While the 11th Panzer Division was defending its bridgehead on the east bank of the Narev River, Colonel Rosenberg could not help but exclaim wildly when he saw the endless fields and meadows and rolling hills on both sides of the road.

I'm finally out!

After a day and a night of traffic jams, the 25th Panzer Regiment under Colonel Rosenberg finally broke out of the forest area along the border and opened the road to Alitus.

Watching the tank column on the road, Colonel Rosenberg sincerely felt that the trip with no one rushing the road and no traffic jams was so pleasant.

Having slept for almost a day and a night, and having spent all of them on tank four, Colonel Rosenberg felt a little blank in his mind and a little sore in his lower back.

Looking back at the young commander of the No. 4 tank behind him, seeing that he was still looking radiant, Colonel Rosenberg couldn't help but sigh with emotion, he was nearly fifty years old, his body was declining, and he really couldn't compare with a young man in his twenties.

In a daze, Colonel Rosenberg always felt as if he had forgotten something, and he couldn't remember it for a while.

Covering his head and thinking urgently, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a golden light out of the corner of his eye.

Colonel Rosenberg was all too familiar with that kind of light, the light reflected by the morning sun on the lake.

He shouted into the throat microphone, and the No. 4 tank under him quickly stopped on the side of the road.

Jumping off the tank with agility, Colonel Rosenberg and his men hurried down the road, ran to the edge of the lake, picked up a handful of lake water and threw it in his face.

The coolness of the lake water refreshed from the face to the heart, and with the lake water, Colonel Rosenberg, with the high efficiency trained by his many years of military service, completed the washing in only five minutes.

As a German soldier. As long as conditions permit, it is necessary to ensure that the military appearance is neat and tidy, and as officers, they must set an example.

Wiping the water from his face with a clean white towel, Colonel Rosenberg let out a long sigh of comfort and turned to walk off the road.

The cool water of the lake drives away the fatigue that plagues the brain. Colonel Rosenberg finally remembered what he was going to do.

Climbing into the tank, picking up a radio headset and fleeing to the head, Rosenberg asked the radio hand to connect with the battalion commander, Major Schultz.

"I can't see you, where are you now?"

After hearing Major Schultz's reply, Colonel Rosenberg's nose almost ran out of breath.

A battalion led by Schultz was marching on a road about five kilometers to the south, parallel to the road under his car.

"How did you get to that road, who gave you the order?"

Hearing Colonel Rosenberg's anger, Major Schultz hurriedly defended: "I originally wanted to go your way, but the gendarmes told me that the road was blocked. The road I'm walking on now is passable. In a hurry, I had to squeeze a road with the 7th Motorized Rifle Regiment. ”

Colonel Rosenberg knew that this was the after-effect of yesterday's traffic jam, and that under the poor road conditions and chaotic traffic control, not only were the armored divisions and infantry divisions rushing to each other, but the regiments and battalions under the 7th Armored Division were also disrupted. Preemptively march into the heart of the Soviet Union.

The preemption of the infantry only exacerbated the blockage and confusion of the roads, and the first battalion was estimated to have been at that time. Carried by the infantry, they rushed up another road.

Fortunately, everyone took different roads, but there was only one goal, the city of Alitus on the banks of the Neman River in front.

"Lost lambs, see you in Alytus." Colonel Rosenberg said.

Colonel Rosenberg and Major Schultz were on the phone while they were in the north of the city of Alitus. Captain Winter, commander of the second company of the 37th Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion, lay on the edge of a cornfield and watched anxiously the battle in the distance in the city of Alitus.

He and his men and the whole battalion rushed to the north of the city of Alitus, and when he saw the panicked crowd and few defenders in the city, the commander of the 37th battalion immediately ordered a surprise attack. Test to see if you can capture the north of the city and the vital bridge while you go.

Of the five companies of the battalion, all four companies participated in the raid on the north of the city, except for the fifth fire company that provided fire support on the perimeter.

The results were not optimistic, as the scouts had just approached the outskirts of the city, and in the windows of the buildings on the outskirts of the city, in the bottomless bushes, machine-gun bullets rained down, and mortar shells were also smashed on the head.

Fortunately, the scouts of the 37th Armored Reconnaissance Battalion were all veterans of a hundred battles, and they reacted quickly one by one, and the distance between people was large enough that they did not suffer heavy casualties in the sudden fire.

Throwing down seven or eight corpses, the scouts desperately retreated to a safe distance with the wounded, and the raid on the city ended in a disgraced defeat for the reconnaissance battalion.

Captain Winter raised his hand and touched the brim of the helmet's right forehead, where there was an extra notch the size of a fingernail.

Feeling the feeling of the notched hand, Captain Winter thought with trepidation that if the bullet had gone a little higher, there would have been an extra bloody hole in his head, lying in the drainage ditch on the west side of the path ahead.

The battalion commander patiently waited for reinforcements, and at the same time summarized the information reported by each company, recorded the firepower points exposed by the Soviet troops in the battle just now, and drew a sketch.

After waiting for less than an hour, reinforcements arrived, and it was the 7th Motorized Independent Battalion directly under the division headquarters.

How did these guys get here? Shouldn't they, as the general reserve of the whole division, act together with the division headquarters?

After a brief communication between the two sides, the 7th Motorized Infantry Battalion happily undertook the siege mission, and the 37th Reconnaissance Battalion served as a perimeter guard and served as a reserve.

The offensive soon resumed, with 150-mm infantry, 81-mm mortars, and 75-mm anti-tank guns opening fire, and after raining a round of shells on the previously exposed Soviet firing points, three companies of infantry rushed towards the city.

Captain Winter clearly saw that during the charge of the 7th Battalion, the Soviet fire points exposed by the windows of the houses along the way were first blocked by the infantry of the 7th Battalion with machine gun fire, and the shells of the infantry guns smashed there, and the people and buildings were blown into pieces.

The Soviet firing points hiding in the bushes were also eliminated by machine gun and grenade fire, and in less than half an hour, the 7th Motorized Rifle Battalion successfully rushed through the fields on the outskirts and stormed the buildings north of the city.

However, the good times were short-lived, and as soon as the comrades of the 7th Motorized Rifle Battalion entered the city, Captain Winter heard the battalion commander's order on the radio of the armored vehicle.

Immediately lead the whole company into the city and reinforce the 7th Motorized Infantry Battalion.

Captain Winter led his men to rush into the city, and saw that outside the city, the four PAK40 anti-tank gunners of the fifth company were also shifting positions.

Did the 7th Motorized Rifle Battalion encounter enemy tanks inside the city?

The answer was soon revealed, and as soon as Captain Winter and his men stormed into the city, a lieutenant rushed to the side of the road and stopped the armored vehicle he was riding.

"Captain, get your men out of the car, and remember to bring all your Iron Fist and Tank Killers." The lieutenant shouted anxiously.

Sure enough, it was a tank that met the Soviets.

Captain Winter, knowing that the military situation was urgent, hurriedly ordered everyone to get out of the car and join the battle with all the anti-tank weapons.

Without asking Captain Winter to wait another minute, the soldiers of the 2nd Company had just dispersed to the sides of the street to find shelter, when Captain Winter saw a KV-1 tank rumbling along the main street, followed by a figure dodging and following up.

The Soviets were in a posture of counterattack, and Captain Winter didn't have time to think about it, so he led his heralds around to a two-story building on the north side of the road and quietly poked his head out.

Seeing the KV-1 approaching, the turret turned left and right, and kept firing at the buildings on the left and right sides of the street, Captain Winter waved his hand to hide the anti-tank team and followed him to the ground.

As the tank drove past the building, facing Captain Winter on its wide side, two Iron Fist anti-tank rockets were fired in quick succession, one hitting the right side of the turret and the other hitting the engine compartment.

Captain Winter abruptly listened, got down on one knee, and fired two triple bursts in quick succession, and the two Soviet soldiers hiding behind the tank fell headlong to the ground.

The other Soviet soldiers fled to the sides of the street, and four scouts took advantage of the situation to rush to the tank, pried open the hatch of the turret of the KV-1 tank, and stuffed two grenades into it.

There were two muffled noises in the tank compartment, gray-white smoke erupted from the top of the turret, and the tank was completely destroyed

North of the city of Alitus, on the high ground where Captain Winter had stayed, Colonel Rosenberg heard the sound of artillery in the city one after another, and saw the figures of infantry disappearing from time to time in the corners of the buildings and bushes in the city, and said excitedly: "The battle has just begun, and we have come at the right time. (To be continued......)