The church is located in the eastern part of the central fortress.

On the one hand, the height of the church can well block the sight of the German army...... Even if the Germans found out that the Soviets were crossing the river from here, it would be difficult for the Germans to pose a threat to the Soviets from the west.

On the other hand, it is possible to reach the mainland by crossing the mouth of the Bug River from here, without having to go through the West Island and the South Island and then cross the river again.

Commissar Fomin and Major Gavrilov led the troops to the church under the cover of darkness, along with many women and children...... They are all military dependents.

However, not all of them were family members of Brest officers, and most of them went with their troops for summer training outside the fortress.

In other words, they are likely to have lost their father or husband at the moment of war.

Shulka noticed that many of them were unclothed...... It was four o'clock in the morning when the war broke out, everyone was sleeping in their beds, and many escaped in their pajamas.

The children looked around with frightened eyes under the watchful eye of an adult, and their eyes were full of helplessness.

As the others prepared to attack, Shulka took a biscuit out of his backpack...... This is the ration distributed before departure, otherwise it would be difficult to take out more than a dozen truckloads of food.

What Shulka didn't expect was that his casual action instantly attracted a pair of eyes nearby, and they all stared at the biscuit in Shulka's hand with pitiful eyes.

Stunned, Shulka realized that the situation in the central fortress was much more difficult than in the Kobrin fortress, and they did not find much food.

Thinking about it, Shulka took all the cookies out of his backpack and delivered them to them...... The children gathered around for a while, and when they grabbed it, they hurriedly tore open the package and stuffed it into their mouths.

Surprisingly, they didn't make a sound while doing this, except for a few vague thank you to Shulka.

Shulka couldn't believe that they were all children, some of them weren't even ten years old, but they knew to keep quiet.

It can only be said that the battlefield made them learn to mature early.

"Don't you save some for yourself?" Okunev asked.

Shulka asked rhetorically, "Are you sure you'll live to eat all this food?" ”

Okunev raised his eyebrows, then laughed.

"That's right!" As he spoke, Okunev also took out the food from his backpack and gave it to the children.

Matvey did the same, and the soldiers all spontaneously shared their food.

"Rofeev!" At this time, Major Gavrilov, who was more than ten meters away, shouted: "Take a few people and inform Comrade Artu that you can retreat!" ”

"Yes!" Rofeev answered, beckoned, and walked into the darkness with a few communications soldiers.

This is a bit ironic, at this time, the Soviet Union was able to build the world's largest number of tanks, and even the German army that invaded the Soviet Union could be killed in the later period, but they were extremely lacking in communication equipment, so that they had to rely on communication troops, signal flags and the like to command operations, which was one of the reasons why they had more troops but were often defeated by the German army.

But that's not the point.

Not long after the signal soldier left, a loud bang was heard in the air...... If the previous sound of artillery was like thunder, then this one is like a volcanic eruption.

Then there was a "boom", and a burst of flames rose in the direction of the Butley Bridge, illuminating almost the entire central fortress, and the shaking of the ground was transmitted to the church, which could be clearly felt even from a distance of hundreds of meters.

"What's going on?" Major Gavrilov asked: "What's that?" ”

Commissar Fuming looked to the north, and then replied: "Maybe this is what they call a super cannonball!" ”

"Super cannonballs?"

"Yes!" "The Germans kept threatening us with super shells to try to get us to surrender, and we always thought it was nothing more than a trick to deceive," the commissar explained......"

Needless to say, it turns out that it exists.

Shulka knew what it was, a 600MM caliber mortar, which the Germans built originally to attack the French Maginot Line, but he didn't expect the Maginot Line to be a Gallic chicken that didn't need a knife.

Then the Germans used it on the battlefields of the Soviet Union.

It appeared twice on the battlefield, the first against the Brest Fortress and the other against Sevastopol.

Before the soldiers could wake up from the loud bang, another bang followed...... Another shell exploded a few hundred meters away, and the heat and debris rushed over like a storm, and everyone rushed to the ground.

"They have two of these cannons!" Major Gavrilov said.

"How do you know?" Political Commissar Fuming asked.

"With such a large shell, it will take them at least ten minutes to load!" Major Gavrilov replied: "So these two shells were fired from two different guns!" ”

Major Gavrilov's guess was correct, it was the 833rd German Heavy Artillery Battalion, with two companies operating one of these oversized mortars.

"So......" Commissar Fomin glanced at Major Gavrilov.

Major Gavrilov understood what Commissar Fumin meant, so he hurriedly got up and ordered: "Break through immediately!" ”

At this time, the preparations were not very well carried out, and the troops led by the instructor had not yet withdrawn, but everyone knew that time was running out.

Shulka also felt that things were not good, as he found out that both shells were targeting the central fortress.

Why the central fortress?!

If the previous deception and feints had gone well, the Germans should have believed that the main Soviet forces were in the Kobrin fortress to the north instead of the central fortress, and the two shells should have been aimed at the Kobrin fortress as well.

Did the Germans find something?

Shulka proved right to be worried...... Because immediately after that, a large number of cannonballs poured towards the central fortress, and their target was very clear, that is, the church in the east of the central fortress.

Just as Shulka was wondering what was wrong, he saw the communications soldier drag several Soviet soldiers covered in blood from the artillery fire and darkness.

"Where's the instructor?" Major Gavrilov hurried up to meet him.

"Comrade Major!" The signal soldier replied: "The instructor will not come!" ”

"You mean......" Major Gavrilov looked up at the signal corps: "The instructor died?" ”

"No, Comrade Major!" The communications soldier shook his head: "These wounded told me that the instructor fled to the camp of the Germans with several of his subordinates!" ”

"What?!" Major Gavrilov looked at the communications corps with a shocked look on his face.