The Germans finally collapsed after holding out on to resistance for twenty minutes.

Or it could also be said that Colonel Jonas realized that there was no point in going on like this, and the tanks went up one by one, and then the ones were destroyed...... That's simply shells that are consuming the Russians with life and blood.

Colonel Jonas even organized two counter-charges, believing that in such a situation the only way to avoid this passivity was to fight the enemy in close quarters.

Colonel Jonas may be right, the entangled friend and foe can muddy the waters, so that the German tanks can advance to within 100 meters before they have a chance to penetrate the Russian tanks.

The problem is that the Russians seem to have thought of this for a long time, and they formed a line of defense under the cover of tanks, and when the Germans charged this steel line, they had to endure layers of mortars, machine guns, submachine guns, and even grenades in the vicinity.

And the Germans were under the blow of this rain of bullets, and it was very difficult to even throw grenades.

Shulka kept pulling the trigger and firing bullets, and under the light of the flares, one German soldier after another charged forward was knocked to the ground.

At this point, Shulka seems to have become a robot that doesn't feel anything, reloading, shooting, reloading and shooting...... Then I saw the Germans retreat like a tidal wave, leaving only a corpse in front of the battlefield.

"Retreat!" Colonel Jonas angrily ordered: "1st Infantry Battalion cover!" ”

In this case, another meaning of "cover" is "sacrifice".

Colonel Jonas can be said to be generous this time, usually the unit responsible for cover is up to two companies, but now he is thrown into one battalion in one go...... Perhaps this is also because he knows that if there are too few troops, he will not be able to stop the wolf-like Russian army in front of him.

But what Colonel Jonas didn't expect was that even then they couldn't stop it.

Several red flares rose into the sky, and the soldiers of the 316th Division, who were on standby on the other side of the river, rushed up shouting.

This is the 316th Infantry Regiment of the 1077th Division.

This infantry regiment is a special one in that most of its members are cadets from military schools, who are originally trained for a year at military schools and then assigned to the front-line units as junior officers.

However, they apparently did not wait for that moment, and after the outbreak of war, they were urgently organized into a group called the "Military School Mixed Cadet Corps" and then sent to the battlefield.

It was not until the 316th was sent to Volokolamsk to reinforce the 16th Army that they had an official number: the 1077th Infantry Regiment.

The morale of the regiment was high and it was very energetic.

This is related to the overall training of the troops:

If a unit has a high level of training, although many of its training and tactics are useless or even contrary to reality, the mental outlook and morale of the whole unit will be different...... They know what they need to do, and the atmosphere created by their usual discussions is more positive, and they even get used to charging at the enemy when their superiors give the order to charge.

On the other hand, if the level of training is low or everyone is training a unit that goes to the battlefield after a few days of firing a gun, it will be like a headless fly scurrying around, and when charging will look left and right hesitating, once someone is found to be retreating, a large number of people will follow suit.

The 1077th Regiment clearly belonged to the former, and they bravely crossed the defensive line of the 4th Tank Brigade and rushed towards the enemy like a tidal wave, wave after wave.

On the other hand, the 1st Infantry Battalion, which was left by the Germans to serve as a cover mission, was already frightened by the 4th Tank Brigade, and was attacked by the Russian army at this time...... The will to defend soon collapsed, and they all threw up their hands in surrender.

The 1077th Regiment left only a small force to receive the prisoners, and the main force did not pause for a moment to cross the enemy lines and continue the pursuit of the Germans.

There is a reason why the charge, as well as the pursuit of the Germans, was carried out by the 1077th Infantry Regiment instead of the 333rd Infantry Regiment.

Although the 333rd Infantry Regiment is also an infantry regiment, it is an infantry regiment of a tank brigade, and they are trained to work with tanks...... The synergy here is not just about sticking your head out behind the tank and firing a few shots, but their more important role is to provide useful information to the tank in a timely manner, guide the tank to the target, provide cover, clear the tank and so on.

This was obviously not something that ordinary infantry could do, so it was clearly inappropriate to charge with the 333rd Infantry Regiment and rush ahead to pursue the enemy.

This was also one of the contents of the previous regimental meeting: how the 316th Division could coordinate with the 4th Tank Brigade.

The 4th Tank Brigade waited in the rear for several minutes, and it was only after the 1077th Infantry Regiment signaled "safe" with a signal light.

The tank "rumbled" past the German position, and what I saw was the wreckage of the tank, the corpses of German soldiers, and the discarded equipment, and the tank tracks were soon covered with rags and scraps...... It was the result of the tank running over the corpse.

Shulka began to vomit when he saw several German prisoners who had surrendered with their hands raised.

Although the German soldiers had a lot of combat experience, such scenes were uncommon, or rather...... It is not uncommon for them to see the bodies of their comrades being crushed to pieces by enemy tanks.

Shulka and the others were accustomed to this, and at most they leaned on the sides of the tank tracks, so as not to splash the blood on themselves or the flesh mud caught in the marks on the soles of their boots.

The hatch of the tank in front of him was opened, and Fedosiev poked his head out of the tank, shouting and dancing at Shulka in the rear.

"What is he talking about?" Shulka asked Deputy Company Commander Pukarev.

The tank engine was very noisy, and Shulka did not hear Fedosyev clearly.

"He said we should fight all the way to Germany like this, Comrade Company Commander!" Pukarev replied.

Shulka couldn't help but laugh.

The Soviets will indeed hit Germany, but not now.

But of course, Shulka would not take Fedosiev's words seriously, he was just a joke made by his self-confidence because of the brilliant victories of the 4th Tank Brigade one after another.

In fact, this is the feeling felt by many in the 4th Tank Brigade, including the 333rd Infantry Regiment, who seem to have become accustomed to victory on the battlefield.

But Shulka knew that the situation was still serious for the Soviet army.

Because: the number of T34s in the 4th tank brigade is decreasing, and although the battle just now was a complete victory, it still lost three vehicles.

On the other hand, the Germans had much more troops than the Soviets, including the 5th Panzer Division, which had just been defeated, and its strength and tanks were still more than twice that of the Soviets.