachine guns are equipped in the special camp."

Although Oleg didn't understand what I meant by asking this, he honestly replied: "Each company is equipped with ten units. The whole battalion has fifty units."

"Then draw two in a row, make up ten of them and give them to the friendly comrades, as a souvenir of our battle together." The reason why I so readily ordered Oleg to send weapons to Kolobtin is because of this. These submachine guns have limited ammunition, and when the bullets are out, these submachine guns will become inferior to fire sticks.

Hearing that I was so generous to give them ten Hungarian submachine guns, Kolobtin handed the guns to the chief of staff next to him, scratching the back of his head and said embarrassedly: "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, this is yours. The division’s trophy, how can I be ashamed to take advantage of others!" After speaking, he laughed.

"I'm sorry, we are all friendly forces. Besides," I said pretendingly: "We will fight side by side soon to regain the high ground occupied by the Germans."

Hearing me talking about regaining the highlands, Kolobtin seemed to remember the need to provide us with weapons, and quickly ordered the chief of staff: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you immediately take this major of the friendly army to the arsenal and give them two supplements. Ten light machine guns, and fifty submachine guns. Go!"

"Okay!" The chief of staff of the division agreed, and handed the submachine gun back to Kolobtin, and then made a gesture of request to Oleg: "Let's go, Comrade Major, give me a trip to the arsenal. "

After the division chief and Oleg left, Kolobtin held the submachine gun in his arms and said with emotion: "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, I heard that your division has been fighting continuously these days. , The results should be good, right?"

The results of the independent division’s battles these days are not a secret to the division-level commanders in the group army, so I nodded and said: “We have seized a lot of weapons and ammunition in the past two days in the camps in Italy and Hungary. ......" As soon as the words came to this point, there was a sudden rumbling of cannons outside.

Kolobtin's complexion suddenly turned blue when he heard the sound of the cannon. He put the submachine gun into the corner, grabbed the binoculars, and looked out. I also walked quickly to his side and raised the telescope to observe the situation on the battlefield.

Our offensive troops advanced about seven or eight hundred meters. Although they were still outside the effective shooting range of German guns, they were bombarded by German mortars from the mountainside positions. Although from my perspective, the offensive queue of our army is densely packed together, I also know that there is at least two or three meters of space between each soldier. Even so, for every shell that fell in the queue and exploded, at least three to five commanders were blown down.

In order to get rid of the fate of being bombed, the commanders walking in the front suddenly accelerated and ran. As soon as the front speeded up, the commanders behind could not help speeding up the advancement speed, so the whole unit moved forward from the initial stride to rush forward with guns.

The enemy’s artillery shells continued to fall into our army’s offensive queue, falling in the middle of the infantry. As a fire blew up, the commanders near the explosion point were blown up; the artillery shells that fell beside the tank and exploded. Although it did not pose a threat to the tank, the flying shrapnel still cut down the commanders near the tank.

When the fastest rushing commander and fighter entered the 200-meter area, the light and heavy machine guns, rifles, and submachine guns on the German position fired violently at the same time, and the dense bullets formed an insurmountable iron wall. Our commanders ran into it. Falling down convulsively like an electric shock. In a short while. There were thirty to forty meters away from the enemy's barbed wire, and the dead bodies of our soldiers lay all over the place.

Seeing that the enemy's firepower was too fierce, it was an impossible task to rush forward, so the imposing troops ran back like a low tide. The tanks that were on the cover mission stopped in place and fired a few shots at the German positions halfway up the mountain. After overturning two or three mortar fire points, they also retreated behind the infantry and faced us.

I saw my troops retreat like a tide. Kolobtin slammed a fist against the wall and screamed angrily: "Why don't these idiots continue to rush forward, why do you want to retreat?" After speaking, he turned and ran out of the observation post. . I didn't know where he was going, so I chased him out quickly.

I saw him jump out of the trenches, ran down the hillside, and hurriedly chased him behind, calling him: "Comrade Colonel, there is danger ahead, don't run forward." As a result, he still ran down the mountain regardless. I had no choice but to follow him down the hill with a wry smile.

We stopped the troops that had retreated. Kolobtin drew his pistol, fired two shots into the sky, and the noisy troops stopped.

Kolobtin walked into the queue, grabbed a second lieutenant by the collar, and asked loudly, "Who told you to stop the attack and retreat without authorization?"

"The enemy's firepower is too fierce, we can't rush to it." The ensign defended himself.

"Yes, comrade colonel, the enemy's firepower is too fierce, if we continue to attack, we should be all dead." The surrounding soldiers also echoed.

Kolobtin asked angrily: "What about your battalion commander and political instructor?"

"All sacrificed?"

"What about the company commander, there are always one or two left, right?" Kolobtin asked unwillingly.

The ensign who was grabbed by him looked around, and then cautiously said: "Comrade commander, it seems that I am the only commander in the retreating unit."

Hearing the words of the ensign, I couldn't help but chuckle. I wondered how long the offensive took, and why did the commanders in the army almost die? There is no commander in the army, how can we fight the next battle?

Kolobtin let go of the ensign and shouted at the hundreds of commanders in front of him: "Comrades, brethren, although our first attack failed, don’t be discouraged. I will appoint a new one immediately. Commander of, come to lead you to continue the offensive. The enemy on the opposite highland is not as many as ours. As long as we launch another offensive, they can be completely wiped out. Now, start to line up."

Seeing these offensives frustrated and morale depressed, the commanders and soldiers lined up blankly. I quietly pulled Kolobtin aside and whispered to him: "Comrade Colonel, the first offense was frustrated. Morale affects a lot. Let’s just do it, you let these commanders return to the position to rest, let the Marine Corps and my special battalion organize a second round of offensive. What do you think?"

Kolobtin turned to look at the dejected officers and men, and sighed helplessly, "Well, just do as you said. Change to other troops to continue the attack and let them rest for a while."

Ten minutes later, the defeated soldiers under the hillside returned to their positions on the mountainside. They were replaced by marines in black navy uniforms and special battalion soldiers in new uniforms.

I called Pugachev, the battalion commander of the special battalion, and told him specifically: "Comrade Captain, if you can lead the troops to successfully capture the opposite highland, then you have the opportunity to become the same ancient man with the same name as you. Hero of the Russian nation."

My words made Pugachev's eyes light up, and he replied excitedly: "Comrade Commander, please rest assured that as long as there is one person in the special camp, you will never take a step back. Even if it is sacrifice, you will have to head back. In the direction of the high ground, we will die gloriously on the charge..."

His lines sounded familiar. Before he could finish speaking, I interrupted him first: "Comrade Captain, I only hope that when the battle is over, you can bring back as many soldiers from the special battalion as possible. Sacrifice. Now, you are heroes; but alive, you are still heroes. Understand?"

Pugachev nodded faintly, and replied loudly, "Understood!"

The second wave of offense began.

The road was opened by the seven tanks retreating just now. Behind the tanks, the Marines in black uniforms are on the left, and the special battalions in khaki uniforms on the right. The two seemingly distinct units are striding side by side towards the enemy’s position. go ahead.

Still halfway through, the mortar on the enemy's position fired again. Although a few of the mortar firepower points on the mountainside were destroyed by our tanks, the newly added mortar positions on the top of the mountain have also joined the shooting, and there are even two German tanks that are also parked on the top of the mountain, aiming at them. Our tank fired artillery.

The tank of our army that was driving at the forefront became the priority target of the German tanks. In the first round of firing of the two tanks, neither of them hit the target. The artillery shells exploded before and after our tanks. Before our tanks made evasive actions, the second round of shells flew over again, and one fell in front of the tank and exploded, setting off a mud column up into the sky, while the other shell hit impartially. Hit the body of the tank.

Seeing through the binoculars that our army's tank was hit, I couldn't help but cried out in pain: "Oh!"

When the gunpowder dissipated, I unexpectedly discovered that the tank was only injured. It dragged the burning body and continued to drive forward. At the same time, it raised the muzzle and fired another shot at the German position halfway through the mountain. The shot was shot accurately and exploded next to the trench. While blasting a gap in the trench, it also caused several German helmets to disappear from this area.

After firing this gun, the tank drove forward more than ten meters, and was hit by a German tank again. The tank with its turret was bombarded. A moment later, the tank exploded, and the surrounding officers and fighters were blown down again. A lot. I stared at the burning tank with all my attention, hoping to see a tanker coming out of it, even if I was running out of fire. After the explosion, the tank started to burn, and no one escaped from it. It seems that the tankers were all sacrificed when the explosion occurred.

After the Germans destroyed a tank of our army, they became excited as if they were beaten with blood. The tanks continued to fire at the remaining tanks of our army, and their artillery also accelerated the firing speed of the mortars. More and more artillery shells exploded in the attack queue of our army, and the situation became more and more serious. stand up.

At this moment, unexpected changes occurred in the two distinct units. The Marines in black uniforms still held the weapons in their hands and rushed forward without hesitation; but my special battalion disrupted the team. The shape, in units of squads, cleverly used ready-made craters as cover, running, jumping, and rolling forward, approaching the German position little by little.

Seeing the completely different performances of the two units, Kolobtin asked me curiously: "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, your unit seems to be quite skilled in tactical actions. How long have they been training?"

"It's less than a week." After I said this, I turned to look for Major Oleg~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Oleg has been standing behind me, seeing me suddenly turning back, knowing that I must have When the matter came to him, he immediately asked: "Comrade teacher, do you have any instructions?"

"Where is Lieutenant Morozov's artillery?" I asked lightly.

"Comrade commander, because the trenches are too narrow, our cannon cannot be pulled in, so Comrade Morozov temporarily decided to move the cannon to the top of the mountain. There are infantrymen to help them pull the cannon. I believe it will not take long for them to reach the top of the mountain. position."

"Comrade Oshanina, what do you want the artillery for?" Kolobutin couldn't help asking curiously when he heard me inquiring about the artillery from his subordinates.

I pointed to the two tanks that were constantly on fire on the top of the hill in front, and gritted my teeth and said: "Comrade Colonel, look at the two tanks on the opposite side, how arrogant, I want my artillery to kill them all and cover the infantry. Rush up the mountain."

Kolobtin frowned and looked at the other side, and asked tentatively, "Are you sure?"

"No problem," I replied confidently: "I have confidence in Lieutenant Morozov, the artillery company commander, that he can definitely kill all enemy tanks." (To be continued...)