Shortly after the shelling ceased in the early morning of 13 February, the coordinated Soviet infantry attack came as scheduled, and the 37 guns were immediately pushed into the position and hidden, and the muzzles were aimed at the direction of the enemy's attack. First, a column of T-60 light tanks came into range, but the German gunners waited patiently until the enemy tanks reached a distance of 40 meters before firing four rounds in a row.

The first shell destroyed the enemy's pilot tank, and the second also disabled the middle tank, but the other two failed to do any damage to the third tank, but it was clearly deterred by the determined and brave German gunners, and quickly turned and fled without firing a shot. As with the tactics of the Soviet offensive that we have discussed earlier, their attacks follow a strict schedule and the principle that there will be no second attack at the same location for a few hours after one attack has been frustrated, and that the stubborn defenders are able to move their only anti-tank gun from the place where the battle had already taken place and move it to the area where they had anticipated the next attack.

The radio link between the Sherel battle group and the 39th Panzer Corps has never been interrupted, and this means of communication has played another very important role from now on. In the direction of the Soviet offensive, two experienced and courageous artillery officers served as the forward observation posts, who had been airlifted in at the beginning of the siege, one was Lieutenant Fest from the 536th Heavy Artillery Battalion, and the other was Joachim from the 218th Artillery Regiment**. Second Lieutenant Dittman.

The main task of the two men was to constantly search for threatening Soviet targets inside and outside the town, and once a certain target was identified, the orientation parameters of the target were immediately calculated. A herald then runs back to the radio operator's position (located inside the command of the battle group known as the "White House") and reports, and the radioman then transmits the target parameters to the "Uqman artillery group" on the periphery.

From the time the target is determined to the time the shell is dropped, the entire information transmission and the time it takes to fly the shell is about 10 minutes at the earliest, which requires two gunnery officers to have a very keen sense of the situation, but fortunately they do a very good job, and the shells fired from outside the encirclement usually hit these targets with precision. For those enemy tanks in motion, they will also make accurate estimates based on their moving trajectories, and guide the shells to the location they want to reach, so that their staff artillery can play the role of long-range anti-tank guns. In this way, the Soviet artillery, tanks, and infantry attacks were repeatedly defeated by the resourceful and stubborn resistance of the defenders of Kholm. The morale and confidence of the defenders also began to rise.

February 18th. Under the cover of an air attack by a group of "Stuka" dive bombers, three Ju52s desperately braved heavy anti-aircraft fire to pass through the Soviet positions and land in the already narrowed German encirclement, bringing the defenders three anti-tank guns, an 81-mm mortar, and supplies of medicine they needed most.

The defenders then quickly redeployed their fire and personnel. In addition to reinforcing bunkers destroyed by heavy Soviet artillery fire, and six anti-tank mines were planted at key points. Some of the weapons discarded by the Soviets after the failure of the offensive were also repaired and reused. Among them was a crippled T-34 tank, which was repaired by the Germans and moved into the position to be used as a fixed firing point, and the artillery sent by the transport aircraft and the repaired enemy weapons effectively enhanced the defenders' firepower, and then they waited quietly for a new Soviet offensive.

Night has completely covered the land. Just when the Germans thought that the Soviets were asleep, the long "Ula" sounded again, heralding the beginning of another Red infantry offensive. The exhausted Germans re-entered the defensive position, unscrewed the firing caps from the grenade handles, loaded their rifles with cartridges inserted into the MG34 machine guns, and then stared into the darkness ahead, waiting for the blinding light of the flares to illuminate the snow in front of their frozen trenches. A faint red dot quickly soared into the sky, and then suddenly burst into a strong magnesium-white glow, reflecting the difficult trek of at least one battalion of Soviet infantry towards the German positions.

Under heavy machine-gun fire, the front row of infantry quickly fell into the snow, but the remaining crowd continued to advance fearlessly across the corpses of their comrades into a dense network of fire. Then more people were brought down, and their bodies were superimposed on the infantrymen who had died in previous attacks. From the initial stage of the siege to the present, the vast majority of the bodies of Soviet soldiers killed in the offensive have not been buried. Successive snowfalls have covered them with a thick shroud, but now in mid-March, a few occasional thaws have revealed them from the snow and then covered them again.

By mid-February, Russia's harshest weather was almost over, and although the temperature was still very cold, the setting sun shining through the cloudless sky during the day brought a warm spring feeling. The Soviets remained unmoved for the next few days, perhaps because they were planning new tactics or because they were regrouping due to heavy losses.

On the few days and nights when there was no fighting, the battlefield was empty. Everything was calm, there was no thunderous cannonball, no crackling of rifles and machine guns, and it felt as if the Soviets had given up the siege on them. Compared to this "Sabbath" calm that the Germans enjoyed so much, the screams and screams that filled all corners of the battlefield most of the day and night, the wounded who fell to the ground and struggled in pain after being hit by Soviet sniper bullets, the pale corpses everywhere, and the terrible feelings of hunger, cold, and loneliness, all shook the nerves of the German soldiers who were still alive.

At nights when the Soviet infantry was not attacking, the German soldiers could not relax their vigilance in the slightest, and a race for survival was quietly going on in the cold and long darkness. Soviet snipers would crawl slowly under the cover of night to infiltrate the German positions, and after finding a suitable position, they would usually bury their bodies partially in the snow, leaving only their heads and guns open, motionless outside, waiting for the best time to hunt, and the German soldiers would also use various methods to carefully camouflage themselves, some of them found white sheets from destroyed houses and farmhouses to drape them, and some tore open the parachutes used for airdrops to wrap themselves.

Even by mid-February, when there was no more heavy snow and the snow had begun to melt and thin, Soviet troops from Siberia were able to use the snow-white cover to approach the narrow German trenches. Their raiding group would wait until the snow hardened at night before digging a tunnel underneath that would extend into the German positions and with a very hidden exit, where Siberians would suddenly emerge at the right time to capture the distracted German sentries. (To be continued.) )

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