Lieutenant Snaider finally finished writing his battle log, and he slipped a pencil into the pocket of his combat uniform.

The lieutenant raised his hand and shook the Army-issued notebook, vigorously blew off the eraser scraps on it, and finally looked through it to make sure there were no mistakes before stuffing it into the file bag hanging from his waist.

Snyder took a deep breath, stretched long, and then rubbed his aching arms and jumped out of his car. His crew is doing basic maintenance work on the tank.

The driver, Llavik, was squatting on the front armor plate of the tank with a board and struggling to tighten the screw on the transmission detection port, and he had just filled the gearbox with the help of an electromechanic and replaced a gear. Due to excessive wear and tear of the gear on the third gear of the tank, the tank failed to cut into gear several times during the journey.

This kind of problem can easily cause the engine to stall if not handled carefully. And if one is unlucky enough to break down the downhill road, the heavy car will continue to move forward by inertia, at which point the car will force the stalled engine. As a result, the hapless driver had to be prepared to lose his engine, because the delicate machine would have to go to the repair shop for overhaul even if it hadn't burst on the spot.

Luckily, thanks to the swift clutch reaction of the No. 4 tank, coupled with Leverik's skill and experience, he was quick to deal with this danger on several occasions. Snaide had already reported the problem to his superiors, but because the troops had been fighting non-stop during this time, he had not been able to find enough time to repair it.

Then again, even if he was given time, he couldn't solve the problem, because the parts he needed were on the transporter of the mobile repair company, which had been torn to pieces by a large-caliber shell that had come from nowhere in a battle two days earlier, and surprisingly no one was injured by this incident, but most of the replacement parts of the armored company were reduced to a pile of scrap metal along with the unlucky transporter. The repair company struggled to salvage a batch of engine parts, but none of the transmission gears were left.

But fortunately, the logistics department sent the parts in time today. And because they had just finished a hard-fought battle, Snyder and his men had finally been given half a day of precious time to complete their work that was long overdue.

Not only this crew, but all tank crews of the entire armored company are doing the same thing. Because everyone in the company knew in their hearts that the battle they would fight would be even harder, and that any small mistake now would cause a disaster in the future battle. German tankers took care of their mounts carefully, because no one wanted to lose their lives for the stupid reason that their tank would fail in battle.

This precision killing machine, wrapped in heavy armor, not only brought death to the enemy, but also guaranteed the survival of these German soldiers on the battlefield.

Snyder patted the loader on the shoulder, a young recruit, only twenty years old. The boy has beautiful brown hair, blue eyes, and a handsome face with a slight childishness. In general, this child can be regarded as a beautiful man, at least in Snyder's eyes.

The young loader is now wearing a German-style vest covered in grease, sitting on an ammunition box and vigorously wiping a high-explosive grenade. His beautiful black Panzer uniform was now hanging from the wide track guards of Tank Four, and the Panzer badge on the mouth of the bag glistened in the sun.

Unlike those veterans, there was nothing for this boy who had just joined the army to satisfy his vanity more than a crisp and clean uniform. Although the veterans are also very concerned about their military appearance, those beautiful uniforms can no longer attract them, and their eyes are more concerned about those dazzling medals and the honor behind the medals.

Feeling someone tapping him on the shoulder, the loader turned his head in confusion. When he saw that it was his commander, he quickly put down the rag in his hand and held on to the cannonball and wanted to get up and salute.

"Go on, Carl, keep up the work." Snyder smiled and held the boy down, he turned to his subordinates, crouched down, picked up the rag, and handed it to the young soldier.

"Keep wiping, soldier, every good tanker starts by wiping shells." Snyder said with a smile.

"I understand, sir." The boy took the rag from the lieutenant's hand, and he held on to the cannonball and asked curiously: "Did you also start as a loader?" Sir. ”

"Of course, I was the best loader in my trainees." Snyder replied with a smile. "We've all done this before, you can ask Hank, and Stevans, they've all come from this step." The lieutenant pointed to his other two subordinates.

Gun Commander Hank was now lying on the angular turret of Tank Four wiping the cover of his scope, and when he heard Snyder's words, he turned to the loader and said, "That's true, boy, I worked as a loader for a whole year before I became a gunner. As long as you do your job and listen, you'll learn a lot in the turret. ”

"I see, thank you, Sergeant." The little loader shouted happily.

"If you understand, do it seriously and wipe this batch of shells clean for me. Don't let me find a little smudge on it, or you'll be in good hands. Sergeant Hank deliberately put on a straight face, he didn't want the young man to get too carried away.

"Yes, Sergeant." The little loader quickly put away his smile and wiped the shell vigorously with a rag. Snyder stood up and walked towards the front of the tank.

"Now what, you've got new parts on." The lieutenant asked his driver.

"Yes, but it didn't go well, it didn't take much effort." The driver, Lawick, wiped the oil from his hands and replied with a smile.

"There will be no more problems, the battle order has been issued, and we are to arrive at the village of Derwent in front before dinner, and we must leave before two o'clock in the afternoon." Snyder patted the armor cover on the gearbox detection port.

"It should be fine, I'll try again before I go. However, what else does this combat order say? ”

"You know, it's the same old thing, we're going to meet the resolute resistance of the French, there are strong defensive positions and so on. Anyway, whatever is there, our task is to break through it, occupy it, destroy it. Oh, this time we can get a squadron of Stuka to support us, and they'll be patrolling our neighborhood, just call when the time comes. Snyder pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, took one out of his mouth, and handed the case to his driver.

"Oh, again. Positions, trenches, artillery, machine guns and the French, who were not afraid of death. Ravik pulled out a cigarette, took a pack of matches from his pocket and lit the fire, then handed the match and cigarette case to Stvante, the mechanic on the side.

Rawitt took a deep breath of his cigarette and continued, "Hopefully this time we can go a little better, those bombers won't be as late as last time, hahahaha." ”

"I can't guarantee that." Snyder let out a puff of smoke, he took off his soft combat cap and brushed his hair, and then smiled at Ralwick and said, "However, from the intelligence point of view, our target is not very strong, at least weaker than the resistance we encountered here, I hope we can successfully complete the mission." ”

"I hope so." The mechanic came to the side of the jack. He was cleaning his toolbox with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Absolutely, I promise, wait for a good night's sleep tonight." Ravik said aloud.

"By the way, Hank, are we getting enough shells?" Sneder asked aloud as he looked up at Hank, who was standing in the turret.

"Ten armor-piercing shells, twenty high-explosive armor-piercing rounds, and ten high-explosive grenades, all here, enough for us to do a good job." Hank replied loudly.

"Very well, when you're done with the business at hand to help Llwick tighten his tracks, I'll go to the other commanders for a meeting now. Discuss our next offensive move. ”

"Okay, we'll leave it to you." The cannon commander replied loudly. Snyder nodded to the other two men, turned and walked down the street towards the back of the convoy.

The village where Snyder's armoured company was stationed had been so badly damaged that traces of the fierce battle could be seen everywhere in the streets. The pavement was strewn with gleaming bullet casings, craters of various sizes turned the paved streets beyond recognition, and the granite blocks were lifted off the pavement by shells, revealing the loess and sand on the roadbed. A hill of ammunition boxes and the remains of various weapons left behind by the French ** team at a destroyed barricade formed a small mountain, and the air was filled with this unpleasant smell of burning.

All that remains of the military trucks is now a pitch-black skeleton, with all sorts of strange-shaped parts scattered around the ugly wreckage, some of which are still emitting wisps of green smoke.

Pools of bright red blood could be seen everywhere along the streets, some of which were scattered with the personal belongings of the owner, and the broken guns or fragments of military uniforms told tragic stories to every soldier they saw. The French ** team paid the lives of 373 soldiers to hold the village fortress, and in addition to the wounded, less than 60 soldiers became prisoners of the German ** team.

What made Snyder feel depressed was that he still failed to catch a single judge this time, and all of those officers fled as usual, except for those who were killed. From the captive's mouth, Snyder learned that it was a colonel who ran away this time.

The only consolation to him was that he left the colonel's staff officer and adjutant here. The car they were in had been machine-gunned by a fanatical tank gunner, and no one would have believed that the two piles of minced meat in the car were two French majors had it not been for the prisoner's confession.

The tanks were parked on both sides of the street in their rows, and the tankers were doing their maintenance work diligently, climbing in and out of their cars, and they were very busy. Seeing their company commander walking by, the tankmen greeted him with a smile.

Snyder was a commander who was very pleasing to his subordinates, and the lieutenant not only possessed excellent command skills, but also his noble character in ordinary times was always admired by his subordinates.

In the previous night's battle, Snyder had lost three Type IV tanks, and only two crews managed to escape before the tanks burned into a fireball. So far, however, the Snyder Company's losses have not been severe, with only seventeen soldiers killed and more than forty wounded of various severity. This is a very good result in the 3rd Panzer Regiment, and the other companies have only one company left. If it weren't for the division's constant replenishment of new recruits and new tanks for the 3rd Panzer Regiment, this Panzer Regiment would have been reorganized into a battalion at its current casualty rate.

The battle the day before yesterday was the fiercest Snyder had ever experienced. The attack was a mistake from the start, and without adequate preparation, the regimental commander, Major Sorrenburg, resolutely decided to launch a night raid. According to the original intention of the regiment commander, this was to avoid the losses caused by the daytime attack to the troops, but what he did not expect was that the attack turned into a nightmare that neither side wanted to recall.

Under the illumination of flares, the tanks launched a mass attack on the French positions, and it was incomprehensible that the French anti-tank firepower actually played an extraordinary level in this dim light, and the three armored reconnaissance vehicles that rushed to the front were turned into three blazing fireballs in an instant, illuminating the charging team behind.

The German ** team, supported by large-caliber artillery, advanced against the frenzied fire of the French. Since Snyder Company was the only medium tank company in the 3rd Panzer Regiment, he was placed at the front of the stormtrooper formation. The Type 4D tank itself had only 30 mm of armor, but the tankmen modified it with 20 mm armor plates, which was enough to withstand the fire of the French anti-tank guns.

The French gunners continued to fire until the tanks rushed in front of them, but to their despair, the 37mm anti-tank guns they were using could not stop the ugly armored beast from advancing even if they fired directly at the German tank's armor.

What followed was a brutal and bloody street fight, Snyder's tanks were completely unsuitable for this kind of work, and it was at this time that his three No. 4s were lost, and the Molotov cocktails dropped by the French from small buildings on both sides of the street caused Snyder to lose three tanks and five excellent men forever. After this sudden loss, Snyderen hastily withdrew from the village. The infantrymen took his place, for fighting in such a narrow area was not the job of the tank, and it was of no use to stay here except to increase losses needlessly.

The Germans finally ended the battle when the first rays of color appeared in the eastern sky, and the French were completely defeated. But these German soldiers did not feel anything to rejoice in, and they paid a heavy price for the victory.

The streets were littered with the corpses of German and French soldiers, and all the Germans got after the battle was a pile of ruins and burning wreckage, and the village may never return to its former form.

The Germans not only lost hundreds of excellent soldiers, a dozen tanks of various types, but also took their commanders. Sorrenberg and his vehicle disappeared at the beginning of the battle, and the Panzer Major, who liked to imitate Supreme Commander Guderian, had always taken pride in directing the battle on the front line, and a heavy anti-tank mine blew him and his command vehicle into the sky, and even more incredibly, the French had planted only ten of these mines in front of their position, and Sorrenberg was the only one to crush them.

General Guderian was clearly annoyed by the news, and he could not tolerate such heavy losses for his army. The 3rd Panzer Regiment was ordered to halt the advance and retreat to the rear to rest. And Snyderlian was retained due to the fact that the losses were relatively minor and he still maintained enough strength.

This medium tank company is now under direct command from the corps command. The light tanks and weary infantry of the 3rd Panzer Regiment left the village, which was in ruins, and Snyder Company began to take over the defense of the village, which in his eyes was of no longer any value, it was in ruins, and he could not think of any reason for the French to take it.

But now he had a new mission, and Guderian ordered him to take the next village, which was much smaller than the current one, and was unlikely to meet the same resistance as last night. Little did Snyder know that just as he was gathering the commanders to discuss how to attack, a crisis was slowly approaching his small tank company.

The last counteroffensive of the French ** team on the Western Front is about to begin, and the first target of the French ** team is this small village in ruins.

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