At the southern bridgehead of the bridge across the river in Aksai District, Captain Heckler returned to the river to welcome the arrival of the follow-up troops.

Because Captain Heckler led his men to successfully capture a bridgehead, the follow-up troops acted even more boldly, directly crossing the Don River in assault boats and rubber boats, and bringing in batches of reinforcements.

With the arrival of reinforcements, the defensive depth of the bridgehead rapidly expanded to a radius of about five hundred meters centered on the bridge and the land junction.

The pier on the west side of the bridge, and the woods and bushes on the east side, were full of busy figures of German soldiers.

On the bridge, the Soviets had originally used sandbags to build machine gun positions facing north, but they were destroyed by yesterday's German artillery fire.

Captain Hackler and his men repiled the sandbags scattered on both sides of the bridgehead and set up machine-gun fire on the bridge deck.

In the midst of his busyness, time passed unconsciously, and Captain Heckler suddenly stopped, stood where he was, listened, and then turned around and ran south, plunged into the jungle on the east side of the road, lay next to an MG42 machine gun crew, and looked south of the road.

At this time, the sky was still dark, and against the background of the starry sky, a faint pillar of light could be faintly seen in the distance.

The pillars of light stopped far away, then vanished, and Captain Heckler could guess that in the darkness in the distance, there must be a large number of enemies jumping out of their trucks and gathering in the darkness.

He was accompanied by tanks, and it was the noise of the diesel engines of Soviet tanks that alerted him.

What model of tank will it be, the T-34 or the KV series? How many are there? Captain Heckler thought as he stared at the darkness to the south.

On the dock on the west side of the road, Captain Rackler's comrade-in-arms, Lieutenant Seidl, was hiding in a two-story office building on the westernmost part of the dock.

The office building was hit by artillery fire, most of the roof was torn off and it became an "open-top" structure, and Lieutenant Seidel and a GRW 34 mortar crew were hiding on the second floor, looking out into the darkness to the west with binoculars.

To the east of the pier is the bridgehead, and to the west is an east-west road along the river.

In the darkness, there was a faint figure swaying on the road along the river to the west, and these people were certainly not friendly troops.

Lieutenant Seidel lowered his binoculars and tapped his right hand lightly against the wall in front of him.

How many enemies are hidden in the darkness of the west? When will they attack?

While waiting anxiously, Lieutenant Seidel had a flash of inspiration in his mind, turned to the artillery crew next to him and said, "Let's go downstairs first and get out of here." ”

The enemy does not attack, most likely waiting for artillery, the construction on the dock is dangerous, and it is even more dangerous to stay in the building, this is the judgment of Lieutenant Seidel.

Lieutenant Seidel was right, and less than ten minutes after he and the mortar crew left the building, bright fires shone in the darkness on the south side of the bridge, which were the fire from the muzzles of various types of guns. The flames were accompanied by the sound of powerful artillery and explosions.

Less than two minutes after the shelling began, a shell landed on the building where Lieutenant Seidel was hiding, through the open roof, and down to the floor where he had stayed before.

With the sound of the explosion, smoke and dust rose into the air, and shattered masonry flew in all directions, falling to the ground outside the house.

The shelling began with flares that swayed into the air.

The moment the flares were lifted into the air, the hearts of Lieutenant Seidel on the west side of the bridgehead and Captain Hackler on the east side of the bridgehead instantly clenched.

Flares were hung in the sky, dispelling the darkness in front of them, illuminating the way for the attacking Soviet troops and allowing the Germans to see the situation in front of them clearly.

Before the offensive was launched, the Soviet infantry did not do nothing, but took advantage of the cover of the night to quietly approach the bridgehead in a creeping manner.

The moment the flares were raised, these Soviet infantrymen lying on the ground stood up like demons coming out of the ground, suddenly appeared in front of the Germans, and rushed to the German positions with their weapons in hand.

On the east side of the bridge, seeing the enemy who was close at hand, only thirty or forty meters away from him, Captain Heckler was stunned for a moment, and then was awakened by the MG42 machine gun next to him, raised the STG 42 assault rifle in his hand and opened fire on the enemy.

"Da ······" The crisp sound of gunfire came and went in the woods, and Captain Heckler fired fiercely, firing continuously, killing several enemies who rushed in front of him, until the assault rifle in his hand made a soft "click", which was the sound of a firing pin hitting the air.

Just as he was about to reload his assault rifle, out of the corner of the captain's eye, he saw a round object flying in front of him, with white smoke trails trailing behind it.

Grenade ······ Captain Hackler dropped his assault rifle, picked up the grenade that had fallen to his left foot, threw it back, and lay on the ground with his head covered.

The grenade exploded more than ten meters in front of him, and almost at the same moment, the head of the machine gun shooter next to him shook violently, as if someone had knocked him with a hammer, and the steel helmet on his head flew upside down, lying on the side of the machine gun with a bloody head.

At the moment of the fire, three or four figures rushed towards Captain Heckler's position, the spear thorns of Mosin Nagant rifle in their hands shining with a cold glow.

Too late to reload the assault rifle, Captain Heckler reached for his PPK pistol, held the gun in both hands and fired continuously, knocking the enemy who rushed in front of him to the ground.

The secondary shooter of the machine gun moved away from the body of the shooter, lay down behind the machine gun, mounted the machine gun on his shoulder, and opened fire on the enemy again.

However, less than a minute after the MG42 machine gun opened fire again, a mortar shell fell from the sky and landed in the open space behind the right rear of the machine gun.

The swollen smoke instantly enveloped the machine gun, and the machine gun shooter threw himself headlong on the machine gun, blood spurting out from the right side of his neck and right cheek.

Captain Hackler was also affected by the shock wave from the explosion of the cannonball, and his head buzzed like countless bees circling and flying in his mind.

The bold counteroffensive of the Soviet infantry caught the Germans by surprise, and in some places the Soviet infantry rushed into the woods.

At the last moment, a strange whistling sound came from the northeast of the battlefield, and instantly flew over the Don and Aksai rivers, and swept over the battlefield.

150-millimeter rockets fell from the sky and fell to the south of the woods, instantly covering the Soviet follow-up troops outside the woods, who were launching a charge, and in the continuous explosions, fires and gunpowder smoke rose one after another, and the Soviet infantry groups exposed in the wilderness were wiped out.

With the support of rear artillery, Captain Heckler and his men stabilized the situation and eliminated a small part of the enemy who rushed into the woods.

After confirming that the woods were safe, the captain hurriedly looked out of the woods, looking for traces of enemy tanks.

He clearly heard the roar of the tank engines, but at this time he did not see the enemy tanks, where did those tanks go?

With no enemy tanks in sight, Captain Heckler listened intently to the sounds of the battlefield and then turned his gaze to the west.

The enemy's tanks were to the west, on the other side of the road.

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PS: There is still a chapter at ten o'clock in the evening.

。 m.