Red Moscow

Seeing the soldiers of the Second Company climbing onto the activated tanks one after another, Sokov nodded at Vashuk, who was half exposed from the turret, indicating that it was time to attack. Vashuk immediately shouted into the microphone: "Tank brigade, move forward!" With his order, more than 20 tanks that had already been ready to go immediately formed a battle formation, carrying the soldiers to the distant Popkovo galloped away.

Although there was knee-high snow on the road to attack, it was nothing to the T-34 tanks and KB heavy tanks with wide tracks. In just five minutes, the tank group rushed to a place less than 500 meters away from Popkovo.

Seeing the Soviet tanks rushing towards the villages and towns, the German assault artillery came out of their hiding places regardless of the Soviet shelling had not stopped, and fired at the tank brigade condescendingly.

The shells produced by the German assault artillery fell on the tanks and exploded. The air waves lifted the black soil mixed with snow high into the air, and scattered it down like a goddess. A T-34 tank rushing to the front was directly hit by the German artillery, and immediately burst into flames, and the soldiers sitting on the body were either killed or injured. There were also several soldiers sitting on the tanks, who were hit by shrapnel flying around and fell from the vehicle body one after another.

Sokov stood in the observation post, using binoculars to look at the tanks rushing forward under the enemy's artillery fire, and the commanders and fighters sitting on the vehicles. Seeing soldiers being hit by shrapnel from time to time and falling from the body of the speeding tank made him feel like a knife was twisting his heart.

The tanks of the tank brigade rushed down the slope one after another, entering the blind spot of the assault artillery. The tankers adjusted the direction of the tanks, and rushed towards the village along the slope. German soldiers hiding in bunkers and fortifications hurriedly fired. Bullets from machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles hit the turret of the tank, splashing a series of sparks, but it did not slow down the advancing speed of the Soviet tank's tracks at all.

The T-34 tank that rushed to the front stopped on the slope, slowly turned the turret, and aimed the 76mm artillery at the soldiers who were shooting wildly in the fortification. After a loud bang, a gap was blown in the sandbag fortification blocking the road ahead, and the German soldiers who were hiding behind and shooting were blown to pieces.

After the tankers finished shooting, they continued to drive forward. The weapons in the hands of the soldiers on the vehicle and the heading machine guns fired at the broken sandbag fortifications of the German army at the same time, knocking down the enemies who appeared one by one.

Seeing the long line of Soviet tanks driving up the slope, some of the German soldiers behind the sandbags saw that the situation was not good, dropped their weapons, turned around and fled towards the villages and towns. The soldiers who continued to resist were crushed by the high-speed rotating tracks.

At the end of the slope was a platform. Chernyshov, who was observing the battle in his headquarters, saw that the tanks of the tank brigade had reached the entrance of the village of Popkovo. Hastily ordered the artillery to stop firing.

After the tanks drove onto the platform one after another, they drove towards the villages and towns in a row of three. The soldiers of the second company also jumped out of the tanks one after another, followed the tanks in the shooting blind spot, and marched along the streets towards the villages and towns step by step.

A German machine gun team hid in a half-destroyed building at the entrance of the village and tried to shoot at the infantry following the tank. But as soon as they fired a few rounds, they were spotted by the tanks that opened the way ahead. The three tanks stopped at the same time, turned their muzzles to aim at the position of the machine gun, and fired a shot. Three shells hit the target at the same time, and the brick wall that had already been blackened by gunpowder collapsed, burying the machine gun team hiding behind under the broken bricks and tiles.

Watching the Soviet artillery fire stop, the German soldiers who avoided the shelling came out of their hiding places one after another. They were taken aback when they spotted Soviet tanks driving down the street. But they were all experienced veterans. After a brief panic, they returned to normal, immediately entered their defensive positions, and began to fight back with various weapons.

The three tanks that opened the way were successively destroyed by the German assault artillery hidden in the ruins of the building, and they stopped and burned on the street. Standing at the entrance of the village, Andre, the commander of the second company, saw a German tank slowly approaching on the other side of the street through the smoke of the burning tank, and behind it were dozens of people bent over. German soldiers. And the German assault artillery was firing towards this side non-stop, and he quickly shouted at the top of his voice: "Spread out, the infantry are all scattered, go to the ruins to hide, and prepare to destroy the enemies who rush over."

But his shout was covered by the sound of gunfire, and few people heard what he was shouting at all. Fortunately, the two platoon leaders of the first and second platoons saw the enemy infantry rushing towards the entrance under the cover of shelling and tanks, so they took their own initiative to take their subordinates to find a hidden place in the ruins.

Under the attack of the German assault artillery, two more T-34s were shot and caught fire. Even the tank of the tank brigade commander Colonel Vashuk was hit by two shells. But fortunately, the shell only made two white marks on the heavy tank he was driving, and did not penetrate the frontal armor of the tank at all.

Seeing that the German gunner had hit the target, he was secretly complacent when the gunpowder smoke cleared. Not only did the hit heavy tank not catch fire, but it turned its muzzle to aim at itself. Just when they were about to fire again, Vashuk's tank had already fired first. The 152mm heavy artillery shell hit the German artillery impartially. After a loud noise, a huge crater appeared on the spot. Except for the broken artillery parts on the edge of the crater, several German artillerymen had been blown to death. No bones remained.

After finishing the shooting, Vasuk continued to search for the target, preparing to eliminate the powerful artillery hiding in the ruins one by one, and then led the infantry to charge into the town.

Belkin, who was in the observation post in the distance, saw that the second company charging with the tank brigade was engaged in a close-range battle with the German army at the entrance of the village. He quickly asked Sokov for instructions: "Comrade battalion commander, we are Didn't the machine gun company also go into battle?"

"Wait a minute, Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander." Although Sokov had long wished to lead the machine gun company to the high ground to wipe out the enemies in the villages and towns, but considering the two companies that had detoured to the German flank, they had not heard from them until now. There was nothing, so he could only stand still temporarily: "We will put the machine gun company into battle after we see the signal from the first company and the third company."