The sky was slightly bright, and the smoke gradually dissipated.

There was silence on the battlefield for a while, and then the sound of tank motors was heard in the rain curtain on the opposite side, and German tanks covered the infantry and lined up towards the Soviet positions.

Most of the tanks that came up were No. 1 and No. 2, and there were also No. 3 tanks, but they followed behind No. 1 tanks.

The Germans were understandable in doing so.

The first is that tanks No. 1 and No. 2 are lightweight, and they are more suitable for driving on muddy grounds...... If Tanks 1 and 2 can't get through, Tank 3, which weighs twice as much as Tank 2, should stop.

Secondly, the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks are smaller, and they can more flexibly avoid craters and rush to enemy positions.

The tank slowly drove forward to the sound of motors, and the German soldiers pushed forward over the tank.

This is often done by the infantry during the first attack, as there are likely to be mines, barbed wire and other obstacles in the mud...... It is impossible to blow all these things up and clear a way for the tank, so the infantry needs to walk in front to clear the obstacles, and even guide the tanks behind them to attack in a safe position.

Otherwise, the tank is afraid that it will not be able to advance far and be blown up and paralyzed in place.

Of course, these wreckers had to take great risks, they had to withstand the threat of mines on the one hand, and the enemy's fire on the other, and in this case they had to try to complete the task.

The second, third, and subsequent attacks are relatively better, as these obstacles do not recur unless they are placed after the night without attacking the enemy.

However, this time, the German wreckers felt that their task was much easier than before.

The reason is that there are not many obstacles and mines on the ground, and more importantly, due to the low visibility, the Soviet direction has not carried out fire suppression on them.

What they don't know is that it's not that there aren't many obstacles, it's that they don't see them.

And then......

With a thud, a soldier fell into a puddle of mud.

The Germans did not pay attention to it at first, thinking that this was just a mud pit formed by chance, and this situation also occurred during the march in peacetime.

But soon, several more soldiers fell into the mud puddle.

The mud pit was filled with mud, especially the surface was covered with a layer of solid soil, and the wrecker infantry was not mentally prepared to step into the air.

Keep in mind that these mud pits are used to trap tanks, so they are about two meters wide and not necessarily long...... This is the minimum standard for anti-tank trenches, and if the width is too small, the tank can go straight over it as if it were running over a trench.

Such length and width may be a pitfall for a tank, but for a soldier it is a big bathtub, nothing more than a bathtub filled with mud.

As soon as the wrecker fell, he swallowed a few mouthfuls of mud like a dog eating, and it took a long time to wipe the mud off his mouth and nose before he could breathe heavily.

Although the time before and after is short, there is a feeling of picking up a life.

Even some wreckers fell down, if there were no comrades to pull them up, I was afraid that they would die in a few breaths.

The wrecker wanted to alert the tanks behind them, but at that moment the sound of gunfire and artillery in the Soviet positions began......

These guns and cannons were not meant to kill the enemy.

At this time, the enemy was still more than 300 meters away from the Soviet defense line, and only a faint shadow of activity could be seen in the rain curtain, and it was not easy to hit the target.

This was done to put a little pressure on the enemy and make it a little more difficult to communicate between the wrecker infantry and the tanks.

Sure enough, under the suppression of guns, the wrecker infantry hurriedly found cover to hide.

It was at this moment that the tank crossed them and continued to advance.

This was the standard procedure for the German army, and the tanks and infantry were covering each other or could be said to be working together, but the tank crews did not know that the wrecker infantry did not want the tanks to come forward.

Then, the unexpected happened......

First, a tank plunged headlong into the mud puddle with a "tom", and after it kicked up a large cloud of mud, it could not move.

Forward, the front armor was against a nearly two-meter-high earthen wall, and the track was inserted diagonally into the mud puddle, and the crawler sank deeper the more it turned.

Back off...... The German tank had a backward gear, but the backward did not play a role, because there was mud underneath, and under the gravity and reverse rotation of the tracks, the result was still deeper and deeper.

So the best thing to do is to stand still.

Then a No. 2 tank flipped on its side...... This is a rare occurrence in which one half of the body is suspended from the ground and the other half is suspended in the air, and then it loses its balance and falls into the trap.

This situation is more tragic, the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks did not have an escape door due to the small chassis, in fact, the same is true for the No. 3 tank, all the crew can only enter through the top hatch, until the No. 4 tank added a driver's entrance and escape door.

So a rollover blocked the hatch, and all the crew had to wait in the tank, waiting for water and mud to seep through the gaps, and then more and more, more and more......

Often, this slow way of dying is the most painful, because there will be a painful struggle for a considerable period of time before death, and it is also enclosed in a tank and almost isolated from the world.

Commanding the German army was the Army Panzer Corps General von Brown. Schwevenburg.

It is the habit of the 2nd Panzer Group that the general is personally on the front line to command, and this habit was initiated by Guderian, the father of the Panzer, that is, the commander of the 2nd Panzer Group, who believes that only in the front-line command can the commander have a more comprehensive, in-depth and rapid understanding of the intelligence, and then can he change the tactics in a flexible, targeted and timely manner.

It was a good habit, and it made Guderian famous, and it also became an object for his subordinates to emulate, and this habit even spread to other armoured units and even other arms.

As the commander of the 2nd Motorized Corps of the 24th Panzer Group, Schwebenburg was of course no exception.

At this time, he was standing next to a No. 3 tank 300 meters behind the offensive line, holding a telescope and observing the battle situation on the front line.

The problem of one tank after another took Schwebenburg by surprise.

After thinking about it, he put down his binoculars and said two words to the adjutant beside him: "Retreat!" ”

Then Schwebenburg walked to the map and was silent.

Schwebenburg knew what the Russians were up to, and the tank falling into the pit was by no means an accident, nor a crater, it was a trap dug by the Soviets.

If from here all the way to the city of Tula are covered with such traps......

Schwebenburg did not dare to continue thinking about it, which meant that the entire army of tanks could not reach Tula.

Soon, Schwebenburg realized that he had only one path to take: the railway.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Vertex mobile version reading URL: