On both sides of the city of Alitus, the sound of shelling sounded all night, and Colonel Fedorov's heart was tense all night.

Under the starlight in the sky, the sound of shell explosions could be heard very far and clearly, and Fedorov could hear it clearly even from five kilometers away.

Yesterday evening, Fedorov finally received an order from the military headquarters to allow the defenders of Alitus to withdraw across the Neman River and blow up two bridges to block the German advance, but the sudden German artillery bombardment shattered his unrealistic wishes.

After nightfall, on Fedorov's orders, a convoy quietly drove out of the city of Alitus, crossed the river along the road and railway bridges over the Neman River, and sank into the forest on the east bank of the bridge.

The convoy was loaded with the wounded in battle and a small number of paramedics accompanying it, and as the convoy passed the bridgehead on the east side of the bridge, they clearly saw a group of sappers busy planting explosives on the bridge and connecting the fuse-cable.

Not long after the convoy crossed the bridge, two infantry columns stepped onto the bridge and withdrew to the east of the bridge.

However, as soon as the advance of the infantry column stepped out of the bridge, a terrifying whistling sound was heard in the night sky.

"Shelling, concealment."

I don't know who shouted, the originally neat infantry column immediately fell into chaos, the officers and soldiers fell to the ground in an instant, and the sappers who were busy at the bridgehead were not slow to react, and jumped into the drainage ditches on both sides of the road to hide.

The rumbling explosions nearly burst the eardrums of the Soviet soldiers, the fire nearly blinded them, and the shock wave struck along the ground and shook their bodies.

The German artillery bombardment was small in scale, but continuous, and the retreat was inevitably hindered.

Fedorov learned that the bridgehead was shelled by the Germans. His face suddenly turned cloudy. Because the good mood of getting the retreat order disappeared in an instant.

"Did the Germans perceive our intentions? Why are they shelling at this time? Fedorov asked the chief of staff.

"No way. Now less than two hours before we received the order from the military headquarters, and less than an hour after the troops at the front received the order to retreat, it is unlikely that the Germans will know our intention to withdraw our troops so quickly. ”

Fedorov rolled his eyes, and then said: "As long as the Germans have not ascertained our intentions, there can only be one explanation for the German shelling, they are trying to block the passage of our reinforcements in the city." ”

"It can only be that the Germans sent their air forces to attack our troops east of the bridge during the day, and at night the air force could not make them. It is understandable to prevent us from supporting the city with artillery bombardment. ”

"Inform the troops at the front, by all means they can think of, that the retreat cannot be interrupted, but that they act carefully and try not to let the Germans detect it." Fedorov said categorically.

Receiving Fedorov's strict order, the Soviet troops in the city gave full play to their subjective initiative and used various means to move forward.

The German shelling was concentrated only on the two roads on the east side of the bridge, and the large open space and wooded area between the two bridges remained safe, and the Soviet infantry traveled in rubber boats and assault boats, as well as all the facilities they could gather to cross the river. Shuttle back and forth on both sides of the Neman River, and withdraw the troops in the city to the east bank.

Because it is necessary to ensure that the bridge falls into good hands. The German shells were still some distance from the bridge, and some Soviet infantry and tanks were bold enough to take advantage of this gap to turn into the field and bypass the danger zone.

Although the efficiency was not high, the retreat of the Soviet army was still carried out in an orderly manner.

Fedorov, also a believer in artillery doctrine, did not miss the opportunity to retaliate, and under his order, the artillery of the 5th Tank Division, together with the artillery regiments of the friendly 126 Infantry Division, two regiments of howitzers launched a devastating shelling of the German bridgehead in the forest, and the forest strip across the Neman, the starting point of the German army was not spared.

In one night, on both sides of the Neman River, the artillery of the Soviet and German armies was busy to the fullest, desperately pouring steel on the opposite bank, wave after wave of shells dragging dazzling tail flames to the opposite bank, and the soldiers on both sides watched the "meteor shower" all night.

At about three o'clock in the morning, despite the continuous explosions on the position behind him, Captain Winter led his men to launch a new offensive.

In order not to be accidentally wounded by their own artillery, the Soviet infantry in the forest had withdrawn to what they thought was a safe distance.

The dense bushes and dim light provided an opportunity for Captain Winter and his scouts.

Taking advantage of the creeping advance, the scouts shuttled through the bushes, quietly approaching the Soviet positions step by step, until they heard the snoring and grinding of teeth of the Soviet troops at various frequencies when they slept.

Unlike the 7th Panzer Division, which had experienced a hundred battles after three years of war, the performance of the troops of the 5th Tank Division, which had just entered the battlefield, could be described as careless.

Except for the routine sentry posts, they thought that the Germans were as immersed in their dreams as they were, or that they were overwhelmed by the heavy fire of friendly artillery, and they did not expect that the German scouts had already touched their positions.

Carefully lurking beneath a dirt slope in front of the Soviet position, Captain Winter listened quietly to the sounds coming from the Soviet position.

In addition to the jumbled sounds of snoring and grinding teeth, he was surprised to hear a whisper, a sound that should never be seen at night on a position, are these Russians really here to fight? Captain Winter laughed disdainfully at the Russians opposite.

Turning his head to look behind him, the position where the scouts had been stationed, which was full of fires from the explosion of shells, as well as the blazing fire, Captain Winter smiled proudly, the Russians would never have imagined that it was their powerful artillery bombardment that drove them to make the decision to attack at night.

The closer you get to the Soviet infantry, the farther away from the Soviet artillery shells, and you and your subordinates would rather capture them at zero distance with the Soviet infantry than be passively bombed by the Soviet artillery.

Good discipline and strict training played a decisive role, and during covert approaches and incubation, no scouts were exposed.

Restraining the growing drowsiness, and holding on to keep his eyelids from falling, Captain Winter finally waited for the white belly of the fish in the sky, and also waited for the sound he didn't expect, a loud snoring, this snoring was so close. It's almost right in the ear. It made him almost think that it was from Friedrich, who was lurking beside him.

He turned his head to look at Friedrich. Friedrich's eyes were also full of sleepiness, but he still fought hard and did not lose at the hands of the Sandman.

There is only one possibility, the grunt came from across the dirt slope, from the Russians.

Looking down at his watch, looking up at the light streaming through the gaps in the foliage, Captain Winter held his breath and listened carefully to the snoring from the other side.

He pulled out a bayonet and bit it into his mouth. Holding the P38 pistol in his hand, he exerted force on his elbows, climbed up the dirt slope step by step, and looked at the other side of the dirt slope through the gap in a cluster of Russian sea buckthorn at the top of the slope.

Two Soviet soldiers lurked on the other side of the slope, one lying on his back against the slope, his face facing the ground, and his long, even, long snoring sounded from his mouth.

Another Soviet soldier was lying on the top of the dirt slope, his chin pointed on the back of his hand, his head little by little, his eyelids already covering his eyes, and he was making a final resistance to the nebuta. It is clear that it is already on the verge of defeat.

Captain Winter made a few gestures to Friedrich below the dirt slope, and Friedrich nodded. Then quietly touched the top of the dirt slope.

Quietly looking around, finding no suspicious targets, Captain Winter nodded to Friedrich, and the two of them rounded the sea buckthorn bush at the top of the dirt slope and turned over to the other side of the dirt slope.

Captain Winter threw himself on the back of the Soviet sentry lying on the ground, and wrapped his left hand around his head and covered his mouth.

The Soviet sentry woke up suddenly, but he couldn't make any sound, and a bayonet had pierced the artery on the right side of his neck, and the bright red arterial blood spurted out with a snort, staining the ground red.

Beside Friedrich, the snoring of the Soviet sentry who was sleeping on his back had stopped, staring at Friedrich with wide eyes, and his mouth made a "ho-ho" note, and in the middle of his throat, a bright red blood streak spurted out.

Friedrich cut his throat, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't make a sound until his whole body stopped convulsing.

The two brothers worked together to take out a Soviet outpost, and Captain Winter pulled the sentry by the foot and dragged the body to the bottom of the dirt slope to hide.

After doing all this, Captain Winter once again listened to the movement of the Soviet positions opposite.

After listening carefully for a while, he turned his head to look behind him, and at some point, the Soviet shelling had stopped and the forest was silent again.

Before Captain Winter could rejoice in the astonishing discovery, he heard a slamming gunshot.

Oops, someone exposed.

The sudden sound of gunfire once again sounded the horn of all-out battle, the Soviet position sounded a piercing gunfire, a dense rain of bullets fired in the direction of the gunfire, the German scouts were not lurking, they fought back, the flames from the muzzles flashed again and again, and they were particularly dazzling in the dark dense forest.

Neither side of the war knew what the strength of the other side was, nor did they know the position of the other side, and they judged the approximate position of the other side by the light of the muzzle of the gun on the opposite side.

Strings of tracer bullets pierced the night like electric whips, and the shouts and firing of soldiers on both sides filled the battlefield.

Colonel Fedorov could hear the gunfire in the forest clearly, but he did not have the energy to pay attention, and the sound of gunfire from the south let him know that the 5th Tank Division and the Neman Line were in an unprecedented crisis.

"Who is the commander of the 124th Division, is it called an idiot? Why didn't they inform us about the occupation of the town of Merkin by the Germans? That damn pig, the villain ordered the 10th Tank Regiment to go south at once and meet the enemy tanks head-on, and the artillery of the division headquarters turned to the south, and must assist the 10th Tank Regiment in crushing the German army in the south. ”

The chief of staff was also furious, and it was not until the Germans in the south launched an attack on the 5th Tank Division that they received the bad news that the defense line at Merkin Town had been breached.

The German bridgehead in the forest had not yet been eradicated, the retreat of the defenders in the city of Alitus was just halfway through, and the sudden appearance of the German army in the south was tantamount to a fatal blow to the 5th Tank Division, which plunged the 5th Tank Division into an unprecedented crisis.

The 10th Tank Regiment then moved out and drove south along the road to the aid of the attacking guards, and ran head-on into the 21st Panzer Regiment head-on to the north in the starry night, and a tank battle broke out.

The battle was overwhelming from the start, and although nearly 50 tanks suffered mechanical failures due to unaccustomed to the Russian-style bad road, the 21st Panzer Regiment still had as many as 150 tanks in the battle, while the 10th Soviet Tank Regiment had only more than 90 tanks.

For the first time, the tankmen of the 10th Tank Regiment participated in actual combat, and in the face of the numerical superiority of the German army, they showed extraordinary courage and amazing mistakes.

It didn't take long for the battle to begin. In the bewilderment of the German tankers. The main arm of the 10th Tank Regiment. The tankers of the T-34 drove the tanks past the nearly twenty KV-1 tanks that served as the vanguard, and bravely rushed towards the German tank cluster.

With the accurate KWK40 tank gun, the German tankers named the T-34 charging one by one, and the rumbling sound of the cannon shook the farmhouses near the battlefield, and the ground seemed to shake.

Seeing the T-34 destroyed one by one in front of them, and the flames and smoke on the tanks of their comrades filling the battlefield, the KV-1 tankers quickly passed through the wreckage of the T-34 tank and joined the fierce battle. but sent himself to the slaughterhouse.

Soon after the battle began, behind the German 21st Panzer Regiment, the divisional tank destroyer battalion finally caught up with the Panzer Regiment and happened to encounter the KV-1 tank that launched the charge.

The Tank Destroyer No. 4 did not hesitate to pass over the No. 4 Tank and act as a shield on the battlefield with more powerful armor protection, resisting the onslaught of the KV-1 head-on.

In the face of the more powerful firepower of the 75 mm L60 mm gun, the seemingly powerful armor of the KV-1 was also useless, and its performance was not much better than that of the fragile T-34.

Nearly six o'clock in the morning, the curtain came down on the tank battle, which lasted for many hours.

Leaving behind the wreckage of more than 50 tanks and corpses everywhere, the 10th Soviet Tank Regiment hurriedly fled the battlefield. The 21st Panzer Regiment lost only seven No. 4 tanks.

The surviving T-34s took advantage of their excellent cross-country ability - their greatest advantage over the No. 4 tank, and pushed off the pursuit of the German tanks. Hurriedly fled to the north, their starting position.

At 6:20 a.m., in the village of Vasd, Fedorov's headquarters was already in chaos, and staff officers were busy packing up and burning documents.

Outside the command department, the guards also began to load valuable military facilities into trucks and prepare them for transfer.

The German tank units were soon to reach the village of Vasd, and it was a foregone conclusion that the rear of the troops on the west bank of the Neman River would be cut off, and Colonel Fedorov was well aware that he had lost the battle, and before retreating, a huge problem lay before him.

On the other side of the river, the main force of the 126th Infantry Division and the 9th Tank Regiment did not complete the retreat task, and a considerable part of the troops were still fighting in the city of Alitus.

"These two bridges must be blown up, and they must not be left to the Germans."

Fedorov scratched his head a few times anxiously, and then said to the chief of staff: "The order of the military headquarters is that we must wait until all the troops on the west bank are withdrawn to the east bank before we can blow up the bridge, but now, there are still thousands of people fighting in the city of Alitus, if we blow up the bridge, what will they do?" And we can't go against the orders of the military department. ”

Seeing that the chief of staff was still going to speak, Fedorov continued: "The bridge upstream of the town of Merkin has already been occupied by the Germans, and even if we blow up these two bridges, we will not be able to prevent the Germans from crossing the river, and there is no difference between bombing and not bombing." Leave those bridges alone, let's retreat. ”

More than 20 minutes later, when the vanguard of the 21st Panzer Regiment marched into the village of Wald, there were no Soviet troops in the village.

The motorized infantry who followed behind the 21st Panzer Regiment immediately rushed to the bridge and the forest, and in the face of the attack from behind, the 5th Motorized Infantry Regiment, which was fighting fiercely with the Germans in the forest, collapsed instantly.

Making contact with the troops of the 7th Panzer Division in the forest, the 20th Panzer Division and the 7th Panzer Division successfully surrounded the city of Alitus.

Finding themselves surrounded, the defenders of the city lost the courage to resist and laid down their arms and surrendered to the Germans.

Even so, the battle continued until noon, when the gunfire in the city of Alitus gradually subsided.

Crossing the hard-won bridge and reaching the east bank of the Neman River, Colonel Rosenberg was not in a good mood.

Beside him, the division commander, Lieutenant General Feng Ke, also had a very gloomy face.

"We let the men of the 20th Panzer Division steal the limelight, but only this once, not as an example. Colonel Rosenburg, when will we be able to reach Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania? ”

Rosenberg said sullenly, "Two days at most." ”

Seeing Lieutenant General Funk's hopeful eyes, Rosenberg continued: "Definitely before the 20th Panzer Division." (To be continued......)