More soldiers had to squeeze desperately towards the east gate, and the Lithuanian soldiers scrambled to get out of the city, which made the exit even slower. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

As a group of Lithuanian soldiers crowded the gate, several 77mm shells fell from the sky into the crowd, and then the shells continued to fall near the city gate.

"Ahh Yes! My hand ・・・・・・" The entire inside of the East Gate suddenly became open, and dozens or hundreds of wounded people lay on the ground wailing.

The remaining Lithuanian soldiers took the opportunity to speed up and fled through the city gates

"Sir! The Lithuanians all fled! A German soldier pointed to the chaotic Lithuanian army.

The German officer's face was flushed with anger, and now all the rear pressure was on the German army. But now he can only command the desperate resistance of the German army, and now the city gate has been surrounded by the Lithuanian army, even if he retreats, there is no way back, but will be easily wiped out by the Soviet army.

The German soldiers in the rear desperately withstood the advance of the Soviet troops in the face of huge casualties, sacrificing dozens of lives for every minute of delay.

Seeing that the Soviet army burst into fire this round, the city gates were swept away. The German officer immediately ordered: "The whole army retreats from the city gates, pay attention to maintaining order, the fourth company and my palace." ”

The surviving German soldiers retreated from the city gates in an orderly manner.

Seeing that the German soldiers were retreating, the Soviet troops intensified their offensive and rushed towards the Germans with light machine guns.

The mutilated Fourth Company was unable to resist the charge of several hundred Soviet troops, and was soon overwhelmed by the Soviet troops.

A German officer stood at the gates of the city and watched as Soviet soldiers rushed to the German lines・・・・・・

The Soviet riflemen's guns fired extremely slowly, leaving the Germans with a little way to retreat out of the city.

The observers of the German artillery stood outside the city walls, looked at the scene inside the city, and immediately called for the artillery to fire at the Soviet artillery inside the city.

All 500 shells were fired, destroying the Soviet artillery positions in the city. Although nearly ten guns were still intact, all the artillery pieces were killed and wounded by this round of counterattack.

The commander of a German company that had retreated ran over to report to General Goltz.

"Well, what about your battalion commander? Why is it like this, call him over! General Goltz shouted angrily.

"Report to the commander, our battalion commander took the initiative to ask for the queen of the palace, but he was trapped in it and did not come out." The German company commander said in a low voice of grief.

General Goltz's anger slowly extinguished, and he was silent for a while and said, "What about the casualties?" ”

"Of the 1,000 men in our battalion, only 300 escaped, and not one of them was left unwounded. Sir, this rod is really bad! The German company commander said with red eyes.

"What's going on in the city? How did it get like this? You made it clear to me. General Goertz asked.

"After we took the city, we moved mortars and machine guns to the top of the city walls, and they condescended to block the streets of the city. The rest of the troops crossed a fifty-meter open field and attacked the city. The artillery of the Soviet army suddenly fired, and at a distance of five or six hundred meters, twenty pieces of artillery directly destroyed the fire points on our city walls.

Their infantry then rushed out of the streets and houses with machine guns. Our troops stood in the middle of the streets, surrounded by enemies everywhere, shooting at us from windows, rooftops, and so on. Before we could gain a foothold, we were pinned down by the enemy, and we had to retreat back into the fifty meters of clearing.

We wanted to continue the retreat, but the only exit from the East Gate was to get out.

The Lithuanian army left us behind and began to flee first, and our army had to withstand the attack of the Soviet army in the back, otherwise none of us could escape.

General, we came to Lithuania to help the Lithuanians defend themselves against the Soviet offensive. But now that they have left us and fled, leaving our men alone, exchanging the lives of our soldiers for the lives of their troops, we are truly unjust! The German company commander stated.

"Well, that doesn't make sense! It just doesn't make sense! General Goertz shouted angrily.

Then he comforted softly: "You go and deal with the injury!" ”

Watching the officers below leave, a staff officer stood up and said: "Sir, we are here to help the Lithuanians fight, not to give them their lives!" Now one and a half battalions of infantry in the three battalions of this regiment under our command have all been crippled, and if we continue to fight, we will really be completely wiped out. ”

General Goltz stood quietly in front of his desk and estimated the remaining strength in his hands: the original unit under his command had a regiment of three infantry battalions of 3,257 men, and a 77mm field artillery battalion and a 105mm howitzer battalion, with a total strength of 5,000 men. (The German army was organized into one division, two brigades, and four regiments of infantry, plus three 77mm field artillery battalions and one 105mm howitzer battalion.) Because it was to aid the Lithuanians, the Germans were under pressure from various countries because of their size, and there was only one brigade of infantry plus four battalions of artillery, mainly to provide artillery support to the Lithuanians. Artillery is more technical than infantry, and Lithuania is even more lacking in artillery power.

Now the guns of the two artillery battalions are devoid of shells, which is equivalent to being wasted, unless they are used as infantry. The three infantry battalions were already half crippled, and there were less than two thousand people left.

If we continue to fight like today, I am afraid that artillery will soon be used as infantry.

Seeing that General Goltz was silent, another staff officer came over and said, "Sir, our losses are too great. If we continue to fight, I'm afraid our troops will lose half of them! This is not our war! This is not our war! ”

General Golz asked: "Now we and the Lithuanians are grasshoppers tethered to a rope!" How can we get past this town except fighting? The Soviets will not let us go because we are Germans, and maybe give us special treatment! ”

"We can leave them behind, just like they just abandoned us, and leave this bad place. Artillery we can do without, as long as our troops are still there, we can control the situation in Lithuania. We also have two battalions of artillery on the Northern Front. But if our troops are gone, the Entente will not let us send troops to Lithuania again. They are trying to weaken our army. The staff officer said.

"We're waiting for a day, and if the Lithuanians can take the town tomorrow, we'll help them, and if they don't have the ability to conquer it, we'll leave." General Goltz said firmly.